CounterVortex

Watching the Shadows

Is Elon Musk unstoppable?

If elected president in November, Donald Trump says he will create a government efficiency commission led by tech billionaire Elon Musk as part of his economic plan. Musk suggested the idea to Trump in a conversation on X, which he bought in 2022 when it was called Twitter. The announcement is the latest display of Musk’s growing influence in politics. The self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” is accused of censoring progressive opinions while amplifying the voices of far-right networks. So far, no one seems to be able to check his growing power, as his recent legal battles with Australia and Brazil have demonstrated. Both countries tried to curtail content deemed harmful, but Musk ignored their requests. After Musk disregarded a judicial order to suspend dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation in Brazil, the country’s Supreme Court ruled to ban it nationwide. Journalists, who have relied heavily on it, have expressed a mixture of relief and regret at the ban. (Photo: Filip Troníček via Wikipedia)

Africa

ISIS franchise claims Nigeria massacre

At least 81 people were killed in an attack by militants on the village of Mafa, in Nigeria’s northeastern Yobe state. A statement listing grievances against the village was left at the scene in the name of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram splinter group. The attack appears to have been in revenge for villagers alerting the military to the insurgents’ presence in the area—which lies on a smuggling route to ISWAP bases in the Lake Chad region. (Photo: ISS Africa)

Africa

Regional powers vie in Somalia

Tensions are ratcheting up in the Horn of Africa over the deployment of Egyptian troops to Somalia. Ethiopia, Somalia’s neighbor, isn’t happy. It has soldiers in Somalia acting as a buffer against al-Shabab insurgents, but now Mogadishu has asked them to withdraw. High-stakes strategic interests are at play. Ethiopia and Egypt have been locked in a long-standing dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Egypt regards as an existential threat. Meanwhile, landlocked Ethiopia has also enraged Somalia over its determination to find a port to lease. It has turned to the breakaway region of Somaliland, dangling the prospect of recognizing its independence—an absolute red line for Mogadishu. The new defense agreement between Egypt and Somalia has underlined just how serious the tensions are. Egypt is planning to send 5,000 soldiers to Somalia to join a new-look African Union force, with a separate 5,000 stationed on the Ethiopian border. (Map: PCL)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: rage against the technocracy II

Amid global protests over the genocide in Gaza, the hypertrophy of digital technology and its colonization of every sphere of human existence continue to advance, portending the ultimate eclipse of human culture and real life, the death of literacy, and the hegemony of saturation propaganda. While the Arab Revolution of 2011 was facilitated through social media, those same platforms are today being used as conduits for propaganda and disinformation lubricating the reconsolidation of dictatorships. This is all about to get much worse—with propaganda especially getting exponentially more sophisticated—through the advent of artificial intelligence. What is urgently mandated—ultimately, even to be able to effectively oppose genocides and dictatorships—is a revolution of everyday life, reclaiming human reality from digital totalitarianism. The uprising in El Salvador against the mandatory imposition of Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 still stands as a glimmer of hope, pointing to the potentiality of this kind of revolution—even if the aspiring autocrat Nayib Bukele, who made Bitcoin a national currency, put down the uprising and is now consolidating an authoritarian regime. Bill Weinberg rants against the digital Borg in Episode 242 of the CounterVortex podcast. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: Earth First! Newswire)

Europe

Lebanon, Cyprus violate rights of Syrian refugees: HRW

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Lebanon and Cyprus of violating the human rights of Syrian refugees with indirect financial support from the European Union. In a new report, HRW details how both countries have intercepted and forcibly returned refugees to Syria in a coordinated effort to prevent them from seeking asylum in Europe. According to the rights organization, Syrian refugees who tried to leave Lebanon by boat were intercepted by the Lebanese army and then expelled to Syria. Meanwhile, the Cypriot Coast Guard intercepted refugees who managed to reach Cyprus, sending them back to Lebanon, where they often faced immediate deportation to Syria. (Photo of Lebanon coast via Wikimedia Commons)

Watching the Shadows

US indictments, sanctions target Russian propaganda network

The US Department of Justice announced the seizure of 32 internet domains linked to an alleged Russian government-backed disinformation campaign aimed at influencing US and global audiences. According to the DoJ, the operation, known as “Doppelganger,” sought to sway public opinion in favor of Russian interests and interfere in the 2024 US presidential election. The campaign was allegedly orchestrated by several Russian organizations under the supervision of Sergei Kiriyenko, a senior official in the Russian Presidential Administration. These organizations utilized the domains to distribute pro-Russian propaganda and undermine support for Ukraine. The operation used deceptive methods that violated US “money laundering and criminal trademark law.” (Photo: Wikipedia)

Southeast Asia

Cambodia: citizens detained for protesting mega-project

At least 94 people have been arbitrarily arrested in Cambodia since late July for expressing public criticism of the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV-DTA), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement. The human rights organizations believe at least 59 of those arrested have been unlawfully detained by Cambodian authorities, and called for all charges in these cases to be immediately dropped. The Khmer Movement for Democracy states that the CLV-DTA would serve “as cover for further illegal deforestation, land evictions, and exploitation of resources for foreign gain.” (Map: PCL)

East Asia

Hong Kong court convicts journalists of sedition

The Hong Kong District Court found Best Pencil Ltd, the parent company of now-shuttered Stand News, along with former chief editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, guilty of “conspiracy to publish and/or reproduce seditious publications” under the colonial-era Crimes Ordinance. The case centered on 17 articles the website ran concerning protests, activism and elections. The two editors face up to two years each in prison. Since the crackdown following the 2019 protests, some 10 media outlets have been forced to close in Hong Kong, with over 1,000 journalists thrown out of work. (Photo: HKFP)

South Asia

Pakistan: new escalation in Baloch insurgency

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation, rampant rights abuses and ongoing political dysfunction in Balochistan province. The commission highlighted a continued pattern of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, with an alarming lack of government action in holding perpetrators accountable. The report came days after at least 73 people were killed in clashes between the military and Baloch ethnic separatists as insurgents launched a series of attacks across the province. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attacks targeting police and security outposts. The attacks were timed for the anniversary of the death of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed in a 2006 raid by the military. Former President Pervez Musharraf was put on trial for the slaying, but acquitted in 2016. (Map via Atheer)

Palestine

Israeli strikes hit aid convoy in Gaza

An Israeli air-strike hit a convoy carrying fuel and medical supplies to a hospital in Gaza, killing several employees of a transportation company associated with the US-based NGO American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera). Israel says it was attacking “armed assailants” who were trying to hijack the truck, but Anera said the only people killed worked for the transport company and they had confirmed their route as part of a “humanitarian deconfliction” program intended to stop hits on aid. The hit on the convoy, which eventually arrived at the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, came days after Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint shot at a vehicle marked as belonging to the World Food Program, which said it was pausing staff operations in Gaza until further notice. (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Africa

Russian fighters leave Burkina Faso for Kursk front

Russia is withdrawing 100 of its paramilitary troops from Burkina Faso to assist in the war with Ukraine, reports indicate. The troops are part of a contingent of some 300 fighters from the Medvedi or Bear Brigade—one of the Russian private military companies operating in West Africa—who arrived in Burkina Faso in May to support the country’s ruling military junta. In a statement, the group said its forces would return home to support Russia’s defense of Kursk oblast against Ukraine’s recent cross-border offensive. There are fears the pull-out could embolden jihadist insurgents in Burkina Faso, who recently killed up to 300 people in one of the biggest attacks in years. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)

Palestine

Israel’s new West Bank operation assailed by UN

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an “immediate cessation” of Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank, saying that the latest “dangerous developments” are “fuelling an already explosive situation” there. The appeal came one day into Israel’s new “counter-terrorism operation,” the largest in the West Bank since the Second Intifada, with hundreds of troops raiding the city of Jenin and other areas of the territory. At least 14 Palestinians have been killed in the raids, either by air-strikes or gun battles on the ground. In the dark hours of the night, Israeli bulldozers moved into Tulkarm, tearing up roads, followed by an armored convoy. Air-strikes were also carried out on targets in the town of Tubas. The total now killed on the West Bank since Oct. 7 stands at over 640. (Photo: JVP)