Subject: Friday, August 17, 2018
From: "The Weekly GAB" <[email-masked]>
To: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2018 15:07:27 -0500

The Weekly GAB  Friday, August 17, 2018
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=kxfrkHdhoxhaPBF2ZpgQ5g

Development & Diplomacy

THE WASHINGTON POST

Trump Administration is Considering Pulling Back $3 Billion in Foreign
Aid  |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=tsmysJbKsbohT5zFWjcsTQ

Carol Morello and Karoun Demirjian

The Trump administration is considering taking back more than $3
billion in foreign aid that Congress already approved, in a move that
senators from both parties are calling questionably legal and
promising to resist. The Office of Management and Budget instructed
the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development
earlier this month to provide a balance sheet of foreign aid projects
that have not yet been funded. Unless Congress intervenes, the money
may be returned to the U.S. Treasury at the end of fiscal year on
Sept. 30... In his previous two budgets, President Trump proposed
steep cuts to foreign aid, but Congress restored them. Lawmakers from
both parties view the last-minute move as a backdoor attempt to get
the cuts, despite their objections, before they can do anything about
them.

AXIOS
Trump Cuts Funding for Projects to Stabilize Syria |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=-wNGatN-03Q5SXgnzUESdg

Shannon Vavra

The Trump administration is ending up to $230 million in funding
intended to help stabilize Syria, David Satterfield, the State
Department's Acting Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, told
reporters on a call Friday. This is the latest in a string of cuts to
Syrian stabilization funds the administration has been making
following repeated complaints from President Trump about the cost of
U.S. involvement. Axios reported in May that the State Department was
ending funding to projects in northwest Syria after Trump requested
they be reviewed. Coalition partners, including Saudi Arabia, are
pledging about $300 million to fill the void, which is part of why the
U.S. is ending the funding, per the AP.

USA TODAY

Make Water a Top Global Priority. It's the Best, Cheapest Way to Save
Lives: Frist

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=4nrcA4aCqVKt4DPK7z_UsA

Bill Frist, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader

This summer has seen the unprecedented and simultaneous outbreak of
six of eight diseases posing the greatest threats to public health,
according to the World Health Organization. You'd think that
after the alarmingly fast spread of Ebola in West Africa just a few
years ago, we'd have learned our lesson. Instead, the health
intervention that has saved more lives than any other in recorded
history remains alarmingly absent in global health care... We call it
WASH - water, sanitation and hygiene. It's the most critical
resource in my preparation for every surgical procedure I performed
over my lifetime, and it is dismally deficient or nonexistent in
hundreds of thousands of health care facilities around the world. Not
only are we wasting billions of dollars in health care costs and lost
productivity, we're undercutting our most effective front-line
defense in disease prevention and containment.

BROOKINGS
The Case Against a US Retreat From International Development

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

John R. Allen, President, The Brookings Institution

As an instrument for peace, prosperity, and human advancement, U.S.
foreign assistance constitutes one of the most important examples of
American compassion. Since the Marshall Plan allowed hard hit citizens
and enterprises to return to normalcy after World War II, advancing a
new world order in the process, America has embraced its role as a
global development leader. Yet today, aid-and with it, U.S.
global leadership-are under threat... Even though grassroots and
grass-tops support for international development abounds at the
subnational level and among some federal government agencies, our
current transactional approach to international relations is eroding
America's global reach.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Appointed Leader Resigns from Foreign Aid Agency Used to Give Jobs to
Trump Supporters  |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=oNsuDxJ3rQPsrV9ghh8qGw

Robert O'Harrow Jr.

A political appointee overseeing a small foreign assistance agency
that has been used by the White House as a source of jobs for Trump
administration supporters is resigning, according to an email he sent
to agency employees on Tuesday. Robert Blau, a retired Foreign Service
officer and speechwriter for Trump's presidential campaign, was
named vice president of operations at the Millennium Challenge
Corporation in May 2017. He assumed the duties of the chief executive
in May of this year, after the Senate failed to move on Trump's
nominee to lead the agency... Blau's announcement followed a
July 28 Washington Post story that detailed how the White House had
assumed control over hiring at the headquarters of Millennium
Challenge Corporation, or MCC, a small independent agency that
promotes economic growth in poor countries.

DEVEX

Investment in Food Security Is an Investment in Global Stability.
Here's Why.

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=GawSOGsWCtIQ95R6s17bgg

Richard Leach, President, World Food Program USA, and Chase Sova,
Senior Director of Public Policy, World Food Program USA

In a globalized world where instability does not respect borders,
nontraditional security threats such as food insecurity are poised to
play a more central role in global crises. Globally, hunger is on the
rise for the first time in over a decade. Right now, 815 million
people worldwide - 1 in 9 - will go to bed hungry
tonight... Exactly a decade ago, food price spikes in no less than 40
developing and middle-income countries led to such widespread social
unrest that observers dubbed the phenomenon the "silent
tsunami." This dramatic rise in food prices and the resulting
unrest are now widely recognized as ultimately leading to the collapse
of the Haitian government.

Politics & Foreign Policy

AP NEWS
Pompeo Forms Iran Action Group to Run Policy After Nuke Deal  |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=xID4A6gg7tEKxIWf5UsWwg

Matthew Lee

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday formed a group to
coordinate and run U.S. policy toward Iran as the Trump administration
moves ahead with efforts to force changes in the Islamic
Republic's behavior after withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear
deal. Accusing Iran of unleashing "a torrent of violence and
destabilizing behavior against the United States, our allies, our
partners and, indeed, the Iranian people themselves," Pompeo
announced the creation of the Iran Action Group, which he said would
drive administration policy in Washington and overseas. He said the
administration remains willing to talk to Iran but that in order to do
so "we must see major changes in the regime's behavior
both inside and outside its borders."

THE WASHINGTON POST

China Has a New Message for the U.S.: Don't Be Alarmed,
We're Not That Great. |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=E-vBbS95A9iXZzKpIL_4Yg

Amanda Erickson

By President Trump's account, China is an economic behemoth, out
to destroy the United States. In the last few years, he has compared
China's leaders to "grand-chess masters" and accused
Beijing of "raping" the U.S. economy and committing the
"greatest theft in the history of the world." Last April,
as the trade war with China was seemingly just ramping up, Trump
tweeted that it was "lost many years ago." China has a
different message: We're not that great. Really. In the past
several months, Beijing has urged its officials and party outlets to
tamp down the swagger about China's economic strength. Rather
than behemoth, Beijing has begun to pitch itself as a humble helper,
an aide to countries in need.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Taliban Assault on Ghazni Flouts Afghan and U.S. Hopes for Truce,
Peace Talks |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=4BH92a_fAvJ5UDdaxyiGtA

Pamela Constable

But some analysts said the insurgents may have won the second war,
scoring a psychological blow that forcefully contradicts revived hopes
for truces and peace talks. That achievement, they said, also weakens
confidence in the U.S.-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani and
could disrupt parliamentary elections in two months... Now the
intentions of Taliban leaders, some of whom were said to have been
taken aback by their fighters' sudden enthusiasm for mingling
with civilians, seem much less clear. Several Afghan experts said the
leaders appear to have little interest in negotiating a settlement if
it requires them to abandon their goal of imposing full Islamic sharia
law after 17 years of fighting.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
U.S., China Plot Road Map to Resolve Trade Dispute by November |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=M6PkGCde51rSx89g7tYPBA

Lingling Wei and Bob Davis

Chinese and U.S. negotiators are drawing up a road map for talks to
try to end their trade impasse ahead of planned meetings between
President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at multilateral summits
in November, said officials in both nations. The planning represents
an effort on both sides to keep a spiraling trade dispute-which
already has involved billions of dollars in tariffs and comes with the
threat of hundreds of billions more-from torpedoing the
U.S.-China relationship and shaking global markets... The negotiations
are aimed at finding a way for both sides to address the trade
disputes, the officials said, and could lead to more rounds of talks
in the next couple of month

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
U.S. Issues New Warning to Turkey Over Imprisoned Pastor  |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=QGIzE-lVzfBj33SSk5a9NA

Dion Nissenbaum

The Trump administration warned that it is prepared to impose more
penalties on Turkey if it doesn't release an American pastor
facing 35 years in prison on disputed espionage charges. Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the U.S. was ready to take tougher steps
if Turkey doesn't free Andrew Brunson, who has been held for
nearly two years on charges of aiding terrorist groups... After the
meeting, Mr. Trump again criticized Turkey on Twitter for taking
"advantage of the United States for many years," making it
clear that he would make no concessions to secure Mr. Brunson's
release.

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