Good morning, it’s Thursday.
With everything going on in the world – all the senseless and random violence, hatred, and suffering – sometimes it feels like talking about peace is both hopelessly naive and utterly useless.
I know that sounds terribly defeatist. I don’t NOT believe in the whole “evil wins when good gives up the fight” concept. Just sometimes it’s hard not to get discouraged about the state of the world and our relatively limited ability to make a big impact.
I have never been a big marcher or a joiner. I do admire the people who hit the streets with regularity – the volunteer folks, mind you, not the ones who do it for a living – taking time out from their lives (jobs, kids, classes, etc.) to expand some human capital on a cause they really believe in.
Do not misunderstand me here. I’m not saying I agree with demonstrators in every instance. More often than not, I don’t. But I do give them props for showing up. Decades of reporting at the state Capitol gave me a healthy respect for the power of people to move policy and politics.
I’m getting a little far afield here, aren’t I? What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, peace.
My personal misgivings aside, peace is certainly a worthy goal to which we should globally aspire. Apparently, the United Nations agrees, because in 1981, its General Assembly established the International Day of Peace, and then two decades later, in 2011, unanimously voted to designate the Day as a period of non-violence and cease-fire.
From the UN’s website:
The theme for this year’s International Day of Peace is “Actions for Peace: Our Ambition for the #GlobalGoals“. It is a call to action that recognizes our individual and collective responsibility to foster peace. Fostering peace contributes to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will create a culture of peace for all.
This day comes as the 78th session of the General Assembly is underway in New York City – a meeting that is being characterized as a “crucial milestone in the journey” toward meeting its 2030 Agenda, but also a chance to hit the reset button on its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which were agreed on in 2015.
The goals, which (among other things) call for hunger and poverty to be eradicated by 2030, the establishment of gender equality, and for everyone around the world to have access to education, clean water, and reliable energy, are nowhere near close to on track for realization.
In fact, the UN itself says that the world has actually lost ground, instead of making progress, on some of them. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres doubled down on that this week, telling world leaders that only 15% of the targets are on track and that many are going in reverse.
I really hoped to end on an optimistic note, but I’m not sure what to say about the state of the world right now, other than to suggest that peace is still a really lovely goal…I just have no idea how to get there. Hopefully smarter heads than mine who are gathered at the UN will figure it out.
A girl’s gotta dream.
On a positive and more tangible front, another beautiful fall day is on tap, with sunny skies and temperatures in the low-to-mid 70s.
In the headlines…
After being thwarted by Congress, President Joe Biden will use his executive authority to create a New Deal-style American Climate Corps that will serve as a major green jobs training program.
In an announcement yesterday, the White House said the program will employ more than 20,000 young adults who will build trails, plant trees, help install solar panels and do other work to boost conservation and help prevent catastrophic wildfires.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida unveiled an energy plan in the heart of oil country, criticizing electric vehicles and global climate agreements, promising lower fuel prices and pushing for more oil and gas development.
Biden raised “hard issues,” including protecting the “checks and balances” in a democracy, in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pushing the Israeli leader to find a compromise on a judicial overhaul that has set off mass protests in Israel.
Biden and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, played up their mutual affection for workers’ rights as the leaders of the Western Hemisphere’s two largest democracies met in New York, steering clear in public about their differences on Ukraine.
The Biden administration announced it would cancel nearly $37 million in student debt for more than 1,200 students who attended the University of Phoenix.
Biden will announce the creation of the first-ever federal office of gun violence prevention on Friday, fulfilling a key demand of gun safety activists as legislation remains stalled in Congress.
The office will coordinate efforts across the federal government and will offer help and guidance to states struggling with increasing gun violence, while taking the lead on implementation of the bipartisan gun legislation signed into law last year.
A federal magistrate judge denied Hunter Biden’s effort to avoid appearing in person at his arraignment on federal gun charges, ordering him to appear at a hearing scheduled for Oct. 3.
The Senate confirmed Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. of the Air Force as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, circumventing Senator Tommy Tuberville’s blockade of Pentagon promotions.
House Republicans clashed with Attorney General Merrick Garland, accusing him and the Justice Department of the “weaponization” of the department’s work in favor of President Biden ‘s son.
The soft-spoken attorney general struck a sharper tone during testimony before the Judiciary Committee, saying prosecutors won’t be “intimidated” by threats from Trump allies.
House Republicans remained paralyzed yesterday as deep internal divisions left Speaker Kevin McCarthy with no immediate way to advance needed spending legislation, significantly increasing the chances of a government shutdown in 10 days.
McCarthy told reporters that he intends to keep lawmakers in DC for a rare Saturday session as Republicans bicker over how to fend off a partial government shutdown set to begin at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 30.
McCarthy, grasping for G.O.P. votes to bring spending bills up for debate, proposed a new measure with deeper cuts to appease the hard right, paving the way for a clash with the Senate.
Rep. Mike Lawler angrily lashed out at far right-wing colleagues in the fractious GOP caucus after McCarthy was forced to pull the plug on a stopgap funding measure. “This is stupidity. It’s a clown show,” said Lawler, a Hudson Valley congressman.
With less than four months until Iowa’s caucuses, Donald Trump and his team yesterday began a more concerted effort to lock up his support there, starting with two events in eastern Iowa — the first of five planned visits to the state over the next six weeks.
Lawyers for three Georgia Republicans indicted for casting false Electoral College votes for Trump offered a glimpse of their defense strategy, telling a federal judge that they submitted the votes as part of their “duty” under federal law.
Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has alleged in her forthcoming book that Rudy Giuliani groped her backstage at the 45th president’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021.
The book, titled “Enough,” describes Giuliani as acting “like a wolf closing in on its prey,” according to the Guardian, which obtained an advance copy.
Several Republican groups are suing the state of New York and Gov. Kathy Hochul after she signed a measure expanding access to absentee voting.
When the New York State Association of Counties met last week for its annual fall conference, delegates unanimously adopted a resolution asking Hochul to veto legislation moving local elections to even-numbered years.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Hochul announced one of the first major awards from the CHIPS & Science Act is going to a New York-based consortium.
A NY Cannabis Insider investigation has uncovered systemic public health failures at every level of the state’s legal cannabis industry, from farmers to labs to state regulators, that experts say may pose a serious health threat to consumers.
The Biden administration said late yesterday that it would allow hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans already in the United States to live and work legally in the country for 18 months.
Thousands of migrants who flocked to the Big Apple from the US border are making ends meet by working in the illegal underground gig economy — while living at taxpayer-funded hotels and shelters.
An unprecedented surge of 4,000 migrants streamed across the US border with Mexico into Eagle Pass, Texas, yesterday, forcing the overwhelmed city to declare a state of emergency.
New York City was portrayed as a key victim of the Biden administration’s border policy in a U.S. House of Representatives hearing.
Despite raising the prospect of the state stepping in to issue temporary work permits for asylum seekers as they continue to await federal authorization, Gov. Kathy Hochul said that she did not bring up the idea during a brief meeting with Biden.
Mayor Eric Adams urged Biden to swing by The Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter before ending his trip this week to New York City — to see just how much the asylum seeker crisis is ravaging the Big Apple.
Adams condemned the behavior of Staten Islanders protesting a new migrant shelter after 10 people were arrested during a demonstration there on Tuesday.
The Adams administration is stripping city agencies of their discretionary spending powers — in the latest attempt by the mayor to balance the Big Apple’s books with the impending migrants-fueled $12 billion shortfall.
New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks brushed off the notion that a national teachers shortage has badly hurt the Big Apple — even as the number of city educators has notably dropped while more migrant students keep enrolling in public schools.
Once the city’s second-most powerful politician, Christine Quinn is now a high-profile advocate on the divisive homelessness and migrant crises. That could threaten her chances with future voters.
A contentious plan backed by Adams for the International Cricket Council to build a temporary, 34,000-seat stadium in a Bronx park is dead, following heated opposition from local elected officials and some amateur cricket players.
While the MTA is confident its congestion pricing program is on track to go into effect this May, the agency has no plans to increase bus service and expects subways to absorb additional riders.
The subway system had its highest single day of ridership since the pandemic on Tuesday with over 4.1 million straphangers. That’s up 10% from last year’s peak and 72% of the subway’s pre-COVID daily ridership of roughly 5.7 million people.
Amid a city budget crisis, the official who oversees New York’s teetering jail system is visiting the United Kingdom and France this week with a coterie of top Correction Department officials — ostensibly to learn about those nations’ prison operations.
A tentative agreement has been reached between the union representing school bus drivers and the three largest bus companies in New York City, avoiding a potentially paralyzing city-wide strike.
A product made from umbilical cord blood was used in spine surgeries at a Manhattan hospital. After a federal warning came an internal complaint: Patients should have been told.
Works of art stolen by the Nazis from a renowned Austrian-Jewish cabaret performer more than 80 years ago were officially returned to his heirs at a ceremony in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Tensions ran high in a Rockland County courtroom yesterday as two rabbis who have admitted to recklessly starting a deadly fire at an assisted living home were spared jail time under a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Citing prosecutorial misconduct and defect in instructions to a grand jury, a Saratoga County Judge dismissed all charges in the indictment against an ex-Vermont sheriff’s deputy involved in a November 2022 shootout in downtown Saratoga Springs.
The principal of Bethlehem High School is warning students and parents of consequences amid a rising number of parties where students are said to be drinking and taking drugs.
Addressing growing mental health and housing challenges, city and county officials promised to bolster programs that provide support to people living on the street and reopen the Albany Mercy House, a shelter for women and children that closed last year.
