According to Oct. 12 reports in Pakistan's media, the Afghan Taliban and affiliated militants launched an attack from the Afghan side of the border, killing at least 23 Pakistani troops and injuring some 30 others. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar stated that troops responded to cross-border raids by "Fitna-e-Khawarij and Fitna-e-Hindustan terrorist elements."* This appears to be a reference to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban of providing sanctuary to. In contrast, a statement from Hamdullah Fitrat, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said that conditions on the "imaginary line" with Pakistan are under control.

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso announced Sept. 22 that they will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing the tribunal of serving "imperial" rather than African interests. The three countries, each governed by military juntas and members of the newly formed Alliance of Sahel States (AES), issued a joint declaration stating that they no longer recognize the ICC as a legitimate forum for justice, charging that it has become an "instrument of neo-colonialist repression."

NATO launched a new exercise dubbed Eastern Sentry on Sept. 12 in response to the ongoing joint Russia-Belarus military exercise dubbed Zapad (West), which involves thousands of troops, naval maneuvers in the Baltic Sea, and simulated nuclear strikes. Yet two US military observers were invited to Belarus to observe the Zapad exercise, standing on a viewing platform to review forces from the same Russian army that is fighting in Ukraine. This comes shortly after the United States lifted sanctions on Belarusian state-owned airline Belavia, while the regime of Alexander Lukashenko released 52 political prisoners, including an employee of the EU delegation in Minsk. (Ukrainska Pravda, Air & Space Forces, National Security Journal, NYT, DW)

Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated on Sept. 10 that the armed group Islamic State in the Sahel Province (IS Sahel) is escalating attacks on civilians, reporting that since March the group has illegally executed 127 people in western Niger.

HRW documented five armed attacks by the group in Tillabéri region during that time frame. The group killed 70 worshipers at a mosque in a mass execution on June 21. HRW reported that a woman who lost three sons in the massacre said there were "bodies everywhere, one on top of the other."

Unprecedented Israeli air-strikes on buildings in Qatar's capital Doha Sept. 9 apparently targeted senior members of Hamas' external leadership. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the operation, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying in a statement that the attack was "a wholly independent Israeli operation." He added: "Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility." However, the White House quickly confirmed that it was informed of the operation beforehand. In a post on TruthSocial some hours after the attack, Donald Trump said the raid was "a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me." The Qatari government later denied Trump's claim that the White House had sent a warning before the attack. The strikes came as Hamas leaders were considering the latest ceasefire proposal, and after the attack Qatar said it is temporarily suspending its mediation efforts.

In Donald Trump's perverse ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize, he is citing his supposed diplomatic victories in ending six conflicts: Armenia-Azerbaijan, Congo-Rwanda, Israel-Iran, India-Pakistan, Thailand-Cambodia and Egypt-Ethiopia. In Episode 292 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines each of these examples, and breaks down how claims to have won "peace" are either extremely overstated or (more often) total Orwellian jive. The implication that Russia-Ukraine will be next, as Putin escalates his aggression, puts a hideous crown on the irony.

Russia's irredentist claims on its former holding Alaska have provided fodder for comedians, but the stakes at the Trump-Putin meeting in the Last Frontier are no laughing matter. Despite the escalating mutual nuclear threats between Washington and Moscow, Trump's call for a Russia-Ukraine "land-swap" obviously means Kyiv being forced to accept Moscow's annexation of much of its territory in exchange for the return of other pieces its own territory illegally occupied by Russia. Meanwhile, Moscow sends drones to threaten NATO member Lithuania, which sits on the critical corridor to the Russian exclave (and tactical missile outpost) of Kaliningrad. Germany has responded by sending troops to the Baltic country—its first post-war foreign deployment. Appeasement of aggression failed to win peace at Munich in 1938, and there's no reason to hope it will in Alaska today. But the difference is that the contending powers today have nuclear weapons. In Episode 291 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes an unflinching look.

The investigation by the Syrian transition government into the March violence against the Alawites in Latakia province has been submitted—but the full findings have not been made public, and it apparently exonerates the government of involvement. Meanwhile southern Suwayda province has seen a perhaps even deadlier eruption of violence—this time pitting Druze against Bedouin, with the role of the government similarly the source of much contestation (and fodder for Internet partisans). And a Damascus protest against the violence and for co-existence was attacked by goons. Amid all this, Israel is militarily intervening, the government looks to Turkey for military aid, and both the US and Russia still have forces on the ground—treating the country as a Great Power chessboard. In Episode 288 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that the Syrian Revolution is poised on a razor's edge, ready to descend into ethno-sectarian war and authoritarianism unless political space can be kept open for the secular-democratic civil resistance that began the revolution 14 years ago.