CounterVortex

North America

Deaths linked to Texas-Mexico floating border barrier

Mexican authorities confirmed that they recovered two bodies from the Rio Grande near the border town of Piedras Negras, Coahuila state. Authorities recovered one of the bodies, a Mexican national, from buoys recently floated by Texas in an effort to impede border crossings from Mexico. The second body, that of a Honduran national, was recovered further upstream. The incidents have renewed attention on the floating barrier, which is now the subject of a lawsuit between the US Department of Justice and the state of Texas. (Map: Google)

Planet Watch

Podcast: Oppenheimer and techno-hubris

In Episode 185 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg reviews the Oppenheimer movie, and discusses the legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer 78 years after Hiroshima. Manhattan Project dissidents like Leo Szilard petitioned to stop the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. But such sentiment was overruled by Harry Truman’s geopolitical imperatives—and what Freeman Dyson called the “technical arrogance” of Oppenheimer and his circle. Now, as open Russian nuclear threats continue to mount in Europe, we are poised at the brink of unparalleled catastrophe. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image via The Day After Trinity)

Southeast Asia

Burma junta postpones promised August election

Burma state media announced that the ruling junta has postponed an election that it previously promised to hold in August. Instead, junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing extended the country’s state of emergency for another six months. Gen. Hlaing stated that the election could not occur due to continued fighting in certain regions of Burma, including Sagaing, Bago and Magway. In addition, the junta statement said that it would need to put in place additional security arrangements to ensure the elections are “free and fair.” (Map: PCL)

Greater Middle East

Yemen: civil society groups call for just peace

More than 40 Yemeni civil society organizations released a declaration on laying out a vision for how to achieve justice and reconciliation post-conflict. They highlight the importance of addressing past human rights violations to prevent future violence and call for accountability and reparations through a gender-equal and victim-centered process. The war, which started in 2014, has led to one of the world’s most acute crises, with more than 20 million people requiring humanitarian assistance and 80% of the population facing hunger. (Map via PCL)

Africa

Russia’s grain-for-influence gambit

Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged free grain to six African nations. The announcement comes one week after Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal, triggering a spike in global prices. Opening the Africa-Russian summit in St. Petersburg, Putin promised to send 25,000 to 50,000 tons of free grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic, and Eritrea. The countries are among Moscow’s closest allies on the continent, but they are not all the most food-import dependent. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that a “handful of donations” would not correct the market impact of Russia’s termination of the year-long deal, which had cut cereal prices by more than one third. The African Union echoed Guterres’ criticism. (Photo: Wikipedia)

South Asia

Bangladesh protests demand prime minister resign

Bangladesh opposition supporters protested to demand the resignation of prime minister and the leader of Awami League, Sheikh Hasina. The protests followed a call to action from the Bangladesh National Party (BNP). Protestors blocked several entry points to the capital Dhaka, and some threw rocks at police. The police responded with tear-gas, rubber bullets and batons. BNP leader Abdul Moyeen Khan said that 1,000 supporters have been arrested. These protests were the latest among a year-long series of demonstrations demanding new elections under a caretaker government. The BNP believes that elections that brought the Awami League to power in 2018 were not free and fair. (Photo via Twitter)

Africa

Military coup d’etat consolidated in Niger

Niger’s national broadcaster identified Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani as president of the country’s new military government following a coup that deposed elected President Mohamed Bazoum. The country’s new ruling junta, called the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland, was formed out of Niger’s presidential guard, which carried out the coup. The AU, EU, US and Russia have all condemned the coup as unconstitutional. However, Wagner Group commander Yevgeni Prigozhin lauded the coup as part of “the struggle of the people of Niger [against] their colonizers,” and and offered his fighters’ services to bring order. Pro-coup protesters in Niger have been photographed with Russian flags. (Map: PCL)

Europe

UN protests Russian strikes on Odesa heritage sites

UNESCO released a statement condemning Russian strikes on the Ukrainian port of Odesa, and especially damage to cultural heritage sites, including the city’s Transfiguration Cathedral, which is within the Historic Centre of Odesa World Heritage Site. UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay stated: “This outrageous destruction marks an escalation of violence against the cultural heritage of Ukraine. I strongly condemn this attack against culture, and I urge the Russian Federation to take meaningful action to comply with its obligations under international law, including the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1972 World Heritage Convention.” (Photo via Twitter)

Greater Middle East

Podcast: from the West Bank to Western Sahara

In Episode 184 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes that Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to Congress was happily boycotted by members of the “Squad,” and comes as even establishment voices are calling for a cut-off of US aid in light of the deep political crisis in Israel. Unhappily, Rep. Pramila Jayapal was forced to issue an apology for having called Israel a “racist state”—which is a mere statement of political reality. In contrast, Ron DeSantis was not forced to issue any such apology for openly embracing Israel’s illegal annexationist designs on the West Bank—even as they are protested by UN international law experts. All this comes as Israel has joined the US as the only countries on Earth to recognize Moroccan annexation of Western Sahara, a condition of the so-called Abraham Accords. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: Kirby Gookin/Western Sahara Resource Center)

Africa

Cover-up of police killings seen in Kenya unrest

A Kenyan police official told the Associated Press that police received a warning against reporting deaths that have occurred during protests over the high cost of living under the government of President William Ruto. Although it was unclear who issued the direct order, it came after opposition leader Raila Odinga called for three days of protests. Since Ruto’s election last year, Kenya has witnessed tax increases and a steep rise in petrol prices. The demonstrations, and the brutal response from the state, have seen at least 30 people killed since March, according to Amnesty International. The UN says 5.4 million people need urgent food aid in Kenya following five consecutive seasons of drought. (Photo: OHCR)

Central America

Guatemala: opposition party headquarters raided

Guatemalan presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo accused authorities of “political persecution” after police raided his center-left Semilla party headquarters. Arévalo condemned the raid as an attempt to hinder his campaign for the 2023 election, the second round of which is scheduled for August. Prosecutors say they were enforcing a court order that suspended Semilla due to alleged irregularities in party member registration. However, that order had been canceled by Guatemala’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal. (Image via Twitter)

Syria

UN: halt indefinite detention at Syria camps

UN Special Rapporteur for human rights Fionnuala Ní Aoláin released a statement urging the cessation of “indefinite mass detention without legal process,” particularly of children, in northeastern Syria detention centers. Around 52,000 people are held in the camps at al-Hol and al-Roj in Syria’s northeast. Around 60% are children, of whom 80% are under 12. Most children are there due to their parents’ supposed links to ISIS. Many are separated from their parents, with Ní Aoláin asserting that boys are often forcibly separated from their mothers upon reaching adolescence. Both camps are under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a primarily Kurdish organization which has fought ISIS since 2014. (Photo: Abdul Aziz Qitaz/UNOCHA)