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Syria

Syria: can new integration pact avert war on Rojava?

The Syrian interim government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reached an agreement to immediately halt fighting and integrate SDF-held areas into state institutions. The deal follows days of renewed clashes, in which government forces routed SDF strongholds in the city of Aleppo and then pushed east, taking several towns that had been under the control of the Kurdish-led autonomous administration. Just hours before the agreement was reached, autonomous authorities in the Kurdish region, known as Rojava, had announced a "general mobilization" in support of the SDF, citing an "existential war" launched by Damascus against their territory. (Photo: Rudaw)

Iran and Minneapolis: fearful symmetry

As ICE agents open fire on protesters in Minneapolis, Portland and Los Angeles, Trump frames his military threats against Iran in terms of human rights and democracy—an atypical nod back to the neocons. Following mass deadly repression, the protests in Iran appear to have abated—for now. In Minnesota, both Trump and protesters are turning up the heat. Trump's blatant hypocrisy highlights the imperative of international solidarity. The challenge for stateside protesters is to repudiate the calumny that the Iran protests are CIA or Mossad astroturf, and recognize them as a genuine self-organized popular uprising. The challenge for Iranian protesters is repudiate Trump's bid to exploit them for his imperial ends, as well to reject the ambitions of the reactionary "crown prince" Reza Pahlavi to install himself as leader. In Episode 313 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg urges that explicit mutual support between the anti-authoritarian struggles in the US and Iran is what can move the historical process forward at this grim hour. (Photo: Chad Davis)

Climate change drives Trump’s Greenland gambit

European troops landed in Greenland amid tense talks between the country's autonomous government, officials from Denmark, and the United States. President Trump has continued to insist the two-million-square-kilometer Arctic island should belong to the United States—despite pre-existing security agreements and a (previously) strong relationship with Denmark that grants the US significant military access to the territory. Beyond Trump's ego, there are reasons related to climate change that explain why Greenland is becoming of political interest. The territory's strategic location has become even more so in recent years as the Greenland ice sheet and surrounding sea ice have retreated significantly: The ice sheet lost 105 billion tonnes in 2024-25, according to scientists. This has disastrous implications—ice helps cool the planet, and its melt will lead to rising seas. But it also allows ships and submarines more freedom of movement, making military planners nervous. (Photo: Pixabay)

Trump threatens to invoke Insurrection Act

President Donald Trump warned that he may invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops in Minnesota to quell protests over the massive deployment of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the Twin Cities. The Insurrection Ac, originally enacted in 1792, allows the president to "call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States" in order to suppress insurrection or rebellion. The Insurrection Act has not been significantly updated in over 150 years, and the last time a US president invoked the Act was in 1992, when President George HW Bush received a request from then-California Governor Pete Wilson to help address riots in Los Angeles. Trump has broached invoking the Act before, and has since met with reversals in the courts over his efforts to mobilize National Guard troops under the executive's constitutional "authority to suppress rebellion." (Photo: Chad Davis via Wikimedia Commons)

Greenland party leaders reject US annexation

Greenland party leaders issued a joint statement asserting that the autonomous territory rejects US calls for acquisition. Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four other party leaders stated: "We don't want to be Americans, we don't want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders." But President Trump commented that same day that the US is "going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not." Reacting to the dispute, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that the US is exempting itself from the international rules it had long promoted until just recently. Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that the "fate of Greenland will be decided by Greenlanders and the Kingdom of Denmark." NATO official Gunther Fehlinger went further, warning that if the US annexed Greenland, all its bases in Europe would be "confiscated." (Photo: Peter Prokosch)

Trump instates ’emergency’ measure on Venezuelan oil

President Trump issued an executive order declaring a "national emergency" a to block judicial processes from being instituted against Venezuelan oil funds held in the US, on the basis that it would "materially harm the national security and foreign policy of the United States." This order follows statements from Trump that US oil companies will invest billions in Venezuela, with his Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying that the US will control and market Venezuela's oil "indefinitely." However, the CEO of ExxonMobil, Darren Woods, expressed concern about conditions in Venezuela, saying that country is currently "un-investable." Trump responded angrily that he was "inclined" to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela. Companies including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips say that Venezuela owes them billions of dollars over lost investments. Trump's executive order could hinder these companies from recovering their claims. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

Iran: mass repression under internet blackout

As angry protests spread across Iran, has shut down internet and telecommunications access across the country. Under the cloak of internet darkness, there is reason to believe a general massacre of demonstrators is underway, with reports emerging of hospitals overwhelmed with casualties. Some estimates have placed the death toll at nearly 600. The Iranian government has only intensified its rhetoric. Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei promised no leniency for protesters, whom he characterized as "enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran." (Image: Hajar Morad via Twitter)

UN condemns Russian missile attacks on Ukraine

UN Secretary General António Guterres issued a statement strongly condemning Russian missile and drone attacks in Ukraine following Moscow’s firing of its medium-range nuclear-capable "Oreshnik" ballistic missile. The Oreshnik strike near the western city of Lviv was part of a wave of overnight Russian missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian targets. This was the second time Russia used the experimental hypersonic Oreshnik missile over the course of the Ukraine war, following a strike on Dnipro in November 2024. But this time the strike came far from the frontline, and near the border with NATO member Poland. (Map: PCL)

Syria

Multiple foreign powers still bombing Syria

The Pentagon said US and allied forces carried out a wave of air-strikes against ISIS targets across Syria, although accounts were unclear as to which other countries were involved or what casualties resulted. The raids came as part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, launched in response to the deadly ISIS attack on US and Syrian forces in Palmyra last month. The past week also saw joint British and French strikes on supposed ISIS targets near Palmyra. And Jordan carried out strikes supposedly targeting drug traffickers in Syrian territory. Turkey's Defense Ministry meanwhile said it stands ready to help Syria's interim government in its ongoing "counter-terrorism" operation against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo. (Image: Pixabay)

Venezuela and Ukraine: forbidden symmetry

A close reading of the facts indicates that Putin and Trump worked out a global carve-up in which Russia gets Ukraine and the US gets Venezuela. This was implicitly acknowledged in the "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine enshrined in the National Security Strategy released by the White House weeks before the illegal Venezuela attack was launched. In this light, Russian protests of the US aggression at the UN Security Council seem strictly pro forma. Both dissident left voices in Venezuela and democratic socialists in Ukraine have made the point that to betray one country is to betray the other. In Episode 312 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg demonstrates how the global divide-and-rule racket that is campism has never made less sense. (Image mash-up by Chris Rywalt, with material from Tamara Wyndham and CBC)

Trump orders withdrawal from UN climate process

President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the United States to withdraw from 66 international organizations, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The action follows a review ordered earlier this year of all intergovernmental organizations to which the US belongs or provides funding. UN climate chief Simon Stiell called the withdrawal "a colossal own goal" that will leave the US "less secure and less prosperous." The memorandum follows Trump's withdrawals from the Paris Climate Agreement, the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council. (Photo: CounterVortex)

Uganda: police repression in lead-up to elections

Amnesty International reported that Ugandan security forces have unlawfully targeted opposition rallies with excessive force and arbitrary arrests, with some detainees subject to torture and other mistreatment. Protests have mounted nationwide in the lead-up to this month's election, in which President Yoweri Museveni of the long-entrenched National Resistance Movement seeks an to extend his 40-year rule. He faces a challenge in leading opposition candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, of the National Unity Party. Wine has repeatedly spoken out against the repression faced by his supporters, and explicitly likened his campaign to a battle, saying: "Our campaign is not the ordinary campaign. We are almost at war. You can see the soldiers and vehicles deployed. These people even knock and kill our supporters." (Photo: Bobi Wine campaigning in helmet and flack jacket alongside police armored vehicle. Credit: National Unity Party)