PEPFAR: Pioneer of embattled global HIV programme recalls the hope after years of despair
Opponents say the HIV/Aids funding could be indirectly supporting abortion abroad, although the Biden administration and PEPFAR’s defenders say there is no evidence that it does. After a handful of conservative lawmakers threatened for months to block the funding unless restrictions were attached, a compromise was struck in late March that extends the funding for a year.
European football grapples with irony of Black players dominating the game, but can’t be hired to coach
Racism has long permeated the world’s most popular sport, with players subjected to racist chants and taunts online. While soccer governing bodies such as Fifa and UEFA have taken steps to combat the abuse of players, the lack of diversity in the upper ranks at major clubs remains an unsolved problem.
Pop star Shakira revisits how she turned pain into ‘tears of triumph and tears of self-recognition’ in new album
In reality, the last few years haven’t been kind to Shakira. In 2022, after 11 years and two children together, she separated from soccer player Gerard Piqué, leading to what she’s called the “dissolution of my family.” She faced charges of tax evasion in Spain; in November 2023, she received a suspended three-year sentence and paid a fine of €7.3 million ($8 million) in addition to previously unpaid taxes and interest.
A cycle of extreme weather, drought in southern Africa leaves some 20 million facing hunger
The drought in Zimbabwe, neighbouring Zambia and Malawi has reached crisis levels. Zambia and Malawi have declared national disasters. Zimbabwe could be on the brink of doing the same. The drought has reached Botswana and Angola to the west and Mozambique and Madagascar to the east.
Living off Ethiopia’s social safety net programme is ‘not like dying, but it’s not like living either’
Audited accounts from the finance ministry, which declined to comment for this story, show that the government’s contribution remained fairly constant at just over four billion birr ($70 million) a year between 2020-2021 and 2022-2023, a steep drop in real terms because of inflation. That money accounted for about 18 per cent of the total programme funding.
After Museveni rose to power in 1986 Banyarwanda ‘refugee cattle’ enjoyed more protection than indigenous Ugandans
During the bush war, Museveni practised preferential treatment for the Banyarwanda fighters. Unlike the Baganda, Bahima and other tribes, the Banyarwanda fighters owed the total loyalty to Museveni. Externally, the Banyarwanda Tutsi political organisation, Rwandese Alliance for National Unit (RANU) banked on the Banyarwanda in the NRA for its future prospects of “liberating Rwanda.”
Unpacking real story behind Bill Gates, GMO potatoes and McDonald’s French fries in solving Africa’s climate change issues
“Gates’ farmland is held by more than 20 shell companies spread across the country. Some lead back to a P.O. Box in Kirkland, Washington, the city where Cascade Asset Management, which manages all Gates’ investments, is headquartered.
Black music queen Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ reinforces her devotion to Black consciousness and country music
Beyoncé hails from Houston, a city with a rich musical interplay of “blues and country and hip-hop,” says Francesca T. Royster, a DePaul University professor and author of Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions.
Why insecure President Museveni, a Rwandan refugee, can’t surrender reins of power or deport Banyarwanda from Uganda
In 1980, Museveni contested for the presidency in the general election by founding the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM). The main contestant, UPC, was wary of Banyarwanda refugees voting for the Catholic dominated DP. In Museveni’s newly found home, Nyabushozi (Mbarara North Constituency), he was branded a ‘stranger and an immigrant’ and totally rejected in favour of Sam Kuteesa of DP.
Refugee ration cuts in Uganda risk long-term social damage as host nation mulls border closure
Increasingly threadbare aid budgets mean many of the 1.5 million refugees in the country – one of the world’s largest refugee-hosting nations – are now receiving less than 40 per cent of their basic survival rations, while others are getting less or nothing at all.
