Former President George W. Bush Will Visit Washington To Commemorate The 20th Anniversary Of The PEPFAR program

February 10, 2023February 10, 2023

Later this month, former President George W. Bush will pay a rare visit to Washington, D.C., to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking initiative to fight AIDS globally and to ask Congress to reauthorize it.

The former president of Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, and Bush’s former secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, will join him on stage for a discussion on February 24 as part of the Bush Institute’s PEPFAR at 20 event, which honors the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In recognition of PEPFAR’s anniversary, Antony Blinken, the current secretary of state, will deliver a virtual speech. Discussions about what can and must be done to eliminate HIV/AIDS as a danger to global public health by 2030 will also be a part of the event.

The State Department-managed PEPFAR program is the largest national effort to combat a single disease in the world. Over $100 billion in money has been allocated to PEPFAR thus far. According to the State Department, PEPFAR has saved 25 million lives by enabling 5.5 million newborns to be born HIV-free, enabling 20 million individuals to receive antiretroviral medication, and offering HIV testing and preventive programs. The development of health care systems brought about by the public and private investments made through PEPFAR has assisted nations in addressing other health care issues, such as the coronavirus epidemic.

Bush’s efforts on PEPFAR was lauded by President Joe Biden in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night.

Through PEPFAR, “he initiated a bipartisan effort to revolutionize the international fight against HIV/AIDS,” Mr. Biden said. “It has achieved great success. He had expansive, broad thoughts. He shifted.” “I believe we can do the same thing with cancer,” he continued, expressing confidence that what had been successful for PEPFAR could be repeated.

U2 lead singer Bono, a lifelong AIDS campaigner who is credited with helping to increase support for PEPFAR, working with Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and famously winning over religiously conservative Sen. Jesse Helms, was one of first lady Jill Biden’s guests for the speech. The legislation was first approved in 2003 with strong bipartisan support and has since undergone three reauthorizations. Since PEPFAR’s financing expires at the end of the fiscal year, in September, Bono’s attendance served as a reminder of both the bipartisan achievement and the necessity of reauthorizing PEPFAR.

The special counsel in charge of the investigations against the former president Donald Trump has subpoenaed former vice president Mike Pence, many sources told CBS News. To lead the Justice Department’s criminal investigation of Trump, including the claims that he kept sensitive national defense material at his Mar-a-Lago property and other facets of the Jan. 6 probe, special counsel Jack Smith was appointed in November.

ABC News was the first to report on the subpoena. Special counsels have broad subpoena authority, and it’s not entirely obvious what material the subpoena is requesting. The Smith administration chose not to comment. Additionally, Pence’s administration declined to comment. While Trump has already announced his candidacy for president in 2024, Pence is still debating whether to do so.

In November, sources told CBS News that the Justice Department had contacted Pence in relation to Trump’s alleged attempts to rig the 2020 election and the presidential inauguration on January 6, 2021. At the time, sources with knowledge of the situation told CBS News that Pence had received the request and was examining it.

Before completing its inquiry on the attack on January 6, 2017, the committee looking into it stated that they wished to talk with Pence. Despite stating that it would be “unique in history for a vice president to be invited to appear on Capitol Hill,” Pence said in August that he would “consider” speaking to the committee. Presidents and vice presidents who are still in office have occasionally been asked to testify before lawmakers. Pence later claimed that the committee had “no right” to hear his testimony on “Face the Nation.”

The House committee and the Justice Department investigation were two separate investigations, and the House committee has since been disbanded.

Former top Trump aide Johnny McEntee, president of the conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch Tom Fitton, and former top homeland security official Ken Cuccinelli have all been spotted in recent weeks at the courthouse where several grand juries have been meeting to determine whether criminal charges against Trump are necessary in connection with his handling of classified documents after his election or his interference in the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021.

Defense officials said before a Senate subcommittee on Thursday that the U.S. military decided against shooting down a Chinese spy balloon above Alaska because recovering the balloon would have been significantly riskier.

The Biden administration has come under fire for allowing the spy balloon to fly above the United States for nearly a week before it was shot down in the Atlantic Ocean not far from the coast of South Carolina. Officials from the administration have stated that choice was made due to risk to local populations. However, lawmakers have questioned why it couldn’t have been brought when it was over water on Alaska’s shore and have grown increasingly unhappy with the decision.

“The recuperation is a crucial component of this. If we had brought it down over the state of Alaska, the recovery effort would have been very different, and we would not have been able to fully utilize and comprehend this balloon and its capabilities “At a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing, Melissa Dalton, the assistant defense secretary, provided testimony.

Compared to the coast of South Carolina, the conditions near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands are “extremely perilous” since the Bering Sea’s sea depths swiftly drop from 150 feet to 18,000 feet, winter water temperatures are in the low 30s, and some areas are covered in ice, according to Dalton.

The capability to salvage, comprehend, and utilize the capabilities of the high-altitude ballon was “a crucial component of the calculus for this operation,” Dalton said, adding that she will discuss more with senators in a secret hearing. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, meanwhile, voiced disappointment with the Pentagon for the delay in shooting down the balloon. The message to China, she claimed, is that “free range in Alaska is ours,” making her state the “first line of defense for America.” According to Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the Joint Staff’s director for operations, if the balloon had come down over land, the debris may have blanketed a 20-mile by 20-mile area.

“Alaska is inhabited, despite certain areas not being as populated as others. We wouldn’t do that in combat if we couldn’t clear that “Sens. Sims was quoted. “Before we shoot, we deliberate. And in this instance, we deliberated before we fired, “Sims later stated. “Once you shoot, there’s no going back.”

Nearly a week after the balloon was shot down, the U.S. is still gathering wreckage from the seas. Senior FBI officials with knowledge of the operation warned that inclement weather could delay the data collection. According to a U.S. official, the Navy has weighted down debris that is still on the ocean floor to keep it from being displaced by the choppy waters.

According to a U.S. official, the wreckage appears astonishingly undamaged considering that it fell from 60,000 feet in underwater photos of the debris field.

The majority of the most important and reliable pieces of evidence are still buried under water, according to FBI officials. The canopy, wiring, and other electrical parts that were salvaged from the water’s surface have been delivered to the FBI lab in Quantico.

InAIDS Program, Anniversary, George W. Bush, PEPFAR program

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Former President George W. Bush Will Visit Washington To Commemorate The 20th Anniversary Of The PEPFAR program

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