Sune Engel Rasmussen

I also spoke to a mother in Wales, whose 23 yo son died after taking one illegally bought Xanax pill.

“This is probably the biggest public health crisis for people who use drugs in the U.K. since the AIDS crisis in the 1980s," the director of one of Britain's leading drug charities told me.

I investigated how the drugs are sold online by suppliers in China, several of whom promised me that they can evade EU and British customs, and disguise the drugs in discrete packaging, such as cat food.

The opioids are so strong that even trace amounts can trigger a fatal overdose. They have been found mixed into heroin and recreational drugs like cocaine and MDMA, as well as counterfeit painkillers and antianxiety medication like Valium and Xanax

I spent months reporting this story about nitazenes, which have already killed hundreds of people in Europe and left law enforcement and scientists scrambling to detect them in the drug supply. For comparison, the most common street nitazenes are 50-250 times as potent as heroin.

Stronger Than Fentanyl: A Drug You’ve Never Heard of Is Killing Hundreds Every Year Ultrapotent synthetics, mostly from China, are easy to smuggle and mix into heroin, recreational drugs and gray-market pharmaceuticals.

MY LATEST: Fentanyl fueled the worst drug crisis the West has seen. Now, an even more dangerous drug is wreaking havoc faster than authorities can keep up.

The looming danger is an emerging wave of highly potent synthetic opioids called nitazenes. Read the full story:

www.wsj.com/health/healt...

A Syrian Death Factory Gives Up Its Secrets Under the Assad regime, Saydnaya prison became a mass-killing machine; ‘a symbol of shame for the whole world.’

Absolutely extraordinary reporting from @jmalsin.bsky.social who got rare testimonies from men who survived years in Syria's notorious Saydnaya prison, and in the process uncovered a mass killing of hundreds of prisoners in 2023 that we didn't know about. Must read:

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Reporter talks about exclusive interview with Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi Ailsa Chang talks with the Wall Street Journal's Sune Engel Rasmussen about his recent interview with Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi.

I spoke to @npr.org's All Things Considered about my recent exclusive interview with Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi:

www.npr.org/2025/07/04/n...

Exclusive | Iranian Nobel Laureate Says War Dealt Big Blow to Fight for Democracy One of Iran’s leading human-rights defenders warns that authorities there will turn on their own people to consolidate power in the aftermath of the 12-day war with Israel.

In an exclusive interview, Iran’s Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi tells me that Israel’s war dealt a blow to Iran’s struggle for democracy (which Israel claims to support). The war weakened civil society and will lead the Iranian state to crack down on any dissent

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Essay | Calls for Iranians to Rise Up Misunderstand Iran Decades of meddling have left Iranians wary of foreign ambitions. Many are also too busy running for their lives to take to the streets.

Calls for Iranians to rise up misunderstand Iran. Revolutions orchestrated by foreigners are tarnished with dishonor and treachery, especially Iran— for historical reasons. Insightful essay by Christopher de Bellaigue, one of the great foreign writers on Iran

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Israel’s War on Iran Is Costing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Day The price tag could constrain Israel’s ability to conduct a lengthy war.

Israel’s conflict with Iran is costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars a day. Interceptors for Iranian missiles are particularly expensive. The high price tag will weigh on Israel to wrap up the conflict quickly. My colleague Anat Peled reports:

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Israel’s Attacks Leave Iran’s Supreme Leader Exposed—With No Good Options Tehran’s bruising fight with Israel has left its military weakened and unable to respond in kind to Israeli attacks

The intelligence apparatus that has kept Khamenei in power for 4 decades is crumbling around him. He will spend the autumn of his life fighting to salvage the Islamic Republic.

"The ship that he stewarded has run aground,” @osto.bsky.social told me

My story:

www.wsj.com/world/middle... #iran

Exclusive | Iran Orders Material From China for Hundreds of Ballistic Missiles Tehran is seeking to rebuild its military prowess as it discusses the future of its nuclear program with the U.S.

Iran has ordered thousands of tons of ballistic-missile ingredients from China, as it seeks to rebuild its military prowess amid nuclear talks with the U.S., and after its missile program suffered a setback in Israeli attacks last year

www.wsj.com/world/iran-o...

Teenage Terrorists Are a Growing Threat to Europe’s Security Dozens of adolescents have been arrested in recent months for allegedly plotting attacks. Law enforcers are overwhelmed by a new generation of extremists being radicalized online.

Europol has launched a new task force to combat the recruitment of minors for terrorism and organized crime.

ICYMI, here's my story from last month about the growing threat to Europe from teenage terrorists, Islamists and well as right-wingers

www.wsj.com/world/europe...

U.K. Police Foil Terror Plot by Iranians on Israeli Embassy A group of men recently arrested in Britain had been planning an attack, officials said, a development likely to ramp up tensions between Israel and Iran.

The five Iranian men who were arrested across the U.K. over the weekend are suspected of plotting an attack on the Israeli Embassy in London - the latest in a long-established pattern of Iranian agents targeting Israeli diplomats abroad. Story by Max Colchester and me

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Exclusive | U.S. Orders Intelligence Agencies to Step Up Spying on Greenland The push underscores the seriousness of President Trump’s intent to acquire the island from Denmark.

To those surprised that one ally would spy on another, remember that under Obama, the Danish intelligence service helped the NSA spy on Angela Merkel and other European politicians

www.wsj.com/world/greenl...

Man caught with 2 ecstasy-filled suitcases in Ibiza after slipping through Dutch customs A 22-year-old Dutchman was arrested at Ibiza airport, trying to enter the island with two suitcases filled to the brim with ecstasy pills. It is not clear how the man slipped through Dutch customs wit...

Gotta hand it to him, it's pretty bold: 20 yo Dutch man was caught trying to smuggle 50kg of ecstasy into Ibiza. His two suitcases were filled to the brim with 163,000 pills, covered only by the zip-up partition.

nltimes.nl/2025/05/05/m...

In Europe, most young terrorist suspect are radical Islamists. In the U.S., the problem is mostly with right-wing extremists.

One expert told me that, similar to how ISIS' caliphate was a main exporter of jihadism, the U.S. has become a main exporters of far-right ideology

Teenage Terrorists Are a Growing Threat to Europe’s Security Dozens of adolescents have been arrested in recent months for allegedly plotting attacks. Law enforcers are overwhelmed by a new generation of extremists being radicalized online.

Terrorists in Europe are becoming younger and harder to find. My story about how the process of radicalization - of religious as well as right wing extremists - has sped up, and mostly happens at home, online.

www.wsj.com/world/europe...

Uppdrag granskning – Gängskolan Det börjar som en vanlig skoldag - innan den är slut kommer en pojke att ha skjutit sin klasskamrat i huvudet. Det är brutalt, men kanske inte så förvånande. Något har hänt i den svenska skolan. Drogf...

In Sweden, criminal gangs are using the country's free-choice system to plant students in specific schools to avoid rival gangs and tighten their grip on certain districts, according to report by SVT

www.svtplay.se/video/eb3YwJ...

Sweden Has the Tanks. Finland Has the Troops. Welcome to the Pan-Nordic Army. Nordic countries are pooling resources to counter Russia amid uncertain security guarantees from Trump’s White House.

“The Nordic countries have a unified security policy for the first time since the Kalmar Union in the 1400s,” @jensstoltenberg told me.

My story about how the Nordics have pooled their resources to confront Russia, leading the way for European defense

www.wsj.com/world/europe...

It is unclear what Trump wants with Greenland. A 1951 treaty with Denmark already allows him to beef up US military presence if he wants to. US companies can mine Greenland's minerals but investors won't pay for it.

Greenland's worry is that Trump wants territory, just for the sake of it

Greenlanders are Angry and Confused Over Unwanted U.S. Visit Greenland says the coming visit is an act of aggression as President Trump doubles down on pressuring the self-governing Danish territory.

It was spun as a feel-good trip to "celebrate Greenlandic culture", but in Greenland, it was met with fury. In Denmark, the PM dialled up her usually diplomatic rhetoric and is now in a full-on spat with the Trump administration. Our story:

www.wsj.com/world/greenl...

The US delegation to Greenland will no longer attend a dogsled race and "celebrate Greenlandic culture", but only visit American soldiers on the Pituffik base (far away from potentially angry Greenlandic civilians). Clear retreat after Greenlandic and Danish pushback

Is a ‘Green’ Revolution Poisoning India’s Capital? India promised to burn its trash mountains and safely turn them into electricity. But a New York Times investigation found hazardous levels of toxic substances around homes, playgrounds and schools.

And finally, if I can pick one more award winner, this investigation into the toxic pollution poisoning Delhi by
Maria Abi Habib and @bdentonphoto.bsky.social
(#couplegoals) is fantastic, too

www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/w...

The Killings They Tweeted In the past year the Israeli military has posted on social media footage of more than 1,300 strikes in Gaza. But who was actually killed?

This investigation by @joedyke.bsky.social and the rest of the team at @airwars.bsky.social into Israeli airstrikes in Gaza is hugely impressive

idf-tweets-gaza.airwars.org

Tracking Putin’s Most Feared Secret Agency—From Inside a Russian Prison and Beyond The spy unit that arrested a Wall Street Journal reporter is leading the biggest campaign of internal repression since the Stalin era.

There are so many inspiring winners this year. My colleague Evan Gershkovich was awarded for a deep dive into Putin's spy unit that arrested him - which he reported and wrote w the brilliant @drewhinshaw.bsky.social, Joe Parkinson and Tom Grove:

www.wsj.com/world/russia...

I'm so buzzed that my book "Twenty Years" has won an OPC (@opcofamerica.bsky.social) award. The judges call it "extremely well-written" and a "deeply reported and even-handed account of the Afghanistan War’s impact on ordinary Afghans... rather than on diplomats, generals and politicians"

The City Syria's Rebels-Turned-Rulers See as a Model for the Country's Future Idlib offers a glimpse of what Syria’s new leaders can create—though it came at a price.

Amid the destruction of Syria’s war, one place prospered. Here’s my story from Idlib about how a former forgotten backwater under Islamist rebel rule became a buzzing commercial hub:

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

The Price of American ‘Safety’ | Suzy Hansen A number of new books recount the horror America created and then left in Afghanistan. Can anyone grasp the realities of occupation and the "war on terror" if they haven’t been on their receiving end?

Wow, I'm very humbled by this long review of TWENTY YEARS in The New York Review of Books

It calls my book "devastating" and an example of immersive journalism "viewed by many journalists as the pinnacle of the craft, one that elevates mere reportage to literature"

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Europe’s Quest to Rearm Runs Into Red Tape, Lack of Cash—and Meditation The effort to get an abandoned Danish ammunition factory restarted exemplifies Europe’s struggle to boost its arms production.

Det er skam ikke første gang. Jeg interviewede hende sidste år til denne artikel: www.wsj.com/world/europe...