My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.
preamble
For the weekend of August 1-2, Trump had once again promised major strikes on Iran, which would have included crossing the critical red line of striking their energy infrastructure. In response, Iran once again essentially promised to end the possibility of modern civilization as we know it throughout much of the Gulf States and, to a certain extent, the Zionist entity, with the economic impacts radiating outwards around the world from there. The frustrating part about these threats from Trump is that while he's reneged on them before, the consequences of them actually occurring are so dire that it's difficult to ignore them; rolling a dice with even a 5% chance for complete catastrophe will always be nerve-wracking.
Anyway, as we all know, these strikes did not occur, with the excuse this time being much the same as the previous times: our regional allies begged us not to (potentially true) and Iran called us and said they were willing to negotiate/surrender (untrue). The point of these threat displays is at least twofold: first, to see if Iran is genuinely going to flinch, or, at least, if internal elements that may or may not exist will be spooked into action against the IRGC; and second, to manipulate oil prices downwards by creating constant cycles of "relief" out of an otherwise relatively constant downward trend as Hormuz stays closed and oil reserves continue to ebb. I do say "relatively", of course, given that Ansarallah now appears to be delivering a boot up the ass of Saudi Arabia by taking offline quite a lot of its refinery infrastructure.
It is into this situation that Ukraine seems to want in. For those out of the loop, the situation over in Ukraine has largely the same overall attritional dynamics as previous years, but with a few added wrinkles. Ukraine started striking Russian infrastructure a while ago, and while their effectiveness is hotly debated and I don't want to dismiss them as totally ineffectual, it's clear that the psychological effects - such as they are - are greater than the material effects. Russia's retaliation strikes have been considerably more impactful, including strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea ports and vessels, and a campaign explicitly against gas stations across Ukraine, as well as some rather impressive and disruptive explosions at Ukrainian military fairs and production sites. Zelensky has admitted publicly that they are now basically out of Patriot missiles and that Russian missiles are now landing entirely unopposed (beforehand, they were just landing largely unopposed, given the lackluster performance of Western air defences in general). He seems to have considered a possible way out: linking together the Ukraine and Iran Wars to a united front against Russia and Iran, which would then grant Ukraine more munitions to keep fighting on.
Now, for all the fear I've seen of this occurring (and, don't get me wrong, the US and Russia being in non-proxy, direct conflict is a genuinely frightening prospect for continued life on Earth) how linking together two wars which the West is quite decisively losing into a single war would help at all is beyond me. At this moment, at least, US military planners appear to agree with me. Ukraine hit a Caspian Sea vessel going to Iran a while ago, but then seems to have quickly apologised after being given a stern talking to by the US. This shows just how willing the US is to grant Ukraine more aid, as their own interceptor stockpile is running very low due to Iranian strikes. One would almost feel sympathy for Zelensky if is wasn't for... well, everything that's happened. The path of Ngô Đình Diệm is a tough one to walk.
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The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on the Zionists' destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
view the rest of the comments
news
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Burkina Faso expands budget as mining reforms boost state revenues
The lack of any kind of :traore: emoji remains a stain on Hexbear. Anyways, the new mining strategy in BF is pretty impressive and working out great for the country. There's two major sides to the strategy.
First, the nationalization and domestication of large-scale industrial mines
Then, on its quest for economic sovereignty, his government, among other measures, set the dormant Burkina Faso Mining Participation Company (SOPAMIB) into motion later that year to expand state ownership of mining. By the end of 2025, six of the country’s 15 industrial mines, accounting for 40% of the national mining operations, were domestically owned – three directly by the state, and the remaining three by Burkinabe private companies.
Cashing in on the gold price rally last year, Burkina Faso repaid over two billion dollars in domestic debt. Earlier in May, it also established the Burkina Faso Sovereign Mining Investment Fund (FSMIB).
Financed by surpluses generated when international mineral prices rise above the benchmark set by the state, the FSMIB is ring-fenced for long-term strategic infrastructural and industrial projects, reducing dependence on external funding.
By bringing a big chunk of these mines under Burkinabe control, the state's been able to create a huge budget windfall that's even allowed the development of a sovereign wealth fund, a massively valuable tool for self-directed investment.
Just as interesting is part two: the organization and formalization of artisanal miners, which produce more than the industrial mines
This was made possible by mining reforms, which, alongside increasing state participation and domestic ownership, have brought artisanal miners into formal networks. Historically, artisanal mining has been informal. Miners sold the gold to smugglers who paid the international spot price in cash. Tons would thus cross borders, with no paper trail, no taxes, and no yield to the national economy beyond sustaining the meagre livelihoods of the artisanal miners.
To bring the gold they mine into the official channels while also protecting and formalizing their livelihood, the government has delineated four mining corridors exclusively for artisanal miners, who have historically been in conflict with industrial mining companies. It has also set up nine cooperatives for artisanal miners.
The 29 tons of gold the National Precious Substances Company (SONASP) procured from them in the first half of this year was already 64% of its annual target of 45 tons. Accounting for a record high of 40% of Burkina Faso’s national output, artisanal gold production surpassed the 26 tonnes produced by the country’s industrial mines.
Together, the 55 tons, worth six billion dollars, is almost 25% higher than the production in the first half of last year. Industrial production grew by 7.5%. Production by artisanal and semi-mechanized miners grew by 45%.
The state is socializing the benefits of already centralized mining systems AND formalizing, organizaing, and strengthening existing decentralized systems. Sounds a little like socialism to me
I was poking around the other day to see if anyone had reported Cool Stuff in Burkinao Faso, and could only find reports of weapons shipments from China. Good post.
Burkina Faso enjoyers stay winning
Holy fuck this is so good. This is wonderful news for their 5-year plan and their intention of reconquering the entire Burkinabe territories from the claws of the radical Islamist groups while uplifting millions from poverty
Too bad he's hostile to LGBTQ.
You can always use
That's a different guy and a different phase of the revolution. I think Traore, as one of today's leading revolutionaries and beacons of inspiration for anti-imperialism, deserves the enormous honor of a Hexbear emoji of his own.
He's a direct inspiration to Traoré, so it's a decent substitute until we have one.
Hexbear canceled Traore for that regressive anti-queer law. Don’t expect a emoji soon.
Anyways the rise of Africa is always welcome to see.
look if we're gonna have a struggle session over potential Traore emojis can we at least combine it with the long overdue struggle session over Zohran emojis?
I just feel like that would save time
can we time it for the next international football tournament so we can cover the containment thread struggle too
I did not intend to start one. But agreed.
We have :khomeini: and
, so that's not really a disqualifier.
I'm sure
loves queer people which is why 
got an emote on account of 
loving queer people.
I mean one of his victims was trans but I wouldn't call that love
Really there should be a Traore emote too.
Liberation for cishet people only is no liberation at all.
How do you feel about Cuba, then?
Cuba literally has the most progressive LGBTQ policy in the world right now so, I like them a lot
And they did not have it from day one...
Very true!
Cuba is on the improvement upswing, especially since the 2022 referendum. It's not remotely like the situation in Burkina Faso.
Yes, and it took Cuba how many years to get there? Forty or fifty, right? Both Cuba and Burkina Faso started from similar positions - socialist revolutions in former colonies effectively besieged by imperialist aggression. And Cuba through at least the 1960s (realistically into the 70s and 1980s) had regressive policies toward queer people. It took improving the material conditions of the Cuban people for those people to advocate women's rights and queer rights to the government, which led to that 2022 referendum.
Would you have said the same pithy "Liberation for cishet people only is no liberation at all" about Cuba twenty, thirty years ago? Seems like you're demanding immediate social progress from socialist states without looking at the history of what is required to achieve it.
You're damn right I am.
Why? It's an unserious position, failing to take into account the impacts of colonialism on the region (not to mention the pinkwashed NGOs that the US and other imperialists use as a wedge in cases like this, (see also the genocide in Gaza) and it's arguably not even ours to speak on if we don't live in Burkina Faso itself. I don't know about you, but I'm sitting in the imperial core and don't think I have a right to talk shit on nations fighting imperialism.
Is this confirmation that you would have said the same about Cuba then, and that you don't really care about the material conditions required for queer liberation? I think that's a shitty view, to be blunt.
I'm not going to happily throw global-south queer comrades under a bus just because the people brutalizing them with brand new laws also happen to be poking imperialist eyes for the moment.
Traore and his allies didn't inherit the vicious anti-queer laws they implemented in 2025. Those laws were not a colonial relic. They were not necessary to implement any economic reforms or reduce the influence of imperialist powers. But they brought them in anyway. That makes me question everything about the motivations and intentions of Traore and his allies.
But you are throwing queer comrades under the bus. You wouldn't have supported the Cuban revolution, you won't support this one, you will not support any successful revolutions.
I don't think your questioning the motivations and intentions of Traore and his allies is going to help queer people in the global south either.
We have this thing called "critical support" for situations like this. I agree that the law was unnecessary, because queer oppression isn't ever necessary. The German Democratic Republic took the opposite approach and that's likely more productive from a political perspective, as discussed. That thread also discusses the impact of various religions in the region, as well as the way US-backed ISIS insurgencies feed on perceived progressive measures in society for propaganda. So it isn't like this just happened because Traore or the people of Burkina Faso are reactionary at heart, it's a product of their material conditions. Which again doesn'r make it "necessary" or "justified", but also doesn't mean we all just yell "fuck Burkina Faso" about it.
As we see with Cuba, nations cannot easily develop socially when they're besieged the way Burkina Faso is with coup attempts, Ukrainian military incursions, and western propaganda in general. Given time and breathing room from imperialism and NATO aggression, I fully believe nations in the imperial periphery will develop their own liberatory movements for queer people and make change. In fact, personally, I would much rather try to change minds in a genuine socialist government than beg for scraps of recognition from capitalists. So, while the new laws in Burkina Faso are undeniably bad, they do not largely change my view of the nation and optimism about its future.
pure idealism
at least you contend it's regressive.
Well no one who supports Burkina Faso argues that isn't. The argument is that it's one black mark on what is by and large an incredibly important, innovative, and progressive revolutionary process. Not only that, but the economic and political sovereignty Burkinabe people will gain from this process should enable the social and cultural development that can produce genuine queer liberation, which is not possible under conditions of colonization.
A lot of people don't seem to get that true economic and political sovreignty generally has to come first before queer liberation, it seems...
Yes, also to add is that Burkina Faso has only recently halted the expansion of a religious fundamentalist faction, being seen as soft on LGBT+ would have only fueled contempt by rural burkinabe people. As someone who is part of the community, it is unfair but us wanting Burkina Faso to be more queer friendly does not magically make it so.
Makes sense. I think halting the expansion of a religious fundamentalist faction can be seen as progress, too.
i don't dispute that, in fact i wish china could set aside some j-15s for them but it changes nothing else.
Traore and his political allies merely traded one form of class repression for another. I'm appalled that anyone here can happily excuse prison sentences for queer people for political expediency. Revolutions that don't liberate everybody are not revolutions, they're just glorified palace coups.
That's absolutely not what's happening.
By this definition, there's literally never been a single revolution in human history.
It's silly to claim that having emotes of someone means we support them. We have
after all. Why is 
cool but not an emote of Traore?