Hey, this is Sham Jaff, your very own news curator.
Issue #417: There are moments when I fall in love with journalism all over again. Maybe during my reporting trip for The Guardian last week, but most importantly, it was a recent BBC Africa Eye investigation that really blew me away. Because of it, an entire company is now in ruins (and hopefully for good), and four million people are (probably) less at risk of overdosing on a combo of opioids so strong they’re forbidden everywhere. Another “highlight” of this issue: I’m taking a much closer look at the recent report on capital punishment in Iran (perhaps “lowlight” is a better word here). Plus, I’ll introduce you to two new genres for your Spotify Wrapped 2025, Filipino R&B and Bhojpuri pop, will make you want to search the entire internet for some world-class Malian cinema, celebrate a few scientific discoveries in Brazil and Mexico and maybe catch some mosquitoes for cash in the Philippines together (or not), and so much more.
This is normally the email that paid subscribers get, btw. If you liked it, consider signing up here. It would help me tremendously as an independent journalist to sustain myself and this newsletter.
That's it for now. See you next week?
Sham
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🔍 Estimated reading time: 20 min 🔍
You have access to all of my sources by clicking on what's underlined.
Big shout-out to Wikimedia Commons for the helpful maps.
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West Africa’s opioid crisis is linked to an Indian company – and now they’re being taken down
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What happened
(I just love stories like this because this is what made me want to become a journalist in the first place) A BBC Africa Eye investigation has found out that an India-based company is linked to the opioid crisis in West Africa.
Why this matters: Opioids have become a huge problem all over the world. They're cheap, easy to get and often sold on the streets without any proper regulation, and have caused public health crises in many different countries, specifically in the United States, Canada and elsewhere. In Nigeria, it is estimated that some four million young people are addicted to some form of opioid. Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire are also seeing the same problems.
Tell me more
The Indian company in question is Aveo Pharmaceuticals. Until recently, the company made a range of pills that go under different brand names and were made to look like real medicines. However, all pills were a mix of two very dangerous opioids, tapentadol and carisoprodol (this is a muscle relaxant so addictive it's banned in Europe; not in the US though). This particular mix is not licensed for use anywhere and can cause all sorts of problems; think difficulties breathing (!), seizures. Basically, you can easily overdose and die. Publicly-available export data show that Aveo Pharmaceuticals, along with a sister company called Westfin International, had been shipping millions (!) of these tablets to Ghana and other West African countries.
How did this all come to light?
The BBC World Service found packets of Aveo's pills on the streets of Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire, and traced them back to a factory in India. This is where it gets cool (forgive my being a nerd about this for a second): The BBC then sent an undercover reporter to India, posing as a fake businessman looking to supply drugs to Nigeria. Using a hidden camera, the BBC filmed one of Aveo's directors, Vinod Sharma, showing off the same dangerous products the BBC found for sale across West Africa. "Oh, all the teenagers in Nigeria love it <3", one of Aveo's directors, Vinod Sharma, says. "This is very harmful for the health. Nowadays, this is business."
Once the investigation aired, India acted fast, "what the actual f*ck? We promise we're regulating things very strictly", banned two opioids, raided the company's factory, and seized millions of pills. They've also pulled the company's license to produce and export these drugs. And: They’ve promised further legal action.
Good to know: In 2018, another BBC Africa Eye investigation found that tramadol, another opioid, was being widely abused in West Africa. In response, Nigerian authorities cracked down on the drug – with some success. Companies like Aveo then simply replaced tramadol with a stronger opioid combination, filling the gap left by the crackdown.
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Iran executed close to 1000 people in 2024 – that's 17% more than in 2023
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What happened
According to a report by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and France's Together Against Death Penalty (ECPM), Iran executed 975 people last year, which is a 17% increase from the year before. It's also the highest number of executions in 20+ years.
Why this matters: The crimes that are punishable by death in Iran are murder, rape, drug offenses, and broad charges such as "corruption on Earth" and "rebellion", which human rights groups say, "oh well, that's like sayin' you'll kill everyone who disagrees with you politically."
Tell me more
Here are some facts that I thought were worth pointing out in particular:
- The majority—503 people—were executed for drug-related charges. This is a big shift from earlier years, and it’s part of a trend where drug charges are the main reason people are sentenced to death.
- 419 people (about 43% of all executions) were executed for murder. Among them, 2 protesters were also charged with murder.
- 31 people were executed for political reasons, like being accused of crimes against the state, such as "enmity against God" or "corruption on Earth". This group included 9 Kurdish political prisoners and a dissident who was kidnapped from another country.
- 4 people were hanged in public.
- One child was executed, and there are still investigations into 3 other possible cases of children being executed.
- 31 women were executed, which is the highest number in the last 17 years.
- 5 of the people executed had psychosocial or intellectual disabilities.
- The people most affected by these executions are marginalized groups, like ethnic minorities, especially the Baluch.
- 80 Afghan citizens were executed in 2024, which is a big jump from 25 in 2023 and 16 in 2022.
- 90% of executions in 2024 (around 880 executions) were kept secret. Usually, the government announces more of them publicly.
- 649 people sentenced to death for murder were forgiven by the families of the victims, as part of Iran’s qisas laws (a system where victims’ families can choose to forgive or demand the death penalty).
The head of Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said, "you know, while everyone was focused on the conflict between Iran and Israel, the Iranian government took advantage of that distraction to secretly carry out 5 to 6 executions a day. They view Iranians demanding basic rights as its biggest threat. These executions are just a way for the government to terrorize its own people and maintain control." Then there's also the UN that the report writers are extremely mad at.
- Some hard-to-read details: I'll give you two names to remember. Abbas Karimi, a father of two, was hanged because his family couldn’t afford to pay the blood money (the amount the murderer’s family has to pay to avoid execution)—which was over one million euros. In another case, Ahmad Alizadeh was hanged, then brought down, revived at the victim’s request, and later executed again.
- Some good news: There's a point to campaigning. Two Kurdish women activists, Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi, were sentenced to death in Iran. However, because of strong public campaigns and international pressure, their sentences haven’t been carried out yet. They’re still in serious danger, though. Follow this Kurdish account on BlueSky for updates.
Why did the UN do?
Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, the head of ECPM (the French org against capital punishment), is calling out the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) for still working with Iran while the country is executing hundreds of people each year for drug-related crimes. He’s saying that by continuing to cooperate with Iran on law enforcement projects, the UNODC and the countries funding these projects are basically helping a system that’s responsible for these executions. It’s like they’re indirectly supporting it. His big point is that the UNODC needs to stop all its projects in Iran until Iran stops executing people for drug crimes. He’s also pushing for a moratorium—a pause—on the death penalty for crimes that aren’t the "most serious" under international law (like drug offenses). This pause, he says, should be a must before any kind of cooperation can happen again.
What now?
In March 2025, at the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission (FFMI) will present its final report on the human rights abuses committed by the Iranian government since the "Jin, Jiyan, Azadi" protests began Jina Mahsa Amini's death in 2022.
When the FFMI report is released, Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and ECPM are urging the international community—especially the UN Human Rights Council, the UNODC, and countries with diplomatic ties to Iran—to make the death penalty a major focus in their talks with Iranian officials.
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Bad
DRC: According to the faith-based non-profit Open Doors, 70 people, all of them Christians, were killed in a church last week, reportedly beheaded by members of an armed group that has ties to ISIS, the Allied Democratic Forces (I'm so tired of these ridiculous group names). (AOL.com) In other news, Pope Francis was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs last week. (AP News)
India: They're talking really loudly about marital rape laws in India again. Why? The Chhattisgarh High Court freed a man convicted of raping his wife, who later died. Marital rape is, by the way, not a criminal offense in over 30 countries. (Hindustan Times)
South Africa: World's first openly gay imam was shot dead in Gqeberha, while sitting in his car. Muhsin Hendricks was 57 years old. South Africa's Muslim Judicial Council said, "while we may not agree, we of course condemn the killing." (The Guardian)
Global: A report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) states that 2024 was the deadliest year for journalists in over 30 years, with at least 124 media workers killed. Most of them, nearly 70%, were killed by Israeli military actions in Gaza and Lebanon. The next most dangerous locations are Sudan and Pakistan, with six journalists killed in each. (CPJ)
Sudan: The country was suspended from the African Union. (Sudan Tribune)
Interesting...
Vietnam: Vietnam’s fertility rate is now down to 1.91 children per woman—barely above Brunei’s and significantly lower than the regional average of 2.0. This is the lowest it’s ever been, and it's been steadily dropping for the last few years. Why is this happening? Well, it’s a mix of work stress, financial struggles, and shifting societal norms—basically, more and more people are prioritizing careers and personal development over starting families. The Vietnamese government has been trying to boost birth rates with financial incentives, but so far, that’s done little to change people’s minds. The country’s also considering removing the two-child policy, but experts say that’s not enough. They’re calling for more practical measures—like affordable child-rearing and housing support (cough, it's actually that simple)—to really tackle this issue head-on. (VN Express)
Brazil: A Brazilian mayor allegedly staged his own shooting so that he could win some sympathy votes. Police say José Aprigio da Silva's allies paid two men US$88,000 to shoot him in the shoulder the night before voting. His opponent is like, "nah, that's BS". Now, the authorities are investigating if Silva knew about any of this. (Folha de S. Paulo)
Good
Mexico: I've talked about this technology before, and I'll talk about it again: lidar, or Light Detection and Ranging. Lasers (!) revealed an ancient Zapotec city, Guiengola, in southern Mexico. Basically, new research, led by a post-doctoral fellow from McGill University, Pedro Guillermo Ramón Celis, shot lasers from an aircraft to map out the land underneath dense vegetation, to "see" the structures and ancient remains that weren’t visible before. So, now we know that Guiengola was established around the 14th and 15th centuries and was a significant site for the Zapotec people. Researchers had a hint it existed, but lidar really brought the whole place into focus. They found that the city covered a massive area—360 hectares (890 acres)—and had over 1,100 buildings, walls, roads, temples, and communal spaces like ball courts. It was clearly organized into distinct zones for elites and commoners (ugh, classism), and there was even a river nearby. The city thrived for about 150 years, from 1350 to 1500, before it was abandoned shortly before the Spanish arrived in 1521. (LiveScience)
Brazil: Researchers have uncovered rock art (!) that's over 9,000 years old, and it’s located right next to dinosaur footprints from the Cretaceous period, around 66 million years ago. The discovery was made at Serrote do Letreiro, in the Sousa Basin, and it’s completely changing how we think about early human history. The ancient petroglyphs (complicated for, well, the rock carvings) were intentionally placed near the dinosaur footprints—some are even as close as just a couple of inches away. This suggests that "the artists" in question were not just passing by the prints but were engaging with them in some meaningful way. It’s as if they saw the dinosaur footprints and decided to immortalize them in their own art, which could mean that early humans had some kind of ritualistic or symbolic connection to these fossils. (Arkeonews) In related news, Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro has been charged with leading a conspiracy to overturn the government after he lost the election in 2022. (Le Monde)
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Watch...Cissé movies. Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé, one of Africa’s biggest cinema legends, has passed away at 84. Born in Bamako in 1940, his experience growing up under French colonial rule deeply shaped his perspective on power, resistance, and storytelling as a tool for reclaiming identity. His road to becoming a filmmaker wasn’t easy—there were no clear paths to cinema in post-colonial Mali, and opportunities were rare. But a scholarship to the Soviet Union’s VGIK film school in the 1960s changed everything for him. His films, like Baara (1978), Finye (1982), and the award-winning Yeelen (1987), tackled post-independence issues, mixing social commentary with West African mythology. Despite global recognition (even Martin Scorsese named Yeelen as one of his favorites), Cissé spent much of his life pushing for African cinema to thrive, fighting for funding, access, and the control of African stories.
Listen to... the Bad Bunny of Bihar. If you think Bollywood is where all the music action is in India, you’re seriously missing out on Bhojpuri pop. This regional music scene has been regularly blowing up with catchy beats and very wild, over-the-top music videos, making stars out of artists like Khesari Lal Yadav. His latest track, "Tedhe Medhe", is going viral. Bhojpuri is a language spoken in places like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, parts of Nepal, and even countries like Mauritius, Trinidad, and Fiji. The music? It’s perfect for everything from weddings to street parties to viral TikToks.
Read... "Africa’s Richest Man and His $20 Billion Oil Refinery From Hell". (This is a Wall Street Journal article, and it is behind a paywall, but I have access to it, so here's a quick summary:) If you think the world’s billionaires are all Western, meet Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person. He’s already made billions from his cement business, but now he’s focusing on a huge $20 billion oil refinery in Nigeria. The goal? To make Nigeria independent from foreign oil, so they don’t have to rely on imports. But this isn’t a smooth ride. Dangote’s described the journey as "hell." The project is massive, so just securing the funding and managing the logistics is a huge task. Then you have the issue of corruption in Nigeria or the infrastructure side of things (not always reliable, you'd need top-notch roads, ports, etc.), oil prices that have fluctuated, and so on. So, yeah. Now, you know the names and projects of at least one African billionaire. (This newsletter is highly, highly critical of billionaires, so don’t expect any glorification of his story here.) Read the article here.
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Filipino R&B I Dionela, born Timothy Dionela, is a 25-year-old Filipino R&B artist who’s been making waves since 2022. Influenced by artists like The Weeknd and Ne-Yo, his hit singles "Sining" and "Marilag" both hit number one on the Billboard Philippines Hot 100. I envy you if you're going to the Aurora Music Festival in May this year; he'll be there. The video above is a live performance of "Marilag", a fan super-favorite, and has garnered over 25 million views since last month.
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You can now make some money in one particular village in the Philippines if you help catch the mosquitoes that bring dengue fever.
There's been an increase in cases this year (around 40%), and officials hope that this is how they're going to stop this latest outbreak.
"But... if you reward this result............... what if people start breeding mosquitoes for cash?", say some critics.
I think that's a very valid question.
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Hey, I'm Sham, the person behind this newsletter. Since 2014, I email a bunch of strangers once a week, curating news headlines from Asia, Africa and the Americas. I work under the assumption that, here in the West (I live in Berlin, Germany), we don't read or know much about the global majority, aka the rest of the world.
My goal is to help you burst your Western-centric bubble.
If you want to know more about me, visit my website or follow me on Twitter or Instagram.
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