As President Donald Trump cancelled all federal commemorations of World AIDS Day in December, major cuts in U.S. and other western nations’ funding for AIDS treatment and prevention is predicted to increase HIV infections by 3.3 million over the next five years. Nations across Africa, the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic, are expected to be hardest hit.
(“Cuts Have Shaken HIV/AIDS Care to Its Core,” Guardian, Dec. 1, 2025)
South Asia is one of the most water-stressed regions in the world and is now facing escalating ‘water wars’ driven by climate change, water scarcity, energy security and geopolitical rivalries. According to the U.S.-based Pacific Institute, between 2019 and 2023 there were 191 water-related disputes in South Asia. India, Pakistan and China are now vying for control over shared rivers like the Indus and Brahmaputra.
(“South Asia Water Wars,” The Economist, Nov. 6, 2025)
The day after the Thanksgiving holiday, an 11-hour blackout of a key Chicago Mercantile Exchange data center—due to a computer system cooling failure—disrupted global futures trading from Tokyo to London. The blackout illustrated the vulnerability of the global economy to data center errors, that are now driving the explosion in artificial intelligence.
(“Global Futures Reopen After Exchange Operator CME Suffers Multi-Hour Disruption,” Reuters, Nov. 29, 2025; “Most States Fail to Disclose Which Data Center Companies Get Huge Tax Breaks,” Good Jobs Now, Nov. 29, 2025)
