EMAIL DETAILS

The Weekly GAB Friday, January 26, 2018
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=Z12nNJSPnAakd8VLVkgX1w

Who's in the News

DAILY NEWS JOURNAL

Trump Should Put 'America First' By Treating African Nations as
Partners: Senator |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=Qz8Iak9RLwZabenmHeHIcA

Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK)

Trump needs to bring his "America First" approach to
Africa. He needs to set aside the old, outdated mindset of the State
Department and do what no other president has ever done -
advance American interests by treating African nations as partners.
African nations want this too. Just look at Rwanda. Less than 20 years
ago, Rwanda's economy was nearly 70% foreign aid. Now,
it's down to a third. I was there in October and their progress
is clear - the economy is booming. They'll reach their
stated goal of being self-sufficient very quickly. Trump's meeting
Friday with Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, marks the start of
a new approach to Africa. He was chosen by his peers to be the next
chairman of the African Union after he led reform efforts and outlined
a future for Africa that is capable of taking care of itself. His goal
is to lead African nations out of dependency so they have real
partnerships with countries abroad.

NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
PEPFAR - 15 Years and Counting the Lives Saved

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=EJdUUEwfAEoMFORIqjMNYw

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., NIAID Director, and Robert W. Eisinger, Ph.D.

In the long history of successful public health initiatives, such as
those leading to the eradication of smallpox, the elimination of polio
throughout most of the world, and the marked reduction globally in
vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, few programs have matched the
impact of one that began in 2003, the President's Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. PEPFAR has received continuous bipartisan
support from Congress since 2003 and is the largest global health
initiative for a single infectious disease that has ever been
implemented. As of September 2017, PEPFAR-funded programs have
provided 13.3 million HIV-infected men, women, and children with
antiretroviral therapy; supported 15.2 million voluntary medical male
circumcisions in eastern and southern African countries to reduce the
risk of HIV transmission; averted nearly 2.2 million perinatal HIV
infections; and provided care for more than 6.4 million orphans and
vulnerable children.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The UN Is Reformed and Ready

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=BzRvRZOXjDzVLYPBF2-Xcw

Peter Yeo, President, Better World Campaign and Vice President for
Public Policy and Advocacy, United Nations Foundation

Reform advocates should be encouraged. Their message has been heard.
U.N. reforms now span two U.S. administrations and two U.N. chiefs,
and Secretary-General Guterres has made clear that more changes are
coming. Going forward, the U.S. will begin budget negotiations of its
own, which will include contributions to the U.N. It's time this
year for a new conversation. Now that the budget has been right-sized,
we should discuss how the U.S. can strengthen the U.N., so it can
better fulfill its critical responsibilities on the world stage. Put
simply, U.N. funding must be guided by security realities on the
ground, not on arbitrary calls from above. With the latest round of
budget cuts, the U.N. is cutting waste and increasing cost efficiency.
Now, the U.S. needs to continue to be strategic and measured in its
approach, but must also consider increasing funding for front-line
issues where the U.N.'s role is critical.

Development & Diplomacy

BLOOMBERG

Tillerson's State Overhaul Faces Mutiny as USAID Weighs Role |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=xKKO7WDeI8mtdS56_gr6wg

Nick Wadhams

The agency in charge of U.S. foreign aid has put Rex Tillerson on
notice about rising frustration over his State Department redesign,
the most visible sign yet of the confusion surrounding his bid to
reshape American diplomacy. "Per direction from the Front
Office, we are suspending all USAID involvement in the Joint Redesign
as of Monday, January 22nd," Jim Richardson, the redesign chief
at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said in a Jan. 19
email to senior staff obtained by Bloomberg News. "You should
not work on any Joint Redesign activities."

THE WASHINGTON POST

Trump Threatens to Take Away More U.S. Aid From Palestinians If They
Don't Negotiate With Israel |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=V0dTn3E_3_Sy1wkq2qN0NQ

Anne Gearan

President Trump threatened Thursday to write off the Palestinian
leadership and withdraw further U.S. aid if Palestinians are not
serious about negotiating peace with Israel, deepening a diplomatic
rift and putting Trump's hopes for a historic agreement on hold.
Trump cast doubt on whether talks could happen now, and blamed
Palestinian intransigence rather than his decision to shift decades of
U.S. policy on the status of Jerusalem. "That money is on the
table, and that money is not going to them unless they sit down and
negotiate peace," Trump said of the hundreds of millions in U.S.
aid for the Palestinians.

DEVEX

Mark Green at Davos to 'Tap Into the Creativity' of the Private Sector
|

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=5p0JM4s6A4pJESVBKM_qsg

Adva Saldinger

Mark Green, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International
Development, is in Davos this week to make good on his goal to better
engage the private sector in development work. "We want to tap
into the entrepreneurship and creativity and ingenuity of the private
sector by going beyond contracting and grantmaking," he said.
USAID will move toward co-designing, co-creating, and co-financing
solutions in order to engage business, allowing the agency to come up
with the best solutions. In his conversations at Davos, Green said
that the business community has responded well to his focus on
changing how USAID engages with them, and understand the agency is
"very much interested in true collaboration."

REUTERS
Gunmen Storm Save the Children Aid Group Office in Afghanistan |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=DEbri_4U5ySzqlCVFKMjQw

Rafiq Sherzad and Ahmad Sultan

Gunmen stormed an office of the Save the Children aid agency in
Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday and battled
security forces surrounding the building, with at least three people
killed and 20 wounded, officials said. Islamic State claimed
responsibility for the attack, which began with a suicide car bomb
outside the office at about 9 a.m., followed by gunmen entering the
compound. It was not clear if two of the dead were attackers or
civilians, the spokesman said. A member of the security forces was
also killed.

BLOOMBERG

Bill Gates Says 'America First' Endangers U.S. Influence
in Africa |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=FZgB5pfy2UuuA1yAktAxLg

Gerrit De Vynck and Marie Mawad

Bill Gates...said there's a danger that U.S. President Donald
Trump's "America First" approach could damage the
U.S.'s influence in Africa in the long term. Other countries
like China are continuing to push into the African continent, and the
U.S. should not pull back, Gates said in an interview with Bloomberg
News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait in Davos, Switzerland. Trump
has questioned the value of funding for developing countries...The
president has proposed cutting funding for malaria, though Gates said
he's optimistic that won't happen. Gates is stepping up
funding for malaria in Central America, joining with the Carlos Slim
Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank to spend $83.6
million over the next five years fighting the disease in that region.

NPR

'Immediate Needs' In Syria After ISIS: USAID Chief Visits Devastated
Raqqa |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=J9dnciBnwBUobX2es7mXiw

Michele Keleman

In the dimly lit basement of what was once a soccer stadium in the
northern Syrian city of Raqqa, CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph L. Votel
and Mark Green, the U.S. Agency for International Development
administrator, walked through the rubble on Monday and listened to a
U.S. military escort tell stories about what went on there when the
city was under ISIS control. The U.S. has invested $875 million in
what it calls "non-lethal and stabilization assistance" to Syria.
USAID has received little attention in President Trump's "America
First" foreign policy. Green...is navigating an administration that
has vowed to cut back overseas spending by about a third.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

CDC to Scale Back Work in Dozens of Foreign Countries Amid Funding
Worries |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=rnjxLm66-_dSs3G5PCauKA

Betsy McKay

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to scale back or
discontinue its work to prevent infectious-disease epidemics and other
health threats in 39 foreign countries because it expects funding for
the work to end, the agency told employees. The CDC currently works in
49 countries as part of an initiative called the global health
security agenda, to prevent, detect and respond to dangerous
infectious disease threats. The activities are funded mostly through a
five-year supplemental package that was awarded to the CDC and other
government agencies in fiscall 2015 to respond to the Ebola epidemic
in West Africa. The package included $582 million in funds to work
with countries around the world after the Ebola crisis in 2014 and
2015. But that funding runs out at the end of fiscal 2019.

Politics & Foreign Policy

POLITICO
Budget Talks Progress, as Senate Dems Drop Dreamer Demand |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=LevUDvdvua6Wacnp-wXEdQ

Heather Caygle, Sarah Ferris, and Burgess Everett

Senate Democrats are willing to drop their demand that relief for
Dreamers be tied to any long-term budget agreement - a potential
boost for spending talks, but one that could face opposition from
their House counterparts. The shift comes in response to the deal
struck between Senate leaders Monday to reopen the government and
begin debate on an immigration bill next month. Meanwhile, budget
negotiators are expressing optimism that a two-year agreement to lift
stiff caps on defense and domestic spending is increasingly within
reach. But House Democrats have signaled they are not ready to go
along with a long-term budget deal without a fix to the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Donald Trump is
ending.

CNN
READ: Trump's Speech to the World Economic Forum

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=VHSjSkAeTnkU3U7qdXdCtg

President Donald Trump brought his "America First" message to the
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Friday. In the
approximately 15-minute long address, Trump hailed America's economic
success from his first year in office but did not address the
bombshell report that he had tried to fire the special counsel
investigating him. These are the President's full remarks: "I'm here
today to represent the interests of the American people and to affirm
America's friendship and partnership in building a better world. Like
all nations represented at this great forum, America hopes for a
future in whichever one can prosper and every child can grow up free
from violence, poverty and fear."

POLITICO
McMaster Makes His Pick to Replace Powell on the NSC |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=R5JKiQx01Ikrpx8KSSYC7A

Annie Karni

The White House has settled on a new deputy national security adviser
to succeed Dina Powell, the inner-circle adviser who left the building
last week - but while the title will match Powell's, the
role is expected to change. National security adviser H.R. McMaster
has chosen Nadia Schadlow, a current member of the National Security
Council and the lead author of the administration's National
Security Strategy, for the role of deputy national security adviser
for strategy, according to multiple White House officials. But her new
role has yet to be announced by the White House.

CBS NEWS

Trump Administration Looks to "Shake Things Up a Bit" in Peace Talks
|

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=pSrrlFusX6IlEaVghSS52w

Kylie Atwood

The Trump administration has not yet cut any direct U.S. aid to the
Palestinians. But given President Trump's comments on Thursday, it is
possible they will. During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Trump said that aid to
Palestinians wouldn't continue until they are willing to "sit down and
negotiate peace." Mr. Trump said that the Palestinians had
"disrespected" the U.S. by not allowing Vice President Mike Pence to
see them on his trip to the Middle East. Mr. Trump then suggested that
he could withhold aid money. Meanwhile, the administration is looking
for ways "shake things up a bit" to get the Palestinians and Israelis
back to the table, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

POLITICO
Against Odds, Tillerson Hangs On - For Now |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=37OCTqvOSL0xocmzEsT79w

Nahal Toosi

Rex Tillerson was supposed to quit or be fired by July. Or was it
October? Definitely by the end of 2017, some predicted. One group of
foreign diplomats and State Department officials even set up a casual
betting pool. The over/under date: Jan. 31, a day shy of
Tillerson's one-year anniversary as secretary of state. As that
date approaches, the diplomatic world is watching closely for a
much-discussed "Rexit." But expectations are being
downgraded among those who thought he'd be gone by month's
end. If anything, Tillerson looks inclined to hang on to his post for
the foreseeable future.


The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition
1129 20th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036
Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe | USGLC.org

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=Ql6LXme8xdtJnAhzDkRVRA
http://action.usglc.org/site/CO?i=sNeT7d63qN-EA33uSQkfpO29ksAEiNTD&cid=0
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=Qrq7lssDrqiNuruC-ZwJZw

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=5gABkRnedHpm23gx8MJotw