Friend –

Over the past week, I have been watching citizens in countries across the globe show their solidarity with Americans. While we don’t take policy positions on domestic issues, we certainly remain committed to upholding the values of democracy, justice, and equality abroad and at home. Here is my statement, reinforcing our collective responsibility to confront the scourge of racism, discrimination, and intolerance everywhere.

Also on the global front, I am keeping a close eye on the growing spread of COVID-19 around the world, particularly in Africa, and the new epicenter: Latin America. The numbers are of grave concern.

Take a look at the GLOBAL GAB below with a quick read on what’s happening in the news. The stakes for U.S. leadership in the world are critical and we’re tracking it all.

Let me know what you are seeing in your local community ­– always very interested in your thoughts.

Stay safe.

Liz
Liz Schrayer, USGLC

THE GLOBAL GAB
June 16, 2020

PROTESTS GO GLOBAL. After days of citizens taking to the streets in the U.S., the world started marching:

• GLOBAL DEMONSTRATIONS. From Berlin, Sydney, and Paris to Bangkok and Nairobi among dozens of other cities, thousands gathered in recent days in solidarity with Americans. In London, tens of thousands gathered in Parliament Square before marching to the U.S. embassy. In a set of actions that TIME called a “rare move”, U.S. embassies and ambassadors were quick to speak out and condemn the killing of George Floyd on social media.


• MESSAGE FROM AFRICA. The African Union Commission issued a tough statement rejecting the “continuing discriminatory practices against black citizens of the USA.” In Kenya: The U.S. Ambassador, Kyle McCarter, posted his own video statement telling peaceful protesters at the embassy that their voices are being heard and that “Justice will prevail.”


• RUSSIA, CHINA, IRAN. As America’s detractors criticize the U.S. on human rights, AEI’s Danielle Pletka details their own questionable records and tackles how America should respond:
  
  
  • “What’s the right answer to these spectacularly hypocritical tyrants? Shame on us… Every time we give… an opening to inveigh against U.S. failings… we tarnish our coin… America remains a land of freedom and opportunity, problems notwithstanding. But it is the job… of the United States to improve, always. Not just to be relatively better, but factually better.”

COVID-19 INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE. As the number of cases just crossed 8 million globally, here is the latest on the #USGlobalResponse:

• SPEAKER SPEAKS UP. After the HEROES Act had zero funding for an international response to COVID-19, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the CARE Virtual Summit: "I reiterate to you my commitment to robust funding… As the virus shows no respect for borders, we must work together to ensure a global response equal to the humanitarian and economic relief needed during this crisis.”


• WHITE HOUSE MOVES. Trade adviser Peter Navarro signaled over the weekend that the president is “very interested” in another COVID-19 emergency relief package of at least $2 trillion. This builds on White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett telling the Wall Street Journal that the odds of Congress passing a fourth supplemental package before August “are very, very high.”


• VIRTUAL “FLY-IN”. Rallying around the urgency for the international response to COVID-19, the USGLC held our first-ever Virtual Hill Day last week, bringing the power of nearly 450 of our top state leaders from around the country to “visit” with two-thirds of the Senate urging robust funding to fight COVID internationally in the next emergency spending bill. Our favorite comment: “I miss the energy of Capitol Hill, but it sure was easier to do this from my living room!”


• GLOBAL HEALTH BILL. New legislation – the Global Health Security and Diplomacy Act – is moving in the U.S. Senate backed by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) and co-sponsored by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Chris Murphy (D-CT). Meanwhile, the Administration is moving forward with their own plans for a new global health response unit headquartered at the State Department, known as the President’s Response to Outbreaks (PRO). Hearings take place later this week on Capitol Hill to see how these two plans reconcile.


• LATEST ON WHO. After the White House announced the decision to end the U.S. relationship with the World Health Organization, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee – led by Ranking Member Mike McCaul (R-TX) – just released an “Interim Report” on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend that the U.S. not pull out of the WHO.
  
  
  • On the Senate side, Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) was also quick to speak out: “…Withdrawing could make it harder to work with other countries to stop viruses before they get to the United States.”
  
  
  • See the USGLC’s statement on the U.S. relationship with the WHO.
  
  
• G7 MESSAGE TO CHINA.The U.S.-endorsed statement from the G7 Finance Ministers signaled that debt relief to poor countries could continue beyond 2020 and sent a less than veiled message to China on its lending practices in the developing world, urging creditors to “disclose fully the terms of public debt… including for state-owned enterprises.”

THE PANDEMIC PUSHES ON. As the virus spreads from the developed to the developing world, low-income countries are now experiencing the highest growth rates of COVID-19. Here is the latest:

• NEW EPICENTER. Latin America has been declared the new epicenter for COVID-19 after the region accounted for more than a third of new COVID-19 cases in recent days. Brazil is second only to the U.S. in total number of coronavirus cases, but scientists warn the virus “hasn't yet peaked.”


• OTHER HOTSPOTS. India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in South Asia and Ethiopia, Mauritania, and Egypt in Africa all saw their case counts double in close to two weeks – more than two times the global rate.


• FAREED’S WARNING. On his Sunday morning GPS show, Fareed Zakaria warned viewers that the devastation from COVID-19 in the developing world will reverse years of economic progress – noting that from 1990 to 2010, the share of humanity living in extreme poverty was cut in half. He said: “Now the work of decades is being undone in months.” Watch for new IMF economic growth projections next Wednesday.


• “FLYING BLIND.” Former PEPFAR and Global Fund chief Mark Dybul alongside global health luminary Dr. Peter Piot write in the Boston Globe that without significantly more resources for the COVID-19 international response we are “flying blind” and “ignorant of the ways in which the virus could mutate, possibly become more lethal, and boomerang around the world.”

COMPLEX CRISES. The global pandemic has upended economies and accelerated humanitarian threats in the developing world:

• GLOBAL HEALTH SETBACK? With supply chains disrupted and medical workers re-tasked to the fight against COVID-19, experts are warning about the creeping risk of other diseases like measles and suspended vaccination programs. In a long-form piece, the NY Times covers how the “20-year collaboration that has prevented 35 million deaths in 98 countries from vaccine-preventable diseases” is at stake.
  


• FAMINE FEAR. Former Senators Bob Dole and Tom Daschle penned a joint op-ed in Newsweek on how COVID-19 has exacerbated existing food crises around the world. They write: “Without investments in global food security, not only will the novel coronavirus return to our shores, but it will bring social and economic unrest with it.”

• GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE. Plan International reports “an increase of 20% of sexual violence against girls and women” in several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in comparison to the same period last year.

• AFRICAN TRADE. The official launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area has been pushed back for a year after it was originally scheduled to be implemented next month. It’s slated to become the largest free trade area in the world, bringing together 1.3 billion people in a $3.4 trillion economic bloc.

IN BETTER NEWS…

GAVI SHATTERS GOAL. World leaders pledged $8.8 billion for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, during the Global Vaccine Summit earlier this month to help immunize 300 million more children in the world’s poorest countries against disease by 2025. This exceeded Gavi’s original goal of $7.4 billion, with pledges from 31 governments including a $1.16 billion multi-year commitment from the U.S. – America’s largest commitment to date.

• FOUNDATIONS STEP UP. Foundations and private sector organizations also made Gavi pledges, including The Rockefeller Foundation, Mastercard, the UPS Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In announcing the Gates’ commitment of $1.6 billion over five years, Bill Gates told the virtual pledging conference: “To beat the COVID-19 pandemic, the world needs more than breakthrough science. It needs breakthrough generosity.” 

EXERCISE OF POWER. The new book from Secretary Bob Gates is out today and sings from the USGLC song sheet when it comes to the power and importance of America’s diplomatic and development tools to keep America safe. Stay tuned for more details – including an exciting Town Hall book talk with our National Advisory Council member.