WORLD - The African Mirror

Feb

08

2025

How Trump’s Gaza plan does – and doesn’t – fit in with his pledge to put America first

WORLD

DONALD Trump welcomed the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to the White House on February 4 as the first foreign leader to visit Washington since his reelection as US president. At their post-meeting press conference, an unscripted Trump launched into his vision for a post-conflict Gaza. In just a few sentences, he expunged any remaining Palestinian hopes for a two-state solution in Israel. Trump suggested flattening what remains of the Palestinian settlement after 15 months of total war and forcing nearly 2 million people out of Gaza to make way for a US-controlled “Riviera of the Middle East”. As ever,…

Feb

08

2025

By RITA BAROUD

“I fear this calm”: Life during Gaza’s uncertain ceasefire

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Rita Baroud IT has been almost three weeks since the ceasefire – as the media are calling it – began, and I still cannot believe it. I cannot believe that the war has stopped, even temporarily. I cannot believe that we survived 15 months of hell. I cannot believe that I am still here. But the past weeks have also not brought the relief we dreamed of nor the sense of security we longed for. We waited for this day for so long. It was supposed to be a turning point,…

Feb

08

2025

By The African Mirror

More refugees risk dangerous sea journeys from Myanmar as crisis worsens

WORLD

SINCE the boat he was travelling on reached a beach in East Aceh, Indonesia, a month ago, Ali, 30, has been staying at a crowded site with some 380 other stateless Rohingya refugees who risked similar sea journeys in recent months. He is worried about his parents and siblings, who remain in the camp for internally displaced people in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State where he spent the last 13 years. Life there was never easy, but since late 2023, residents of the camp and communities throughout Rakhine State have been paying a heavy price amid a resurgence of conflict. …

Feb

07

2025

By The African Mirror

What Trump’s proposal to ‘take over’ Gaza could mean for Arab-Israeli relations

WORLD

US President Donald Trump has made the extraordinary suggestion that the US should seize control of the Gaza Strip and permanently remove its Palestinian inhabitants. Speaking to the press at the White House alongside the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said the US would “own [Gaza] and be responsible”. When pushed on the practicalities of such a move, Trump replied that the US would “do what is necessary” and develop the land into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. “It’ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of,” he said. The secretary of state, Marco…

Feb

07

2025

By KAREN JACKSON

How the ‘year of the wood snake’ could play out for China’s economy

WORLD

CHINESE people around the world have just celebrated the Lunar New Year, which this year has run from January 28 to February 4. It is the biggest festival of the year in China, signalling the start of spring, and this is the year of the wood snake. According to Chinese astrology, the characteristics of the snake – renewal, potential, opportunity and wisdom – will affect the year ahead. As we start the new lunar year, it feels like a good time to look ahead to look at the prospects for the Chinese economy through the prism of these characteristics. Renewal…

Feb

07

2025

By The African Mirror

Families sue after losing access to gender-affirming care under Trump’s executive order

WORLD

This story was originally reported by Kate Sosin, Orion Rummler, Eden Turner and Jasmine Mithani of The 19th. Meet Kate, Orion, Eden and Jasmine and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. MAJOR LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations are hitting back against President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to halt gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, PFLAG, which represents the parents of LGBTQ+ people, and the LGBTQ+ medical association GLMA are suing the administration in federal court. The suit, filed in Maryland’s federal district court, seeks temporary injunctive relief to stop…

Feb

06

2025

By The African Mirror

The full impact of US’s withdrawal of millions in aid

WORLD

IN a dimly lit room in Afghanistan's rugged highlands, Fatima wrings her hands as she watches her pregnant daughter struggle through labour. The nearest medical facility – a modest family health house that once offered hope to countless mothers – now stands empty, its doors locked, its vital services suspended. Like thousands of others, this small beacon of hope fell silent when the funding stopped flowing. "Every two hours, another mother dies here," whispers Fatima, her eyes never leaving her daughter's face. "We pray we won't be next." Across three nations, a wave of silence is spreading through humanitarian corridors…

Feb

06

2025

By The African Mirror

King leads national mourning as Sweden faces historic mass shooting

WORLD

AS Sweden awakens to its darkest dawn in recent memory, the nation finds itself grappling with an unprecedented tragedy that has shattered the tranquil city of Orebro. In the halls of an adult education centre where dreams of new beginnings once flourished, eleven lives were brutally cut short, marking the country's deadliest mass shooting. The Risbergska school, once a symbol of hope and integration where immigrants sought to build better futures, now stands as a silent memorial. Teacher Maria Pegado's words echo the cruel irony: her students, many having fled violence in their home countries, found themselves confronting the very…

Feb

06

2025

By The African Mirror

While West Bank camp is destroyed, UNRWA delivers bulk of aid in Gaza

WORLD

LARGE swathes of Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank have been completely destroyed following a series of controlled detonations by the Israeli security forces (ISF), the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said. UNRWA’s communications director Juliette Touma told reporters in Geneva that all 30,000 residents have left the camp as of Tuesday morning. Speaking from Amman, she described catastrophic scenes, with some 100 buildings “destroyed or heavily damaged” by the detonations. The camp’s residents had “endured the impossible”, she added. “The detonation on Sunday was when children were supposed to go back to school,” Ms Touma explained,…

Feb

05

2025

By IRWIN LOY

Trump stop-work orders hit local aid and frontline communities

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Irwin Loy SHOCK and hurt, then confusion and chaos – frontline aid groups are scrambling as US funding freezes cascade to the ground in emergencies across the globe. From Syria to parched Somalia, from Ukraine to Myanmar’s borderlands, local NGOs and aid organisations reliant on suddenly frozen US donor funding are suspending programmes or stalling them – hitting communities facing dire hunger or trapped between warring parties. Local aid leaders describe days of chaos trying to navigate US President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order to freeze aid, vague emergency waivers that…