The man who bought Sierra Leone. Jos Leijdekkers’s is one of Europe’s most wanted criminals. His greatest caper yet looks to be the takeover of a country. In half a decade Leijdekkers has turned Sierra Leone, a place previously best known for blood diamonds, into a hub for billions of dollars’ worth of Colombian cocaine, disguised as rice or plantain chips, which pass through each year en route to Europe. By funnelling a share of the profits to Sierra Leone’s political elite and funding large parts of the state itself, Leijdekkers has amassed perks that would be the envy of a Bond villain. He is believed to have a Sierra Leonean diplomatic passport. The police and military establishment bow to him, squadrons of container ships and submarines ply the shores at his command, and he is escorted in a motorcade by the presidential guard beneath a cloud of drones economist.com/interactive/18…

Iraqi tribesmen from Basra jointly with the Puntland Maritime Police Force successfully freed the oil tanker SIBU 1, ending a month-long pirate hijacking in the Gulf of Aden.

The Pentagon quietly added 37 troops to its public tally of personnel wounded during the Iran war this week, bringing the total number of wounded U.S. service members to 861. The increase includes 29 Navy sailors and eight Marines, but the Defense Department has not explained when or how the injuries occurred. The Navy said the sailors returned to duty after their unspecified injuries. Source: WaPo

Introducing Median Monitor, an interactive map of China's incursions into Taiwan's air defense identification zone: medianmonitor.com

The Houthis appear to be throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this war, drawing workers from civilian sectors into military training as fighting intensifies across multiple fronts. Video shows street-cleaning crews, waste-management workers, and garbage collectors in Houthi-controlled areas undergoing military training.

This is amazing. They're going to start requiring officers get tested before they can become Generals or Admirations. Why wasn't this done before!

How much do you reckon Jared Kushner and Steve Wicoff are making off Gaza right now? Billions, easily. Every bomb dropped, every ceasefire whispered — they find a way to turn death into dividends. These men don’t build peace; they auction it. And I’d trust them as much as I’d trust a rapist in a nun’s church — which is to say, not one fucking inch.