Trump’s aid cuts fuel embers of HIV after a deadly war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region
oday the HIV prevalence rate in Tigray is three per cent, more than double the pre-war average, according to local health authorities and the United Nations. The rate among the region’s roughly one million displaced people is 5.5 per cent. Among sexual violence survivors, it is 8.6 per cent.
Kenya’s agriculture financing rises by $30m as the East African nation aims to up food production
FINAS Summit Director Charity Mutegi, said the FINAS Summit will bring together stakeholders from various sectors, including policy-makers, the public and private sectors, financial institutions, agricultural technology providers, and farmers, to discuss challenges and solutions in financing agri-food systems sustainability.
New investigation finds Germany knew about Covid lab leak in 2020 but hid evidence from public for political reasons
The FBI had evidence in 2021 that the virus leaked from a lab, but wasn’t allowed to present it, The Wall Street Journal reported last year. Investigative journalist Paul D. Thacker said major US news outlets have not reported on the German investigation “because it doesn’t fit their politics.”
Largest, most comprehensive study finds menthol cigarettes have higher death risk, especially for Black smokers
The alarming findings come at a critical time – just weeks after the FDA under the Trump administration withdrew a proposed Biden-era ban on menthol cigarettes and flavoured cigars amid tobacco industry pressure.
‘I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity,’ expelled South African ambassador to US says as he returns home
“The supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48 per cent white,” Rasool said in the talk.
Smoked out: British tobacco firm BAT on the spot over $28 million tax evasion in Kenya
Thomi Gotschi, Economic Researcher and Analyst, Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA) called for a forensic audit on the report by the Investigative Desk and Tax Justice Network Africa in February 2025, highlighting a significant $93 million revenue discrepancy in BAT Kenya’s financial disclosures for the years 2017 and 2018.
Kenya to amend Victim Protection Act to give victim protection board teeth, create protection fund
Njamwae said the Victims Protection Board that is supposed to provide victim services is not a body corporate and therefore can neither sue nor be sued, which also makes it impossible to receive the necessary state funding to discharge its mandate of protecting the rights of the victims.
Kenya drafts energy, petroleum policies to drive universal electricity access by 2030
According to a timeline provided by the Ministry of Energy, National Energy Policy will result in achievement of universal electricity access by 2030, focusing particularly on marginalised communities in rural and remote areas.
World apprehensive as some states in US push for digital ID adoption, fears of ‘surveillance-based technocracy’ rise
Several media reports have presented May 7 as a deadline for people to get a REAL ID-compliant driver’s licence if they intend to travel domestically by air on or after that date. For instance, Washington, DC-based radio station WTOP reported that “time is running out” for people to get a REAL ID-compliant ID card to travel domestically.
Food-deficit Kenya launches 10-year initiative to address food security, drive economic growth
The estimated cost of Ksh5 billion ($38.6 million) will be met through a combination of government resources, international donors, development agencies, and private sector investments.
