Angolan police used excessive force and carried out arbitrary arrests during a peaceful protest in Luanda on July 12, Human Rights Watch charges. According to reports, officers fired tear-gas and rubber bullets without justification, assaulted demonstrators, and detained 17 protesters, some of whom were released only after legal intervention.

Three days of drone attacks on oil-fields in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region have brought operations at several facilities to a halt and slashed crude output. The targeted sites include fields at Zakho, operated by Norway's DNO; the Sarsang field, operated by US-based HKN Energy; and the Ain Sifni field, operated by Hunt Oil, all in Dohuk governorate. Kurdistan authorities also said a drone was downed near Erbil airport, which hosts US troops. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Kurdish authorities blamed the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units, a paramilitary network aligned with the Baghdad government and backed by Iran. The attacks come amid renewed dispute between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government over whether the KRG may enter into hydrocarbon contracts with foreign firms. In May, the central government filed a complaint against the KRG for signing gas contracts with two US companies, including HKN Energy, asserting that all oil and gas deals must go through Baghdad. (Daily Sabah, Arab Weekly)

Trump's annexationist designs on Canada were the central issue in the country's elections this past week, which saw a victory for the intransigently anti-Trump candidate, Mark Carney. While this seems surreal after a generation of economic integration under NAFTA, the vast resources of Canada—especially hydrocarbons, water and energy—provide a long-term goad of conflict between the two giants of North America. The Pentagon does in fact have a contingency plan for an invasion of Canada, dating back to the 1930s. In Episode 276 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg explores the strategic and corporate agendas behind Trump's bellicose bluster.

Turkey has sent 500 troops to the Somali capital Mogadishu, the first phase of a planned 2,500-strong deployment to bolster the government against recent advances by the insurgent group al-Shabaab. Turkey already has 300 soldiers in Mogadishu, primarily to train the elite Gorgor brigade. Meanwhile, Turkey has also struck a controversial oil and gas exploration deal with the government in which it will receive 90% of all future revenues as a cost-recovery mechanism. Somalia will earn just 5% in royalties. (TNH)

Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) chief Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement on March 10 to integrate the Kurdish-led SDF into Syria's state institutions. A statement by the Syrian Presidency said a pact was reached to "integrate all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria [Rojava] under the administration of the Syrian state, including border crossings, the [Qamishli] Airport, and oil and gas fields." The statement emphasized that "the Kurdish community is indigenous to the Syrian state, which ensures this community's right to citizenship and all of its constitutional rights."

President Donald Trump announced on Feb. 27 that the US government is revoking a special permit granted to energy giant Chevron to pump and export Venezuelan oil. The move, which reverses a 2022 decision by Biden to allow the company to bring Venezuelan oil to US markets by exempting it from economic sanctions, removes one of the South American country's few economic lifelines at a time of deepening crisis. In his post on TruthSocial, Trump claimed that the Venezuelan government had failed to keep up its side of the original bargain to meet "electoral conditions." He also charged that the "regime has not been transporting the violent criminals they sent into our Country...back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to." (NACLA Update)

US conservation groups filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Feb. 19, asserting that the administration violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act by issuing an executive order reversing withdrawals of oil and gas leases. The groups filed the suit in the US District Court for the District of Alaska, alleging that the protected waters affected by Trump's order have extensive marine biodiversity that provides social and scientific benefits. The conservationists also noted that the deafening sounds of exploration and drilling activities injure marine life and degrade their habitat, and that the development of just one oil lease would create a 75% chance of an oil spill greater than 1,000 barrels. Pollution from vessels and aircraft around the areas could also cause significant harm, even if an oil spill were not to occur. The conservationists further asserted that surveys and drilling harm commercial fishing, and thereby ultimately harm local economies.

Mexico has launched a massive deployment of 10,000 troops to cities and towns on the border with the United States. Videos and photos posted on social media by Mexico's Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) showed military and National Guard troops lined up boarding transport planes and rows of army trucks rolling out in the predawn darkness Feb. 4 from bases in Mexico City, Tlaxcala and other cities. Large contingents were also mobilized to Mexico's southern border in the Yucatan. The response—dubbed "Operativo Frontera Norte"—is part of an agreement reached the previous day between US President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum postponing trade tariff threats for a month. (El Paso Times, Peninsula360)