If the worst outcomes predicted when the U.S. collapsed global HIV services haven't come to pass, it's largely due to committed health workers at a community level who have continued to show up without pay, @npr.org reports: www.npr.org/2026/03/20/n...

Royer Perez-Jimenez was 19 years old. He died by suicide at 3am on March 16 at Glades County Detention Center in Florida. He is the 2nd person to die in ICE custody this week, the 13th this year, and the 42nd under Trump. 🧵

SA wants to make its own version of the 2X yearly #HIV prevention jab that could help end #Aids. Local drug companies now have until April 7 to apply to be on a government shortlist to make the shot. But only if Gilead, who has the recipe, approves. bhekisisa.org/health-news-...

'They have some agenda they are pushing' After writing about the role of faith-based organizations in the Trump administration's global HIV response, I got some feedback important reporting by @theandrewgreen.bsky.social theforsaken.substack.com/p/they-have-...

A federal judge has removed Peter Marocco from USADF, a ruling that comes after a yearlong legal battle, mass terminations, and a corruption scandal involving a senior USADF official.

The U.S. is considering escalating pressure on Zambia to sign away its mineral rights by withholding life-saving HIV treatment from Zambians as early as May according to a leaked memo to @stephanienolen.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/h...

An Afghan immigrant who previously provided support to the U.S. military has died less than 24 hours after being detained by ICE: nbcnews.com/world/asia/a... Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal is at least the 12th person to die in ICE custody this year.

The point is "that the people who relied on these services have fully lost any trust in providers they understand to be, at the very least, willing to tolerate a Trump administration determined to persecute them." theforsaken.substack.com/p/they-have-... Thanks @theandrewgreen.bsky.social

By cooperating with the Trump administration to provide HIV services, faith-based organizations risk alienating the people who would benefit most from their programs: theforsaken.substack.com/p/they-have-...

This piece is surely one of the most inane things I have read in my entire life.

In one of the highlights of my journalistic career, here is @lastweektonight.com actually citing my reporting during the latest segment on the dismantling of U.S. foreign aid: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU8S...

The US ambassador to South Africa said they're running out of patience with it not addressing US demands. The US "asks" are ending Black Economic Empowerment, the expropriation act (which has limited application), condemning "Kill the Boer" (already done), prioritising farm murders & non-alignment

16,000 people living with HIV are expected to lose coverage from the AIDS Drugs Assistance Program due to Florida's funding cuts. Read Kamaria Laffrey's pre-obituary as a long-term survivor in Florida. "Kamaria Laffrey writes an indictment of a system that’s failing people living with HIV."

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there. They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

The new America First Global Health Strategy cuts off U.S. support to local organizations to fight HIV, except for faith-based organizations. But what happens to services for the communities faith groups cannot access?

The Trump administration still owes hundreds of millions of dollars to former USAID partners. But the people who stuck around to close out the agency told @alterigoe.bsky.social the administration's "intention is not to pay": www.devex.com/news/inside-... This is a must-read story.

The America First Global Health Strategy names only one specific organization as an example of the kind of work it intends to support: Circle of Hope. So I traveled to Zambia, where the faith-based org works, to find out why it has earned Washington's support: www.devex.com/news/are-fai...

As it slashes support for other HIV service providers, the Trump administration says it wants to continue to work with faith-based organizations. These groups are important partners because they reach a lot of people in places like Zambia. But not everyone: www.devex.com/news/are-fai...

Key reading for knowing how and why things are moving in global health

Pregnant Anita Yadav died after waiting for permission to seek medical care. U.S. aid cuts had already dismantled a nationwide program designed to “break gender norms that undervalued women’s lives.”

Victims of a sex trafficking network said to rival that of Jeffrey Epstein tell Megan Clement why Ritz Paris and Al-Fayed organisations beyond Harrods must now be scrutinised https://bit.ly/4siohSA

Are we reaching a tipping point on these bilateral health financing agreements? www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

"These terms are vastly worse than other deals. The US is conditioning life-saving health services on plundering the mineral wealth of [Zambia]. It’s shameless exploitation, which is immoral... when health programs are treated like a bargaining chip by a rapacious administration, everyone suffers”

Zambia's leaked health 'deal' with the US includes US exclusive access to health data for 10 years and pathogen data for 25 years. Plus exclusive access to Zambia's mining. And the US can withdraw and collapse Zambia's health system if Zambia doesn't agree www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Zambia is on the brink of signing a five-year health financing agreement that will require the country to share data with the U.S. for decades after the agreement ends according to a leaked copy I saw: www.theguardian.com/global-devel... That’s not all…

US accused of ‘shameless exploitation’ over proposed Zambian health aid deal

For @theguardian.com, I gained access to a leaked draft of America's $1bn memorandum of understanding with Zambia that features mandatory targets, sharing of data, and requires access to mining concessions: www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Reports that Zimbabwe has rejected the terms of a new health financing agreement with the United States worth $350 million: www.zimlive.com/zimbabwe-rej...

“France cut its contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by 58 percent on Thursday, confirming a major reduction in funding that health organisations warn will cost lives.”

The Trump administration has largely cut off support for global HIV prevention programs and with it any hopes of ending the AIDS pandemic: theforsaken.substack.com/p/the-tap-is...

LGBTQI+ Americans, who no longer feel safe in Trump's America, are seeking asylum in the Netherlands. @meganclement.bsky.social explores how a system that has traditionally viewed America as a safe harbor reacts to this new reality: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Zambia is about to wrap up a health financing agreement with the United States. But in Lusaka, long-time HIV organizers are wondering if it might not have been better for their government to just walk away: theforsaken.substack.com/p/thanks-but...

Another important read by @theandrewgreen.bsky.social theforsaken.substack.com/p/thanks-but... #HIV #PEPFAR #foreignaid

In a blog published yesterday I suggested PEPFAR data for 2025 wasn't available. That's true at data.pepfar.gov, but not at data-dev.pepfar.net which apparently went live a few weeks ago. (1/n)

RFK Jr's forebear in HIV denialism, Peter Duesberg, whose misguided advice to Thabo Mbeki contributed to the unnecessary death of thousands of South Africans, has died: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/s...

One year after President Donald Trump froze U.S. foreign aid, HIV treatment still exists across much of Africa — but the outreach, prevention, and monitoring systems that sustained it are fraying. I trace how those losses are reshaping access to care for @devex.com: www.devex.com/news/one-yea...

One year after President Donald Trump froze U.S. foreign aid, HIV treatment still exists across much of Africa — but the outreach, prevention, and monitoring systems that sustained it are fraying. The Aid Report traces how those losses are reshaping access to care across Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, ...

"One year after the #foreignaid freeze, #HIV care in Africa is in retreat.” Great reporting by @theandrewgreen.bsky.social highlights the impacts and voices like Maureen Luba & Kenneth Mwehonge who are living it. A must-read: www.devex.com/news/one-yea...

It has now been one year since President Trump shut down all U.S. foreign aid and began wrecking the global AIDS response. I have spent that year collecting testimonies from the communities most affected by these cuts: www.forsaken.life

It has been a year since Donald Trump and Elon Musk dismantled US foreign aid. Over that time, @theandrewgreen.bsky.social has been tracking the fallout for people living with HIV in southern Africa. All of them said they had just needed a little more time. open.substack.com/pub/theforsa...

Even if Congress passes this budget bill, will the Trump administration spend the money as directed? Experts explored that question in a Devex Pro Briefing.

Reuters: "The U.S. flag had been removed from outside the WHO headquarters in Geneva on Thursday, according to witnesses."

For a well-reported synthesis of all of the horrific global health impacts that have resulted from actions by the Trump administration during its first year in office, read @daniellawler.bsky.social's new piece: www.wfxg.com/news/the-imp...

HIV activists are being cut out of new negotiations for US funding. Speaking to Andrew Green, Cindy Kelemi, ED of BONELA, a Frontline AIDS partner in Botswana, sets out why communities must be included in conversations about how money is spent. https://bit.ly/4aWVbmp

AIDS activists were shut out of the negotiations around America's new bilateral health deals, but they still intend to have their say on how the money is spent: theforsaken.substack.com/p/another-ba...

Another great piece by @theandrewgreen.bsky.social, theforsaken.substack.com/p/another-ba.... "With so much...funding on the table, #HIV civil society groups [will] have their say in how [its] spent regardless of whether they were consulted... They know the risk of their exclusion."

In 2011, Petronas was warned its South Sudan oil wells may be causing congenital disease. Over a decade later, babies are still being born with serious deformities.

U.S. cuts to HIV services have coincided with a downturn in Botswana's economy, leaving the country that once led the continent's HIV response vulnerable to a resurgence in the disease: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... My latest for @thelancet.com

As the United States inks health financing deals with African countries, the battle for crucial HIV services continues: theforsaken.substack.com/p/far-from-o...

Another US airstrike in Somalia happened yesterday, near Kismayo. AFRICOM released no casualty figures or other information beyond saying it "targeted" al-Shabaab. This is by my count the 87th strike or series of strikes announced by AFRICOM this year, by far the most ever in a year in Somalia.