The Guardian: Bob Geldof and Bono’s legacy in Africa is a lasting and positive one (Op-Ed)
In an op-ed for the Guardian, ONE’s Jamie Drummond writes that a quarter of a century after Live Aid, the fight against poverty is working. He highlights the advocacy work of ONE as well as the important role that activists Bono and Bob Geldof have played in ensuring that issues such as debt cancellation and the deeper structural causes of poverty remain relevant. Drummond also mentions the new problems emerging that will need to be addressed, including climate change.

The Guardian: Experts want African aid funds channeled away from HIV
Top scientists are demanding a controversial overhaul of health spending in Africa, arguing that the billions of pounds targeted at HIV during the past 20 years have led to a neglect of other killer diseases and basic health problems such as diarrhea. According to an HIV epidemiology researcher at Harvard, “What most people really need are things such as clean water and family planning. Even tuberculosis and malaria get far less money than HIV. In some cases these sectors have inadvertently been hurt by the focus on HIV.”

The Nation: New global trend hope for disease prevention
Reversing a downward trend, immunization rates are now at their highest ever and vaccine development worldwide is booming, according to a new assessment released by United Nations. However, at the same time, the report authors are calling on donor nations to address a funding gap that leaves millions of children still at risk, particularly in the poorest nations and communities, where preventable diseases take their deadliest toll.

The Los Angeles Times: Fleeing drought in the Horn of Africa
The L.A Times spotlights “a new kind of refugee” emerging in Africa: Those forced from their home regions not by war or persecution, but by the climate. Experts say climate change is quietly driving Africa’s displacement crisis to new heights, with more than 10 million people worldwide having already been driven out of their homes by rising seas, failing rain, desertification or other climate-driven factors. According to a professor at Oxford University, “Climate change is going to set back development and food production in sub-Saharan Africa at least a decade and perhaps two or three.”

Reuters: World trade talks should focus on poor: Gaddafi
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called on Friday for the removal of ‘unjust’ rich-country farm subsidies and more emphasis on helping the poor in world trade talks. Gaddafi, who chairs the African Union and has ruled Libya for 40 years, also urged the creation of a world economic council, saying the Group of 20 did not go far enough. According to Reuters, Gaddafi’s also maintained that “the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Round of negotiations should remove agricultural subsidies that put poor African farmers at an economic disadvantage.”

The Guardian: HIV and Aids: debate or denial?
Guardian journalist Ben Goldacre highlights a new Aids denialist documentary entitled House of Numbers, which argues a number of points, including the fact that HIV doesn’t cause Aids, but antiretroviral drugs, or poverty, or drug use do and that HIV probably doesn’t exist. Goldacre raises the question of whether it is legitimate to discuss the strength of the link between HIV and Aids, arguing that while he does not wholly support the film, its stirring of a debate about AIDS and disease in the developing world may not be is an entirely bad thing.