Author: Elizabeth Jenrola Oso

The future of global efforts to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria has been thrown into doubt after a major funding shortfall at the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria. Advocates have warned that decades of progress in reducing deaths from these deadly infectious diseases “hangs in the balance” following disappointing pledges at a summit held on the fringes of the G20 in South Africa. The Global Fund had set a target of $18bn (£14bn) for the period 2026 to 2028. However, only $11.3bn has been confirmed so far. Several leading donors, including France, Japan and the European Commission,…

Newly disclosed correspondence has shed fresh light on the relationship between the eminent linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The documents, released earlier this month by Republican members of the US House oversight committee, suggest that Chomsky’s association with Epstein was closer than previously acknowledged. Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor, served 13 months of an 18‑month sentence before his release in 2009. He later faced federal sex‑trafficking charges and was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019, with officials ruling his death…

Greene

Sophisticated weapons capable of attacking or altering human consciousness, perception, memory or behaviour are no longer confined to the realm of science fiction, two British academics have warned. Michael Crowley and Malcolm Dando, of Bradford University, are preparing to publish a book that they believe should serve as a wake‑up call to the international community. The pair argue that advances in neuroscience, pharmacology and artificial intelligence are converging to create a new frontier in warfare: the human mind. This weekend, the academics will travel to The Hague to attend a key meeting of states, where they intend to press for…

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested at his villa in Brasília after the Supreme Court authorised a preventive detention order, citing fears that he was preparing to flee to a foreign embassy to avoid imprisonment for masterminding a failed military coup. Federal police confirmed on Saturday morning that officers had executed the warrant and taken the 70‑year‑old politician to a police base located seven miles from the presidential palace he occupied between 2019 and 2022. Bolsonaro had been living under house arrest since August, following his conviction for attempting to overturn the 2022 election result. The arrest was…

The United States Department of Justice has charged two young men from Texas with conspiring to launch a violent coup d’état on the island of Gonâve, Haiti, in what prosecutors described as a plan motivated by depraved sexual fantasies. According to an announcement from the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Texas, Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, aged 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, aged 20, are accused of plotting to take control of the island by force. The indictment alleges that the pair intended to kill all the men living there and enslave women and children for sexual exploitation. The…

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed 33 people and injured many more, according to medical officials, in one of the most serious escalations of violence since the United States‑backed ceasefire came into effect last month. The renewed bombardment has raised fears that the fragile truce could collapse entirely, with both sides accusing the other of violating its terms. Officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis reported receiving the bodies of 17 people, among them five women and five children, after four Israeli strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced families. In Gaza City, medical staff said two further strikes killed 16 people,…

Donald Trump has confirmed that he will meet New York City’s mayor‑elect, Zohran Mamdani, in Washington this week, setting the stage for a rare encounter between two figures who have spent months trading barbs across the political divide. The meeting, scheduled for Friday in the Oval Office, could mark the beginning of a tentative thaw between the Republican president and the Democratic socialist who has rapidly risen to prominence. Trump announced the sit‑down on social media late on Wednesday, referring to Mamdani by his full name and placing the mayor‑elect’s middle name, Kwame, in quotation marks. He claimed Mamdani had…

Donald Trump has signed legislation compelling the US Department of Justice to release files from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender. The move represents a significant reversal for the president, who previously resisted calls to make the documents public despite having the authority to do so during his earlier term in office. The bill, passed by both chambers of Congress, requires the Justice Department to disclose Epstein-related material within 30 days. While the legislation allows for the redaction of victims’ identities and material that could jeopardise ongoing investigations, it specifically prohibits withholding information on…

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has condemned an explosion on a railway line used for deliveries to Ukraine as an “unprecedented act of sabotage” that could have resulted in disaster. Public prosecutors confirmed on Monday evening that an investigation had been launched “regarding acts of sabotage of a terrorist nature […] committed on behalf of a foreign intelligence service against the Republic of Poland.” The incident occurred on the Warsaw–Lublin line near the village of Mika, around 60 miles (97km) from the capital. No casualties were reported, but officials warned that the damage could have caused a derailment had a…