Europe must enforce oil sector transparency – While the oil and gas industry can bring great wealth to the countries in which it operates, “the revenues it brings are vulnerable to corruption,” as the “benefits can remain with the ruling elite rather than the majority of the population.” John Browne, the former chief executive of BP helped establish the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative and believes that “transparency is the best way to overcome the ‘resource curse’ faced by too many of the world’s people,” urges Europe to “mandate that energy companies disclose the details of payments they make to foreign governments.” (FT, John Browne)
The Rubio Doctrine – Sen. Marco Rubio’s foreign-policy speech on Wednesday was a “robust and full-throated defense of an activist U.S. foreign policy and the oft-evoked but somewhat nebulous concept of American ‘leadership’ in the world.” Rubio said that “in every region of the world, we should always search for ways to use U.S. aid and humanitarian assistance to strengthen our influence,” citing the Bush administrations work on AIDS in Africa as a prime example. (Foreign Policy, Joshua Keating)
Rebase to boost Nigeria’s economy 40 percent - Nigeria’s economy is expected to grow by 40 percent in the second quarter this year, which may “give the country financial bragging rights, but will change little for the millions trapped in poverty.” Despite growth of 7 percent a year and a rapidly increasing GDP, one “glance at [Nigeria’s] huge and fast growing population and poor record on governance makes them look less impressive,” as a “decade of breakneck economic growth has failed to lift 100 million people living on less than $1 a day out of dire poverty.” (Reuters, Chijioke Ohuocha)
New Studies on HIV Treatment as Prevention – New studies by the California HIV/AIDS Research Program indicate that pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, with antiretroviral drugs can treat HIV and also help to prevent infection in the first place. Patients who took the antiretroviral pills daily had “an excess of 70 percent reduction of risk.” The US Food and Drug Administration will review the PrEP research. (VOA, Joe DeCapua)
