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. The researchers found that burning of oil, gas and coal emitted 41.2 billion tons (37.4 billion metric 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 (41.6 billion metric tons) of CO2 was emitted in 2024. At this rate, the researchers estimate there's a 50% chance that global warming will exceed the 1.5 Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming target set by the Paris Agreement within six years. The findings were published Nov. 13 in the journal Earth Systems Science Data. (LiveScience, DW)

Donald Trump has for the first time won the popular vote, and now around an openly fascist program, starting with plans for mass detention of millions of undocumented immigrants. While there are signs of an emergent resistance, there are also undeniable signs of a left-MAGA convergence around a mutual embrace of authoritarian populism, exploiting disaffection from Biden-Harris' criminal support for Israel's genocide in Gaza. In Episode 251 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg stakes stock of this grim juncture for the United States and the world. We also revive our call from 2016 for electoral nullification—the electors refusing to seat Trump. The New York judge in Trump's "hush money" case must immediately impose the maximum sentence of four years in prison, bringing on the needed constitutional crisis, and the Electoral College must do what it was designed to do under the Constitution: bar a dangerous demagogue from the presidency.

With UN aid agencies and humanitarian organizations warning of an "apocalyptic" scenario in North Gaza, the Biden administration faces a lawsuit charging complicity with genocide. The "pause" that the White House has imposed on some arms shipments to Israel by no means absolves the administration of moral (or legal) culpability. However, it may have had the effect of restraining Benjamin Netanyahu's maximalist plans to cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians altogether. President Trump meanwhile recognized Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and launched the "Abraham Accords"—predicated on betrayal of the Palestinians by the Arab leadership. His 2019 executive order officially embraced the propagandistic conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and he now calls for complete repression (including by the military) of Palestine solidarity protests. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law who was his Middle East pointman, is now openly backing the cleansing of Gaza of all Palestinians, while his ultra-Zionist former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is an open advocate of Israeli annexation of the West Bank and destruction of al-Aqsa Mosque. As Trump accuses Biden of "holding back" Israel, it is clear that Netanyahu and his most hardline cabinet members like Itamar Ben-Gvir are openly rooting for him—as is the Israel Lobby in DC.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned Oct. 25 that "the darkest moment of the Gaza conflict is unfolding in the north of the Strip." Calling for urgent action by the international community, Türk stated: "Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day. The Israeli Government's...practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians. We are facing what could amount to...crimes against humanity." Türk asserted that under the Geneva Convention, member states have "an obligation to act when a serious violation of international humanitarian law has been committed."

Israel's long-awaited strikes on Iran have targeted military and industrial installations in Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam, with air-strikes also reported in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs.  It is now Iran's turn to retaliate in the escalatory tit-for-tat game, as the brink of regional and even world war looms ever closer. In Episode 249 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg advocates a neither/nor position that rejects the militaristic and reactionary regimes of both Zionism and political Islam, and looks to a secular order in the Middle East.

Italy's right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, issued a decree Oct. 21 aimed at bypassing judicial obstacles to a controversial deal with Albania to hold and process the claims of asylum-seekers intercepted at sea by Italian forces. The move comes three days after a special immigration court in Rome ruled that the first group of 12 migrants sent to the repurposed military camp at Gjader, Albania, must be returned to Italy. The court found that the migrants' countries of origin—Egypt and Bangladesh—are "unsafe," making their offshore detention illegal. Meloni's decree asserts the executive alone has the power to make such determinations, setting the stage for a showdown between her government and the judiciary. (Politico, DW, BBC News, EuroNews, Jurist, CBC)

Turkey on Oct. 23 said it launched air-strikes on supposed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in Syria's Rojava autonomous enclave and Iraq's Kurdistan region in retaliation for an attack on the headquarters of a defense contractor in Ankara. Five were killed and two attackers reported "neutralized" in the explosion and armed assault at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) facility in Ankara's Kahramankazan district. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish authorities quickly blamed the PKK. Strikes were reported on the Rojava towns of Qamishli, Derik, Kobane, Tal Rifaat, and Manbij. Rojava's autonomous authorities said that at least four civilians were killed, including a five-year-old child, and 15 people injured. (Rudaw)

Father Marcelo Pérez, an indigenous Tzotzil Maya priest with the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in Mexico's conflicted southern state of Chiapas, was assassinated immediately after celebrating Mass Oct. 20. He was returning to his car from the church at the barrio of Cuxtitali in the highland city of San Cristóbal when he was shot by gunmen on a motorcycle. Hundreds of mourners attended his funeral the following day in the village of his birth, San Andrés Larráinzar, chanting "Long live Father Marcelo, priest of the poor." He had received threats for his outspoken opposition to the criminal organizations and paramilitary groups fueling violence in Chiapas. The murder was condemned in a statement by the Mexican Bishops' Conference, which said the act "not only deprives the community of a dedicated pastor but also silences a prophetic voice that tirelessly fought for peace with truth and justice in the region of Chiapas."