WORLD - The African Mirror

Feb

27

2026

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…

Feb

27

2026

By AMANDA BECKER

‘My children are here’: How journalist Georgia Fort’s arrest impacted her daughters

WORLD

WHEN federal agents showed up before dawn last month to arrest journalist Georgia Fort for covering an immigration protest at a Minneapolis-area church, her three daughters — ages 7, 8 and 17 — were still asleep. “My children are here,” Fort said as she livestreamed her arrest. “They’re impacted by this.” Nearly two dozen federal agents had surrounded her home. They had knocked loudly on the front door and spoken to Fort’s mother about a warrant. Her video captured an anguished cry in the background, and then a voice trying to comfort. This is what was happening off-camera: Fort’s 17-year-old,…

Feb

26

2026

By MARISSA MARTINEZ

In State of the Union address, Trump used women to prove his point

WORLD

AS President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech sought to boost his economic message amid a turbulent season of high prices and unemployment, he primarily highlighted women and girls as beneficiaries of policy successes in his almost two-hour address. This story was originally reported by Marissa Martinez of The 19th. Meet Marissa and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Nearly every example of his policy wins was accompanied by reference to a woman, either hypothetical or present in the chamber. He named a woman who bought IVF drugs through TrumpRX after struggling with infertility; a…

Feb

26

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

In Ukraine’s darkest winter, the world’s patience is being tested

WORLD

FOUR years into a war that shows no sign of ending, the United Nations' top refugee official arrived in Ukraine this week with a message both urgent and sobering: international solidarity is fraying precisely when it is needed most. Barham Salih, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, made his first visit to Ukraine as Russian strikes systematically dismantle the country's energy grid, plunging millions of civilians into freezing darkness during what officials are calling the harshest winter of the entire conflict. He toured front-line cities — Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv — meeting families whose homes had been gutted by glide bombs,…

Feb

26

2026

By ANGÉLICA DURÁN-MARTÍNEZ

Violent aftermath of Mexico’s ‘El Mencho’ killing follows pattern of other high-profile cartel hits

WORLD

THE death of a major cartel boss in Mexico has unleashed a violent backlash in which members of the criminal group have paralysed some cities through blockades and attacks on property and security forces. At least 73 people have died as a result of the operation to capture Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho.” The head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was seriously wounded during a firefight with authorities on February 22, 2026. He later died in custody. As an expert in criminal groups and drug trafficking in Latin America who has been studying Mexico’s cartels for two decades,…

Feb

25

2026

By JESSICA KUTZ

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM

WORLD

IN 2018, an elite group of academics and scientists planned to gather for an exclusive retreat at a luxury farm in the woods of Connecticut. The guests had been hand-picked by prominent New York literary agent John Brockman, who frequently hosted similar salons for luminaries in science, technology and media. The problem? Brockman had included two women on the list, and his staunch supporter and biggest funder wanted them out. This story was originally reported by Jessica Kutz of The 19th. Meet Jessica and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. “John, the old conferences did not…

Feb

25

2026

By The African Mirror

Hundreds of thousands trafficked into Asian scam compounds amid surging abuses, UN warns

WORLD

THE United Nations Human Rights Office warned Monday that people are continuing to be trafficked by the hundreds of thousands into sprawling criminal scam operations across Southeast Asia and beyond, with victims subjected to torture, extortion and forced labour in fortress-like compounds that can span more than 500 acres. The warning came as the office published an updated report on the crisis, finding that nearly three-quarters of the operations are concentrated in the Mekong region, with networks having spread to Pacific Island nations, South Asia, the Gulf States, West Africa and the Americas. Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence described conditions inside the…

Feb

25

2026

By CATHERINE KEVIN

‘I am the enemy of death’: Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir is a remarkable tale of survival

WORLD

GISÈLE Pelicot’s compelling and moving memoir begins with the day she learned that over the course of at least nine years, she had been raped by her husband Dominique and around 80 other men, while she was drugged and unconscious. On that first day of knowing, in November 2020, she was a few months shy of 68. Her memoir explores the aftermath of that knowing, but also rewinds to her parents’ courtship, her childhood and youth and each stage of her adult life. It reveals how her husband’s crimes forced her to recast her entire adult life to date –…

Feb

24

2026

By The African Mirror

Andrew’s arrest: will anything like this now happen in the US? Why hasn’t it so far?

WORLD

THE handcuffs that closed around Peter Mandelson's wrists on a grey London Monday represent something far larger than the fall of one veteran political operator. They mark the second arrest of a major British public figure in the space of days over ties to Jeffrey Epstein— and they throw into sharp relief a question that grows more uncomfortable by the hour: why is the reckoning happening exclusively on one side of the Atlantic? Within a single week, Prince Andrew and now Mandelson - a man who shaped modern British politics for three decades - have been taken to London police…

Feb

24

2026

By The African Mirror

Cartel unleashes wave of terror across Mexico after military kills kingpin ‘El Mencho’

WORLD

THE Jalisco New Generation Cartel launched a sweeping campaign of violence across Mexico on Sunday, torching vehicles, blocking highways, and terrorising civilian areas hours after the Mexican military killed its feared leader, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes - known as "El Mencho" - in a raid in the western state of Jalisco. Cartel members burned cars and blocked roads in nearly a dozen Mexican states, leaving smoke billowing into the air. Jalisco's capital, Guadalajara - Mexico's second-largest city - was turned into a ghost town Sunday night as civilians hunkered down indoors. Authorities announced late Sunday that they had cleared most…