International
Climate change will fuel diseases, warns Global Fund
| By AFP |
Climate change will end up killing people by fuelling infectious diseases, the head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said Tuesday.
Executive director Peter Sands said that in 2022, the fund had witnessed the “escalating impact” of climate change on health.
While upsurges in malaria had hitherto been seen due to the increasing frequency and devastation of tropical storms, “with the flooding in Pakistan it was taken to a completely different scale”, he said.
“What we are seeing is that the mechanism by which climate change will end up killing people is through its impact on infectious disease.”
Sands said that parts of Africa which previously were unaffected by malaria are now becoming at risk as temperatures rise and allow mosquitos to thrive, notably at higher altitudes.
However, the population in such areas will not have immunity, with the resulting risk of a higher mortality rate.
“It’s quite alarming,” Sands told a briefing with the UN correspondents’ association.
Other threats include tuberculosis spreading among the increasing number of displaced people around the world.
“TB is a disease that thrives on having concentrations of highly-stressed people in close confines with inadequate food and shelter,” he said.
“The more that we see climate change-driven displacement of people, the more I think that will translate into the conditions that will at least make it more likely.”
Sands also said food insecurity would make people more vulnerable to disease.
As for whether the world was better prepared for the next pandemic than it was for Covid-19, Sands said it was, but added: “That doesn’t mean we are well prepared: we’re just not as badly prepared as we were before.”
By the end of 2022, Sands said the Global Fund will have invested around $5.4 billion, which is significantly more than it has ever done before.
The Geneva-based organisation’s largest donors are G7 governments, led by the United States and France.
“For the people we serve in the poorest, most marginalised, most vulnerable communities in the world, 2022 was a brutal year,” said Sands.
“In the poorest communities in the world, HIV, TB and malaria are killing many more people than Covid-19.”
International
Putin calls U.S.-Russia summit a “mistake” without guaranteed results
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Wednesday that holding a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump would be a “mistake” without certainty of concrete results, following the cancellation of the planned meeting in Budapest.
“Without a doubt, such a meeting must be well-prepared. For me and the U.S. president, it would be a mistake to treat it lightly and come out of that meeting without the expected outcome,” Putin told local media from the Kremlin.
The Russian leader said the initiative for the summit came from the U.S. side and that he had accepted the proposal. “In our last phone conversation, both the meeting and its location were proposed by the U.S. side. I agreed,” he said.
Putin added that Moscow continues to support dialogue, even in the current context. However, he admitted uncertainty about whether a meeting with Trump could take place later. “Now I see that, in his statement, the U.S. president has decided to cancel or postpone the meeting. Most likely, it is a postponement, since dialogue is always better than confrontation, disputes, or especially war,” he emphasized.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova reaffirmed that Moscow does not consider a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine that does not meet its original demands. “We see no alternative other than achieving the objectives of the special military operation,” Zakharova stated.
Among the conditions Russia has set for resuming dialogue with Washington and other international actors are: ensuring Ukraine’s neutral and non-aligned status, its demilitarization, the removal of elements considered “Nazis,” full respect for the rights of Russian-speaking populations, and unrestricted operation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
International
Colombia ready to replace suspended U.S. support, President Petro asserts
Colombian President Gustavo Petro downplayed on Thursday the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend all economic aid to the country, asserting that the measure “changes nothing” structurally, although he acknowledged potential effects on military resources.
“What happens if they take away our aid? In my opinion, nothing (…) I have never seen a single dollar of aid in Colombia’s budget,” Petro said during a press conference at the Casa de Nariño, a day after Trump publicly announced the suspension of all payments and subsidies to Colombia.
The Colombian leader explained that U.S. funds are not allocated directly to the government but rather to organizations linked to the now-defunct USAID. “U.S. aid is not for the government; it is for the NGOs managed by USAID, that is, for themselves,” he argued.
Petro also questioned the effectiveness of this cooperation, stating that Washington’s decades-long anti-drug strategy has failed by focusing on forced eradication of illicit crops, which, according to him, has perpetuated violence in Colombia. “They have condemned us to violence,” he asserted.
Although he acknowledged that the suspension could create difficulties in the military sector—such as the withdrawal of combat helicopters and limitations in arms supply—he assured that his government is prepared to replace that support with the national budget. “Colombia buys its own weapons,” he emphasized.
International
Cristina Fernández calls Argentina’s legislative elections “decisive” to stop Milei
Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández (2007–2015) described this Thursday as “decisive” the legislative elections taking place this Sunday in Argentina, urging voters to support Peronism as a way to put a “brake” on Javier Milei’s government.
“The brake on Milei starts this Sunday, but the work continues the next day to think about how to get Argentina out of the disaster this government will leave. This October 26 is Milei and permanent austerity, or Argentina, our common home,” Fernández said in a recorded message from her Buenos Aires residence, where she is serving a six-year prison sentence for irregularities in the awarding of road construction contracts during her presidency.
Fernández emphasized that the elections are not only about choosing deputies and senators but also represent “a great democratic opportunity” to “set limits on Milei’s mismanagement.”
“The libertarian experiment has failed, and everyone knows it. People cannot make ends meet, they have to go into debt to pay for electricity, buy food, or medicine,” she added.
The former president also criticized the government for changing the voting system “without proper training, putting transparency at risk,” referring to the introduction of the Single Paper Ballot, which lists all candidates, offices, and political parties on a single sheet.
Putin calls U.S.-Russia summit a “mistake” without guaranteed results
Colombia ready to replace suspended U.S. support, President Petro asserts
Cristina Fernández calls Argentina’s legislative elections “decisive” to stop Milei
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Extension of the state of emergency approved in southern Chile
-
International3 days agoThe Chief Builder: Trump and his remodeling of the White House
-
International3 days agoJoe Biden finishes prostate cancer radiotherapy at Penn Medicine
-
International4 days agoU.S.-Colombia Tensions Escalate as Trump Ends Subsidies, Criticizes Petro
-
Central America3 days agoWhite House targets Nicaragua over human rights and labor violations
-
International3 days agoTrump warns Hamas that they will be “eradicated” if they break the ceasefire with Israel in Gaza
-
International2 days agoUruguay’s Orsi and Tony Blair discuss AI cooperation and child poverty policies
-
International3 days agoVenezuela accuses U.S. of using anti-drug operations as pretext to target Maduro
-
International2 days agoColombia conducts nationwide emergency drill focused on hidroituango dam
-
International3 days agoZelenskyy: Meeting with Trump “Positive” Despite Rejected Missile Request
-
International3 days agoTrump assures that Ukraine could still “win” the war
-
International3 days agoThe United States investigates why a Waymo autonomous vehicle did not respect a stop sign
-
International2 days agoCuba accuses U.S. of pressuring countries ahead of UN vote on embargo
-
International3 days agoMexico and the US launch an unprecedented joint border plan to stop arms trafficking
-
International3 days agoCosta Rica hails appointment of Japan’s first female Prime Minister, Takaichi Sanae
-
Central America2 days agoU.S. and Panama hold joint jungle exercises to strengthen security ties
-
International3 days agoTrump says Venezuela is ‘feeling the heat’ amid U.S. anti-drug operations in the Caribbean
-
International9 hours agoColombia ready to replace suspended U.S. support, President Petro asserts
-
International3 days agoColombian court overturns ex-president Uribe’s conviction for witness tampering
-
International9 hours agoCristina Fernández calls Argentina’s legislative elections “decisive” to stop Milei
-
International9 hours ago
Trump announces over 3,000 arrests in major U.S. crackdown on drug cartels
-
International8 hours agoPutin calls U.S.-Russia summit a “mistake” without guaranteed results