White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

  • Home
  • About
  • WHC Garden Brunch
  • Washington Insider
  • Archives
  • Contact

Media Likely to be Excluded During Trump-Putin Meeting

June 7, 2017 By WHC Insider

Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

President Donald Trump is likely to sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit in Germany this upcoming July, although no firm plans have been made so far according to a Kremlin spokesperson.

But according to Russian newspaper Izvestia, if that were to occur, the media would likely be excluded. There would likely be no photo opportunity, no press briefing, and no joint statement issued after the meeting.

“There will just be the meeting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted in the newspaper.

Trump and Putin agreed during a phone call in May to try to meet face-to-face around the dates of the G20 summit in Hamburg.

Filed Under: Correspondents, Donald Trump, Event Coverage, Foreign Travel, Free Press, Media Strategy, News Media, The White House, Uncategorized

Press Uncuffed

March 27, 2015 By WHC Insider

Please support journalists who are under siege globally. The Washington Post’s Dana Priest shows us how we can do something from our own computers. Thanks, Dana!

“We’re journalism students at the University of Maryland working with our professor – Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Dana Priest – to raise money to free imprisoned journalists around the world by selling bracelets bearing their names. Press Uncuffed works in partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, nonprofit organization that advocates for journalists in danger.”

Support the campaign.

Filed Under: Correspondents, Foreign Travel, News, News Media

Dina Powell's Huffington Post Egypt Column

July 8, 2013 By Tammy Haddad

Dina Powell, President George W. Bush’s former State Department and White House top adviser, and President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation is weighing in with an important Huffington Post blog on Egypt and it’s future. Its women who can help lead Egypt out of the grip of chaos.

“As the world watches events in Egypt unfold, its leaders have a unique opportunity to be an example for the region by fully empowering its women to play a greater role in the economy and society. Egypt will never reach its full potential and its economy will continue to struggle until it gives women an equal seat at the table.

Power outages, fuel shortages, high youth unemployment, and struggling small businesses are only a few of the many symptoms of Egypt’s floundering economy. Over the last two and a half years, GDP growth has slowed dramatically and foreign investment collapsed. Without change, the economy is likely to get worse. While Egypt needs to resolve a myriad of challenging issues, the economy needs to be the primary focus of the next government. Until young people find jobs and the economy stops its free fall, Egypt will continue to suffer wide spread discontent and disillusionment. And one way to increase economic growth is to expand the role of women in the economy.

Historically, women have played a critical role in Egypt’s economy and government. In recent years, however, attitudes toward women in Egypt have unfortunately taken a turn for the worse. The limited rights women have fought so hard for are imperiled and violence against women appears to be increasing. Human Rights Watch has reported that over the recent four days of protests, 91 women were sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square. A 2013 United Nations study found that a shocking 99 percent of Egyptian women have experienced some form of sexual harassment, an increase from 2008 when a similar study suggested that 83 percent of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed.

Egyptian women are severely underrepresented in the economy. According to World Bank data from 2011, only 24% of Egyptian women participate in the labor force. A 2010 report on Egypt published by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor concluded that the entrepreneurial gender gap in Egypt is among the highest in the world. The paucity of women business owners is damaging to the Egyptian economy especially since the World Bank has found that female owned firms in the region hire more workers than male owned firms.

My firm, Goldman Sachs, has conducted research that shows that narrowing the gender gap in employment could increase global income per capita as much as 20% by 2030. Research also suggests that educating and empowering women catalyzes a virtuous cycle that positively affects the health, education and productivity of future generations. As a result of this research, Goldman Sachs launched the 10,000 Women initiative in 2008, a global initiative to help local economies grow and bring about greater shared prosperity by providing 10,000 underserved women entrepreneurs with a business and management education, access to mentors and networks and links to capital. 10,000 Women fully capitalizes on woman entrepreneurs, which is just the boost that Egypt’s economy so desperately needs.

In Egypt, over the last four years, the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative has made meaningful progress helping empower women by working in partnership with the American University in Cairo and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to train more than 300 high potential women business owners in Egypt from nearly every governorate throughout the country. The 200-hour curriculum focuses on leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Participants also receive access to business advising, networking and ongoing training workshops. In addition, 10,000 Women works closely with the Social Fund for Development in Egypt to provide qualified participants with capital.

Despite challenging local economic conditions, eighteen months after graduation, the majority of 10,000 Women participants are successfully growing their business: 60% of surveyed participants in Egypt increased revenues over the previous year and nearly 60% added new jobs. In addition, over 90% of Egyptian 10,000 Women participants mentor other women in their communities.

At the last 10,000 Women graduation I attended at the American University in Cairo, I met Sayeda, an inspiring entrepreneur who runs a growing cleaning business. Most of her employees are women, many widows and divorcees that have had very difficult lives. The jobs she is providing give them a sense of pride, dignity and confidence and most importantly optimism in their future. She believes everyone should be allowed to dream and one’s dream should not be limited. If Egypt can live up to that aspiration and motivate and inspire women like her, its future will be very promising.

Nearly 100 years ago, the Egyptian Poet Hafez Ibrahim said that when you educate a woman, you create a nation. Even though Egypt is known as the very cradle of civilization, this proud ancient civilization is birthing a new nation filled with the hopes and dreams of its young population.

If the new Egypt, the most populous Arab nation in the world, empowers its women fully, it can also become the strongest, most prosperous and hopefully most peaceful nation in the region.”

Filed Under: Foreign Travel, The White House

Barbara Bush on Why You Should Apply to Global Health Corps

December 23, 2012 By WHC Insider

022312_364

Have you ever thought about working in policy, or just dropping everything to travel the world and gain insight to how “everything” works? Then why not start by applying to the Global Health Corps? Started in 2008 by a collection of like-minded and global-conscious individuals like Barbara Pierce Bush, her sister Jenna, Jonny Dorsey and Dave Ryan from FACE AIDs and Google’s Charlie Hale and Andrew Bentley. The Corps announced last week what positions would be avaliable for 2013 applicants. We reached out to the president of the Global Health Corps, Barbara, over email to find out what makes an ideal GHC candidate, how applicants could prepare for the role and the start of the corps.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Causes, DC, Foreign Travel, News Tagged With: Africa, Barbara Bush, Causes, DC, Fellowships, Foreign Travel, Global Health Corps, Jenna Bush Hager

Sarah Brown's G8 Photos- The View From Inside

July 9, 2009 By WHC Insider

[tylr-slidr userID=” 35544829@N07″ groupID=”72157617172849739″]http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahbrown10/sets/72157620963432101/[/tylr-slidr]

Filed Under: Foreign Travel Tagged With: G8 Italy 2009, sarah brown

Sarah Brown's Wednesday Blog at the G8

July 8, 2009 By WHC Insider

G8 First Ladies Visit The Capitole Hill

Wednesday evening: Rome
July 8, 2009
I visit the Sant’Edigio Community, situated in a beautiful old monastery in the heart of Rome. A poignant moment on arrival to see a tiny little iron turnstile in the wall, where poor and desperate unmarried women in years long past had to tragically abandon babies without disclosing their own identity.

Today the 120,000 strong Sant’Edigio community across the world address new crises. With their hugely dedicated staff we talked about the work they are doing to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa aiming to offer a treatment in Mozambique and Malawi that matches the treatment you can find in Italy or the UK. In many of the poor countries I’ve visited, AIDS often has a female face. Pacem from Malawi has come to share with us her journey from her own HIV positive diagnosis to treatment and life now as an activist for Sant’Egidio, sharing the message of life after testing.

HIV is spreading fastest amongst women and young girls, and elderly women are often the ones left holding families and communities together in the epidemics wake. I am concerned that HIV-positive women are often denied health care, information and services. This can mean they pass the infection onto their baby during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding even though there are effective ways of preventing mother to child transmission. The DREAM programme created by Sant’Egidio works in partnership with communities to overcome these barriers to treatment and care and offers hope and dignity to thousands of vulnerable people across Africa.

I am with Margarita Zavala from Mexico and Margarida Barroso whose husband is the Presidient of the EU and has herself just returned from a visit to Mozambique. We all know that we will follow up on today’s meeting to learn more, and I hope to engage them in the maternal mortality campaign I support.

After the visit, I returned to the British Embassy for a short break and then back out to the final visit of the day with the spouse group. We are hosted by the Italian President’s wife at the Quirinale Palace with a fascinating tour and a drink at the end. We all left ready to meet in L’Aquila in the morning to visit the town and witness the effects of the terrible earthquake here. I have made my way to L’Aquila tonight to find Gordon after his meetings and hear how his day has gone.

More from me tomorrow.

http://sarahbrowng8.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/wednesday-evening-rome/

Filed Under: Foreign Travel Tagged With: sarah brown

G8: Sarah Brown blogs on 'spouses summit'

July 8, 2009 By WHC Insider

Sarah Brown, the wife of Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, promised to provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, when she began a blog about the “spouses’ summit”.

From The Telegraph: www.telegraph.co.uk/…/g8/…/G8–Sarah–Brown-blogs-on-spouses-summit. html

Sarah Brown and the other G8 spouses will be hosted at the three-day summit in L’Aquila by Clio, wife of Italian president Giorgio Napolitano Photo: PA

G8 LAquila Summit Begins

Mrs Brown and the other G8 spouses will be hosted at the three-day summit in L’Aquila by Clio, wife of Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, as PM Silvio Berlusconi is currently going through a divorce.
While the world leaders are tied up in meetings on the economy, climate change and aid, the wives – and one husband – will follow an alternative programme, including visits to people affected by the devastating earthquake which struck the town in April and an audience at lunchtime today with Pope Benedict XVI.

The two most glamorous spouses, Michelle Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy’s pop star wife Carla Bruni, are expected to miss the meeting with the Pope – Mrs Obama because she and her husband have a separate meeting and Ms Bruni because she is arriving at the summit late.
In her first post on the G8 blog Mrs Brown said she was looking forward to meeting up with the other “first ladies”.
“Up at the crack of dawn to set off for the G8 in Italy!” she wrote. “There’s a busy few days ahead for me as part of the spouses programme while Gordon is at the summit.
“But I’m really looking forward to meeting up with the ‘other halves’ – some of them I have met before from last year’s G8 and the G20 in London. They are all very interesting people and I’m hoping to get to know them better and to discuss some of the issues that we all feel strongly about.
“It looks like we have some interesting visits lined up. There is some time planned in L’Aquila, the venue for the G8, to meet people affected by the devastating earthquake there in April, as well as visits to some great organisations and historical sites in Rome.
“Hopefully I can give you a flavour of what we have been doing through this blog – and I’m planning to post plenty of pictures from the trip, so make sure you check back regularly.”

Filed Under: Foreign Travel Tagged With: G8, Presidential Travel, sarah brown, Spouses Summit

Search WHCInsider

2022 WHC Garden Brunch

About White House Correspondents Insider

Exploring “behind the scenes” of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

We track the White House Correspondents’ weekend and all the activities around it, from journalists and media companies to the White House and politicos.

Tammy Haddad is Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief of WHC Insider and CEO of Haddad Media.

White House Correspondents Insider is not affiliated with or approved by the White House Correspondents’ Association, which is a registered trademark of the WHCA.

Cone of Silence Podcast

WHCA Seating Chart

Connect

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • Apple
  • Google
  • Instagram

Copyright © White House Correspondents Insider

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.