Month: May 2025

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)

Greater Middle East

Crackdown escalates on Turkish opposition

Riot police erected steel barriers and used water cannon to prevent crowds from gathering to hear a speech by the deposed leader of Turkey’s main opposition party in Izmir’s central Cumhuriyet Square. Özgür Özel and the core leadership of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) were removed from their posts by a court order that they charged was politically motivated. Following issuance of the order, Özel and his supporters barricaded themselves inside the CHP headquarters in Ankara. Police stormed the building, firing rubber bullets and tear-gas in a violent end to the standoff. (Map: CIA)

Syria

Syria: transitional elections in former SDF zone

Polling stations opened in Syria’s northeast as the region held its first elections for the national People’s Assembly in areas formerly controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The vote marks a significant step in the country’s transitional process, and integrating the previously autonomous region into national institutions. The area was excluded from the broader parliamentary process held last October due to political and security conditions. Candidates are being chosen by electoral councils made up of vetted local members under the process established by Syria’s transitional framework. The vote begins implementation of the January agreement between the SDF and Damascus as negotiations continue over long-term governance arrangements and the future of SDF-linked military and security structures. (Map: PCL)

Watching the Shadows

MAGA-fascism and anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism III

The Justice Department “Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism” has announced a national propaganda tour—as the DoJ is explicitly targeting anti-fascists for prosecution. The tour also comes as the question of Israel has emerged as the critical issue in the split within MAGA—with elements of the breakaway populist wing virtually gloating that the Israel Lobby’s support for the Trump-loyal pro-war wing will result in a backlash against Jews. Both wings of MAGA are equally reactionary, yet elements of the supposed “left” are already in a dangerous flirtation with the populist wing—and it is a Democratic congressional hopeful, Maureen Galindo of Texas, who is openly calling for mass detention of “Zionists” in repurposed ICE camps. An incipient Red-Brown alliance can be seen, fueled by the Trump regime’s ultra-cynical anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism. In Episode 330 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes an unsparing look. (Image via frgdr Blog. Hebrew lettering in background spells names of places in Europe where Jews were exterminated.)

The Andes

Colombia: growing toll from armed conflict

In its latest annual report, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) found that the armed conflict in Colombia saw the “worst humanitarian consequences” of the past decade in 2025. The number of people killed or injured by explosive devices rose by 34% to 965, overwhelmingly non-combatants. The number of individual disappearances doubled to 308. Violations of international humanitarian law documented by the ICRC reached 845 cases, while figures for displacement and “confinement” doubled. According to the Comprehensive Victim Support & Reparation Unit (UARIV), at least 235,619 people were displaced individually in 2025, while 87,069 were displaced in mass displacement events, and 176,730 remained “confined” in communities under siege by armed actors. (Map: PCL)

Watching the Shadows

‘Hondurasgate’ leaks reveal Israeli destabilization scheme

“Hondurasgate”—an alleged plot involving Israel, the United States, and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to destabilize Latin America’s progressive governments through disinformation—has thrust the region’s ties to Israel back into the spotlight. The scandal emerged ahead of a diplomatic visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Central America as part of a push to consolidate alliances with the region’s newly ascendant right-wing leaders. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

Africa

Trump again intervenes in crisis-torn Nigeria

US and Nigerian forces jointly conducted a raid that killed one of the Islamic State’s highest-ranking leaders in the country. Abu Bilal al-Minuki was said to be a commander of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). The strike took place in the Lake Chad area in Nigeria’s northeast. Meanwhile, dozens of Nigerian fishermen are feared dead after Chadian forces struck alleged Boko Haram strongholds along Lake Chad, which straddles the border of the two countries. Additionally, at least 100 civilians were killed in a Nigerian government air-strike on a crowded market in bandit-affected northwest Zamfara state, according to Amnesty International. Nigerian authorities have denied the report, but if confirmed, it would be thesecond air-strike to kill scores of people in a northern Nigerian market in a month. (Map: Wikipedia)

Planet Watch

Podcast: is the Jewish homeland in outer space?

The escalating global crisis and the very real crimes of the “Jewish state” make the world a more precarious place for Jews—as recent events demonstrate all too clearly. The contradictions underlying Zionism make its promise of dignity and security for Jews illusory. Earlier efforts also proved to be empty dreams—such as the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Birobidzhan in Soviet-era Siberia. A new book (facetiously or not) seeks a solution to the interminable “Jewish Question” in space colonization. In Episode 328 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg discusses The Luftmenschen of Planet Birobidzhan by Zvi Baranoff.

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)

East Asia

Hong Kong trade unions face ‘structural collapse’

A new report by the Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor (HKLRM) details how Hong Kong’s labor protections face “profound and alarming structural collapse” as national security surveillance becomes the “new normal” under Chinese rule. The report outlines the developments in administration and policy of the last year, documenting how the workers’ rights movement is facing significant constrains. The “dual pressure of the National Security Law (NSL) and draconian amendments to the Trade Unions Ordinance (TUO),” which came into effect in January 2026, are leading to a “hollowing out of trade unions,” says the report. (Photo: antha26/Pixabay via JURIST)

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)

Syria

Fighting again erupts in Syria’s Suwayda

Clashes broke out in Syria’s southern as-Suwayda province between the central government’s Internal Security Forces and Druze armed groups affiliated with the region’s self-declared “National Guard.” Fighters from the Guard’s “501 Knights of Hamza” battalion attempted to advance toward government lines in the governorate’s western countryside under heavy cover fire, including from truck-mounted machine-guns and rocket-launchers. Government forces responded with mortar fire. Since the fall of the Bashar Assad dictatorship in December 2024, Israel has occupied large areas of eastern as-Suwayda, and is believed to have dropped arms to Druze fighters in the region. The province has been effectively divided since fighting broke out last year between Druze militia and central government forces and their local Bedouin allies. (Map: Google)