WORLD - The African Mirror

Jan

12

2026

Here’s what’s really happening with child care fraud in Minnesota

WORLD

A viral video posted just after Christmas spurred an avalanche of news coverage, changes from the Trump administration, and congressional hearings that appeared to indicate that a massive trove of child care fraud was just uncovered in Minnesota. Much of it has been misleading. The video by right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley, posted on December 26, purports to show that various Minneapolis day cares run by Somali Americans are not providing services to children despite receiving public funding. Although the video has already been debunked by investigators, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have seized on it. Vice President JD…

Jan

12

2026

By IAN MANNERS

Four ways to understand what’s going on with the US, Denmark and Greenland

WORLD

EUROPEAN countries, and Denmark in particular, are scrambling to respond to threats from US officials over the future of Greenland. Having successfully taken out the leadership of Venezuela in a raid on January 3, an emboldened US government is talking about simply taking Greenland for itself. Various European leaders have expressed their concern but haven’t been able to formulate a coherent response to the betrayal by a supposed ally. Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, Danish governments have willingly participated in US-led invasions of Afghanistan (2001-2021) and Iraq (2003-2007). The rightward movement across the Danish political spectrum had led…

Jan

10

2026

By The African Mirror

When federal authority turns fatal: The unaccountable violence of ICE operations

WORLD

TWO Shootings, Two Cities, Zero Accountability In the span of 48 hours, federal immigration agents have shot three people across two American cities, killing one—a U.S. citizen—and the only transparency offered comes in the form of federal press releases that local officials cannot verify, investigate, or challenge. This is not immigration enforcement. This is something far more dangerous: the emergence of a federal force operating beyond the reach of local accountability, firing weapons on American streets while state investigators are turned away at crime scenes. The Death That Changed Everything Renee Nichole Good Renee Nichole Good, 37, mother of three,…

Jan

10

2026

By The African Mirror

Iran protests: At least 28 killed in security crackdown

WORLD

IRANIAN security forces have killed at least 28 protesters and bystanders in a deadly crackdown on nationwide demonstrations that began last week, according to human rights organisations. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said Friday that security forces unlawfully used firearms, metal pellets, tear gas and beatings to disperse largely peaceful protests that erupted on December 28 following a sharp currency collapse. The deaths occurred between December 31 and January 3 across 13 cities in eight provinces, with the deadliest violence concentrated in areas home to ethnic minorities. At least eight people were killed in Lorestan province and five in…

Jan

10

2026

By JONATHAN ESTE

Greenland, Venezuela and the ‘Donroe doctrine’

WORLD

WATCHING Donald Trump and his defence and national security team announcing the US raid on Caracas on Saturday, it was hard not to conclude that while the US president was clearly using a script, there were points at which he seemed to be extemporising. At times, he appeared as if he might be inventing US foreign policy as he went along, much to the visible discomfort of his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. It must be challenging to present a coherent message about American intentions in the region when the justification for the raid shifts randomly from a law enforcement…

Jan

09

2026

By MATT WILDE and HARRY RODGERS

Venezuelans are reacting to Maduro’s capture with anger, fear, hope and joy

WORLD

WHEN the news broke of Nicolás Maduro’s arrest following a US attack on Venezuela on January 3, que locura (“what madness”) was the line that seemed to capture the moment. As Venezuelans around the world reached for their phones and anxiously followed the news, they grappled to make sense of what they were seeing. Drawing on our long-term ethnographic research with Venezuelans living in Spain, the US and Venezuela itself, the insider accounts and interviews detailed below show the diverse ways in which these events are being experienced and understood. In the Spanish capital of Madrid, many Venezuelan migrants celebrated…

Jan

09

2026

By MARIEL PADILLA

Five years after January 6, dozens of pardoned insurrectionists have been arrested again

WORLD

WHEN President Donald Trump, on the first day of his second term, granted clemency to nearly 1,600 people convicted in connection with the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel immediately set up a Google Alert to track these individuals and see if they’d end up back in the criminal justice system. Honl-Stuenkel, who works at a government watchdog nonprofit, said she didn’t want people to forget the horror of that day — despite the president’s insistence that it was a nonviolent event, a “day of love.” This story was originally reported by

Jan

09

2026

By MALGORZATA (GOSIA) K. CITKO-DUPLANTIS

How tourism, a booming wellness culture and social media are transforming the age-old Japanese tea ceremony

WORLD

ONE of Japan’s most recognisable cultural practices – the Japanese tea ceremony, known as chanoyu, or chado – is being reshaped by tourism, wellness culture and social media. Matcha, the Japanese powdered green tea that is used during the ceremony, has entered the global marketplace. Influencers post highly curated tearoom photos, wellness brands market matcha as a “superfood,” and cafés worldwide present whisked green tea as a symbol of mindful living. The Japanese tea ceremony is deeply rooted in the ideals of Zen Buddhism, but the current matcha hype has little to do with the tea ceremony. Green tea has…

Jan

08

2026

By PABLO UCHOA

The ‘Donroe doctrine’: Maduro is the guinea pig for Donald Trump’s new world order

WORLD

SHORTLY after US special forces captured and extracted Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on January 3, Donald Trump said that the US would now “run” Venezuela. Whatever Washington’s plans for the future of Venezuelan governance, this show of US force in Latin America looks like the first manifestation of a more assertive American foreign policy outlined in the national security strategy published in November 2025. This plainly asserted the Trump administration’s intention to “reassert and enforce the Monroe doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere. Rather than force regime change at this point, Trump has indicated…

Aug

21

2025

By AMANDA BECKER

Free DC: Inside the women-founded movement opposing Trump’s militarized takeover

WORLD

NEARLY an hour into Friday night’s game between the Washington Spirit and Racing Louisville FC, a chant started to spread throughout the stadium that briefly silenced the television announcers for the women’s soccer match. “Free D.C.! Free D.C.! Free D.C.!” the spectators chanted at the stadium in the southwest quadrant of the nation’s capital. This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker of The 19th. Meet Amanda and read more of her reporting on gender, politics and policy. It was a response to Republican President Donald Trump’s militarised takeover of policing in the District of Columbia that began last week;…