The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Oct. 5 unsealed four arrest warrants against senior Taliban figures, accusing them of persecuting women and girls in Afghanistan, acts that the Court's prosecutors say constitute crimes against humanity.

The US is preparing a major naval buildup in the Middle East, including up to three aircraft carriers and their escort ships, as President Trump weighs whether to intensify the war with Iran. The buildup may involve up to 20,000 troops, 150 fighter jets, and numerous destroyers, the Washington Post reported Oct. 1. US and Iranian officials held indirect talks through mediators Sept. 28-30, focused mostly on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and easing US sanctions and blockades. Trump has rejected Iran's latest peace proposal as insufficient and raised the possibility of renewed strikes. (TNH)

If Ethiopia's federal government thought Addis Ababa was insulated from the conflict in its restive Tigray and Amhara regions, drone strikes have forced a reappraisal. Blasts were heard overnight Oct. 1 near the military's headquarters in the west of the city, and another military camp in the south. The seven-member opposition "Alliance for Survival" claimed responsibility. Meanwhile, as fighting worsens, the federal army and pro-government militia appear to be advancing towards northern Tigray's main city of Mekelle. At least 52 civilians were killed in three days of heavy clashes around Alamata, 180 kilometers south of Mekelle. Fighters of the region's ruling party, the TPLF, are also reported to have attacked east into the Afar region—landlocked Ethiopia's strategic corridor to neighboring Djibouti's ports.

CounterVortex editor and ranter Bill Weinberg faces imminent cancelation of his landline and DSL service by corporate oppressor Verizon. As fiber-optic is not available in his building, this makes cable the only alternative—which means drilling through exterior walls, threatening the structural integrity of the 19th century tenement. This as the CounterVortex website remains debilitated following an attack by Chinese state-sponsored hackers. With this admittedly marginal dissident voice now in danger of being silenced, the system of corporate rule is increasingly replaced by worse-still actual robot rule. Trump and the fascist tech bros are putting in place the architecture for direct robot control over the military-security apparatus, and even of imperial decision-making. Robo-propaganda has already thoroughly colonized the political process, both in the US and elsewhere. All this as the ecological impacts of the technology continue to propel the apocalypse. In Episode 348 of the CounterVortex podcast, Weinberg looks for glimmers of hope in municipal pushback, and popular refusal of aritifical intelligence and the entire digital leviathan.

Amnesty International on Sept. 29 condemned the Malian armed forces and its partners from the Russian private military company Wagner Group for perpetration of war crimes, including the murder and torture of civilians.

Guatemala received a shipment of weapons and military equipment from the United States on Sept. 21, the first in a series of commercial exchanges set to total $5 million. Weapons transfers to the country had been formally frozen since the administration of President Jimmy Carter restricted arms sales in 1977 due to the Guatemalan military's record of human rights abuses during the country's civil war. The ban was lifted in March, after months of deepening security ties between the two countries.

Breakaway Somaliland is pulling out the stops to win US recognition, offering access to its strategic Berbera port, mineral deals, and even a Trump Tower. Recognition may not immediately be in the cards, but Berbera is particularly significant at the moment. It sits close to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the global shipping lane that Yemen's Houthis can potentially close at will. Somaliland is juicing its proposal with the prospect of a base for US forces (there have already been US military visits), and potentially for Israel—the only country to recognize its independence. The conservative Hudson Institute, among other voices in the US political establishment, is pushing Somaliland's case as a "bulwark" against the Houthis—and even Chinese influence.

Amnesty International called Sept. 24 for the abolition of US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), in a report documenting widespread human rights violations in federal immigration enforcement operations.