AFP Asia

The halt to US foreign aid is a “ticking time bomb” that could reverse decades of hard-fought gains in the fight against AIDS, the United Nations warned Thursday.Around 31.6 million people were on antiretroviral drugs in 2024 and deaths from AIDS-related illnesses had more than halved since 2010 to 630,000 that year, the UNAIDS agency said in a new report.But now infections were likely to shoot up as funding cuts have shuttered prevention and treatment programmes, it said.The United States has been the world’s biggest donor of humanitarian assistance but President Donald Trump’s abrupt slashing of international aid in February sent the global humanitarian community scrambling to keep life-saving operations afloat.”We are proud of the achievements, but worried about this sudden disruption reversing the gains we have made,” UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told AFP ahead of the report’s launch in Johannesburg.The agency in April warned that a permanent discontinuation of PEPFAR, the massive US effort to fight HIV/AIDS, would lead to more than six million new infections and an additional 4.2 million AIDS-related deaths in the next four years.This would bring the pandemic back to levels not seen since the early 2000s.”This is not just a funding gap – it’s a ticking time bomb” whose effects are already felt worldwide, Byanyima said in a press release.Over 60 percent of all women-led HIV organisations surveyed by UNAIDS had lost funding or had to suspend services, the report said.In a striking example, the number of people receiving pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs to prevent transmission in Nigeria fell by over 85 percent in the first few months of 2025.The “story of how the world has come together” to fight HIV/AIDS is “one of the most important stories of progress in global health,” Byanyima told AFP.”But that great story has been disrupted massively” by Trump’s “unprecedented” and “cruel” move, she said.”Priorities can shift, but you do not take away life-saving support from people just like that,” she said. – Key medical research affected -Crucial medical research on prevention and treatment have also shut down, including many in South Africa which has one of the highest HIV rates in the world and has become a leader in global research.”Developing countries themselves contribute very much towards the research on HIV and AIDS, and that research serves the whole world,” Byaniyma said.In 25 out of 60 low- and middle-income countries surveyed by UNAIDS, governments had found ways to compensate part of the funding shortfall with domestic resources.”We have to move towards nationally-owned and financed responses,” Byaniyma said, calling for debt relief and the reform of international financial institutions to “free up the fiscal space for developing countries to pay for their own response”.Still, the global HIV response built from grassroots activism was “resilient by its very nature”, she told AFP.”We moved from people dying every single day to now a point where it is really like a chronic illness,” she said.”There is no question that the investment has been worth it, and continues to be worth it. It saves lives.”

Indian election officials have given voters in Bihar state just weeks to prove their citizenship, requiring documents few possess in a registration revamp set to be applied nationwide, triggering disenfranchisement fears.The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the revision of the voter rolls in June ahead of upcoming polls in the eastern state.It said the exercise will later be replicated across the nation of 1.4 billion people.According to the ECI, the “intensive revision” was needed in part to avoid the “inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants”.Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have long claimed that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India’s electoral rolls.Critics say the overhaul could render vast numbers of Indian citizens unable to vote.”You are being asked to produce documents that very few people have,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, a prominent Muslim lawmaker.”It will lead to mass disenfranchisement.”Opposition lawmakers say it will impact minorities the hardest, including Muslims and Dalit communities, those on the bottom rung of India’s rigid caste hierarchy.- ‘Engineered exclusions’ -All potential voters in Bihar will have to provide proof of citizenship by July 25.Those registered in 2003, the last time scrutiny of the voter list took place in Bihar, can submit a copy of that.The rest — around 30 million people, according to the ECI’s estimates — have to provide evidence of their place and date of birth.And those born after 1987 must also furnish proof of their parents’ Indian citizenship. The requirement affects more than a third of potential voters in Bihar, India’s third most populous state and its poorest. It is also a crucial election battleground as the only state in India’s northern Hindi-speaking belt where Modi’s BJP has only ever governed in a coalition.Bihar’s main opposition party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, has challenged the election commission in the Supreme Court, along with other parties and activists.”It is being used to justify aggressive and opaque revisions of electoral rolls that disproportionately target Muslim, Dalit and poor (Indian) migrant communities,” the court petition read.”They are not random patterns but… engineered exclusions.”Unlike many other countries, India does not have a unique national identity card.The widely used biometric-linked “Aadhaar” identity card is not among the documents listed by the ECI as acceptable proof.Documents that can be used include birth certificates, passports and matriculation records.Of these, most people are likely to rely on their matriculation certificates.But even those are in short supply in Bihar, where literacy rates are among the lowest in India. According to an analysis published in The Indian Express newspaper, only 35 percent of people in the state hold such a document. “In Bihar, where literacy is not very high, many people are not likely to have the kind of documents the ECI has demanded,” said Jagdeep Chhokar from the New Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).”The poor, poorly educated, uneducated and minorities will be the most impacted.”- ‘Foreign infiltrators’ -Detractors say the drive is unprecedented because “documentary proof has never been demanded” of people to vote in India. “Only those who especially wanted their name inserted needed to fill a form,” said political activist and academic Yogendra Yadav. “For the rest, someone would come to their house and get their names registered.””The onus in India was never on the voter but on the ECI officials,” he added.In previous verification drives, modifications were made to the existing rolls, Yadav said.Now, a list is being drawn from scratch. Yadav said the drive was a “de facto” implementation of an earlier plan to put together a list of Indian citizens. The National Register of Citizens (NRC), which was compiled in the eastern state of Assam in 2019, left out almost two million people. Many of them were Muslims.The BJP had said the NRC would be replicated nationwide as it was necessary to detect “foreign infiltrators”, but was forced to backtrack after furious protests. “Everyone has to now prove that they are citizens of India,” said Yadav. “That is exactly what the NRC is… this is NRC by the backdoor.”

Indian forensic investigators have identified all 260 people killed in last month’s crash of a London-bound passenger plane, health authorities said Wednesday, ahead of a hugely anticipated preliminary report into what went wrong.India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is leading the probe into one of the deadliest air disasters in decades — with an initial report expected on Friday.All but one of the 242 people aboard the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner were killed when it crashed on June 12.It ploughed into housing just after takeoff in the western city of Ahmedabad, and authorities have also identified 19 people killed on the ground.No details have been released about the probe, in which British and US air accident investigation agencies have also taken part.But specialist website The Air Current, citing multiple sources familiar with the investigation, reported it had “narrowed its focus to the movement of the engine fuel switches”, while noting that full analysis will “take months — if not longer”.It added that “the focus of the investigators could change during that time”.But “at this point in the inquiry, the data available to investigators does not indicate a mechanical or design issue” with the 787 plane, or its engines.The site said its sources “indicated that post-accident analysis showed no sign of fuel contamination or improper retraction of the aircraft’s flaps”, over which there had been speculation.- Matched all DNA -Health officials in the Indian state of Gujarat initially said at least 279 people were killed, but forensic scientists reduced the figure after multiple scattered and badly burnt remains were identified.”The final death toll in the plane crash now stands at 260,” Rakesh Joshi, head of Ahmedabad’s main state hospital, told AFP on Wednesday. “All the human remains found so far from the crash site have been identified and handed over to their families,” Joshi added. “Our work is now over,” he added. “We have matched DNA of all the mortal remains that were collected from the crash site.”The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) stipulates that states heading investigation must submit a preliminary report within 30 days of an accident.That report, however, does not have to be made public.According to the ICAO, preliminary reports “may be marked as confidential or remain public at the investigating state’s discretion”.Joshi said it was doubtful any further remains would be found in the wreckage. “The possibility is almost negligible, I believe,” he said.On Tuesday, health authorities handed over the remains of 26 victims to their relatives, or, for families who had already received parts of their dead kin’s bodies and held funerals, carried out ceremonies for them. “Seven families collected the remains of their kin… while 19 families gave consent to the hospital to carry out the rites,” Joshi said. There were 230 passengers — 169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian — along with 12 crew members.Dozens of people were injured, with two remaining in hospital. Only one passenger miraculously survived, a British citizen who was seen walking out of the wreckage of the crash, and who has since been discharged from hospital.

The Indian Premier League’s business value has been estimated at $18.5 billion with reigning champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru its wealthiest franchise, according to a report by an investment bank.The world’s richest cricket tournament has been a top revenue earner for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and in 2020 was estimated to generate more than $11 billion a year for the Indian economy.According to US investment bank Houlihan Lokey, which has valued several sports franchises around the world, the brand value of the 10-team T20 franchise tournament has seen a sharp rise of 13.8 percent to $3.9 billion over the past year.Bengaluru, who along with star player Virat Kohli won their first IPL title this year, have overtaken five-time winners Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians to achieve a brand value of $269 million.Mumbai is second with $242 million, followed by Chennai at $235 million.The Houlihan Lokey report called the IPL “a global phenomenon” that has become more than just a cricket league.”The IPL continues to set benchmarks in sports business. Franchise valuations have soared, media rights deals have reached record highs, and brand partnerships have diversified across sectors,” Harsh Talikoti from Houlihan Lokey, said in a statement.”The league’s ability to attract global investors and sponsors reflects its status as a premier sports property with enduring appeal.”Bengaluru beat Punjab Kings for the title at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad in June to conclude the 18th edition of the league.The report said the 2025 final had more than 678 million views on the official streaming platform JioHotstar, surpassing the India-Pakistan clash during the Champions Trophy in February this year.The IPL, which is broadcast around the world and features top international stars such as Australia’s Pat Cummins and England’s Jos Buttler, mixes sport and showbusiness in a glitzy format, with a number of teams fronted by Bollywood movie superstars.Since it launched in 2008 it has inspired a range of other franchise-based leagues in India in sports as diverse as boxing, badminton, poker and kabaddi, and spawned copycat cricket tournaments elsewhere.

Audio recordings analysed by the BBC suggest Bangladesh’s fugitive ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina ordered a deadly crackdown on protests last year, allegations for which she is on trial.Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations, when Hasina’s government ordered a crackdown on protesters in a failed bid to cling to power.Hasina, 77, fled to India at the culmination of the student-led uprising and has defied orders to return to Dhaka, where her trial in absentia for charges amounting to crimes against humanity opened on June 1.The BBC Eye Investigations team analysed audio alleged to be of Hasina — and which forms a key plank of the evidence for the prosecution — which was leaked online.In the recording, dated July 18, 2024, a voice alleged to be Hasina is heard authorising security forces to “use lethal weapons” against protesters and that “wherever they find (them), they will shoot”.The BBC said audio forensics experts had found no evidence that the speech had been edited or manipulated, and that it was “highly unlikely to have been synthetically generated”.Bangladesh police have also matched the audio with verified recordings of Hasina.- ‘Denies the charges’ -Protests began on July 1, 2024 with university students calling for reforms to a quota system for public sector jobs.Student ambitions to topple Hasina’s iron-fisted rule seemed a fantasy, just months after she won her fourth consecutive election in a vote without genuine opposition.But protests gathered pace, and a fuse was lit when police launched a deadly crackdown on July 16. Hasina’s state-appointed lawyer — who says they have not been in contact with her — have sought to throw out the charges.Her now-banned Awami League party said it “categorically denies the charges that its senior leaders, and the prime minister personally, directed the use of lethal force against crowds during the protests of last summer”. It instead said that “breakdowns in discipline among some members of the security forces on the ground in response to instances of violence led to (a) regrettable loss of life”. Hasina was already convicted of contempt of court in a separate case on July 2, receiving a six-month sentence. She remains in India.

An in-form India will continue their quest for just a fourth series win in England when the third Test at Lord’s starts on Thursday.India levelled this five-match campaign at 1-1 with a 336-run rout of England in last week’s second Test at Edgbaston.AFP Sport looks at several key talking points ahead of what promises to be a fascinating encounter:Will Gill still run riot?Shubman Gill has enjoyed a stunning start to his reign as India captain, with a remarkable 585 runs in his first two Tests as skipper after replacing the retired Rohit Sharma.At Edgbaston, thanks to innings of 269 and 161, the admirably composed and elegant Gill became the first batsman in Test cricket to make scores of 250 and 150 in the same match.So prolific has Gill been, he could now threaten Australia great Donald Bradman’s record of 974 runs in a single Test series, after the 25-year-old also made 147 in India’s five-wicket defeat in the opener at Headingley. “You’ve got got to give your opposition credit when it’s due and for him to bang out as many runs as he has done in this game has been pretty special,” said England captain Ben Stokes.One encouraging thought for Stokes, however, as he ponders how to get the better of Gill, is that Bradman’s mark has stood for 95 years.Many batsmen have made blistering starts, only for the runs to dry up later on.South Africa’s Graeme Smith started his captaincy reign with back-to-back double hundreds in England, at Edgbaston and Lord’s, in 2003. Opening batsman Smith, however, managed just 93 more runs in the remaining three Tests of that series. Can Archer revive England’s flagging attack?It has been over four years since fast bowler Jofra Archer last played a Test but the injury-blighted express quick now appears set to return at Lord’s, where in 2019 he marked his debut by felling Australia’s Steve Smith with a fearsome bouncer.Doubts remain over whether Archer can be the bowler he once was after such a lengthy lay-off.But England coach Brendon McCullum said: “He’s obviously been through his injuries and his time out of Test cricket, but we all know what he’s capable of achieving and we hope that when the opportunity does arrive for him, he’s able to recapture and improve on what he’s been able to do already.”Archer at his best would certainly give England a much-needed cutting edge.Chris Woakes has taken just three wickets at a hugely expensive average of nearly 97 apiece so far this series, despite being given the new ball.England great Geoffrey Boycott suggested the 36-year-old was now “past his sell-by date” but all-rounder Woakes has a fine record at Lord’s, with 32 wickets in seven Tests at a miserly average of 12.90, as well as a batting average of 42.50.Bumrah returnsAkash Deep proved a more than capable stand-in with a 10-wicket haul in Birmingham — a return that will surely see him keep his place — but it is hard to see how India can be anything but stronger with a refreshed Jasprit Bumrah in their side after resting the world’s top-ranked Test bowler at Edgbaston.  “He (Bumrah) jogs in, you will be thinking ‘this will be 70 miles an hour’ and it hits you at 90,” former England paceman Stuart Broad told his ‘For the Love of Cricket’ podcast.Overseas players often raise their game at Lord’s and Bumrah is unlikely to be an exception as the 31-year-old fast bowler bids to gain a coveted place on the dressing room honours board for the first time in his career.

The International Criminal Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, accusing them of crimes against humanity over the persecution of women and girls.Judges said that there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of committing gender-based persecution.”While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms,” the court said in a statement.The Taliban had “severely deprived” girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, ICC judges said.”In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender.”The court said tht the alleged crimes had been committed between August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, and continued until at least January 20, 2025.Taliban authorities rejected the warrants as “nonsense”.The ICC warrants “won’t affect the strong commitment and dedication to sharia (Islamic law)” of Taliban authorities, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.The ICC, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.It has no police force of its own and relies on member states to carry out its arrest warrants — with mixed results.In theory, this means anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.”We don’t recognise any such international court, nor do we need it,” added Mujahid.- ‘Ongoing persecution’ -After sweeping back to power in August 2021, the Taliban authorities pledged a softer rule than their first stint from 1996 to 2001.But they quickly imposed restrictions on women and girls that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid”.Edicts in line with their interpretation of Islamic law handed down by Akhundzada, who rules by decree from the movement’s birthplace in southern Kandahar, have squeezed women and girls out of public life.The Taliban government barred girls from secondary school and women from university in the first 18 months after they ousted the US-backed government, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such bans.Authorities imposed restrictions on women working for non-governmental groups and other employment, with thousands of women losing government jobs — or being paid to stay at home.Beauty salons have been closed and women blocked from visiting public parks, gyms and baths as well as travelling long distances without a male chaperone.A “vice and virtue” law announced last year ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be “concealed” outside the home.The ICC prosecutor’s office welcomed the warrants as “an important vindication and acknowledgement of the rights of Afghan women and girls.””Through the Taliban’s deprivation of fundamental rights to education, privacy and family life… Afghan women and girls were increasingly erased from public life,” said ICC prosecutors.”The decision of the judges of the ICC affirms that their rights are valuable, and that their plight and voices matter.”When requesting the arrest warrants in January, chief prosecutor Karim Khan warned that he would seek warrants for other Taliban officials.Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said the ICC warrants gave hope to women and girls inside and outside of Afghanistan.Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said the arrest warrants showed that “when justice is supported, victims can have their day in court.”

Sri Lanka stormed to a 99-run win over Bangladesh in the third and final ODI at Pallekele on Tuesday, sealing the three-match series 2-1 with a clinical all-round display.Set a challenging target of 286, Bangladesh faltered under pressure and were bundled out for 186 inside 40 overs as Sri Lanka flexed their bowling muscle to wrap up the contest with ease.The victory caps a remarkable turnaround for Sri Lanka in the 50-over format since their dismal World Cup campaign in India in 2023, where they finished ninth and failed to qualify for this year’s Champions Trophy. Since that debacle, they have won seven of nine ODI series, including notable triumphs over heavyweights Australia and India.”This is probably one of our best games,” Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka said. “We were under pressure and we wanted to win badly and Kusal Mendis was superb today. When we ended up scoring 285, we knew we had the runs on the board and the bowlers’ job became easy.”The architect of the series-deciding win against Bangladesh was indeed Mendis, who silenced his critics with 124 off 114 balls – his sixth ODI hundred. The wicketkeeper-batter came into the game under fire after his rash dismissal during Sri Lanka’s 16-run defeat in the second ODI in Colombo.But at Pallekele, with the series on the line, Mendis dropped anchor and rebuilt the innings with a mature knock laced with 18 boundaries.- ‘A lot of positives’ -Coming in during the fourth over, he put on a vital 124-run stand for the fourth wicket with skipper Asalanka to lay the foundation for a competitive total.”Very pleased with the knock today. Was disappointed with what happened in Colombo. I had got a start and couldn’t finish,” said Mendis, who was named man of the match and player of the series.”Here I was determined to bat through the innings and very satisfied.”At one stage the hosts looked set for a 300-plus total, but Bangladesh clawed back with tight death bowling to restrict them to 285 for seven.The target proved to be a tall ask once the tourists’ top order caved in.Dushmantha Chameera, returning to the fold in this series after more than a year on the sidelines due to injury, hit the deck hard and was a handful with the new ball. The right-arm quick rattled the stumps of in-form Najmul Hossain Shanto (0) with a gem that jagged back sharply to kiss the top of off.With Towhid Hridoy then offering some resistance with a half-century, Chameera returned to breach his defence with another sharp in-swinging delivery that crashed through the gate. The quick finished with three for 51 and was ably supported by Asitha Fernando, who also claimed three wickets.The two sides will now be involved in a three-match T20I series beginning Thursday, also at Pallekele.”We started off well and we tried to bat positive, but the scoreboard pressure got to us,” Bangladesh captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz said.”But we are rebuilding the team and (there are) a lot of young players… we have a lot of positives.”

Indian villagers beat a family of five to death and dumped their corpses in a lake， accusing them of “practising witchcraft” after the death of a boy, police said Tuesday.Three people have been arrested and have confessed to the crime, police in the northern state of Bihar said in a statement.Three women — including a 75-year-old — were among those murdered.The main accused believed that his son’s recent death was caused by one of those killed, and blamed “him and his family of practising witchcraft”, the statement said.”After beating the victims to death, the perpetrators loaded the bodies onto a tractor and dumped them in a pond,” police said.The murderers and victims all belonged to India’s Oraon tribe in Bihar, India’s poorest state and a mainly Hindu region of at least 130 million people.Despite campaigns against superstition, belief in witchcraft remains widespread in rural areas across India, especially in isolated tribal communities.Some states, including Bihar, have introduced laws to try to curb crimes against people accused of witchcraft and superstition.Women have often been branded witches and targeted, but the killing of the family of five stands out as a particularly heinous recent example.More than 1,500 people — the overwhelming majority of them women — were killed in India on suspicion of witchcraft between 2010 and 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.Some believe in the occult, but attackers also sometimes have other motives including usurping their rights over land and property. 

As Cambodian garment workers took breaks from toiling in sweltering factories on Tuesday, they feared for their jobs after US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 36 percent tariff.”I beg the US to reduce the tariff for the sake of workers in Cambodia,” 38-year-old Im Sothearin told AFP as she rested from her work in an underwear factory in the capital Phnom Penh.”If they charge a high tariff, it is only workers who are going to suffer,” said the mother-of-three who earns only $300 a month.”Factories might be closed or workers will have their wages lowered, or be forced to work faster.”Cambodia — a major manufacturer of low-cost clothing for Western brands — was among the nations hardest hit by Trump’s “Liberation Day” blitz of tariff threats in April.The US president originally outlined a 49-percent rate if Cambodia failed to broker a deal with Washington. On Monday, he lowered it to 36 percent and extended the negotiation deadline to August 1.While the levy is lower than the original eye-watering figure, it has done little to allay anxieties.”If the tariff is that high, companies won’t have money to pay,” 28-year-old pregnant worker Sreymom, who goes by only one name, told AFP as she bought fruit on her lunch break.”I am worried that we won’t have jobs to do,” the 11-year veteran of the factory floor said. “I want the tariff to be reduced more.”Cambodia has not yet made an official comment on Trump’s new proposed rate, which was issued in a letter among more than a dozen he despatched to key trade partners.But commerce ministry spokesman Penn Sovicheat told AFP in April that harsh US tariffs on his country were “not reasonable”.Cambodia said it had about $10 billion in exports to the United States last year, mainly garment products.The nation has been paying a 10-percent standby rate as negotiators rush to make a deal.Many factories in Cambodia are Chinese-owned. The White House previously accused the kingdom of allowing Chinese goods to stop over on the way to US markets, thereby skirting steeper rates imposed on Beijing.Yi Mom has had a two-decade career in the garment industry. But she frets it may be ended if Cambodia fails to soften the blow threatened by the United States.”I fear that the high tariff will affect factories and will result in fewer jobs for workers,” said the 47-year-old.”Then we will have low wages and will not be able to support our families.”