AI Slop Map of Africa at AIDS Conference

A US State Department map of Africa mislabeled every country they depicted during a presentation at the AIDS 2026 conference (July 26-31, 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

The slide was so egregiously wrong that multiple attendees whipped out their phones to get a shot of it; Emily Bass, a writer and AIDS expert, wrote about it at length. 

"The US government's failure to catch this error before displaying the slide at the top international AIDS conference in the world, in a session that featured the Director General of Nigeria as an invited guest, is not only disrespectful to African collaborators, it's also a significant tell", wrote Bass.

Senior officials from several African governments were reportedly among those present. 

The map shows six countries receiving US health funding and none of them are correctly named or placed. Nigeria has migrated north to become landlocked in the Sahara. Mozambique has roughly replaced Ethiopia. The Ivory Coast was placed in southern Africa, far from any coast, its name an ignored clue. Uganda and Malawi are not so far off, but drawn with wrong borders. Cameroon was named but assigned no territory at all. While one country on the Gulf of Guinea – a hypothetical union of Ghana, Benin and Togo? – went unnamed. Perhaps that is Cameroon now. 

The speaker was Jeff Graham, the US health envoy who oversees PEPFAR (⁠President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), a United States government initiative.

Whoever ⁠created and approved this slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work. And Reuters reviewed video of the presentation and concluded that the map was AI slop. 

A Reuters analysis found the image of the map included in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools. 

The company said they were investigating the report. The State Department said they took "full responsibility" and blamed a staffer who changed the slide deck shortly before the event. 

This sort of thing is normal in the Trump administration. Last year, the White House's "Make America Healthy Again" report cited studies that did not exist, with fabricated references and other hallmarks of AI slop.

India Reveals More Toxic Cough Syrups

My August 03, 2023 post “Death by Cough Mixture” refers. 

 

According to a Hindu BusinessLine report published June 20, 2023 – it would appear that I had missed out this news – Indian authorities had ordered a cough syrup manufacturer linked to the deaths of a dozen children in Cameroon to stop production, the latest drugmaker the country has taken action against after a spate of tainted medical exports. 

 

Photographs of a box of Naturcold medication show a manufacturing licence number matching that of Riemann Labs Pvt Ltd, based in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. However, the photos, provided by Eko Eko Filbert, a regional health official in Cameroon, don’t show the manufacturer’s name. 

 

The drugs in the photo “look like ours”, said a director at Riemann, Navin Bhatia, in a phone interview. He said Riemann follows strict quality controls and couldn’t have made tainted medicine, and that counterfeiting is common. 

 

The revelation raised the prospect of a third mass death event linked to exported Indian cough syrups in less than a year. Medicines from two other Indian companies killed 66 children in Gambia and 18 in Uzbekistan last year. 

 

And yesterday, Mint, an Indian business and financial daily newspaper reported “India's drug regulator (have) found that a cough syrup and an anti-allergy syrup made by Norris Medicines are toxic, according to a government report, months after Indian-made cough syrups were linked to 141 children's deaths worldwide”. 

 

HG Koshia, commissioner of Gujarat state's Food and Drug Control Administration, told Reuters on Wednesday that they inspected Norris's factory last month and ordered it to suspend production and recall their medications. 

 

The federal drug regulator, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), also found three batches of COLD OUT syrup made by Fourrts (India) Laboratories contaminated with diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG), according to their list of "not of standard quality/spurious/adulterated/misbranded" drugs for August uploaded on their website. 

 

The World Health Organisation said in August that a batch of COLD OUT sold in Iraq had unacceptable levels of DEG and EG. 

 

Indian pharmaceutical executives and regulators have reportedly told Reuters that it is common practice among some manufacturers in the country to substitute cheaper, commercial-grade ingredients when making cough syrups. An unnerving disclosure.

$105 Million Ticket Sales on First Day

On Friday, I had blogged about the good pre-sales recorded by the war epic "The Battle at Lake Changjin 2: Watergate Bridge”. 

The movie has lived up to its blockbuster billing with a box office haul touching $105 million on Tuesday, the first day of the Chinese New Year and its opening day in mainland Chinese theaters. 

It is even speculated that the 149-minute cinematic production could eventually become the highest-grossing film of all time in China. To do that, it would have to surpass “The Battle at Lake Changjin” which was released on October 01, 2021 and, over a prolonged run in cinemas, earned $913 million (according to a Variety report dated January 31, 2022) to become the second biggest film worldwide in 2021, behind “Spider-Man: No Way Home”. 

Despite the short interval between the two outings, there is a growing belief that the sequel can outperform its predecessor.

Covid restrictions, travel patterns during this Spring Festival period and competition for eyeballs from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics starting today, are the limiting factors, rather than other movies. 

Already, audience feedback, channeled through Taopiaopiao ticketing firm, rated the film 9.6 out of ten. Maoyan reported an identical score with 21,000 users expressing an opinion.

On Thursday, a goalless draw between Egypt and hosts Cameroon saw the former win 3-1 on penalties to set up an Africa Cup of Nations final against Senegal. A day earlier, Senegal had ousted Burkina Faso to earn the right to meet Egypt. 

Sunday's final sets up a tantalising meeting between Liverpool forwards Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane at the same venue – the Olembe Stadium in Cameroon's capital Yaounde

In fact, the final will be the first of three meetings between Egypt and Senegal over the next two months as they also contest a two-legged play-off for a place at the World Cup in Qatar.

19 Million Cases

Yesterday, the world hit 19 million cases. And a day earlier, the coronavirus pandemic death toll had passed 700,000. 

I suppose this is what is commonly referred to as the ‘second wave’. Again, if we examine the twelve worst-affected countries, they have combined to contribute 72.7% of the world total cases.

 

Two countries, the United States and India stuck out like sore thumbs. 

SARS-CoV-2 continues to plague the US as the number of cases went beyond 5 million. And India has become the third country to pass two million cases. 

In fact, it has taken 20 days for the country to progress from a million to two million cases. That is faster than the time the US (43 days) and Brazil (27 days) took to double from a million cases. The only saving grace is that India recorded fewer fatalities than both these countries.

I wish the country would focus on fighting Covid-19 rather than fighting China. 

Africa has a million people now been confirmed to have had the coronavirus – and 87.5% are coming from these 12 countries:

Mary Stephen, technical officer at the WHO's regional office for Africa warns: "We haven't seen the peak in Africa yet".

Hydroxychloroquine is in the News Again

Hydroxychloroquine is back in the news again! 

That’s because Donald Trump has started his nonsense again – he described a Houston-based doctor who is advocating the anti-malaria drug, as “very impressive”. 

Stella Immanuel who had pronounced that "this virus has a cure, it's called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax" – has (again) landed herself right smack in the center of a rumpus over unproven and potentially dangerous claims that the alleged treatment can cure Covid-19. 

In a video, which was livestreamed on Monday by the right-wing media outlet Breitbart News and subsequently shared by the clown team of Trump and son Donald Trump Jr. (left), Dr Immanuel’s purported cure runs counter to advice from public health officials, including the Trump administration's own health experts. Multiple studies have likewise shown that hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with others does not help Covid-19 patients. 

The video featured Immanuel among a cohort of people wearing white lab coats who called themselves "America's Frontline Doctors" staging a press conference, organized by the Tea Party Patriots, a right-wing political organization, in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington DC.

She said taking hydroxychloroquine was common in Cameroon and therefore not harmful. [FYI, the said African country has 17,179 cases and 391 deaths as at yesterday]. 

The video was promptly removed from Facebook, YouTube and Twitter after amassing millions of views and thousands of shares. 

While she also declared that face masks are unnecessary, Immanuel appears to be wearing an N95 mask in a video shared on her clinic's Facebook page and encourages visitors to the clinic seeking treatment to wear face coverings. LOL! 

Immanuel, of course, is no stranger to conspiracy theories. 

On her website and in sermons posted on YouTube, Immanuel – who practices medicine at Rehoboth Medical Center, a clinic in Houston, Texas and is also a Christian pastor and founder of the Fire Power Ministries church – has, among other things, professed that sex with "tormenting spirits" is responsible for gynecological problems, miscarriages and impotence. 

"Many women suffer from astral sex regularly. Astral sex is the ability to project one's spirit man into the victim's body and have intercourse with it", she once asserted in a sermon. 

The Daily Beast also said that the physician had even suggested in other sermons that alien DNA was used in medical treatments and that scientists are plotting to develop a "vaccine" to make it impossible to become religious. 

Immanuel reportedly received her medical degree from a university in Nigeria in 1990, according to the Texas Medical Board database. On her Facebook page, she says she was born in Cameroon and describes herself as "God's battle axe and weapon of war". 

Trump’s idiotic re-tweet decision to amplify Stella Immanuel raises fresh questions about his messaging and pandemic response. It also gives her crackpot ideas an important platform and risks lending credibility to someone who has made a number of dangerous claims in the past.

Africa Tops 400,000 Coronavirus Cases

Covid-19 is here to stay in Africa. 

Given the current trends in incidence – more so when the coronavirus pandemic transitions to more widespread community transmission – and underlying healthcare systems vulnerabilities, the continent is in real danger of becoming the next epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Note that it took 98 days for Africa to reach 100,000 cases – and just 18 to hit 200,000 and another 22 days to reach 400,000. On that Tuesday, the continent also registered 10,000 deaths.

It is pertinent to highlight that the twelve most-affected countries are responsible for 84.2% of Africa’s total cases; insofar as fatalities are concerned, the Top 12 contributed 87.7% of total deaths. 

Elsewhere, Pakistan garnered 200,000 cases on Sunday whilst India, Turkey and Colombia collected 600,000, 200,000 and 100,000 cases respectively on Wednesday:

It is heartening to know that Malaysia has reported positive news today with the number of active cases dipping below 100 – with 85 cases only.

200,000 Coronavirus Cases in Africa

The total number of coronavirus cases in Africa passed 200,000 yesterday, according to the World Health Organization’s office for the region. The continent had added 100,000 cases in eighteen days. 

According to the latest update by the UN health agency, 201,157 people have tested positive for the virus across the 54 countries in Africa, of whom 90,374 have recovered and 5,486 have died, the UN health agency said. 

The Top 7 African countries for confirmed cases are still the same as the list I had put out in my May 23 post (“The Covid-19 Situation in Africa”) – just that there has been a reshuffle in their positions, Nos. 3 to 7:

BTW, these seven countries constitute 72.3% of Africa’s total (or 1.9% of cases worldwide). 

Even for fatalities – where the Top 7 countries make up 81.8% of Africa’s total (or 1.1% of deaths worldwide) – it's the same seven countries as I last reported in May – except for a change in positions, Nos. 2 to 7. 

And just to compare with the Bottom 7 (i.e. the Least Affected countries):

The Covid-19 Situation in Africa

More than three months have lapsed since Egypt became the first country in Africa to confirm a coronavirus case. Since then, the outbreak has reached every nation on the continent of 1.2 billion people – with 100,666 confirmed cases and 3,105 deaths on Friday, according to Africa CDC. 

No doubt Africa recorded just a wee fraction of the world's coronavirus cases – a mere 1.9%. 

Also WHO modelling has predicted that Covid-19 would move more slowly through Africa than elsewhere. It's very comforting to know, that’s for sure.

Still, the fact remains that the virus is raging in pockets of the continent. 

And it has been hit hard by the economic fallout from global trade disruptions, falling oil and commodities prices and the lockdowns deployed to fight the disease's spread. That can be just as hurting. 

I read that the presidents of Ivory Coast, Kenya, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone on Tuesday are already complaining that wealthy countries are failing Africa, with pledges of financial support and debt relief falling well short of the continent's needs as it battles the coronavirus pandemic. 

But it’s not only Africa that is affected – but everywhere too.

Already, the global economy is shrinking by around 5%. According to World Bank estimates, up to 60 million people could be pushed below the poverty line in their latest apocalyptic prediction. 

World Bank president David Malpass (right) said they have so far loaned money for emergency programs in 100 countries, accounting for about 70% of the world’s population, in response to the coronavirus crisis. 

He said the money would “reinforce healthcare systems” as well as pay for medical equipment and supplies.

Many countries' economies are already in dire straits.

4.5 Million Cases and 300,000 Deaths

Already 4.5 million coronavirus cases worldwide and 300,000 people dead. And still counting! 

The United States is tightly holding onto its No.1 ranking for both infections and fatalities – and methinks, in 8 days or less, it will reach another grim milestone: 1.5 million cases and 100,000 deaths. Donald Trump is doing a swell job to keep Americans safe!

Meanwhile, Russia has a quarter of a million cases on Thursday – but daily new infections thankfully fell below 10,000 for the first time:

The other hotspot, Brazil has surpassed 200,000 cases on the same day too: 

Yesterday, Africa registered more than 70,000 coronavirus infections and its death toll is almost hitting 2,500:

It is not too worrisome a situation just yet because the 7 countries (out of a tally of 54) most affected by Covid-19 in terms of cumulative case numbers together account for 68.7% of the total in the continent:

Covid-19 is Still Very Much a Serious Threat

Two Wednesdays ago, WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (left) had said the Covid-19 pandemic in western Europe appeared to be easing off. 

But he saw worrying upward trends in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa, although their numbers are still fairly low. 

Based on statista.com numbers, as at May 06, 2020, my calculations are that Latin America is likely to have at least 280,000 confirmed cases and 15,000 deaths. 

And CGTN Africa today reported that there are already about 52,000 cases in the said continent and 2,000 deaths.

Elsewhere, on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and UAE documented 30,251, 30,009 and 15,192 confirmed cases respectively.

Also, on the same day, 514 and 503 people died in Pakistan and Denmark respectively.

And on the following day, Iran surged past 100,000 cases.

Indeed, Covid-19 is still very much a serious threat.

The Voice Actor Who Can Mimic Any Animal

Hey, give a listen to veteran voice actor Dee Bradly Baker who happily shares his incredible skill for imitating, mimicking and vocalizing creatures of any kind, big and small. 

Baker (left) explains how he makes these incredibly realistic sounds with his mouth. 

“There’s lots to use inside the mouth and I kind of use it along with the resonance to do small things, large, things threatening things, friendly things… it’s not just making the sound but it’s telling a story. It’s having specific things happening in the story it’s kind of like raw material for the animators in the storyteller”. 

Indeed, his talent is simply amazing:

In Africa, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has surpassed 40,000 across the continent, including nearly 1,700 deaths and more than 13,000 recoveries, according to Africa CDC.