The risk of contracting HIV is one in two if you are a black man in the US who has sex with men. This statistic is all the more startling because so few people are aware of it.“I was feeling very sick” says Daryon McCurdy, “so I went to the doctor and they said, ‘Okay, you have gonorrhea and acute HIV.’ I was so shocked.” The 25-year-old was diagnosed with HIV in August 2017, three years after moving to Atlanta, the black gay capital of the US. The city provides a coming-of-age setting for men from across the US. For those from the south, it can be lifesaving.

The deep south is a notoriously tough place to grow up black and gay, as McCurdy knows too well. In his hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, he was outed by rumours that started at school and ended with his parents. “My stepdad said ‘If I hear one more thing about you being gay in middle school, I’ll ship you back to your dad’.” Years of bullying at school and at home were to follow.For men who grow up gay in the south, this kind of shame and stigma makes them less likely to seek information about, and protection for, their sex lives. Closeted sex is inherently dangerous, because it happens in places where it is not safe to talk openly to people who may be able to help. What follows can be a lack of knowledge about safe sex or a huge underestimation of the risk of infection.(theguardian)…[+]

A Vogue cover photo of a Saudi princess behind the wheel of a red convertible has ignited a heated debate following a string of arrests of women’s rights activists.

The image of Princess Hayfa bint Abdullah al-Saud in the driver’s seat wearing leather gloves and high heels is on the front cover of Vogue Arabia’s June edition, published as the conservative kingdom prepares to lift a driving ban on women. The issue is dedicated to the “trailblazing women of Saudi Arabia” and lauds the reforms launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to loosen social restrictions in the conservative kingdom and curb the powers of religious hardliners.

“In our country, there are some conservatives who fear change. For many, it’s all they have known,” Princess Hayfa, daughter of the late King Abdullah, was quoted as saying in the magazine. “Personally, I support these changes with great enthusiasm,” added the princess, whose cover photo was shot in the desert outside the western city of Jeddah. But the image was criticised by campaigners protesting at the arrests in May of at least 11 activists, mostly identified by rights groups as veteran women campaigners for the right to drive and to end Saudi’s male guardianship system.

At least four of those activists were released last week, Amnesty International said, but the fate of the others remains unclear. Reports in state-backed media branded some of the detainees traitors and “agents of embassies”. Many on social media posted the Vogue cover with images of the detained activists photoshopped over the princess’s face.(theguardian)…[+]

Italy’s new populist government has been sworn into power after the president, Sergio Mattarella, agreed to a revised slate of ministers – just days after a bitter row over the incoming leaders’ stance on the euro ended their initial bid to assume power.

Giuseppe Conte was sworn in as prime minister on Friday after a last-ditch coalition deal ended months of political deadlock and narrowly avoided snap elections in the eurozone’s third largest economy. Conte, an academic and political novice, will head a government of ministers from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the far-right League party. The first populist coalition in a founding EU member has raised concerns in some European quarters. The 53-year-old was sworn in alongside his cabinet, which will see the M5S leader, Luigi Di Maio, and League chief, Matteo Salvini, in key ministerial posts. The deal will bring at least temporary calm to a political crisis that has embroiled Italy for weeks. The tumult raised questions – in Brussels and among investors around the world – about whether the rise in Italian populism and the collapse of traditional parties posed a fundamental threat to the country’s future in the eurozone.(theguardian)…[+]