Author: CounterVortex

South Asia
Sentinelese

Isolated people under threat in Andaman Islands

A US national was arrested on North Sentinel Island, in India’s remote Andaman & Nicobar archipelago, for illegally seeking to make contact with the isolated Sentinelese people, an officially designated “particularly vulnerable tribal group” (PVTG). London-based Survival International expressed relief at the arrest, but called the news deeply disturbing, saying the adventurer’s actions “put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk,” due to their lack of immunity to common outside diseases. Within days of the arrest, a journalist with local news channel Republic Andaman was found dead—apparently targeted for his reportage on illegal logging and mining in the archipelago. And far greater threats loom; Survival warns that isolated peoples could be wiped out if New Delhi goes ahead with its plan to transform Great Nicobar Island into the “Hong Kong of India,” with massive new port facilities and rapid urbanization. (Photo: Survival International)

Palestine
NYU

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism

In Episode 272 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg discusses the Israel-hosted “International Conference on Combatting anti-Semitism” that featured speakers from the European and American neo-fascist (and even anti-Semitic!) far right. The established phenomenon of paradoxical fascist pseudo-anti-fascism has now been joined by anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism. While Trump’s 2019 executive order on anti-Semitism sought to conflate anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, the new posture would actually substitute the prior for the latter entirely as the ideology to be opposed, in all but name. Anti-Semitism is now acceptable as long as it is pro-Israel, fulfilling Zionist founder Theodore Herzl‘s 1895 prediction: “The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” (Photo of rally at NYU: CounterVortex)

Syria
syria

Israel, Turkey turn Syria into chessboard

The Israeli military carried out air-strikes on several sites in Syria—including Tiyas airbase, also known as T4, and Palmyra airbase, both in Homs province. The interim government in Damascus called the strikes “a blatant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty.” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz responded in a statement addressed to President Ahmed al-Sharaa: “If you allow forces hostile to Israel to enter Syria and endanger Israeli security interests—you will pay a very heavy price.” This was a barely veiled reference to Turkey. Local media reports indicate that Turkish forces are preparing to deploy to the T4 and Palmyra bases. Ankara reportedly plans to install Hisar-O and Hisar-U air defense systems and potentially the long-range SIPER system at these locations. The deployment of a Russian-made S-400 system is also under consideration, pending Moscow’s approval. (Image: Pixabay)

Southeast Asia
Burma

Burma: junta continues air-strikes after earthquake

Burma’s military junta has continued to bomb rebel-held areas following the major earthquake in the country, which has killed more than 1,600 people. The UN official for human rights in the country described the attacks as “completely outrageous and unacceptable.” Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews told the BBC that it was “nothing short of incredible” that the military is continuing to “drop bombs when you are trying to rescue people” after the quake. “I’m calling upon the junta to just stop, stop any of its military operations.” Strikes have been reported since the disaster in Shan state and in Sagaing region—the epicenter of the quake. (Photo of IDP camp in Rakhine state: DFID via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East
Lebanon

Lebanon ceasefire —real or fiction?

The ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah is on shaky ground following an Israeli air-strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. It was the first strike on Lebanon’s capital since a pause in hostilities came into effect in November last year. Israel—which has bombed southern Lebanon almost daily despite the ceasefire—said it was retaliating for a rocket attack into northern Israel. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem warned that if Israel continues to carry out strikes in Lebanon, and the Lebanese government does not act to stop it, then his organization will take matters into its own hands. (Image via Flickr)

Planet Watch
Toad

Podcast: yet further thoughts on the common toad

The digitization and literal disembodiment of every sphere of human reality advances with terrifying rapidity—from the Social Security system to the New York subway system. Rather than dropping swipe-cards and bringing back tokens, returning to what was a manifestly superior and more rational system, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority moves to a still more dystopian “contactless” credit system. Similarly, rather than phasing out automobiles, our corporate overlords are now imposing driverless cars, a further step toward making the human race redundant altogether and portending the ultimate abolition of humanity. In Episode 270 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues his Spring ritual of reading the George Orwell essay “Some Thoughts on the Common Toad“—which brilliantly critiqued technological hypertrophy and articulated an imperative for humanistic revolution and scaleback of the mega-machine way back in April 1946. (Photo: Partonez via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East
warplanes

Trump launches air-strikes on Yemen, Iraq

President Donald Trump ordered a series of air-strikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, promising to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthi rebels cease their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. Houthi authorities said 13 civilians were killed in the strikes. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control the capital, have said they will resume attacks on ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s renewed blockade on aid to Gaza. Following the January Hamas-Israel ceasefire, the Houthis had paused their campaign of attacks on shipping, which they depict as a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians (although many targets are not linked to Israel). Days before the strikes on Sanaa, a US air-raid in Iraq’s Anbar province reportedly killed Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, the second-highest ranking ISIS leader. (Photo: CENTCOM)

Syria
SDF

Syria: interim government, SDF sign integration pact

Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement to integrate the Kurdish-led SDF into Syria’s state institutions. A statement by the Syrian Presidency said a pact was reached to “integrate all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria [Rojava] under the administration of the Syrian state, including border crossings, the [Qamishli] Airport, and oil and gas fields.” The statement emphasized that “the Kurdish community is indigenous to the Syrian state, which ensures this community’s right to citizenship and all of its constitutional rights.” (Image: Rudaw)

Syria
SDF

Podcast: Free Syria and the Kurdish question II

In Episode 268 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the continued fighting in Syria since the fall of the Bashar Assad dictatorship in December. The recent outburst of violence in the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast made headlines, but this week also saw anti-regime protests by Druze in Syria’s south. And fighting has never stopped between forces aligned with the new transition government and those of the Kurdish autonomous zone in the northeast. The situation is complicated by continuing military adventures on Syrian territory by foreign powers—Israel, Turkey, Russia and the US. Will Syrians be able to overcome these challenges and forge a democratic and multicultural order, in repudiation of sectarianism, ethno-nationalism and Great Power intrigues? (Photo: SOHR)

The Andes
PDVSA

Venezuela: Trump restores sanctions on Chevron operations

President Donald Trump announced that the US government is revoking a special permit granted to energy giant Chevron to pump and export Venezuelan oil. The move, which reverses a 2022 decision by Biden to allow the company to bring Venezuelan oil to US markets by exempting it from economic sanctions, removes one of the South American country’s few economic lifelines at a time of deepening crisis. In his post on TruthSocial, Trump claimed that the Venezuelan government had failed to keep up its side of the original bargain to meet “electoral conditions.” He also charged that the “regime has not been transporting the violent criminals they sent into our Country…back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to.” (Photo: Luis Ovalles via Dialogo Americas)