Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Zambian authorities Sept. 11 to investigate the consequences of acid released into a river following the rupture of a dam holding mining waste, which has polluted local soils and affected the livelihoods of citizens…. Read moreZambia: toxic disaster at Chinese-owned mine site
A UN independent inquiry issued findings that Israel has committed the international crime of genocide amid its military operations in the Gaza Strip. A 72-page legal analysis from the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Israeli forces have committed genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, including killing or seriously harming members of the group, as well as inflicting conditions of life “calculated to bring about [Gazans’] physical destruction in whole or in part,” and preventing births among the population. To support its conclusions, the commission cited the figure of 60,199 Palestinians killed since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, the fact that life expectancy in Gaza has dropped precipitously from 75.5 to 40.5 years, and that 46% of Palestinians killed were women or children. The panel also noted direct attacks on maternity wards and clinics. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)
NATO launched a new exercise dubbed Eastern Sentry in response to the ongoing joint Russia-Belarus military exercise dubbed Zapad (West), which involves thousands of troops, naval maneuvers in the Baltic Sea, and simulated nuclear strikes. Yet two US military observers were invited to Belarus to observe the Zapad exercise, standing on a viewing platform to review forces from the same Russian army that is fighting in Ukraine. This appears to be part of a US rapprochement with Belarus, coming days after 52 Belarusian political prisoners were released in a US-brokered deal. However, the dissidents protest that they were expelled to Lithuania and not given the choice of remaining in their own country. One, former Belarusian presidential candidate Mikola Statkevich, has already been returned to a penal colony after refusing to accept exile. (Photo of Russian T-14 Armata tank via National Security Journal)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that the armed group Islamic State in the Sahel Province (IS Sahel) is escalating attacks on civilians, reporting that since March the group has illegally executed 127 people in western Niger. HRW documented five armed attacks by the group in Tillabéri region during that time frame. The group killed 70 worshipers at a mosque in a mass execution in June. In May, IS Sahel attacked villages and burned at least a dozen homes, the report found. HRW stated that these attacks constituted war crimes. (Photo: Aharan Kotogo via Wikimedia Commons)
Charlie Kirk was not just a “conservative” but a white supremacist who denigrated the advances of the Civil Rights era and sought to impose patriarchical subjugation of all but white men. Yet he was opposed as insufficiently “pro-white” by the so-called “Groyper Army” of Nick Fuentes. This raises the possibility that the anti-fascist rhetoric of Kirk’s accused shooter, Tyler Robinson, was actually fascist pseudo-anti-fascism. In any case, those who are making the analogy to the early martyr of the Nazi cause Horst Wessel are all too likely to be vindicated: Kirk’s death could similarly be exploited to consolidate fascist rule in the United States. In Episode 295 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down. (Image mash-up: CounterVortex)
Civil society organizations in the Mexican city of Culiacán, capital of Sinaloa state, held a march for social peace that brought tens of thousands to the streets, with ongoing public vigils over the following days. Held under the slogan “Ya basta, queremos paz” (Enough already, we want peace), the mobilization was called to mark one year since an outbreak of violence in the city as rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel vied for supremacy. The death toll in Sinaloa over the past year is said to exceed 1,800, with local activists counting another 2,800 disappeared. (Photo: Trasciende Noticias via Facebook)
Amnesty International condemned the charges against Thai activist and conscientious objector Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, who is facing trial for refusing military conscription. The group demanded that Thailand’s government drop all charges, asserting that the prosecution violates international human rights law. Netiwit, a former Amnesty International Thailand board member, faces three years in prison under 1954 Military Conscription Act. (Photo: Khaosod. Signs read “Change Thailand” and “Change military conscription”)
Protests in Nepal turned violent as security forces opened fire on demonstrators, resulting in at least 19 deaths and over 400 injuries. Young activists who had been protesting government corruption on social media started filling the streets of Kathmandu and other cities after the government blocked access to the online platforms. The subsequent deadly repression only enflamed the situation, and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned from his post after his home was set on fire. (Photo: हिमाल सुवेदी via Wikimedia Commons)
Unprecedented Israeli air-strikes on buildings in Qatar’s capital Doha apparently targeted senior members of Hamas’ external leadership—precisely those involved in ceasefire negotiations. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the operation, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that the attack was “a wholly independent Israeli operation.” He added: “Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.” However, the White House quickly confirmed that it was informed of the operation beforehand. On the same day as the Qatar strikes, organizers of a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza said their lead ship was hit by a drone while anchored at the port of Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia. A video posted by the Global Sumud Flotilla appears to show a lit projectile falling from the sky onto the vessel before flames erupt on the front deck. The ship sustained some damage, according to later footage posted on social media. One day later, a second vessel in the flotilla was evidently struck, causing similar damage. The Global Sumud Flotilla’s most prominent member is Greta Thunberg, internationally known for her climate activism and now a leading figure in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. (Photo: FreeGaza via Wikimedia Commons)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned of a deteriorating rights situation in Mali amid a growing atmosphere of repression. The high commissioner urged the military junta to promptly rescind legal changes that have “slammed the door shut” on a return to democratic rule, and called for the unconditional release of all wrongly detained persons. Türk stated: “The laws enacted in recent months risk undermining respect for human rights in Mali for a protracted period. I urge the transitional authorities to take immediate and concrete steps to revoke the problematic laws.” (Map: PCL)
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the ongoing crackdown on civil opposition by the Iranian authorities following the conflict with Israel. Since the outbreak of hostilities in June, Iranian authorities have arrested over 20,000 people on such dubious charges as espionage for Israel, which may carry the death penalty. Minority ethnic and religious groups have been particularly targeted, with Kurdish, Baha’i, Christian and Jewish minorities under threat. Amnesty and HRW urged criminal accountability for unlawful arrests and executions. (Image: Grunge Love via Flickr)
The case of Kilmar Abrego García, shunted from detention in one country to another, with no end in sight, recalls the World War II-era classic of dystopian fiction The Twenty-Fifth Hour by Romanian writer C. Virgil Gheorghiu. The wartime transnational detention system, harrowingly depicted in the novel, was seen by Gheorghiu as an inevitable manifestation of our technocratic civilization that exalts the machine above humanity, ultimately resulting in the treatment of human beings as mere cogs in the state-industrial apparatus. This process is more advanced today with the current hypertrophy of the technosphere, which is related to the re-emergence of abuses approaching those of the fascist era, and ultimately bodes poorly for humanity’s future. In Episode 294 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes an unsparing look at this grim juncture for the human race. (Image via Cocosse)
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