My summary of the situation as I understand it is in spoiler tags below.
summary
After many long weeks, Iran and the US have agreed that they're going to begin negotiations on certain topics in a process lasting at least 60 days. Due to America's perfidy during previous negotiations, trust has broken down so far that Iran demanded $12 billion of their frozen funds and several other promises, such as the end to the naval blockade, to even return to the table, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. Iran also demanded that negotiations take place in two stages, and that nuclear issues will only be discussed in the second stage, which will be several weeks from now if everything goes as planned.
The terms of the MoU have themselves been a big source of confusion and suspicion, for me and many other pro-Iranian spectators. Getting the wording exactly correct is important, because the US really is like the devil - leave room for any possible interpretation in the contract that favors them more, and they'll insist that this was the only interpretation up for discussion. Additionally, the US might be historically bad at winning wars, but they're very, very good at winning peaces: they set up the post-WW2 order to best suit them by playing the European powers off each other; the DPRK might have survived the Korean War politically intact but existed for nearly the next hundred years as a sanctioned pariah; Vietnam was soon forced to economically engage with the country that had dropped triple of all the bomb tonnage of WW2 on them; and so on. It is no exaggeration when I say that the negotiation phase will be the most dangerous part of this war and it could lead to the most death and destruction without a single missile impacting Iran.
However, there's one little genocidal colony in the region that could stop this whole process from even beginning, as the US appears to have promised Iran that the Zionists will stop the war against Lebanon (and perhaps Gaza too? I'm a little unclear) and even withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, including all bases set up since this broader conflict began. Apparently, the US promised this in return for Iran not striking the Zionists in return for their most recent strike on Beirut on June 14th. Now, the issue with this whole situation is that the US greenlit the Zionist strike on Beirut, and they knew that Iran would respond to it because they did in response to an earlier strike. If the US made such major concessions to Iran in return for this response strike not occurring, then why authorize the Beirut strike at all? Why make their position worse? Right now, I can think of two reasons. First is that they attempted to create one final embarrassment for Iran, under the assumption that Iran was so desperate for a deal that they wouldn't risk responding. Second is that this is all one big ruse or misdirection; the US does not intend to follow through with the MoU and subsequent negotiations anyway, and so the terms they're "agreeing" to don't really matter.
With the MoU signing apparently set for June 19th, we'll know for sure soon.
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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:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
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.
Mozambique expands state ownership of mines; bans raw material exports
Mozambique's president signed a new law granting the National Mining Company (ENM) a free 15% stake across the stages of the mining value chain.
To transform mineral wealth into “lasting engines of economic and social development,” Mozambique revamped its mining laws, mandating local processing and expanding state ownership of its mineral wealth. The reforms, taking effect with President Daniel Chapo’s signature on June 3, were passed by parliament in May, granting the National Mining Company (ENM) a free 15% stake across the stages of the mining value chain, with an option to further expand its ownership.
To break free from the southern African country’s historical status as a raw-material exporter, the legislation also mandated domestic processing and banned the export of raw or semi-processed minerals unless permitted by government approval. The approval, however, is temporary and requires the mining companies to present a plan for future local processing, Ecofin Agency reported.
Mozambique is the world’s third-largest producer of graphite, an essential component in batteries for electric vehicles, growing in demand globally. The country also has significant rare earth deposits. Only two days after the new laws were signed, on June 5, Altona Rare Earths, headquartered in London, announced the discovery of a deposit of xenotime, which is processed to extract many heavy rare earth elements, at its Monte Muambe concession in Tete Province.
The new rules, positioning the state to better leverage this mineral wealth for developmental needs, also require that 10% of mining revenues be transferred to a dedicated local development fund, reported Africa Business Insider. “With the enactment of these laws, the Mozambican government strengthens the management of strategic resources in the national interest, while promoting employment, domestic investment, wealth retention, and … sustainable development,” the president’s office said in a statement.
The mining reforms in Mozambique come amid a growing resource nationalism in the continent, after the sovereigntist governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) set a precedent. Through a combination of nationalizing selected foreign-owned mines, increasing state and domestic private ownership, and mandating local processing, states have successfully secured a greater share of the mining revenues. Using the increased revenues, the government of Burkina Faso has repaid almost a quarter of its domestic debt. It also established the Sovereign Mining Investment Fund (FSMIB) on May 21 to finance long-term infrastructure development and industrialization.
Earlier in March, Mali redistributed USD 33 million from mining revenue to mining-affected communities and other underdeveloped regions. A third of this redistributed revenue is to be used by the local government to lay roads, and supply water and electricity, a quarter for healthcare, another quarter for schools, and 15-20% for supporting small businesses and agriculture.
Literally Traoré was the domino that set in motion the liberation of the whole continent.
I wonder if the “ Cabo Delgado issue” will flare up again. I think there are still a lot foreign troops in Mozambique.
No, Mali's revolutionary coup came before Burkina Faso's even if we're starting history with the AES.
Honestly Mali's revolutionary movement is less build out of historic sahelian leftism and more closer to cold war Somalia, similar in Niger.
Traoré basically ressurected the Revolutionary Left and Nationalist Left in Africa, much like what Chavez did in the Americas in 1992 - 1999.
Sounds like it's time to bring some democracy to Mozambique and free its people from the tyranny of Chapo.