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."

UN experts on March 27 welcomed Colombian President Gustavo Petro's ratification of the 1989 International Convention against Recruitment, Use, Financing & Training of Mercenaries. The experts praised the signing of what amounts to a new anti-mercenary legislative package, calling it an essential step toward protecting human rights and upholding international legal obligations.

The US Treasury Department on March 2 imposed sanctions on the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) and four of its top military officials over their support, training, and fighting alongside M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

During the annual State of the Nation address on Feb. 12, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the deployment of military troops to support police efforts against illegal mining and gang violence in the provinces of Gauteng and Western Cape.

The Law Society of British Columbia warned Feb. 2 that the provincial government's intention to amend the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) may erode judicial independence and improperly constrain the power of the courts. The proposed amendment would limit the role of the judiciary in matters related to DRIPA's implementation.

Police and prosecutors from Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname announced Jan. 22 the arrest of nearly 200 individuals in a transnational operation to combat illegal gold mining in the Amazon.

Trump's Greenland annexation drive is only secondarily about the strategic minerals, but fundamentally driven by a geostrategic design to divide the planet with Putin. Even if his belated and equivocal disavowal of military force at the Davos summit is to be taken as real, the threat has likely achieved its intended effect—dividing and paralyzing NATO, so as to facilitate Putin's military ambitions in Europe, even beyond Ukraine Also at Davos, Trump officially inaugurated his "Board of Peace," seen as parallel body to the United Nations that can eventually displace it—dominated by Trump and Putin, in league with the world's other authoritarians. In the Greenland gambit, the territory itself is a mere pawn in the drive to establish a Fascist World Order. In Episode 314 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg calls for centering indigenous Inuit voices on the future of Greenland, and universal repudiation of annexationist designs.

European troops have landed in Greenland amid tense talks between the country's autonomous government, officials from Denmark, and the United States. President Trump has continued to insist the two-million-square-kilometer Arctic island should belong to the United States—despite pre-existing security agreements and a (previously) strong relationship with Denmark that grants the US significant military access to the territory. Beyond Trump's ego, there are reasons related to climate change that explain why Greenland is becoming of political interest. The territory's strategic location has become even more so in recent years as the Greenland ice sheet and surrounding sea ice have retreated significantly: The ice sheet lost 105 billion tonnes in 2024-25, according to scientists. This has disastrous implications—ice helps cool the planet, and its melt will lead to rising seas. But it also allows ships and submarines more freedom of movement, making military planners nervous.