Trump continues to pursue his perverse ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize—now profferring "peace" plans for Ukraine and Gaza that would actually reward war crimes, and therefore portend wider war. In both cases these new "peace" plans are merely sanitized recapitulations of earlier proposals—for the surrender of the Donbas and Crimea to Russia, and for Israeli annexation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and "transfer" of their indigenous inhabitants. Meanwhile, the actual winner of this year's Peace Prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, is obsequiously pandering to Trump, and playing along with his bellicose designs on her country. In Episode 306 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg cuts through the Orwellian war-is-peace propaganda. 

President Trump called for "reverse migration" and a "major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations" in a racist late-night online rant Nov. 27. In the bizarre Thanksgiving message, Trump vowed to "permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries" and to revisit immigration decisions made under his predecessor, Joe Biden. He said deportations will target "anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country" or "non-compatible with Western Civilization." Trump's message followed the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington DC, apparently by an Afghan refugee. Hours before the Washington shooting, the White House had already confirmed plans to re-vet refugees already settled in the US.

Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa's White House meeting with Donald Trump followed the removal of his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the list of designated "terrorist organizations" both at the State Department and at the UN. It also coincided with raids against ISIS by his security forces, raising the prospect of his government being invited to join the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. The Washington visit also came just a month after al-Sharaa's similar trip to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow, where a deal was brokered allowing Russia to keep its military bases in Syria. Amid all this, Syria continues to see forced disappearances and other abuses targetting Druze, Alawites and Kurds—pointing to the looming threat of an ethnic or sectarian internal war. The US troop presence in Syria is largely embedded among the Kurdish forces in the east. As al-Sharaa becomes a new "anti-terrorist" partner (or proxy) for the Great Powers, will these troops be withdrawn—providing a "green light" for the Damascus government to attack the Kurdish autonomous zone? In Episode 305 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg weighs the risks at this critical moment in Syria's transition process, nearly one year after the fall of the Assad dictatorship.

President Donald Trump praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as "incredible in terms of human rights" during an Oval Office meeting Nov. 18, preemptively deflecting questions about the kingdom's extensive record of abuses as the crown prince pledged $1 trillion in US investments.

The UN Security Council passed a US-backed resolution on Nov. 17 endorsing the Trump administration's 20-point Gaza peace plan. The Security Council urged all parties to implement the peace plan "in good faith and without delay."

Zohran Mamdani hasn't even taken office, and already there has been a physical skirmish between ICE agents and NYPD cops in Washington Heights. This portends a full-on confrontation between federal and municipal power in the months to come—with the potential (yes, really) for civil war. In Episode 304 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that despite the danger, Mamdani's election heightens the contradictions in American society in a salubrious way, and may even open revolutionary possibilities. However, his pledge to destroy Lower Manhattan's Elizabeth Street Garden points to the contradictions in Mamdani's own politics that activists will have to press him on.

Venezuelan nationals deported to El Salvador by the US government earlier this year were tortured and ill-treated, advocacy groups reported Nov. 12.

According to an 81-page report jointly released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Cristosal, a Salvadoran advocacy organization, members of a group of 252 Venezuelan deportees sent to El Salvador’s notorious Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) were subjected to torture, arbitrary detention, and in some instances sexual abuse, while held incommunicado in inhumane conditions. The organizations found a pattern of coordinated abuse rather than isolated incidents. One former detainee told the investigators: "I'm on alert all the time because every time I heard the sound of keys and handcuffs, it meant they were coming to beat us."

Under a deal between Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas state police force—consisting of some 5,000 officers—is being given the power to interrogate anyone suspected to be undocumented about their immigration status and to arrest people who are believed to be in the country without papers, without first obtaining a warrant. The move is heightening concerns that already exist about racial profiling in the Trump administration's country-wide immigration crackdown.