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.

US Announces New Visa Bonds for Travelers from Zambia, Malawi

The United States is expanding its crackdown on immigration.

Donald Trump's administration will require visa applicants from Zambia and Malawi, two African countries, to pay bonds of up to $15,000 for some tourist and business visas, the State Department stated. 

Starting August 20, 2025, any citizen or national traveling on a passport issued by one of these countries who is found otherwise eligible for B-1 business and B-2 tourism visas for travel to the US must post a bond in amounts of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000, determined at time of visa interview. 

This requirement is part of a 12-month pilot program scheduled to begin on the said date. It will apply to nationals from certain foreign countries applying for B-1/B-2 visas to the United States. These visas usually allow for a maximum stay of six months, though extensions are permitted in some cases.

Immigration has been a key target of Trump’s administration, with Washington imposing a travel ban in June that fully or partially blocks nationals from 19 countries – the majority in Africa – from entering the US on security grounds. A State Department spokesperson on Monday said countries would be identified based on "high overstay rates, screening and vetting deficiencies, concerns regarding acquisition of citizenship by investment without a residency requirement, and foreign policy considerations". 

"This requirement applies regardless of place of application", the department maintained, adding that "a bond does not guarantee visa issuance, and if any individual pays fees without being directed to do so by a consular officer, that money will not be returned". 

FYI, the full visa bond amount will be returned to the applicant if he/she leaves the US within the allowed window of time in line with their visa and complies with all the terms of their visa status. 

The State Department also explained that as a condition of the bond, all visa holders who have posted a visa bond must arrive and depart from the US via one of the ports of entry: Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD). 

“Failure to do so may result in being denied entry or a departure not being appropriately registered”, the department insisted.

I'm sure more countries will be added onto the list.

French 'Emperor'-President Swears at Ungrateful Subjects

Cyclone Chido bringing wind speeds of more than 225km/h (140mph), swept through Mayotte, the overseas department of France – which is between Madagascar and Mozambique in the Indian Ocean – on December 14, destroying infrastructure and flattening many of the tin-roofed shacks that make up its large slums. 

 

Almost a week after its worst storm in ninety years, France’s poorest territory still has water shortages. Not to mention that a large part of the archipelago is also without power. And at least 35 people are reported by French officials to have died, but the death toll is expected to be much higher with thousands still missing. Officials say supplies of food and water are the top priority.

 

Confronted by angry and desperate islanders on his public relations trip to this outpost on Thursday, five days after Cyclone Chido tore through the archipelago, French 'Emperor'-President Emmanuel Macron (right) responded by telling locals: "I had nothing to do with the cyclone. You can blame me, but it wasn't me". 

 

And amid calls to resign and demands for more aid in devastated areas, he even swore at them: "If this wasn't France, you'd be in a bath of shit 10,000 times worse". Sacré merde!

 

After Mayotte, the storm hit the African mainland, killing at least ninety-four people in Mozambique and thirteen in Malawi, as per latest news reports.

 

Yesterday, leaders Liverpool won a 9-goal thriller when they bested Tottenham Hotspur 6-3 in a Sunday English Premier League match to go four points clear of second-placed Chelsea.

 

Luis Diaz headed in Trent Alexander-Arnold's perfect cross after 23 minutes, followed by Alexis Mac Allister doubling their lead with another header 13 minutes later before Spurs pulled one back in the 41st minute.

 

But the Reds scored again when Mohamed Salah set up Dominik Szoboszlai for a simple finish in first-half stoppage time.

 

Salah drew level with Billy Liddell's record of 228 Liverpool goals when he extended Liverpool's advantage from close range after 54 minutes, then went into fourth place in the club's all-time list of scorers on his own when Szoboszlai repaid the first-half compliment to play the Egyptian in for his second. 

 

Home team Spurs responded with two goals (72, 83) to threaten the monster of all comebacks, but Diaz raced onto Salah's pass to complete a memorable victory for Arne Slot's side in the 85th minute.

 

Liverpool have dropped points in each of their past two Premier League games, with draws at Newcastle United and at home to Fulham – but this was as convincing a return to winning ways as possible as they confirmed once again that they are the team to beat in the title race.

 

 

 

 

 

Namibia Culls Wildlife for Meat

More than 700 wildlife, including hippos and elephants, are being culled in Namibia’s game parks to provide meat for the country’s hungry, the government announced, as the arid southern African region battles its worst drought in 100 years.

 

“This exercise is necessary and is in line with our constitutional mandate where our natural resources are used for the benefit of Namibian citizens”, a statement on August 26, 2024 from the country’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism read.

 

While the said territory is drought-prone, experts say the El Nino weather phenomenon which typically causes higher global temperatures, combined with human-caused climate change, is driving the current worse than usual dry spell. Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia have declared drought emergencies.

 

And a spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday described the situation in Namibia as a “humanitarian crisis we’ve never spoken much of”.

 

About 84 percent of the country’s food reserves have been exhausted as a result of the drought, the UN said, with nearly half of the 2.5 million population expected to experience high levels of food insecurity during the lean season from July to September.

 

Like its neighbors, Namibia is dependent on agriculture and livestock which need rain to flourish. However, it has recorded several droughts in recent years, affecting food production. Authorities declared drought emergencies three times between 2013 and 2019.

 

The UN said the current drought is contributing to cases of acute malnutrition – and in some cases, death – in children under five.

 

And so, professional hunters and safari operators are being contracted to kill a total of 723 animals, according to Namibian authorities. 

 

The animals identified for culling include 30 hippos (Scientific name: Hippopotamus amphibius), 60 Cape buffalos (Scientific name: Syncerus caffer caffer), 50 impalas (Scientific name: Aepyceros melampus), 100 blue wildebeest (Scientific name: Connochaetes taurinus), 300 zebras (Family: Equidae, genus: Equus), 83 African bush elephants (Scientific name: Loxodonta africana) and 100 elands (Scientific name: Taurotragus oryx). 

 

Already, 56,875 kg of meat from 157 wild animals has been sourced for the government relief program, according to the government statement. 

 

It is not clear which animals have been culled so far and over what period. The culls are taking place in parks and communal areas that authorities believe have “sustainable game numbers” – that is, where the culling will not adversely affect the animal population, and where the animals may already exceed available water and grazing resources.

 

Parks in which culling is being carried out include Namib-Naukluft Park, Mangetti National Park, Bwabwata National Park, Mudumu National Park and Nkasa Rupara National Park.

Africa-bound Covid Vaccines a Wasteful Exercise

Africa is not doing well insofar as Covid vaccination goes. 

And that’s because its countries are facing "vaccine nationalism" from the West. These wealthy countries stockpiled excess vaccines and only "donated" them to African countries when they were about to expire, for political show. It would seem that they ignored the fact that Africa may lack primary care services and vaccine storage conditions, and as a result, may cause vaccines to be of limited use. 

On December 22, 2021, the Nigerian government destroyed more than 1.06 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine. According to media reports, these vaccines were part of the more than 2.59 million doses Nigeria received from Europe in October 2021, and had expired in November! 

The disposal of these vaccines followed reports that vaccines received from Europe through the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access program (COVAX) arrived in Nigeria with only four to six weeks of viability remaining, making them unusable for the timely inoculation of its citizens. In fact, many low- and middle-income countries have experienced similar situations. 

The Nigerian MOH called on vaccine donors to send vaccines as early as possible so that recipient countries are able to receive the vaccine with a longer shelf life to avoid wastage. In any case, Nigeria said it is no longer accepting vaccine donations with short, unviable shelf lives. 

Senegalese authorities have indicated that 400,000 doses of expired vaccines would be destroyed. Malawi burned 20,000 doses of expired vaccines in May 2021, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo returned 1.3 million doses of vaccines due to expiration. 

If you total the numbers above, these countries have already discarded more than 3 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines. 

Indeed, this is a sad state of affairs because Africa remains the least vaccinated continent against Covid-19. As at the end of 2021, only a worrying 7.5 percent of the continent's 1.3 billion people are fully vaccinated while a few Western countries – they know who they are – are stockpiling far more vaccines than they need and are wasting them.

Symbolism in the Malawi Flag

I was surfing the Net and I found this news story. 

On July 29, 2010, Malawi's government decided to change their national flag. 

The new flag features a full sun instead of the old flag's half-rising sun, which President Bingu wa Mutharika said was "inherited from the British as part of their claim that they had brought light in darkness".

"We cannot permanently live in the past", Mutharika had said when it was launched. 

The information minister Leckford Thotho told AFP: "The symbol of the half rising sun at independence made a lot of sense because it was dawn for freedom and hope – but there has been a lot of development that has taken place since and we cannot still be at dawn". 

A BBC News report dated August 16, 2010 had Malawi's government even warning their citizens of arrest and prosecution if they display the country's old national flag! Indeed, a compelling study in symbolism.

This evening, I attended the Shaklee Dynamic Family Toastmasters meeting in Subang Jaya – where I was co-opted at the last minute to be the evaluator for Advanced speaker, Shirley Bak. I did my job and I was even voted the Best Evaluator. 

But this could not dispel the lethargic sense of languor that overpowered me. Maybe because today is a Sunday!

Arsenal's Premier League title aspirations suffered yet another significant setback as 10-man Blackburn battled their way to a deserved point. The game ended in a scoreless draw. 

Arsenal is a big disappointment.