TED SNIDER – US President Joe Biden’s speech before the General Assembly on September 19 spent surprisingly little time on Russia and the war in Ukraine and, in many ways, hit many of the right notes with its praise of “Sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights . . . the core tenets of the U.N. Charter, the pillars of peaceful relations among nations. . ..” But America’s past performance on these very issues weaken the persuasiveness and sincerity of the appeal.
New York University will divest from fossil fuels in win for student activists
DHARNA NOOR – New York University plans to divest from fossil fuels, the Guardian has learned, following years of pressure from student activists.
Celebrate September 21, the International Day of Peace
TOM H. HASTINGS – Dwight Eisenhower, broadcast with Prime Minister Macmillan in London, 8/31/1959, said, “I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
Small reactors at Hanford: Déjà vu all over again
JOHN ABBOTTS – Will small reactors be the vehicle by which Energy Northwest “rhymes” with its earlier nuclear fiasco? Stay tuned.
Saudi Arabia: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?
KATHY KELLY – Rather than normalize militarism and human rights abuses, the United States should seek, always and everywhere, to salvage the planet and respect human rights.
From the Partial Test Ban Treaty to a Nuclear Weapons-Free World
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – As the Partial Test Ban Treaty and its successors show us, arms control and disarmament treaties have helped to curb the nuclear arms race and prevent nuclear war. Similarly, the revived march toward nuclear catastrophe can be halted by finally banning nuclear weapons―if people will demand it.