WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

26

2025

UN report details devastating impact of hostilities on children in Ukraine

WORLD

“The ongoing hostilities and occupation of parts of Ukraine by the Russian Federation have caused large-scale human rights violations and inflicted unimaginable suffering on millions of children. Their rights have been undermined in every aspect of life, leaving deep scars, both physical and psychosocial,” said Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights office. Between 24 February 2022 and 31 December 2024, 669 children were killed and 1,833 injured, many as a result of the extensive use of explosive weapons in populated areas. Of these, 521 were killed and 1,529 injured in territory controlled by Ukraine, and 148 were killed and…

Mar

25

2025

By RAYYA AL MUHEISEN

Nowhere to Call Home: A Mother’s Strength Amid Winter in Gaza

WORLD

MAHER sits on his mother’s lap, his small hands gripping the edges of her scarf as he peers out, frowning at the tent above him. “I don’t like this tent,” he says with a shy smile. Maha looks at her son and understands. How could he? He once had a home – a place with walls, a roof, and a safe space for his toys. Now, all he sees is a fragile shelter that barely keeps out the cold. “Why don’t you put a tarp on the ceiling?” he asks, his voice soft and curious. Only in Gaza do children…

Mar

25

2025

By The African Mirror

Violence Triggers Record Displacements in Port-au-Prince: Over 60,000 People in a Month

WORLD

IN just one month, intense violence has forced over 60,000 people to flee—yet another record in Haiti’s worsening humanitarian situation. For years, gang violence, displacement, and instability have gripped Port-au-Prince and large parts of the country, each wave of attacks deepening the suffering of already vulnerable communities. However, in the last two months, the security situation has sharply deteriorated even further in the capital, with escalating attacks on civilians, eroding the few remaining gang-free areas, and forcing repeated and record displacements. The Port-au-Prince airport remains closed and the capital is under siege. Escalating violence has heavily impacted communities in several…

Mar

25

2025

By JESSICA KUTZ

The uphill battle to bring women into construction jobs could be lost under Trump

WORLD

This story was originally reported by Jessica Kutz of The 19th. Meet Jessica and read more of her reporting on gender, politics and policy. FOR decades, women have worked diligently to carve out a space in the construction workforce, where discrimination and sexual harassment have kept the predominantly male industry, well, male. Across the country, they organized for recognition. First in small committees that cropped up in places like Fort Worth, Texas, where in 1953, women came together to create their own support network later called the National Association of Women in Construction. Over the years they worked with their…

Mar

24

2025

By JONATHAN ESTE

Has Donald Trump been outfoxed by Putin and Zelensky?

WORLD

THIS article was first published in The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email newsletter. Sign up to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox. Donald Trump likes to use the phone. In his (ghostwritten) bestseller, The Art of the Deal, he talks of making between 50 and 100 calls during the average working day and then going home and picking up where he left off. He found his predecessors in the White House puzzling because, apparently, they didn’t tend to use the telephone: “If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most…

Mar

24

2025

By AHMET T. KURU

Arrested and stripped of degree: Twin moves to bar Istanbul mayor from ballot suggests Turkey’s Erdogan is really worried this time

WORLD

ISTANBUL Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu had expected to become Turkey’s opposition presidential nominee on March 23, 2025; instead, he lost his freedom and a college degree. On March 18, the politician – seen as a powerful rival to long-ruling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – saw his bachelor’s degree revoked by Istanbul University. A day later, Imamoglu was arrested along with staff members and a district mayor of Istanbul. As an expert on Turkish politics, I believe the timing of these two measures suggests that Erdogan is really worried that Imamoglu poses a serious threat to his 22-year-long rule. The 100-plus…

Mar

24

2025

By JENNIFER MERCIECA

Donald Trump’s nonstop news-making can be exhausting, making it harder for people to scrutinize his presidential actions

WORLD

LIKE many other news organizations, The Associated Press maintains a “live updates” page, which posts the latest from the Trump administration in a ticker tape-like live scroll, with multiple updates per hour, 12 hours a day. President Donald Trump has kept the ticker busy. “Trump is moving with light speed and brute force to break the existing order and reshape America at home and abroad,” an Associated Press reporter wrote on Feb. 22, 2025. Many Americans find the amount and pace of news exhausting, confusing and overwhelming. “How do you push back against a tidal wave?” political communication expert Dannagal…

Mar

22

2025

By NATASHA LINDSTAEDT

Ukraine war: how Zelensky rebuilt his relationship with Trump to turn the tables on Putin

WORLD

AFTER Donald Trump’s “very good and productive” phone call with Vladimir Putin earlier this week, all eyes were on his subsequent call with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Would it, as it did when they last met in the flesh on February 28 at the White House, descend into disastrous acrimony? Or would Zelensky manage to engage with the US President in a cooperative way that encourages him to see Ukraine and its leader in a more favourable light? The latter, it seems. In a post on his Truth Social site, Trump referred to their “very good telephone call”, which got…

Mar

22

2025

By The African Mirror

Ukrainians tortured, raped, executed by Russian captors, Human Rights Council hears

WORLD

THE Human Rights Council heard gruesome testimony of torture, rape and execution of Ukrainian detainees and soldiers allegedly committed by Russian forces, as a high-level independent probe into Russia’s full-scale invasion delivered its latest mandated report in Geneva. According to the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, enforced disappearances of civilians committed by Russian authorities have been “widespread and systematic” and likely amount to crimes against humanity. “Many persons have been missing for months or years and some have died,” said Erik Mose, Chair of the independent investigative panel, whose Commissioners are not UN staff nor paid for their work. “The…

Mar

22

2025

By The African Mirror

The end of eternal ice: Many glaciers will not survive this century, climate scientists say

WORLD

GLACIERS in many regions will not survive the 21st century if they keep melting at the current rate, potentially jeopardizing hundreds of millions of people living downstream, UN climate experts said, the first World Day for Glaciers. Together with ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, glaciers lock up about 70 per cent of the world’s freshwater reserves. They are striking indicators of climate change, as they typically remain about the same size in a stable climate. But with rising temperatures and global warming triggered by human-induced climate change, they are melting at unprecedented speed, said Sulagna Mishra, Scientific Officer at the World…