CounterVortex

Palestine

Israeli leaders reaffirm plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he has ordered the Israeli military to take over 70% of the territory of the Gaza Strip, adding: “Let’s start with that.” Defense Minister Israel Katz meanwhile said the government is planning for large numbers of Palestinians to leave the enclave “at the right time and in the right manner”—which rights groups say amounts to ethnic cleansing. As global attention has shifted elsewhere, Israel has created its own facts on the ground by progressively inching forward the so-called “yellow line” demarcating its area of control. More than 60% of Gaza’s territory currently falls within this line, and the Israeli military regularly kills and injures Palestinians in the vicinity of the shifting boundary. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)

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)

Palestine

Denounce Israel’s treatment of flotilla activists

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Israel’s treatment of detained flotilla activists is “appalling” and “unacceptable” during a call between the two. This marked the latest in a wave of backlash after Israel’s Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself taunting bound and kneeling detained activists. The activists were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international coalition sailing to Gaza to deliver food and medicine, as well as attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the territory. Forty-five vessels of the most recent convoy were intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces in the territorial waters of Cyprus. The activists were detained without charge, with allegations circulating of beatings and mistreatment in custody. Of the hundreds of detained activists, 12 were Canadian. Nine were returned to Canada last weekend, while one is in Turkey receiving urgent medical care following “appalling abuse.” (Photo: FreeGaza via Wikimedia Commons)

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)

Planet Watch

UNGA adopts resolution on state climate obligations

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution enshrining the duty of member states to protect the global climate system by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The resolution calls upon states to comply with the obligations set out by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), giving legal force to the non-binding advisory opinion issued by the UN high court in July 2025. Pursuant to the UNGA resolution, countries now have a duty under international law to take all possible steps to avoid contributing to climate change. Despite an overwhelming 141 votes to adopt the resolution, eight countries were in opposition, including three included in the list of 10 largest greenhouse gas emitters globally: the United States, Russia and Iran. (Photo: NASA via F lickr)

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.)

Africa

Sudan: RSF commander named in war crimes

Amnesty International demanded the removal of a commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), citing war crime allegations against him. Al-Fatih Abdallah Idris AKA “Abu Lulu” was arrested by the RSF in late October 2025 following global outrage from a viral video appearing to show him executing unarmed civilians during the taking of the Darfur city of El Fasher. Following a Reuters investigation, multiple sources confirmed that Abu Lulu has been released from detention and is back on the battlefield. (Map: PCL)

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)

The Caribbean

US charges Raúl Castro in 1996 plane shoot-down

US federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging former Cuban leader Raúl Castro and five former Cuban military pilots in the 1996 shoot-down of two civilian planes flown by the Miami exile group Brothers to the Rescue, an attack that killed four people. An investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization found that the planes were shot down over international waters, although this was disputed by Cuba. Castro, 94, headed Cuba’s armed forces at the time and later served as the island’s president. Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the charges “a political maneuver, devoid of any legal foundation.” (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

The Caribbean

Identifying victims of the US boat strikes

Nearly 200 people have been killed since the US started bombing boats supposedly believed to be carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific last September—and the figure keeps rising. The strikes have caused an international outcry over the violation of international human rights law, but there has been little information about the victims themselves. A months-long cross-border investigation coordinated by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) has now managed to piece together the details of over 20 of the young men believed to have been killed, plus three survivors. They were overwhelmingly poor fishermen and small boat operators without criminal records. They came from economically vulnerable coastal communities, including in Colombia, Venezuela, Saint Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago and Ecuador. The investigation identified each of the boats targeted and noted that their home governments have failed so far to investigate the attacks. (US Coast Guard via Wikimedia Commons)

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)