Amnesty International raised concerns June 26 over an absolute blanket ban by the Turkish government on all protests in the capital Ankara ahead of the NATO summit that is to be held in the city this coming week. The statement also decried the pretrial detention of more than 100 people, including lawyers, academics and activists.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on June 26 called for independent investigations into dozens of deaths in US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. He urged authorities to take immediate measures to prevent further fatalities as the number of deaths in detention continues to rise.

Amnesty International on June 17 urged Tunisian authorities to "immediately and unconditionally release" anti-racism activist Saadia Mosbah and five of her colleagues, and called on the Tunis appellate court to overturn their convictions.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk urged the government of Peru on June 18 to refrain from adopting a draft law that grants military jurisdictions the authority to investigate and prosecute possible human rights violations, calling on authorities to comply with international human rights standards.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on June 18 detailed abuses endured by communities in Minneapolis and St. Paul during the occupation of the Twin Cities area by immigration officers. According to HRW, officers terrorized residents, committed widespread human rights violations, and exposed "deeply abusive" tendencies within US immigration enforcement.

Iranian security forces violently dispersed protesters June 18 in Pashmouki village, Faryab county, Kerman province, within the greater Baluchistan region. Six ethnic Baloch residents, including three women, were detained, and several injured. The protest took place outside a chromite mine in the village, which has been a source of great contention. Iran's government has been cracking down on unlicensed mines in the region, but residents say they gain no economic benefit from the licensed ones, while they are left to deal with the environmental impacts.

Amnesty International called June 4 on Egyptian authorities to immediately release jailed activists and uphold international law, following the arrest of a group involved in organizing a peaceful protest.

Trump's executive order purporting to establish a regulation regime for artificial intelligence actually serves the aim of a government partnership with the AI industry to advance the police state. Ironically, it is the AI company Anthropic that is calling for a moratorium on development of the technology until its threats are assessed. Pope Leo XIV's encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence," raises critical points but still echoes the illusion that this technology, now threatening to develop its own powers of "recursive self-improvement," can be effectively regulated. There are encouraging signs of worker pushback against replacement by AI, and an emerging anarchist critique of the technology. Of course the Trump regime is targeting critics for repression as "anti-tech extremists." In Episode 331 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg again calls for total abolition of AI, citing unacceptable threats to humanity on ecological, epistemological and eschatological grounds.