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For Immediate Release
February, 27 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Kevin Martin, Peace Action, 301-537-8244 cell, kmartin@peace-action.org
Gabe Murphy, Peace Action, 510-501-3345 cell, gmurphy@peaceaction.org
No Hanoi Agreement, But Diplomacy Must Continue
WASHINGTON
In response to the Hanoi summit meeting between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un ending without an agreement, Kevin Martin, President of Peace Action and Coordinator of the Korea Peace Network, released the following statement:
"It's unfortunate that the Hanoi Summit did not lead to an agreement, however, failure to reach an agreement should not be taken as a sign that diplomacy is not working. Diplomacy has done far more to advance the security of the U.S. and the Korean Peninsula than economic coercion and threats of military force. Diplomacy takes time and obviously much more work remains to be done. Members of Congress can help guide the process in a more productive direction moving forward by supporting Rep. Ro Khanna's new legislation calling for the signing of a peace agreement and other important steps to advance the goals of peace and a denuclearized Korean Peninsula."
Peace Action is the United States' largest peace and disarmament organization with over 100,000 members and nearly 100 chapters in 34 states, works to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs and encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights.
LATEST NEWS
Undaunted by Attacks, Online Educator Ms. Rachel Elevates Stories of Gaza's Children
"Ms. Rachel has freaked out the entire media class because she has shown how easy it is to humanize Palestinians and treat them with compassion while the mainstream media has spent 19 months doing precisely the opposite," said one observer.
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Amid accusations that her social media posts about children in Gaza spread "pro-Hamas propaganda" and even that she is paid by the designated terrorist group—a claim that was amplified by The New York Times last week—the megapopular children's entertainer and educator known as Ms. Rachel is showing no signs that she plans to stop advocating for young Palestinians.
Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, featured a visit with a three-year-old Palestinian girl named Rahaf in her latest post Wednesday on Instagram, where her 3 million followers have seen numerous posts from her in recent months about children in Gaza.
"This is my friend, Rahaf, from Gaza. Meeting her and her wonderful mama Israa changed my life,"
wrote Accurso in the post's caption, explaining that the Palestine Children's Relief Fund facilitated the mother and child's medical evacuation to the U.S. after Rahaf lost both her legs in an Israeli airstrike.
The video post showed Accurso and Rahaf singing and dancing in matching pink headbands, but Accurso shared in the caption that the visit included a difficult moment when she spoke with Rahaf's brothers and their father, who are still in Gaza.
One minute I was pretending to be bunnies with Rahaf and the next minute I was video chatting with her two adorable, young brothers in Gaza, as her mom, Israa, held the phone up for me. I watched Israa look at them proudly, like I look at my son. It was a drastic snap back into reality. I imagined myself holding the phone in the U.S. with my daughter, now a double amputee from an airstrike, away from my son in Gaza, unable to help him. I felt like I was going to throw up and came back into the moment. "I hope to meet you one day!" I happily said, in my classic Ms. Rachel voice but with tears in my eyes.
Israa tells me that they no longer eat while video chatting with her sons. Her sons are so hungry and have so little food. They look about 5 and 7 years old. About my son's age.
[...]
I ask Israa what she did for work. She answers that she was a teacher and taught math. I think about how Israa and I are both teachers. We both love our children with all of our hearts. We want the same thing for them. But my son will have dinner tonight, a story and snuggle with me, school in the morning… and hers won't. If the situation was the other way around, what would I hope Israa would do for me?
The post was just the latest of many pleas for an end to Palestinian children's suffering by Accurso, a former music teacher who until recently was mostly known for her YouTube videos geared toward toddlers, featuring nursery rhymes and early language lessons.
In other posts she has shared photos of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl whose voice was heard in a phone call she made to emergency workers before she was killed, alone in a car, in an airstrike in Gaza in January 2024; reflections on the suffering of Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas in October 2023; and messages demanding an end to Israel's blockade on all humanitarian aid that began in March.
"When you hear about the thousands and thousands of children killed in Gaza, do you hear a statistic or think of individual children like precious Rahaf?" wrote Accurso last week after her first visit with Rahaf. "When you hear about the kids being blocked from aid do you think about sweet kids like Rahaf becoming malnourished? Trying to make it controversial to speak for these children and staying silent shows that you are saying some children's lives are more important than others—it's based in anti-Palestinian racism. It's not a crime to want the children of Gaza to have food, water, and medical care—keeping it from them is."
Her advocacy for Palestinian children has garnered the attention of the organization StopAntisemitism, which called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether Accurso is funded by Hamas.
A number of progressive journalists condemned the Times last week for asking her whether the accusation was true, with one saying the question was "dangerous journalistic malpractice."
"Ms. Rachel has freaked out the entire media class because she has shown how easy it is to humanize Palestinians and treat them with compassion while the mainstream media has spent 19 months doing precisely the opposite," said Alex Foley of the Accountability Archive, which collects records of public figures backing Israel's assault on Gaza. "She's not a political actor and that's what makes it so powerful. She's just a person who looked out and saw the common humanity in people who are suffering and said this is intolerable."
In an interview with Mehdi Hasan at Zeteo last week, Accurso said that while policymakers in the U.S., Israel, and elsewhere have "tried to make it controversial" to speak out about Israel's impact on Palestinian children's lives, "I think it should be controversial to not say anything."
Writer Alon Mizrahi called Accurso "the biggest dissident in America" after she posted her latest video with Rahaf.
"American culture instructed her to hate Palestinian kids, to see them as nonhuman, to rejoice in their destruction, and to support it," said Mizrahi. "She said no; she chose to humanize them more, and she persisted and did not succumb to immense hate and pressure. She should have our admiration forever for this. She is a hero and an icon."
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Judge Blocks Trump Effort to Dismantle Education Department
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A federal judge on Thursday halted the Trump administration's efforts to shut down the U.S. Department of Education and ordered that some 1,300 employees who were let go in March be reinstated.
The department can't be shut down without assent from Congress, yet the "record abundantly reveals that defendants' true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute," wrote U.S. District Judge Myong Joun.
On March 11, the Trump administration announced it was firing over 1,300 staff, effectively halving the agency when combined with other staff reductions, such as the administration's "Fork in the Road" email, according to court filings.
Then, on March 20, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to begin the process of closing the DOE "to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law," and turning over education to the states and local communities.
On Thursday, the court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Trump administration from carrying out the reductions announced on March 11, and ordered the administration to reinstate those employees. It also bars the Trump administration from implementing the executive order and a related directive given out the following day.
By issuing a preliminary injunction, the court has ruled to keep the status quo in place while the underlying issue is disputed.
The plaintiffs in the suit, who include the Somerville Public School Committee, the Easthampton School District, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFT Massachusetts, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 93, American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), cheered the decision on Thursday.
Ilana Krepchin, chair of the Somerville School Committee, said the group is "deeply encouraged" by the court's decision.
AFT Massachusetts president Jessica Tang said that "the White House is not above the law, and we will never stop fighting on behalf of our students and our public schools and the protections, services, and resources they need to thrive."
"Today, the court rightly rejected one of the administration's very first illegal, and consequential, acts: abolishing the federal role in education," added AFT president Randi Weingarten.
In court, the educators, professors, school districts, and unions had argued that by getting rid of the staff required to meet Congress's requirements, the Trump administration was unlawfully abolishing the DOE and its "statutorily mandated" parts. The judge said that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in demonstrating that the Trump administration is effectively undercutting the DOE ability to carry out its statutory duties.
"A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all. This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the department's employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the department becomes a shell of itself," the district court wrote.
The nonprofit legal group Democracy Forward is representing the plaintiffs in court.
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'This Dinner Is Corruption Embodied': Protest Planned as Trump Dines With Crypto Investors
"Offering special access to the president in exchange for a scheme that enriches the president borders on bribery."
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Protesters are planning to gather outside U.S. President Donald Trump's Virginia golf club Thursday night as the Republican leader dines inside with the top 220 investors in his meme coin, an event that watchdogs and ethics experts have described as astonishingly corrupt.
The investors, including Chinese crypto billionaire Justin Sun and other moguls, spent nearly $400 million combined to obtain access to the president, who has openly solicited purchases of the crypto token $TRUMP. The top 25 investors in Trump's meme coin, most of whom are anonymous, are slated to receive a VIP White House tour on Friday.
Bitcoin, which Trump once derided as a "scam," surged to a new all-time high ahead of the dinner.
"This dinner is corruption embodied," progressive organizers said ahead of the protests. "Offering special access to the president in exchange for a scheme that enriches the president borders on bribery. America is not for sale!"
Christina Harvey, executive director of Stand Up America, said that "while millions of Americans brace for cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, Donald Trump is toasting the ultra-wealthy investors in his cryptocurrency."
"It's a crystal-clear picture of his priorities: tax handouts and exclusive access for the rich, and scraps for the rest of us," said Harvey. "Trump is selling access to the highest bidder, enriching himself at every turn, and accepting lavish gifts from foreign governments. He's turning the White House into his personal cash cow. Trump's message to the American people today couldn't be clearer: Let them eat cake."
"Never has there been a more shameless case of a U.S. president using their power and influence to line their own pockets."
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported Thursday that there will be no livestream of the dinner, and video gear will not be allowed.
In a social media post earlier this week, Sun—who was facing a Securities and Exchange Commission fraud case before the Trump administration halted it in February—wrote that he is "grateful for the invitation" to the dinner and "excited to connect with everyone, talk crypto, and discuss the future of our industry."
Norm Eisen, co-founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Thursday that Trump "might as well put up a for sale sign on the White House lawn"—a sentiment that others echoed ahead of the dinner.
"We already know an accused Chinese billionaire fraudster is the #1 holder of $TRUMP coin," said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US. "If the Trump family refuses to be transparent about who all these top $TRUMP holders are, it raises serious questions about the hidden agendas at play that could cost the American people or threaten our national security."
"Never has there been a more shameless case of a U.S. president using their power and influence to line their own pockets," Carrk added. "While the president wines and dines wealthy insiders from around the world, American working people are pushed further back in line, bracing for higher costs under Trump's regressive tariffs and budget plan."
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