CounterVortex

Planet Watch

UN grapples with definition of ‘climate refugees’

The United Nations must update its 70-year-old refugee convention to address the growing numbers displaced across borders by the climate crisis, according to the special rapporteur on climate change. Speaking before the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Ian Fry said there’s an “urgent need” to protect the rights of the displaced as the climate crisis builds. While few contest the need to address climate-related displacement, how to do so is a sticky question. The UN’s two main agencies for displacement, the UNHCR and IOM, shun the term “climate refugees,” saying that it’s misleading and could even undermine existing protection law. (Photo of displaced families in Somalia: UN Photo/Tobin Jones via Flickr)

Europe

Russia opens criminal trial of Azov Battalion troops

A Russian court has begun hearing the case against 24 Ukrainian soldiers from the Azov Battalion, seized in May 2022 during the battle for the city of Mariupol. The battalion members—including eight women—face charges of involvement with a “terrorist organization,” and participating in activities to “overthrow” Russian authorities. The Russian Supreme Court designated Azov a “terrorist organization” in August 2022, and Russian prosecutors first filed charges against the Azov fighters this May. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, asserts that the trial has no legal basis, citing international law and military immunity. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, “Combatant immunity bars the prosecution of combatants for mere participation in hostilities.” (Photo of Azov Battalion fighters: Carl Ridderstråle/Wikimedia Commons)

South Asia

Manipur tribal leaders reject ‘dialogue’

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum in India’s northeast state of Manipur announced that it has rejected “any offer of dialogue” with the state’s Chief Minister N. Biren Singh. The ITLF said the chief minister’s stated intention of reaching out to stakeholders following a meeting with India’s Home Minister Amit Shah “comes too late after the loss of so many innocent lives and properties and the untold hardships faced by the Kuki-Zo tribals; there is no point in talking about peace without a political solution.” Singh, of India’s ruling Hindu-nationalist BJP, is accused of inaction or outright collaboration in attacks during weeks of violence between the Hindu Meitei community and the mostly Christian and animist Kuki and Naga peoples. (Photo: Kuki-Zo warriors march in Lamka (Churachandpur), via Twitter)

Planet Watch

Podcast: free Puerto Rico, free Russia

In Episode 180 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg compares two demonstrations outside the UN on the same day—one in support of Puerto Rican independence, timed for the meeting of the Special Committee on Decolonization, and one in support of Russian anti-war dissidents, LGBTQ people and indigenous peoples, now all facing harsh repression. The police state tactics seen in Putin’s consolidating dictatorship mirror many of those US colonialism has used in Puerto Rico. And Russia’s indigenous peoples have been denied self-determination as surely as the Puerto Ricans. Yet the presence of “tankies“—pseudo-leftists in the camp of Russian imperialism—at the independentista rally illustrates how those who support freedom in Puerto Rico and in Russia have been pitted against each other. Yet another example of how a global divide-and-rule racket is the essence of the state system. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: CounterVortex)

Africa

Mali junta kicks out UN peacekeepers

Mali’s ruling junta has requested immediate withdrawal of the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the country, MINUSMA, citing a “crisis of confidence” and failure to deal with security challenges. The junta, in power since 2020, has sidelined various regional and international partners while forging close ties to the Russian mercenary Wagner Group. Military officials resent MINUSMA’s human rights investigations, and have severely curtailed its access and mobility. The latest move comes after the UN released a report on a massacre by Malian troops and their mercenary allies in the town of Moura. (Photo: MINUSMA)

Afghanistan

Women’s rights at issue as Taliban seek recognition

Roza Otunbayeva, the UN’s special representative for Afghanistan, told the Security Council that the Taliban’s continued restrictions on women made it “nearly impossible” for the international community to recognize it as a legitimate government. In particular, Otunbayeva referred to an April edict banning Afghan women from working with the UN—a follow-up to an earlier ban on them working for local or international NGOs. However, the “Islamic Emirate,” as the Taliban prefers to be known, continues to push for international recognition, most recently at a stakeholder meeting convened on the matter in Oslo. (Photo: UNICEF)

Syria

Russia, Israel both still bombing Syria

At least 13 people, nine of them civilians, were killed in Russian air-strikes within the so-called “de-escalation zone” in northern Syria’s Idlib province, with some of the strikes hitting a crowded vegetable market. The area targeted in the raid, already suffering a severe displacement crisis, is controlled by the Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist faction. Meanwhile, sporadic Israeli air-strikes on regime-held Syrian territory also continue—with apparent tacit approval from Russia, as long as they target the Iranian military presence in the country. (Photo: @SyriaCivilDef)

Africa

Thousands killed in new Darfur ‘genocide’

Clashes, artillery fire and air-strikes rock Sudan’s capital, as the conflict between rival factions that has displaced 2.5 million people and caused a humanitarian crisis enters its 11th week. But with world media focusing on the fighting in Khartoum, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is raising the alarm about a dramatic escalation in western Darfur region, where members of the Masalit ethnic group are targeted by Arab militias aligned with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Authorities from the autonomous Sultanate of Dar Masalit report that more than 5,000 have been killed in such attacks in and around West Darfur state capital El Geneina over the past weeks. The Sultanate describes the continuing attacks as “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide.” (Photo of displaced Masalit children: Radio Dabanga)

Europe

Politics, neglect hobble Italy’s migration system

The number of asylum seekers and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Italy has surged this year, according to EU officials. More than 56,000 people have made the journey–almost double the total over the same period last year. The increase prompted Italy’s government to declare a six-month state of emergency in April, in part to address overcrowding at a center for those who arrive on the Italian island of Lampedusa. But experienced aid workers say the focus on numbers is distracting from the real issues: dire conditions in North Africa—most recently Tunisia—pushing more people to take dangerous journeys at sea; and an Italian migration reception system near collapse due to years of politicization and neglect. (Photo: Sara Creta/TNH)

Europe

Wagner forces halt march on Moscow

Troops from the Wagner Group mercenary force abruptly reversed course after advancing through southern Russia toward Moscow, bringing an apparent end to what appeared to be an attempted coup d’état. This came hours after President Vladimir Putin accused Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin of treason and vowed swift and harsh action, comparing the uprising to the 1917 Revolution. Wagner forces had reportedly seized control of Russia’s Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don, which houses nuclear weapons. Belarusian authorities claim their country’s leader Alexander Lukashenko facilitated negotiations between the parties, allowing Wagner to call off the march on Moscow in exchange for the dropping of treason charges against Prigozhin. (Photo: Wagner Group/Telegram via Jurist)

South Asia

Podcast: from Manipur to the West Bank

In Episode 179 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg compares the military and settler attacks on Palestinian towns in the West Bank with the eruption of ethnic violence in Northeast India’s state of Manipur—and uncovers the unlikely connection between the two. The Kuki indigenous people now targeted in Manipur includes a sub-group, the Bnei Menashe, who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and practice an ancient form of Judaism. Israeli NGOs are raising the alarm about the violence in Manipur, but also exploiting it, luring Bnei Menashe to emigrate to Israel—with some settled on the West Bank, serving as demographic cannon fodder for the Zionist project. The Kuki and Palestinians, both land-rooted peoples usurped of their traditional territory, are pitted against each other—despite the convergence of their enemies in a Hindutva-Zionist alliance. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: E-PAO)

Palestine

Defiant Israel to expand West Bank settlements

Israel’s right-wing nationalist government announced new plans to approve the construction of thousands of new buildings in the occupied West Bank, despite pressure from both the USand EU to halt settlement expansion. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has just been granted authority over approval of West Bank settlement construction in a cabinet decision, tweeted in explicitly annexationist language: “The construction boom in Judea and Samaria and all over our country continues.” The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called for US and international action to press the Israeli government to backtrack on the decision. (Photo of settlement outside Za’atara: Ralf Roletschek via Wikimedia Commons)