WORLD - The African Mirror

May

09

2026

Russia’s pared‑down Victory Day parade tells a story: Away from the pomp, war in Ukraine is not going to Putin’s plan

WORLD

VICTORY Day in Russia, which marks the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union, has long held particular importance in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Yet this year, the May 9 celebration – usually replete with extensive parades across the country and a demonstration of military hardware in Moscow – is expected to be significantly pared down. That’s due to Kyiv’s ongoing long-range military capabilities. For the first time in two decades, Russian officials have said, there will be no lavish display of tanks and missiles. The reality for Putin is that the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year,…

May

08

2026

By CHRISTIAN EMERY

Trump administration claiming a ‘win’ against Iran – here’s a report card

WORLD

TWO months into the war in Iran, the reasons the US gave for launching this conflict – and Washington’s minimum criteria for claiming success – now appear unintelligible. So much so that US officials are now arguing the war had actually ended in America’s favour almost a month ago, when the ceasefire came into effect. It is hard to think of a more damning indictment of Donald Trump’s catastrophic war in Iran than the spectacle of his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, telling reporters on May 5 that the main goal now was to get the Strait of Hormuz “back…

May

08

2026

By ERRIN HAINES

She cared for America’s children. She’s also reshaping our democracy.

WORLD

ADRIANA George immigrated to the United States from the Caribbean at 21 years old and soon found community in her new home, doing the work she loved as a nanny in New York City. This story was originally reported by Errin Haines of The 19th. Meet Errin and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. In the lead-up to our country’s 250th anniversary, Errin Haines is writing a series of columns to contemplate the complicated expansion of our democracy. Subscribe to The Amendment newsletter. In New York, George met her husband. Together, they moved to Philadelphia, where she continued to…

May

08

2026

By MATHEW SCHMALZ

Themes of peace and human dignity have been central to Pope Leo as he marks his first year in office

WORLD

WHEN he was elected pope on May 8, 2025, Robert Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV, greeted the crowd with Christ’s words to his disciples: “Peace be with you.” Peace has become a central theme of the pontificate of the first American pope. In recent months, opposing the war in the Middle East, Leo has said that the “world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants.” He led a “Prayer Vigil for Peace” on April 11, 2026, in which he criticized how the name of God has been used to justify war and death. He has also said…

May

07

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

380 dead, millions displaced: Lebanon’s ceasefire is a lie in practice, says UN

WORLD

CEASEFIRE that was supposed to silence the guns in Lebanon has done little to stop the killing. Since the truce between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah came into force on 17 April, at least 380 people have been killed, more than a million and a half displaced civilians cannot return to their homes, and humanitarian workers are being shot while responding to emergency calls. That is the verdict of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), who briefed reporters in Geneva on Tuesday in terms that left little…

May

07

2026

By AMIN SAIKAL and AMITAV ACHARYA

‘No fear of roaring lions’: Iran has a long history of standing firm against outside aggressors

WORLD

US President Donald Trump’s threats against Iran since the war began have targeted not just the country’s military capabilities, but its entire civilisation. In recent days, he has threatened that Iran would be “blown off the face of the earth” if it attacks US ships trying to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He’s previously pledged to send Iran back to the “Stone Age”, and warned that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again”. These statements show not only extreme belligerence, but Trump’s complete lack of understanding of Iran’s long, resilient culture and civilisation and the…

May

07

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Cambodia’s appeals court entrenches crackdown on dissent, UN warns of judicial overreach

WORLD

PHNON Penh's appeals court has upheld a draconian 27-year prison sentence against Kem Sokha, Cambodia's former opposition leader, alongside convictions for 33 activists, human rights defenders, and social media users - signaling a deepening authoritarian grip that the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) brands as a blatant violation of international law. The rulings, announced this week, stem from politically charged cases. Sokha, head of the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was convicted of treason, espionage, and conspiracy over a 2013 speech in Australia— delivered a full decade before his 2017 arrest. In a parallel first-instance verdict, the Phnom Penh…

May

06

2026

By FEDERICO DONELLI; CHIARA BOLDRINI and RICCARDO GASCO

India’s Horn of Africa strategy has shifted: what it’s trying to do and how it could work

WORLD

INDIA’S engagement in the Horn of Africa and Red Sea basin was, until recently, largely limited to UN peacekeeping operations and anti-piracy patrols. Since the second half of the 1990s, India has participated in nearly all peacekeeping operations in Africa. Anti-piracy efforts emerged between 2008 and 2014 as piracy off Somalia and the Gulf of Aden spread across a vast maritime space. This spanned east Africa and the wider Indian Ocean, bringing threats close to India’s shores. Indian trade routes were exposed to new security risks, so a more sustained maritime posture was needed. From the mid-2010s, therefore, India expanded…

May

06

2026

By JARON PORCIELLO

80% of Africa’s fertiliser is imported: how food systems can adapt to the Iran shock

WORLD

CONFLICT in the Persian Gulf is disrupting fertiliser supplies, and Africa’s food systems stand to lose. Agrifood systems (the activities that connect the people, investments, and decisions involved in producing and delivering food and agricultural goods) rely on a steady flow of inputs like fertiliser, along with markets, infrastructure, and policy and trade decisions. These food systems can absorb shocks and find new ways to keep supplies flowing under pressure. But they are also sensitive. A disruption in one part of the system has an impact on others, as the conflict in Iran that erupted in late February 2026 shows…

May

06

2026

By GREG TOPPO, THE 74

The United States is turning 250 years old. For history teachers, it’s a complicated lesson

WORLD

AMONG longtime history teacher Karalee Wong Nakatsuka’s most prized possessions are two nearly identical T-shirts with very different meanings. One comes from Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, celebrating our Founding Fathers’ signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and their fight for freedom from the British Crown. This article was co-published with The 74, a nonprofit news organization covering education in America. Sign up for its newsletters here. The second is from Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., where an assassin killed President Abraham Lincoln 89 years after the Declaration’s signing. The Civil War, fought to free the nation’s nearly four million enslaved…