Great Game

East Asia

China bans families from mourning Tiananmen victims

Amnesty International condemned China for banning family members from visiting the resting places of people who perished in the 1989 Tiananmen Square repression. This is the first time in 37 years that the Chinese authorities have banned the visit. According to the Tiananmen Mothers group, the authorities notified family members of people who lost their lives in the 1989 massacre that they cannot travel to Beijing’s Wan’an Cemetery or conduct any commemoration in the cemetery. (Photo: Hong Kong Alliance via Amnesty International)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Hasan Piker & the pro-fascist pseudo-left

The administrative subpoenas issued for Hasan Piker and Medea Benjamin over their participation in the Cuba caravan are to be opposed—in part because the subpoenas will only give their sinister politics greater cachet among neophyte activists! Piker’s shameless shillingfor the dictatorships of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin invisibilizes the victims of their ethno-supremacist detention states—such as the Uyghurs of Xinjiang and the Crimean Tatars. This more critical point is obscured in the endless outrage over his supposed anti-Semitism. And with Xi and Putin joining with Trump to build a fascist world order, Piker’s brand of campist pseudo-opposition (however overheated) is compromised from the start, mirroring what it ostensibly opposes—subpoenas notwithstanding. In Episode 330 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down in his typically unsparing manner. (Photo: Xinjiang Judicial Administration via The Diplomat)

Africa

UAE recruits Colombian fighters for Sudan’s RSF: report

A company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has hired and transported hundreds of Colombian private military contractors to Sudan to fight for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Human Rights Watch charges in a new report. HRW found that the recruits passed through a UAE military base in Ghiyathi and an apparent private military facility in Al Wathba, both in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. HRW called on the international community to press the UAE to end its support for the RSF by suspending military cooperation and arms sales. (Map: PCL)

Africa

Drones now leading cause of civilian deaths in Sudan

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk issued a high alert on the widening use of drones in the conflict in Sudan. Türk warned that unless the international community takes action without delay, the conflict in Sudan could enter a new, even deadlier phase. The Sudan team at the Human Rights Office found that upwards of 80% of all civilian deaths from January to April—numbering at least 880—can be attributed to drone attacks. Türk warned: “This increasing reliance on drones allows hostilities to continue unabated in the approaching rainy season, which in the past has brought about a lull in ground operations. An intensification of hostilities in the coming weeks, as the parties seek to gain or consolidate control of territory amid shifting conflict dynamics, risks hostilities expanding even further to central and eastern states, with lethal consequences for civilians across enormous areas.” (AI-generated image of various drones used in Sudan, via Sudan Tribune)

Syria

Syria: arrest in Assad-era chemical attack

Syria’s Interior Ministry announced the arrest of deposed regime brigadier Khardal Ahmad Dayyub, a former head of Air Force Intelligence in Daraa, for his involvement in systematic human rights violations committed against civilians. Dayyub is accused of running an “assassination committee” in Daraa, as well as involvement in the chemical attacks on Eastern Ghouta during his later service in the Damascus regional branch. He is also said to have had a key role in coordination with Hezbollah and Iranian forces in Syria that were introduced to back up the Bashar Assad dictatorship. (Photo: SANA)

Africa

Podcast: West Africa escalates toward genocide

Alarming reports that Nigeria has established “concentration camps” for the Fulani ethnic minority cast an ironic light on Nigeria’s tension with the Sahel states of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to the north. These three regimes have broken from the Western imperial camp (to embrace the nascent Russian imperial camp)—but are likewise subjecting their Fulani minorities to persecution and massacre. With the recent shock rebel offensive in Mali, the “terrorist” stigma that attaches to the Fulani and Tuareg peoples across the imperial camps makes their position more precarious than ever. Meanwhile, prominent voices on the both the right and the (supposed) “left” are spreading propaganda about the struggle in West Africa that is alarmingly wrong, because it exclusively views the crisis through a campist lens. In Episode 327 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg tries to provide some clarity on these fast-escalating and grossly under-reported conflicts. (Photo: Az-Zallaqa via LWJ)

Greater Middle East

Yemen: Houthis threaten to close Bab al-Mandab Strait

Yemen’s unrecognized Houthi administration warned that they are prepared to close the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, mouth of the Red Sea. This is a second maritime chokepoint for oil from the Arabian Peninsula after the Strait of Hormuz, now effectively closed due to Washington’s conflict with Iran. In a post on X, Houthi deputy foreign minister Hussein al-Ezzi said: “If Sana’a decides to close the Bab al-Mandab, then all of mankind and jinn will be utterly powerless to open it.” In a speech, Houthi leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi subsequently warned, “Sanaa will not remain neutral,” framing the current maritime tensions as part of a wider conflict targeting the “Islamic nation.” He said that any further military escalation would be met with an “equivalent response,” calling for increased coordination among members of the “axis of resistance” (meaning Iran, the Houthis and Hezbollah). (Map via PCL)

Planet Watch

Podcast: Hungary, Peru & the electoral struggle

In Episode 323 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers a comparison of the simultaneous elections in Hungary and Peru—in which questions of democratic norms versus authoritarian rule both stood in the balance. The defeat of long-ruling quasi-dictator Viktor Orbán is being hailed as a blow to the emerging authoritarian bloc in Europe. But the incoming center-right prime minister Péter Magyar may not mean a complete de-Orbánification. In Peru, the outcome is still pending, as the perennial candidate of the hard right, Keiko Fujimori, faces a run-off with a contender from the populist left, Roberto Sánchez. Keiko is the unapologetic daughter of the late ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori; her victory could mean a re-Fujimorification of the country, and a fatal blow to Peru’s deeply troubled democracy. A Sánchez victory, meanwhile, would heighten the social contradictions in Peru—with both opportunities for a more meaningful democracy, and dangers of a backlash from the conservative establishment. (Photo: Anali Marquez Huanca via Facebook)

Planet Watch

Reversal for hard right in Hungary; Peru in the balance

The defeat of Hungary’s quasi-dictator Viktor Orbán in the recent elections has heartened progressive forces around the world—despite the fact that the victorious Péter Magyar is a creature of the center-right. A more stark contest is emerging in Peru, where the right-wing authoritarian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori faces a run-off with a contender from the populist left, Roberto Sánchez, who has broad support from the traditionally excluded campesinos of the country’s Andean interior. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Central America

Hong Kong firm challenges breach of Panama contract

Panama Ports Company SA (PPC), a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison, commenced arbitration proceedings against Danish shipping firm Maersk over the planned takeover by Maersk of PPC’s port terminals in Panama. The case comes after Panama’s Supreme Court ruled that a concession allowing the PPC to control and operate the Balboa and Cristóbal ports was unconstitutional. As a result of the ruling, Panama’s central government seized control of both ports—much to the dismay of China, and the open delight of the Trump administration. (Photo: Editorpana via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East

Uncertain ceasefire in Iran; aerial terror in Lebanon

After five weeks of war, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan. Its basic details, however, and to what extent it will be implemented, are surrounded by uncertainty. A main sticking point is the question of whether Lebanon was included in the deal. Iranian and Pakistani officials are insisting it was, but the US and Israel say that it wasn’t. Meanwhile, Israel has continued to carry out devastating attacks on Beirut and other parts of Lebanon. (Image: Pixabay)

Iran

Iranian Kurds deny receiving US weapons

Leaders of all the major Kurdish opposition parties in Iran denied that they have received weapons from the United States, after President Donald Trump said that Washington had sent arms to the Iranian protesters through the Kurds. “We sent guns to the protesters, a lot of them,” Trump told Fox News. “And I think the Kurds took the guns.” This was immediately refuted by leaders of the the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) and the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). (Image: Middle East Forum via Wikimedia Commons)