Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced eight articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Nov. 9, charging that he violated constitutional and statutory limits on military action, including by directing unauthorized hostilities against Iran.

Days after a strike on a camp within Venezuelan territory allegedly used by the ELN—Colombia's largest active rebel group—information emerged that US drones and intelligence had played a crucial role. But the extent of US involvement in the operation remains unclear. The New York Times reported that the US "assisted" the Venezuelan military in the Oct. 31 attack in the border state of Apure, which killed at least 23 people. While the Times quoted unnamed US officials saying the drone was likely piloted by US forces, it characterized the attack as a "joint operation" and cast it as the second since June, when the Tren de Aragua leader was killed. However, Juan Francisco García of local NGO FundaRedes, which first reported the attack, contended the strike was carried out by US forces alone. According to García, the Venezuelan military arrived on site the following day to secure the area and investigate what Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello called the "strange deaths." The strike comes as the Trump administration pushes the Venezuelan government to sign a status of forces agreement to enable US forces to stay in the country more permanently. (NACLA Update)

Thousands of Colombians peacefully rallied across the country Oct. 14 against the far-right policies of President Abelardo de la Espriella, little more than two months after he took office. They criticized his proposed social spending cuts, his alignment with Trump, and his hardline military approach to decades of armed-group violence. Earlier this month, de la Espriella announced a "counterterrorism statute" that many fear could restrict democratic rights. (TNH)

Peter Thiel of Palantir, most aggressively reactionary of the Trump-linked nexus of fascist tech bros, now openly invokes the Faust story, in which a scientist sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power—and not as a warning against hubris, but as a positive example, in defense of the notion that "evil can be good." In Episode 350 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg turns to the 1940s dialogue between rationalist JBS Haldane and moralist CS Lewis to explore how technology and politics—and especially the intersection of the two—can become Satanic, in a metaphorical if not literal sense.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio placed full sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Oct. 9 in response to investigations into potential war crimes committed by US and Israel.

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)

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.

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.