WORLD - The African Mirror

Mar

14

2026

For these Black Muslim women, Ramadan is about faith, tradition and sisterhood

WORLD

AROUND 5 a.m., Detroit is still dark, and Zarina El-Amin is already up, moving with purpose. Ramadan, she said, makes motherhood feel quieter on the inside. Home becomes the first masjid of the day — soft footsteps, warm light, a clock watched closely, and a family waking up together because the fast is set to begin as soon as dawn breaks. The mother of three is among 1.8 billion practising Muslims — almost one-quarter of the world’s population — participating in the Islamic holy month that commemorates the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. From sunrise to sunset…

Mar

13

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

ONE BILLION DOLLARS A DAY: The price of war while millions starve

WORLD

THE global humanitarian system is buckling under the weight of a war it did not start and cannot stop. Over two days of UN briefings in Geneva, a cascade of agency officials laid bare the full anatomy of collapse: toxic black rain falling on Tehran after strikes on oil depots; nearly 700,000 people displaced across Lebanon; Afghan children screened for malnutrition at twice the rate of a week ago; and Sudan's food pipeline rerouted 9,000 kilometres around the Cape of Good Hope because the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb strait are no longer safe to traverse. On Wednesday,…

Mar

13

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Western front opens at the Hague: Netherlands and Iceland join genocide case against Israel as intervention coalition swells to 18

WORLD

TWO more Western nations have formally stepped into the most consequential genocide case before the International Court of Justice in a generation. On 11 March 2026, the Netherlands and Iceland each filed declarations of intervention in the proceedings brought by South Africa against Israel — moving the case from a Global South-led initiative into unmistakably broader international terrain and putting Western allies of Israel on record on opposite sides of the same dispute. Both states invoked Article 63 of the ICJ’s Statute, which confers an unconditional right of intervention on any party to the convention under consideration — in this…

Mar

13

2026

By BOB BOWKER

After the Iran war, Persian Gulf nations face tough decisions on the US – a former diplomat explains

WORLD

WHEN the US-Israeli war on Iran finally ends, the Middle East will be even less predictable than it was before it started. The decision by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go to war – and the Iranian response – may be a watershed moment for the region. It is highly unlikely the Persian Gulf states will be prepared to pay a similar price again for the US to pursue its own interests. When the war began, these countries quickly found that neither their alignment with the US security umbrella nor their recent diplomatic engagement…

Mar

12

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS

War without exit: inside the twelfth day of the US-Iran-Israel conflict

WORLD

TWELVE days after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iranian territory, the conflict that many governments and analysts assumed would be short, surgical, and containable has become something else entirely: a multi-front, multi-actor war that is metastasising across the region with no visible off-ramp. On Wednesday, the twelfth day of hostilities, the combatants renewed bombardments across Israel, Lebanon and the Gulf states - the second consecutive day of what military observers are describing as some of the heaviest exchanges in the conflict so far. Iran launched fresh missile barrages that drove millions of Israelis into bomb shelters in…

Mar

12

2026

By MICHELLE GRATTAN

5 members of Iranian women’s soccer team defect, Australia deploys RAAF plane and missiles to Gulf

WORLD

THE Albanese government has given humanitarian visas to five members of the Iranian women’s soccer team, including its captain, to enable them to remain in Australia, and is offering protection to any more of the women who want to defect. The elaborate operation to give the women protection culminated late Monday night, with the Australian Federal Police moving the women, who were staying at a Gold Coast hotel, to a safe location. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke met with the women at the Gold Coast location. He told a Brisbane news conference early Monday that the women were happy to…

Mar

12

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS

Nearly 700,000 flee in one week as Israel batters Lebanese cities; UN warns of funding collapse

WORLD

IN seven days of bombardment, Israel has driven nearly 700,000 people from their homes across Lebanon - a displacement wave so swift that government registration numbers jumped by more than 100,000 in a single day, with no end in sight. The crisis has deepened amid the wider Middle East war, with 84 children already dead and more than 667,000 people uprooted, according to two United Nations agencies. The figures represent one of the fastest mass displacement events recorded in the region in recent memory. The escalation was triggered by intensified airstrikes and evacuation warnings issued on 2 March for residents…

Mar

11

2026

By JAMES HORNCASTLE

How the U.S.‑Israel attack on Iran helps Russia in its war against Ukraine

WORLD

THE American and Israeli attacks on Iran and the confusion within the United States over the war’s objectives are making headlines. The attacks, and Iran’s counter-tactics of targeting American military bases and allies in the region is having geopolitical ramifications beyond Iran’s borders. The surge in oil prices is just one way the war is affecting people around the world. The war is also having a significant impact on other conflicts globally — especially the Russia-Ukraine war. The assault on Iran is helping advance Russian interests as it prepares for a spring offensive against Ukraine. Impact of the war on…

Mar

11

2026

By DANIELA MOHOR

As Trump threatens to force change, what do Cubans want and what do they fear?

WORLD

AFTER launching the US-Israeli war on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Donald Trump explicitly said he would turn to Cuba next, sparking anxiety over what the future holds for millions of Cubans living on the island. Since the US attack on Venezuela (Cuba’s key regional ally) and its abduction of President Nicolás Maduro on 3 January, Trump has ramped up the pressure, imposing a strict blockade on oil shipments that is depriving Cuba’s socialist government of the fuel it needs to keep the country functioning. The US has also increasingly pressured foreign countries to stop hiring Cuban…

Mar

11

2026

By OLIVER ALFRED GUIDETTI

Epstein files reveal the power – and peril – of online sleuths doing the government’s work

WORLD

A large release of important documents once meant teams of journalists staying back, working through piles of records late into the night. Today, it triggers something closer to a public audit. The January 30 publication of more than three million documents related to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has mobilised thousands of online users into doing their own digging. They range from massively popular political livestreamers such as Hasan Piker and Dean Withers to crowdsourced intelligence communities on Reddit. These netizens are combing through documents, comparing excerpts and trying to piece together what the archive does (and does not)…