WORLD - The African Mirror

Nov

06

2025

The night when democracy fought back: America’s turning point

WORLD

TUESDAY night's electoral sweep represents far more than three Democratic victories - it marks a potential inflexion point in American democracy's struggle against authoritarian drift. In New York City, Virginia, and New Jersey, voters delivered a resounding rebuke to nine months of Donald Trump's tumultuous return to power, offering a glimpse of what resistance looks like when it transforms from protest into political power. The symbolism alone is staggering. Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old Muslim democratic socialist, will now govern the city that birthed Donald Trump's political mythology. His victory speech crystallised the stakes: "If anyone can show a nation betrayed…

Nov

06

2025

By MICHELLE BURGIS-KASTHALA

After 2 years of devastating war, will Arab countries now turn their backs on Israel?

WORLD

THE Middle East has long been riddled by instability. This makes getting a sense of the broader, long-term trends in the aftermath of the Gaza war particularly challenging. The significance of Trump’s 20-point peace deal that has (hopefully) brought an end to the Gaza war cannot be overstated. However, this deal – and what comes next – will not change the Middle East. Rather, the wars of the past two years merely consolidated trends that were already underway. They didn’t serve as a radical break from the past. The impact of October 7 on the region Before October 2023, Israel’s…

Nov

06

2025

By PINTU KUMAR MAHLA

Bangladesh’s accession to the UN Water Convention has a ripple effect that could cause problems with India

WORLD

WHEN Bangladesh became the first country in South Asia to join the U.N.’s Water Convention earlier this year, it was presented as a win-win. Signing up to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes would help Bangladesh safeguard and manage waterways that represent a “lifeline to peace and prosperity,” according to the United Nations. At the same time, it was hoped that the South Asian nation’s addition might encourage better cross-border cooperation in a region where shared rivers are often fought over. As a scholar who works on issues of water security and grew…

Nov

05

2025

By The African Mirror

One million Gazans receive emergency food aid as UN warns of continued crisis

WORLD

THE World Food Programme has distributed emergency food parcels to approximately one million people across Gaza, but supplies remain desperately inadequate three and a half weeks into a fragile ceasefire, UN humanitarians warned Tuesday. The distributions fall well short of WFP's target of reaching 1.6 million people, with each family receiving reduced rations sufficient for only 10 days, officials said during a briefing in Geneva. "Supplies are still limited," said Abeer Etefa, WFP Senior Spokesperson, speaking from Cairo. The agency is operating only 17 bakeries providing fresh bread to 700,000 people daily, with plans to expand to 25 bakeries. Access…

Nov

05

2025

By COLLEEN MURRELL

Israel is still not allowing international media back into Gaza, despite the ceasefire

WORLD

THE world’s media are currently busy recording the tales of released Israeli hostages, freed Palestinian prisoners and their families after a ceasefire came into effect for the war in Gaza. But they are doing so while still being held at a distance from the centre of the story. Foreign journalists have been banned by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip independently since the start of the war. And senior members of the international media are not optimistic that access to Gaza will change any time soon. I asked Phil Chetwynd, global news director at Agence France-Presse (AFP), why he thought…

Nov

05

2025

By MEL LEONOR BARCLAY

Virginia could make history with first Muslim woman elected to statewide office

WORLD

VIRGINIA state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi could make history Tuesday night as the first Muslim woman ever elected to statewide office in the United States. Hashmi is running to become Virginia’s next lieutenant governor in a competitive race against Republican John Reid, a former conservative talk radio host, who could make history himself as the first openly gay Republican elected to statewide office in the country. Virginia will also elect its first woman governor Tuesday in a two-woman contest between former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. Both lieutenant governor candidates have largely steered clear of the…

Nov

04

2025

By MAHMOOD FAYAZI

Lasting peace and recovery in Gaza depends on local participation, not just ceasefires

WORLD

TWO years into the Israeli war in Gaza, world leaders recently gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to deliberate on a long-awaited peace plan to end the conflict. As part of this plan, both Israel and Hamas agreed to another ceasefire agreement — the latest in a series of truces that have repeatedly collapsed since the war began in late 2023. The meeting, involving Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States, marks the most concerted diplomatic effort yet to halt a conflict that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and at least 1,200 Israelis, according…

Nov

04

2025

By IVIS GARCÍA

4 urgent lessons for Jamaica from Puerto Rico’s troubled hurricane recovery – and how the Jamaican diaspora could help after Melissa

WORLD

ACROSS Jamaica, streets are littered with torn-off roofs, splintered wood and other debris left in the wake of Hurricane Melissa. Downed power lines have left communities in the dark, and many flooded and wind-damaged homes are unlivable. Recovering from the devastation of one of the Atlantic’s most powerful storms, which struck on Oct. 28, 2025, will take months and likely years in some areas. That work is made much harder by the isolation of being an island. As a researcher who has extensively studied disaster recovery in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María in 2017, I know that the decisions Jamaica…

Nov

03

2025

By BOAZ ATZILI

Trump’s ability to counter Netanyahu’s spoiler tactics in public may have been key to advancing a ceasefire in Gaza

WORLD

AFTER two years of devastating war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip, President Donald Trump declared an end to the war on Oct. 14, 2025. The peace plan includes a Hamas commitment to return all hostages and a withdrawal of Israeli forces. In late October, both sides said they remained committed to peace, despite Israeli retaliation for the death of an Israeli soldier who killed 104 people, and despite the fact that the remains of 11 deceased hostages remain in Gaza. Those setbacks aside, the new peace push is the most serious attempt so far…

Nov

03

2025

By ADRIANA MARIN

Latin America is reviving the ‘iron fist’ approach to law enforcement

WORLD

A massive anti-drug raid in Rio de Janeiro left 132 people dead in the early hours of October 28 as Brazil’s security forces confronted one of the country’s biggest crime gangs. It was one of the deadliest security operations in modern Brazilian history. Around 2,500 officers descended on the favelas of Complexo do Alemão and Complexo da Penha, strongholds of Brazil’s oldest criminal group, Comando Vermelho. There were more than 80 arrests. Authorities described the operation as the country’s “biggest gang raid in history”. Human Rights Watch in Brazil called the episode “a huge tragedy”. Beyond the immediate shock, the…