WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

16

2025

Australia is reeling from the worst terrorist attack on home soil. Could it have been prevented?

WORLD

WITH 15 civilians and one gunman dead so far, and another 40 people injured, Australia is reeling from its worst act of terrorism on home soil. Two gunmen opened fire on a Jewish community gathering to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah at Archer Park on Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach. Police have confirmed the two alleged attackers were father and son, aged 50 and 24. The father, Sajid Akram, who was licensed to own six firearms, was shot dead by police. The son, Naveed Akram, remains under police guard in the hospital. Given it was clearly an antisemitic attack, authorities…

Dec

16

2025

By LIGIN JOSEPH

Even ‘weak’ cyclones are being turned into deadly rainmakers by fast-warming oceans

WORLD

THE final week of November was devastating for several South Asian countries. Communities in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand were inundated as Cyclones Ditwah and Senyar unleashed days of relentless rain. Millions were affected, more than 1,500 people lost their lives, hundreds are still missing, and damages ran into multiple millions of US dollars. Sri Lanka’s president even described it as the most challenging natural disaster the island has ever seen. When disasters like this happen, the blame often falls on a failure in early warnings or poor preparedness. This was the case with major floods in Kerala, south India,…

Dec

16

2025

By BARBARA RODRIGUEZ

Some countries recommend fewer childhood vaccines. That plan is riskier in America

WORLD

PRESIDENT Donald Trump is showing increasing interest in reducing the number of routine childhood vaccines in the United States. As part of that justification, he and anti-vaccine activists are pointing to what’s recommended in other countries — an idea that medical and public health experts say ignores key differences about the United States’ health care system. The topic was on display this month when speakers at a meeting held by a now-politicised vaccine advisory panel noted that countries like Denmark recommend fewer vaccines to children, including not recommending a universal birth dose for the hepatitis B vaccine. The panel ultimately…

Dec

15

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Terror at Bondi Beach: deadly attack shatters Hanukkah celebration

WORLD

TWO gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Australia's iconic Bondi Beach on Sunday evening, killing at least 11 people and injuring 29 others in what authorities are calling an antisemitic terrorist attack - the deadliest mass shooting to strike the nation in nearly three decades. The massacre unfolded around 6:47 p.m. local time as approximately 1,000 Jewish families had gathered for "Chanukah by the Sea," a public celebration of the first night of Hanukkah organised by Chabad of Bondi. What should have been a joyous festival of lights descended into chaos and bloodshed as the gunmen fired approximately…

Dec

15

2025

By The African Mirror

Hamas warns Gaza ceasefire in jeopardy after Israel kills senior commander

WORLD

GAZA CITY — The fragile Gaza ceasefire faced a critical threat Sunday as Hamas declared that Israel's assassination of one of its top military commanders could collapse the truce, demanding U.S. intervention to salvage the agreement. The killing of Raed Saed, described by Hamas sources as the second-in-command of the group's armed wing, marked the highest-profile assassination of a Hamas figure since the U.S.-backed ceasefire took effect in October, according to Reuters. Thousands of Hamas supporters packed central Gaza City for Saed's funeral, carrying coffins draped in green Hamas flags in one of the militant group's largest public displays since…

Dec

13

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Winter storms and medical crises compound Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe

WORLD

AT least ten people have died in the past 24 hours from heavy rains battering the Gaza Strip, as Storm Byron tears through a population already devastated by 14 months of conflict and a crippled health system, the World Health Organisation has reported. Two infants under five succumbed to hypothermia this week as thousands of displaced families shelter in flimsy tents along exposed coastal areas with no drainage or protective barriers. More than 4,000 people are living in high-risk zones along the Khan Younis shoreline alone, according to WHO Representative Dr Rik Peeperkorn, speaking from Gaza. The storm has deepened…

Dec

13

2025

By BARBARA RODRIGUEZ

ICE arrests are forcing American moms to leave their jobs

WORLD

A jump in immigration enforcement arrests under the Trump administration is having a detrimental impact on America’s child care system, reducing the number of immigrant workers available and prompting mothers with young children to leave their jobs as they scramble for stable care. This story was originally reported by Barbara Rodriguez of The 19th. Meet Barbara and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. That’s according to a report released Wednesday by the Better Life Lab at the nonprofit New America, which examined how increased arrests during the first half of the year by the U.S. Immigration…

Dec

13

2025

By HAZAR ALYAZJI and HANNA STRID

One year on, trauma and healing in Syria

WORLD

WHEN Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power one year ago, ending more than half a century of rule over Syria by his family, 38-year-old Amira* didn’t know how to feel. It had been eight years since she was released from one of the regime's Damascus prisons, and watching as others were freed from captivity brought up complex emotions. Amira, who asked that her real name not be published out of concerns for her safety, spent a year in Adra Prison, where former prisoners and human rights groups say torture and abuse were rife. As the rebels who now head Syria’s…

Dec

12

2025

By The African Mirror

‘If I must die’: poetry from Gaza creates an alternative archive of testimony

WORLD

IN times of war and crisis, poetry can become more than just art: it can become testimony. For the people of Palestine living under siege, poetry is not a mere reflection of their suffering, but rather an act of resistance which campaigns for survival and remembrance. Poetry has adopted these functions throughout history. Most famously in the West, the poetry of the First and Second World Wars still haunts cultural and sociological imaginations, from Wilfred Owen’s depictions of the trenches to Primo Levi’s poetic recollections of surviving the Holocaust. But survivors from across history and the wider world have turned…

Dec

12

2025

By KATHRIN MAURER

In Kyiv, I saw how artcan help hold a city together in the shadow of war

WORLD

IT'S 2:44 am. An air siren cuts through the clear night sky over Kyiv and into my sleep. Heart pounding, I rise out of bed in my seventh-floor room of the Hotel Rus. Feeling like I’m on autopilot, I walk down the stairs to the bomb shelter. Chairs are lined up in orderly rows in this basement that was once a gym. But only one elderly man in jogging pants with a travel cushion around his neck sits here. I quietly take a seat next to him and try to figure out the threat level on my newly installed Kyiv…