Prominent Moroccan feminist Ibtissam "Betty" Lachgar was arrested by the kingdom's Judicial Police Aug. 10 after posting a photo of herself on X (Twitter) wearing a t-shirt with the word for God in Arabic (Allah) followed by the English words: "is a lesbian." This reference to the international feminist catchphrase "God is a lesbian" won her "blasphemy" charges from the Rabat prosecutor's office. The charge carries penalties ranging from six months to two years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 200,000 dirhams (approximately $20,000). The penalty can be increased to five years if the offense is committed publicly or electronically.

Several United Nations agencies on July 28 condemned the use of starvation as a weapon of war, as malnutrition rates in Gaza spike under Israeli siege. During the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Secretary-General António Guterres stressed: "Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war."

Guterres' statement follows Israel's decision to permit a one-week scale-up of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. UN agencies welcomed the easing of aid restrictions and so-called "humanitarian pauses" in the ongoing bombardment; however, as emphasized by UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher: "This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis."

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.

Police in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on June 12 lobbed tear-gas and clashed with hundreds of demonstrators angered by the death in police custody of a 31-year old teacher, Albert Ojwang, after he was accused of having "insulted a senior person on X" (a high-ranking police officer). Police initially claimed Ojwang had committed suicide but have been forced to apologize after an autopsy contradicted their account.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine published a report May 28 declaring Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians in Kherson oblast to be war crimes and crimes against humanity. The commission found that roughly 150 Ukrainian civilians have been killed over the past year as a result of the systematic Russian drone attacks:

Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced on May 16 that former Chadian prime minister and opposition leader Succès Masra was arrested at his residence in the capital N'Djamena, urging authorities to immediately release Masra unless they can substantiate the charges against him. HRW's Central Africa director Lewis Mudge stated: "The Chadian government should be seeking ways to dialogue with the political opposition, rather than shutting them down through the use of intimidation and violence."

Trump is pointing to Kilmar Abrego Garcia's tattoos to justify his indefinite detention without charge in the ultra-oppressive Salvadoran prison gulag. These notoriously include a cannabis leaf, demonstrating the continued propaganda utility of the "Reefer Madness" stigma, even as a multi-million dollar legal industry emerges. But the White House actually added the characters "MS13" (name of the notorious Salvadoran gang) to the shot of Abrego Garcia's knuckles in a crude photoshop job—despite transparent denials from Trump. Lubricating the emerging transnational mass detention program with this Orwellian post-truth stratagem, the Trump regime meanwhile moves toward actual deportation of US citizens. Bill Weinberg raises the alarm in Episode 277 of the CounterVortex podcast.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, warned April 25 of grave consequences for the country's future without genuine political inclusion and urgent economic support for a successful political transition. During a briefing to the Security Council, Pedersen noted the legacies of misrule, conflict and exclusion in Syria, stating:

This means that the situation is inherently still extremely fragile. The vital ingredients to address this fragility are clear: we need genuine political inclusion so that all Syrians can participate meaningfully in shaping their country's political future, along with countering extremism and terrorism; and real support from the international community to give this transition a chance to succeed against great odds.