Daniel Mollenkamp

The United States has threatened to issue new sanctions against members of the Tigray conflict in northwestern Ethiopia.  The conflict, which has continued to deteriorate the stability of the region, has grown since last November. White House officials have said that the parties to the conflict... Read More

WASHINGTON- The economic impact of the switch to clean energy may have the chance to make the transition a truly bipartisan issue, according to Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. During an event Tuesday hosted by the Public Policy Institute on expanding power line capacity to enable renewable... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Twenty years after the Twin Towers collapsed in flamesand smoke, Americans are reflecting on the lessons they say they’ve learned, in particular on the legacy of the U.S. foreign policy triggered by 9/11. John Allen, president of the Brookings Institution and a former four-star... Read More

WASHINGTON -- At an event on Wednesday, reflecting on the 70 years the U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty has been in place, the secretary for national defense in the Philippines said the countries need a comprehensive review of the treaty. Chargé d’Affaires John Law, who is in the process... Read More

More than a third of consumers have pushed back or have considered pushing back their retirement date due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report. In response to the pandemic and financial stress, many have also reduced their spending. A survey... Read More

Wildfires are an increasingly big and increasingly costly reality.  The "severity and overall size" of wildfires has expanded considerably in recent decades, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. California's 2018 fire season, in particular, broke several dubious records, including the most acres burned, the most... Read More

This week the head of the United Nations warned that the violence in Tigray, located in northern Ethiopia, is imperiling the whole region, and he called for an immediate ceasefire. Brutal clashes in Tigray over the last nine months have led to mass displacement and blockades... Read More

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A pair of suicide bombings near the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, which happened on Thursday morning, killed civilians and American personnel, U.S. officials say. American officials suspect an affiliate group of the Islamic State operating in Afghanistan, ISIS- K, of... Read More

In the wake of a powerful earthquake, the U.S. has sent rescue personnel and air support to assist with the search and rescue efforts in Haiti. On Sunday, the U.S. Agency for International Development said it had sent a 65-member urban search and rescue team to... Read More

The underlying algorithms for an app that can mass detect COVID-19 through audio are not quite ready yet, researchers say. COVID-19 has a distinct effect on the audio produced by infected people, which has enticed researchers to explore using it as a way to create widely... Read More

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A recent report says that more than a third of Californians are living below or near the poverty line, according to the latest available data. Without social safety net programs, the report further says, that figure would have been much higher.  California, the... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The success of President Joe Biden's promise to breathe new life into the American working and middle class will hang on the administration's ability to build up the power of workers, according to a group of economic experts. They say to be successful it... Read More

WASHINGTON -- A new two-part study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a D.C.-based national security think tank, has said that civilian and judicial oversight will be crucial to limiting the potential human rights abuses from government use of facial recognition technology. This would... Read More

Heat waves across the country this year have shattered temperature records, and climate scientists expect it to keep getting worse. Some policy options for dealing with the lethal and inequitable impact of heat have been recommended by researchers. In addition to increasing risk for numerous health... Read More

WASHINGTON- The U.S. should appoint a special envoy for the devolving situation in Myanmar, a former U.S. ambassador to the country said on Thursday morning.  "We're seeing, little by little and step by step, in slow motion, the collapse of the country, and it's going to... Read More

WASHINGTON- Writing rules that mandate climate disclosures might overstep the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's  authority, causing a violation of their historical approach to regulations, the agency's commissioner said on Tuesday.  Environmental disclosures are "inherently political" and are "unabashedly" designed to favor certain industries by feeding... Read More

WASHINGTON - Dog-owners whose pets are diagnosed with a common form of cancer now have a federally approved treatment option.  That new treatment, the first fully approved drug for canine lymphoma, has shown the conditional track of animal medicine can fulfill its mission to greenlight treatments... Read More

LOS ANGELES- Everyone, whether or not they're fully vaccinated, will have to wear a mask indoors, according to an order from Los Angeles County, by far the largest county by population in California, the U.S.'s most populated state. The county reported 1,537 new confirmed cases of... Read More

WASHINGTON - The recovery period for COVID-19 has raised a limited window for western countries to try to go after areas that need investment in Africa, according to a scholar at a D.C.-based think tank event this week. The virus dramatically illustrated Americans are not protected... Read More

WASHINGTON- A letter from Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., to President Joe Biden this week urged the administration for firm plans to safeguard Afghans who worked with American troops during the War on Terror. As American troops continue to withdraw from Afghanistan observers fear that Afghans who... Read More

WASHINGTON- Legislators want to jolt tech-related economic growth outside of the coastal regions, and according to speakers at a panel event this week, doing so would help ensure American relevance on the global market while lessening some of the inequality from which the country suffers. At... Read More

A report from the U.S. voiced concern over ongoing human rights abuses, which the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, at a press conference on Monday characterized as an attempt to apply international pressure to stop atrocities. In the 2021 Wiesel report, the country’s annual atrocity... Read More

WASHINGTON- The rich might be able save the world, but only if they focus on using their investments to change power dynamics, and they may need a little help from regulators, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. The study said that if federal... Read More

WASHINGTON- A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute outlines structural reforms for unemployment insurance in the U.S., including a stronger role for the federal government in providing that insurance. According to the report, unemployment benefits in the country, a legacy of the New Deal era,... Read More

In California, undocumented immigrants over the age of 50 will soon be able to sign up for Medi-Cal, the state's low-income health care program. The update is just one of the expansions included in the state budget, which also has spending increases for a range of... Read More

WASHINGTON- A bipartisan bill that would speed up the refugee process for Afghans who assisted U.S. soldiers passed the House on Tuesday. It is part of the attempt to shield them from retaliation, which has become a pressing issue as American forces prepare for a withdrawal... Read More

CHICAGO - The city unveiled a plan this week to build 250 new homes in North Lawndale, an area on the west side of Chicago.  The city has committed to sell 250 city-owned lots for $1 each, which the mayor's office has said will reduce construction... Read More

WASHINGTON- The Department of Veterans Affairs released data about its involvement with the national coronavirus response. According to the data, it provided thousands of personal protective equipment, admitted hundreds of non-veterans to its facilities, and performed thousands of tests across the country under its role as... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Agency for International Development unveiled nearly $175 million in initiatives for El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala related to the Biden administration's strategy for reducing the inflow of migrants to the southern border.   The initiatives were connected to Administrator Samantha Power's tour of... Read More

In the latest call for regulators to limit the power of big tech companies, a group of Canadian news media publications has asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to force revenue sharing negotiations among tech behemoths Google and Facebook and Canadian news outlets.  The digital platforms have... Read More

WASHINGTON- The U.S. Department of Defense has released its plan for the nearly $2.2 billion in funds that were redirected for the border wall under the Trump administration. The money will go to a broad set of improvements related to the armed forces, according to documents... Read More

One of the largest elections in Mexico's history, widely described as a referendum on the president and the future of Mexico, took place over the weekend. Preliminary results show that although it will remain dominant, the president's party is projected to lose its absolute majority in... Read More

WASHINGTON- The Biden Administration's 2022 budget, released at the end of last week, seeks significant spending increases for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  The fiscal year 2022 budget request sets out $6.5 billion for the FDA, an increase of almost 8% ($477 million) over last... Read More

WASHINGTON- Local and state officials from around the U.S. are asking the federal government to bring their efforts at diplomacy under the federal framework which they say would empower them to meaningfully and positively shape U.S. foreign policy. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and former U.S. Ambassador... Read More

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A majority of California voters say they would vote for Gov. Gavin Newsom to keep his position in a recall election, a new survey finds. The survey, conducted earlier this month by the Public Policy Institute of California, reports that 40% of likely... Read More

The Pentagon signed an agreement to expand the production of more efficient syringes, which it announced on Monday, as part of the country’s national response to coronavirus.  According to the agreement, the U.S. allocated $27.3 million in government funding to Retractable Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer that... Read More

Ethiopia and Somalia will see tense elections this year which experts suggest will play a significant role in shaping the future of the Horn of Africa. On Thursday, director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and senior fellow at Brookings Institution, Vanda Felbab-Brown, said that... Read More

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set its sights on the issue of artificial intelligence and machine learning in medical devices. Experts now say that the agency will need to open up a specific regulatory pathway for these devices that is sensitive to the unique... Read More

Over the last two weeks, China and the U.S. have made dueling comments about whether Taiwan should be admitted to this year's World Health Assembly, the meeting where priorities and policies of the World Health Organization are set, which will be held later this month. U.S.... Read More

An official from the International Monetary Fund argued this week that the Middle East and Central Asia regions should shift towards a new and inclusive economic model as they emerge from the pandemic, echoing IMF claims that this is the time for a world economic shift. ... Read More

WASHINGTON- Although western sanctions have not forced the Russian government to completely end its aggressions in Ukraine, the true impact of the sanctions has not been fully acknowledged, according to a new report from the Atlantic Council, an international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C.... Read More

In the middle of her first day as the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, deep into meetings about inclusivity and diversity in the agency and the rise in coronavirus cases in India, Samantha Power noticed a paper towel slipped under her office door.... Read More

WASHINGTON- The Biden administration has begun the process of canceling all sections of the border wall that were funded by money diverted from military projects, in relation to a federal walk back of one of the Trump administration's principal policy commitments. The announcement came as the... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., says the U.S. should discard the Trump-era Israel-Palestine policies as a first step to break the status quo. The new report argues that the U.S. ought to establish clearer channels of... Read More

At a virtual summit on climate change attended by 40 world leaders on Thursday, President Joseph Biden announced that the U.S. would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by half over the next decade. Biden’s plan promises to lower greenhouse gas emissions 50-52% below 2005 levels by... Read More

The U.S. has condemned the sentencing of protesters in Hong Kong, which it says was a violation of their rights under international agreements and an indefensible attempt to silence dissent by the Chinese government.  Last week, Chinese authorities sentenced seven protesters in Hong Kong: Martin Lee,... Read More

The U.S. pledged $95 million in humanitarian assistance to South Sudan last week in an attempt to avoid mass starvation in the coming summer months for those affected by the country's conflict.  South Sudan, which was admitted to the UN as the world's newest country in... Read More

WASHINGTON - A non-partisan think tank and registered lobby firm focused on national security and foreign policy issues released a report this week recommending changes to the structure of the World Health Organization, the UN body that coordinates international health work, and calling for an independent... Read More

WASHINGTON - Public infrastructure researchers are saying the U.S. needs a new infrastructure vision, pointing to the Texas power grid failure in February as just the latest example of how vulnerable our long ignored and outdated systems have become. The worst impacts of the winter storm... Read More

WASHINGTON- President Joseph Biden's discretionary budget request for the fiscal year 2022 includes significant increases to foreign assistance, reversing the trend of the last four years. Although foreign assistance represents a small part of the overall American budget, it came under scrutiny in the last administration,... Read More

Preliminary talks in Vienna about the possible return of the U.S. to the Iran Deal, also known as the joint comprehensive plan of action, are set to resume this week. The U.S. withdrew from the deal, one of the signature foreign policy accomplishments of the Obama... Read More

Last week and over the weekend, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry met with officials from the governments of India and Bangladesh to talk about strategies for improving climate resilience and adapting to climate change. Kerry emphasized recent U.S. aid projects to the two... Read More

WASHINGTON- Retaliatory sanctions imposed by China on Europeans in March have emboldened China's most vocal critics in Europe, who hope to push against the country's human rights abuses. In March, the E.U., U.K., U.S., and Canada issued coordinated sanctions against Chinese officials for human rights abuses... Read More

Lt. General H.R. McMaster wants you to know he's not a military drone. Despite a long, high-profile career in the military, he has criticisms of American foreign policy, and he expressed those criticisms even when he was in the military. In a conversation Wednesday night for... Read More

This week, countries in the Persian Gulf expressed commitment to the Paris Agreement and to green infrastructure investments, in a joint statement from the United Arab Emirates Regional Climate meeting at which U.S. Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, was present. This meeting--which included envoys from... Read More

The G7 issued a statement expressing concern over human rights abuses in Tigray at the end of last week. Since then, Eritrean forces have begun to withdraw from Tigray, according to information from the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, as reported by Reuters. The G7 statement had called... Read More

WASHINGTON- Americans who are traveling now face relaxed rules if they are fully vaccinated, according to federal guidelines released on Friday.  Fully vaccinated travelers do not need to have a negative coronavirus test when leaving the United States or to self-quarantine upon arriving in the country,... Read More

This week the first-ever west African joint ops brought together counterterrorism investigators and their judicial counterparts across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The training took place across all three countries with cross-country coordination "where appropriate," according to a written statement from the U.S. Department of State.... Read More

WASHINGTON - The declining levels of social cohesion and the inability to get things done are some of the biggest threats to the U.S., agreed a group of political scholars at a panel discussion about the future of democracy this week. Richard Haass, president of the... Read More

The pandemic has caused profound and long-lasting changes to the global economy. However, the world also has a narrow window to avoid throwing lots of people into more uncertainty, insecurity, and poverty, said an executive from the International Monetary Fund this week. The picture of the... Read More

Speaking to a gathering in Chicago last year, Shahla Humbatova, a lawyer from Azerbaijan, joked that well-meaning human rights lawyers in her country greet each other by asking: "Have you been disbarred yet?" Earlier this month, Humbatova herself was disbarred on the eve of International Women’s... Read More

CHARLESTON, S.C.- The VA says that a recent approval granted to them for a 3D printed hearing aid is an early step in establishing a way to provide inexpensive, patient-led care for veterans that suffer from unique maladies.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the... Read More

At the Coalition for the Sahel Ministerial on Friday, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale announced American commitments of more than $80 million for relief to the crisis in the central Sahel. Of the $80 million in relief funds, $25 million came from... Read More

ATLANTA - On Sunday, NASCAR joined the list of places using coronavirus-sniffing dogs as a tool to battle the virus's spread. The dogs can be taught to speedily screen large, busy crowds. This, together with the low cost involved in utilizing these dogs, makes them attractive... Read More

BRUSSELS- During his tour of America's European allies this week, where he's embracing the need to "revitalize" transatlantic relations, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is also feeling out NATO on whether or not to pull our troops from Afghanistan this summer. Blinken commented at a... Read More

WASHINGTON- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that it has revised its social distancing guidelines for schools, further clearing the way for schools to reopen for full-time, in-person instruction.  The agency now says students should keep a distance of 3 feet... Read More

WASHINGTON - A legal barrier meant to protect the separation of powers is delaying and preventing justice by keeping legitimate lawsuits from being decided on their merits, a panel of legal practitioners said on Wednesday, adding Congress should step in to address this issue. The panel... Read More

PORTLAND, Ore. -  A mayor-led press conference that prominently featured law enforcement on Monday afternoon condemned the "violence and intimidation tactics" of groups operating in Portland which they described as lawless, prone to property damage, and bad for the community. The press conference was called following... Read More

WASHINGTON - When an 11-year-old girl recently went to an emergency room in Connecticut, she was asked if she had been thinking about killing herself as part of a suicide screening. To her mother's shock, since they were there about an unrelated matter, she said yes.... Read More

When Steven Reed was elected the first Black mayor of Montgomery, Ala., he came with an ambitious plan to develop the city and to move towards equity.  He viewed his election as a mandate for equity that could outline a new vision not just for the... Read More

A fiery open letter signed by an international collection of scientists together with growing tensions between China and the U.S. caused the World Health Organization investigators this week to cancel an interim report on the origins of the coronavirus based on investigations in China. The letter,... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for a non-prescription, over the counter nostril test for coronavirus, the agency announced on Friday.  It's the first over the counter molecular test they have authorized for use without a prescription.  It's also the latest... Read More

The United Nations Environment Program released the 2021 Food Waste Index Report on Thursday, the most comprehensive data on food waste across 54 countries.   The report suggests that food waste is a significant problem, which data could help policymakers address.  In 2019, 17% of all food... Read More

The widespread disruptions of COVID led to an unprecedented drop in global greenhouse emissions. However, many post-coronavirus investments are fossil fuel heavy, including those in the U.S., emphasizing the policy commitments that need to be made to capitalize on these emission reductions, said a report from... Read More

WASHINGTON - On Saturday, the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization to a third coronavirus vaccine. This vaccine, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines which received emergency authorizations in December, is a single shot vaccine.  Placebo-controlled, randomized studies of 43,783 participants across eight countries, including... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration has relaxed the rules around storage and transportation for some coronavirus vaccines in order to speed up the vaccine rollout. Frozen vials of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine will be allowed to be kept at "conventional temperatures" found in pharmaceutical freezers... Read More

The failure of the prison system to provide adequate mental health care is causing people to kill themselves at high rates, according to a new report.  The report, published in February in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, reviewed data from 27 countries, concluding that some of... Read More

WASHINGTON- A report from the Office of the Inspector General recommended that America make safeguarding women's rights in Afghanistan a top priority, describing the fragile nature of gains in equality in the region. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko, the oversight authority... Read More

WASHINGTON - In a public health milestone, the Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it approved a record setting amount of novel medical devices in 2020.  In 2020, the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health gave the green light to 132 new devices,... Read More

WASHINGTON - Representatives from a DC non-profit say the coronavirus has severely increased the reliance of underprivileged communities on their services, which emphasizes the socially destabilizing impacts of the virus. The DC neighborhoods around the headquarters of Martha's Table, a local DC-based non-profit and volunteer center... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Wilson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, on Wednesday morning hosted an event explaining the complexities of measuring the presence of marine debris in the environment, focusing on the need to collect more data.  Measuring the problem at hand is linked to managing... Read More

A report in a major peer-reviewed journal described the effects of the Trump administration's policies on public health in the US as devastating, virulently racist, and lethally bad for public health. The report, which was published on Feb. 10 by the Lancet Commission on Public Policy... Read More

WASHINGTON - On Wednesday, Feb. 3, the Congressional "Afghanistan Study Group" released its report on unwinding American commitments in that country, recommending that diplomatic efforts attempt to delay the May 2021 withdrawal date of American troops from the region to ensure the proper conditions for removal.... Read More

The Centers for Disease Control issued a report on Thursday that said LGBTQ people are more at risk of severe coronavirus than the general American population because of underlying health conditions and called for more data to be collected. According to the CDC study, which is... Read More

Two new studies paint a clear picture of the long-lasting, corrosive effects of poor sleep on the brain by linking neighborhood conditions to memory loss and cognitive performance in adolescents.  The first study found that persistent loud noises and other hallmarks of poorer neighborhoods, such as... Read More

A new database will track the neurological symptoms of the coronavirus in an attempt to figure out how it disrupts body systems and impacts neurology.  The COVID-19 Neuro Databank/Biobank will assist clinicians in trying to prevent, manage, and treat the neurological aspects of the coronavirus by... Read More

Merck has withdrawn from the sprint to produce coronavirus vaccines after its two candidates failed to achieve strong results in preliminary trials. The first phase of clinical studies showed that even though the vaccine candidates were "well tolerated" the immune responses triggered by them were "inferior"... Read More

ATLANTA - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put into effect on Tuesday a new order that mandates all air passengers into the US have taken a viral test for coronavirus infection within three days of their flight. Written documentation of either a negative test... Read More

The Brooking Institution’s How We Rise project last week presented the results from its study on the role of social networks and geography in economic mobility, offering data on this important factor for those attempting to understand or improve opportunities for social advancement in the US. ... Read More