Bulletins and News Discussion from August 18th to August 24th, 2025 - The French Colonial Linchpin - COTW: Ivory Coast (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 day ago by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

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Image is of a large protest in the Ivory Coast, sourced from this article in People's Dispatch.

This week's megathread is based largely on a detailed article from People's Dispatch, featuring statements and analysis from Achy Ekessi, the General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast (PCRCI), brought to my attention by @jack@hexbear.net's comment in the last megathread.

The president of Ivory Coast, the 83 year old Alassane Ouattara, is aiming for a fourth term in power while barring out much of the opposition. I can't really do the all the history of how the situation wound up this way justice in a preamble as it's fairly complicated (read the article if you are interested), but to summarize, Ouattara is currently the only coherent candidate for the French to support. Back in 2011, the French helped Ouattara overthrow the previous (pan-Africanist) president, Laurent Gbagbo, and then arrested him and sent him to the ICC, and he was then acquitted and released in 2021.

Gbagbo is now running against Ouattara, but his base, the working class, has large swathes that are not present on the voting rolls and so it would be unlikely for him to win. On the opposite side of the spectrum is Tidjane Thiam, a former CEO of the Swiss Bank Credit Suisse, whose base is in the richer strata of the Ivory Coast, which overlaps with Ouattara's base. He would be more likely to win, but would certainly maintain many Western imperialist relationships. Ouattara, however, has simplified the electoral situation by simply barring both of them from running in the election at all.

Ouattara has, on paper, delivered some amount of economic development to the Ivory Coast. But as expected, most of it is funnelled to the bourgeois, as well as to foreign corporations and governments, while the working class are swallowed by the cost of living crisis. There has been significant infrastructure projects, but these have not only generated massive debt, they also have only really addressed the damage caused by the 2011 civil war and intervention by the French.

The rest of Western Africa has either entirely exited the orbit of France (Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso), are wavering/unstable (Senegal, Benin, Guinea), are beginning to show doubts (Nigeria, Ghana), or are economically weak enough to not be a major blow for the French to lose (Togo, Guinea-Bissau). The loss of the Ivory Coast would be a major setback for French neocolonialism, and be a potent example to nearby countries.

Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

Israel's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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 Israel's 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.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

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.

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[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 33 points 2 hours ago

China’s youth unemployment hits 11-month high as army of graduates joins job hunt SCMP

China’s youth unemployment hit 17.8 per cent in July, the figure’s highest level since August 2024, as millions of degree holders seek work

China’s youth unemployment rate rose to its highest level in 11 months in July, as a record number of graduates enter an already shaky labour market.

The urban jobless rate for the 16-24 age group, excluding students, rose to 17.8 per cent last month from 14.5 per cent in June, putting an end to four straight months of decline and marking the metric’s highest level since last August, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

The figures come as a record 12.2 million university students graduate this summer, with a majority of them joining a sizeable applicant pool that has had trouble finding open positions that meet their education and skill levels. In recent months, Beijing has launched a string of initiatives to aid graduates and other young people as they seek employment.

For instance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is running a campaign from July to December to support jobless youth and college graduates with services such as career guidance sessions, referrals and training opportunities.

But unemployment among this age cohort remains high, fuelled by a mismatch between jobs and expectations in a challenging economic environment where domestic demand has yet to make up for shortfalls in traditional growth sectors like real estate.

“The market is quite rough,” said He Yue, a computer science graduate currently based in Beijing. After receiving her diploma from a university in Chongqing, she has spent over two months looking for a suitable job.

After sending in dozens of applications for media operations roles in the national capital – a field where she has prior experience – He has only received one offer, which failed to meet her salary expectations of 6,000 yuan (US$835) a month.

“The offer was only for a base pay of 4,000 to 5,000 yuan. After deducting living expenses such as rent, transport and meals, I’ll be left with around 1,500 yuan or less,” she said.

The role also required frequent overtime, which she said she was reluctant to take on at that wage level.

Unlike many of her friends who are planning to apply for postgraduate programmes, He said she would continue her job search, possibly shifting focus to positions in Hangzhou, China’s rising tech hub on the east coast.

Nearly 3.9 million people signed up for the postgraduate entrance exam this year, as many young Chinese are pursuing master’s degrees to gain a competitive edge amid cutthroat competition for entry-level positions. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for those aged 25 to 29, also excluding students, stood at 6.9 per cent in July, up from 6.7 per cent in June.

China’s overall urban jobless rate edged up to 5.2 per cent in July, after holding at 5 per cent for the two months prior.

Good article on the current job market for young people. It ain’t pretty.

As I have said before, 12 million new graduates joining the work force this summer adds even more pressure to the already intense competitive environment, and the irony being that this is probably the generation that received the best quality education of all time, only to graduate and couldn’t find work.

The deflationary spiral continues. We’ll see how long before the leadership figures out that they need to change course and abandon neoliberalism altogether (not very likely if we’re being honest).

[-] P1d40n3@hexbear.net 23 points 2 hours ago

Please forgive me if this is obvious, but what should the CPC be doing to get this unemployment rate down? Could increased domestic consumption really reverse this trend?

[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 18 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Yes, factories and businesses are not expanding and many are even downsizing because of over-investment and compounded by deflation. Unstable employment means people prefer to save, rather than spend, so the aggregate demand drops even further, leading to more deflation, and even more businesses downsizing.

To promote domestic consumption, the government has already spent massive amounts on subsidies on various electronic gadgets and EVs, but that only treats the symptom, not the disease itself. As expected, the subsidies are already giving highly diminished returns by the last couple months. Ironically, this made businesses become even more dependent on the export markets, so as to recoup their costs through earning foreign currencies.

The core issue i.e. the disease goes much further and deeper into the roots of the Chinese economic model, which unfortunately, like many countries, is heavily influenced by neoclassical economics. Furthermore, a major watershed moment occurred during the 1994 Tax Sharing Reform, which led to a twisted form of decentralization in governance, and the unexpected consequences of local governments seeking their own sources of revenues (from private capital and billionaires, and from speculating land prices) to the extent that the central government has failed to exert control over.

I won’t be repeating myself because I have written this many times (and happy to elaborate if you wish) but the end result of all these led to massive wealth inequality. The young people who should be spending simply doesn’t have the purchasing power, while the older people who spent their life savings on real estate are now losing those wealth with the property market bubble imploding.

When the export economy was going well, and when the infrastructure/property investments were booming, these issues were very easily obfuscated by the overall positive trend of the economy. However, with tariffs imposed by foreign markets on China, and with the investment-led boom coming to an end, many of these issues - caused by wealth inequality - begin to rear their ugly heads.

The solution is simple yet will be heavily obstructed by the neoliberal ideologues. China simply has to stop following the IMF “balance the budget” playbook (of which China has excelled in keeping its deficit below 3% for most years) and the export-led growth model, again an instruction by the IMF for developing countries to “climb the global value chain”. By starting deficit spending to raise the income of the working people, it will give them the purchasing power to consume domestic products. The flipside is that Chinese exports will become uncompetitive, but this is exactly what we want, right? To end the export-led growth strategy.

I can keep going but I have written this many times, so just feel free to ask any questions you have. To be honest I have seen some Western leftists cheering for cheap Chinese products as if it is a win, which is strange considering that it means Chinese working class are getting paid less in order to remain competitive in the “free market” to provide cheap goods for wealthy Western countries to consume.

[-] companero@hexbear.net 9 points 1 hour ago

Doesn't China already have a pretty high debt-to-GDP ratio? And they don't have the infinite USD printer to fall back on.

Unfortunately I don't think China will change course on economic matters until after their geopolitical confrontation with the US comes to a head.

[-] jack@hexbear.net 4 points 35 minutes ago

And they don't have the infinite USD printer to fall back on.

If the money you print goes to socially valuable labor that generates more than it costs, you kinda do have infinite money (as much as you have the economic development to make use of, at least).

[-] CleverOleg@hexbear.net 1 points 23 minutes ago

Call me an optimist, but I am hoping that as neoliberalism is being torn down and discredited across the Global North right now, China will eventually have to see the light for themselves. There’s still a long way to go but I hope China isn’t the last ones to figure it out.

[-] ColombianLenin@hexbear.net 9 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Could China's strategy be focused on either waiting for a major economic collapse on the US or maybe trying to avoid shaking the US economy too much to avoid a direct confrontation from them?

[-] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 13 points 1 hour ago

what should the CPC be doing to get this unemployment rate down?

There was no unemployment in the USSR. There is no unemployment in Cuba. The answer to "there aren't enough jobs, what can the government do?" is usually just "let the state create jobs" in my opinion.

Millions of trained professionals without a job? Wonderful. Open up state companies paid for by state funding (central bank of China can create any amount of RMB), hire those people. Now you don't have unemployed people, and you have the additional output that those firms are generating.

[-] waluigiblunts@hexbear.net 2 points 10 minutes ago* (last edited 7 minutes ago)

Now you don't have unemployed people, and you have the additional output that those firms are generating.

Additional output for whom? Chinese domestic consumption is weak and export markets are oversaturated. Who's going to consume this extra output that's being generated?

Of course, one option is to retool this excess labor into military production and start WW3.

[-] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 9 points 1 hour ago

5 Canadian soldiers suspended after Nazi salute video emerges

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/soldiers-hateful-conduct-nazi-salute-1.7612928

[-] egg1918@hexbear.net 3 points 17 minutes ago

surprised-pika

[-] CleverOleg@hexbear.net 2 points 33 minutes ago* (last edited 33 minutes ago)

Justin Podur x Jon Elmer video on the Resistance, posted yesterday.

I’ve only just started this video but when these two get together I always learn a lot about what’s going with the Resistance.

[-] musicenjoyer@hexbear.net 2 points 38 minutes ago* (last edited 38 minutes ago)

UN warns food aid cuts hits 500k in Cameroon TeleSur

The United Nations has warned it will have to suspend life-saving humanitarian aid for over a half million refugees in Cameroon.

The urgent suspension of this humanitarian assistance will take effect at the end of August without new and much-needed emergency funding.

The UN’s World Food Programme, which provides food to 523,000 people, has already been scaling back critical operations.

In the Gado refugee camp, refugees are now receiving only half of their daily food needs, the UN agency stated in a release.

This increasingly dire situation is forcing families to adopt negative coping strategies like skipping meals or selling their limited belongings.

The WFP said it has already been forced to end critical assistance for 26,000 refugees in one northern camp.

Gianluca Ferrera, the WFP’s country director in Cameroon, said the agency has reached a critical and urgent humanitarian tipping point.

He added that without immediate funding, children will tragically go hungry, families will suffer, and lives will be lost.

The UN body said it needs a total of $65.5 million to sustain humanitarian assistance through January of 2026.

The rising numbers of refugees in Cameroon are fleeing multiple crises, including prolonged conflict and persistent instability in the region.

Last year, Cameroon overtook Burkina Faso on the Norwegian Refugee Council’s list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises.

Source : https://www.telesurenglish.net/un-warns-food-aid-cuts-hit-500k-in-cameroon/?noamp=available

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 37 points 4 hours ago

The Russian cargo plane Ilyushin IL-76TD (registration RA-78765), sanctioned by the United States since 2023, which landed in Brazil last Sunday (August 10, 2025) and departed for Bolivia and Colombia on Wednesday (August 13, 2025), continues with unexplained trajectories. This weekend, the aircraft is in Havana, Cuba, after landing on Venezuela, among other destinations, evidence of an unusual mission shrouded in mystery.

The Brazilian government has not yet explained why the aircraft entered the country and remained for three days at the Brasília Air Base, and the Brazilian Air Force has declined to comment. There are also no details about the cargo or the crew. It is believed that this is merely a mission to supply ammunition to Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba by Russia, Brazil, and Colombia, especially given the aircraft's history of commonly transporting weapons to Venezuela and Cuba on routes that included North Korea and China.

[-] jack@hexbear.net 29 points 4 hours ago

putin-wink redacted-1 redacted-2 maduro-salute

[-] companero@hexbear.net 32 points 4 hours ago

I get the feeling that Russia's offer during the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul a couple months ago was the true last chance for a compromise.

Seems like Russia really is stalling now. That's probably why Putin offered another bilateral meeting with Trump in Moscow (which was refused), and why he "offered" some concessions. Putin knows that Ukraine will never willingly give up the Donbass, which is a precondition for any deal, set in stone.

I'm still feeling confident in my prediction for a potentially war-ending Russian offensive within ~6 months. Meanwhile Ukraine and its backers are going to ramp up their long-range missile strikes on Russia (as shown by the reveal of their new Flamingo missile and alleged Sapsan production) in a desperate attempt to force Russia to come crawling back to the table. I suspect it won't work.

[-] Doubledee@hexbear.net 18 points 2 hours ago

I just don't see how you get to negotiation until someone is genuinely beaten. There's no compromise diplomatic end to this that actually deals with the reasons the conflict started.

Ukraine can't be allowed to have an army and function as an ally to NATO and hostile countries to Russia's west, if the conflict ends with that as an open possibility we are only delaying the resumption of the war.

But unilateral disarmament is also not something Ukraine can be expected to accept unless it's truly over, that's complete capitulation. And any security guarantee that might try to bridge the gap is not tenable because that's what the Minsk framework tried and it clearly didn't work.

[-] CoolerOpposide@hexbear.net 23 points 4 hours ago

Does Ukraine know that Russia is like... really big and that a few potshots into their territory is not the same as having 20% of their country occupied?

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 16 points 2 hours ago

It doesn't matter whether the Ukrainian state knows this or not. The state isn't in control of Ukraine, a mish mash of dozens of different fascist militias are and they are totally uncompromising. They are fanatics who will kill anyone who attempts to compromise.

The only peace for Ukraine is these powers being eliminated and a state being properly empowered with control over the region.

[-] da_gay_pussy_eatah@hexbear.net 28 points 4 hours ago

You have to understand, these guys learned everything they know from Zionists who believe that sending a couple tiny unguided rockets is essentially the Holocaust.

[-] musicenjoyer@hexbear.net 14 points 4 hours ago

⚔️ Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades: — Scenes of Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades shelling enemy soldiers and vehicle gatherings east of Al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis, with a 107 rocket.

https://t.me/PalestineResist

[-] CoolerOpposide@hexbear.net 49 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

After an insane few months, I finally had the rare combination of time+energy to write my Inside the Zohran Campaign Retrospective for anybody I lead on about it for so long.

Please enjoy! left-unity-4

Update: mods please don’t remove I was not around for the Zohran c/electoralism discourse

[-] Vingst@hexbear.net 25 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Can anyone point me toward recent casualty cause figures? I saw one before fiber optic drone adoption saying like 8% small arms, 20% artillery, 75% drones. theweek.com/politics/death-drones-upend-rules-war-ukraine says 80% drones

https://youtu.be/bzMFnPDg7MI?t=31

[-] CoolerOpposide@hexbear.net 29 points 4 hours ago

75% drones is so fucking scary dude. War between China and the US would be a nightmare

[-] ColombianLenin@hexbear.net 22 points 2 hours ago

War between China and the US would be a nightmare

That would be 99% deaths from nuclear fire

[-] WeedReference420@hexbear.net 1 points 44 minutes ago

World War 1 only the landmines fly

[-] Vingst@hexbear.net 16 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

The russians have ones that fire a stripped AKS-74U and recoilless grenade launchers. Ukraine has recoilless shotgun counter drones. isntrael has ones with stripped m4 carbines, that was hunting for survivors in a bombed field hospital, according to a doctor who was on the ground in Gaza.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1yTu2jZYOg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As_cifXH1Fs

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7893vpy2gqo

[-] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 3 hours ago

I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

Link 1:

Link 2:

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[-] musicenjoyer@hexbear.net 28 points 6 hours ago

❗️Israeli War Minister Israel Katz is currently holding a meeting to approve plans for the occupation of Gaza City, with the participation of Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, the head of the Operations Directorate, the head of Military Intelligence, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, representatives of the Shin Bet, and other senior security officials.

https://t.me/thecradlemedia

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this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2025

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