US map blunder at AIDS conference stirs Africa policy scrutiny
A State Department slide at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro showed an AI-generated map of Africa with multiple mislabels (Nigeria depicted as landlocked in the Sahara, Mozambique misplaced, Côte d’Ivoire off its proper location), prompting online screenshots and scrutiny. The department apologized, saying a team member hastily updated the deck and that the map carried an OpenAI watermark. Pepfar’s core work has largely resumed after a prior pause, but the US is scaling back some prevention and surveillance funding and plans to fully phase out the program in South Africa.