CounterVortex

Africa

Sudan: RSF announce rival government

A coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has announced formation of a parallel government in Sudan, further cementing the country’s territorial split between army-held and RSF-held regions. Paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti“) will head a 15-person council with Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, head of the SPLM-N rebel group, as deputy. The African Union urged member states to not recognize the new regime, which wants to rival the Port Sudan-based army-led transitional government. This effectively leaves the RSF-led regime in control of much of the south, the army in control of the north, and the center of the country contested. (Map: PCL)

The Andes

US-Ecuador security pact amid deepening crisis

At least 17 people were killed in an armed attack on a bar in El Empalme, a small town north of Ecuador’s port city of Guayaquil—days before US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Neom visited the country and signed a deal to fight organized crime and illegal migration. The deal includes training for Ecuadoran security forces in the US and collaboration on border security. Once one of South America’s safest countries, Ecuador has registered a vertiginous uptick in violent crime in the past few years. In response, President Daniel Noboa has adopted a series of hardline security policies that have raised concern over human rights abuses. The policies range from the repeated declaration of states of emergency, the construction of El Salvador-style prisons, and a “strategic alliance” with private US military contractor Erik Prince. Noboa has also replicated some of US President Donald Trump’s deportation tactics, returning more than 600 Colombian prisoners to their country in late July with no official notice. (Photo: Presidencia Ecuador via Peoples Dispatch)

Palestine

Netanyahu seeks re-occupation of Gaza: reports

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told his ministers that he will seek cabinet approval for a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip. According to reports in the Israeli media, several ministers said Netanyahu used the term “occupation of the Strip” in private conversations describing his plan. One anonymous official was quoted as saying: “The die is cast—we are going for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip.” Referring to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who is said to oppose such plans, the official added: “If the chief of staff doesn’t agree, he should resign.” These reports come as more than a dozen former senior Israeli security officials issued a joint video message with a call to end the war in Gaza, arguing that it has become damaging to Israel’s own national interests. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)

Syria

Syria: investigate abductions of Alawite women and girls

Amnesty International called on Syria to investigate abductions of Alawite women and girls, and bring perpetrators to justice. Amnesty reported that at least 36 Alawite women and girls, some underage, have been abducted in Latakia, Tartous, Homs and Hama governorates since March, when a wave of violence against the Alawite community began. In some of these cases, the women were abducted “in broad daylight.” Some are believed to have been subject to forced marriages; others have been held for ransom, and in some cases married to their captives despite ransom payments. Amnesty charged that the Syrian authorities have failed to adequately investigate these abductions. (Photo: Protest against the massacre of Syrian Alawites in Washington DC. Credit: VOA via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East

Syrian refugees in Lebanon face detention, torture

The DC-based Syrian Emergency Task Force condemned the unlawful detention, torture and abuse of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, which it says has resulted in at least 40 deaths. Since 2014, Hezbollah and complicit Lebanese forces have arrested hundreds of Syrian refugees—particularly supporters of the Syrian Revolution—and sentenced them in unfair military trials, despite repatriation efforts by Syria’s new government. Many are tried before Lebanon’s Military Court for belonging to “terrorist groups”—a reference to rebels fighting the former dictatorship of Bashar Assad, in Syria not Lebanon. (Photo via Facebook)

North America

MAGA-fascism and anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism II

The ideological enforcer of MAGA-fascism in American higher education (just met with craven capitulation by Columbia and Brown University) is the Trump regime’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. Purporting to act on behalf of Jewish students, the Trump regime simultaneously attacks policies to promote campus diversity. This replicates the historical function of anti-Semitism—setting up Jews to take the hit for for the oppressive policies of (overwhelmingly) non-Jewish rulers. The perverse fascist pseudo-anti-fascism of the Trump regime has now become anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism. This cynical feigned opposition to anti-Semitism is especially dangerous when actual anti-Semitism is very much in evidence—not least by the Trump regime itself, over and over! Yet the ever-more egregious manifestations of Jew-hatred are increasingly weaponized by the political right—and ignored or even normalized by the ostensible “left.” In Episode 289 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes some encouragement from the growing ranks of Jewish voices breaking with the pro-Israel consensus to protest the Gaza genocide—while being clear in drawing the line against anti-Semitism. (Image: APE)

Palestine

UN decries ‘weaponized hunger’ in Gaza —again

Several United Nations agencies condemned the use of starvation as a weapon of war, as malnutrition rates in Gaza spike under Israeli siege. During the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Secretary-General António Guterres stressed: “Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war.” Guterres’ statement follows Israel’s decision to permit a one-week scale-up of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, where famine conditions now prevail. UN agencies welcomed the easing of aid restrictions and so-called “humanitarian pauses” in the ongoing bombardment; however, as emphasized by UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher: “This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis.” (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Africa

ICC convicts CAR Anti-Balaka militia leaders

The International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted two Anti-Balaka militia leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Central African Republic between 2013 and 2014. The pair were sentenced to 12 and 15 years in prison. The ICC found that the two led a campaign of violence targeting Muslim civilians in retaliation for months of looting and violence carried out by the Muslim-led Séléka rebel coalition, which had seized power in 2013. The convictions include charges of murder, intentionally attacking civilian populations, forcible transfer, torture and other inhumane acts, and persecution. (Map via Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection)

Palestine

Israeli rights groups accuse Israel of genocide

Two of Israel’s leading human rights organizations charged that government practices and policies in the Gaza Strip amount to an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel each published a report and jointly announced their findings. It marks the first time that any Israel-based rights group has labeled state actions as genocide. Both organizations invoked the “legal and moral duty” of Israel’s Western allies to bring a halt to Israel’s conduct. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East

Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping condemned as war crimes

Human Rights Watch criticized renewed attacks launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial cargo ships in the Red Sea. HRW characterized the recent attacks—one deadly—as war crimes, and called for their immediate cessation as well as the release the crew members in Houthi custody. Houthi authorities claimed one of the attacked ships, which was returning from delivering aid to Somalia, was headed for the Israeli port of Eilat. However, this has not been corroborated. (Map via PCL)

Palestine

Israel again intercepts Gaza-bound aid vessel

The Israeli military intercepted a civilian vessel, detaining 21 international activists and journalists who were aiming to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. In a statement, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an international grassroots network of human rights and civil society organizations, declared that its vessel Handala was “violently intercepted” by Israeli forces, seizing all cargo, including essential food, medical supplies and baby formula. According to the network, the attack on the Handala is the third against the Freedom Flotilla this year, following the “drone bombing of civilian ship Conscience” in European waters in May, and the seizure of the Madleen in June, when 12 civilians were “abducted” by Israeli forces. Furthermore, the network stated that the Israeli military acted in international waters, thus violating international maritime law. (Photo: FreeGaza via Wikimedia Commons)

New York City

Trump Justice Department sues NYC over Sanctuary City law

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department filed a complaint against New York City, its Mayor Eric Adams, and other officials over the municipality’s Sanctuary City laws, charging that they are unconstitutional and violate federal immigration enforcement statutes. In a press statement in response to the complaint, Adams distanced himself from his own city’s sanctuary laws, saying they “go too far when it comes to dealing with those violent criminals on our streets.” He said that he has “urged the [City] Council to reexamine them… So far, the Council has refused.” (Photo via TripAdvisor)