Julian Rademeyer
@julianrademeyer.bsky.social
Director - East & Southern Africa, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. www.globalinitiative.net Author of 'Killing for Profit’. Formerly at TRAFFIC and Africa Check. Views my own.
Pinned
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...
A “wasteland of neglect”. The ugly reality of the city that most G20 delegates to Johannesburg won’t see. Powerful reporting by Ayanda Charlie for BBC #AfricaEye youtu.be/y-F6cFevo_M?...
A City Held Hostage: Johannesburg - BBC Africa Eye Documentary
YouTube video by BBC News Africa
youtu.be
November 10, 2025 at 9:41 AM
A “wasteland of neglect”. The ugly reality of the city that most G20 delegates to Johannesburg won’t see. Powerful reporting by Ayanda Charlie for BBC #AfricaEye youtu.be/y-F6cFevo_M?...
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.
ANALYSIS | Myanmar’s scam economy poses growing threats to African security | News24
Cyber scam operations in Southeast Asia are highly sophisticated, industrial-scale enterprises that pressgang unsuspecting job seekers into servitude in shockingly exploitative conditions where they f...
www.news24.com
November 3, 2025 at 5:37 AM
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.
Reposted by Julian Rademeyer
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...
The Spiritual Jazz of Alice Coltrane | Adam Shatz
Alice Coltrane reinvented her adoptive Hinduism by interweaving it with the music of the Black church.
www.nybooks.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:28 PM
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...
Reposted by Julian Rademeyer
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...
www.cnn.com/2025/10/30/p...
Trump sets 7,500 annual limit for refugees entering US. It’ll be mostly White South Africans | CNN Politics
The Trump administration is restricting the number of refugees it admits annually into the country to 7,500 and they will mostly be White South Africans, a dramatic drop after the United States previo...
www.cnn.com
October 30, 2025 at 6:43 PM
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...
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 Wild Elephant in the Room
Conservationists seeking to restore elephant populations in a Malawian national park inadvertently upended human lives, revealing the risks of large-mammal translocations.
www.biographic.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:44 AM
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...
The school for wildlife traffickers
Chinese criminals are recruiting Malawian orphans into the ivory trade
economist.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:32 AM
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...
‘This was a slaughter, not an operation’: the favela reeling from Rio’s deadliest police raid
Residents of Vila Cruzeiro gather bodies after more than 130 were killed in pre-dawn assault
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:40 AM
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-...
Skinned for Profit: How Global Trade Is Driving Africa’s Donkeys to the Brink • The Revelator
Millions of animals are slaughtered each year for use in traditional Chinese medicine — a trade that’s devastating many African communities.
therevelator.org
October 30, 2025 at 5:21 AM
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.
@GI_TOC report proposes a fix.
A proposal to fortify South Africa’s organized crime laws against enablers
South Africa’s organised crime economy endures because a grey layer of professional enablers quietly provide the logistical and operational lifeblood that keeps criminal organisations nimble and resil...
globalinitiative.net
October 16, 2025 at 8:55 AM
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.
@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...
The growing illicit trade in South Africa’s ornamental plants
South Africa is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, with three globally recognized biodiversity hotspots and exceptionally high levels of endemism. However, this natural heritage is under th...
globalinitiative.net
October 13, 2025 at 2:51 AM
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...
Reposted by Julian Rademeyer
Something for the weekend : for once, 🇷🇺 spies funny instead of sinister.
#нетвойне
#нетвойне
Reporting for duty: Kremlin sends in new agents after Austria expels spies masquerading as journalists
Like many other spies, the two new agents stationed at the TASS bureau in Vienna blew their cover thanks to a fondness for pizza.
Like many other spies, the two new agents stationed at the TASS bureau in Vienna blew their cover thanks to a fondness for pizza.
Reporting for duty: Kremlin sends in new agents after Austria expels spies masquerading as journalists
In June 2024, Austria revoked the accreditation of two correspondents for the state-controlled Russian news agency TASS — Ivan Popov and Arina Davidyan — on the suspicion that they were not journalist...
theins.press
October 3, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Something for the weekend : for once, 🇷🇺 spies funny instead of sinister.
#нетвойне
#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?...
SA’s Gangster State Explained ft. Anton Taylor | Politically Aweh
YouTube video by Politically Aweh
youtu.be
October 3, 2025 at 5:42 AM
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
PODCAST | The Lead: Is SA the next Mexico or Brazil when it comes to contract killings? | News24
Hosted by seasoned broadcast journalist Graeme Raubenheimer, this is The Lead and this is the South African story.
www.news24.com
September 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
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.
Kidnapping, extortion and deaths — Mafia Land lifts the lid on cartels
Behind the facade of South Africa lies a brutal shadow-world ruled by mafias, cartels and crime syndicates locked in a ruthless war over the country’s riches. Mafia Land is the hair-raising tale of 12...
www.dailymaverick.co.za
September 29, 2025 at 5:08 AM
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...
Case against Mexicans postponed - Drive with John Perlman
John chats to Julian Rademeyer, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime on the case against the Mexicans who were detained during a raid on a Mpumalanga crystal meth lab being postpone...
omny.fm
September 29, 2025 at 5:05 AM
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.
Weekend essay | A warning from Mexico and Brazil: Stop assassination epidemic before it’s too late | News24
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, corr...
www.news24.com
September 29, 2025 at 5:02 AM
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...
The Gaza family torn apart by IDF snipers from Chicago and Munich
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
September 9, 2025 at 9:11 PM
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/...
Police and military weapons smuggled from Namibia are supplying Western Cape gangs | News24
Hidden in boxes of fresh flowers, AK-47s and pistols are making their way from Namibia into the hands of Western Cape gang members – contributing to violence amid a growing death toll from gang-relate...
www.news24.com
September 8, 2025 at 4:55 AM
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.
Russia’s Push to Recruit South African Women Triggers Probe
One company has a military drone factory and the government has started an investigation.
www.bloomberg.com
August 22, 2025 at 6:59 AM
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...
How John Hume allegedly schemed to defy global rhino horn trade ban
The State alleges that Hume, in association with his five alleged co-conspirators, knew or ought to have known that their enterprise ‘uses or invests, directly or indirectly (Hume’s) rhino horns, othe...
www.dailymaverick.co.za
August 22, 2025 at 3:25 AM
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...
August 21, 2025 at 6:16 AM
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 Incredible Disappearing Human Rights Reports
The State Department’s new reports whitewash the records of some of the world’s most notorious nations and targets Trump’s enemies.
theintercept.com
August 14, 2025 at 7:25 PM
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.
Reposted by Julian Rademeyer
The BBC lays out the facts about Israel's baseless claims that he was a terrorist: www.bbc.com/news/article...
Anas al-Sharif: Who was the Al Jazeera journalist killed by Israel in Gaza? - BBC News
Sharif was killed when Israel targeted a tent used by media in northern Gaza, alongside six others, Al Jazeera said.
www.bbc.com
August 11, 2025 at 6:43 PM
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...
August 11, 2025 at 5:37 AM
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.
Extra! Extra! Read All About Last Newspaper Hawker in Paris
www.nytimes.com
August 11, 2025 at 5:27 AM
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.