LONDON (AP) — Years of American-led investment into AIDS programs has reduced the number of people killed by the disease to the lowest levels seen in more than three decades and provided life-saving medicines for some of the world’s most vulnerable.

But in the last six months, the sudden withdrawal of U.S. money has caused a “systemic shock,” U.N. officials warned, adding that if the funding isn’t replaced, it could lead to more than 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million more HIV infections by 2029.

A new UNAIDS report released Thursday said the funding losses have “already destabilized supply chains, led to the closure of health facilities, left thousands of health clinics without staff, set back prevention programs, disrupted HIV testing efforts and forced many community organizations to reduce or halt their HIV activities.”

It also said that it feared other major donors scaled back their support, reversing decades of progress against AIDS worldwide — and that the strong multilateral cooperation is in jeopardy because of wars, geopolitical shifts and climate change.

A ‘lifeline’ removed

The $4 billion that the United States pledged for the global HIV response for 2025 disappeared virtually overnight in January, when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered that all foreign aid be suspended and later moved to shutter the U.S. AID agency.

Andrew Hill, an HIV expert at the University of Liverpool who is not connected to the United Nations, said that while Trump is entitled to spend U.S. money as he sees fit, “any responsible government would have given advance warning so countries could plan,” instead of stranding patients in Africa where clinics were closed overnight.

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was launched in 2003 by U.S. President George W. Bush, the biggest-ever commitment by any country focused on a single disease.

UNAIDS called the program a “lifeline” for countries with high HIV rates, and said that it supported testing for 84.1 million people, treatment for 20.6 million, among other initiatives. According to data from Nigeria, PEPFAR also funded 99.9% of the country’s budget for medicines taken to prevent HIV.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Angeli Achrekar, a UNAIDS deputy executive director who was PEPFAR’s principal deputy coordinator until January 2023, said the program is under review by the Trump administration though Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver “to continue life-saving treatment.”

““The extent to which it will continue in the future, we don’t know,” she told a video news conference with U.N. reporters in New York. “We are cautiously hopeful that PEPFAR will continue to support both prevention and treatment services.”

A gap impossible to fill

In 2024, there were about 630,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide, per a UNAIDS estimate — the figure has remained about the same since 2022 after peaking at about 2 million deaths in 2004.

Even before the U.S. funding cuts, progress against curbing HIV was uneven. UNAIDS said that half of all new infections are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tom Ellman of Doctors Without Borders said that while some poorer countries were now moving to fund more of their own HIV programs, it would be impossible to fill the gap left by the U.S.

“There’s nothing we can do that will protect these countries from the sudden, vicious withdrawal of support from the U.S.,” said Ellman, head of the group’s South Africa medical unit.

Experts also fear another significant loss — data.

The U.S. paid for most HIV surveillance in African countries, including hospital, patient and electronic records, all of which has now abruptly ceased, according to Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University.

“Without reliable data about how HIV is spreading, it will be incredibly hard to stop it,” he said.

A new drug revives hope

The uncertainty comes in the wake of a twice-yearly injectable that many hope could end HIV. Studies published last year showed that the drug from pharmaceutical maker Gilead was 100% effective in preventing the virus.

At a launch event Thursday, South Africa’s health minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the country would “move mountains and rivers to make sure every adolescent girl who needs it will get it,” saying that the continent’s past dependence upon US aid was “scary.”

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, called Yeztugo, a move that should have been a “threshold moment” for stopping the AIDS epidemic, said Peter Maybarduk of the advocacy group Public Citizen.

But activists like Maybarduk said Gilead’s pricing will put it out of reach of many countries that need it. Gilead has agreed to sell generic versions of the drug in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates but has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing.

“We could be ending AIDS,” Maybarduk said. “Instead, the U.S. is abandoning the fight.”

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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the name of the drug is Yeztugo, not Sunlenca.

CNN
 — 

The US is imposing sanctions against a senior UN official focused on the human rights of Palestinians, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday.

In a post on X, Rubio said he was imposing the sanctions against Francesca Albanese, who holds the title of UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, “for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (International Criminal Court) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.”

The announcement is the latest effort by the US to punish those looking into alleged crimes committed by Israel as the war in Gaza continues. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February authorizing punitive measures against the ICC because of its “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Thursday urged “the prompt reversal of U.S. sanctions against” Albanese.

“UN Special Rapporteurs, along with other parts of the human rights ecosystem, address – by their nature – sensitive and often divisive issues, that are of international concern,” he said in a statement.

“Even in face of fierce disagreement, UN Member States should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures,” Türk said.

“Attacks and threats against Special Procedures mandate holders, as well as key institutions like the International Criminal Court, must stop,” he said. “The solution is not less, but more, debate and dialogue on the very real human rights concerns they address.”

The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan and four other judges. Rubio said in a separate statement that the sanctions against Albanese are being applied under that executive order.

The rapporteur position is not appointed by the UN Secretary General. Rather, the role is for an “independent expert” appointed by the UN Human Rights Council “to follow and report on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The announcement of sanctions against Albanese, earlier reported by HuffPost, was made while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington, DC. It was quickly applauded by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who called it “a clear message.”

“Time for the UN to pay attention!,” he wrote on X.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon also commended the move.

Rubio said Albanese “has directly engaged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries.”

He said neither Israel nor the US is party to the treaty that established the ICC, “making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries.”

“The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a Special Rapporteur,” Rubio continued, accusing Albanese of antisemitism and expressing “support of terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West.”

“That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,” he said.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court also issued arrest warrants for three top Hamas officials.

Last week, the US opposed the renewal of Albanese as special rapporteur and called on the UN secretary general to “directly condemn Ms. Albanese’s activities and call for her removal as Special Rapporteur.”

On Wednesday, Rubio said that Albanese had written “threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives.”

“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” Rubio said.

In a report last week, Albanese accused a number of American companies of profiting “from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now genocide.”

CNN’s Tamar Michaelis contributed to this report.

Justin Bieber is about to drop a new album, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Def Jam will release his long-awaited seventh album on Friday, July 11, sources reveal.

A representative for Bieber didn’t reply to request for comment. Def Jam declined to comment.

As THR reported, Bieber headed to Iceland in late April to put finishing touches on the project, his first since 2021’s Justice. His Nordic getaway hosted jam sessions and allowed the pop superstar to ”vibe out” with a number of musical collaborators, an insider reveals.

As of Thursday, a billboard in Iceland that depicts Bieber with the word “Swag” is starting to go viral online. Presumably, that could be the name of the album though it’s unclear at press time. The same billboard went up in Los Angeles on Thursday.