CBS News: Senate report rips Trump administration’s “apparent doctrine of retreat” abroad
“The Senate Appropriations Committee tore into the Trump administration’s approach to foreign policy in a new report, criticizing the White House’s proposed State Department budget as reflective of an ‘apparent doctrine of retreat’ abroad. The unusually harsh language appeared in the report attached to spending legislation for the State Department and foreign operations that totals [more than] $51 billion, roughly $11 billion more in funding than the administration had requested. The Trump administration had proposed a budget that slashed State Department spending for fiscal year 2018 by about 30 percent from the previous year…” (Watson/Atwood, 9/9).

Reuters: Senate panel rejects Trump’s ‘doctrine of retreat’ on foreign policy
“… ‘The lessons learned since September 11, 2001, include the reality that defense alone does not provide for American strength and resolve abroad. Battlefield technology and firepower cannot replace diplomacy and development,’ [the report] read…” (Zengerle, 9/8).

Roll Call: Senate Appropriators Reject Trump Administration’s ‘Apparent Doctrine of Retreat’
“…In the report, the Appropriations Committee blasted the budget request for an apparent lack of due diligence in its drafting by members of the Trump administration. ‘The Office of Management and Budget arbitrarily set the topline funding level for the International Affairs budget without input from the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Security Council, or any other national security agency,’ the committee report said. ‘This forced the Department of State and USAID to randomly establish country and program-level allocations that lacked any justification’…” (Lesniewski, 9/8).

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Los Angeles Blade: Fauci: More resources needed to end global HIV/AIDS epidemic
“The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases at the National Institutes of Health on Saturday [at the U.S. Conference on AIDS in Washington, D.C.,] said more resources need to be devoted to ending the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. … ‘We need to do much better,’ said [Anthony] Fauci. … House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in her remarks at the conference’s opening plenary on Thursday noted President Trump’s proposed budget for the 2018 fiscal year would cut … [funding for] the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and … the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria…” (Lavers, 9/9).

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Devex: PATH points to power of $120M core boost with new vaccine initiative
“The global health organization PATH announced the launch of a new initiative on maternal immunization on Monday, following news last week that the NGO’s Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access has been awarded a $120 million grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Advancing Maternal Immunization (AMI) program is a collaboration between stakeholders from around the world to provide pregnant women with vaccines to protect their babies from infectious diseases. PATH will coordinate the program along with the World Health Organization…” (Cheney, 9/11).

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U.N. News Centre: Hasten efforts to achieve sustainable global goals, urges deputy U.N. chief
“Noting the efforts being undertaken around the globe to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed called for picking up the pace to ensure that the 2030 deadline is met…” (9/8).

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Reuters: Over 500 dead as Congo cholera epidemic spreads — WHO
“More than 500 people have died so far in a cholera epidemic that is sweeping the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. … This year’s epidemic, which has already hit at least 10 urban areas including the capital Kinshasa, is particularly worrying as it comes as about 1.4 million people have been displaced by violence in the central Kasai region…” (Mwarabu/Bavier, 9/10).

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NPR: Local Aid Groups Are Key To Disaster Relief. So Why Are They Overlooked?
“…Local groups like SRISTI [in India] are the unsung heroes in post-disaster recovery. ‘They know the community much better. They understand the culture. They’re there when the crisis occurs,’ says Paul Spiegel, a former senior official at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and a professor at Johns Hopkins University. ‘That’s a very big benefit.’ But when it comes to getting donations and grants, small groups like SRISTI can’t compete…” (Gharib, 9/8).

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NPR: Drug For ‘Neglected’ Chagas Disease Gains FDA Approval Amid Price Worries
“…On Aug. 29 the FDA gave the global drug company Chemo Group approval to market its drug benznidazole in the U.S. … But it wasn’t easy. The story of how the decades-old treatment finally got approval for the U.S market is movie-worthy, with characters that include determined physicians and some of the nation’s poorest residents, as well as convicted securities fraudster and former drug company CEO Martin Shkreli…” (Columbus, 9/10).

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Washington Post: ‘A disaster in the making’: Pakistan’s population surges to 207.7 million
“…Preliminary results from a new national census — the first conducted since 1998 — show that the population has grown by 57 percent since then, reaching 207.7 million and making Pakistan the world’s fifth-most-populous country … Only a third of married Pakistani women use any form of birth control, and the only family-planning method sanctioned by most Islamic clerics is spacing births by breast-feeding newborns for two years. Even if the birthrate slows, some experts estimate that Pakistan’s population could double again by midcentury, putting catastrophic pressures on water and sanitation systems, swamping health and education services, and leaving tens of millions of people jobless — prime recruits for criminal networks and violent Islamist groups…” (Constable, 9/9).

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Roll Call: Opinion: The U.S. Action Endangering Mothers Worldwide
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.)

“…Contributing to UNFPA is one of the most effective ways for the U.S. to help some of the most vulnerable women and girls around the world. It is also an important tool in our country’s soft-power toolbox that enables the U.S. to help fill vacuums in some of the most dangerous places in the world that could deteriorate into safe havens for people that would do us harm. No matter where you live, the status of women has a significant impact on the capacity of a nation or region to recover from a crisis and achieve future stability and prosperity. We must make a firm statement that the U.S. values the lives of women around the world and will continue to support the best health outcomes for mothers everywhere. I call on my colleagues in Congress to fully restore funding for UNFPA’s lifesaving humanitarian work. Women and families around the world truly depend on our action” (9/11).

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The Conversation: Cholera fears rise following Atlantic hurricanes: Are we making any progress?
Lauren Carruth, assistant professor at American University’s School of International Service

“…Cholera outbreaks will never cease if we focus only on technological fixes and temporary humanitarian solutions, and ignore the structural inequities that result in contaminated water sources and outbreaks of infectious diseases. … The WHO and its partners should lead a vigorous appeal to donors and humanitarian organizations working in several locations — in the paths of Atlantic hurricanes, in flooded regions of South Asia, and in war-torn parts of the Middle East and Africa — where cholera still kills and the risk of an outbreak is high. The new director of the WHO, Dr. Tedros, is perfectly positioned to … demonstrate his capacity for swift action by mounting the WHO’s first coordinated, multi-country cholera epidemic response” (9/10).

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Project Syndicate: Killing Killer Mosquitoes
Melvin Sanicas, regional medical expert at Sanofi Pasteur for Asia, Japan, and the Pacific

“…Eradicating mosquito-transmitted diseases must … be a top priority, eliciting not just effective government stewardship, but also the involvement of civil society, private-sector engagement, and the participation of affected communities. Beyond effective collaboration, success will demand improved surveillance and greater innovation, particularly in diagnostics, drugs and vaccines, insecticides, and vector control. The good news is that, on vector control — that is, mosquito eradication — promising innovations are already emerging. … Such innovations promise to accelerate substantially efforts to curb deadly mosquito-borne diseases. The question is the extent to which they will be applied. After all, far more basic measures that individuals can take to protect themselves and their families are not being implemented nearly enough. … Such techniques … can go a long way toward protecting individuals. But people need to use them. And, for that, information must be shared widely, and the relevant tools made available to the public…” (9/8).

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The Hill: Chile legalizes abortion, but rightly rejects Roe v. Wade logic
Clarke D. Forsythe, senior counsel at Americans United for Life

“This summer, Chile legalized abortion for the first time since 1989. The legislation, slated to take effect in January 2018, legalizes abortion in cases of ‘risk to the mother’s life,’ ‘fetal malformation incompatible with life,’ and rape. The scope of these conditions — how they will be applied — remains to be seen. A case testing the constitutionality of the legislation was filed in the Constitutional Tribunal of Chile … A majority of the judges refused to create a constitutional right to abortion that would be immune from legislative limits or correction. … By refusing to broaden the legislature’s legalization of abortion in Chile, the Tribunal may avoid some of the unintended or unanticipated consequences that have flowed from the Supreme Court’s broad legalization of abortion in the U.S. … Abortion is typically marketed as a snapshot — the immediate aftermath — when the reality can only be captured like a video, what led to the abortion decision and the long-term impact on physical health, mental health, and relationships. Chile will have to closely examine the video to get a realistic understanding of what it has unleashed” (9/8).

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Council on Foreign Relations’ “Africa in Transition”: Senator Coons on U.S.-Africa Relationship
John Campbell, the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at CFR, describes a recent congressional delegation visit to Nigeria, led by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). Campbell writes, “During that trip, the Senator delivered an important speech in Lagos in which he reaffirmed the American commitment to a ‘deep and lasting relationship with Africa.’ … And the Senator also referred to specific programs established by Democratic and Republican presidents that help make the U.S.-Africa relationship strong, ranging from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to Power Africa. He made it clear that building the U.S.-African relationship has always been a bipartisan goal…” (9/8).

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ONE: The 2017 DATA Report: Financing the African Century
Kerezhi Sebany, ‎policy manager for multilateral institutions at the ONE Campaign, discusses results from ONE’s 2017 DATA Report, writing, “This year’s DATA Report reveals that the poorest [in Africa] are receiving a declining share of global financial resources. … These negative trends must be immediately reversed. … Financing this African century requires a concerted effort and partnership between African governments, aid donors, civil society, and the private sector” (9/8).

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IntraHealth International’s “Vital”: Invest in Health Systems by Investing in Health Workers
Nancy Kelly, executive director of Health Volunteers Overseas, discusses USAID’s 2017 Acting on the Call report, which provides quantitative estimates that suggest “stronger health systems lead to more widely available, higher-quality care, particularly among underserved patient populations and in low-resource settings.” Kelly also discusses the value of the global health workforce in creating strong health systems (9/8).

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FT Health: Stem cells — pushing the boundaries
The latest issue of the Financial Times’ weekly global health newsletter highlights the debate surrounding the regulation of and innovation in stem cell therapy research, as well as features a roundup of other global health-related news stories (Dodd, 9/8).

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