The European Commission initiated infringement proceedings against Poland June 8 over the country's recently-passed law aimed at officials who have allegedly come under Russian influence. The new law, nicknamed the "Lex Tusk" after former Polish PM and purported target Donald Tusk, establishes a committee to investigate whether certain officials acted under "Russian influence" between 2007 and 2022. The law authorizes the committee to hand out 10-year bans from obtaining security clearances, controlling public funds or holding a firearms license.

A French parliamentary report leaked to the press June 1 asserts that Marine Le Pen's far-right party Rassemblement National knowingly served as a "communication channel" for Kremlin propaganda. Le Pen called the report "sectarian, dishonest and politicized"—despite the fact that it was Le Pen herself who demanded an investigation into foreign interference in French politics. Le Pen has long been openly supportive of the Kremlin. After Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, Le Pen insisted that Moscow's annexation of the territory was not illegal. In testimony before the investigative committee, she reiterated this position, calling the annexation a "re-attachment."

In Episode 177 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the unfolding Kakhovka dam disaster in Ukraine, an evident design by Russia to forestall a Ukrainian counter-offensive into the occupied southeast of the country. Massive flooding has been unleashed downstream, imperiling some of the world's most important farmland. Upstream, coolant water to the Zaporizhzhia power plant is threatened, escalating Russia's "reckless nuclear gamble" at the facility. It is true that the disaster gravely impacts much Russian-held territory, including the Crimea Peninsula. However, despite the Kremlin's official denials of responsibility, Russia's online internal propaganda organs are bragging about it. The Wagner Group mercenary outfit calls the disaster "beautiful" and boasts that the destruction of dams on the Dnipro River is a "trump card" against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned last October that Russia was planning to destroy the Kakhovka dam as a "false flag" attack to blame on Kyiv. The breaching of the dam also comes days after Moscow conveniently instated a four-year moratorium on investigation of industrial disasters in Russian-held territory in Ukraine. And critics note that Russia has never committed a war crime it didn't deny. In any case, the cataclysm on the Dnipro provides a grim test case as the International Criminal Court moves to adopt "ecocide" as a recognized international crime. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on June 2 denounced Macau's decision to expand its national security law, saying the revision "increases the pressure on journalists and further threatens...residents' right to information." The Macau Special Administrative Region's National Security Law, first passed in 2009, defines seven crimes that can result in a maximum sentence of up to 25 years' imprisonment. Under the revised rules, enacted at the end of May, these crimes have been expanded far beyond their previous definitions. For example, "subversion" and "secession" now extend to non-violent acts, while "sedition" includes "acts that incite participation in riots."

The Brazilian Congress has approved two measures that undermine indigenous land rights and clash with the environmental policy of the new President Luiz Inácio da Silva. On May 30, the Lower House voted in favor of a bill that limits the demarcation of indigenous territories to lands that native peoples can prove they physically occupied when Brazil's current constitution was enacted in 1988. Advocates for indigenous peoples say this marco temporal or "time limit trick" could wipe out scores of legitimate land claims by groups who had already been evicted from their traditional territories before 1988.

Somali officials announced May 28 that the country will institute a direct one-person-one-vote democracy by 2024. This comes after years of attempts to implement direct universal suffrage, first mandated by the Somali legislature in 2019, failed due to political divisions and internal conflict. State news agency SONNA called the decision an "historic turning point for the country." This new system will replace Somalia's current electoral process, in which clan elders elect delegates, who in turn elect all other regional and national political leaders.

Hong Kong police detained at least eight people June 3 for allegedly attempting to hold public vigils commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre. Victoria Park, the site of the massive annual commemoration which is now suspended due to the crackdown in the city since 2020, was meanwhile the scene of a fair promoting unity with China. (The Guardian, WaPo) However, prominent activist Chow Hang-tung, who has been imprisoned since her arrest in 2021 for promoting an "unauthorized assembly" commemorating the massacre that year, announced a 34-hour hunger strike—one hour for each year since June 4, 1989, known in China as "6-4." (Reuters)

Demonstrators gathered across Florida June 1 to protest a recently enacted law that imposes harsh restrictions on undocumented immigrants. In what protesters dubbed "a day without immigrants," thousands walked off the job to express their opposition to Gov. Ron DeSantis' approval of Senate Bill 1718.

In Immokalee, dozens of businesses closed in support of the protest, and video captured over 6,000 protesters marching in support of immigrant workers and their rights. Similar protests took place in Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Vero Beach, Fort Myers and Homestead, among other locations.