Tens of thousands of nationals from at least 77 countries have been trafficked into more than 100 scam compounds in Myanmar in recent years.Among them have been at least 75 South Africans.

I’m not a believer but I very much believe in the power of Alice Coltrane’s work. In the new @nybooks.com I write her musical and spiritual journey. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

This is what you enabled with all your talk of groceries and a funny laugh, with all your talk of shareholder profits, with your eye on mergers, your obsession with deregulation, and your “both sides” excuses. You have betrayed the promise of this country. www.cnn.com/2025/10/30/p...

Conservationists seeking to restore elephant populations in Malawi inadvertently upended thousands of human lives. The effect is a community that is traumatized—and turned against conservation, writes @rachelnuwer.bsky.social. “People in our community have come to hate elephants so badly.”

The school for wildlife trafficker. How Chinese criminals are recruiting Malawian orphans into the ivory trade. Fascinating article by @rachelnuwer.bsky.social in @theeconomistnews.bsky.social) economist.com/1843/2025/10...

More than 130 people were killed during the deadliest police operation against drug traffickers in Rio’s history www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Millions of donkeys are slaughtered each year - their skins feeding a multi-billion dollar Chinese traditional medicine market. The trade is devastating many African communities, writes @romangoergen.bsky.social therevelator.org/skinned-for-...

SA's Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA) contains a glaring gap: enablers who knowingly abet organised crime networks without directly participating in their dirty deeds are beyond its reach. A new @GI_TOC report proposes a fix.

Losing ground: South Africa is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries. However, this natural heritage is under threat from an expanding illicit trade in ornamental plants.More in this new ⁦Global Initiative report globalinitiative.net/analysis/the...

Something for the weekend : for once, 🇷🇺 spies funny instead of sinister. #нетвойне

SA’s Gangster State Explained. The brilliant Politically Aweh team dive into shocking allegations that our politicians, cops, and cartels might all be in the same WhatsApp group...literally. youtu.be/T5cWTbqwBEA?...

PODCAST | The Lead: Is SA the next Mexico or Brazil when it comes to contract killings

Behind the facade of South Africa lies a brutal shadow-world ruled by mafia and cartels locked in a ruthless war over the country’s riches. In his new book, @cowansview.bsky.social examinea 12 of the country’s most dangerous criminal syndicates.

Mexican cartels and the franchising of industrial-scale meth production on rural farms and remote smallholdings in South Africa omny.fm/shows/aftern...

South Africa has seen a disturbing pattern of assassinations of whistleblowers, witnesses, prosecutors, councillors, auditors, police and activists who confront the nexus between organised crime, corruption and state capture. The experience of Mexico and Brazil offers a stark warning.

Five-month investigation reveals how four members of one family were shot and killed in a single day and highlights a pattern in which Israeli troops target unarmed civilians www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Hidden in boxes of fresh flowers, AK-47s and pistols are making their way from Namibia into the hands of gangsters in South Africa – contributing to violence amid a worsening death toll from gang-related shootings. www.news24.com/southafrica/...

Russian companies are widening their campaign to find young African women to help fill a labor shortage, heightening concern many are being deployed in the Ukraine war effort.

The identity documents of indigent people were purchased or stolen as part of an elaborate scheme to fraudulently circumvent a 50-year-old global ban on the rhino horn trade. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

Historic gold price rally lures criminals and paramilitaries into illicit mining from the Amazon to South Africa and Sudan archive.is/2025.08.21-0...

The US State Department is whitewashing the records of some of the world’s worst human rights violators. Israel, El Salvador, South Sudan, & Eswatini, which will accept US deportees, got a soft touch. South Africa, which has led the war crimes case against Israel, received a pointed report.

The BBC lays out the facts about Israel's baseless claims that he was a terrorist: www.bbc.com/news/article...

Durban’s maritime port has become a significant trafficking hub for cocaine and heroin globally, including to Australia, the EU, the UK and Asia. Find out more in our new hotspot mapping report globalinitiative.net/analysis/map...

Ali Akbar started selling papers on the streets of Paris in 1974. Today he is considered to be the last newspaper hawker in France. Such is his renown that President Emmanuel Macron recently awarded him a Légion d’Honneur, the Republic’s highest order of merit.

"There is gold in the ground and death in the air. At the site of Zambia’s latest gold rush in the remote forest-fringed communities of Dengwe and Kikonge, Mufumbwe district, the stench of rotting bodies hangs thick." open.substack.com/pub/continen... (#MustRead via @thecontinent.org)

East and Southern Africa is a pivotal node for organized crime, connecting regional criminal markets to global networks. Find out more in our new report mapping out four criminal economies globalinitiative.net/analysis/map...

KZN Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has ripped open a long-festering wound, exposing profound institutional decay, bitter factional rivalries, and paranoia. The crisis must serve as a touchstone for meaningful reform www.news24.com/weekender/we...

An estimated 90% of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince is now under control of criminal gangs who are expanding attacks

“Organised criminal gangs have become a persistent feature of Kenya’s politics. Politicians and their financiers routinely hire them…to disrupt rallies, threaten or assassinate political rivals and election officials,” writes Ken Opala for the Global Initiative globalinitiative.net/analysis/hir...

How politicians unleashed organised crime gangs on demonstrators in Nairobi globalinitiative.net/analysis/hir...

Tšolo Thakeli had long campaigned on youth joblessness in Lesotho, but a post questioning Prime Minister Sam Matekane's job creation promises landed him in prison accused of sedition.

The Kenyan mask vendor who was shot at close range by a police officer during a protest has been declared brain dead

An analysis of over 100,000 posts on X reveals Grok’s inaccurate and conflicting verifications in responses regarding the Israel-Iran war.

"EVIDENCE OF DEATH" | After the abrupt end of US aid, the health system in central Mozambique descended into chaos. Spotlight and @groundup.org.za describe how the funding cuts affected hospitals. In the ensuing turmoil, children died. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/06/25/d...

With over-the-top claims of damage in Iran (Trump says decades; intel says months), the US is again experiencing a hallmark of authoritarian regimes: people learn to distrust the government on basic facts, which creates a dystopian information space where "nothing is true and everything is possible"

Last post to Fela Faku @chrisvick3.bsky.social @charles257.bsky.social @julianrademeyer.bsky.social @bevfromcapetown.bsky.social @thamikantuli.bsky.social @capemanchris.bsky.social @johnedwinmason.bsky.social @andrevlok.bsky.social youtu.be/tLGtQsXF53E?...

Littered with abandoned gold mines, eastern Botswana is drawing hundreds of informal prospectors as the precious metal’s price smashes records.

"Nearly 40% of stolen cars intercepted at British ports between 2021 and 2024 were destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose centralized location and access to seaports makes it a good hub for distributing cars across Africa. An additional 20% were headed to the United Arab Emirates."

Host: Are you saying the US did not see intelligence that the Supreme Leader had ordered weaponization? Rubio: That’s irrelevant Host: No, that's a key point Rubio: No it’s not… Forget about intelligence

Trump quoting an OSHIT account for confirmation of his strikes on Iran has a very special level of ick for me.

The soaring price of gold is fuelling a deadly war between gangs, miners and armed private security patrols, deep in the mountains of Peru. youtube.com/watch?v=9kop...

Zamrock emerged from the optimism of postindependence Zambia, fusing psychedelic rock with nationalist ambition. Its rise and fall mirror the promise — and the exhaustion — of a country built on copper jacobin.com/2025/06/heav...

Zambian women are being lured to work in terrible conditions in Pakistan, then abandoned without their passports or hope of getting home. And the man responsible is still profiting, despite the authorities knowing about. @thecontinent.org investigates continent.substack.com/p/unmasked-t...

"It is the total inhumanity and the cruelty..." Heart-wrenching film follows two doctors as they confront the slaughter in Gaza youtu.be/bycLTzFFkwk?...

‘An acting judge’s misunderstanding of the law delayed accountability for alleged State Capture crimes, unfairly embarrassed the National Prosecuting Authority, & demoralised courageous prosecutors fighting to restore faith in South Africa’s justice system.’ www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/...

Importantly, while Wagner Group mercenaries withdraw, fighters from Africa Corps - a Russian mercenary force intended to absorb Wagner's activities on the continent - will remain in Mali. www.bbc.com/news/article...

"When you strip away the trolling and shitposting, here’s what becomes clear: This is really a battle over how comprehensively to screw over poor and working people, largely to the benefit of the wealthy." newrepublic.com/article/1962... via @newrepublic.com

Somewhere inside Camp Lemonnier, an American military base in Djibouti, eight men, all convicted of serious crimes in the United States, are in limbo under the guard of officers from the Homeland Security Department www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/u...

What do a wildlife conservationist, a herd of trained elephants, a jazz composer, and an architect have in common? In the South African bush, this unlikely quartet is developing an AI-powered gate and sound system to help a swelling elephant population. By @edstoddardza.bsky.social

Deep in the mountains of northern Peru, a bloody war is being fought over gold. As its international price sets successive record highs above $3,000 an ounce, criminal gangs, illegal miners and established mining companies battle over the metal