Financial Times: Pittsburgh should be a turning point for the poor (Op-Ed, Robert Zoellick)
World Bank President Robert Zoellick writes in an editorial in the Financial Times that world leaders need to recognize that developing countries are a key part of the solution to the global economy. Writes Zoellick, “With access to finance, other developing economies can help boost a global recovery. Many have the fiscal space to borrow, but cannot get the volumes they need at reasonable prices without crowding out their private sectors.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Panel presses summit leaders to recommit to Africa
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covers yesterday’s panel discussion co-hosted by ONE in anticipation of the G20, focusing on the opportunity Africa presents to the world as part of the solution to the global economic recovery. The story quotes ONE President David Lane, “There are pragmatic reasons for the leaders of the world gathered here to include Africa in the dialogue.” The article also mentions ONE’s ask that the G-20 to hold an upcoming summit in Africa as “a first step in showing that Africa is part of the solution to our global problems.”

UK Press Association: PM unveils Africa healthcare aid
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a £250 million UK investment in free healthcare, saying that “the world must be shamed into action to prevent child deaths in developing nations.” He was co-hosting a United Nations event in New York where six African countries, including Zambia, Malawi, Ghana, Liberia, Burundi and Sierra Leone – and Nepal – announced they would expand access to health services, which Mr Brown hailed as an “historic step”. The extra aid from the UK is part of a fund which will invest in struggling health systems and is part of a wider £3.2 billion global effort to improve health services in the poorest nations.

The Guardian: Obama to press G20 leaders to cut fossil fuel subsidies that benefit big business
President Obama will propose to leaders at the G20 summit to end the billions of dollars of subsidies that encourage the use of fossil fuels around the world and help drive climate change. The White House said elimination of the subsidies would be a “significant downpayment” to ending global warming. But according to the Guardian, “an end to the subsidies would bring world leaders into conflict with powerful fossil fuel lobbies as well as developing nations where the subsidies make fuel affordable.” Mike Froman, the national security adviser for international economic affairs, said: “We are working with the rest in the G20 to see if we can forge an agreement that would make significant contributions in direction [of removing subsidies].”

The Washington Post: Balancing Act (editorial)
In an editorial, the Washington Post expresses relatively high hopes for Obama and the leaders of the G20, citing the successful steps taken to break the fall of the global financial crisis, which came out of the last meeting in London. Among a number of goals they hope to see accomplished in Pittsburgh this week, the Post believes it would be “useful to establish a system for monitoring imbalances, perhaps overseen by the IMF, to nudge countries gradually to change course.” The editors also maintain that “the G-20 remains the best available forum for tackling its global repercussions and for discussing, if not actually deciding, long-term strategies.”

The Washington Post: AIDS Vaccine Experiment Yields Unanticipated Results
An experiment in Thailand involving 16,000 men and women has demonstrated for the first time a small but measurable protective effect of an AIDS vaccine. According to the Washington Post, the vaccine, “a complicated mixture of shots, reduced a person’s risk of becoming infected by about one-third compared with people getting placebo injections.” Though the results were “barely significant on statistical grounds,” researchers are calling the first positive results for an AIDS vaccine after two decades of experimentation a milestone.

-Steve Wilson