CounterVortex

Africa

Mali: jihadist militants attack Bamako

The al-Qaeda-linked JNIM group carried out a major attack in Mali’s capital, Bamako, with reports suggesting that up to 70 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. Jihadist fighters attacked the city’s airport—damaging a plane used by the World Food Program—and stormed a military police school. JNIM only makes rare forays into Bamako, and may be sending a message to the ruling junta that it remains a potent force despite operations launched against it. (Map: PCL)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: against hippie fascism

Once-time peacenik icon Tulsi Gabbard has joined Robert F. Kennedy Jr in defecting to the now openly fascist and even Nazi-embracing MAGA camp—actually becoming members of the Trump transition team. Meanwhile, the Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, likewise enamoured of Vladimir Putin and the dictators in his orbit (including mass murderer Bashar Assad), is being represented by a former Trump attorney in her bid to get on the ballot in swing state Nevada. Beyond the threat that she could serve as a spoiler and throw the election to Trump, this raises questions about the cooptation of segments of the American left by MAGA-fascism. It is no longer just the old-school sectarian “tankie” left that’s in danger of taking the fascist lure in a Red-Brown alliance, but the pacifist, cannabis-friendly “green” left as well. In Episode 244 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg raises the alarm. Listen on SoundCloud, and support our podcast via Patreon. (Image via Freedom Leaf)

Greater Middle East

HRW: detonating communication devices violates international law

Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that the simultaneous detonation of thousands of communication devices across Lebanon and Syria violated customary international law. The explosions killed some 35 people and injured more than 2,000. The devices were evidently part of the Hezbollah communication network. Israel is widely believed to be behind the explosions, but has not commented. According to HRW, the targeting of the communication devices contravened Rule 80 of Customary International Humanitarian Law. The rule prohibits the use of booby traps attached to objects likely to attract civilians, or “objects in normal civilian daily use.” HRW also stated that the detonation of the devices “whose exact location could not be reliably known” was “unlawfully indiscriminate,” as both military and civilian populations were struck “without distinction.” (Image: Pixabay)

Oceania

New Zealand: plan to redefine founding document advances

The New Zealand government revealed its plans to move forward with drafting a controversial bill that would redefine the nation’s founding document, te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi, despite official advice from the Ministry of Justice opposing the policy. If enacted, the Treaty Principles Bill would replace the existing principles of the Treaty, first established by New Zealand’s parliament in the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. Te Tiriti o Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the British Crown and Māori indigenous people, extended to the Crown a limited power of kāwanatanga (governance) over New Zealand’s quickly expanding British settler population while guaranteeing the Māori tino rangatiratanga (ultimate power and authority) over their lands, their villages and all their treasured possessions. Scholar Luke Fitzmaurice-Brown charges that the Treaty Principles Bill “will radically change the legal and constitutional status of te Tiriti o Waitangi, essentially erasing it.” (Photo: Waitangi Day celebrations, Feb. 6, 2006, at Waitangi, Paihia. Via Wikimedia Commons)

Planet Watch

Progress on making ecocide an international crime

Three Pacific island nations have proposed that ecocide become a crime under international law, which would see the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecute cases of environmental destruction alongside war crimes and genocide. The move by Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa is unlikely to see fast results but is expected to force ICC member states to at least consider the question. The initiative could one day lead to company leaders, or even nations, facing prosecution. However, ICC member states notably do not include China, Russia, India or the United States. (Photo: Stefan Müller via Wikimedia Commons)

South Asia

Bangladesh leader condemns attacks on Sufi shrines

The interim leader of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, issued a stern condemnation of recent attacks on Sufi shrines across the country. Bangladesh has experienced a recent rise of extremist violence targeting religious and cultural sites, including both Sufi shrines and Hindu temples. Protests have erupted across the country, with thousands of Hindus and followers of Sufi saints taking to the streets to demand greater protection for their religious sites. (Photo: Dhaka Tribune)

Palestine

Chile files intervention in genocide case against Israel

Chile filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The South American country submitted its declaration under Article 63 of the Statute of the ICJ, which gives states a right to intervene in the interpretation of a multilateral convention. Chile’s intervention focuses on the duty to prevent and punish genocide under the Genocide Convention. (Photo: ICJ)

Iran

Iran: revoke death sentence of Kurdish activist

Over 26 rights organizations, including the Kurdistan Human Rights Network and Center for Human Rights in Iran, issued a joint statement calling for the immediate revocation of the death sentence imposed on Kurdish women’s rights activist Pakhshan Azizi. This sentence, handed down by the Iranian judiciary, has sparked international outrage, with the organizations calling it “a blatant violation of human rights principles and standards as well as international conventions and treaties.” Held in solitary confinement for months, during which time she was subjected to torture to coerce confessions, Azizi was sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of “armed insurrection” and “membership in opposition groups.” Her lawyers maintain that Azizi has no involvement in any armed groups, but that she spent years working in displaced persons’ camps in Syria’s Rojava region, providing humanitarian aid to those displaced by ISIS violence. (Image: ANF)

Watching the Shadows

Russian fascism: enemy of Black liberation

Four Black nationalists affiliated with the Uhuru Movement, an arm of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), are on trial for acting as agents of a Russian propaganda network, in what they are calling “the free speech trial of the century.” Regardless of whether their activities were protected by the First Amendment, the case reveals the very strangest of political bedfelows. Tucker Carlson, who similarly serves as a conduit for Russian propaganda, is also mentioned (although not charged) in a new federal indictment. Carlson is scheduled to appear onstage with JD Vance later this month, and recently hosted an uncloseted Nazi-nostalgist on his Twitter program. The absurd irony of the APSP platforming Kremlin demonization of Ukraine as a “Nazi” state is heightened by Russia’s serial massacres of Black Africans in its new military adventures on the continent. The Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, which seemingly cultivated Uhuru/APSP, is similarly cultivating white supremacists, who are overtly Trump-aligned and marched at the Charlottesville hate-fest in 2017. The ultimate stateside beneficiary of this Kremlin-orchestrated propaganda effort is of course Donald Trump—who as president in 2020 sought to unleash the military against that year’s Black Lives Matter uprising. Yet while too many “radicals” take the Kremlin bait, once-reviled “liberals” like the National Urban League actually take a more progressive position on Russia and Ukraine. In Episode 243 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg explores how the American radical left went through the proverbial looking glass, including with analogies from the (last) Cold War. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon (Photo: Russian mercenaries in the Central African Republic. Credit: Corbeau News Centrafrique via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa

Calls mount for Sudan intervention force

A UN fact-finding mission for Sudan called for an independent and impartial force to be deployed “without delay” to protect civilians. Its case is bolstered by reports of a new set of grave human rights violations in the country. In southeastern Sennar state, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were accused of killing 40 people in artillery strikes on local markets and residential areas, while in Darfur’s famine-stricken Zam Zam displacement site, the RSF reportedly tightened a siege and arrested traders trying to supply the camp. The war that began in April 2023 has produced the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises. Recent mediation efforts have failed, with the army refusing to turn up and the RSF using its attendance to try to launder its terrible image. (Map: PCL)

Africa

Nigeria: drop treason charges against protestors

Human Rights Watch released a statement condemning the treason charges leveled against protestors in Nigeria last month. A total of 124 people were arrested during the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria campaign in August, and 10 of those individuals have been charged with treason. The crime of treason can be punishable by death in the West African country. The protest campaign, initially planned to last 10 days, was cut short by violent repression that left at least 20 dead. Activists are now planning a new campaign under the hashtag #FearlessInOctober. (Image via Twitter)

Greater Middle East

Demand Saudi Arabia release detained cyber-dissidents

A group of 40 rights organizations issued a joint statement calling on authorities in Saudi Arabia to release all those unfairly jailed for their online activities before Riyadh hosts the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in December. The organizations stated that the detentions contradict the IGF’s stated values of advancing human rights and inclusion in the digital age. They charged that Saudi authorities are subjecting citizens to unprecedented repression, including decades-long prison sentences for expressing critical views online. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)