
By Mogomotsi Magome
Just a week had remained before scientists in South Africa were to begin clinical trials of an HIV vaccine, and hopes were high for another step toward limiting one of history’s deadliest pandemics. Then the email arrived.
Stop all work, it said. The United States under the Trump administration was withdrawing all its funding.
The news devastated the researchers, who live and work in a region where more people live with HIV than anywhere else in the world. Their research project, called BRILLIANT, was meant to be the latest to draw on the region’s genetic diversity and deep expertise in the hope of benefiting people everywhere.
But the $46 million from…
Sharpeville Massacre: In 1960, police opened fire on a peaceful protest against
pass laws, killing 69 people and marking a turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Gr8 Flick
Fun South African Fact: South Africa is the only country in the world to build and then decide to dismantle the whole of its nuclear weapons program.
Scuffs
Olympic sailing competition just finished. France got the gold, South Africa got the silver, and … Somalia got the boat.