WORLD - The African Mirror

Apr

22

2026

Milan police dismantle luxury escort ring linked to Serie A stars and F1 driver

WORLD

ITALIAN financial police shattered a high-end prostitution network on April 20, 2026, placing four individuals under house arrest and seizing €1.2 million in illicit profits, with investigators uncovering a client list featuring over 50 Serie A footballers and at least one Formula 1 driver. The Guardia di Finanza targeted MA.DE. Milano, an events agency in Cinisello Balsamo near Milan, is accused of fronting "all-inclusive" packages blending nightlife outings in exclusive clubs, luxury hotel stays, sexual services, and nitrous oxide ("laughing gas") highs – often tailored as "post-match services" for visiting footballers at San Siro, Milan. La Gazzetta dello Sport broke…

Apr

21

2026

By MARIAM MUSHTAHA

Weddings return to a broken Gaza

WORLD

ON 31 December last year, my family gathered with our closest friends and relatives in a former clothing store in Gaza City. The space had been repurposed into an event hall. We were there not just to bring in the New Year but to celebrate my sister Noor’s wedding. The clothing store had been given an elegant makeover. There were clear glass tables decorated with small floral centrepieces. The light-coloured walls had accents of dark marble, and long white curtains hung from gold rods. We invited around 100 guests, but not all were able to attend. Some could not find…

Apr

21

2026

By JUSTIN BERGMAN

Both the US and Iran are firing on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Are both sides acting lawfully?

WORLD

OVER the past several days, there have been conflicting reports about the Strait of Hormuz. It’s difficult to know what’s happening from one moment to the next. Iran said the waterway was open to commercial shipping again, then turned around and said it was closed. Iran then fired at two Indian-flagged ships going through the strait, forcing them to turn around. The next day, the US fired on an Iranian cargo vessel, which Tehran called a violation of the two countries’ temporary ceasefire and threatened retaliation. What’s actually happening in the Strait? Are both sides acting lawfully? We asked naval…

Apr

21

2026

By GRACE PANETTA

Politics is shaken by a new wave of #MeToo reckonings

WORLD

A years-long, explosive investigation by The New York Times last month exposed allegations of sexual abuse by the late labor leader Cesar Chavez. Two members of Congress, one Democrat and one Republican, resigned this week after being accused of sexual misconduct. And Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is facing an internal investigation, including allegations of inappropriate behavior by her father and husband toward young women staff. This story was originally reported by Grace Panetta of The 19th. Meet Grace and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. The #MeToo movement, founded in 2006 by activist Tarana Burke, brought…

Apr

20

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

‘Lords of War’: How the Global South finally named its oppressors

WORLD

IT was the kind of language that foreign ministries the world over spend entire careers avoiding. But on Saturday, in the convention halls of Spain's second city, the presidents of Brazil and South Africa stripped away the diplomatic niceties and delivered, with striking directness, a verdict that billions across the Global South have long believed but rarely heard stated so plainly from the lips of world leaders: the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are not guardians of global peace — they are its chief destroyers. "The United Nations has now become a toothless organisation because those…

Apr

20

2026

By ADAM R. NORTH

Iran’s AI memes are reaching people who don’t follow the news – and winning the propaganda war

WORLD

A Lego-style Iranian military commander raps over a gangster beat: “Our inbox is flooded with Americans saying they don’t watch the news. They listen to our songs instead since your media is full of shit.” This is the opening line of an AI-generated video, which is part of Iran’s meme campaign – built around Lego-style animation and rap soundtracks, which have accumulated billions of views online. The line captures the strange reality of contemporary politics: news is often most effectively disseminated not through journalism but humour, memes, and entertainment. Since late February, pro-Iranian media groups – most notably, the X…

Apr

20

2026

By GRACE PANETTA

On Capitol Hill, survivors push for change as Congress confronts its own misconduct

WORLD

THEY came to lobby against online sexual abuse and found lawmakers wrestling with abuse within their own ranks. For four years running, policy experts and survivor advocates with RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence advocacy organization, have come to Capitol Hill for a day of lobbying. This year, their annual advocacy day came amid a reckoning over sexual misconduct in the halls of Congress. This story was originally reported by Grace Panetta of The 19th. Meet Grace and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. As survivors gathered Monday evening at a hotel in downtown Washington for…

Apr

18

2026

By MARIKA SOSNOWSKI

Israel and Lebanon have a ceasefire, but global attention shouldn’t move on. This isn’t a tidy end to the war

WORLD

AFTER weeks of bombardments in southern Lebanon that have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced more than one million residents, Israel has announced a ten-day ceasefire with Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, vowed to keep Israeli troops in southern Lebanon to create a ten-kilometre “security zone”, raising immediate questions about whether the ceasefire would actually stop Israeli attacks against Hezbollah. After a previous ceasefire in late 2024 ended 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli troops continued to launch airstrikes and carry out targeted killings of Hezbollah fighters. People like to bound events such as…

Apr

18

2026

By JASMINE MITHANI

Domestic violence organizations turn away thousands each day. Julia was one of them

WORLD

CONTENT warning: This story references incidents of domestic violence. On January 18, 2025, Julia Gilbert kicked her fiancé out of their shared apartment. “When the apartment door shut, I remember knowing it was right,” she said. Gilbert, 32, said she had planned to end the relationship for some time. Worried her ex was lying to her, she had been recording their arguments at her therapist’s suggestion. A week after he left, she filed a petition for a harassment restraining order (HRO), which requires the respondent to limit communication and in-person contact. In Minnesota, where she lives, residents can fill out…

Apr

17

2026

By ALI MAMOUR

Iran has a powerful new tool in the Strait of Hormuz that it can leverage long after the war

WORLD

The Trump administration claims its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is working, with nine ships complying with orders to turn around. One of those was a Chinese-owned tanker called the Rich Starry that turned around in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday to head back through the strait. Iran, meanwhile, maintains it still has control over the strait and it will determine which ships transit through the crucial waterway. It also said if its ports are threatened, “no port in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will remain safe”. No matter how the blockade plays out, Iran…