Month: July 2024

Nearly 40 million people were living with the HIV virus that causes AIDS last year, over 9 million weren’t getting any treatment, and the result was that every minute someone died of AIDS-related causes, the U.N. said in a new report launched Monday.

While advances are being made to end the global AIDS pandemic, the report said progress has slowed, funding is shrinking, and new infections are rising in three regions: the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America.

In 2023, around 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses, a significant decline from the 2.1 million deaths in 2004. But the latest figure is more than double the target for 2025 of fewer than 250,000 deaths, according to the report by UNAIDS, the U.N. agency leading the global effort to end the pandemic.

Gender inequality is exacerbating the risks for girls and women, the report said, citing the extraordinarily high incidence of HIV among adolescents and young women in parts of Africa.

The proportion of new infections globally among marginalized communities that face stigma and discrimination – sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs also increased to 55% in 2023 from 45% in 2010, it said.

UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “World leaders pledged to end the AIDS pandemic as a public health threat by 2030, and they can uphold their promise, but only if they ensure that the HIV response has the resources it needs, and that the human rights of everyone are protected.”

As part of that pledge, leaders vowed to reduce annual new HIV infections to below 370,000 by 2025, but the report said in 2023 new infections were more than three times higher at 1.3 million.

Last year, among the 39.9 million people globally living with HIV, 86% knew they were infected, 77% were accessing treatment, and for 72% the virus was suppressed, the report said

César Núñez, director of the UNAIDS New York office, told a news conference there has been progress in HIV treatments — injections that can stay in the body for six months, but the two doses cost $40,000 yearly, out of reach for all but the richest people with the virus.

He said UNAIDS has been asking the manufacturer to make it available at lower cost to low and middle-income countries.

Núñez said there have also been seven cases where people with HIV who were treated for leukemia emerged with no sign of the HIV virus in their system.

He said injections and the seven cases will be discussed at the 25th International AIDS Conference which began Monday in Munich.

At present, he said, daily treatment with pills costs about $75 per person per year. It has allowed many countries to increase the number of people with HIV to receive treatment.

Núñez said UNAIDS will continue advocating for a vaccine to prevent AIDS

Already a trailblazer, Kamala Harris could be on the way to becoming the first woman to serve as president in the United States.

Biden announced Sunday that he was stepping aside after a disastrous debate performance catalyzed fears that the 81-year-old was too frail for a second term.

Moments after the announcement, he endorsed his vice-president Harris to replace him in the race.

If Harris becomes the Democratic nominee and defeats Republican candidate Donald Trump in November, she would be the first woman to serve as president.

Professor Barbara Perry, with the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Presidential Studies, told the Associated Press that the barriers Harris broke once being selected as Biden’s running mate, could continue to fall. “Just as she broke barriers to become the first woman of color to serve as vice president,” Perry said, “she would bring those characteristics to the top of the ticket of a major party, one of the two major parties.”

Vice presidents are always in line to step into the top job if the president dies or is incapacitated. However, Harris has faced an unusual level of scrutiny because of Biden’s age. He was the oldest president in history, taking office at 78 and announcing his reelection bid at 80. Harris is 59.

“In presidential years, she’s very youthful, and she certainly looks youthful and has a youthful energy and sparkle about her,” Perry said.

Harris’ nomination as the Democratic candidate is not a foregone conclusion, and there have been suggestions that the party should hold a lightning-fast “mini primary” to consider other candidates before its convention in Chicago next month.

Even before Biden’s endorsement, Harris was widely viewed as the favorite to replace him on the ticket.

Perry believes gender, rather than race, may prove a bigger challenge for Harris. From time of George Washington, Perry said, there is a paternal model of presidents. “It’s too important an office to exclude half of the American population,” Perry believes.

Perry said Republicans are likely to reprise personal attacks against Harris that they used during the 2020 campaign.

So far, the closest a woman has got to the White House was in 2016 when Hilary Clinton narrowly lost to Donald Trump in the race to the White House.

Harris could offer up a strong contrast to Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance. In contrast to the two men, Harris, who is a leader on abortion rights, could attract younger, more progressive voters.

A Sierra Leone court found 11 people guilty of treason and other offenses following what authorities have called an attempted coup, with their leader sentenced to almost 200 years in prison, a judiciary spokesman said Tuesday.

In November, dozens of gunmen broke into the country’s armory and into a prison where the majority of the more than 2,000 inmates were freed. The clashes left 18 security forces dead. Authorities at the time said they arrested around 80 suspects, and a dozen were charged in January, including former president Ernest Bai Koroma, later granted medical leave.

The man accused of leading the attack, Amadu Koita Makalo, was sentenced Monday to 182 years in prison on charges of treason, murder and shooting with intent to murder, the judiciary’s spokesperson, Moses Lamin Kamara, told the press.

Makalo is an ex-bodyguard of Koroma and has been a vocal critic of the current President Julius Maada Bio on social media. The other 10 were also found guilty of treason and murder and received lengthy prison sentences ranging from 30 to 112 years.

Although officially retired from politics, Koroma remains an influential figure within his political party. Many of those arrested in connection to the attack were former associates of the ex-president, Information Minister Chernor Bah told the AP.

There have been political tensions in Sierra Leone since Bio’s reelection last year in a vote that the opposition claimed was rigged in his favor. Two months after he was reelected, police said they arrested several people, including senior military officers planning to use protests “to undermine peace.”

Sierra Leone is still healing from an 11-year civil war that ended more than two decades ago and its population of 8 million people is among the poorest in the world. Neighboring Guinea remains politically unstable after a coup in 2021.

The director of the Secret Service said Tuesday she is resigning following the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump that unleashed intensifying outcry about how the agency tasked with protecting current and former presidents could fail in its core mission.

Kimberly Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, had been facing growing calls to resign and several investigations into how the shooter was able to get so close to the Republican presidential nominee at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she said in an email to staff, obtained by The Associated Press. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”

Cheatle’s departure was unlikely to end the scrutiny of the long-troubled agency after the failures of July 13, and it comes at a critical juncture ahead of the Democratic National Convention and a busy presidential campaign season. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have promised continued investigation, along with an inspector general probe and an independent and bipartisan effort launched at President Joe Biden’s behest that will keep the agency in the spotlight.

The Republican party in the US is preparing a new presidential campaign strategy, following the announcement that President Joe Biden will no longer be running in the race.

President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, ending his bid for reelection after a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about the incumbent’s fitness for office.

The unprecedented announcement, delivered less than four months before the election, immediately upended a campaign that both political parties view as the most consequential in generations.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Biden should immediately resign if he is not fit enough to run for office. In a statement, Johnson said, “November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”

Trump and his party must shift his focus to a new opponent after years of training his attention on Biden.

“[Harris] has to inherit all of Biden’s weaknesses other than his age,” The Associated Press’ National Political Reporter Bill Barrow said. “She’s going to inherit his record. They will attack her on inflation. They will attack her on immigration and the border. She cannot separate herself from that.”

While Trump and his team had made their preference for facing Biden clear, his campaign had nonetheless ramped up its attacks on Harris as pressure on Biden to step down intensified.

Harris, in a statement, praised Biden’s “selfless and patriotic act” and said she intends to “earn and win” her party’s nomination. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” she said.

While Harris is seen by many as the most likely Democratic nominee, she may face an uphill battle to secure the votes of a majority of the party’s roughly 4,000 pledged delegates.

Biden quickly endorsed her to replace him as nominee on Sunday, writing in a tweet, “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”

He said that picking her to be his vice-president had been “the best decision I’ve made.”

The newly elected British Prime Minister seeks to reset the UK’s approach to illegal migration.

Keir Starmer announced Thursday £84m (or about USD 108m) in funding to tackle illegal migration.

He also promised his government will “work with European partners to share intelligence data, expertise and put the gangs out of business”.

“But to stop illegal migration, we must also tackle it at source. So today I’m announcing £84 million of new funding for projects across Africa and the Middle East. That includes humanitarian and health support, skills training, help with job opportunities and access to education,” he politician said.

The PM was speaking at the fourth European Political Community summit held in south-western England tackling migration, the war in Ukraine and energy security.

In the year ending March 2024, there were 38,546 irregular arrivals to the United Kingdom.