WORLD - The African Mirror

Jul

08

2026

China’s submarine missile test looks routine. The real story is the panic it triggered

WORLD

ON Monday, a Chinese navy submarine fired a long-range ballistic missile into international waters in the South Pacific. The nuclear-capable missile, which was launched from underwater and carried an inert dummy warhead, is believed to have splashed down near Tuvalu. The Chinese government said the event “was a routine part of China’s annual military training program” and was “not directed against any specific country or target”. It added that other countries had been notified, and urged them not to “over-interpret it”. Reactions from Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Japan were immediate and pointed, with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong calling…

Jul

08

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

America shuts the door: Supreme Court clears way to deport 330,000 Haitians into a nation in ruins

WORLD

FOR sixteen years, Temporary Protected Status was the thin legal membrane standing between hundreds of thousands of Haitians and a homeland unravelling into anarchy. That membrane has now been torn away by the very court meant to be America's final word on justice. On June 25, 2026, the US Supreme Court ruled that Haitian Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders challenging the Trump administration's termination of their protections are not entitled to orders halting the removals while their case proceeds, and that their constitutional claims are unlikely to succeed. In one stroke, the country's highest court cleared the path for the…

Jul

07

2026

By AMIN SAIKAL

As US celebrates independence, Iran mourns its fallen leader – and both countries claim victory

WORLD

IT is ironic to see the Islamic Republic of Iran burying its slain supreme leader and the United States celebrating its 250th independence anniversary in the same week. Both sides have used the mourning and commemoration occasions to claim victory in a war that has led to a fragile 60-day ceasefire for negotiating a final deal. The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was deliberately killed in a US-Israeli bombing on the first day of the war on February 28. In Islam, a dead person should be buried within a very brief period, but Khamenei’s body was preserved for more…

Jul

07

2026

By ADRIANA MARIN

Ukraine war sparks fears of an organised crime resurgence in Russia

WORLD

FOLLOWING the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Russia endured a period of violent criminal lawlessness known as the “wild 90s”. Organised crime spiked, with gangs taking control of banks, factories and other lucrative markets. Contract killings, shootings and car bombings became part of urban life. There are now fears that the Ukraine war will give rise to a similar situation as members of Russia’s army, as well as former convicts who were pardoned in exchange for military service, returning from the frontlines. A variety of conditions enabled organised crime to flourish in the 1990s. Weak state institutions, economic turmoil and…

Jul

07

2026

By ERRIN HAINES

Her grandparents fought to join American democracy. She’s fighting to complete it.

WORLD

IN the lead-up to our country’s 250th anniversary, Errin Haines is writing a series of columns to contemplate the complicated expansion of our democracy. Subscribe to The Amendment newsletter. Joseph and Nellie Gamble were born in 1905 and 1910 in Jim Crow Alabama – which meant that for much of their adult lives, they were unable to vote alongside their fellow citizens on Election Day. Across the South for nearly a century after Reconstruction, Black Americans like the Gambles were legally blocked from the ballot box by a system of racist laws that made them second-class citizens denied their full rights as promised…

Jul

06

2026

By The African Mirror

Trump turns US 250th anniversary into campaign-style rally

WORLD

PRESIDENT Donald Trump used the United States’ 250th anniversary celebrations on the National Mall to deliver a speech that looked and sounded more like a campaign event than a national commemoration, deepening concerns about the politicisation of one of America’s most symbolic public milestones. After a storm delay of nearly two hours, Trump addressed the crowd in Washington with a mix of patriotic praise, personal boasts and sharp warnings about perceived enemies at home and abroad. He lauded American achievements including military victories, the moon landing and the Wright brothers’ first flight, while also urging Congress to pass stalled voting…

Jul

06

2026

By THE AFRICAN MIRROR FOREIGN DESK

The Fist and the Absent Son: Inside the funeral Iran waited four months to hold

WORLD

THE banners went up before the body did. Across a capital that had spent four months rehearsing its grief in private, giant portraits of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began climbing the sides of buildings in late June, his clenched fist rendered in gold against a sky the colour of mourning cloth. By the time the coffins reached the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla on the morning of 3 July, Tehran had already told the story it wanted the world to hear: this was not a burial. It was a resurrection of resolve. For four months, Khamenei's body had waited. He was killed…

Jul

06

2026

By NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ RODRÍGUEZ

How the Venezuelan people and diaspora are driving earthquake relief

WORLD

“NIEVES, there’s been an earthquake in Venezuela.” This was how Gabriela, a Venezuelan friend of mine, interrupted our phone conversation when the news came in. She was in Berlin, and as a new mother, she had not been sleeping much. Her tiredness quickly evaporated. Within minutes, the Venezuelan diaspora groups in Colombia that I work with began to fill with messages of anguish and doubt. Thousands of kilometres away, in Madrid, Aleja woke up and read the first headlines on her phone. She thought it was just another tremor, which is not uncommon in Venezuela. But she soon grasped the…

Jul

04

2026

By CLARE CORBOULD

The US is turning 250 – and Trump is making it all about him

WORLD

IT’S almost the Fourth of July and Donald Trump is making the most of the 250th anniversary of American independence. He has all but declared himself Patriot-in-Chief. He’s putting his face on commemorative $250 bills and passports. A giant structure on the White House’s South Lawn, built for a pay-per-view UFC bout on Trump’s 80th birthday, was nicknamed the Arc de Trump. Perhaps Trump would have put his name on that, too, but as it was being built, a court ordered his name to be removed from another federal building. Trump is not the first president to lean into an…

Jul

04

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Russia’s drone and missile barrage, POW abuses deepen civilian suffering — UN Rights Chief urges renewed push for accountability and peace

WORLD

RUSSIA’S intensified long‑range attacks and documented abuses against prisoners of war have deepened civilian suffering in Ukraine and underlined the growing obstacles to any negotiated peace, the UN’s top human rights official has warned. “Today is a day of mourning in Kyiv. Russia’s horrifying attack in the early hours of Thursday killed at least 30 civilians and injured at least 99 more. It is one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv city since the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and yet another tragic reminder of why this senseless war must end,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk…