Daniel Mollenkamp

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