arms traffic

Europe

Mass arrests at Palestine Action protest in London

London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) reported that 466 people were arrested for displaying support for activist group Palestine Action at a protest in Westminster. The MPS added that an additional eight arrests were conducted, including five for assault on police officers. Police said they invoked Section 60AA of the Criminal Justice & Public Order Act of 1994, which grants police officers the authority to demand the removal of any signs or clothing “expressing support” for a “proscribed group.” Palestine Action has been designated a “terrorist organization” by the UK government, following a series of “direct actions” (targeted vandalism) against arms manufacturers believed to be supplying weapons to Israel. (Photo: Cary Bass-Deschênes via Good Law Project)

Southeast Asia

Orwell and the Thai-Cambodia conflict

Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Manet, nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize on Aug. 7, citing his “crucial role” in restoring peace after bloody border fighting with Thailand. The gushy statement praised Trump’s “extraordinary statesmanship” and “innovative diplomacy.” (NYT) Cambodia now… Read moreOrwell and the Thai-Cambodia conflict

Africa

Sudan: RSF announce rival government

A coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has announced formation of a parallel government in Sudan, further cementing the country’s territorial split between army-held and RSF-held regions. Paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti“) will head a 15-person council with Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, head of the SPLM-N rebel group, as deputy. The African Union urged member states to not recognize the new regime, which wants to rival the Port Sudan-based army-led transitional government. This effectively leaves the RSF-led regime in control of much of the south, the army in control of the north, and the center of the country contested. (Map: PCL)

Syria

Syria: revolution on the razor’s edge

The investigation by the Syrian transition government into the March violence against the Alawites in Latakia province has been submitted—but the full findings have not been made public, and it apparently exonerates the government of involvement. Meanwhile southern Suwayda province has seen a perhaps even deadlier eruption of violence—this time pitting Druze against Bedouin, with the role of the government similarly the source of much contestation (and fodder for Internet partisans). And a Damascus protest against the violence and for co-existence was attacked by goons. Amid all this, Israel is militarily intervening, the government looks to Turkey for military aid, and both the US and Russia still have forces on the ground—treating the country as a Greet Power chessboard. In Episode 288 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg warns that the Syrian Revolution is poised on a razor’s edge, ready to descend into ethno-sectarian war and authoritarianism unless political space can be kept open for the secular-democratic civil resistance that began the revolution 14 years ago. (Image: Banners read “Syrians must not shed Syrian blood” and “We reject Israeli aggression against Syria.” Credit: The Syria Campaign via Facebook)

Palestine

EU in ‘cruel and unlawful betrayal’ of Gaza

At a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, the bloc opted not to take punitive action against Israel over widespread evidence of war crimes and atrocities committed in Gaza. For weeks, the EU had been discussing a range of potential actions, including: suspending its free trade agreement with Israel, an arms embargo, banning the import of products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and ending visa-free travel for Israeli citizens. Instead of taking any of these measures—which advocates argue are necessary to avoid complicity in serious violations of international law—EU ministers pointed to an aid deal for Gaza struck days earlier as justification for inaction. The details of that deal remain vague, and it has so far shown little on-the-ground impact. Amnesty International assailed the apparent quid pro quo as a “cruel and unlawful betrayal” of the Gazans. (Photo: Mohammed Zaanoun/TNH)

Iran

UN urges restraint as Israel strikes Iran nuclear sites

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged both Iran and Israel to exercise “maximum restraint” amid a sudden escalation between the two states following Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear installations. Condemning the Israeli strikes, the statement from the secretary-general’s office expressed concerns about a wider conflagration throughout the Middle East, warning that “a descent into deeper conflict” would be “a situation that the region can hardly afford.” (Map: PCL)

Europe

UN inquiry sees Russian ‘crimes against humanity’ in Ukraine —again

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine published a report declaring Russian drone attacks on civilians in Kherson oblast to be war crimes and crimes against humanity. The commission found that roughly 150 Ukrainian civilians have been killed over the past year as a result of the systematic Russian drone attacks. In addition to direct casualties from the attacks, the report cites cases of civilian deaths due to the inability of ambulances to reach victims following drone strikes. Video evidence supports the claim that Russian forces have targeted ambulances—both while assisting injured civilians, and while parked outside hospitals. (Map: PCL)

Southeast Asia

Burma: dictator thanks Russia for military support

Following his visit to Moscow for the Victory Day celebrations earlier this month, Burmese junta leader Min Aung Hlaing thanked Russia for the fighter jets and helicopters it has provided his military government. The junta, which came to power in the February 2021 coup, is currently facing an insurgency by a number of armed ethnic and opposition groups across Burma. Rights groups accuse the Tatmadaw, as the Burmese military is known, of routinely targeting civilian populations and infrastructure in its aerial attacks. While in Moscow, Min Aung Hlaing also met for the first time with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, another key patron of his regime. (Photo: Russia MoD via The Irrawaddy)

Greater Middle East

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and the Gulf State tyrannies

Amid the hype about how Trump “snubbed” Netanyahu on his Middle East trip come reports that his White House is pushing a plan to relocate some 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya—which is in the midst of a massive human rights crisis. Even while on the ground in Qatar, Trump plugged his relocation scheme for the Gazans, who now face complete ethnic cleansing from the devastated Strip. In Episode 279 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg debunks the notion of a Trump tilt away from Israel, and asks why some “progressives” are joining with paleocons to view massive arms deals with the repressive and arch-reactionary monarchies of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar as a good thing. (Map: PCL)

Palestine

Israeli cabinet approves ‘conquest’ of Gaza

The Israeli government unveiled a new military plan for the Gaza Strip, an operation forebodingly dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots” after an Old Testament conqueror. Approved unanimously by the security cabinet, the plan calls for the “conquering of Gaza” and retaining the territory indefinitely, an official said. The plan also includes concentrating the Palestinian civilian population in a “sterile area” in the south of the Strip. The official said Israel will give Hamas until the end of US President Donald Trump’s upcoming trip to the Middle East to agree to a hostage deal. Otherwise, “Operation Gideon’s Chariots will begin with great force and will not end until all its objectives are achieved.” The military is already calling up tens of thousands of reservists in preparation for the new operation. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa

Turkey in oil-for-security deal with Somalia

Turkey has sent 500 troops to the Somali capital Mogadishu, the first phase of a planned 2,500-strong deployment to bolster the government against recent advances by the insurgent group al-Shabaab. Turkey already has 300 soldiers in Mogadishu, primarily to train the elite Gorgor brigade. Meanwhile, Turkey has also struck a controversial oil and gas exploration deal with the government in which it will receive 90% of all future revenues as a cost-recovery mechanism. Somalia will earn just 5% in royalties. (Photo: United Nations via Globely News)

Africa

Trump prepares arms-for-minerals deal with DRC

Former Blackwater CEO and and mercenary boss Erik Prince is to lead a team helping the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) secure and tax its extensive mineral wealth, news reports reveal. The deal, reached before the M23 rebels launched a major offensive in January, was just confirmed to Reuters by Congolese officials and diplomats. M23 has since January seized the eastern DRC’s two largest cities, Goma and Bukavu, and is threatening to march on Kinshasa, the capital. The Prince-led initiative runs parallel to a broader minerals-for-security deal being negotiated between the DRC and the Trump White House. (Photo: Abel Kavanagh/MONUSCO via Wikimedia Commons)