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Peace Events Headlined by Naomi Tutu and Amy Goodman
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Seal the Deal on the Iran Nuclear Issue is the title of the 35th Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace sponsored by the Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) and co-sponsored to date by 31 religious and civic groups in the region (see list near bottom of this link) on Sunday, November 9 in Princeton, NJ.
Naomi Tutu--daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu--who has worked on race, gender, and peace issues around the world, will appear at an individual Sponsor-only Reception and Dinner from 6:00-8:00 PM on Saturday, November 8 at the Nassau Inn in Princeton.
Dr. Tutu will also preach at the Interfaith Service at 11:00 AM at Princeton University Chapel. Faith leaders from a wide range of major world religions will co-lead the liturgy. The Service is free and open to the public; a free will offering to support CFPA's ongoing work will be received.
The afternoon Conference is from 1:30-5:00 PM at Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau Street (across from Palmer Square) in Princeton. Doors will open for seating and at the door registration, if any seating remains, at 1:00 PM. Confirmed speakers include:
- Naomi Tutu (see above)
Amy Goodman, an award winning journalist, renowned author, and host and executive producer of Democracy Now!
Jamal Abdi, Policy Director of the National Iranian American Council, which is spearheading the Seal the Deal campaign
Ariane Tabalabai, Stanton Nuclear Fellow, Harvard University who has published on the Iran negotiations.
Early bird conference registration fees per person, which can be paid by credit card through CFPA's secure web site, www.peacecoalition.org; or telephone (609) 924-5022, are below. After the October 24 deadline, there is a substantial increase, so those planning to come are strongly encouraged to reserve by then.
Individual Sponsor (includes Nov. 8 reception and dinner at the Nassau Inn in Princeton with Naomi Tutu, preferred seating and listing in program) $125 per CFPA member; $150 per non-member
Patron (includes preferred seating and listing in program): $50 per member of CFPA; $75 per non-member
Regular Seating: $25 per CFPA member; $40 per non-member.
Students are free, but must pre-register at CFPA's web site, www.peacecoalition.org
Those planning to attend are strongly encouraged to pre-register to ensure admission, and to avoid standing in line to register at the door.
"We are thrilled to have such an outstanding group of presenters for our 35th annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace. Intense effort has been invested in resolving the Iran nuclear issue peacefully, and this may be our last chance to do so in a very long time. We encourage those who support diplomacy instead of war to come, become educated and empowered to advocate strongly as the November 24 deadline approaches for a negotiated settlement," said the Rev. Robert Moore, CFPA Executive Director.
The Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) is a grassroots citizens organization which brings together people of all ages, backgrounds, professions, and political persuasions in support of three goals: global abolition of nuclear weapons, a peace economy, and a halt to weapons trafficking at home and abroad.
LATEST NEWS
'Worrying': Vietnam and Laos Hit Record-High Temps Amid Ongoing Heatwave
"I believe this record will be repeated many times," said one scientist. "It confirms that extreme climate models are being proven to be true."
May 08, 2023
Temperature records were shattered across Southeast Asia this past weekend as tens of millions of people throughout the region continue to endure a weekslong heatwave intensified by the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.
All-time highs were recorded Saturday in Vietnam and Laos. The mercury hit 44.2°C (111.6°F) in Vietnam's northern district of Tuong Duong, marking the country's hottest temperature on record, according to climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.
"This is a worrying record in the context of climate change and global warming," environmental scientist Nguyen Ngoc Huy said from the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. "I believe this record will be repeated many times. It confirms that extreme climate models are being proven to be true."
In neighboring Laos, the temperature reached 43.5°C (110.3°F) in the city of Luang Prabang, surpassing the national record of 42.7°C (108.9°F) set less than a month ago, Herrera noted. The Laotian capital of Vientiane broke its all-time high as well with a temperature of 42.5°C (108.5°F).
Thailand's capital of Bangkok, where Herrera is based, also saw its hottest temperature on record this weekend, hitting 41°C (105.8°F) on Sunday, one day after establishing a short-lived high of 40.5°C (104.9°F). Heat in the city has been exacerbated by smog from forest fires and crop burning.
"Seven weeks with records smashed... make this the most extreme... and longest tropical record heat event the world has experienced."
Much of Thailand has "suffered under temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s Celsius since late March," CNN reported Monday. "In mid-April, the northwest city of Tak became the first place in the country to top 45°C (113°F)."
Thailand is not unique in this regard, as dangerously high temperatures have been witnessed throughout Asia this spring.
"April and May are typically the hottest months of the year for South and Southeast Asia as temperatures rise before annual monsoon rains bring some relief," CNN noted. "Temperatures across the region are expected to return closer to average in the coming days, but unprecedented heat events are becoming more common as the climate crisis intensifies."
Alluding to Asia's ongoing heatwave, Herrera tweeted Sunday that "seven weeks with records smashed nearly [on a] daily basis in hundreds of stations in an area of millions of square kilometers (initially from Eastern India to Japan, now in a smaller area) make this the most extreme... and longest tropical record heat event the world has experienced."
The duration and severity of the current heatwave lend further credence to climate scientists' warnings about how life-threatening extreme weather will worsen in the absence of sharp reductions in greenhouse gas pollution.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, mean global temperature has increased by roughly 1.2°C above preindustrial levels to date. The return of El Niño conditions in 2023 is expected to amplify global warming this year.
Last month, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told officials from wealthy countries that existing policies "would make our world 2.8°C hotter by the end of the century."
"This is a death sentence," said Guterres.
"Heatwaves in the past few decades have already been extremely deadly and there is serious cause for concern in the future."
Echoing what he said in March when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest comprehensive assessment, Guterres stressed that "it is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. But only if the world takes a quantum leap in climate action. And that depends on you."
"The science is clear: New fossil fuel projects are entirely incompatible with 1.5°C," the U.N. chief added. "Yet many countries are expanding capacity."
The IPCC has warned that heatwaves and other extreme weather disasters will become more common and severe with each additional fraction of a degree of global warming.
One 2022 study determined that "dangerous heatwaves, at temperatures of 39.4°C (103°F) and above, will occur between three and 10 times more often by the turn of the century," CNN reported Monday. "In the tropics, which encompasses much of Asia, the study found that days of 'extremely dangerous heat'—defined as 51°C (124°F)—could double, putting the population of impacted countries at risk."
“By definition, we don't know what could happen if large populations are exposed to unprecedented heat and humidity stress," the study's lead author, Lucas Vargas Zeppetello, told the outlet last month. "But heatwaves in the past few decades have already been extremely deadly and there is serious cause for concern in the future."
The U.N. warned last year that without transformative change, extreme heat is projected to kill as many people by the end of the century as all cancers and infectious diseases combined, with disproportionate impacts on people in impoverished nations. By midcentury, more than 2 billion children could be endangered by frequent heatwaves.
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'We Grieve for the Victims': Eight Killed When SUV Rammed Bus Stop Outside Texas Migrant Shelter
While police continue to investigate the incident, immigrants' rights groups noted that it comes amidst increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric and hard-line policy proposals.
May 08, 2023
Eight people were killed and several others injured Sunday when a man drove an SUV into a crowd of people who were waiting for a bus outside of a migrant center in the border city of Brownsville, Texas.
While police continue to investigate the motives of the driver, immigrants' rights groups noted that the incident comes amidst increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric toward migrants and asylum-seekers as well as proposals for hard-line immigration policies on both the state and federal level.
"We grieve for the victims in Brownsville, Texas, who were run over outside a migrant shelter where people from around the world are seeking asylum and safety," Oni Blair, the executive director ACLU of Texas, said in a statement. "We understand the motive is still under investigation. This horrific event comes after weeks of escalating anti-immigrant policymaking by Texas politicians and while the Biden administration considers imposing a new asylum ban aimed at deterring, rather than welcoming, migrants seeking protection."
\u201cHorrific. We grieve for the victims and for our Brownsville community.\n\nWe call on federal, state, and local governments to take immediate action to protect migrants and ensure witnesses can come forward without fear of deportation or reprisals. https://t.co/ifZVCcPIih\u201d— ACLU of Texas (@ACLU of Texas) 1683489026
The killings took place at around 8:30 am CT Sunday as migrants who had spent the night in Brownsville's Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center were waiting for the bus, Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, toldThe Associated Press. Because the stop is not marked and has no bench, many sat on the curb as they waited.
At that moment, an SUV drove onto the curb.
"We were going to the airport and it happened unexpectedly because a woman in a car passed by and advised us to separate and moments later the killer was coming in the car gesturing and insulting us," survivor Luis Herrera toldValley Central.
The car then flipped over and kept moving for another 200 feet or so, shelter director Victor Maldonado told AP after looking at the shelter's video footage.
"This SUV, a Range Rover, just ran the light that was about 100 feet (30 meters) away and just went through the people who were sitting there in the bus stop," Maldonado said.
The vehicle also crashed into some people who were walking on the sidewalk around 30 feet from the main group. Seven people were declared dead on the scene, while 10 victims were rushed to local hospitals for treatment, Brownsville Police Investigator Martin Sandoval told Valley Central. Another person had died by Sunday night.
"There is no doubt that our state's leaders are painting a target on migrants' backs."
Bystanders stopped the driver from running away until police arrived, Maldonado told AP. Afterward, he was taken to the hospital for injuries sustained in the crash.
Maldonado told AP that most of the victims were men from Venezuela. Venezuelans made up 4,000 of the approximately 6,000 migrants taken into Border Patrol custody in Texas' Rio Grande Valley Thursday.
Brownsville declared an emergency in the last several weeks because of a growing number of people crossing the border into the city, AP reported. While the shelter has a capacity of 250, Maldonado said that it had received up to 380 people a day for the past two months.
Despite Herrera's report that the driver insulted the migrants before plowing into them, police said his motivations are not yet known, though he has been arrested for reckless driving and could face additional charges.
"Now, we don't know the actual cause of the accident," Sandoval told Valley Central. "Like I said, it could be three different things. One, he could be intoxication. Two, it could be just an accidental one or three, it could be intentional."
However, while Maldonado said his shelter—the only one in Brownsville—received no threats before the killings, it did after the fact.
"I've had a couple of people come by the gate and tell the security guard that the reason this happened was because of us," Maldonado told AP.
Local politicians and rights groups were also quick to point out that the driver's actions did not take place in a vacuum.
Beyond President Joe Biden's proposed asylum ban, the Texas House on Tuesday is set to debate H.B. 20, a bill that would empower the state administration to deputize any "law-abiding" citizen to serve in a "Border Protection Unit" to enforce the law against anyone suspected of being a migrant, Human Rights Watch explained. Members of this unit would be granted criminal and civil immunity.
"I hope that today serves as a wake-up call, and that state officials will begin investing in a humanitarian response that might have helped the people who were impacted by this morning's tragedy," Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project and a Brownsville resident, said in a statement.
Texas Democratic State Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, who hails from Brownsville, also called out the state response.
"While the incident is still under investigation, there is no doubt that our state's leaders are painting a target on migrants' backs. Political actors—who just want to score points with the absolute worst fringes of society—are ginning people up and getting them to hate their fellow brothers and sisters, and turning human being against human being," Hinojosa said in a statement reported by Valley Central.
The ACLU of Texas, meanwhile, emphasized the rights of witnesses to the incident to testify.
"President Biden, Texas Gov. [Greg] Abbott, and other elected officials continue to spread fear about immigration instead of treating the needs of people crossing the border as a humanitarian matter. We call on federal, state, and local governments to take immediate action to protect migrants and to lead with compassion. That includes ensuring witnesses of the alleged attack can come forward without fear of deportation or reprisals," Blair said. "No matter where we live or how long we've been there, every person in Texas should feel safe going about our daily lives."
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Brazilian President Lula da Silva Calls For Freedom For Julian Assange
'The press, which defends freedom of the press, does nothing to free this citizen.'
May 07, 2023
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva has called for freedom for Julian Assange and denounced the lack of concerted efforts to free the journalist.
Lula spoke to a group of reporters in London Saturday while in town to attend the coronation of King Charles III.
Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has spent four years in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison while fighting extradition to the United States.
“It is an embarrassment that a journalist who denounced trickery by one state against another is arrested, condemned to die in jail and we do nothing to free him. It’s a crazy thing,” Lula told reporters. “We talk about freedom of expression; the guy is in prison because he denounced wrongdoing. And the press doesn’t do anything in defense of this journalist. I can’t understand it.”
“I think there must be a movement of world press in his defense. Not in regard to his person, but to defend the right to denounce,” Lula told the reporters. “The guy didn’t denounce anything vulgar. He denounced that a state was spying on others, and that became a crime against the journalist. The press, which defends freedom of the press, does nothing to free this citizen. It’s sad, but it’s true.”
Also, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday he too was frustrated over the continued detention of Julian Assange: "enough is enough."
"I know it's frustrating, I share the frustration," Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. from London for the coronation of King Charles III.
"I can't do more than make very clear what my position is, and the U.S. administration is certainly very aware of what the Australian government's position is. There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration."
"Enough is enough, this needs to be brought to a conclusion, it needs to be worked through," said Albanese.
Assange has battled for years to avoid being sent to the U.S., where the journalist faces 17 charges of espionage because of WikiLeaks’ publication of a trove of classified documents in 2010.
US prosecutors allege he published 700,000 secret classified documents which exposed the United States government and its wrongdoings in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wikileaks received the documents from Chelsea Manning.
Albanese said Australians cannot understand why the US would free the source who leaked the documents, Chelsea Manning, while Assange still faces life in prison.
President Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists around the world, while he actively seeks the extradition of Assange to face American espionage charges.
Assange faces a sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum security prison if extradited to the United States.
\u201cWhile in London, President Lula calls for a movement in defense of Julian Assange.\u201d— Kawsachun News (@Kawsachun News) 1683409472
\u201c"Enough is enough."\n\nAustralian PM Anthony Albanese has expressed frustration at the US\u2019s continuing efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on charges including espionage https://t.co/BFNtvAnUbR\u201d— Al Jazeera English (@Al Jazeera English) 1683272705
\u201c'Julian Assange Writes Letter to King Charles III Inviting Him to Visit Belmarsh Prison "Kingdom"' | via @firstpost\u201d— WikiLeaks (@WikiLeaks) 1683460894
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