Jazeera Airways, Kuwait’s leading low-cost carrier, today announced the launch of direct flights between Kuwait and one of East Africa’s fastest-growing economies – Ethiopia. The new service to Addis Ababa will operate three times a week starting 7 September, further expanding the airline’s growing network, and offering increased connectivity to Africa. 

With more than 70,000 Ethiopian nationals living in Kuwait, the new route offers the community a direct option to fly back home and reunite with family and friends. 

At the launch event, Sied Muhumed Jibril, the Ambassador of Ethiopia to Kuwait said 

“The launch of direct flights between Kuwait and Addis Ababa marks an important milestone in strengthening the longstanding ties between Ethiopia and Kuwait. This new connection will bring our people closer together, facilitate trade and investment, and encourage greater tourism and cultural exchange. We welcome Jazeera Airways to Ethiopia and look forward to the many opportunities this route will create for both our countries.”

Analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine – co-authored by experts including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, leading epidemiologist Professor Sir Michael Marmot, and Chairperson of the One Economy Foundation and former First Lady of Namibia Monica Geingos – finds economic inequality, not conventional preparedness, has been the clearest predictor of how countries fared against pandemics, upending traditional assumptions about what actions governments need to take for health security. The new research from the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics finds that while technical capacity remains necessary, it is not sufficient. To respond to and prepare for pandemics effectively, governments need to include efforts to address inequality.

Call for “Inequality-Informed Pandemic Preparedness and Response”

Conventional understandings of what countries need to do to be ready to face pandemics are incomplete and need to be re-thought, the research shows. Many of the countries that score highest on standard measures of pandemic preparedness—based on technical abilities like laboratory, supply chain, or emergency response capabilities—have seen some of the highest rates of infection and death during both the COVID-19 and AIDS pandemics. Countries like the United States or United Kingdom have topped official preparedness lists, but the research findings show no association between these traditional understandings of preparedness and success in the real world. Policies that only ensure technical capability are not enough.

The African School of Governance (ASG) has announced the inaugural Africa Mindset Reset Forum, an Africa-led convening on the leadership mindsets, institutions and a results-culture of execution needed for Africa to realise its sovereign development ambitions.

The Forum will take place on 25–26 August 2026 at the Kigali Convention Centre, bringing together leaders from across Africa and beyond, with 80 percent of participants comprising young and emerging leaders. It is conceived not as another conference about Africa’s challenges, but as a platform to spotlight the critical role of Leadership & Mindsets, what is already working, connect the people and institutions driving change, and move from dialogue to delivery.

The Forum comes at a defining moment for the continent, as global geopolitics shift, superpower competition intensifies, development finance tightens, artificial intelligence transforms economies and demographic change accelerates.

This context requires that African countries increasingly address own problems through African leadership and home-grown solutions. Yet no single African country is large enough, or strong enough to make it alone, the destiny of the continent is to work together, as one. This requires a new leadership mindset that promotes effective African integration.

A special report released by UNAIDS for the 26th International AIDS Conference taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 27 to 31 July, shows that reductions to international funding and cuts to HIV prevention and community services are likely to lead to a resurgence of the epidemic. 

Although new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are at their lowest levels in more than 30 years, the current HIV response is extremely fragile. Efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 are at risk unless global solidarity is restored and inequalities are addressed. 

In 2025, 1.2 million people acquired HIV, but progress is uneven. New HIV infections rose in three regions and 21 countries in 2025. Around 9 million of the 41 million people living with HIV were not on treatment and almost half of all children living with HIV did not have access to antiretroviral therapy in 2025. More than half a million people (570 000) died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2025.

Positively seven countries achieved an almost 80% reduction in new infections since 2010 and 11 countries achieved the 95-95-95 treatment targets showing that progress is possible.