Turkish officials banned all events by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) groups in Ankara, the country's capital, asserting that the measure was necessary to ensure public security. Events such as cinema, theater, panels, interviews, exhibitions are banned until further notice, in deference to "social sensitivities."
The so-called “de-escalation” zones declared under Russia’s “peace plan” for Syria have actually become kill zones, as Moscow and the Assad regime continue their bombardment, citing the presence in the rebel enclaves of jihadist factions not covered by the deal. But the rebels and civil resistance forces have little ability to expel the jihadists—and sometimes the air-strikes continue even after they have.
The head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Ghassan Salamé, suggested to the United Nations Security Council that a joint tribunal should be considered to try individuals suspected of war crimes in Libya. Salamé warned that Libya is in a state of lawlessness, with crimes being committed each day. Salamé stated, "If Libyans alone cannot combat impunity for war crimes, it is time for the international community to consider mechanisms that can help them do so."
The Russian Federation vetoed a measure before the UN Security Council that would have extended the mandate of a panel investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria for 30 days. The UNSC had established the Joint Investigative Mechanism with a two-year mandate following the use of chemical weapons in Syria in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won rare favorable international headlines when he said he would pull his National Police force out of his brutal "war on drugs," which has now reached the point of mass murder. The move came after public outrage over the police slaying of an unarmed youth. But Amnesty International notes that he made such promises after a similar outrage a few months back—and nothing changed.
The latest grim manifestation of the unrelenting prison crisis in Latin America comes from the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León, where authorities confirmed that 16 inmates were killed, and 25 wounded, in an uprising at the dangerously overcrowded Penal de Cadereyta facility.
Authorities in San Luis Potosí found the body of local reporter Edgar Daniel Esqueda Castro outside the city's airport, dead of three gunshot wounds. He had been abducted by armed men in police uniforms in a night raid on his home the previous night. Authorities in San Luis Potosí deny that their police were invovled in the abduction.
Some 15 civilians were killed and more than 50 were injured when Colombian security forces opened fire during coca eradication operations in a hotly contested incident at a village in the southern region of Nariño. The National Coordinator of Coca, Opium and Marijuana Producers (COCCAM) refutes the authorities' claim that renegade FARC rebels attacked the eradication patrol with improvised explosive devices.
CounterVortex will be on hiatus through mid-November, as your editor Bill Weinberg will be traveling in Peru, gathering material on indigenous and campesino struggles against corporate land-grabs for oil and mineral exploitation. He may post some material from the road. But we will resume regular updates to the Daily Report and our weekly headline e-mails upon his return. We thank our readers for your continued support, and urge you to give what you can to sustain our efforts. We promise to be back in full swing within 30 days.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, following in the bloody footsteps of the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, has issued a "shoot-on-sight" policy for drug suspects. The hardline policy comes amid a sudden media blitz about the drug "state of emergency" in the archipelago nation.
Authorities in Mauritania ordered the country's five privately owned news stations off the air. The move is the latest sign of a crackdown on the independent press following a controversial referendum called by President Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz in August. The opposition-boycotted vote abolished Mauritania's Senate after it blocked an expansion of presidential powers.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that they have “fully cleared” Raqqa of jihadist fighters and “liberated” the city from ISIS. But the city lies in ruins after months of US-led bombardment, with no water or electricity. The SDF pledges to turn Raqqa over to civilian control, but rival councils loyal to the SDF and FSA each claim to be the city’s legitimate government.
