Aid & Development links: Kenya tests universal basic income, Salome Karwah, South Sudan famine and more

• Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton discusses topics ranging from extreme poverty, opioid addiction, Trump voters, robots, and rent-seeking in this fascinating interview in The Atlantic.
  
• The fund to fill the gap left by President Trump’s global gag rule on family planning services has reached $190 million.
  
• Just days after famine was declared in South Sudan, the government increased the fee for business visas (including for foreign aid workers) from $100 to $10,000 while at the same time promising ‘unimpeded access’ to humanitarian and aid organisations working in the country.
  
• The tragic story of Salome Karwah, who appeared on the front cover of Time Magazine as an Ebola survivor and fighter, and her death from complications of childbirth in Liberia.
  
• Compassion International, a massive development NGO with deep Christian roots, has been kicked out of India after 48 years of operations on suspicion of engaging in religious conversion.
  
• Vox has now also jumped into the conversation on the universal basic income experiment in Kenya with some more balanced coverage than we've seen during the last few weeks.
  
• Chinese hourly wages in the manufacturing sector have surpassed Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
  
• Robin Davies puts forward the hard-to-argue-with point that Australia is failing to shoulder its fair share of the international foreign aid burden.
  
• Aidpreneur has an interesting podcast interview about the evolution of impact evaluation with the World Bank’s David Evans.

Jonathan Pryke