CounterVortex

Planet Watch

Centuries of impacts seen from greenhouse emissions

The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases reached record highs in 2025—another portent of global warming, which increases the frequency of extreme weather events and associated risks to societies and economies. WMO deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett stated: “The past 11 years have been the warmest on record and this trend is set to continue. CO2 has a very long lifetime and so will affect the global climate not just for years but for decades and even centuries.” (Photo: Janak Bhatta via Wikimedia Commons)

Palestine

Israel’s election and the Gaza genocide

A new report from the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories finds that Israel has continued to commit “genocidal acts” in the Gaza Strip since the signing of a ceasefire with Hamas last October, and continues to carry out war crimes and crimes against humanity throughout the occupied territories. The situation, alas, seems unlikely to fundamentally change regardless of the eventual outcome of the Israeli elections. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party received the most seats, but does not have enough support to form a government with its far-right allies. The anti-Netanyahu bloc led by former IDF commander Gadi Eisenkot also fell short of a majority. This puts Palestinian citizens of Israel—who constitute some 20% of the population, and who voted in record numbers—in the position of potential kingmakers. However, most parties in Eisenkot’s bloc are refusing to enter a coalition with the Arab parties. Pro-coexistence activists have marched in Tel Aviv to demand such a coalition, including in a mobilization outside Eisenkot’s home in the suburb of Herzliya, chanting “There is no change without partnership.” (Photo: Shane Burley via Facebook. Banner reads: “Israel is not a democracy. It’s apartheid”)

Iran

Iran executes five convicted in January protests

Amnesty International stated that Iran’s execution of five individuals in one week was based on unfair trials, and called on the international community to respond. Iranian authorities brought charges including armed rebellion (baghi), waging war against God (moharebeh), and corruption on earth (efsad-e fel arz)—all in connection with this year’s anti-government protests. Several other convicted protesters still await the death penalty. Amnesty reported that Iran accounted for 64% of recorded executions worldwide in 2024, based on its annual global review. Executions increased in 2025, reaching a record 2,159. (Photo: ICHRI)

North Africa

Protest wave of executions in Libya

Human Rights Watch reported that at least 31 people have been executed in Libya after unjust military trials overseen by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) since late August. The LAAF, led by Gen. Khalifa Haftar, has been the de facto power in eastern Libya since 2014, taking on many governmental roles. The non-state armed group has sought to rival the internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli. Most of those executed appear to have been charged with offenses related to armed resistance against the LAAF. These are seemingly the first executions in Libya since Qaddafi was overthrown. At least 50 more people in the LAAF’s Gernada military prison have been sentenced to death and are “at imminent risk of execution.” (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

The Andes

Colombia: protests greet new far-right president

Thousands of Colombians peacefully rallied across the country against the far-right policies of President Abelardo de la Espriella, little more than two months after he took office. They criticized his proposed social spending cuts, his alignment with Trump, and his hardline military approach to decades of armed-group violence. Earlier this month, de la Espriella announced a “counterterrorism statute” that many fear could restrict democratic rights. (Photo: AlexaRochi via AnalisisUrbano)

The Amazon

Brazil: Amazon deforestation plunged under Lula

In the year to July 2026, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped by nearly 42%, according the National Institute for Space Research (INPE)—the steepest decline since monitoring began in 1988—while losses in the Cerrado, Brazil’s vast tropical savanna, fell by nearly 24%. Deforestation surged to its highest level in more than a decade in 2021 under far-right then-president Jair Bolsonaro. His successor, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, pledged to reverse the trend when he took office in 2022. Lula and Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio, just faced each other in a tight presidential contest, with the left-wing incumbent achieving a surprise victory in the run-off. (Photo: Catedral Verde via Wikimedia Commons)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Satanic techno-fascism (yes, really)

Peter Thiel of Palantir, most aggressively reactionary of the Trump-linked nexus of fascist tech bros, now openly invokes the Faust story, in which a scientist sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power—and not as a warning against hubris, but as a positive example, in defense of the notion that “evil can be good.” In Episode 350 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg turns to the 1940s dialogue between rationalist JBS Haldane and moralist CS Lewis to explore how technology and politics—and especially the intersection of the two—can become Satanic, in a metaphorical if not literal sense. (Image: Comedy Central via The Guardian)

Planet Watch

CounterVortex on one-week hiatus

The CounterVortex is going to be on hiatus for the next week, while chief ranter, blogger and editor Bill Weinberg is traveling abroad on a secret mission. We will resume our didactic blogging and ranting activities the week after. We also hope to have fully restored the website by then, following the attack we suffered from Chinese state-sponsored hackers in August. Immediately after this, we will have to deal with the dilemma of Verizon cutting off the home internet access that we depend on, as discussed here. More than ever, we need you support. Please give what you can. Every little bit helps….

Watching the Shadows

US imposes full sanctions on ICC

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio placed full sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to investigations into potential war crimes committed by the US and Israel. The sanctions permit the federal government to seize ICC assets in the US or controlled by "US persons." The ICC issued a response statement in which it condemned the action and accused the US of undermining international justice. (Photo: Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons)

Palestine

Podcast: West Bank at genocidal threshold

The three-year commemoration of the October 7 attacks saw ugly manifestations around the world of the growing atmosphere of polarization and dogmatism on the Israel-Palestine dilemma. There is, alas, the grave potential for everything to get much worse. Benjamin Netanyahu, under siege politically within Israel, is seeking not only a re-occupation of Gaza, but to extend the eliminationist project to the West Bank. In Episode 349 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes stock. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: RJA1988 via Jurist)

Palestine

Israel’s ‘elimination project’ on West Bank advances

Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem issued a comprehensive report charging that Israel is carrying out an "elimination project" on the occupied West Bank, seeking to dismantle Palestinian "collective existence" there to establish a permanent, contiguous Jewish presence and Israeli sovereignty. A campaign of "ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover" is effected through violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, and criminalization of Palestinian political organizing. These steps toward annexation are taken jointly by the Israeli military and armed settlers. (Photo via New Jewish Resistance)

Afghanistan

Renewed conflict along Durand Line

In an ongoing counter-insurgency operation dubbed "Azm-e-Istehkam" (Resolve for Stability), Pakistani security forces carried out deadly raids on militants of two "terrorist" networks designated by the propaganda terms "Fitna al-Khawarij" and "Fitna al-Hindustan." The prior, roughly translating as "heretical faction," refers to jihadist formations operating along the border with Afghanistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The later, translating as "Indian faction," refers to ethnic Baloch rebels in Balochistan province—implying that they are backed by India, which Delhi denies. Islamabad also accuses the Taliban regime in Afghanistan of backing both groups of insurgents, and the fighting follows a new round of Pakistani air-strikes across their international border, known as the Durand Line. (Map: PCL)