Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen on Aug. 19 announced the opening of a new immigration detention center in the southwest corner of the state. National Guard Maj-Gen. Craig Strong called the move a step in supporting "the president's initiatives for homeland security." The present McCook "Work Ethic Camp," run by the state Corrections Department, will be transformed from a minimum-security facility, and its holding capacity will be expanded from about 185 to approximately 300.

At least 17 people were killed in an armed attack on a bar in El Empalme, a small town north of Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil July 28—three days before US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Neom visited the country and signed a deal to fight organized crime and illegal migration. The deal includes training for Ecuadoran security forces in the US and collaboration on border security.

The DC-based Syrian Emergency Task Force condemned the unlawful detention, torture and abuse of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, which it says has resulted in at least 40 deaths. Since 2014, Hezbollah and complicit Lebanese forces have arrested hundreds of Syrian refugees—particularly supporters of the Syrian Revolution—and sentenced them in unfair military trials, despite repatriation efforts by Syria's new government.

President Donald Trump's administration filed a complaint against New York City, its Mayor Eric Adams, and other officials on July 24 over the municipality's Sanctuary City laws, charging that they are unconstitutional and violate federal immigration enforcement statutes. Specifically, the Trump administration is challenging New York City Administrative Code §§ 9-131, 9-205, 14-154, and 10-178, as well as New York City Police Department (NYPD) Operations Order No. 4. The administration requested a permanent injunction prohibiting their enforcement, asserting that the laws violate the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Immigration Reform Act.

Amid starvation and horrifically escalating atrocities in Gaza, Israel announces plans to build a giant concentration camp on the ruins of Rafah, an evident preparation for forced "transfer" of the Palestinian population from the Strip entirely—an idea Trump enthusiastically embraces. On the West Bank, amid growing settler attacks, more Palestinian land is enclosed behind separation walls built to protect Israeli settlements. Amid all this, Benjamin Netanyahu (wanted for war crimes by the ICC) meets with Trump in Washington to openly discuss the "transfer" plan—and announces that he has nominated the American president for the Nobel Peace Prize. In Episode 286 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that Trump could in fact get get the Nobel prize while facilitating genocide in Gaza and instating a mass detention state in the US—a fitting inauguration of the fascist world order.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on July 9 found that Russia has committed grave violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Ukraine. Judges at the ECHR rendered a series of decisions related to consolidated complaints brought by Ukraine and the Netherlands since the Ukraine conflict began in 2014. Among the named violations of IHL are the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), multiple violations of the Geneva Conventions and other human rights treaties, application of "extremism laws" against religious communities, and interference with freedom of speech and the press.

Donald Trump's draconian immigration policies are to get a massive injection of cash thanks to the omnibus budget bill that the president signed into law on July 4. The bill includes over $170 billion in funding for new detention centers, deportation operations, border wall construction, and other anti-immigration initiatives. While this outlay is to be spread out over five years, critics point out that it surpasses the annual military budgets of any country on Earth except for the US and China. It is also more than four times the World Food Program's estimate of the yearly sum needed to end global hunger by 2030. (TNH, NYT, AIC, HT)

Dozens of internally displaced Rohingya in Burma's Rakhine state have died of starvation this year, according to a report released June 12 by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK). Nearly 150,000 Rohingya have been confined to internment camps in the state since 2012, relying on humanitarian assistance to survive. Tens of thousands are experiencing starvation as a result of a trade blockade and severe humanitarian access restrictions imposed by the ruling junta in response to escalating clashes with the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine militia. The AA has also been accused of atrocities against Rohingya living in areas under its control.