WORLD - The African Mirror

Jan

21

2026

Israel’s suspension of Gaza aid NGOs will have deadly consequences

WORLD

ISRAEL’S decision to suspend 37 international humanitarian organisations working in the Gaza Strip beginning on 1 January is not a technical or administrative measure. It is a political act that is deepening the already catastrophic humanitarian collapse caused by Israel’s genocidal war. This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Rita Baroud The organisations that have been suspended represent nearly every established and credible aid group that has been involved in the humanitarian response in Gaza over more than two years – from Médecins Sans Frontières and Mercy Corps to World Vision and the Danish Refugee Council. Israel’s excuse?…

Jan

20

2026

By SHANNON BRINCAT

Trump has threatened European countries with higher tariffs if he doesn’t get Greenland. Will it work?

WORLD

IN an extraordinary escalation of his bid to claim Greenland, US President Donald Trump has threatened eight European countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Great Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands – with a 10% tariff on all goods coming into the United States from February 1 until he is able to buy the semi-autonomous Danish territory. That tariff will then increase to 25% on June 1. On the one hand, Greenland is potentially rich in raw materials and rare earth minerals, highly desirable for US tech giants who control key levers of power in Washington. On the other hand,…

Jan

20

2026

By AMANDA MENG; ALBERTO DAINOTTI, and ZACHARY BISCHOF

Iran’s latest internet blackout extends to phones and Starlink

WORLD

THE Iranian regime’s internet shutdown, initiated on Jan. 8, 2026, has severely diminished the flow of information out of the country. Without internet access, little news about the national protests that flared between Dec. 30, 2025, and Jan. 13, 2026, and the regime’s violent crackdown has reached the world. Many digital rights and internet monitoring groups have assessed the current shutdown to be the most sophisticated and most severe in Iran’s history. We are a social scientist and two computer scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Internet Intelligence Lab who study internet connectivity. Through the Internet Outage Detection and…

Jan

20

2026

By STEFAN WOLFF

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine outlasts the Soviet fight with the Nazis – here’s what history tells us about Kyiv’s prospects

WORLD

RUSSIA’S so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine passed a significant milestone on January 13. It has now outlasted the 1,418 days it took Vladimir Putin’s notorious predecessor, the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, to bring his war against Nazi Germany to a successful conclusion. The two wars are hard to compare in any reasonable way. But there are nonetheless some important parallels worth pointing out. Perhaps the most wishful parallel is that aggression never pays. After some initial setbacks, Stalin’s Soviet Union turned things around on the battlefield and drove the German aggressors and their allies out of the country. This…

Jan

19

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

The Atlantic fracture: America’s allies face an unprecedented test

WORLD

THE foundations of the Western alliance are being stress-tested in ways unimaginable even during the Cold War's darkest hours. President Donald Trump's Saturday ultimatum - demanding eight European nations accept escalating tariffs until the United States acquires Greenland - has thrust NATO into uncharted territory where the language of partnership has been replaced by the vocabulary of coercion. This is not a negotiation between allies. It is an ultimatum that treats sovereign democracies as obstacles to be overcome rather than partners to be consulted. The Mechanics of Pressure The tariff scheme reveals calculated escalation. Beginning February 1, an additional 10%…

Jan

19

2026

By The African Mirror

Mass killings in Iran: Security forces open fire on protesters as death toll reaches thousands

WORLD

IRANIAN security forces have massacred thousands of protesters across the country in a coordinated crackdown following nationwide demonstrations that erupted earlier this month, according to a new investigation by Human Rights Watch. Videos verified by the human rights organisation show at least 400 bodies piled in and around a morgue south of Tehran, with witnesses describing scenes of families desperately searching through body bags for missing loved ones. The footage, along with testimony from survivors and medical personnel, points to what researchers are calling an unprecedented wave of state violence. "The mass killings by Iranian security forces since January 8…

Jan

19

2026

By EBONY JJ CURRY

Detroit heard King’s dream first. These Black women are carrying it forward

WORLD

DETROIT was the first place Dr Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an early version of what would become his “I Have a Dream” speech. He recited it on June 23, 1963, at the end of Detroit’s Walk to Freedom, a march that happened weeks before he spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. This story was originally reported by Ebony JJ Curry of The 19th. Meet Ebony and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. This piece of Detroit-first history sharpens what Martin Luther King Jr. Day asks of the city. It’s harder…

Oct

07

2025

By ROD THORNTON and MARINA MIRON

European countries are now turning to landmines to create new deadly defensive barriers from Russia

WORLD

FIVE Nato countries neighbouring Russia or its ally, Belarus, have announced that they are to opt out of the Ottawa treaty of 1997. This treaty bans the use by signatories of anti-personnel (AP) landmines. These states – Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia – now have plans to create a 2,000-mile stretch of mined areas as part of a defensive effort against any possible attack from Russia. The move to create such minefields comes as the result of both a recognition of the perceived growing threat from Russia and of the important defensive effect – as proved during the current…

Jan

17

2026

By MICHELE TESTONI

US-Greenland negotiations have hit a wall. Here are three ways the crisis could end

WORLD

A “fundamental disagreement” persists. This was the only concrete outcome of the meeting at the White House between US, Danish and Greenlandic officials on January 14, as each side maintained its original position on Greenland’s sovereignty. The Trump Administration argued that the US has to take direct control of the island, while both Danish and Greenlandic officials firmly rejected the idea. This was perhaps to be expected. The recently released US National Security Strategy made one thing very clear: US foreign policy is now defined by an assertive approach towards the entire Western Hemisphere. Washington claims the right to intervene…

Jan

17

2026

By CANDICE NORWOOD

ICE violence against women is increasingly visible — and largely untracked

WORLD

A mother was shoved to the ground in front of her children in the hallways of an immigration courthouse in New York. A young woman was pulled from her car and handcuffed on a busy street in Key Largo, Florida. A child care worker was dragged out of her workplace in Chicago, in front of parents and children. A pregnant woman was yanked by one arm through the snowy streets of Minneapolis. In each of these cases, the aggressors were men working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and their actions were caught on video and widely shared online. Then…