Germany

Europe

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and the future of Europe

The revised deal for US access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth (with no security guarantees for Kyiv) collapsed in the unseemly Oval Office donnybrook, and European leaders now convene their own summit—faced with the prospect of supporting Ukraine without the US. But Hungary and Slovakia represent an authoritarian bloc that supports Ukraine’s betrayal—and Romania could be next to defect to this Russia-aligned bloc. In Europe and America alike, elements of the “tankie” pseudo-left no longer even bother to hide their convergence with MAGA. In Episode 267 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg calls for a clean break at both the international and grassroots levels. Europe must realize that the Atlantic alliance is effectively dead, and there are no prospects of reviving it while Trump is in the White House; whether or not the rumors are true that he was recruited as a KGB agent in the ’80s, he is now on Putin’s side. And progressives must repudiate pseudo-left misleaders who shill for Trump and and spread lies for Putin, and seek a new leadership that mobilizes to oppose them. (Image: Chris Rywalt/CounterVortex, after “Rendezvous” by British cartoonist David Low, 1939)

Europe

Trump prepares grab for Ukraine’s lithium

As Trump and Hegseth explicitly broach the surrender of Ukrainian territory to Russia, a poorly positioned Zelensky is acceding to demands that he turn a large portion of his country’s strategic mineral wealth over to the US in compensation for military aid. Especially at issue are Ukraine’s significant reserves of lithium—critical to de facto “co-president” Elon Musk’s e-vehicle interests. In announcing a new lithium refinery in Texas, Musk called the mineral “the new oil.” The premium on Ukraine’s strategic minerals is elevated by China’s perceived design to establish control over the planet’s rare earth elements. However, as Zelensky is quick to emphasize, nearly 20% of Ukraine’s mineral resources are in areas under Russian occupation. (Map: ResearchGate)

North America

Podcast: Is it fascism yet?

In Episode 263 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg deconstructs the moves by the unconstitutional Trump regime to consolidate a dictatorship over the United States—attempting to seize autocratic control over the bureaucracy, and (in a case of fascist pseudo-anti-fascism) weaponizing concern with anti-Semitism to suppress free speech while institutionalizing indifference to (and consciously enflaming) all other forms of racism. And this as Elon Musk (a private-sector oligarch given extra-legal power over government functions) tells a rally of the Nazi-adjacent Alternative für Deutschland that Germany has “too much of a focus on past guilt.” It took Hitler mere weeks to establish a dictatorship after coming to power, whereas with Mussolini it took some three years. We shall soon find out how long it will take in the United States—unless the country can find the wherewithal to resist. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo via CEPR)

Iraq

Recognition grows for Yazidi genocide

The Swiss parliament officially recognized the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) against Iraq’s Yazidi community as constituting genocide. The motion condemns the systematic expulsion, rape and murder of Yazidis, and the destruction of their cultural sites. The majority of the Swiss National Council voted in favor of the bill, with 105 lawmakers supporting recognition of the genocide and 61 opposing it. The parliament’s statement emphasized the need for reparations and justice for survivors. Switzerland joins several other countries and bodies, including the European Parliament and a UN Commission of Inquiry, in recognizing the ISIS crimes against Yazidis as genocide. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Planet Watch

ICJ hearings on state climate obligations

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, commenced hearings at The Hague on the obligations of states concerning climate change. The request for an advisory opinion from the ICJ was submitted in March 2023, following the unanimous adoption of Resolution 77/276 by the UN General Assembly. The resolution sought the court’s guidance on the obligations of sates to “ensure the protection of the climate system…for present and future generations,” and the legal implications of “acts and omissions [that] have caused significant harm to the climate system.” The call for the resolution began as a grassroots initiative in Vanuatu, and was taken up by Micronesia, Bangladesh and other states at most imminent threat from sea-level rise. (Photo: ICJ)

Europe

Anarchist bloc at Russian exiles’ anti-Putin rally

Thousands of exiled Russian dissidents and opposition figures held a multi-city mobilization against Putin’s regime in several European capitals. The largest march was in Berlin, where speakers included Yulia Navalnaya, widow of martyred leader Alexei Navalny. Participants carried the blue-and-white flag of the Russian opposition, as well as Ukrainian flags, while chanting “No to war” and “Putin is a killer” in Russian. Exiled Russian anarchists organized their own bloc at the demonstration, under slogans including “Death to the Empire,” “No peace under Russian occupation,” “Support resistance against Kremlin,” and “Arms for Ukrainians.” Rejecting recent talk of a compromise settlement in Ukraine, their statement said: “We find it unacceptable to make concessions to the Russian fascist regime.” The statement also made clear their differences with the leadership of the march: “We reject the liberal myth of a ‘Beautiful Russia of the Future’… The empire must be destroyed to its foundations, and only then will a different world be possible on the former ‘Russian’ territories. (Photo: Avtonom)

Planet Watch

Global carbon emissions hit record high in 2024

Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have hit a record high in 2024, with still no sign that they’ve peaked, according to a “carbon budget” assessment by the UK-based Global Carbon Project. Researchers found that burning of oil, gas and coal emitted 41.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2024, a 0.8% increase over 2023. When added to emissions generated by land-use changes such as deforestation, a total of 45.8 billion tons of CO2 was emitted in 2024. At this rate, the researchers see a 50% chance that global warming will exceed the 1.5 Celsius warming target set by the Paris Agreement within six years. The findings come as the UN climate talks open in Azerbaijan, where the parties are ostensibly negotiating ways to meet the Paris targets. But the leaders of the biggest carbon emitters—those nations responsible for 70% of 2023 emissions—did not bother to attend the gathering. (Photo of Azerbaijan oilfields: Indigoprime via Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

Condemn Poland plan to suspend asylum rights

Over 40 human rights groups have warned Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk against implementing his plan to temporarily suspend the right to claim asylum. Among the groups are Amnesty International, several asylum law organizations, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. In an open letter, the organizations stressed that the fundamental right to asylum is binding on Poland under international law, as the country has ratified the Geneva Convention, and under EU law as provided by Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Tusk justified his move as necessary in light of Belarus’ mass transfers of migrants across the border, which he called an act of “hybrid warfare” to threaten Polish national security. (Photo: Visegrad24)

Planet Watch

Storms and floods kill hundreds around the globe

Typhoons, storms and flooding have killed hundreds and left millions homeless across four continents in recent days. More than 600 people—mostly in Vietnam and Burma—died whenSuper Typhoon Yagi, one of the strongest typhoons to hit Southeast Asia in decades, tore through the region, triggering landslides. In China, Typhoon Bebinca battered the commercial capital, Shanghai, forcing more than 400,000 people to evacuate. In Europe, at least 23 people died when Storm Boris dumped five times September’s average rainfall in a single week. In the United States, parts of North and South Carolina recorded 45 centimeters of rain in 12 hours—a statistic so rare it’s considered a once-in-a-thousand-year event. Inevitably, the wild weather has been devastating for more vulnerable countries. In conflict-affected northeastern Nigeria, half of the city of Maiduguri is under water after a local dam overflowed following torrential rains; recently emptied displacement camps are being used to shelter the homeless. In neighboring Chad, meanwhile, flooding has killed more than 340 people in the country’s south. (Photo: CounterVortex)

East Asia

Gaza at issue in Nagasaki commemoration

The US ambassador to Japan did not attend this year’s official commemoration of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in protest of the city’s failure to invite Israel. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel said the event had been “politicized” by Nagasaki’s decision to exclude the Jewish state. Five other G7 countries and the EU likewise boycotted the ceremony. The municipal government in Hiroshima refused to pay heed to public calls to exclude Israel over the Gaza bombardment, and invited Israeli officials to its event as usual. Russia and Belarus were exuded from both commemorations for a third consecutive year. (Photo: Pop Japan)

Europe

‘Criminalization’ of climate protests in Europe

European governments have reacted to a growing wave of direct-action protests by climate activists with heavy-handed policing, effectively criminalizing such campaigns, seeking to dissolve groups, and imposing restrictions on basic rights, Human Rights Watch charges. “This creates serious risks to environmental activism and civil society as a whole and undercuts vital efforts to address the climate crisis,” the organization found. The press release was issued the same day a record-breaking sentence was handed down in the United Kingdom, with five Just Stop Oil activists given multi-year prison terms in a case concerning a protest action that disrupted the M25 motorway in London. (Photo: Stefan Müller via Wikipedia)

Europe

Russian playwright gets prison for ‘justifying terrorism’

A Russian military court convicted playwright Svetlana Petriychuk and theater director Yevgeniya Berkovich and sentenced them each to six years in prison over a play that was found to “justify terrorism.” The basis for the prosecution was the play Finist the Brave Falcon, its plot drawing inspiration from the plight of Russian women who went to Syria to marry Islamist fighters and were convicted upon return to their home country. Berkovich and Petrychuk repeatedly stated that their play was intended to warn against terrorism and not to justify it. In the eyes of the defense and human rights organizations, the real reason for the prosecution was retribution against the pair for their outspoken opposition to the war in Ukraine. (Photo: StageRussia)