WORLD - The African Mirror

May

27

2021

Belarus leader says detained journalist was plotting ‘bloody rebellion’

WORLD

TOM BALMFORTH and MARIA KESELYOVA BELARUSIAN President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed that a journalist pulled off a plane that was forced to land in Minsk had been plotting a rebellion, and he accused the West of waging a hybrid war against him. In his first public remarks since a Belarusian warplane intercepted a Ryanair flight on Sunday between European Union members Greece and Lithuania, he showed no hint of backing down from a confrontation with countries that accuse him of air piracy. "As we predicted, our ill-wishers from outside the country and from inside the country changed their methods of…

Jun

01

2021

By The African Mirror

In Memorial Day speech, Biden defends ‘imperfect’ democracy

WORLD

ANDREA SHALAL U.S. President Joe Biden used his Memorial Day speech to defend America's "imperfect" democracy, calling for more work to deliver the promise of what he said remained "the greatest experiment" in world history. In a speech at Arlington National Cemetery touching on voting rights, freedom of speech and efforts to rectify persistent economic and racial disparities, Biden warned that democracy was "in peril" in the United States and around the world in the face of autocratic forces he did not identify. "Democracy is more than a form of government, it's a way of being, a way of seeing…

Jun

01

2021

By The African Mirror

Three-child policy: China lifts cap on births in major policy shift

WORLD

TONY MUNROE and DAVID STANWAY MARRIED Chinese couples may have up to three children, China has announced, in a major shift from the existing limit of two after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world's most populous country. Beijing scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, replacing it with a two-child limit to try and stave off risks to its economy from a rapidly ageing population. But that failed to result in a sustained surge in births given the high cost of raising children in Chinese cities, a challenge that persists to this day. The policy…

Jun

01

2021

By The African Mirror

Israel’s ‘magician’ Netanyahu faces final curtain after record run

WORLD

JEFFREY HELLER LONG the familiar face of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has held on as prime minister for more than a decade, clinging to power through a criminal indictment and four elections in the past two years alone. Now, the question is whether the 71-year-old Netanyahu, dubbed "the magician" by his admirers, has any cards left up his sleeve. After years in which he exerted near-complete hegemony over Israeli politics, an emerging broad coalition of opponents could be about to unseat him. "Fraud of the century," an indignant Netanyahu declared on Sunday, after fellow right-winger Naftali Bennett turned against him and…

May

26

2021

By The African Mirror

George Floyd’s family lobbies Biden for U.S. police reform

WORLD

JEFF MASON and NICK PFOSI A year after his killing unleashed a national reckoning over racial injustice, George Floyd's relatives met with President Joe Biden at the White House and with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to urge passage of police reform legislation in their loved one's name. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died in handcuffs with a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes, became the face of a national movement challenging police brutality and bias in the U.S. criminal justice system. His dying words, "I can't breathe," have echoed as a slogan in…

May

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Generation Crisis: young Syrians come of age in a decade of conflict

WORLD

YAMANM AL SHAAR TRAINEE flight attendant Ghenwa, engineering student Ali and electronic music DJ Jawad are among a generation of young Syrians to have come of age during the war. They live in the capital Damascus, which was spared the intense bombing raids that destroyed opposition bastions such as Aleppo but life for the twenty-somethings is far from normal. A decade of conflict, Western sanctions, a financial collapse in next-door Lebanon, and now, the global pandemic, have battered Syria's economy and a currency crash has sparked shortages of essential goods like wheat and fuel in government territory. Economic hardships aside,…

May

25

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. says primary focus on lasting Gaza ceasefire, aid; too early for peace talks

WORLD

HUMEYRA PAMUK and ARSHAD MOHAMMED U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will focus primarily on ensuring that a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas holds during his visit to the region, and work to get assistance delivered to the people of Gaza, a senior State Department official said. Washington has "every hope and expectation" that the ceasefire, brokered by Egypt and now in its fourth day after 11 days of hostilities, will hold, the U.S. official suggested in a call with reporters but said it was too early for wider peace talks. Blinken will travel to Jerusalem, Ramallah,…

May

25

2021

By The African Mirror

UK Black Lives Matters activist critically ill after shooting

WORLD

BLACK Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson is critically ill after being shot in the head in south London, her political party said. London's Metropolitan Police appealed for witnesses after offices found a woman, who they said was thought to be in her 20s, suffering a gunshot injury in Peckham. Police said the woman, who they have not named, remained in hospital with life-threatening injuries. "We are all hoping that this young woman's condition improves," detective chief inspector Jimi Tele said. "Our investigation is in its early stages and urgent enquiries are under way to establish the circumstances." Johnson, a mother…

May

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Belarus faces sanctions over ‘state piracy’, airlines to shun it

WORLD

GABRIELA BACZYNSKA and MATTHIAS WILLIAMS SEVERAL airlines have said they would avoid Belarusian airspace after Belarus scrambled a warplane to intercept a Ryanair jetliner and arrest a dissident journalist in an act denounced by Western powers as "state piracy". European Union leaders were set to ban Belarussian airlines from their bloc's airspace and call on EU-based carriers to avoid flying over the former Soviet republic, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters. The leaders of the 27 member states will also consider widening the list of Belarussian individuals they already sanction and call on the International Civil Aviation Organization…

May

24

2021

By The African Mirror

Italian cable car crash kills 14 people, child seriously hurt

WORLD

GUILIA SEGRETI, FLAVIO LO SCALZO and ALEX FRASER AT least 14 people, including five Israelis, died and a child was seriously injured yesterday when a cable car linking Italy's Lake Maggiore with a nearby mountain plunged to the ground, officials and rescuers said. The Stresa-Mottarone cable car takes tourists and locals from the town on Lake Maggiore, almost 1,400 metres above sea level to the top of the Mottarone mountain in 20 minutes. Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had been informed by Italian authorities that five of its nationals were among the dead and one Israeli…