WORLD - The African Mirror

Oct

22

2025

Defiant Sarkozy begins prison term, proclaiming innocence in Libya funding case

WORLD

A defiant Nicolas Sarkozy proclaimed his innocence on Tuesday as he began serving a five-year prison sentence for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya, becoming the first former French president to be jailed since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain after World War Two. The 70-year-old former conservative leader, who governed France from 2007 to 2012, walked hand in hand with his wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni, to a waiting car as supporters chanted "Nicolas, Nicolas" and sang the French national anthem outside his Paris home. "I want to tell [French people], with the unshakable strength that is mine, that it…

Oct

22

2025

By SHEFALI LUTHRA and MEL LEONOR BARCLAY

ICE keeps detaining pregnant immigrants — against federal policy

WORLD

CARY López Alvarado, of Hawthorne, California, was nine months pregnant when she was arrested by immigration officials alongside her husband, an immigrant from Guatemala. Alvarado was held overnight but was never sent to a detention facility: After taking her into custody, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) learned she was a U.S. citizen. Immediately after her release, she began to experience sharp pains in her stomach, according to a claim she filed against the federal government. She gave birth a few days later. Angie Rodriguez, an immigrant from Colombia, was taken into ICE custody following a routine check-in with immigration officials in…

Oct

21

2025

By PENELOPE JACKSON

The Mona Lisa, a gold toilet and now the Louvre’s royal jewels: a fascinating history of art heists

WORLD

THE world’s largest art museum, the Louvre has approximately half a million objects in its collection, with about 30,000 on display, and sees on average 8 million visitors per year. That’s big on any scale, with a lot of people and objects to keep watch over. And Sundays are particularly busy. In a cleverly conceived operation, four men wearing fluorescent vests pulled up at the Louvre in a flat-decked truck at 9.30 Sunday morning. Quickly setting to work, they raised an extendable ladder to the second storey. Climbing it, they cut through a window, entered the Galerie d’Apollon and, brandishing…

Oct

21

2025

By JOHN STRAWSON

Can Netanyahu survive peace?

WORLD

NOW a ceasefire has come into effect in Gaza, Israel’s long-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faces the dilemma of how to campaign ahead of the next national elections. These elections must be held, at the latest, in one year’s time. In a meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on October 13, both Netanyahu and opposition leader Yair Lapid made speeches that seemed to open the election campaign. Netanyahu chose to cast himself as war victor, while Lapid emphasised the liberal values contained in Israel’s declaration of independence. Donald Trump also addressed Israeli lawmakers at the Knesset and, in his speech,…

Oct

21

2025

By SARA LUTERMAN

Trump’s attempt to gut special education office has some conservative parents on edge

WORLD

THE Trump administration’s decision to lay off most employees within the U.S. Department of Education’s special education office was described by the president this week as part of cuts to “Democrat programs that we were opposed to.” This was news to many conservative parents of disabled children, as well as disability policy experts. More than 7.3 million children in all 50 states rely on special education services, which are partially funded and enforced by the federal government. This story was originally reported by Sara Luterman of The 19th. Meet Sara and read more of her reporting on gender, politics and…

Oct

20

2025

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

When seven million Americans said ‘enough’: The historic No Kings uprising

WORLD

SATURDAY, October 18, 2025, will be remembered as the day America drew a line in the sand. From coast to coast, in cities large and small, an estimated seven million Americans flooded the streets in what organisers are calling "the biggest single-day protest against tyranny in American history." Not since the monumental civil rights marches of the 1960s has this nation witnessed such a thunderous, unified rejection of presidential power run amok. The Powder Keg The spark? President Donald Trump's increasingly authoritarian grip on power—brutal immigration raids featuring masked ICE agents snatching citizens and immigrants alike, military occupations of American…

Oct

20

2025

By ERIC REIDY

Don’t look away: Two years of Israel’s war in Gaza in the words of its writers

WORLD

The sounds of war in the Gaza Strip have fallen into a tenuous silence. How long it will last and what will follow in its wake remain uncertain. Already, the killing of several Palestinians by Israeli forces since the new ceasefire began on 10 October, and challenges surrounding the return by Hamas of hostages’ bodies, are casting the future of the deal into doubt. What is clear is that the effects of one of the most lethal and destructive military campaigns of the 21st century – deemed a genocide by a UN commission of inquiry and numerous rights groups and…

Oct

20

2025

By MARK GRIFFITHS and MOHAMED EL-SHEWY

How ‘conflict-free’ minerals are used in the waging of modern wars

WORLD

MINERALS such as cobalt, copper, lithium, tantalum, tin and tungsten, which are all abundant in central Africa, are essential to the comforts of everyday life. Our phones, laptops and electric vehicles would not function without them. These minerals are also tied intimately with conflict. For decades, military and paramilitary violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and on its borders – particularly with Rwanda – has been shaped and financed by control over some of these sought-after commodities. Many of these minerals, including those that have supposedly been sourced responsibly, are linked to violence at the other end of…

Oct

18

2025

By JOHN TOOKEY

With 83% of its buildings destroyed, Gaza needs more than money to rebuild

WORLD

THE Gaza Strip is a tortured piece of land that is about 40km long and 11km wide. Some 2.3 million souls are crammed into a space of around 360 square kilometres. This is barely larger than central Sydney. People and empires have lived in, built on, fought over and destroyed the area for thousands of years. The dire situation in Gaza The consequences of the Israel-Palestine war have been catastrophic. The human toll is immense: the United Nations estimates more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and almost 170,000 wounded. About 1,200 Israelis have been killed and 5,400 injured since…

Oct

18

2025

By SANWAL HUSSAIN

Young people around the world are leading protests against their governments

WORLD

THE spate of public demonstrations against unemployment, corruption and low quality of life around the world is striking because of who is leading them. Young people have used social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to spread information and arrange their demonstrations. While some of these protests have remained peaceful, others – such as the youth-led demonstrations in Indonesia and Nepal – have become violent. Ten people died in Indonesia’s protests in late August, when public anger over the cost of living and social inequality boiled over after police killed a delivery driver. And 72 people were…