WORLD - The African Mirror

Jul

01

2022

Russia Abandons Snake Island In Victory For Ukraine

WORLD

RUSSIAN forces abandoned the strategic Black Sea outpost of Snake Island in a victory for Ukraine that could loosen the grip of Russia's blockade on Ukrainian ports. Russia said it had decided to withdraw from the outcrop as a "gesture of goodwill" to show Moscow was not obstructing U.N. efforts to open a humanitarian corridor allowing grains to be shipped from Ukraine. Ukraine said it had driven the Russian forces out after an artillery and missile assault overnight. "KABOOM!" tweeted Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff. "No Russian troops on the Snake Island anymore. Our Armed Forces…

Jul

01

2022

By The African Mirror

Explainer: Can Netanyahu regain Israel’s premiership?

WORLD

ISRAEL called a November election after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stepped aside and parliament was dissolved, while former premier Benjamin Netanyahu promised he would return to power. Here is a quick look at why Israel is holding yet another election and what the chances are of a Netanyahu comeback: HOW DID WE GET HERE ... AGAIN? Bennett and his partner Yair Lapid, who at midnight will assume the role of caretaker prime minister, took power last June, ending the record 12-year tenure of Netanyahu along with almost three years of political stalemate. Bennett and Lapid wrangled up a broad range…

Jul

01

2022

By The African Mirror

The rise, fall and return of the Philippines’ Marcos dynasty

WORLD

FERDINAND MARCOS JR took the oath of office on Thursday as Philippines president, 36 years after a people's revolt drove his father from office after two decades in power. Below is a timeline of key events for the Marcos family, the country's most famous and politically influential dynasty. 1965 - After 15 years as a lawmaker, Ferdinand Marcos wins a presidential election, following a campaign portraying him as a decorated World War Two hero, claims that historians have disputed. Marcos is popular in his first term after borrowing from abroad to modernise infrastructure. 1969 - Marcos wins a second term,…

Jul

09

2022

By The African Mirror

Shinzo Abe’s assassin used a handmade firearm

WORLD

SATOSHI SUGIYAMA and CHANG-RAN KIM FORMER Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was gunned down while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country where guns are tightly controlled and political violence almost unthinkable. Abe, 67, was pronounced dead around five and a half hours after the shooting in the city of Nara. Police arrested a 41-year-old man and said the weapon was a homemade gun. "I am simply speechless over the news of Abe's death," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Abe's protege, told reporters. Earlier, as Abe still lay in hospital where doctors tried to revive…

Jul

09

2022

By The African Mirror

More Russian men look to avoid military service, some lawyers and rights groups say

WORLD

DANILA Davydov said he left Russia within weeks of the Kremlin sending troops into Ukraine because he feared having to fight in a war he doesn’t support. The 22-year-old digital artist who had been living in St Petersburg said that as the conflict dragged on he was concerned that Russia could place pressure on young people like him to serve in the military. "I didn't want to go to war or go to prison, so I decided to leave," Davydov told Reuters from Kazakhstan, where he said he’s currently working. He is among what some lawyers and rights advocates say…

Jul

09

2022

By The African Mirror

Boris Johnson moves wedding party planned for official residence

WORLD

BRITAIN'S Boris Johnson and his wife, Carrie, are changing the location of a planned wedding party, an ally of the prime minister said, denying allegations that he was staying on in a caretaker role because of it. The Mirror newspaper reported on Thursday that Johnson, who has said he will resign, wanted to stay on for a few months in part because he planned to throw a party at his official Chequers country residence later this month to celebrate his marriage. An ally of the prime minister said on condition of anonymity that "it's utterly ridiculous to suggest" the party…

Jul

08

2022

By The African Mirror

Boris Johnson quits as UK prime minister, dragged down by scandals

WORLD

KATE HOLTON, ELIZABETH PIPER and ALISTAIR SMOUT SCANDAL-RIDDEN Boris Johnson announced he would quit as British prime minister after he dramatically lost the support of his ministers and most Conservative lawmakers, but said he would stay on until his successor was chosen. Bowing to the inevitable as more than 50 ministers quit and lawmakers said he must go, an isolated and powerless Johnson said it was clear his party wanted someone else in charge, but that his forced departure was "eccentric". "Today I have appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place," Johnson…

Jul

08

2022

By The African Mirror

Ukraine raises flag on recaptured island, loses key supporter in UK’s Johnson

WORLD

UKRAINIAN forces raised their national flag on a recaptured Black Sea island in a defiant act against Moscow, but Kyiv lost one of its main international supporters after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would step down. Russian forces also shelled potential conquests in eastern Ukraine ahead of an expected new offensive. Moscow did not conceal its delight at the political demise of Johnson, a leader whom it has long criticised for arming Kyiv so energetically. "The moral of the story is: do not seek to destroy Russia," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. "Russia cannot be destroyed.…

Jul

08

2022

By The African Mirror

EXCLUSIVE: Pope hopes London building last Vatican financial scandal

WORLD

PHILIP PULLELLA POPE Francis said he hoped that the recent sale of a luxury London building at the centre of an ongoing corruption trial meant the Vatican can see the back of financial scandals. Vatican finances were one of the many Church and international topics the 85-year-old pontiff discussed in an exclusive interview with Reuters in his Vatican residence on July 2. In other parts of the interview he denied that he was planning to resign anytime soon, denied that he had cancer, spoke of his hopes to go to Moscow and Kyiv and disclosed that for the first time…

Jul

07

2022

By The African Mirror

Burkina Faso’s ex-president Compaore to return for first time since ouster

WORLD

THIAM NDIAGA FORMER Burkina Faso president Blaise Compaore will return from exile for the first time since being ousted in a 2014 uprising, Burkinabe authorities said, despite his conviction earlier this year for complicity in his predecessor's murder. Compaore, who governed for 27 years, was invited by the ruling military junta to take part in a meeting on Friday between interim president Paul-Henri Damiba and several former presidents to discuss "questions linked to the higher interests of the nation", the presidency said in a statement. The junta seized power in a January coup that it justified by citing rising Islamist…