CounterVortex weekly headlines
Regional powers vie in Somalia
Tensions are rising in the Horn of Africa over the deployment of Egyptian troops to Somalia. Ethiopia, Somalia's neighbor, isn’t happy. It has soldiers in Somalia policing against al-Shabab insurgents, but now Mogadishu has asked them to withdraw. Regional strategic interests are in play. Ethiopia and Egypt are locked in a long-standing dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Egypt regards as an existential threat. Meanwhile, landlocked Ethiopia has enraged Somalia over its determination to find a port to lease. It has turned to the breakaway region of Somaliland, dangling the prospect of recognizing its independence—an absolute red line for Mogadishu. The new defense agreement between Egypt and Somalia underlines how serious the tensions are. Egypt is to send 5,000 troops to Somalia to join an African Union force, with a separate 5,000 stationed on the Ethiopian border.
https://countervortex.org/blog/regional-powers-vie-in-somalia/
Calls mount for Sudan intervention force
A UN fact-finding mission for Sudan called for an independent and impartial force to be deployed "without delay" to protect civilians. Its case is bolstered by new reports grave human rights violations in the country. In southeastern Sennar state, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are accused of killing 40 people in artillery strikes on markets and residential areas, while in Darfur's famine-stricken Zam Zam displacement site, the RSF reportedly tightened a siege and arrested traders trying to supply the camp. The war that began in April 2023 has produced the world's largest displacement and hunger crises. Recent mediation efforts have failed, with the army refusing to turn up and the RSF using its attendance to try to launder its terrible image.
https://countervortex.org/blog/calls-mount-for-sudan-intervention-force/
ISIS franchise claims Nigeria massacre
At least 81 people were killed in an attack by militants on the village of Mafa, in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe state. A statement listing grievances against the village was left at the scene in the name of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram splinter group. The attack appears to have been in revenge for villagers alerting the military to the insurgents' presence in the area—which lies on a smuggling route to ISWAP bases in the Lake Chad region.
https://countervortex.org/blog/isis-franchise-claims-nigeria-massacre/
Nigeria: drop treason charges against protestors
Human Rights Watch released a statement condemning the treason charges leveled against protestors in Nigeria last month. A total of 124 people were arrested during the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria campaign in August, and 10 of those individuals have been charged with treason. The crime of treason can be punishable by death in the West African country. The protest campaign, initially planned to last 10 days, was cut short by violent repression that left at least 20 dead. Activists are now planning a new campaign under the hashtag #FearlessInOctober.
https://countervortex.org/blog/nigeria-drop-treason-charges-against-protestors/
Demand Saudi Arabia release detained cyber-dissidents
A group of 40 rights organizations issued a joint statement calling on authorities in Saudi Arabia to release all those unfairly jailed for their online activities before Riyadh hosts the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in December. The organizations stated that the detentions contradict the IGF’s stated values of advancing human rights and inclusion in the digital age. They charge that Saudi authorities are subjecting citizens to unprecedented repression, including decades-long prison sentences for expressing critical views online.
https://countervortex.org/blog/demand-saudi-arabia-release-detained-cyber-dissidents/
Is Elon Musk unstoppable?
If elected president in November, Donald Trump says he will create a government efficiency commission led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Musk suggested the idea to Trump in a conversation on X, which he bought in 2022 when it was called Twitter. The announcement is the latest display of Musk's growing influence in politics. The self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist" is accused of censoring progressive opinions while amplifying the voices of far-right networks. So far, no one seems able to check his growing power, as his recent legal battles with Australia and Brazil have demonstrated. Both countries tried to curtail content deemed harmful, but Musk ignored their requests. After Musk disregarded a judicial order to suspend dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation in Brazil, the country's Supreme Court ruled to ban it nationwide. Journalists, who have relied heavily on it, have expressed a mixture of relief and regret at the ban.
https://countervortex.org/blog/is-elon-musk-unstoppable/
Audio:
Russian fascism: enemy of Black liberation
Four Black nationalists affiliated with the Uhuru Movement, an arm of the African People's Socialist Party (APSP), are on trial for acting as agents of a Russian propaganda network, in what they are calling "the free speech trial of the century." Regardless of whether their activities were protected by the First Amendment, the case reveals the very strangest of political bedfellows. Tucker Carlson, who similarly serves as a conduit for Russian propaganda, is also mentioned (although not charged) in a new federal indictment. Carlson is scheduled to appear onstage with JD Vance later this month, and recently hosted an uncloseted Nazi-nostalgist on his Twitter program. The absurd irony of the APSP platforming Kremlin demonization of Ukraine as a "Nazi" state is heightened by Russia's serial massacres of Black Africans in its new military adventures on the continent. The Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, which seemingly cultivated Uhuru/APSP, is similarly cultivating white supremacists, who are overtly Trump-aligned and marched at the Charlottesville hate-fest in 2017. The ultimate stateside beneficiary of this Kremlin-orchestrated propaganda effort is of course Donald Trump—who as president in 2020 sought to unleash the military against that year's Black Lives Matter uprising. Yet while too many "radicals" take the Kremlin bait, once-reviled "liberals" like the National Urban League actually take a more progressive position on Russia and Ukraine. In Episode 243 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg explores how the American radical left went through the proverbial looking glass, including with analogies from the (last) Cold War. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.
https://countervortex.org/blog/russian-fascism-enemy-of-black-liberation/
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