The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), a program launched by President Barack Obama in 2010 to empower young entrepreneurial African leaders, is holding its 2016 Presidential Summit in Washington D.C. this week. The Summit welcomes 1,000 fellows from the initiative’s flagship program, the Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF), double the number of fellows in the 2014 inaugural cohort.
To prevent possible reversals by the next president, the current administration is ramping up introductions of regulations ahead of the presidential elections later this year.
According to Politico, 195 new regulations have been introduced since the beginning of the year. This pace of regulation is nearly one-third faster than during the Obama Administration’s previous three years.
Gap year opportunities have surged in the media recently in response to the announcement that Malia Obama will take a gap year before entering college, the Boston Globe reports.
The experiences students undertake during a gap year are varied, the Boston Globe explains, noting that some students stay closer to home while others pursue opportunities abroad:
In the last budget request of his presidency, President Obama requested $628.9 million for core Department of State educational and cultural exchange programs.
This request represents an approximately 6.4% increase over the FY16 funding level of $590.9 million—a robust number in difficult budget times (nearly $6 million higher than last year’s request of $623 million), and a concrete sign of the Obama administration’s support of exchanges.
A continuing resolution (CR) passed by Congress and signed by President Obama on Wednesday will keep the federal government funded at current levels through December 11, reports CQ.
President Obama and Chinese President Xi aim to have one million American students studying Mandarin by 2020, according to a joint announcement made during President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to the U.S.
Explaining the importance of the new initiative, President Obama noted the role language plays in U.S.-China relations: