Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

PODCAST | The Lead: Is SA the next Mexico or Brazil when it comes to contract killings? | News24

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · 11d

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

Hosted by seasoned broadcast journalist Graeme Raubenheimer, this is The Lead and this is the South African story.

Kidnapping, extortion and deaths — Mafia Land lifts the lid on cartels

3

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · 11d

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.

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

1 5

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · 11d

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

Weekend essay | A warning from Mexico and Brazil: Stop assassination epidemic before it’s too late | News24

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · 11d

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.

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...

The Gaza family torn apart by IDF snipers from Chicago and Munich

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Sep 9

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...

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

2 5

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Sep 8

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...

Russia’s Push to Recruit South African Women Triggers Probe

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Aug 22

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.

One company has a military drone factory and the government has started an investigation.

www.bloomberg.com

How John Hume allegedly schemed to defy global rhino horn trade ban

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Aug 22

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...

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

1 1

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Aug 21

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...

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Aug 14

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

1 2

Reposted by Julian Rademeyer

Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman.bsky.social · Aug 11

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

4 52 110

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Aug 11

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...

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Aug 11

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

1 7

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Aug 9

"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)

Zambia’s gold rush: A lucky strike turns lethal

Drought forced a group of farmers out of their homeland. Squatting near Zambia’s West Lunga National Park, one of them unexpectedly struck gold, setting off a deadly international frenzy.

open.substack.com

3 3

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Aug 1

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...

1 2

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Jul 12

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...

WEEKEND ESSAY | Toxic environment: Mkhwanazi bombshells expose need for major SAPS reform | News24

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 touchston...

Haiti's gangs have 'near-total control' of the capital as violence escalates, UN says

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Jul 3

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

Senior U.N. officials warn that Haiti’s gangs have gained “near-total control” of the capital and authorities are unable to stop escalating violence across the impoverished Caribbean nation.

apnews.com

Hired gangs unleashed on demonstrators in Nairobi

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Jul 2

“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...

The deployment of organized criminal gangs by politicians to counter peaceful protests in Nairobi in June has once again raised the spectre of violence in Kenya ahead of the 2027 general elections, th...

globalinitiative.net

1 1

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Jul 1

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

Hired gangs unleashed on demonstrators in Nairobi

The deployment of organized criminal gangs by politicians to counter peaceful protests in Nairobi in June has once again raised the spectre of violence in Kenya ahead of the 2027 general elections, th...

globalinitiative.net

3

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Jun 30

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.

Lesotho activist arrested after video on unemployment rates angers prime minister

Tšolo Thakeli had long campaigned on youth joblessness, but a post questioning Sam Maketane’s promises on work creation landed him in prison

www.theguardian.com

Nairobi hawker shot at close range by police declared brain dead | Africanews

Julian Rademeyer @julianrademeyer.bsky.social · Jun 30

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

The Kenyan mask vendor who was shot at close range by a police officer during a protest has been declared brain dead, his family announced on Sunday.

www.africanews.com