Syria

Greater Middle East

As Russia bombs Idlib, Turkey threatens Rojava

Police in Yekaterinburg stormed an event hosted by Russian pro-democratic opposition party Yabloko (Apple), aimed at supporting political prisoners. Authorities detained 10 attendees, with charges against them now pending at the prosecutor's office. The raid targeted the first of a planned series of "evenings of letters," where attendees can carry out correspondence with imprisoned individuals. According to Yabloko, a total of 952 Russians are currently imprisoned because of their political beliefs or affiliations. (Photo: Yabloko)

Inner Asia

Uighurs as pawns in the Great Game

In Episode 158 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes that the Russian Socialist Movement has issued a call for solidarity actions with anti‑war activists in Russia on Jan. 19. This is the date when left activists Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova were gunned down by far-right militants in Moscow in 2009. Today, the Vladimir Putin regime is persecuting activists such as Alexandra Skochilenko—who faces a long prison term for producing public art on an anti-war theme. Instead of responding to this call for solidarity, the ANSWER Coalition and other exponents of the "tankie" pseudo-left have called a rally against aid to Ukraine, and implicitly in support of Putin and his war aims, for Jan. 14 in locations such as New York's Times Square—perversely, in the name of Martin Luther King. The Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign repudiates this pseudo-anti-war rally, urging: "No exploitation of Dr. MLK Jr. to support war criminal Putin!" Debunking the Russian propaganda that portrays Putin's aggression as a defensive move against NATO encroachment, Weinberg demonstrates that the principles propounded by Dr. King in his courageous dissent from LBJ's criminal war in Vietnam now mandate that we direct our protests at Vladimir Putin. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: MLK at anti-war march in Chicago, March 25, 1967, under banner with quote from Vietnamese pacifist Thich Nhat Hanh. Via Portland Observer)

Greater Middle East

Waterworks, civil defense centers bombed in Idlib

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: Rita Baroud/TNH)

Watching the Shadows

Podcast: Against the Left-Fascist Convergence

Tens of thousands of students protested in the Serbian city of Kragujevac, demanding justice for the victims of the November 2024 railway disaster. The protest and street occupation, which lasted 15 hours and marked the culmination of a four-day student march on the city, was symbolically named "Let's Meet on Sretenje." Kragujevac was the first capital of the modern Serbian state, where the Sretenje (Candlemas) Constitution was adopted on Feb. 15, 1835. The date, which also marks the first Serbian pro-independence uprising in 1804, is still commemorated in Serbia as Statehood Day. Protests have been mounting for months, with growing demands for the resignation of President Aleksandar Vučić—who portrays the campaign as a foreign-fomented "color revolution." (Photo of January Belgrade protest: Emilija Knezevic via Wikimedia Commons)

Iran

Federal judge allows travel ban lawsuit to proceed

US-directed repression and counter-insurgency in El Salvador in the 1980s allowed the imposition of "free trade" or "neoliberal" regimes in the generations since then—ultimately culminating in the adoption of CAFTA. This, in turn, has exacerbated the expropriation of the traditional lands of the peasantry by the agro-export oligarchy. It also led to the hypertrophy of the narco economy and a new nightmare of violence, which Nayib Bukele has exploited to establish a new dictatorship. This dictatorship is now openly in league with Donald Trump, and has in fact become critical to his fascist agenda. In Episode 275 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks down El Salvador's historical role as a laboratory of genocide and police-state methods for US imperialism, and the imperative of trans-national resistance. (Map: University of Texas)

Iran

Iran war fever: real or charade?

US conservation groups filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, asserting that the administration violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) by issuing an executive order reversing withdrawals of oil and gas leases. Trump signed the executive order immediately after his inauguration, overturning a decision by President Joe Biden to protect large areas of ocean from offshore drilling. During his first term as president, Trump tried to undo similar protections implemented by Obama. A federal court, however, invalidated his attempt, finding that the president does not have the power to undo a former president's OCSLA protections. (Photo: Berardo62 via Wikimedia Commons)

Watching the Shadows

Bill Weinberg to speak on left-fascist convergence

Syria

New spasm of Syria chemwar denialism: don’t buy it

Mexico has launched a massive deployment of 10,000 troops to cities and towns on the border with the United States. Videos and photos posted on social media by Mexico's Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) showed military and National Guard troops lined up boarding transport planes and rows of army trucks rolling out from bases in Mexico City, Tlaxcala and other cities. The response—dubbed "Operativo Frontera Norte"—is part of an agreement reached between US President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum postponing trade tariff threats for a month. (Photo: SEDENA via Peninsula360)

Greater Middle East

Russia blocks UN statement against Idlib bombing

President Trump has ordered the construction of a 30,000-bed facility to hold migrants at the notorious US naval facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as part of his mass deportation campaign. The US base has been used to house terrorism suspects since 2002, becoming synonymous with torture and unlawful imprisonment. The US has secretively detained refugees and migrants intercepted at sea at Guantánamo Bay for decades, but the facility has not previously been used for people apprehended on US soil or at this scale. (Photo: Spc. Cody Black/WikiMedia via Jurist)

Greater Middle East

Syria: Idlib displaced march on Turkish border

During his first days back in office, Donald Trump rapidly started implementing his hardline migration agenda, including by declaring a state of emergency at the US southern border. The move allows his administration to access billions of dollars to expand the building of a border wall and to deploy the military and national guard to the area. Around 1,500 active duty soldiers are already being deployed. Trump also reinstated the controversial "Remain in Mexico" program from his first administration. This policy, which requires people to wait for asylum appointments in Mexico, helped to create a now-perennial humanitarian crisis in northern Mexico. The Trump administration has also shut down CBP One—a cell phone app for scheduling asylum appointments—leaving thousands of people stranded in Mexico, and suspended the US refugee resettlement program, as well as cancelling travel plans for refugees who had already been approved to enter the country. Trump's promised mass deportation of millions of undocumented people has yet to get underway, but his administration has begun laying the groundwork for expanded immigration raids—potentially including on schools, churches, and hospitals—and has threatened to prosecute any local officials who don't comply. (Image: White House)

Syria

Amnesty International: ‘crimes against humanity’ in Idlib

The French government deployed the special anti-riot police, the Republican Security Companies (CRS), to Martinique in response to ongoing protests over the rising cost of living on the French-ruled Caribbean island. The deployment marks the first time CRS units have been sent to Martinique since they were banned from the territory in December 1959, following violent protests in departmental capital Fort-de-France that drew widespread criticism over heavy-handed police intervention. (Map: PCL)

Iran

Orwellian ironies of US Persian Gulf war moves

The daughters of civil rights leader Malcolm X filed a civil action against the United States government, the City of New York, and the estates of various former federal agents for their alleged role in concealing, condoning and facilitating his assassination in 1965. The suit accuses agents, officials and informants for the US Department of Justice, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Police Department of acting "individually, jointly, and in conspiracy, to proximately cause" the assassination of Malcolm X. The complaint further accuses the government and various agencies of purposely failing to intervene in the assassination and working to cover up their involvement. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)