police state

Greater Middle East

Trump dismisses Saudi human rights concerns

President Donald Trump praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as “incredible in terms of human rights” during an Oval Office meeting, preemptively deflecting questions about the kingdom’s extensive record of abuses as the crown prince pledged $1 trillion in US investments. The comments came despite weeks of pressure from human rights advocates urging Trump to confront the crown prince over Saudi Arabia’s recent grave abuses, an incomplete list of which is said to include record numbers of executions, torture of dissidents, systematic repression of women, and the killing of hundreds of Ethiopian migrants at the Yemen border. Human Rights Watch pointed out that Trump’s meeting with bin Salman came just five months after Saudi authorities executed journalist Turki al-Jasser, who had been arrested for social media posts critical of the regime in 2018 and charged with “high treason.” Executions in Saudi Arabia are carried out by beheading with a sword. (Photo of Mohammed bin Salman’s 2017 White House visit via Wikimedia Commons)

The Andes

Ecuador voters reject foreign military bases

In a decisive referendum, Ecuadoran citizens overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed foreign military bases on the country’s soil. Early counts show nearly two-thirds of ballots cast opposed the measure. President Daniel Noboa introduced the referendum, arguing that foreign cooperation was essential to combat the ongoing surge in violence related to drug-trafficking. The rejection represents a significant setback for Noboa and his broader security agenda, revealing public skepticism of solutions involving foreign military forces. (Photo: Martín Vasco via Wikimedia Commons)

New York City

NYPD documents reveal ‘surveillance abuses’

Amnesty International and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) released more than 2,700 New York Police Department (NYPD) documents obtained after a five-year lawsuit. The groups say that the documents reveal extensive and discriminatory surveillance practices. The records, ordered to be disclosed by a New York state court in 2022, show repeated use of facial recognition technology (FRT) against individuals engaged in everyday activity as well as political expression. According to the organizations, the disclosures detail how the NYPD relied on FRT to identify people flagged by police reports that labeled them “suspicious” for speaking a foreign language or wearing culturally distinctive clothing. Advocates say the documents demonstrate that racial and cultural profiling frequently served as the basis for surveillance. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

New York City

Podcast: NYC turns up the volume! II

Zohran Mamdani hasn’t even taken office, and already there has been a physical skirmish between ICE agents and NYPD cops in Washington Heights. This portends a full-on confrontation between federal and municipal power in the months to come—with the potential (yes, really) for civil war. In Episode 303 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that despite the danger, Mamdani’s election heightens the contradictions in American society in a salubrious way, and may even open revolutionary possibilities. However, his pledge to destroy Lower Manhattan’s Elizabeth Street Garden points to the contradictions in Mamdani’s own politics that activists will have to press him on. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: Wyatt Souers/Peoples Dispatch)

North America

Texas turns state police into Trump’s immigration agents

Under a deal between Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas state police force—consisting of some 5,000 officers—is being given the power to interrogate anyone suspected to be undocumented about their immigration status and to arrest people who are believed to be in the country without papers, without first obtaining a warrant. The move is heightening concerns that already exist about racial profiling in the Trump administration’s country-wide immigration crackdown. (Photo: Texas Department of Public Safety via Facebook)

North America

Suit challenges ‘inhumane’ conditions at ICE facility

Advocacy groups in Illinois filed a class action lawsuit against US federal authorities over “inhumane” conditions at a Chicago-area Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, claiming violations of detainees’ constitutional rights as well as federal regulations. The plaintiffs’ lawyers—from the MacArthur Justice Center, the ACLU of Illinois and Chicago law firm Eimer Stahl—charge that federal authorities have violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process clause by imposing unreasonable conditions of confinement at the Broadview facility. They also allege violations of an administrative regulation prohibiting coercion to induce a waiver of rights. They further allege a violation of the Sixth Amendment in denial of detainees’ right to counsel. (Photo: Paul Goyette/Flickr)

North Africa

Tunisia government ‘suspends’ migrant rights group

The Tunisian government ordered a prominent advocacy organization, the Tunisian Forum for Social & Economic Rights (FTDES), to suspend its activities for one month. The organization has been outspoken in its criticism of President Kais Saied’s crackdown on Black African asylum seekers and migrants in the country, and his promotion of racist tropes about migration. The move comes amid a broader repression of civil society. (Image: Pixabay)

Africa

Post-electoral violence sweeps Cameroon

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over the protests and repression that have swept Cameroon following contested presidential election results. Demonstrators immediately defied a ban on public gatherings to support the opposition after the election, but the situation escalated after the Constitutional Council announced five days later that long-ruling President Paul Biya had won. The opposition rejected the results and proclaimed their candidate, Issa Tchirola Bakary, as the legitimate winner, urging citizens to demonstrate peacefully. Thousands took to the streets demanding recognition of an opposition victory, to be met with repression; clashes between protesters and security forces led to fatalities and numerous arrests. The protests have shaken the capital, Yaoundé; the economic capital, Douala; and the northern towns of Garoua and Maroua. Local jails are filled with opposition supporters who accuse Biya of rigging the polls. Biya is now to assume his eighth term in office as the world’s oldest president at age 92, having ruled Cameroon for 43 years. (Photo: Twitter via Peoples Dispatch)

New York City

Podcast: fascism, socialism and the NYC mayoral race

In Episode 301 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers his anarchist annotation of the New York City mayoral candidates’ debate. He makes the case that the promise of “socialism” represented by Zohran Mamdani is (alas) not as real as the threat of fascism represented by Curtis Sliwa—or acquiescence to fascism represented Andrew Cuomo. Both Cuomo and Sliwa invoked the too real possibility of Trump attempting to abrogate New York’s municipal powers if Mamdani becomes mayor. However, this contingency could heighten the contradictions in a politically salubrious way—prompting the needed rupture between progressive-run localities and the illegitimate Trump regime. (Photo: Jim Naureckas/Flickr)

Central America

Anti-mara militarization in Guatemala

Guatemala’s Congress passed a law designating the Barrio 18 and MS-13 gangs as “terrorist organizations.” The move came days after 20 Barrio 18 convicts broke out of the maximum-security Fraijanes II prison outside the capital. The new “Ley Anti-pandillas” provides for heavier sentences for gang members convicted of crimes such as extortion or recruitment of minors, and calls for the construction of more-maximum security prisons. (Photo: Danilojramirez via Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

Russia calls up more reserves as Ukraine war stalls

Russian authorities are preparing to call up thousands of reservists for active military service—while insisting they will not be sent to Ukraine to fight. The Main Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff announced orders that men who have been drafted and served in the military will be subject to mandatory “mobilization” for the purpose of “safeguarding strategically important facilities.” With the lines in Ukraine largely frozen in a war of attrition, the move would free up President Vladimir Putin to expand the Russian force for the “special military operation,” which is numbered at some 700,000 troops—mostly reservists who have signed contracts with the Defense Ministry. General conscripts are not sent to Ukraine, and the last call-up of reserves for the war, in September 2022, sparked a flight of young men from Russia to neighboring countries, and even scattered protests. The denial that the new mobilization is for the Ukraine war seems aimed at appeasing popular discontent, even while freeing up other soldiers to expand the invasion force. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Central America

UN experts press Nicaragua on fate of ‘disappeared’

United Nations human rights experts called on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government to clarify the fate and whereabouts of more than 120 individuals who appear to have been forcibly disappeared after the violent suppression of anti-government protests in 2018. The experts also urged the state to cease using arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance as tools of political repression. The experts said that families’ repeated attempts to locate their loved ones have been met with conflicting information, silence or threats. They documented a pattern in which detainees are held in secret and often denied access to lawyers, medical care or family contact, underscoring that “keeping families in the dark” acts as a mechanism of control. (Image: Nunca Más)