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.

Amnesty International on March 17 called for those responsible for a US strike on an Iranian school to be held accountable.

The Feb. 28 strike on the girls' school in Minab, in southern Iran, killed over 100 children. Amnesty's Evidence Lab conducted an investigation into the strike, analyzing over 30 satellite images and reviewing official statements, independent media reports, and witnesses accounts.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on March 16 raised concerns that El Salvador's government is arbitrarily detaining and forcibly "disappearing" Salvadorans deported from the US.

The UN Human Rights Office stated March 17 that Israeli strikes on homes and civilian infrastructure in Lebanon may constitute war crimes. The statement came as Israel intensifies its military campaign on the territory of its northern neighbor amid the broader conflict spreading across the Middle East.

Hungary, Namibia, Fiji and the United States on March 12 each filed declarations of intervention to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case against Israel in relation to the situation in the Gaza Strip.

At least 65 soldiers—including three senior officers—have been killed in jihadist raids on military garrisons in Nigeria's northeast this month. Five bases were overrun by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)—four of them in a single night March 5-6, showing a notable level of coordination. Military equipment was also torched or captured, including armored vehicles. ISWAP's "Burn the Camps" offensive began last year, and is accelerating against an overstretched military. (TNH)

Prominent Iraqi women's rights defender Yanar Mohammed was killed outside her Baghdad residence on March 2 by two unidentified men. No group has claimed responsibility for the assassination.

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.