President Biden’s public schedule for 08/04/2023:
| 5:15 AM | Supplemental Pool Call Time Biden Residence, Wilmington, DE |
| 7:45 AM | Out-of-Town Pool Call Time Biden Beach House, Rehoboth Beach, DE |
| 8:45 AM Travel Day | The President and The First Lady depart Rehoboth Beach, Delaware en route to New Castle, Delaware Gordons Pond State Park, Rehoboth Beach, DE |
| 9:20 AM Arrives in New Castle, Delaware | The President and The First Lady arrive in New Castle, Delaware New Castle National Guard Base |
United Nations Tweet
From Thursday…
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s tweeted video is 1 second long.
Other tweets:
From the State Department:
I thank Ms. Salem for her briefing. Indeed, I thank all three of our briefers for their compelling and important contributions to our discussion this morning. Thank you.
I would like to draw the attention of speakers to Paragraph 22 of Note 507, which encourages all participants in council meetings to deliver their statements in five minutes or less in line with the Security Council’s commitment to making more effective use of open meetings. I shall now make a statement in my capacity as the Secretary of State of the United States of America.
Again, to our briefers, thank you. And thank you for keeping our focus on what’s really at stake here, and that is the human element of our discussions. It’s easy to get caught up in numbers and statistics, in big concepts, but ultimately it comes down to people. It comes down to children. So I thank you for that focus, as well as on practical solutions to the problem before us. So to all three of our briefers, again, you have powerfully illustrated the challenge before us; but even more important, you’ve given us very good ideas for actually how to address that challenge.
Last September, President Biden told the General Assembly, and I quote, “In every country in the world…if parents cannot feed their children, nothing else matters.” In some ways, it’s as simple and as stark as that. Too many families are experiencing the overwhelming urgency, the consequence of an unprecedented global food crisis that, as we’ve heard, has been fueled by climate, by COVID as well, and, as we’re discussing today, by conflict.
Hunger and conflict are inexorably linked. Scarce resources heighten tensions between communities and nations. Warring parties weaponize food to subjugate local populations. Indeed, conflict is the largest driver of food insecurity, with violence and unrest pushing 117 million people into extreme deprivation last year.
In Sudan, the fighting has disrupted the summer planting season and driven up the cost of food.
In Myanmar, where one in five people – one in five people – is severely undernourished, the military regime is making the problem worse to tighten its grip, including blocking aid convoys. Deteriorating conditions prevent the safe return of nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled their homeland and who now live in Bangladesh on rations that are down to about 27 cents per day.
In Yemen, some families have reported and resorted to boiling leaves to stay alive. They call it famine food.
Unless the world acts, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Somalia could all experience famine next year.
And again, I ask each of us, pause for that on – for a moment. Think about what that actually means. Imagine just for a minute if this was your child, your son, your daughter. You heard the compelling description of what that actually is all about. And I hope, if nothing else, having that image in our minds, tying it to our own lives and experiences, will be some added motivation for us to act.
Since January 2021, the United States has provided more than $17.5 billion to address famine and food insecurity. In 2021, in 2022, we convened this council to focus on the intersection between hunger and conflict. We chaired last year’s food security ministerial, where we joined over three dozen countries in issuing a global roadmap, committing to get food to those in need, and to build greater resilience for the future. To date, more than 100 countries have signed that pledge and begun to take concrete steps to actually implement it.
But as this crisis ramps up, so must our efforts. This council is charged with maintaining international peace and security, and we simply cannot preserve peace and security without strengthening food security. Each of us has a responsibility to act.
This morning, for the first time in three years, this council has unanimously put conflict, hunger, and famine, as well as climate change, at the center of its agenda. This is a noteworthy and welcome step. Now, let’s harness the momentum to further combat food insecurity and famine around the world to turn what we’re talking about into concrete actions.
Five years ago, as you heard, this council adopted Resolution 2417, emphasizing that the intentional starvation of civilians may constitute a war crime. Today, we can build on these efforts. Nearly 90 countries, including the United States, have already signed a new joint communique that we drafted and circulated, committing to end the use of famine, starvation, and food as weapons of war. Hunger must not be weaponized. I urge all member states to join this communique.
We also must significantly increase aid to tackle extreme hunger and to avert famine. Last year, governments and private donors made record contributions, providing direct relief, equipping farmers with fertilizer, using satellite imagery to maximize yields. Donations for the World Food Program jumped 48 percent. The United States alone provided more than $7.2 billion, funding roughly half – half – of the World Food Program’s budget. These and other efforts helped the world to narrowly avoid famine last year. But this year, as we’ve heard, the World Food Program estimates that it has to spend $25 billion to deliver relief to 171 million people.
To date, countries have funded only $4.5 billion; in other words, 18 percent of what’s required. The cost of that shortfall will be measured in growth stunted and in lives lost.
While we welcome smaller countries punching above their weight, the world’s largest economies should be the world’s largest donors. For member states that consider themselves global leaders, this is your chance to prove it. All of us – all of us – can dig deeper.
But, of course, we know while it is necessary, it is not sufficient to meet immediate needs. We must also increase agricultural productivity. We’ve got to invest in adaptation. We have to build greater resilience to future shocks, especially in regions that are affected by conflict.
Around the world, farmers confront soaring temperatures, eroding soil, disappearing ground water. That reduces yields. It makes crops less nutritious. By 2050, climate change could cut output by as much as 30 percent even as global food demand increases by over 50 percent. So we have a planet that’s heading in the current – in the coming decades to a population of as much as 10 billion people with demand going up in accordance, and yet supply is actually declining, not increasing.
So as challenging, as urgent as the situation is now, we can also see what’s coming if we don’t take the necessary steps to address it. Mitigating climate impacts is central to the United States Feed the Future Initiative, a public-private partnership to strengthen food systems, to expand social safety nets, to enhance nutrition in 40 countries around the world.
We’ve devoted over a billion dollars every year to this effort. Last year, we expanded the program to eight more target countries in Africa. To build on this work, we’ve now launched what we call the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils in February alongside the African Union and the Food and Agriculture Organization. The shorthand, VACS – through this program, we’re identifying the most nutritious indigenous African crops, assessing how climate change will likely affect them, and investing in breeding the most climate resilient and most resilient varieties, as well as improving the soil that they’ll grow in.
This focus on the quality of the seeds and the quality of the soil can have a powerful impact on sustainable agricultural productivity throughout Africa. Today, I’m also announcing $362 million more to tackle the drivers of food insecurity and to enhance resilience in Haiti and 11 African countries, like getting nutritious food to pregnant women, and helping farmers grow heartier and more diverse crops.
The United States will continue to do our part, but this is by definition a global challenge. It demands global resources. And we’ll be looking to governments, to companies, to philanthropies, to help us continue to improve nutrition and invest in sustainable and resilient food systems.
Finally, we must address Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the resulting assault on the global food system. This past year, the Black Sea Grain Initiative negotiated by the United Nations and Türkiye delivered over two – excuse me – 32 million tons of Ukrainian foodstuffs to the world. Wheat exports alone were the equivalent of 18 billion loaves of bread – 18 billion loaves of bread. Keep in mind, this initiative never should have been necessary in the first place. It only was necessary because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its blockade of Ukrainian ports. But the initiative produced concrete, demonstrable, powerful results in making sure that these food products could continue to get to world markets, going to those who needed it.
And let’s be very clear about who benefitted from this initiative. Over half the food products exported through this effort and two-thirds of the wheat went to developing countries. These shipments helped to lower global food prices for everyone by roughly a quarter since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Since Russia pulled out of the arrangement of July 17th, ignoring the world’s appeals, grain prices have risen by more than 8 percent around the world. Kenya’s foreign ministry called Russia’s move, and I quote, “A stab in the back.”
The Kremlin claims that it tore up the deal because international sanctions were restricting its agricultural exports. In reality, sanctions explicitly exclude food and fertilizer. In fact, at the time it abandoned the initiative, Russia was exporting more grain at higher prices than ever before.
And what has Russia’s response been to the world’s distress and outrage? Bombing Ukrainian granaries, mining port entrances, threatening to attack any vessel in the Black Sea – no matter its flag, no matter its cargo.
These actions are consistent with Russia’s decision last month to block the reauthorization of critical cross-border humanitarian assistance to Syria – a country where, after February’s devastating earthquake, 12 million people don’t have enough to eat.
The United States is prepared to renew efforts to mandate this vital lifeline if the United Nations and Syria cannot find a way forward. We also very much appreciate Türkiye and others working to reinstate the grain deal. Every member of this council, every member of the United Nations, should tell Moscow: Enough; enough using the Black Sea as blackmail; enough treating the world’s most vulnerable people as leverage; enough of this unjustified, unconscionable war.
Strengthening food security is essential to realizing the vision of the United Nations Charter. To save generations from the scourge of war and reaffirm the dignity and worth of every single human being.
That hope is embodied in one of the statues outside the building of a figure fulfilling the biblical directive to beat swords into ploughshares. These words of scripture are not yet in reach, but – but – we can at least commit not to use our swords to destroy other’s ploughs. We can deliver lifesaving aid to those in urgent need. We can ensure that people around the globe are fed now and for years to come. If we do that, if we build a healthier, more stable, more peaceful world for all, we will have at least begun to live up to the responsibility entrusted to us, entrusted to this council, entrusted to this institution.
Thank you.
State.gov. 08/03/2023.
From United States Mission to the United Nations:
Ninety-One Countries Sign U.S.-Led Joint Communiqué Condemning the Use of Food as a Weapon of War
In a demonstration of solidarity and commitment, 91 UN Member States signed a U.S.-led joint communiqué pledging action to end the use of food as a weapon of war.
Roughly 345 million people – in 79 countries – face acute food insecurity, often caused or exacerbated by armed conflict.
Today’s joint communiqué was born out of the United States’ resolve to once again use its UN Security Council presidency to draw attention to conflict-induced food insecurity.
“We can deliver lifesaving aid to those in urgent need,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said during today’s UN Security Council High-Level Open Debate on Famine and Conflict-Induced Global Food Insecurity. “We can ensure that people around the globe are fed, now and for years to come. If we do that, if we build a healthier, more stable, more peaceful world for all, we will have at least begun to live up to the responsibility entrusted to us, entrusted to this Council, entrusted to this institution.”
U.S. Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, “In a world abundant with food, no one should starve to death – ever. This is a humanitarian issue, this is a moral issue, and this is a security issue. And we must address the most insidious driver of famine and food insecurity: conflict.”
USUN.US Mission.gov. 08/03/2023.
“Bidenomics” Tweets
From Thursday…
From Friday…
BLS.gov said: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 187,000 in July, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, social assistance, financial activities, and wholesale trade.
The revisions for May and June: The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised down by 25,000, from +306,000 to +281,000, and the change for June was revised down by 24,000, from +209,000 to +185,000. With these revisions, employment in May and June combined is 49,000 lower than previously reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.)
Econ/Business Reporter for the New York Times Ben Casselman said:
President Biden issued the following statement:
Unemployment near a record low and the share of working age Americans who have jobs at a 20-year high: that’s Bidenomics. Our economy added 187,000 jobs last month, and we’ve added 13.4 million jobs since I took office — more jobs added in two and a half years than during any president’s four-year term. The unemployment rate is 3.5%, marking a full year and half below 4%. This follows recent news that our economy continues to grow, while inflation has fallen by nearly two thirds and is at its lowest level in more than two years. We’re growing the economy from the middle out and bottom up, lowering costs for hardworking families, and making smart investments in America.
White House.gov. 08/04/2023.
American Rescue Plan.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
Inflation Reduction Act.
CHIPS and Science Act.
Cancer Moonshot Tweet
From Thursday…
Today, the Biden Cancer Moonshot announced the inaugural cohort of Cancer Moonshot Scholars, a program launched by President Biden last year to support early-career researchers and help build a cancer research workforce that better represents the diversity of America. The diverse set of scholars announced today will drive progress in the fight to end cancer as we know it—a key component of the President’s Unity Agenda—by pursuing projects at institutions across the country, including California, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington.
The Biden-Harris Administration, through the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is committing $5.4 million in the first year of these multi-year awards to support the inaugural cohort of 11 Cancer Moonshot Scholars. These emerging leaders in cancer research and innovation will use this funding to help change what is possible, with projects to increase prevention and early detection efforts for patients from underrepresented populations, create new cancer treatments for all Americans, and further the nation’s expertise in addressing hard-to-treat cancers.
“The Cancer Moonshot Scholars program is an important investment in cancer research and advances that can deliver hope for cancer patients across the nation,” said Deputy Assistant to the President for the Cancer Moonshot Dr. Danielle Carnival. “Mobilizing toward the two goals set by the President and the First Lady—preventing cancer deaths and improving the patient experience—requires supporting a new generation of talented researchers bringing diverse perspectives from all across America.”
“We are at our best when we capitalize on the diversity of the nation’s skills, talents, and viewpoints to solve the complex problems in cancer research, and the Cancer Moonshot Scholars program is a critical step in that direction of equity,” said NCI Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities Director Dr. Sanya A. Springfield.
The Cancer Moonshot Scholars program is designed to support early-career scientists, researchers, and innovators from diverse backgrounds, including from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences research workforce. The Administration intends to fund up to 30 additional Cancer Moonshot Scholars by 2025, with the next application period closing in February 2024.
The initial cohort of Cancer Moonshot Scholars is working to make progress in prostate, pancreatic, liver, lung, cervical, brain, and rectal cancers.
White House.gov/OSTP. 08/03/2023.
11 Cancer Moonshot Scholars
- Simpa Salami, MD, MPH, University of Michigan is working to define the biological fate of low risk (Grade Group 1) prostate cancer.
- Marvin Langston, PhD, MPH, Stanford University is examining diverse risk-based approaches to prostate cancer screening.
- Jyothi Menon, PhD, University of Rhode Island is developing a multifunctional nanoparticle formulation to slow the progression of chronic alcoholic liver disease to hepatocellular carcinoma.
- Leeya Pinder, MD, MPH, FACOG, University of Cincinnati is conducting a randomized clinical trial to evaluate the safety and acceptability of a novel, self-administered, topically delivered antiviral therapy for improving cervical cancer prevention options in low-resource settings.
- Nduka Amankulor, MD, University of Pennsylvania is investigating the molecular and cellular mechanisms of All-Trans Retinoic Acid antitumor immunity in Isocitrate Dehydrogenase mutant glioma and identifying predictive immune signatures.
- Hien Dang, PhD, Thomas Jefferson University is working to better understand deregulated Myc signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma to develop new therapies.
- Laurie McLouth, PhD, University of Kentucky is testing the efficacy of a novel psychosocial intervention called Pathways to help improve mental health and quality of life during advanced lung cancer treatment.
- Matthew A. Triplette, MD, PhD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is evaluating the barriers and facilitators of lung cancer screening adherence in decentralized programs, in order to adapt and measure the impact of interventions on adherence.
- Mario Shields, PhD, Northwestern University at Chicago is seeking to define a role for the mTOR pathway in the development and progression of pancreatic cancer in the context of Gα13 loss.
- Jelani C. Zarif, PhD, Johns Hopkins University is testing the hypothesis that immunosuppressive CD206+ tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) drive prostate cancer resistance and the novel anti-CD206 peptide will reprogram TAMs toward a pro-inflammatory phenotype.
- Todd Aguilera, MD, PhD, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is working to understand if the integrated molecular, cellular, and spatial assessment of treatment response dynamics can reveal insights into immunobiological response and inform mechanisms of efficacy and therapeutic selection.
PACT Act Tweet
From Thursday…
The video clip is 39 seconds long.
President Biden: You may be eligible for the PACT Act benefits if you served during Vietnam, the Gulf War, or after 9/11. Or if you’re a surviving family member to one of those heroes. For veterans exposed to toxic substances, the Pact Act means quicker access to VA health care and health care benefits. If you apply or submit your intent to apply by August the 9th your benefits may be retroactive to the date when I signed this law last year. It’s free. It’s easy. All you have to do is visit: VA.gov/PACT. So don’t wait. Don’t wait. Apply today.
This is an Open Thread.
