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The Weekly GAB Friday, January 18, 2019
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
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Who's in the News

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Best Investment I've Ever Made

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Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Two decades ago, the international community began to recognize that,
despite great progress in public health since World War II, people in
developing countries were still dying at an alarming rate, mostly from
illnesses that were easily treated with basic medicine. And so a wave
of institution-building began... When Melinda and I began investing in
these funds back in 2000, our goal was to save lives and stop
suffering, and by that measure these institutions have succeeded
beyond our wildest dreams. But they've also been successful in
the way that investments traditionally are: They've created a
lot of wealth, because when people aren't sick in bed, they can
go to work or school... The $10 billion that we gave to help provide
vaccines, drugs, bed nets and other supplies in developing countries
created an estimated $200 billion in social and economic benefits...
They are the best investments that Melinda and I have made in the past
20 years, and they are some of the best investments the world can make
in the years ahead.

Development & Diplomacy

WASHINGTON POST

State Dept. Employees Ordered Back to Work as Trump Nixes Pelosi Trip
and Davos Delegation, Citing Shutdown |

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Damian Paletta and Josh Dawsey

The State Department ordered its employees to return to work next
week, saying it has found money to cover a half-month in salary, as
the Trump administration continued to grapple with a federal shutdown
that shows no sign of ending. The unexpected yet temporary move came
on a day when the White House and congressional Democrats halted even
the pretense of negotiations. The political acrimony between President
Trump and Democratic leaders reached new levels, worrying members of
both parties that the chance of a near-term resolution has moved far
out of reach.

DEVEX
The Toll of Budget Dysfunction on US Development Leadership

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Susan Reichle, President and CEO, International Youth Foundation

While most Americans are working on their New Year's
resolutions, Washington is crippled by a costly government shutdown
caused by not passing this year's budget. Meanwhile, the U.S.
Office of Management and Budget is working on its budget request
levels for the 2020 fiscal year. It's typically a time of
adrenaline, but even more so now given the Trump
administration's quest to cut the international affairs budget
by 30 percent while already facing a government shutdown. From
shutdowns to delays, to other inefficiencies, the impact of a broken
budget process takes an enormous toll on our ability to exert
influence around the world.

ABC NEWS
World's 2nd-Deadliest Ebola Outbreak Reaches 600 Confirmed Cases |

Morgan Winsor

The second-largest, second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history has
reached 600 confirmed cases in five months, health officials said.
Since the outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo on Aug. 1, a total of 649 people have reported symptoms of
hemorrhagic fever in the country's northeastern provinces of North
Kivu and Ituri. Among those cases, 600 have tested positive for Ebola
virus disease, which causes an often-fatal type of hemorrhagic fever,
according to Monday night's bulletin from the country's health
ministry... This is also the 10th outbreak of Ebola virus disease in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the most severe that the
Central African nation has seen since 1976, when scientists first
identified the virus near the eponymous Ebola River.

IRIN NEWS
Trump Pullout Plan Leaves Aid Groups in Northeast Syria Scrambling |

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Aron Lund

As the United States and Turkey trade barbs over the US withdrawal
from Syria, humanitarians operating in the country's northeast
say the diplomatic chaos has thrown open a Pandora's Box of
unpredictable security risks that threaten their ability to deliver
aid to civilians... Sources linked to northeastern Syrian aid
operations, who requested anonymity, have told IRIN that the
see-sawing US policy is making it hard to plan ahead and ensure the
protection of staff and local civilians. Beyond the risk of violence
and displacement, changes in territorial control will likely disrupt
northeastern Syria's complicated humanitarian architecture. Some
200 non-Syrian aid workers currently live in SDF-held Syria, working
with around 25 international NGOs that deliver food, healthcare,
water, and education to local communities.

REUTERS
Kenya Hotel Siege Over, Militants and at Least 14 Victims Dead |

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Duncan Miriri and Omar Mohammed

Kenyan security forces have killed the militants who stormed an
upscale Nairobi hotel compound, taking at least 14 lives and forcing
hundreds of others into terrifying escapes, the government said on
Wednesday... Fifty people believed to have been in the complex
remained unaccounted for by mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the Kenya Red
Cross said, raising the prospect of a higher death toll even after
President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the militants defeated... The attack
was claimed by Somali group al Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate fighting
to topple the weak U.N.-backed government and impose strict Islamic
law. Air strikes against the group have stepped up under U.S.
President Donald Trump, but Tuesday's attack showed it retains
ability to strike outside Somalia's borders.

AP NEWS
After Crossing Into Guatemala, Migrants Set Sights on Mexico |
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Sonia Perez D.

More than 1,000 Hondurans were walking and hitchhiking through
Guatemala on Wednesday, heading toward the Mexico border as part of a
new caravan of migrants hoping to reach the United States.
Guatemala's migration authority said just over 1,300 people were
able to register at the border and pass through frontier controls
under the watchful eyes of about 200 police and soldiers at the Agua
Caliente crossing. Some migrants told The Associated Press that they
crossed informally elsewhere... Migrants leaving Central
America's Northern Triangle nations of Honduras, El Salvador and
Guatemala routinely cite widespread poverty, lack of opportunity and
rampant gang violence as their motivation.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Guatemala in Political Crisis as Trump Administration Looks the Other
Way |

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Kate Linthicum

The last time a Guatemalan president tried to cut off a United
Nations-backed anti-corruption commission that was investigating him,
the United States quickly intervened. In 2015, Vice President Joe
Biden flew to Guatemala to meet with then-President Otto Perez Molina,
who was accused of being part of a customs corruption scheme. Biden
threatened to withdraw U.S. aid from Guatemala if Perez refused to
extend the two-year mandate of the commission, which the U.S. funded
and viewed as a successful crime-reduction model that could be
replicated around the world. But this week, when current President
Jimmy Morales abruptly expelled the commission while it was in the
middle of investigating him for illicit campaign financing, the Trump
administration wavered.

USGLC GLOBAL IMPACT BLOG

Women's Economic Empowerment Act "Moves Us in the Right
Direction" |

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Maddie Howard

1992 was the "Year of the Woman." America saw a record
number of women elected to 106th U.S. Congress. One of those new
members was Marjorie Margolies, the first woman elected to serve in
the U.S. House of Representatives from the commonwealth of
Pennsylvania in her own right. I spoke with Congresswoman
Margolies- who founded nonprofit Women's Campaign
International after serving in Washington- about the
implications of this new era in women's empowerment, not only
for the United States, but for communities around the world.

Politics & Foreign Policy

CNN
White House Announces Second Trump-Kim Summit |

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Zachary Cohen

The White House announced Friday that a second summit will take place
between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in
February. The announcement came after Trump met with Kim Yong Chol,
North Korea's lead negotiator on nuclear talks, for more than 90
minutes at the White House Friday "to discuss denuclearization and a
second summit, which will take place near the end of February,"
according to press secretary Sarah Sanders... Trump welcomed Kim Yong
Chol into the Oval Office shortly after the North Korean envoy met
with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a Washington hotel.

THE ATLANTIC
Decline and Fall |

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James Fallows

A current member of the U.S. Foreign Service... describes how the
abstraction of "the shutdown" feels to him and his
colleagues: For the first time in my 20+ years as a federal employee,
I won't get paid this week. That hurts, but fortunately my
wife-also a federal employee-gets paid out of a different
account, one that still has a "residual balance." ... My
wife and I have savings to cover the gap, but many of our colleagues
aren't so lucky. The State Department stopped paying salaries
this week for nearly half the members of the Foreign Service, many of
whom struggle to get by given the high costs of housing and child care
in the Washington, DC area... As federal employees, we serve proudly
even when no one is looking or seems to care. But enough is enough.
This shutdown, and the complete lack of compassion or understanding in
Washington, has convinced me that it's time to go. I can support
my family and serve my community or country in lots of other ways,
ones where I don't constantly feel used, abused, and,
ultimately, forgotten.

BLOOMBERG
Pompeo Trip Fails to Ease Questions Over U.S. Goals in Mideast |

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Nick Wadhams

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo arrived in the Middle East a week
ago on a mission to prove the Trump administration can be a reliable
partner in tackling the region's thorniest problems. He returns
having failed to stifle doubts that have dogged the U.S. for years.
With stops in eight countries in eight days, Pompeo sought to hammer
home how different President Donald Trump's approach is from
that of his predecessor Barack Obama... But progress was slim. Missing
throughout the trip was any concrete plan or vision for how to move
beyond the problems that already bedevil the region -- from the
18-month diplomatic spat between the gas-rich state of Qatar and its
Gulf neighbors to the investigation into the death of columnist Jamal
Khashoggi, whose killing has become a hurdle for U.S.-Saudi ties.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Retreat of African Democracy

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Nic Cheeseman, University of Birmingham, and Jeffrey Smith, Vanguard
Africa

In the decade following the Cold War, Africa saw many democratic
success stories. In 1991, Benin and Zambia became the first former
dictatorships to hold multiparty elections after the fall of the
Soviet Union. In both countries, the opposition beat the incumbents...
But in recent years, Africa's political trajectory has begun
moving in the opposite direction... According to Freedom House, a
think tank, just 11 percent of the continent is politically
"free," and the average level of democracy, understood as
respect for political rights and civil liberties, fell in each of the
last 14 years... Many of the woes of Africa's developing
democracies are not new, but old authoritarians are learning new
tricks.

VOICE OF AMERICA
Taliban Official Tells VOA Peace Talks with US Stalled |

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Ayaz Gul

The fledgling U.S.-initiated dialogue with the Taliban, aimed at
ending the war in Afghanistan, has come to a halt, an insurgent
spokesperson said Monday, apparently dealing a blow to renewed hopes
for a much-needed Afghan peace. The disclosure comes as the chief U.S.
negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, is visiting regional countries,
including China, India and Pakistan, to work toward a negotiated
political settlement to the 17-year-old conflict... The Afghan
government is currently not participating in the peace talks, but
American officials are eager to bring them to the table. It is widely
perceived that the current deadlock is primarily over the Taliban's
rejection of the U.S. insistence to speak directly with the Afghan
government.

FOREIGN POLICY
The Belt and Road Initiative Is a Corruption Bonanza |

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Will Doig

When former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was ousted from
office in May 2018, it's possible that no one was more dismayed
than officials in Beijing... Najib was accused of massive corruption
linked to the development fund known as 1MDB. As the election neared,
his opponent, Mahathir Mohamad, alleged that some of the Chinese money
pouring into Malaysia was being used to refill the fund's
graft-depleted coffers... If true, the report puts tangible proof
behind widely held suspicions that China exploits corrupt regimes to
propel its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)... For politicians in these
countries, the BRI offers an array of tools for enabling corruption...
all of it wrapped up in a virtual guarantee that their wealthy
benefactor will, at the very least, look the other way if any
improprieties should surface, so long as the project in question gets
built.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES
Why Trump's America Is Rethinking Engagement with China |
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Demetri Sevastopulo

When Donald Trump sat down to dinner with Xi Jinping last month at the
G20 summit in Buenos Aires, the US president did not know about the
diplomatic bomb that was about to explode. At about the same time,
police in Canada arrested a Chinese telecoms executive after an
extradition request from Washington... But the importance of the
arrest went well beyond the immediate circumstances. It is the most
striking symbol yet of the dramatic deterioration in relations between
China and a US that is increasingly suspicious of Beijing's
motives and actions... While the trade war has received the most
attention, the economic tussle is part of a much more profound shift
in the US that has seen Washington reverse important elements of the
strategy of engaging with its Asian rival that was first introduced
more than 40 years ago by Richard Nixon.


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