Beloved J

In this @PremiumTimesng investigation, I documented how the Nigerian market is dominated by Fat-filled powder, a cheap milk substitute made by replacing original milk fat with vegetable fat, often from palm oil. They are not sold as milk in the countries they are manufactured.

ANALYSIS: African countries keep mum as US blockades, starves Cuba premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines…

The Making of the Boko Haram Army humanglemedia.com/the-making-of-…

Read the Boko Haram story -- the very beginning that was hidden from us, but which @HumAngle_ 's Managing Editor, @WaasiShaffii has only just unraveled. #TheBHArmy humanglemedia.com/the-making-of-…

“She laughed with me; her laughter, the brightness of an overripe orange, swollen with citrus goodness. It warmed away the cold from the pool’s solemn embrace.” — Emmanuel Esomnofu afapinen.com/2026/03/26/don…

Lmao. I don't understand. He wanted her to say Lagatha or what?

I don't agree with everything here, but @carlterver makes some interesting arguments in this essay. afapinen.com/2026/03/19/mid…

“Nigerian literature is moving away from ordinary society,” writes Carl Terver, which has lead to what he calls “the middleclass problem of Nigerian writing.” Read essay to find out more: afapinen.com/2026/03/19/mid…

For @Dataphyte, I reviewed the #EpsteinFiles to better understand his interest in Africa; the released documents and accompanying media reports trace Epstein’s connections to African leaders and high-profile figures. Read below 👇: dataphyte.com/topic/internat…

Created this with @f_l_o_u_r_i_s_h to show all African faces we identified in #EpsteinFiles Disclaimer: In many instances, individuals named in the emails have publicly denied any formal association. Numerous meetings referenced in the exchanges appear to have been exploratory

Excellent analysis by @Alihashem on why Khamenei’s death does not mean the end for Islamic Republic. He argues it is built to withstand the Ayatollah's Assassination. Decapitation as strategy is unlikely to achieve US and Israel’s war goals. foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/28/ira…

"I think the story also questions the limits of dualism, although I am not sure the scriptwriters intended this."—Beloved John. afapinen.com/2026/02/20/the…

This is for the feminists saying rubbish. 1. You want logic from a victim who is that young, you are a fool. 2. You have all failed to consider the state of her mental health, that’s why the rubbish VDM said is appealing to you. 3. There is a reason why SPECIALISTS have first contact with victims, not fucking VDM and co. 4. The fact that you cannot stand your ground in the face of adversity makes you spineless and weak. Please be a pick me that you were born to be. 5. That girl is VERY young, this is so much for her to navigate, yet you withdrew grace from her and symbolically flung her under the bus, despite the fact that her case was not handled ideally. 6. I choose to believe her until conclusive proof shows otherwise, because I have also been made to say things under duress. Many of us have. Please use your brain. 7. On the 0.1% chance that she hallucinated such a detailed case of hey own rape, should that not tell your empty brain that she still needs professional help?? Especially if nobody’s reputation is on the line??? Fools.

@Fifibillions @Lagosdsva

Jesus appears to have a God complex. lol. As opposed to what?

@faree_for_real Very crazy and brazen.

Misogyny is so crazy

Emails released by the U.S. Justice Department trace a years-long friendship between Jeffrey Epstein and Karim Wade — the son of Senegal’s former president — who was jailed for corruption. occrp.org/en/scoop/epste…

From a geopolitical standpoint, this is probably the most interesting Epstein email: an exchange between him and Peter Thiel in which Thiel says that the grand "plan" of U.S. foreign policy is to make the world "a mess" in order to be less involved abroad. The idea being, I imagine, that if everyone is warring and divided, they're kept weak vis a vis the U.S. and U.S. intervention becomes unnecessary. Which is, incidentally, pretty much what happened during WW2: the US let Europe and Asia bleed each other dry before stepping in at the end as the last economy standing - which is essentially how American hegemony was born. It's the famous Harry Truman quote: "If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible."

If you haven't read this book, you can buy it here: selar.com/y3317c6v7d

Who could have expected Mark Carney, a liberal establishment figure if there ever was one, to be the flag-bearer for the end of the US-led order? And from a podium at Davos, of all places? The more you think about it, though, the more it makes sense. Carney is, at heart, a central banker. As such he understands the power of words and beliefs better than anyone: when you strip things down to their core, a world order - like trust in a currency or a financial system - fundamentally relies on the maintenance of belief. Systems of power exist because participants act as if they exist. That's pretty much it: perception is reality. Once participants acknowledge the fiction as Carney just did (he literally started his speech announcing he'd "end the pleasant fiction" of the US-led order), the system itself unravels. This is incidentally a formal concept in game theory: the shift from private knowledge to common knowledge is what triggers cascades. Carney, with his background, ought to have known this was his most potent weapon facing Trump's America: "Trump has the economic and military might. But I have something his power rests upon: I can shatter the collective belief that sustains it." He's even explicit about this being his thinking: his entire speech revolves around Vaclav Havel’s famous shopkeeper analogy and the fact that the power of the Soviet Union rested on "everyone’s willingness to perform as if it were true," on "living within a lie." As Carney puts it, "when even one person stops performing, the illusion begins to crack" and the entire "system’s power" starts to crumble. Today, that "one person" was him. Make no mistake, Carney’s speech at Davos may prove to be one of THE most important speeches made by any global leader over the past 30 years. This is genuinely epochal stuff. More than anything, what it means is that, to the extent it even existed at all, the West irremediably lost the Second Cold War: a Cold War requires two competing systems. Carney just announced that one of them simply no longer exists. This is the topic of my latest article: an in-depth analysis of Carney's speech and its immensely consequential implications for what comes next. Enjoy the read here: open.substack.com/pub/arnaudbert…