Zuckerberg Launches New Philanthropy

he Facebook founder and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, have announced they will give away 99% of their Facebook stock. The new philanthropy will be called the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative. And a happy #GivingTuesday to YOU. “The current value of the planned donation is $45 billion, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, said in a letter to their newborn daughter, Maxima, posted on Facebook on Tuesday. The co-founder doesn’t plan to give away more than $1 billion a year for at least the next three years, the company said in a separate filing, meaning Zuckerberg will maintain voting control of Facebook for the foreseeable future. Zuckerberg, 31, outlined his philanthropic mission, focused on “advancing human potential and promoting equality,” in the letter to his daughter, nicknamed Max. He will make long-term investments in areas like health and education, while working to decrease inequality and building technology to bring about change.” (Bloomberg http://bloom.bg/1YFMoqY)

New Round of Syria Peace Talks? The world powers that met in Vienna for landmark talks aimed at ending the war in Syria could meet next in New York in mid-December, diplomats here said, as long as the latest tensions between Russia and Turkey can be calmed…The next session is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 18. The talks could be accompanied by a nod from the United Nations Security Council, which is led this month by the United States. (NYT http://nyti.ms/1YFNMtM)

Meet Burkina’s new president…Roch Marc Kabore was proclaimed the winner of the presidential election in Burkina Faso and will become the country’s first new leader in decades, the Independent National Electoral Commission said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1NlNwb3)

Stat of the day: An estimated 140,000 refugees and migrants reached Europe by sea in November, a big drop from October, although the numbers crossing remain very high and could reach 1 million for the year, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1XvMyUN)

Africa

France will give African countries $2.1 billion over the next four years to develop renewable energy and replace the fossil fuels that drive global warming, President Francois Hollande said Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1XvJuI8)

Anti-corruption group Transparency International estimates that 75 million Africans paid a bribe in the past year, in a report that says most Africans believe corruption is getting worse. (VOA http://bit.ly/1lt67eU)

Burundi is on the brink of a war that could have “potentially disastrous effects in an already fragile region” but there is no immediate need to deploy United Nations peacekeepers, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1NlNtw6)

Aid workers in war-torn South Sudan have reached one of the worst hit areas where thousands are feared dying of starvation, the United Nations said Tuesday, but warned conditions may yet worsen. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1lt5YZ7)

Fierce fighting between UN peacekeepers and Ugandan rebels raged in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, after a weekend attack by the mostly Muslim group left 24 people dead. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1XvKrjX)

Hundreds of schools in northeast Nigeria have reopened for the first time in a year and a half, though many teachers and pupils are reluctant to return because of persistent violence in the region, the United Nations said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1lt5ZMs)

More than 410 babies were born in the space of two months in camps for people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria, the country’s main relief agency said on Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Rk7Y2c)

Heavy rains, flooding and a spike in new arrivals could threaten the lives of over 110,000 Burundian refugees in overcrowded camps in Tanzania, six aid agencies said, amid warnings of rising political tension in Burundi. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1NlNS1F)

Gambia will hold a presidential election in December 2016, with legislative and local polls to follow in April 2017 and April 2018, the electoral commission said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1XvMm7T)

MENA

 

Unidentified assailants on Tuesday kidnapped two Red Cross employees in the Yemeni capital, releasing one but keeping the other, a Tunisian female staffer, an ICRC spokeswoman said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1lt96Eg)

A pipe bomb left on a highway overpass near an Istanbul subway station exploded Tuesday, wounding five people, a local official said. The blast caused some panic in the city, which is on edge following a spate of deadly bombings in Turkey. (WaPo http://wapo.st/1YFNp2f)

An air strike on a water treatment plant in Syria last Thursday cut water supplies for 3.5 million people and while pumping has been partly restored, 1.4 million still have reduced supply, the United Nations said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1OuxcKk)

The United Nations says 888 people were killed in violence in Iraq in November, up from 714 the previous month. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Ouxcu1)

Saudi Arabian women are running for election and voting for the first time on Dec. 12, but their enfranchisement marks only a pigeon step towards democracy and gender equality in the autocratic Islamic kingdom. (VOA http://bit.ly/1ODsmJ2)

The U.S. military is eager to do more in Syria to help enable local forces combat Islamic State and could expand beyond a previously announced deployment of up to 50 special operations forces, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1lt98vV)

Jordan has launched a national census to provide greater clarity about a population that includes large numbers of Syrian refugees and foreign workers. (VOA http://bit.ly/1NlN3Wt)

The US-led coalition has made Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish forces primary allies against the Islamic State jihadist group, but over-reliance on the Kurds carries risks, analysts warn. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1NlN2C3)

Asia

The estimated number of adolescents dying of AIDS in the Asia Pacific region has more than doubled since 2005, experts said Monday, warning of a “hidden epidemic.” (VOA http://bit.ly/1NlN1xL)

Taiwan has fallen into economic recession after two quarters of decline in the value of goods and services produced. (VOA http://bit.ly/1XvLYqc)

The Americas

An operation to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada has begun, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday, with 10,000 people due to depart for their new home by the end of the year. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1OuxeSv)

Colombia has for the first time declined to extradite to the United States a Marxist FARC rebel accused of drug trafficking, as peace negotiations approach a March deadline. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1ODslom)

Brazil filed a lawsuit against two of the world’s largest mining companies for $5.2 billion to clean up what it says was its worst environmental disaster, caused by the collapse of a tailings dam. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Ouz7Pi)

Angry relatives of five young Rio men shot dead in what appears to have been Brazil’s latest botched police operation described next year’s Olympic host city on Tuesday as a war zone where the poor are treated as the enemy. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1lt96nC)

Its leaders have been thrown in jail, banned from politics and remain deeply divided, but Venezuela’s opposition nonetheless looks set to bruise President Nicolas Maduro by winning control of the National Assembly. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1NlN2BQ)

…and the rest

El Niños, climate change and increasing conflict linked to prolonged droughts and extreme weather are leaving the world unable to cope with the food needs of millions of people, the World Food Programme has warned. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1XvKj3N)

European countries must stop locking up stateless people like criminals, human rights campaigners said, describing their detention as “a preventable tragedy” that risks being worsened by the migrant crisis. (TRF http://yhoo.it/1lt62rI)

Support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats has surged to nearly 20 percent over the past six months, a poll showed on Tuesday, as the country turns to tents and ski resorts to house record numbers of asylum seekers. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1NoGNBM)

Opinion/Blogs

It’s a Brand New Day in Burkina Faso (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1RkaqFR)

Meet the inspiring founder of a girls school in Liberia, who turned her NGO into a community hub to fight ebola. (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/1MUhXYO)

GAVI”s Seth Berkley on why progress against measles is flatlining. (The Atlantic http://theatln.tc/1YFNUcK)

Mahmood Mamdani’s Citizen and Subject, twenty years later (Africa is a Country http://bit.ly/1RkarJZ)

Secret aid worker: Disposing of tampons in the jungle and other dilemmas (Guardian http://bit.ly/1NlIxap)

Over 30 Years of HIV: What We’ve Learned and the Road Ahead (allAfrica http://bit.ly/1ODoCY6)

These Are The Faces Of People Facing HIV/AIDS: #WorldAidsDay (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/1ODsmZs)

When in Doubt, Ask Yourself ‘What Would the Tanzanian President Do?’ (Global Voices http://bit.ly/1XvLZKF)

No Miracles, Just Signs As Pope Francis Ends Africa Visit (DW http://bit.ly/1NlNxMn)

10 things to know about climate finance in 2015 (ODI http://bit.ly/1ltdEdS)

Why Degrowth has out-grown its own name. (From Poverty to Power http://bit.ly/1Rkb8mv)

Australian aid a tiny dancer compared to UK effort: Elton John (DevPolicy http://bit.ly/1NoINdh)