A delegation from the Vatican—including cardinals and bishops—joined representatives of the Catholic Church in Peru to kneel before local campesinos and ask their forgiveness at a "Mass of Reparation" held May 23 at the parish of San Juan Bautista in Catacaos, Piura region. A Vatican investigation found that the Tallán indigenous communities of the parish for over a decade suffered land expropriation, physical threats and other abuses at the hands of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae. The lay society, better known as "Sodalicio," was among the most active Catholic movements in Latin America from the early 1970s until it was suppressed by order of Pope Francis in April 2025. (Vatican News, Vatican News, OSV News, NCR)

The Federal Court of Australia has admitted a UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment as an intervenor in a judicial review concerning a liquefied natural gas (LNG) operation site, according to a May 29 press release. The admission marks the first time a national court has allowed a UN environmental expert to advise on international environmental law.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on May 26 reported that Russian authorities are unlawfully seizing civilian property belonging to Ukrainians in occupied areas of the country, in violation of international law. The laws of war prohibit the unlawful confiscation of private property unless strictly justified by military necessity.

The Supreme Court of Canada on May 28 refused to hear an appeal by the six Wolastoqey communities of New Brunswick seeking to assert Aboriginal title over private lands.

The issue before the court was whether First Nations can assert Aboriginal title when private parties hold a fee simple interest in land. The top court's refusal to hear the appeal makes final a lower court's decision, holding that the Wolastoqey Nation cannot seek declarations of Aboriginal title over privately-owned lands but may seek damages against the government for unjustified infringement of Aboriginal title.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation May 29 that places limits on where and how Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can enforce immigration law in the state. The new legislation also prohibits state and local police from cooperating with ICE to enforce civil laws.

The head of the World Health Organization has appealed for a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province, where Ebola is rapidly spreading. Director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' statement said even a temporary truce would allow health workers through and save lives. "I urge you, I implore you: give us the space to help the people who need it most," he said, addressing the armed factions active in the province. Out of nearly a thousand suspected Ebola cases in the DRC and Uganda, over 220 people may have died, with the WHO warning that the outbreak could potentially be much larger.

The administrative subpoenas issued for Hasan Piker and Medea Benjamin over their participation in the Cuba caravan are to be opposed—in part because the subpoenas will only give their sinister politics greater cachet among neophyte activists! Piker's shameless shilling for the dictatorships of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin invisibilizes the victims of their ethno-supremacist detention states—such as the Uyghurs of Xinjiang and the Crimean Tatars. This more critical point is obscured in the endless outrage over his supposed anti-Semitism. And with Xi and Putin joining with Trump to build a fascist world order, Piker's brand of campist pseudo-opposition (however overheated) is compromised from the start, mirroring what it ostensibly opposes—subpoenas notwithstanding. In Episode 330 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down in his typically unsparing manner.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said May 28 that he had ordered the Israeli military to take over 70% of the territory of the Gaza Strip. "Let's start with that," he added. A day earlier, Minister of Defense Israel Katz said the government is planning for large numbers of Palestinians to leave the enclave "at the right time and in the right manner," which rights groups say amounts to ethnic cleansing.