CounterVortex weekly headlines
Russia-DPRK defense pact: Cold War redux
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defense assistance pact during Putin's first visit to Pyongyang since 2000. According to a statement from the Russian government, the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership stipulates "mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties thereto." Article 4 of the pact states: "If either side faces an armed invasion and is in a state of war, the other side will immediately use all available means to provide military and other assistance." While full details were not made public, this appears to revive provisions of the 1961 treaty between the Soviet Union and North Korea that stipulated automatic military intervention if either nation came under attack.
https://countervortex.org/blog/russia-dprk-defense-pact-cold-war-redux/
China: death penalty for advocating 'Taiwan independence'
China instated the death penalty for "particularly serious" cases involving supporters of Taiwanese independence. New judicial guidelines, entitled "Opinions on Punishing the Crimes of Splitting the Country & Inciting Splitting the Country by 'Taiwan Independence' Diehards," were jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Justice. The new standards stipulate severe punishments for those identified as leaders or significant participants in secessionist activities, and classify actions causing "significant harm to the state and its people" as offenses that may result in the death penalty.
https://countervortex.org/blog/china-death-penalty-for-advocating-taiwan-independence/
Russia suppressing Ukrainian language in occupied areas: report
A Human Rights Watch report finds that Russian authorities have violated human rights obligations by suppressing the Ukrainian language and injecting propaganda into educational curricula in occupied Ukrainian territories. Changes to school curricula include an array of disinformation aimed at justifying Russia’s invasion and portraying Ukraine as a "neo-Nazi state." Russian authorities have also introduced military training in schools, mirroring the resurgence of youth military training in Russia, and require secondary schools to send lists of all students aged 18 and up for conscription into the Russian military. International law prohibits forced enlistment of an occupied population into the occupier's military.
https://countervortex.org/blog/russia-suppressing-ukrainian-language-in-occupied-areas-report/
Israel high court responds to prison abuse revelations
Israel’s Supreme Court issued an order demanding the Benjamin Netanyahu government provide an update on conditions in the Sde Teiman detention facility, where the government has been holding Palestinian detainees from the war in Gaza. The order came in response to a challenge from a constellation of human rights organizations, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, seeking to shut down down the prison over allegations of harsh abuses there. Sde Teiman, in the Negev desert, was the focus of a CNN investigation into the treatment of Palestinians detained during Israel's war with Hamas. Whistleblowers from the detention center spoke to CNN, describing scenes of torture and severe dehumanizing conditions.
https://countervortex.org/blog/israel-high-court-responds-to-prison-abuse-revelations/
Kenya backtracks on tax bill after deadly protests
Kenyan President William Ruto backtracked on a contentious tax-hiking finance bill, after street protests left at least 13 people dead and 150 injured as police opened fire with live ammunition. The youth-led protests were triggered by a range of proposed new taxes that critics say will increase the financial burden on families already struggling with rising prices. Before capitulating to protester demands, the government declared a "security emergency" and deployed the military to support the police—a move that technically requires parliamentary approval. Ruto claimed the protests had been infiltrated by organized criminals whose actions were "treasonous."
https://countervortex.org/blog/kenya-backtracks-on-tax-bill-after-deadly-protests/
Bolivia: coup attempt collapses, top general arrested
In an apparent coup attempt against Bolivia's President Luis Arce, military vehicles surrounded the presidential palace in La Paz—with one ramming open the building's front doors. Arce took to Twitter to denounce the "irregular mobilization of some units of the Bolivian Army," and called for democracy to be respected. As La Paz residents converged on Plaza Murillo to confront the troops outside the palace, Arce officially dismissed armed forces commander Gen. Juan José Zúñiga, replacing him with Gen. José Sánchez—who promptly issued orders for all troops to return to barracks. This caused the occupying troops to retreat from the plaza. Shortly thereafter, Zúñiga was arrested. Upon being taken into custody, Zúñiga told reporters that the apparent coup attempt had been requested by Arce himself to "rehabilitate his popularity." This theory has been aggressively taken up by Bolivia's opposition, but crowds continue to show up in Plaza Murillo in huge numbers to support Arce's government.
https://countervortex.org/blog/bolivia-coup-attempt-collapses-top-general-arrested/
Audio:
From Baghdad to Bialystok —to Pico-Robertson
In Episode 232 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the politics of the ugly dust-up between pro-Palestinian protesters and local Jewish residents in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pico-Robertson—and notes the anniversary of June 1941 anti-Jewish pogroms in Bialystok, Poland, and Baghdad, Iraq. Propagandistic and distorted portrayals of the LA protest as mere arbitrary anti-Semitism ignore the fact that the targeted synagogue was hosting a real estate event promoting sale of lands to create "Anglo neighborhoods" in Israel, and probably in the occupied West Bank (which would be a clear violation of international law). On the other hand, insensitivity to (or ignorance of) the historical context that makes an angry protest outside a synagogue an inevitably problematic "optic" only abets the propaganda. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.
https://countervortex.org/blog/podcast-from-baghdad-to-bialystok-to-pico-robertson/
Feature:
REVOLUTION 9
In a brief memoir written for Canada’s Skunk magazine, CounterVortex editor Bill Weinberg recalls his days as a young neo-Yippie in the 1980s. A remnant faction of the 1960s counterculture group adopted a punk aesthetic for the Reagan era, launched the US branch of the Rock Against Racism movement, brought chaos to the streets at Republican and Democratic political conventions, defied the police in open cannabis “smoke-ins” —and won a landmark Supreme Court ruling for free speech. The Yippie clubhouse at 9 Bleecker Street, the hub for all these activities, has long since succumbed to the gentrification of the East Village, but it survived long enough to provide inspiration to a new generation of radical youth during Occupy Wall Street.
https://countervortex.org/revolution-9/
From Global Ganja Report:
Brazil Supreme Court decriminalizes cannabis possession
The Supreme Court of Brazil ruled to decriminalize possession of cannabis for personal use. The judges are yet to rule on the maximum quantity that may be considered for "personal use," and are yet to determine when the decision will take effect. The judges also ordered an allocation of funds from the National Anti-Drug Fund to youth educational campaigns on the harms of drug use.
https://globalganjareport.com/node/1958
CWCBExpo brings together business, government, academia and activists
In the ultimate imprimatur of mainstream acceptance, the 10th annual Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo was held in Manhattan’s Javits Convention Center, the Big Apple’s premier venue for trade shows and industry confabs. And the event had the open participation of New York city and state government agencies, as well as capitalist enterprises from around the country and the planet.
https://globalganjareport.com/node/1955
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