As COVID-19 spreads around the globe, with more than 200 deaths already reported in Brazil, an evangelical Christian organization has purchased a helicopter with plans to contact and convert isolated indigenous groups in the remote Western Amazon. Ethnos360, formerly known as… Read moreCOVID-19 threatens Amazonian peoples
More than 10 years after the Bagua massacre in the Peruvian Amazon, sparked when National Police troops attacked a roadblock by indigenous protesters, a magistrate at the penal chamber of Peru’s Supreme Court of Justice on Jan. 31 absolved 53… Read morePeru: high court upholds acquittal of Bagua defendants
A court in Peru’s Loreto region on Jan. 22 issued an order blocking all oil exploration or exploitation within a vast area of the Amazon rainforest along the Brazilian border, citing the presence of isolated or “uncontacted” peoples in the… Read moreCourt bars oil exploitation in Peru’s Sierra del Divisor
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro met in New Delhi Jan. 26, pledging a “new chapter” in cooperation between their two countries, especially naming counter-terrorism and exploitation of minerals, hydrocarbons and other natural resources. (India Today,… Read moreModi and Bolsonaro: twin threat to tribal peoples
The International Court of Justice opened oral hearings on the merits of a territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela over the Essequibo region, with Guyana asking the court to declare that Venezuela has no legitimate claim to the oil-rich territory that constitutes some two-thirds of Guyana's landmass. Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez, who assumed the role after the US military operation that led to Nicolas Maduro's capture earlier this year, stated in August 2025 that Venezuela would ignore the ICJ's final ruling. (Map: Google)
The UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria (COI) announced that it completed an in-country mission to Damascus as it prepares to brief the Council in Geneva. The commissioners said they were encouraged by the growth of Syrian civil society organizations, including groups returning from exile. Still, they noted continued barriers and fears, and urged conditions that would allow civil society to operate "without restriction.” There remain legal questions about whether and to what degree authorities will tolerate independent documentation, advocacy, and victim participation, which are needed elements for credible truth-seeking, reparations design, and institutional vetting. (Image: Damascus protest against Israeli intervention in Syria. Credit: The Syria Campaign via Facebook)
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) and four of its top military officials over their support, training, and fighting alongside M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The RDF have reportedly provided direct operational support to the M23 and its affiliates by introducing advanced military equipment to eastern DRC, including GPS jamming systems, air defense equipment, and drones. According to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the US seeks the immediate withdrawal of RDF troops, weapons and equipment. (Photo: US Air Force via Wikimedia Commons)
Zohran Mamdani's Oval Office lovefest with Donald Trump was a dangerous legitimization of fascism, and has won New York no respite—as the city was targeted for ICE raids mere days later. These were happily met with a strong street response by progressive New Yorkers, and Zohran has reiterated his stance of non-cooperation with the federal police state. Meanwhile, the massacre of Jews one week ago in Sydney increases the pressure on Mamdani to walk the fine line between remaining true to his anti-Zionist principles on one hand, and acquiescing in anti-Semitism on the other. And his support for bulldozing the Elizabeth Street Garden (even after a deal to save it has been accepted by the incumbent administration), while failing to protest displacement of tenants from public housing projects slated for privatization, points to an accommodation with the pro-"development" consensus of the city's permanent government. On the final countdown to Mamdani's inauguration, the contradictions he faces are sharpening. In Episode 309 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down. (Photo: DSA)
Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a report documenting the forced displacement of approximately 32,000 Palestinians from three refugee camps beginning in January 2025. The report charges that Israeli forces carried out mass forcible displacements as part of a widespread attack on civilians, accusations that, if substantiated, would constitute crimes against humanity under international law. "The organized, forced displacement of Palestinians in the refugee camps has removed nearly the entire Palestinian population from these areas," the report stated, noting that residents of Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps have been denied the right to return nearly a year after the operations commenced. (Photo: Wikipedia)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Ali Kushayb, a former Sudanese militia chief, on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in massacres and atrocities in Darfur region in 2003 and 2004. Guilty verdicts included for the war crimes of torture, murder and rape, as well as multiple crimes against humanity, including forcible population transfers. The ICC Trial Chamber found that Kushayb, as a senior commander in the Janjaweed militia, led a campaign of atrocities during the Darfur conflict, with witnesses describing razed villages, mass executions, and gang rapes used as a weapon of war. Sentencing will take place at a later date, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. (Photo via Radio Dabanga)
At least 17 people were killed in an armed attack on a bar in El Empalme, a small town north of Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil—days before US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Neom visited the country and signed a deal to fight organized crime and illegal migration. The deal includes training for Ecuadoran security forces in the US and collaboration on border security. Once one of South America’s safest countries, Ecuador has registered a vertiginous uptick in violent crime in the past few years. In response, President Daniel Noboa has adopted a series of hardline security policies that have raised concern over human rights abuses. The policies range from the repeated declaration of states of emergency, the construction of El Salvador-style prisons, and a "strategic alliance" with private US military contractor Erik Prince. Noboa has also replicated some of US President Donald Trump's deportation tactics, returning more than 600 Colombian prisoners to their country in late July with no official notice. (Photo: Presidencia Ecuador via Peoples Dispatch)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told his ministers that he will seek cabinet approval for a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip. According to reports in the Israeli media, several ministers said Netanyahu used the term "occupation of the Strip" in private conversations describing his plan. One anonymous official was quoted as saying: "The die is cast—we are going for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip." Referring to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who is said to oppose such plans, the official added: "If the chief of staff doesn’t agree, he should resign." These reports come as more than a dozen former senior Israeli security officials issued a joint video message with a call to end the war in Gaza, arguing that it has become damaging to Israel's own national interests. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)
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