WORLD - The African Mirror

Dec

05

2025

By PETER J. QUARANTO; JOSEFINA ECHAVARRIA ALVAREZ; PAVLO SMYTSNYUK, and TYLER JESS THOMPSON

Lasting peace in Ukraine may hinge on independent monitors – yet Trump’s 28-point plan barely mentions them

WORLD

START-AND-STOP negotiations for a deal to end the war in Ukraine have been injected with new intensity after U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled a 28-point peace proposal. It is far from clear whether the latest flurry of diplomacy, which on Dec. 2, 2025, saw Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, will force the warring parties any closer to a resolution in the grinding, nearly four-year-long conflict. Yet even if negotiators can broker a welcome deal to stop the current fighting, they will immediately be faced with the challenges of sustaining and implementing…

Dec

05

2025

By MICHELLE GRATTA

Marles confirms Australia is monitoring Chinese ships, announces defence delivery shakeup

WORLD

DEFENCE Minister Richard Marles has confirmed Australia is monitoring a flotilla of Chinese Navy ships currently in the Philippine Sea, but with its destination unknown. Marles volunteered the information while announcing a shakeup that will establish a new Defence Delivery Agency designed to improve military acquisition and sustainment operations. The agency will be headed by a national armaments director, who will advise the government on strategies for acquisitions and the delivery of projects after they have been approved. The government says it is the biggest reform in the defence organisation in half a century. Marles, who is acting prime minister…

Dec

04

2025

By DALIA ALAZZEH and SHAHZAD UDDIN

Gaza’s once-growing economy is nearing total collapse

WORLD

GAZA is going through one of the most severe economic collapses the world has seen in modern times. According to a UN report published in late November, the average income per person there is now just US$161 (£122) a year. Before 2007, when Israel imposed a blockade of Gaza after Hamas won elections and took control of the enclave, it was close to US$2,000. This income drop has happened slowly over many years. But since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, Gaza’s economy has fallen apart at a rapid pace. The UN report suggests that in…

Dec

04

2025

By MEL LEONOR BARCLAY and SHEFALI LUTHRA

Her baby was in the NICU. She was in ICE detention

WORLD

NAYRA Guzmán knew there was something wrong with her daughter within hours of her birth — a long and complicated delivery that included a diagnosis of preeclampsia and ended in a Cesarean section. In the haze of recovery, the first-time mom noticed her daughter was struggling to breathe. When the baby started turning blue, Guzmán watched as doctors whisked her away to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In the days that followed, the 22-year-old’s sole focus was her daughter’s recovery, even as their home, the greater Chicago area, became the latest target of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda…

Dec

04

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

UN Refugee Chief praises Costa Rica’s response to Nicaraguan displacement crisis

WORLD

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has called for increased international support for Costa Rica as the country manages the largest refugee population in Central America, primarily driven by displacement from Nicaragua. Grandi has concluded his official visit to Costa Rica, during which he met with government officials, international organisations, UN agencies and refugees fleeing what he described as serious human rights violations in neighbouring Nicaragua. Costa Rica currently hosts 207,456 people requiring international protection as of the end of October, with 85 percent from Nicaragua. The influx makes Costa Rica the primary asylum destination in Central America, yet…

Dec

03

2025

By Manfred Zwecker

Record rainfall and cyclones claim hundreds of lives across Southeast Asia

WORLD

HUNDREDS of people have died, and more than 1.5 million have been displaced across Southeast Asia following record-breaking rainfall and back-to-back tropical storms, United Nations agencies reported Tuesday. Indonesia has been hit hardest, with 604 deaths, 464 people missing and 2,600 injured, according to the Indonesian National Disaster Office. More than 570,000 people have been displaced in the country. The Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam are also among the countries severely affected by what the World Meteorological Organisation described as a combination of monsoon rainfall and tropical cyclone activity. Tropical Cyclone Senyar brought torrential rains, widespread flooding and landslides…

Dec

03

2025

By MITRA NASEH, MARYAM RAFIEIFAR, and JEAN-FRANCOIS TRANI

As the US suspends visas, an in-depth look at the global Afghan refugee crisis

WORLD

US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the processing of all immigration applications for Afghan nationals after an Afghan man was identified as the suspected shooter of two National Guard officers. But Washington’s decision to suspend the immigration cases of tens of thousands of people because of a lone shooter is only the latest example of how Afghan refugees are having their cases politicised by countries that previously promised them safe haven from the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate, particularly those who served alongside foreign forces during the 20-year US-led military intervention in the country. The suspect in the Washington, DC shooting,…

Dec

03

2025

By GABRIELLA GLADNEY

Rest and resistance are intertwined. Rosa Parks understood that

WORLD

SELF-CARE is a bit of a buzzword these days. But for Rosa Parks, it was a deliberate practice and a means of survival in her later years. Long after she refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Parks practised yoga as a way to support her body and mind. This little-known part of her history is a piece of a bigger picture: Black activists have used self-care as a tool for decades. This story was originally reported by

Dec

02

2025

By The African Mirror

Hong Kong arrests 13 over deadly tower fire as death toll reaches 151

WORLD

HONG Kong authorities arrested 13 people on suspicion of manslaughter on Monday as investigators determined that substandard building materials fueled a catastrophic fire that has killed at least 151 people and left more than 40 missing. The arrests mark a significant development in the probe into Wednesday's blaze at the Wang Fuk Court estate, which engulfed seven residential towers and has become the city's deadliest fire since 1948. Police continue searching the burnt-out buildings, discovering victims' remains in stairwells and on rooftops where residents became trapped while attempting to escape. Investigation Findings Government tests revealed that green mesh material wrapped…

Dec

02

2025

By LEANNE WEBER, ALISON GERARD, and MARINELLA MARMO

Trump wants Australian data on migrant crime. This will only scapegoat vulnerable people

WORLD

THE Trump administration is extending its anti-immigration agenda beyond US borders. This week, US embassies in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and several Western European nations were instructed to collect and transmit migrant-related crime data in these countries to Washington. The administration’s stated purpose is to assist US allies in reforming their immigration systems and curbing what the US labels “mass migration”. In a briefing to explain the action, a US State Department spokesperson called mass migration an “existential threat to Western civilisation and the safety of both the West and the world”. This request is unprecedented and…