Good morning, we made it to the end of the week AND a brand new month is upon us.

Welcome to Friday and to December, the tail end of 2023. Another series, non-holiday post is on tap. We’ll get back to the holly jolly thing next week, I promise.

Today is the 35th annual World AIDS Day, which has been observed on Dec. 1 every year since 1988, with the goal of honoring and remembering the millions of people who died in the ongoing epidemic and also to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and the challenges faced by those currently living with it.

At the time, World AIDS Day was first-ever health day observed worldwide, which speaks to the magnitude of the crisis at that moment. That might seem odd to those who were born in the mid-1990s and beyond – in other words, after development of the so called “AIDS cocktail”, which is formally known as antiretroviral therapy (ART).

ART dramatically reduces the viral loads in individuals who take it, (in non-health speak, that means it reduces the amount of HIV in their bodies), and also increases the immune cells that the virus destroys, dramatically increasing lifespan.

According to the CDC, people who take ART as prescribed and maintain an undetectable viral load have “effectively no risk” of transmitting HIV to others. This is sometimes referred to as “undetectable = untransmittable” or U=U. 

If you’re of a certain age, you don’t have to think too hard to remember a time when an HIV diagnosis was seen as a death sentence, and fear of contracting the virus was widespread. Thanks to ART, that is not longer the case.

But we shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security because treatment is available. ART is not available to everyone, especially those in low-income and/or developing countries, and it is not a silver bullet, as new challenges and co-infections continue to arise. HIV/AIDS is still very much among us. Also, while there is effective treatment, there is still no cure.

As of 2022, more than 39 million people around the world were living with HIV, and 29.8 million people were accessing antiretroviral therapy, according to UNAIDS.

Less than 1 million people died of AIDS related illnesses last year. Overall, some 85.6 million people have become infected with HIV and 40.4 million have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic.

An estimated 1.3 million individuals worldwide acquired HIV last year. The good news is that’s a 38% decline in new HIV infections since 2010 and 59% since the peak of the epidemic in 1995.

The bad news: though individuals who have unprotected sex (particularly gay and bisexual men) and people who inject drugs are most at risk, women and girls accounted for 46 percent of all new infections in 2022, and not everyone knew their status or was able to get on ART therapy.

Also, vulnerable populations, most notably Blacks/African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos, are disproportionately affected by HIV. Trans women who have sex with men are among the groups at greatest risk for HIV infection.

The Covid crisis took a toll on HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and diagnosis, thanks to lockdowns, an increased in fiscal challenges, and expansion of social and inequities and stigma – among other issues.

The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is “Let Communities Lead“, which, according to the WHO, is “a call to action to support and empower communities to take on leadership roles, rather than just celebrating the accomplishments of individual communities” when it comes to the fight to end AIDS once and for all.

It’s going to be warm by rainy today, which I guess is a fair tradeoff – for early December, especially.

Temperatures will be close to 50 degrees today and tomorrow, with showers starting tonight and continuing on into Saturday morning. Saturday and Sunday will both see temperatures int he mid-to-high 50s, with steadier ran developing on Sunday afternoon. Monday looks, well, like more of the same, but let’s leave that alone for the moment.

In the headlines…

Israel released another group of Palestinian prisoners hours after Hamas freed additional Israeli hostages under a last-minute agreement to extend their cease-fire by another day in Gaza.

As Israel and Hamas edged closer to the expiration of a fragile cease-fire, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Israeli leaders and urged them to take concrete steps to reduce civilian deaths before it resumes an offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas terrorists did not meet their obligation to release every woman held hostage during the two sides’ truce.

Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But they officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.

An approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.

President Joe Biden is facing criticism after a social media post sowed confusion over his stance on the Israel-Hamas war, with some viewing it as evidence that he is bowing to domestic pressure for a ceasefire.

Biden’s campaign has assembled a special task force to ready its responses to misleading AI-generated images and videos, drafting court filings and preparing novel legal theories to counter potential disinformation efforts that experts warn could disrupt the vote.

The Democratic Party has no Plan B if President Joe Biden decided for any reason to halt his 2024 re-election campaign, and a sudden need to replace him as its standard-bearer would spark a messy intra-party battle.

Biden is struggling in the polls one year before voters will decide whether to give him a second term in the Oval Office. And it’s the Americans who were most supportive of him at the beginning of his term that have turned on the president the most.

Biden said he will visit Angola in a trip that could mark renewed engagement with Africa at a time of international turmoil.

World leaders are gathering in Dubai for an annual United Nations climate summit – without Biden – and calling for urgent action to slow down global warming.

The meeting comes toward the end of what will almost certainly be the hottest year in recorded history. 

With oil markets sagging, the world’s major producers agreed to cut oil production by almost 700,000 barrels a day, less than 1 percent of global supplies, in an effort to prop up prices.

As the House of Representatives opened the floor yesterday to debate the fate of George Santos, Republican of New York, the arguments over whether to expel him took an immediate and indecorous turn.

Before the debate about his possible expulsion from Congress, Santos seemed to embrace his starring role in a scandal of his own making.

Santos continued his refusal to resign one day ahead of an expulsion vote, instead arguing that he is being bullied in the wake of a scathing ethics report on his conduct.

“I’m not trying to be arrogant or spiteful or, you know, disrespectful of the committee,” Santos said. “But I am curious to know: What is the schedule of the Ethics Committee? Why rush this?”

For an hour and a half last night, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California shouted at and interrupted each other, trying to leave an impression on Fox News viewers beyond the din of their slugfest.

The event was billed by some as a 2028 preview but it was more of a bizarro version of 2024—one where neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden were running for a second term.

Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign released its first ad of the Republican primary race, a spot that calls for “a new generation of conservative leadership” and presents her as a steady hand in the face of domestic and international threats.

An appeals court reinstated a narrow gag order on Trump that bars him from attacking court staff in his civil fraud trial in New York. The former president has already violated the order twice, incurring a total of $15,000 in fines.

The decision does not explain the judges’ rationale but means the gag order will stay in place as the panel considers Trump’s full appeal of the orders.

Judge Arthur Engoron originally issued the order barring Trump from making public statements about his court’s staff after Trump made numerous comments about a clerk, who Trump says is biased against him.

The financial watchdog overseeing the Trump Organization informed a New York judge this week about $40 million in cash transfers that were not previously disclosed as required to that court-appointed monitor.

In an letter updating the judge on her work, Barbara Jones — a retired federal judge whom Engoron appointed — said there have been some violations, but overall the Trump Organization continues to cooperate and is generally in compliance with court orders.

Gov. Kathy Hochul hinted at a desire to ban employers from using noncompete agreements for workers who make less than $250,000 per year, but leaving the option in place for higher earners.

New York State has started to disburse $5.1 million in grants for mental health clinics at schools, Gov. Hochul said, responding to the ravages of a disorienting pandemic that has left many youths drifting and depressed.

The election reform organization, Common Cause New York, is suing the state Board of Elections in state Supreme Court in Albany County over its approval of a controversial voting machine.

Beginning in 2016, the state’s prison agency used unreliable contraband screening tests that produced false positive results that led to disciplinary sanctions for over 2,000 inmates — many of which were wrong and later reversed, the state IG reported.

Former City Comptroller Scott Stringer is reportedly chatting with strategists and prospective donors about the possibility of mounting a primary challenge against Mayor Eric Adams in 2025 and plans to make a final decision in January on whether to run.

New York City plans to reduce parking spots at 1,000 intersections every year to protect pedestrians from drivers, Adams said.

Adams called on the MTA to expand the exemptions to its controversial plan to charge Big Apple drivers $15 to enter Manhattan’s core — as the costly proposal was unveiled.

The first peek at pricing details in New York’s plan to add tolls for drivers entering Manhattan’s busiest streets drew strong responses in New Jersey.

The nation’s first congestion pricing program is taking final shape in New York. Supporters say it will benefit the city, but foes fear its impact on drivers.

Desperate migrants lining up in freezing temperatures to get back into the Big Apple’s overwhelmed shelter system said they would eagerly stay at the mega makeshift tent city at Floyd Bennett Field, despite the slew of complaints — if only they were allowed.

A judge upheld New York City’s new minimum wage for delivery workers in the latest defeat of Uber’s relentless legal challenges to the rule.

According to a new study by route planning website Circuit, New York is the worst city in the country to drive in, with the average resident spending 236 hours in rush hour traffic annually, the most compared to the rest of the U.S.

The family of a “healthy” Brooklyn mother who mysteriously died after giving birth to a baby boy earlier this month launched a $42 million lawsuit seeking damages and answers to the tragedy that upended their lives.

A 3-year-old boy was killed in a hit and run in Queens on Wednesday night, the fifth child to be killed by a vehicle this year in New York City.

The opening night of a revival of Richard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York was interrupted last night by climate protesters shouting “No Opera” from the balconies on both sides of the opera house.

After 103 years, The College of Saint Rose is closing its doors. The school’s Board of Trustees voted to close at the end of the academic year. Saint Rose interim President Marcia White confirmed the decision in a letter to the campus community.

The College of Saint Rose’s sports teams will spend the rest of their seasons representing a school that will no longer exist once the academic year ends.

The former treasurer of the city’s Polish American Citizens Club pleaded guilty to stealing over a million dollars in club funds over four years, the Albany County district attorney’s office announced.

Despite not ranking well in a Homeless Task Force analysis, the city committee will recommend a Lake Avenue vacant lot, between the Northway overpass and Stewart’s Shop at the Gilbert Road corner, to the Saratoga Springs City Council for a 24-7 shelter.

The liberal activist organization MoveOn laid off at least 18 employees this week, in the latest sign of a slowdown in donations from small donors to left-leaning causes and candidates.

Advertisers said that they did not plan to reopen their wallets anytime soon with X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, after its owner, Elon Musk, insulted brands using an expletive and told them not to spend on the platform.

Photo credit: George Fazio.