Saudi activists and dissidents are disputing official accounts alleging that a northern tribesman who refused government orders to surrender his home to make way for a new mega-project was killed in a shoot-out with security forces. Authorities say Abdul Rahim Ahmad al-Hwaiti, from… Read moreTribesman killed for resisting Saudi robot city?
According to widespread reports in the Nigerian media, aggrieved workers at a Chinese company in the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone (OGFTZ), located in Ado-Odo/Ota district of Ogun state, staged a brief uprising at the complex after they were locked within the premises, ostensibly under… Read moreWorker uprising at Chinese FTZ in Nigeria
It’s certainly an irony that with police-state measures mounting worldwide to enforce lockdowns and contain COVID-19, Trump is now claiming sweeping executive power to lift lockdowns in the US in spite of the pandemic. Asserting his prerogative to override state governors and… Read moreGlobal COVID-19 police state consolidates
Amnesty International condemned China for banning family members from visiting the resting places of people who perished in the 1989 Tiananmen Square repression. This is the first time in 37 years that the Chinese authorities have banned the visit. According to the Tiananmen Mothers group, the authorities notified family members of people who lost their lives in the 1989 massacre that they cannot travel to Beijing's Wan'an Cemetery or conduct any commemoration in the cemetery. (Photo: Hong Kong Alliance via Amnesty International)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that authorities in the Philippines continue to conduct extrajudicial killings, with no accountability, as part of the government's anti-drug campaign. Ten years after then-President Rodrigo Duterte launched his brutal "war on drugs," serious human rights violations remain ongoing. According to HRW, the number of killings in the anti-drug campaign has reached 1,273 since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. became president in 2022. The report noted a decline in the number of extrajudicial killings compared to rates under Duterte's presidency, but found that illegal arrests have significantly increased. In 2025, Duterte was arrested under an International Criminal Court warrant for crimes against humanity related to his "war on drugs." The trial is scheduled for November. (Image: Grunge Love via Flickr)
A grand jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York indicted 10 current and former Mexican officials for importing large amounts of drugs into the United States, along with related offenses. The officials include the current governor of Sinaloa state, Rubén Rocha Moya, as well as a Sinaloa deputy attorney general, a former Sinaloa secretary of public security, a former deputy director of the Sinaloa State Police, and a federal senator. The indictment accuses the officials of ties to one faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, "Los Chapitos," run by the sons of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who is serving a life prison term in the US. In a seeming reference to the fact that Rocha Moya and others of those indicted are from Mexico's ruling MORENA party, President Claudia Sheinbaum said: "[I]t it is evident that the objective of these charges by the Department of Justice is political… We will not allow any foreign government to…decide the future of the Mexican people." (Map: Google)
International law scholars are warning that Trump may have committed war crimes in Iran, and that his ongoing threats to bomb civilian targets may constitute self-incrimination—by the same standards that US prosecutors used to gather evidence against Russia in Ukraine (before Trump suspended cooperation). Additionally, his exterminationist rhetoric may represent a step on the ladder of escalation toward genocide. In Episode 324 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg continues to make the case—political, legal and practical—for sending Trump to a prison cell at The Hague. (Photo: Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons)
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he would accept a proposal from the country's largest remaining rebel group to allow an independent commission to investigate its alleged links to drug trafficking. Antonio García, leader of the National Liberation Army (ELN), released a video stating that although the group collects taxes from cocaine producers in its territory, it does not itself operate drug trafficking networks or cocaine production facilities. (Photo: Colombia Reports)
President Donald Trump warned that he may invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops in Minnesota to quell protests over the massive deployment of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the Twin Cities. The Insurrection Ac, originally enacted in 1792, allows the president to "call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States" in order to suppress insurrection or rebellion. The Insurrection Act has not been significantly updated in over 150 years, and the last time a US president invoked the Act was in 1992, when President George HW Bush received a request from then-California Governor Pete Wilson to help address riots in Los Angeles. Trump has broached invoking the Act before, and has since met with reversals in the courts over his efforts to mobilize National Guard troops under the executive's constitutional "authority to suppress rebellion." (Photo: Chad Davis via Wikimedia Commons)
The Pentagon said US and allied forces carried out a wave of air-strikes against ISIS targets across Syria, although accounts were unclear as to which other countries were involved or what casualties resulted. The raids came as part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, launched in response to the deadly ISIS attack on US and Syrian forces in Palmyra last month. The past week also saw joint British and French strikes on supposed ISIS targets near Palmyra. And Jordan carried out strikes supposedly targeting drug traffickers in Syrian territory. Turkey's Defense Ministry meanwhile said it stands ready to help Syria's interim government in its ongoing "counter-terrorism" operation against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo. (Image: Pixabay)
Human Rights Watch condemned the five-year prison sentence handed down to Remi Rowhani, a Baha'i religious dignitary, following a a months-long trial by Qatari authorities. Rowhani was charged for promoting an ideology that casts doubt on the foundations of Islam, an accusation stemming from several social media posts by members of the Qatari Baha'i community. The court cited article 259 of the Penal Code—which states that whoever casts doubt on the tenets of Islam, or "calls upon, or favors or promotes another religion," faces a maximum of five years in prison. (Photo via ECDHR)
Indian-administered Kashmir was plunged back into internet darkness as India's central authorities enforced lockdowns and a news blackout following the death of Syed Ali Geelani, a prominent separatist leader. Geelani's body was immediately seized by authorities, and buried in a quiet funeral held under harsh restrictions. His son, Naseem Geelani, said the family had planned to bury him at the main martyrs' cemetery in Srinagar, as specified in his will, but was not allowed to do so. Police also charged family members under an anti-terrorism law for wrapping his body in the Pakistani flag and raising anti-India slogans. Kashmir spent months without internet following an August 2019 crackdown. High-speed mobile internet was only restored earlier this year. (Photo: Kashmir Global via Nationalia)
