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Sabalenka criticises Anisimova behaviour after shock Wimbledon exit
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Russia and US hold 'frank' talks on Ukraine war
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Swiatek swats Bencic aside to reach Wimbledon final against Anisimova
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Root's 99 not out keeps India at bay in third Test
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Delta offers upbeat outlook on travel demand, lifting shares
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Sara Netanyahu: the ever-present wife of Israel's prime minister
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Italy can hurt rampant Spain, says coach Soncin
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Djokovic faces Sinner in Wimbledon blockbuster as Alcaraz meets Fritz
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Rebooted and 'vulnerable': Superman is back on screens
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Sri Lanka steamroll Bangladesh to win first T20
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Swiatek routs Bencic to reach first Wimbledon final
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Anisimova shocks Sabalenka to reach Wimbledon final, Swiatek in action
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Europe court says S.African Semenya's gender eligibility trial wasn't fair
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Ten rescued after deadly Huthi ship sinking off Yemen
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Scrutiny over Texas flood response mounts as death toll hits 120
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Rami Al Ali becomes first Syrian in Paris fashion programme
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London stocks hit record high on tariff optimism
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Ireland's Healy pulls off solo win at Tour de France
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French appeals court clears two over first lady gender rumours
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French appeals court court clears two over first lady gender rumours
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Barry Callebaut cuts outlook as chocolate sales volumes melt away
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The $10 mn bag: Original Birkin smashes records at Paris auction
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Anisimova stuns Sabalenka to reach Wimbledon final
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Root leads England revival after Reddy's double strike for India
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Snap, crackle and pay: Ferrero to buy WK Kellogg for $3.1 bn
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Shein faces 150-mn-euro fine in France
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Rubio says Asia might get 'better' tariffs than others
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India wicketkeeper Pant leaves field injured in third Test
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Russia says holds 'frank exchange' with US on Ukraine war
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Tendulkar says 'life has come full circle' with Lord's portrait
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Wall Street stocks stall, London hits record high
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Duplantis unfazed by late world champs in Tokyo
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Dzeko, 39, returns to Serie A with Fiorentina
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Scrutiny over Texas flood response mounts as death toll tops 120
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Iran threats in UK 'significantly increased': Intel watchdog
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Volkswagen halts electric minivan exports to the United States
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EU chief von der Leyen comfortably survives confidence vote
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India's Reddy strikes twice to rock England
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EU opens new probe into TikTok data transfer to China
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Italy probes UK online bank Revolut for 'misleading' clients
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Arsenal sign midfielder Norgaard from Brentford
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Explosions, fires rock Kyiv in deadly Russian barrage
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Fatigued Afghan taxi drivers take novel approach to AC
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Rubio meets Russia's Lavrov at ASEAN talks
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Hamas says Israeli troops sticking point in truce talks as Gaza pounded
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Europe court says S.African athlete's trial wasn't fair in gender testing case
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Ten rescued, more missing after deadly Huthi ship sinking
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EU unveils recommendations to rein in powerful AI models
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England bat against India in third Test as Bumrah returns
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Caster Semenya: A rebel with a cause

US funding cuts could reverse decades of gains in AIDS fight: UN
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."
T.Zimmermann--VB