WORLD - The African Mirror

Jan

29

2026

Fear and uncertainty for Yazidis and Kurds in Syria amid government advances

WORLD

LAST week, as snow fell on Kobani, a Kurdish-majority town on the Syrian border with Türkiye, the distinctive thud of shelling emerged from the distance. Despite a four-day ceasefire agreed on 20 January between the Syrian transitional government and the Kurdish-led SDF, Damascus-affiliated factions continued to attack the surrounding countryside. “We are really afraid they will attack the city soon,” said Mohamed on 22 January. The Kurdish man has lived in Kobani since 2013, and was speaking to The New Humanitarian via a Turkish network, as he said the Syrian government was blocking the internet in the city. “We are…

Jan

28

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Gaza war decimates education system, leaving generation at risk

WORLD

NEARLY two and a half years of conflict in Gaza have obliterated one of the region's greatest achievements - its education system - leaving 60 percent of school-aged children without access to in-person learning, the UN Children's Fund has warned. More than 90 percent of Gaza's schools have been damaged or destroyed in what UNICEF spokesperson James Elder called "an assault on the future itself." "Before this war on children, Palestinians in Gaza had some of the highest literacy rates in the world," Elder said. "Today, that legacy is very much under attack." The devastation has erased years of educational…

Jan

28

2026

By MARK SHANAHAN

Why the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis is so significant – expert Q&A

WORLD

FEDERAL immigration agents in the city of Minneapolis are accused of having wrestled a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, Alex Pretti, to the ground and then shooting him dead. The killing took place just over a mile from where another American citizen, Renee Good, was allegedly fatally shot by federal agents weeks earlier. The latest incident prompted angry protests from people in Minneapolis who want the immigration enforcement operation in their city to end. We spoke to Mark Shanahan, an associate professor of political engagement at the University of Surrey, to address several key issues. Why has sending in federal immigration…

Jan

28

2026

By ALI M. LATIFI

Q&A: Sanctions, oil, and what Iranians really want

WORLD

OVER the last month, hundreds of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in cities across the country to protest rising costs, plummeting currency values, and high inflation. As the demonstrations grew, they were appropriated by the Islamic Republic’s opponents in the United States, Europe, and Israel, who rushed to cast the gatherings as a mass uprising against the theocratic government in Tehran. A statement run by Iranian state media on 21 January put the death toll at 3,117, but a US-based rights watchdog says it has confirmed almost double that number, while other reports put the real fatality…

Jan

27

2026

By The African Mirror

Video evidence contradicts federal claims in Minneapolis shooting as former presidents issue rare rebukes

WORLD

IN an extraordinary escalation of political tensions, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton issued rare public condemnations of the Trump administration's handling of fatal shootings by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, with both leaders directly challenging official accounts they say are contradicted by video evidence. The statements, among the most forceful rebukes issued by either former president since leaving office, came as multiple verified videos contradicted federal officials' characterisation of Saturday's fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse. "Rather than trying to impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they've deployed, the President…

Jan

27

2026

By MIREILLE REBEIZ and JOSIANE YAZBECK

Lebanon’s orchards have been burnt, wildlife habitat destroyed by Israeli strikes – raising troubling international law questions

WORLD

MORE than a year after a ceasefire nominally ended active fighting, much of southern Lebanon bears the ecological scars of war. Avocado orchards are gone, and beehives destroyed. So, too, are the livelihoods they supported. Meanwhile, fields and forests have disappeared under the intense fire caused by white phosphorus shelling. Shrapnel and unexploded bombs, however, remain. Such grim realities are a window into the massive ecological destruction brought to Lebanon as a result of the 2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel. The number of Israeli airstrikes from October to November of that year ranked among the highest globally in the…

Jan

26

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONENT

Federal agents kill U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, igniting crisis over Trump immigration crackdown

WORLD

THE fatal shooting of an intensive care nurse by federal immigration agents has plunged Minneapolis into crisis, with Minnesota's governor activating the National Guard and assuming control of the investigation after authorities say a U.S. citizen was killed while protesting the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents Saturday during confrontations between protesters and federal officers conducting immigration raids. His death - the second killing of an American citizen by federal agents in Minneapolis this month - has transformed simmering tensions over President Trump's immigration crackdown into open conflict between…

Jan

26

2026

By MAHSA GHAFFARI

Iran protests are not just about economics – they’re a full-blown ideological crisis

WORLD

IRAN’S latest wave of unrest is often explained in familiar terms: economic collapse, sanctions, inflation, or sudden political anger. But this framing misses what is actually unfolding. What we are witnessing is not simply another protest cycle. It is the result of a decades-long erosion of belief in the ideological foundations of the Islamic Republic. It is about the slow disintegration of a worldview that once claimed to explain everything: how people should dress, think and live. Totalitarian systems rarely fall through dramatic revolutions alone. More often, they unravel from within, as the distance grows between what the state demands…

Jan

26

2026

By PAULINE SOPHIE HEINRICHS

Russian knowledge of Soviet-era energy systems has helped it to target Ukraine’s heating and homes

WORLD

IN the middle of Ukraine’s fiercest winter of the war, many Ukrainians are unable to prepare hot meals or are unable to heat their homes while temperatures have dipped as low as -20C in the past few weeks. Harsher weather is forecast. Russia has once again targeted Ukraine with sustained attacks on power stations, energy grids and heating nodes affecting electricity, as well as heating systems and water pumps. Following the Russian strikes on January 20, around 5,600 apartment buildings in Kyiv were left without heating, and almost half of Kyiv was believed to be without heat and power, affecting…

Jan

24

2026

By STEFAN WOLFF

Donald Trump’s ‘board of peace’ looks like a privatised UN with one shareholder: the US president

WORLD

IT is hard to believe that Donald Trump has only been back in the White House for a year. His accomplishments are many – but most of them are of questionable durability or benefit, including for the United States. Even his UN-endorsed 20-point ceasefire and transition plan for Gaza, released on September 29 2025 is now in danger of being subsumed in yet another grandiose fantasy of the American president: the so-called “board of peace” to be chaired by Trump. This group of international dignitaries was originally intended to oversee the work of a more technical committee, comprising technocrats responsible…