WORLD - The African Mirror

Nov

03

2025

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…

Nov

03

2025

By FRANCESCA JACKSON

Why was it ‘necessary’ for King Charles to take action on Andrew – and why now?

WORLD

THE man formerly known as Prince Andrew will now simply be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor after he was stripped of all his official titles. In a statement, Buckingham Palace said the king has “initiated a formal process” to remove his brother’s titles. This refers to letters patent – the mechanism by which the monarch can remove titles like “prince”. At the heart of the matter is Mountbatten Windsor’s relationship with convicted paedophile sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and the allegations by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre that she was forced to have sex with the then-prince as a teenager. Mountbatten Windsor…

Nov

01

2025

By TOM HARPER

What will Trump’s deal with Xi mean for the US economy and relations with China? Expert Q&A

WORLD

IT was 12 out of ten, said US President Donald Trump when reporting back on his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The two men met in the South Korean city of Busan on October 30, the first time they have come together face to face since 2019. That, in itself, must be seen as progress after months of rising tensions. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, the world’s two biggest powers have squared off in what has threatened to become an increasingly damaging trade war. Their meeting by no means resulted in a trade deal…

Nov

01

2025

By NICO DIALESANDRO, UNCLOSETED

Mamdani and Cuomo’s complete track records on LGBTQ+ issues

WORLD

THIS year’s mayoral race in New York City is shaping up to be the most-watched and most consequential local election in the country. Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman and Democratic Socialist who cleanly won the Democratic primary earlier this year and maintains a double-digit lead in the polls, is facing off against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the primary. This story was originally published in Uncloseted Media, an LGBTQ-focused investigative news outlet. Analysts argue that this race could have significant implications for the future of the Democratic Party. If Mamdani wins, it will represent…

Oct

31

2025

By The African Mirror

Hurricane Melissa: A Caribbean Catastrophe

WORLD

HURRICANE Melissa has carved a merciless path of destruction across the Caribbean, leaving at least 44 people dead - including 10 children - and transforming vibrant communities into landscapes of rubble, floodwater, and shattered dreams. The storm's wrath fell heaviest on Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba, where the human toll and infrastructure damage paint a sobering portrait of nature's fury unleashed. Jamaica: Ground Zero of Annihilation Jamaica bore witness to history's darkest storm chapter when Melissa roared ashore as a monstrous Category 5 hurricane - the most powerful ever recorded on the island. The numbers tell a grim story: at least…

Oct

31

2025

By TILMAN RUFF

If the US resumes nuclear weapons testing, this would be extremely dangerous for humanity

WORLD

US President Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing immediately, “on an equal basis” with other countries’ testing programs. If Trump is referring to the resumption of explosive nuclear testing, this would be an extremely unfortunate, regrettable step by the United States. It would almost inevitably be followed by tit-for-tat reciprocal announcements by other nuclear-armed states, particularly Russia and China, and cement an accelerating arms race that puts us all in great jeopardy. It would also create profound risks of radioactive fallout globally. Even if such nuclear tests are conducted underground, this poses a risk in…

Oct

31

2025

By ORION RUMMLER

Cancer killed his parents. He’s facing the same disease alone — and unhoused

WORLD

AT 61, Marcus Ford spends most nights riding the Chicago Red Line or looking for a park bench or bus stop that can hold him over until morning. Sleep is rare. And after going through a battery of radiation treatments to treat prostate cancer, he can feel the toll of going too long without it. He’s waited months to be let into a shelter. Most of them are at capacity as the winter months creep closer. “You call one number, and they give you another number, and then you call another number, and they give you back to the first…

Oct

30

2025

By The African Mirror

When the sky fell: Mother Nature’s fury unleashed on Jamaica

WORLD

THE heavens opened not with rain, but with vengeance. Hurricane Melissa descended upon Jamaica like an ancient goddess roused to wrath, her fury written in 300-kilometre winds that screamed through the Caribbean night like banshees heralding apocalypse. The island—emerald jewel of the tropics, home to resilient souls who have weathered countless storms—had never witnessed Mother Nature's rage distilled to such terrifying purity. This was no ordinary tempest. This was elemental chaos incarnate, a reminder that humanity's dominion over Earth remains a fragile illusion. The Deluge The sky turned the colour of bruised plums, swollen and angry. Then it wept—torrentially, catastrophically,…

Oct

30

2025

By SHEFALI LUTHRA

Mamdani spoke of his aunt’s fear after 9/11. Backlash revealed how Islamophobia persists

WORLD

A speech by New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani — and the conservative reaction to it — highlight how Muslim women are specifically targeted during times of heightened Islamophobia or anti-Arab sentiment. “I want to speak to the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab,” Mamdani, the city’s Democratic mayoral nominee and likely next mayor, said Friday in a speech on Islamophobia. “I want to speak to the Muslim who works for our city, whether they teach in our schools or walk the beat for the NYPD.”…