Journalist killings reached a record high in 2025 — the deadliest year since CPJ began collecting data more than three decades ago. Israel was responsible for two in three of these killings, driving the total number to 129 killed last year.
Read CPJ’s #2025KilledReport: cpj.org?p=553549
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s recent comments about migration weren’t just wrong, or offensive, they were a distraction.
There’s a reason billionaires keep stoking anti-migrant sentiment, here’s what they don’t want you to realise… 🧵1/10
🇳🇬🇺🇸 Excellent analytical piece here by my GI-TOC colleagues on the US air strikes in Nigeria.
Not only is the narrative pushed by the Trump administration misleading, the strikes are likely to be counterproductive, legitimizing Lakurawa & damaging the quality of future intelligence.
A gift indeed.
P.S. The quote above is by no means the most relevant or important detail of the story, but it made me chuckle.
Ft. niche Essex-related GIF below.
"The first organised criminal convicted of selling pink cocaine in the UK was also jailed last December. His main market was Essex, a consumer culture that seems almost ready-made for pink cocaine."
Great article by @maxdaly.bsky.social on the not-so-cocainey
cocaine increasingly common in the UK.
🇵🇸🇮🇱 UN commission has now concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza...
...joining an already long list including the UN Special Rapporteur, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty, MSF and Israeli civil society orgs.
Will Western governments finally now admit it too?
🇵🇸🇮🇱 "The world's leading association of genocide scholars has declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
A resolution passed by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) states that Israel's conduct meets the legal definition as laid out in the UN convention on genocide."
🇧🇯 Over the years, JNIM have been extending their influence & operations further and further south. And last week they attacked in Borgou department - the furthest south they have ever attacked.
See the thread below for details on JNIM operations in the Beninese border area with Nigeria ⬇️
🇮🇱🇵🇸 “Lawyers I have spoken to believe that there is evidence that Israel followed war crimes, committed by Hamas when it attacked Israel, with very many of its own, including the crime of genocide.”
☀️ Sun
🏖️ Beach
🍺 Greek beer
📖 Light reading on fascism courtesy of @iandunt.bsky.social & @dorianlynskey.bsky.social
Can think of worse ways to spend your honeymoon!
📶 Very cool article in the GI-TOC West Africa Observatory's latest Risk Bulletin on the illicit trade in Starlink devices and their use by violent extremists and other armed groups in the Sahel
Setting aside the argument that political parties should act according to some principles rather than just vote-chasing, point number 2 is key: moving right on immigration to win back votes from the far right *does not work*.
I wrote a piece about ketamine, and why Gen Z are into it
unherd.com/2025/03/ket-...
📈 Just yesterday, the UK Home Office published the findings from its most recent wastewater analysis used to measure illicit drug consumption.
It found that between 2023 and 2024, ketamine consumption increased by 85%, the most of any drug included.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
📈 One of the key findings from the GI-TOC's most recent European Drug Trends Monitor was that ketamine is becoming increasingly popular in Europe.
Cheaper than cocaine and with higher purity levels, ketamine is widely available in cities across the continent.
globalinitiative.net/analysis/eur...
🇪🇺 "Malgré une répression renforcée dans les grands ports européens, la cocaïne continue d’inonder le marché. Les trafiquants s’adaptent : au lieu d’abandonner, ils déplacent leurs routes [...]. Résultat : moins de saisies, mais une disponibilité toujours aussi élevée."
GI-TOC / Daniel Brombacher
📈 If a full-blown trade war broke out, gold would be the best performing asset. This means that more people will try to get hold of it, says Marc Ummel, head of unit raw materials at Swissaid, “with more illegal mining and increased conflict linked to gold”.
www.tortoisemedia.com/2025/03/04/t...
🗣️ 'Arms are a force accelerator for all illicit markets - fundamentally, the ability to use violence is one of the primary means by which criminal groups exert control.'
🔫 GI-TOC's Deputy Director Tuesday Reitano explains why we have been focusing on European criminal markets, in particular arms.
🇮🇹 What does the recent police operation against the Cosa Nostra tell us about the current state of the Sicilian mafia?
'Many experts have argued that [its] heyday is over. However, [new information suggests] the Sicilian mafia appears to be more resilient than ever and may well be set to flourish.'
🌎 ‘The Trump administration’s blanket suspension of foreign aid & apparent disdain for environmental policies indicates a disregard for the socioeconomic factors driving OCG expansion & irregular migration in LatAm, which is likely to ensure their continuity & proliferation.‘
- @rusi.bsky.social
New GITOC report ⬇️
'Policing of mature drug markets has little overall effect on the supply of drugs within those markets. Additional enforcement, while important for other reasons, such as removing corrosive criminal actors, appears to have no clear impact on overall drug availability.'
⚠️ ‘The influx of cheap, addictive and very harmful synthetic drugs in a region with poorly prepared health systems and a very young population is a clear sign of lasting emerging drugs problem in the region'
What needs to be done?
1️⃣ Evidence-based action
2️⃣ Supply chain disruption
3️⃣ Harm mitigation
International trafficking routes for Kush, including both the pre-processed Kush and its active ingredients and other components.
🌐 The United Kingdom, the Netherlands and China are all implicated in the transnational trafficking of both pre-processed Kush and the precursor ingredients.
Crucially, criminal networks rely on a strongly localized protection system, but some appear to have also infiltrated state-embedded actors.
🆕 Really important new GI-TOC/Clingendael report on Kush has just been published!
A deadly drug containing either synthetic cannabinoids or the extremely potent nitazenes, Kush's epicentre is Sierra Leone -where likely thousands have died - but it has also spread to neighbouring countries.
Though far from perfect, we could learn a thing or two from Spain.
"Migration was not only a question of humanity but... where birthrate ranked among the lowest in the EU, it was the only realistic means of growing the economy and sustaining the welfare state."
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...
🇳🇬 HumAngle consistently producing quality journalism on the terror reigning in northern Nigeria at the hands of bandits and, in the story below, violent extremist group ISWAP.
“Over the years, ISWAP had shifted from mindless destruction to calculated economic exploitation. Kaka knew this well.”
My new piece for Global Initiative on the emergent fentanyl geopolitics between Canada and the US is out today.
If human rights abuses become a recurring issue within the joint force, it could erode public trust. Jihadist groups present themselves as protectors against state forces & pro-government militias. This has only consolidated their influence over the civilian population in areas under their control.
🇬🇧 A ‘380% increase in AI generated child sexual abuse material in the last year’.
The UK is to become the first country to introduce laws tackling the use of AI to create child sexual abuse material [making it] illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools that generate CSAM.
