
UN report: Lack of US funding will cause 4 milion additional AIDS deaths by 2029
The United Nations has warned that a permanent halt in US funding is expected to result in 4 million additional deaths from AIDS-related causes by 2029.
The General Assembly met on Thursday to study a UN progress report on the fight against HIV/AIDS.
The report says the US has been a leader in the global response to HIV for more than two decades, contributing more than 70 percent of donor funding.
But it notes that the administration of US President Donald Trump has paused the contributions since the end of January.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the meeting that the cost of the reduction is stark.
She said closures of clinics and other disruptions to HIV services are putting adolescent girls and young women at especially greater risk, and that more babies are being born with HIV.
Mohammed said if US funding is permanently halted, the UN projects 4 million additional deaths and over 6 million new HIV infections by 2029.
She called on countries to reverse the funding declines, saying they must not allow themselves to "shatter the possibility of achieving the 2030 goal to end AIDS as a public health threat."
The UN report says nearly a quarter of the 39.9 million people living with HIV globally are not receiving life-saving treatment. It says one person is dying from HIV-related causes every minute.
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Japan Today
3 days ago
- Japan Today
Israeli attacks kill 140 in Gaza in 24 hours, medics say
Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed on Tuesday by Israeli fire while seeking aid in northern Gaza, according to Gaza's health ministry, at Al-Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas By Nidal al-Mughrabi Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 140 people across Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, as some Palestinians in the Strip said their plight was being forgotten as attention has shifted to the air war between Israel and Iran. At least 40 of those killed over the past day died as a result of Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Wednesday, Gaza's health ministry said. The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on the territory. Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp, the Zeitoun neighborhood and Gaza City killed at least 21 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on an encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Fourteen more people were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said. Asked about the Salahuddin road incident, the Israel Defense Forces said that despite repeated warnings that the area was an active combat zone, individuals approached troops operating in the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip in a manner that posed a threat to forces. Troops fired warning shots, it said, adding that it was unaware of injuries. Regarding other strikes, the IDF said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" while taking "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm". On Tuesday, Gaza's health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May. Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked due to the new Israel-Iran conflict. "People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days," said Adel, a resident of Gaza City. "Whoever doesn't die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won," he told Reuters via a chat app. 'FORGOTTEN' Israel is now channelling much of the aid into Gaza through a new U.S.- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which uses private U.S. security and logistics firms and operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces. Israel has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring it doesn't get to Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, called the current system for distributing aid "a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness", in a post on X on Wednesday. The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies. Israel's subsequent military assault has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced almost all the territory's residents, and caused a severe hunger crisis. The World Food Program called on Wednesday for a big increase in food distribution in Gaza, saying that the 9,000 metric tons it had dispatched over the last four weeks inside Gaza represented a "tiny fraction" of what was needed. "The fear of starvation and desperate need for food is causing large crowds to gather along well-known transport routes, hoping to intercept and access humanitarian supplies while in transit," the WFP said in a statement. "Any violence resulting in starving people being killed or injured while seeking life-saving assistance is completely unacceptable," it added. Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel's air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas. "We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people," said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza. "We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten." © Thomson Reuters 2025.

Japan Times
5 days ago
- Japan Times
U.S. pharma bets big on China to snap up potential blockbuster drugs
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NHK
6 days ago
- NHK
US startup to launch AI healthcare assistant in Japan
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