WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

03

2026

Does international law still matter? The strike on the girls’ school in Iran shows why we need it

WORLD

AS the US and Israel began their joint assault on Iran, reports emerged from Iran that a strike hit the Shajarah Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in the southern city of Minab. The school was reportedly packed with young pupils at the time. Iranian authorities say more than 150 people were killed, including children, and 60 more were injured (these figures are yet to be independently verified). Videos verified by international media show rescue workers digging through collapsed concrete, school bags being pulled from the debris, and scorch marks along the remaining walls. WARNING: this gallery contains graphic images. The New…

Mar

03

2026

By NATASHA HEAP

Booked to travel through the Middle East? Here’s why you shouldn’t cancel your flight

WORLD

TRAVELLERS are being advised not to cancel their tickets for flights through the Middle East and check with their airlines, as airspace remains closed indefinitely. If travellers cancel a ticket, they may lose some of their consumer rights and ability to claim refunds. The US and Israeli bombing of Iran and the closure of airspace and airports are affecting all global airlines that fly through the region. The closures will have a flow-on effect, leading to significant disruption to the global airline industry that may take weeks to clear. Tens of thousands of travellers affected The Middle East is home…

Mar

02

2026

By AMIN SAIKAL

Trump and Netanyahu want regime change, but Iran’s regime was built for survival. A long war is now likely

WORLD

THE joint US–Israel strikes on Iran, which killed the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel and neighbouring Arab countries have again plunged the Middle East into war. US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said their aim is to bring about a favourable regime change in Iran. The implications of this for Iran, the region and beyond should not be underestimated. Although Khamenei’s killing is a significant blow to the Islamic regime, it is not insurmountable. Many Iranian leaders have been killed in the past, including Qassem Soleimani, Tehran’s regional security…

Mar

02

2026

By ANDREW THOMAS

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled Iran with defiance and brutality for 36 years. For many Iranians, he will not be revered

WORLD

AYATOLLAH Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for 36 years, has been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on his country, Iranian state media reported. As one of Iran’s longest-serving leaders, Khamenei was almost as ubiquitous in Iranian society as his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. And despite the fact that Khomeini authored the Iranian Revolution, some say Khamenei was actually the most powerful leader modern Iran has had. In more than three decades as supreme leader, Khamenei amassed unprecedented power over domestic politics and cracked down ever more harshly on internal dissent.…

Mar

02

2026

By DAHLIA NAMIAN

The Epstein revelations have exposed how ‘Boy’s Club’ elites avoid accountability

WORLD

THE Jeffrey Epstein case is not an exception. Like the #MeToo movement, it is part of a wider continuum of violence committed by men in power, made possible by a persistent culture of impunity. The Epstein files reveal not only sexual crimes but also a tightly interconnected social world where capital, prestige, influence and dependency circulate freely. The idea of the “Epstein class” can make this social structure visible, but it also risks personalising the problem, reducing it to the story of a single manipulative individual. This carries a significant analytical risk: it obscures the deeper structural dynamics of class…

Feb

28

2026

By HUGH GUSTERSON

What the Jeffrey Epstein files reveal about how elites trade toxic gifts and favours

WORLD

FOLLOWING horrifying revelations about Jeffrey Epstein’s systematic sexual assaults and trafficking of underage girls, the United States Department of Justice has been forced to publicly release millions of the late sex offender’s emails and texts. I am an anthropologist of elites who conducted fieldwork among the secretive community of nuclear weapons scientists. The Epstein files open a window into the even more closely guarded world of capitalism’s 0.1 per cent. Anthropologists study people through what renowned American anthropologist Clifford Geertz called “deep hanging out” — mingling informally and taking notes on what we see. We call this “participant observation.” People…

Feb

28

2026

By The African Mirror

Gaza’s human catastrophe: A year of documented atrocities with no end in sight

WORLD

THE United Nations' top human rights official delivered one of the most sweeping condemnations of the Gaza conflict to date this week, presenting evidence before the Human Rights Council in Geneva of what he described as systematic war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and a manufactured famine — with accountability nowhere in sight. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, presenting a year-long report covering November 2024 through October 2025, painted a picture of near-total institutional collapse in Gaza and escalating violence in the West Bank, while laying primary responsibility at Israel's door — though documenting serious violations by Hamas as…

Feb

28

2026

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Turkey set to deepen ties with Africa

WORLD

TURKEY is courting African countries with a strategy aimed at expanding its footprint on a continent long contested by the United States, China, and Russia. Unlike these powers, Ankara is converting a network of trade deals, energy projects, drone deployments, infrastructure and port investments, social institutions, and construction contracts into durable, operational influence across Africa. According to Jamie Akol, an Africa policy expert at the Africa Policy Institute in Nairobi, “Turkey combines hard and soft power in ways few external actors have attempted, linking military deployments, infrastructure, and institutional initiatives to create influence that can survive political shifts and the…

Feb

27

2026

By The African Mirror

Poland opens criminal inquiry into Epstein network as foreign probes proliferate

WORLD

POLAND has formalised one of the most significant international responses yet to the January 2026 release of the Epstein files, establishing a dedicated criminal task force to probe whether Polish citizens were recruited as victims or perpetrators in the late financier Jeffrey Epstein's alleged trafficking network - even as the U.S. government signals it considers the matter largely resolved. Poland's National Prosecutor's Office announced the formation of "Investigation Team No. 5" on February 24, tasking three senior prosecutors experienced in organised crime and human trafficking with conducting preliminary inquiries into what authorities describe as "an organised criminal group of an…

Feb

27

2026

By OLENA BORODYNA

The three big challenges facing Ukraine when the war ends

WORLD

RUSSIA’S war in Ukraine is now in its fifth year and, despite the growing impatience of Donald Trump, a breakthrough in peace talks looks a long way off. Yet even when the fighting does end, it will not represent a conclusion. Rather, it will mark the start of a considerable new challenge: reconstruction. The crucial questions are not only how much reconstruction will cost, but also how it can be financed and whether Ukraine will have the skilled workforce needed to carry it out. Millions of Ukrainian citizens have left the country since the start of the 2022 invasion. A…