Africa
Sahara drug trade funds Boko Haram insurgency
Traffickers have established a dope-for-guns pipeline across the Sahel and Sahara, integrating Boko Haram into drug-smuggling networks that stretch to Asia.
Author: CounterVortex
Mexico
Another sentencing in Sinaloa-Chicago connection
Twin brothers were the latest to be sentenced in a series of high-profile cases targeting Sinaloa Cartel operations in Chicago—despite having infiltrated the cartel for the DEA.
North Africa
Mali: Tuareg autonomy at issue in new fighting
UN "peacekeepers" have been drawn into fighting between Tuareg separatist rebels and pro-government paramilitaries as northern Mali remains divided.
Greater Middle East
Kurdish forces drive ISIS back from Kobani
Kurdish forces continue to drive ISIS back from Kobani, and have retaken more than 100 villages from the jihadists since pushing the last of them out of the urban center.
Neither East Nor West
Anarchist contingent at recent anti-Putin demonstration in Moscow. With the war in Ukraine and renewed US-Russian rivalry, the need has emerged for a "neither-nor" position of the kind some anarchists and anti-authoritarians took in the Cold War—building solidarity between anti-war and… Read moreNeither East Nor West
Death of literacy; rise of digital totalitarianism
As penmanship is dropped from grade-school curricula nationwide, we go deeper into a digital dystopia in which people "text" instead write, and "surf" instead of read, degrading the skills of literacy until all communication ultimately becomes impossible. We were lured… Read moreDeath of literacy; rise of digital totalitarianism
Southeast Asia
Harsh abuses seen in Burma opium war
Despite a democratic opening and hopes for peace with ethnic insurgencies, horrific accounts of rights abuses continue to emerge from Burma's opium-producing hinterlands.
The Amazon
Peru: Achuar protesters seize Amazon oil-field
Hundreds of Achuar indigenous protesters occupied 16 wells at Peru's biggest oil bloc, halting production to demand better compensation for use of their lands by Pluspetrol.
The Andes
Colombia: whither FARC’s future?
While Colombia's right fears incorporation of the FARC into a new rural police force, rebel leaders protest that the army continues offensives against them—despite peace talks.
The Andes
Colombia: peasants detain soldiers… again
Residents of La Emboscada hamlet, Cauca, detained 36 army troops for several hours after a local resident was shot when he tried to run an army checkpoint.
The Andes
Venezuela approves use of force against protesters
Venezuelan authorities issued new regulations allowing soldiers to use deadly force against demonstrators—drawing protest even from sectors traditionally close to the government.
Planet Watch
Doomsday Clock: three minutes of midnight
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has set the hands of its iconic Doomsday Clock at three minutes to midnight—two minutes closer than in 2014.