Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

The American South has the highest HIV rates in the country, accounting for more than half of new HIV diagnoses nationwide in 2023. This is despite growing availability of a highly effective HIV prevention medication that has made it possible to live a long, healthy life with this once fatal disease.This medication – called preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP – reduces the risk of HIV transmission by over 99% when taken as prescribed. Yet, in Southern cities such as Jackson, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee, one of the most vulnerable populations – Black men who have sex with men – are rarely…

Between infinitely scrolling job boards and the puzzling rise of fake applicants using AI to apply en masse, job-searching has quickly become one of the most bewildering experiences the internet has to offer. Listings are posted and re-posted across different platforms as applications go unanswered, creating a spam-like flood of activity on both sides. “If you put a job on LinkedIn, you might get 1,000 people applying for that job within the first six hours,” says Matt Wilson, a London-based serial entrepreneur. “Some companies don’t even review the applicants that apply for those jobs, because the signal to noise ratio…

By Ananda TeresiaJAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia sees its ambitious programme of free school meals reaching just 72 million recipients by year-end, against an initial target of 83 million, the head of the national nutrition agency said on Thursday, as it scrambles to add kitchens.Since the programme’s launch in January, it has been marred by cases of massive food poisoning, affecting more than 11,000 children nationwide, data from non-governmental organisation Network for Education Watch (JPPI) showed.The agency, which runs the meals programme, put the figure lower, at 6,000 children by September, however.Its head, Dadan Hindayana, said the free school meals would reach…

Even a veteran Silicon Valley investor can’t make the numbers behind venture capital add up.Sequoia Capital partner and former PayPal exec, Roelof Botha, appeared on two podcasts over the past week to share a contrarian take on the VC industry — one shaped by more than two decades of investing.”I think there’s a huge problem with the venture industry. There’s too much money,” Botha said on a recent episode of the “All-In” podcast. “In my opinion, investing in venture is a return-free risk.”Botha said that venture capital firms invest over $150 billion in companies each year. Yet, even under what…

LONDON (Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson is facing the first lawsuits in Britain over allegations that its talc products cause cancer, as it fights tens of thousands of similar claims in the United States.The lawsuit was filed at the English High Court on Tuesday against J&J and Kenvue UK Limited, a subsidiary of Kenvue, J&J’s former consumer health unit which was spun off in 2023.KP Law said it filed the case on behalf of more than 3,000 people who allege their ovarian cancer, mesothelioma or other diseases were caused by use of J&J’s baby powder between 1965 and 2023.The firm says…

Abbianca Nassar’s side hustle as a freelance ghost writer and brand strategist hasn’t gotten particularly better or worse because of AI, but the buzzy tech has made it more complicated. Some of her clients are all in on it, going so far as to build their own ChatGPT tools for her to use. Others are so paranoid that someone might think they’ve used AI that they make her edit her work so that it’s extra clear that it’s human. Nassar is a fan of the em dash — unfortunately, so is ChatGPT, so clients haggle with her over it. “They’re…

MAPUTSOE, Lesotho (AP) — For the 2.3 million residents of Lesotho, the announcement of massive cuts to the U.S. aid that sustained much of the small African nation’s health care system came as a shock. The country long had one of the world’s highest HIV infection rates but recently made notable progress and hit key milestones in its fight against the epidemic.Still, an estimated 260,000 HIV-positive people live in Lesotho. And as organizations and clinics that relied on foreign assistance shut down, many here lost access to life-saving treatment, to testing, to preventative medication, to other crucial services. These patients…

HA LEJONE, Lesotho (AP) — In the wake of massive U.S. cuts to foreign aid, the small country of Lesotho, in southern Africa faces deep uncertainty and worry over its HIV-positive residents.Lesotho long had the world’s second-highest HIV infection rate. Over years, with nearly $1 billion in U.S. aid, Lesotho patched together a health network efficient enough to slow the epidemic’s spread. But when U.S. President Donald Trump froze foreign assistance and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, chaos and confusion followed in Lesotho. Clinics shut down, workers were let go, and patients stopped treatment.Much of Lesotho’s system to…

The markets may be fretting about an AI bubble, but Goldman Sachs says the boom is still in its opening act.That’s because the scale of current investment remains small compared with the potential economic payoff, analysts at the Wall Street giant argue.”The enormous economic value promised by generative AI justifies the current investment in AI infrastructure and overall levels of AI investment appear sustainable as long as companies expect that investment today will generate outsized returns over the long run,” wrote analysts at Goldman Sachs in a Wednesday note.The bank’s analysts pointed to two main reasons for their call: AI…

MacKenzie Scott took some heat from Elon Musk last year for the causes to which she donates. But Scott, who was once married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, hasn’t backed down on her diversity-related donations this year.On Wednesday, Morgan State University, a historically Black university, announced that it had received a $63 million gift from Scott. This was Scott’s second major donation to the university in five years. She donated $40 million to the Maryland-based university in 2020.When approached for comment, a representative for Morgan State University referred Business Insider to a statement it had published on Scott’s donation on…