January, 27 2016, 12:15pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michele Setteducato, 732-614-3818, mich12780@gmail.com
CJ Frogozo, 310-570-2622, christine.frogozo@gmail.com
Civil Rights Group to Hold Virtual Townhall, "#ConsiderUsPowerful"
Senator Cory Booker Moderates Discussion on Power of Black Vote in 2016
NEW YORK, NY
On Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 8pm EST, ColorOfChange will be hosting a virtual town hall moderated by U.S. Senator Cory Booker to discuss the power of the Black vote this election year.
At this unique political moment, new electoral data and analysis shows that Black people are positioned now more than ever to take the lead politically and win. Steve Phillips, PowerPAC.org Co-founder and author of soon to be released book, Brown is the New White: How The Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority; Glynda Carr, political analyst and Co-founder of Higher Heights, an organization focused on harnessing Black women's political power, Arisha Michelle Hatch, Managing Director of Campaigns at ColorOfChange and Charlene Carruthers, National Director of the Black Youth Project 100 will focus on key races around the country that Black voters are poised to decide in 2016 and why those races are so important.
Participants will also learn how Black voters can continue to build on the Black electoral power demonstrated in past elections to help end the rampant police brutality on Black lives and the lack of accountability.
WHAT: Virtual Town Hall: "#ConsiderUsPowerful - The Power of the Black Vote in 2016"
WHO: Moderator: U.S. Senator Cory Booker
Host: Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange
Panelists: Steve Phillips Co-founder, PowerPAC.org and author, Brown is the New White
Glynda Carr, political analyst and Co-founder, Higher Heights
Charlene Carruthers, National Director, Black Youth Project 100
Arisha Michelle Hatch, Managing Director of Campaigns at ColorOfChange
WHEN: Tuesday, February 2, 2016 8pm EST/5pm PST
WHERE: Register online here to be sent the call-in and log-in link for the live event
Color Of Change is the nation's largest online racial justice organization. We help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by over one million members, we move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America.
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
While Israel argues that its invasion of Syria does not violate a 1974 armistice agreement between the two countries because the Assad dynasty no longer rules the neighboring nation, Dujarric said Guterres maintains that Israel must uphold its obligations under the deal, "including by ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the cease-fire and stability in Golan."
Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has illegally occupied it ever since, annexing the seized lands in 1981.
Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
"The reason we have not joined virtually every other major country on Earth in guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right is the political power and financial power of the insurance industry and drug companies," he told Jacobin. "It will take a political revolution in this country to get Congress to say, 'You know what, we're here to represent ordinary people, to provide quality care to ordinary people as a human right,' and not to worry about the profits of insurance and drug companies."
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"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
"Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far," she continued. "This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the healthcare to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."
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Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
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