In Episode 164 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg again calls out The Nation magazine for essentially advocating Ukraine’s military defeat and loss of territory to Russian aggression in the Orwellian name of “peace” and even “saving Ukraine.” Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo via Twitter)
In Episode 163 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg deconstructs the propaganda campaign that would exploit the devastating earthquake to get the sanctions lifted on the genocidal Bashar Assad regime in Syria. The earthquake was actually a windfall for the drive to “normalize” the… Read morePodcast: against Assadist earthquake-exploitation
In Episode 162 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg reviews Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernández. It is definitely a very hopeful sign that a briskly selling book from a mainstream publisher not only concerns anarchists, but actually treats them with seriousness and presents them as the good guys—even heroes. The eponymous “bad Mexicans” of the sarcastic title are the Magonistas—followers of the notorious MagĂłn brothers, early progenitors of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, who first raised a cry for the overthrow of the decades-long, ultra-oppressive dictatorship of Porfirio DĂaz. “Bad Mexicans” was the epithet used by both Mexican and US authorities for this network of subversives who organized on both sides of the border. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.
France has officially ended its operations in Burkina Faso a month after the ruling junta there terminated a military accord that allowed the former colonial power to fight jihadists. French forces remain in the greater region, however. The move came as French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu visited CĂ´te d’Ivoire, pledging to boost military support as jihadist attacks hit coastal West African states. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection)
CounterVortex editor, chief blogger, podcaster and ranter Bill Weinberg will be in Mexico for personal reasons for next three weeks and change. So for the next month, we are going on hiatus. Bill may or may not do some blogging or podcasting from Mexico, but we will certainly be at a very reduced level of activity at best. This is neither a vacation nor a journalistic assignment, although Bill may do some journalism if a story presents itself. All will be explained on the CounterVortex podcast when he gets back, with a full account of his travels and experiences in early March. Please don’t forget us. Your pledge of just one or two dollars per podcast on Patreon will really help to keep this voice and this project alive. We pledge that we will in fact resume regular weekly podcasts and daily blogging in early March.
In Episode 161 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg provides an overview of the under-reported conflicts in West Africa, where government forces and allied paramilitary groups battle multiple jihadist insurgencies affiliated either with ISIS or al-Qaeda on a franchise model. Horrific massacres have been committed by both sides, but the Western media have only recently started to take note because of the geopolitical angle that has emerged: both Mali and Burkina Faso have cut long-standing security ties with France, the former colonial power, and brought in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group. In both countries, the pastoralist Fulani people have been stigmatized as “terrorists” and targeted for extra-judicial execution and even massacre—a potentially pre-genocidal situation. But government air-strikes on Fulani communities in Nigeria have received no coverage in the Western media, because of the lack of any geopolitical rivalry there; Nigeria remains firmly in the Anglo-American camp. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: Sahara Reporters)
A US special forces raid in Somalia ordered by President Joe Biden killed a key regional ISIS leader, Bilal al-Sudani, the Pentagon said in a statement. Sudani apparently died in a gun-battle after US troops descended on a cave complex in a mountainous area of northern Somalia. The statement did not specify the location of the raid, but the announcement followed reports in Somali media describing a US drone strike on a stronghold of the self-declared Islamic State-Somalia in the Cal Miskaad mountains of the autonomous northern region of Puntland. The raid came as the US military has been stepping up attacks on the Qaeda-aligned Shabaab rebels in central Somalia, in conjunction with Somali government and African Union forces. (Map via Wikimedia Commons)
Fighters from the ISIS-aligned Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the CODECO ethnic miitia have each carried out multiple massacres of villagers in Ituri and North Kivu provinces of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over the past weeks. The M23 rebel group, said to be backed by Rwanda, has meanwhile captured new territory in North Kivu, further closing the ring around Goma, the largest city in the DRC’s east. Regional tensions rose after Rwanda fired on a Congolese fighter jet, claiming it had breached its airspace. Kinshasa denied the accusation and called the shooting “an act of war.” (Map: CIA)
Brazil’s government declared a public health emergency for the Yanomami indigenous people, now plagued by rising death rates from curable diseases and malnutrition. President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva flew to the remote Yanomami territory in Roraima state after horrifying photographs emerged of emaciated Yanomami children and adults. After his visit, Lula tweeted: “More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was genocide: a premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to suffering.” This was a reference to the previous far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, under whose presidency gold miners and illegal loggers flooded into Yanomami territory, bringing disease and destroying the forest that the people depends on for sustenance. Interior Minister Flávio Dino said he will order an investigation into “strong indications” the Yanomami had suffered crimes including genocide–meaning the deliberate attempt to partially or completely destroy an ethnic, national, racial or religious group. (Photo: Mongabay)
The first death was reported in the national protest mobilization on Peru’s capital, dubbed the “Taking of Lima.” Victor Santisteban Yacsavilca, 55, was struck in the head with a tear-gas cannister, bringing the death toll since the national uprising began last month to 58. That same day, Peru’s Congress voted down a proposal by embattled President Dina Boluarte to bring forward elections to December 2023 from April 2026. Earlier, the National Police raided San Marcos University, where Peruvians from across the country who came to Lima for the demonstrations were staying. Troops smashed through the campus gates with an armored vehicle, fired tear-gas, and detained more than 200 people for interrogation under emergency measures. Protesters continue to demand immediate new elections, and the calling of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. (Photo via Facebook)
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward, citing the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine. The Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been. The press release announcing the move spared no criticism for Russia, excoriating Moscow for breaking its commitment to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, and violating international protocols by bringing its war to the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear plants. The statement also expressed alarm over Russia’s repeated implicit threats to unleash nuclear war. The statement nonetheless called on the United States to “keep the door open to principled engagement with Moscow that reduces the dangerous increase in nuclear risk.” However, Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov responded to the statement by rejecting any imminent return to the negotiating table: “Right now we can only state that the prospects for stepping on a diplomatic path are not visible at present.” (Image: BAS)
In Episode 160 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes hideous ironies in the current horrific headlines. Russia was excluded from the official commemorations of Holocaust Day at Auschwitz-Birkenau as it pursues its war of aggression and extermination in Ukraine in the perverse name of “de-nazification.” But Israeli flags were of course displayed at the commemoration—even as Israel escalates toward a genocidal solution to the Palestinian question. The fundamental contradiction driving the conflict is the expropriation of the Palestinian people of their lands, and the denial of their self-determination by Israel. The emergence of an explicitly anti-Zionist bloc in the protests against the new far-right government in Israel is a sign of hope. The US, however, is undertaking its biggest joint military exercises ever with the new Israeli regime, despite Biden’s supposed rejection of its extremist policies of settlement expansion and annexation—viewing the Jewish State as a strategic ally against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Meanwhile, the oppressive regime in Iran treats minority peoples such as the Kurds, Baluch, Ahwazi and Baha’i much as Israel treats the Palestinians. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: B’Tselem)
