Friend –

As part of the USGLC community, I am hoping you and your family are safe and healthy. Since traveling is at a standstill during these unsettling and difficult times, please send me an email and let me know how you are doing.

This is the time of year when I am typically on the road, hosting dozens of local forums with members of Congress in their hometowns – talking about "why leading globally matters locally." Yet I am adjusting to a new normal of working from home and learning how to engage with everyone by talking through my laptop.

But it also isn't lost on me that in the era of COVID-19, the USGLC's message of America's global leadership is mission critical to our nation's interests.

So we are trying to track it all: the global impact of coronavirus from the legislative to the diplomatic front to the developing world to the economic uncertainty. The magnitude of issues for U.S. interests and the world is daunting.

Read on below for our first "work-from-home" GLOBAL GAB – and let me now if we're getting it right.

Stay safe and healthy and let me know your thoughts on the global issues. I'm anxious to hear.

Warm regards,

Liz
Liz Schrayer, USGLC

THE GLOBAL GAB
March 20, 2020

A WORLD AT WAR. The number of people infected with the coronavirus surpassed 250,000 globally this week with cases in more than 160 countries, according to the John Hopkins tracker. Italy has now overtaken China for the number of deaths in a single country. There have now been more than 200 deaths in the United States.

• WARTIME PRESIDENTS. President Donald Trump stated: "The world is at war with a hidden enemy." French President Emmanuel Macron used similar language in an address to the French people: "We're not up against another army or another nation. But the enemy is right there: invisible, elusive, but it is making progress."


• WORLD OFFICIALS TEST POSITIVE. The number of world leaders and officials who have contracted the virus continues to grow:
  
  • In the U.S., two Members of Congress have now tested positive: Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Ben McAdams (D-UT).
  • Former GOP South Carolina governor and UN's World Food Program chief, David Beasley, announced on Twitter he too has tested positive.
  • High-ranking officials from Australia, Brazil, the EU, France, Iran, Italy, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom have also contracted the virus.
  • Of note: German politician Friedrich Merz, who is seen as a front-runner to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel has tested positive along with General Jaroslaw Mika, the general commander of the Polish armed forces.
    
    
• U.S. DIPLOMATS, SERVICE MEMBERS FALL SICK. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed a "handful" of State Department employees have tested positive for COVID-19. As of Friday morning, there were a total of 124 confirmed cases of coronavirus within the Department of Defense. 

A WORLD IN LOCKDOWN. Yesterday, the State Department raised the global travel warning to "Level 4" – a designation typically reserved for war-torn countries. U.S. airlines plan to slash international flight capacity by 75%, potentially through the summer.

• FLIGHT TRACKER. With much of the world cutting itself off to foreign travelers, the flow of people around the globe is coming to a near stand-still as public health leaders work to prevent the spread of COVID-19 across borders. The New York Times has started a running tracker here with all the latest travel restrictions and policies country-by-country.
     
• PEACE CORPS EVACUATES. In a historic first, the Peace Corps announced it would temporarily suspend volunteer activities globally and evacuate all affected personnel immediately because of coronavirus. In an open letter to volunteers, Peace Corp Director Jody Olsen wrote, "we are acting now to safeguard your well-being and prevent a situation where Volunteers are unable to leave their host countries."
  
  
• GLOBAL ECONOMY. As more and more Americans are laid off or furloughed, Goldman Sachs' latest forecasts predict a 5% decline in U.S. GDP during the second quarter of this year – more than $1 trillion loss in output – and China with a 9% drop in GDP.

IN WASHINGTON. Most of the nation’s capital has been focused this week on providing quick economic relief in response to the impact of the coronavirus. Previously, in the first tranche of emergency funding, Congress provided $1.25 billion for the State Department and USAID for the global pandemic response.

• BIPARTISAN REJECTION. In this week’s Phase 2 coronavirus supplemental package, the Senate overwhelming defeated a proposal, by a vote of 95-3, that would have cut civilian and military programs in Afghanistan to offset the new emergency spending.
  
  
• USAID TRANSITION. In other news, USAID Administrator Mark Green announced his transition from USAID to become president of Arizona State University's McCain Institute for International Leadership. John Barsa, USAID Assistant Administrator for Latin American and Caribbean has been named by the president as Acting USAID Administrator. See the story in the Washington Post on Green's tenure at USAID.
  
  
• DEBATE NIGHT. During last Sunday night's Democratic debate at CNN in Washington, both remaining Democratic candidates spoke out on the importance of U.S. leadership in the face of this pandemic. Vice President Joe Biden said America should "lead the world... doing what we did during the Ebola crisis, bringing the whole world together and saying this is what we must do. We have to have a common plan – all nations are affected the same way by this virus." Senator Bernie Sanders said the "U.S. has to be the leader where people all over the world look to us for guidance."

PANDEMIC DIPLOMACY. The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the diplomatic game in some unexpected ways: 

• CHINA FLEXES. Axios reports that "Beijing's leaders are ramping up a nascent bid for global public health leadership in the fight against the coronavirus." Chinese officials have assembled a team to combat coronavirus in Iran, shipped equipment to Italy, and Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has donated masks and testing kits to every African nation.
   
• G7 VIA SKYPE. Leaders of the G7 held an emergency video conference call to coordinate the global COVID-19 response earlier this week, and the U.S. has already called off the next G7 face-to-face meeting scheduled for June at Camp David.
  
  
• NATO EXERCISE PAUSE. The alliance's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a video news conference that "some of our exercises have been modified or canceled... but our forces remain ready."
  
  
• PRISONERS IN IRAN. Amidst its nation's devastating battle with COVID-19, Iran is reportedly considering freeing some U.S. citizens from prison. Secretary Pompeo asked Tehran to "release every American that is being wrongfully held there as a humanitarian gesture, given the risk that is posed."

THE GLOBAL IMPACT. With Antarctica as the only continent yet to report a COVID-19 case, the impact across every facet of human life is unprecedented. Here is a snapshot from the developing world: 

• IN AFRICA. Former U.S. Africa Command civilian leader Phillip Carter urged the world and the United States to "ramp up its support" in Africa writing in a Washington Post op-ed "conflicts, escalating terrorism and a rising tide of refugees and displaced people" make it harder to fight global health threats like COVID-19.
  
  
• WOMEN AT RISK. Drawing on lessons learned in past health crises like Ebola, CARE just released a policy brief examining the adverse and disproportionate effects that the COVID-19 pandemic will likely have on women and girls around the world writing "social norms in some contexts dictate that women and girls are the last to receive medical attention when they become ill."
  
  
• REFUGEE RISKS. The UN has paused all global refugee resettlement, and in anticipation of future outbreaks the UN Refugee Agency is requesting $33 million to help protect refugees with 84% of the world's refugee population "hosted by low or middle-income nations which have weaker health and water and sanitation systems." 

THE GLOBAL RESPONSE. A new poll by the UN Foundation and Morning Consult finds that 4 out of 5 Americans believe it's important for the U.S. to help limit the spread of coronavirus in other countries. On top of the recent Gates Foundation commitments to provide $150 million for the global response and the development of treatments, more announcements came in this week:  

• ROCKFELLER ANNOUNCEMENT. The Foundation just committed $20 million to strengthen global pandemic preparedness and support vulnerable communities.
  
  
• BLOOMBERG STEPS UP. This week Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged $40 million towards slowing and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in vulnerable low- and middle-income countries around the globe.
  
  
• USAID LATEST. From the U.S. government, USAID just announced the release of another $62 million from its Emergency Reserve Fund for the global COVID-19 pandemic response, fulfilling the State Department's initial February pledge of $100 million.
  
  
• SOLIDARITY FUND. The World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled a new "COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund" to help raise at least $675 million for coronavirus preparedness and response efforts. The UN Foundation will help manage the fund and hopes to incentivize "businesses, individuals and philanthropies to get involved."
  
  
• WORLD BANK. The World Bank has now added $2 billion to its initial $12 billion commitment to provide financing to low-income countries in their response to detect, prevent, and contain COVID-19. 

AND SOME INSPIRATION FROM BONO. Inspired by the Italians who sang across their rooftops, rock singer and AIDS activist, Bono wrote a song "for the doctors, nurses, carers on the front line, it's you we're singing to." Listen here on Instagram.