WORLD - The African Mirror

Apr

23

2025

Graydon Carter hired Christopher Hitchens, pissed off Trump and revealed Deep Throat. He calls himself a ‘beta male’

WORLD

THE editor of Vanity Fair, Radhika Jones, is stepping down after seven years. Amid the media buzz about who might take her role, long considered a plum one, is a surprising question. “Is it still a good job?” asked the New York Times last week. Some magazine editors have said no, one even saying, “I wouldn’t touch that job”. But Jones’ immediate predecessor, Graydon Carter, says it’s “still a great job for an enterprising editor”, though the golden age of magazines – including Vanity Fair – is clearly over. Carter’s new memoir recounts his time as editor from 1992 to…

Apr

22

2025

By JOEL HODGE and ANTONIA PIZZEY

Pope Francis has died, aged 88. These were his greatest reforms – and controversies

WORLD

POPE Francis has died on Easter Monday, aged 88, the Vatican announced. The head of the Catholic Church had recently survived being hospitalised with double pneumonia. Cardinal Kevin Farrell’s announcement began: Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. There were many unusual aspects of Pope Francis’ papacy. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas (and the southern hemisphere), the first to choose the name “Francis”, and the first to give…

Apr

22

2025

By JONATHAN ESTE

Trump takes a line from ‘world’s coolest dictator’

WORLD

WHAT a difference a dictator makes. Some world leaders get a rough ride in their Oval Office meetings with Donald Trump – most famously, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who the US president and his entourage publicly disparaged in their now-notorious meeting at the end of February. But not El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, the self-styled “world’s coolest dictator” – an autocrat whose country’s incarceration rate is the highest in the world – with whom Trump swapped a few friendly quips this week about authoritarian leadership. “They say that we imprisoned thousands. I say we liberated millions,” said Bukele about his…

Apr

22

2025

By DARIUS VON GUTTNER SPORZYNSKI

Why does Putin insist Ukranians and Russians are ‘one people’? The answer spans centuries of colonisation and resistance

WORLD

RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin does not seem interested in peace: Sunday’s missile strike on Sumy, the worst civilian attack this year, proves he is determined to expand into Ukraine at any cost. This is a war of ideas, narratives and myths – one that can be traced to the mid-1500s, when Ivan the Terrible, Grand Duke of Muscovy, declared himself the first “tsar” of all Russia. As part of his quest for power, Ivan the Terrible challenged King Sigismund I of Poland, who, as Duke of Rus, ruled over territories that now comprise parts of modern-day Ukraine. Russian rulers have…

Dec

22

2025

By ANDREW LATHAM

From truce in the trenches to cocktails at the consulate: How Christmas diplomacy seeks to exploit seasonal goodwill

WORLD

PRESIDENT Donald Trump is reportedly setting his sights on a Christmas peace deal in the Ukraine-Russia war. The timing is apt. Every December, political leaders reach instinctively for the language of goodwill. Meanwhile, diplomats the world over use the season to host parties at which gift-giving and booze are used to help foster friendships. The notion that the holiday season might bring a respite from conflict has deep roots in history. Medieval “Christmas peace” laws in northern Europe at one point punished crimes committed during the season with harsher penalties, enshrining in law a cultural sense of expectation for quiet…

Apr

19

2025

By ORION RUMMLER

Women made history in space long before the Blue Origin flight

WORLD

This story was originally reported by Orion Rummler of The 19th. Meet Orion and read more of his reporting on gender, politics and policy. ON Monday, Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle brought six women into space, roughly 62 miles above the Earth’s surface, for the first all-women crewed flight since a solo mission in 1963. The New Shepard launch vehicle has brought celebrities on brief joyrides to space since 2021, when Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos first took flight. It is fully autonomous and has no pilot. The passengers on Monday’s flight were Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, journalist Gayle King,…

Apr

19

2025

By ROSA RAHIMI and GHADA ABDULFATTAH

“Cash became a commodity”: The liquidity crisis compounding suffering in Gaza

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Rosa Rahimi and Ghada Abdulfattah For over a year, the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s military campaign and siege of the Gaza Strip has been compounded by the extreme difficulty of accessing cash in the enclave, intertwining the struggle for survival with the challenge of obtaining the physical bills required to pay for essential goods. The Israeli shekel is the currency in Gaza, and Israel has not allowed any new cash to enter the territory since before the war. Amid widespread destruction and societal collapse, banks and ATMs are unable to…

Apr

18

2025

By The African Mirror

UN Human Rights Office: At least 71 Lebanese civilians killed since November ceasefire

WORLD

THE United Nations Human Rights Office has reported that at least 71 Lebanese civilians have been killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire agreement took effect on November 27 last year, highlighting ongoing tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border. "According to our initial review, at least 71 civilians have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect on 27 November last year. Among the victims are 14 women and 9 children. People remain gripped by fear, and over 92,000 are still displaced from their homes," said UN Human Rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan. The spokesperson noted that…

Apr

18

2025

By CASSANDRA BURKE ROBERTSON

Federal judge finds ‘probable cause’ to hold Trump administration in contempt – a legal scholar explains what this means

WORLD

A battle between the Trump administration and federal courts over the deportation of more than 100 immigrants to a prison in El Salvador intensified on April 16, 2025. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg released an opinion saying that he had “probable cause” to hold members of the administration in criminal contempt. That potentially dramatic action was in response to the White House disobeying Boasberg’s March 15 order to halt flights taking those immigrants to El Salvador. “The Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order,” the 46-page, April 16 opinion says. Amy Lieberman, a politics…

Apr

18

2025

By MATHEW DOIDGE

‘Germany is back’: 3 ways NZ can benefit from Europe’s renewed centre of power

WORLD

IT’S unlikely many New Zealanders paid close attention to Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ statement late last year that “New Zealand and Germany are committed to enhancing their partnership”. Peters had been visiting Berlin two weeks after Donald Trump’s US election victory, but well before the real contours of the second Trump administration came into focus. The foreign minister’s diplomatic tone may have suited the less heated atmosphere of the time, but 2025 is a very different place. With the pillars of the international system, New Zealand depends on crumbling, strong ties with an active Germany at the heart of Europe,…