WORLD - The African Mirror

Oct

31

2025

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.”…

Oct

30

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

UN documents human rights impact of Afghanistan’s September telecommunications shutdown

WORLD

A 48-hour nationwide telecommunications shutdown in Afghanistan last month resulted in preventable deaths, disrupted humanitarian operations and exacerbated restrictions on women and girls, according to a UN Human Rights Office report released Tuesday. The shutdown, implemented by the de facto authorities between September 29 and October 1, 2025, cut off access to essential services across the country, UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told reporters at a biweekly press briefing in Geneva. "From its health systems to the banking sector and everyday operations of small businesses, the people of Afghanistan are heavily reliant on telecommunications systems to access essential services,"…

Oct

29

2025

By BEN L MURPHY

ICJ tells Israel to let UN aid flow into Gaza – but UN’s own failures throughout the war loom large

WORLD

THE UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), demanded that Israel allow aid into Gaza in an advisory opinion on October 22. It held that Israel is in breach of its obligations as a UN member state by having failed to do so adequately over the past two years. The opinion was requested ten months ago by the UN General Assembly after Israel’s parliament banned the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from operating in territories occupied by the country. UNRWA has long played a pivotal role in delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians. In its verdict, the ICJ…

Oct

29

2025

By KHALED MANSOUR

From 9/11 to Gaza: How I lost faith in the humanitarian system

WORLD

TWENTY-FOUR years ago, on 11 September 2001, I sat on the veranda of a picturesque seafront restaurant in the Gaza Strip. I had started working for the United Nations just two years earlier and was at a table with some Western diplomats and foreign aid workers. I watched as the young waiter carrying our food froze en route to our table and followed his eyes to a TV screen above our heads. It was showing news footage of a plane slamming into one of the World Trade Centre buildings in New York City. The reaction to those attacks started a…

Oct

29

2025

By RANA MITTER

Xi-Trump summit: Trade, Taiwan and Russia still top agenda for China and US presidents – 6 years after last meeting

WORLD

SIX years have passed since Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump last met, but the substance of discussions remains largely the same. Back in 2019, trade and Taiwan also rode high on the agenda. Ahead of the pair’s expected meeting on Oct. 30, 2025, Trump also indicated he wants to enlist China’s help in bringing Russia to the peace table – adding a third weighty issue for the two men to chat about. But how has the needle moved on these three issues – trade, Taiwan and China-Russia relations – since the last meeting between Trump and Xi? Rana Mitter,…

Oct

28

2025

By AMIN SAIKAL

The leader most capable of governing a future Palestinian state is languishing in an Israeli jail

WORLD

AS the future of Gaza hangs in the balance, the Palestinian Authority (PA) needs renewal if it’s to eventually govern the strip and play a key role in making the two-state solution a reality. The PA has not proved effective under Mahmoud Abbas, the heavily criticised, unpopular 89-year-old leader. Abbas’s time has passed. There’s a massive need for a more dynamic figure to replace him and reform the PA into a more legitimate and instrumental governing body that can unite the various Palestinian factions. Under the circumstances, no one fits the bill better than Marwan Barghouti, who has been languishing…

Oct

28

2025

By SERGEY V. POPOV

Sanctions on Russia have failed to stop the war so far – will Trump’s latest package be any different?

WORLD

DONALD Trump has finally decided to hit Russia with sanctions – the first package he has imposed since he came back to the White House in January. The sanctions target Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil companies, as retaliation for Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine. The announcement came in the wake of the decision to call off a planned summit between the two leaders in Budapest next month. The US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said in a statement: “We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.” In fact, the…

Oct

28

2025

By LEILA AMINEDDOLEH

You’ve just stolen a priceless artifact – what happens next?

WORLD

THE high-profile heist at the Louvre in Paris on Oct 19, 2025, played out like a scene from a Hollywood movie: a gang of thieves steal an assortment of dazzling royal jewels on display at one of the world’s most famous museums. But with the authorities hot in pursuit, the robbers still have more work to do: How can they capitalise on their haul? Most stolen works are never found. In the art crime courses I teach, I often point out that the recovery rate is below 10%. This is particularly disturbing when you consider that between 50,000 and 100,000…