June, 12 2018, 12:00am EDT
Congresswoman Barbara Lee's Statement on Singapore Summit with Kim Jong-Un
Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement on President Trump's summit with Kim Jong-Un in Singapore:
"As a lifelong advocate for diplomacy, I am pleased that the U.S. has started direct talks with North Korea to denuclearize and deescalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
WASHINGTON
Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement on President Trump's summit with Kim Jong-Un in Singapore:
"As a lifelong advocate for diplomacy, I am pleased that the U.S. has started direct talks with North Korea to denuclearize and deescalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
"Diplomacy takes time. The Trump Administration must be prepared to engage in the hard work of negotiation. President Trump needs to stop sidelining experts and rebuild our diplomatic staff at the State Department, so that we can achieve a verifiable agreement that helps rid the world of nuclear weapons.
"At the same time, we cannot lose sight of the challenges ahead. We must stand firm against the war hawks in President Trump's cabinet who would like to co-opt this chance at peace to pave the way for regime change. If our negotiations don't succeed, we cannot allow the collapse of these talks to be used as a pretext for war.
"We have an opportunity to build permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, stop nuclear proliferation in its tracks, and ensure greater respect for human rights in North Korea. We need to ensure that this summit is more than just a photo opportunity. In the coming months, it is critically important that the U.S. continues the momentum towards a specific, concrete deal to address the many issues before our two nations."
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Democrat, represents the 13th District in California.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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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