In Episode 323 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg offers a comparison of the simultaneous elections in Hungary and Peru—in which questions of democratic norms versus authoritarian rule both stood in the balance. The defeat of long-ruling quasi-dictator Viktor Orbán is being hailed as a blow to the emerging authoritarian bloc in Europe. But the incoming center-right prime minister Péter Magyar may not mean a complete de-Orbánification. In Peru, the outcome is still pending, as the perennial candidate of the hard right, Keiko Fujimori, faces a run-off with a contender from the populist left, Roberto Sánchez. Keiko is the unapologetic daughter of the late ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori; her victory could mean a re-Fujimorification of the country, and a fatal blow to Peru's deeply troubled democracy. A Sánchez victory, meanwhile, would heighten the social contradictions in Peru—with both opportunities for a more meaningful democracy, and dangers of a backlash from the conservative establishment.

In a landslide victory in the April 12 elections, Hungarian opposition candidate Péter Magyar defeated long-entrenched incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a global icon for the ascendant authoritarian right. In his 16 years in power, Orbán had become a quasi-dictator. He turned the state media into a mouthpiece for his Hungarian Civic Alliance (Fidesz), redrew electoral districts to favor Fidesz, and stacked the judiciary with loyalists—leading the EuroParliament in an official report in 2022 to declare that his government was no longer a democracy but a "hybrid regime of electoral autocracy." He was defeated despite visits to Hungary to campaign for him by such prominent figures from the international far right as Italy's Matteo Salvini, Marine Le Pen of France, and US Vice President JD Vance. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the electoral result as a "victory for fundamental freedoms."

Mexico's Zapatista rebels—who have observed a long ceasefire but still have a zone of control in the back-country of Chiapas state—just concluded an international gathering in the highland city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Convened on the premesis of the Indigenous Center for Integral Training (Centro Indígena de Capacitación Integral—CIDECI), the gathering was entitled "Seedbed: The Storm Inside and Outside According to the Zapatista Communities & Peoples" (Semillero: La Tormenta dentro y fuera según las comunidades y pueblos zapatistas).

The exterminationist rhetoric that has accompanied Trump's massive bombardment of civilian infrastructure in Iran has been condemned by Amnesty International as possible incitement to genocide—a crime under international law. Can Trump join Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin as the next world leader to face charges before the International Criminal Court? Yes, if Iran follows Palestine and Ukraine in granting jurisdiction to the ICC for crimes committed on its territory. This is legally valid, despite intransigence from the United States, Israel and Russia alike. The next three convictions by the ICC could be the first of figures from outside the African continent—undermining accusations of a double standard that have hindered the Court's effectiveness. In Episode 322 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg makes the case—politically and practically—for sending Trump to a prison cell at The Hague.

Protests break out in Russia over the new internet restrictions imposed by the Putin regime, while social media and instant messaging have become the "new public square" for the Gen Z protests that have swept the planet over the past months. Exemplifying the identification with online culture, a pirate flag from a Japanese anime series has become the global emblem of the Gen Z resistance. The new youth social media bans in a growing number of countries are opposed by human rights and civil-liberties groups for good reason. Yet the dystopian side of digital technology becomes more apparent each day—from the climate impacts of data centers, to cynical attempts to sell nuclear power as "clean energy" (sic!) to meet the surging electricity demand, to the digital colonization of human consciousness. Protests are also emerging to the new techno-fascism, and this critique must be central to any true oppositional movement. In Episode 321 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg grapples with the contradiction.

Eclipsed from the headlines by the war in the Middle East, Russia launches a new offensive in Ukraine with an unprecedented wave of drone and missile strikes across the country—even hitting an historic monastery in Lviv. Meanwhile, two young Russian poets, Artyom Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba, remain imprisoned on "state subversion" charges related to public readings of anti-war poetry. They join other imprisoned poetic anti-war activists, such as Daria Kozyreva, and numerous artists and activists imprisoned for opposing the new dictatorship of Vladimir Putin. The recently passed Russian rocker Nikolay Komyagin, frontman for the post-punk band Shortparis, was also an icon of artistic resistance. Long known for their defiant sound, after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine they released the music video "Apple Orchard," on an anti-war theme—resulting in them being blacklisted from major venues in Russia. In Episode 320 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg places these courageous voices in the context of a dissident tradition in Russia under the dictatorships of the czars, the Soviets, and now Putin—from Leo Tolstoy to Shortparis.

In Episode 319 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg resumes his rant against the hegemony of digital and cellular technology—and takes heart from the local New York chapter of the Luddite Club: smart, free-thinking youth who are eschewing cellphones and social media in favor of "real life." Despite the cynical predictions of some, the chapter is true to its values and refreshingly doesn't even have a website—although a documentary film about them is in the works. In other glimmers of hope, the New York City nurses' strike that just ended in victory had as one of the key demands safeguards against workers being replaced by artificial intelligence. And the recent India AI Impact Summit in Delhi was disrupted by a protest action.

As Trump and Netanyahu rain death down on Iran, the ayatollah regime paints any would-be protesters as pawns of the "enemy" and promises deadly repression. This positions the civil opposition poorly for any resumption of the uprising that the regime drowned in blood mere weeks ago—and points to the paradoxical reality that Trump and the regime are de facto (at least) collaborators against the Iranian people. In Episode 318 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg repudiates both those who would rally around the reactionary and criminal regime in the name of opposing the US-Israeli aggression and those who would rally around Trump's reckless and criminal war in the interest of opposing the regime. Instead, he offers statements from Iran's anarchist and dissident-left opposition that continue to advance an uncompromising neither/nor position.