January 22, 2020
Action Alert Digest
ACTIVE NONVIOLENCE AND PEACEMAKING
Gun Control Advocates Counter Pro-Gun Richmond Rally, Lobbying for Regulation and Calling for Nonviolence

Gun control and anti-racism advocates arrived in Richmond, Virginia Monday to challenge the rally held by an estimated 15,000 pro-gun people from all over the country with the counter-protesters applauding recent firearm regulations passed in the state legislature.  The rally forced Richmond officials to cancel the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Day vigil for the first time in 28 years.  MORE
Taliban Say They Handed Cease-Fire Offer to US Peace Envoy

The Taliban have given the U.S. envoy their offer for a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan that would last between seven and 10 days. The offer is seen as an opportunity to open a window to an eventual peace deal that would allow the United States to bring home its estimated 13,000 troops and end the 18-year war in Afghanistan, America’s longest conflict.  MORE
NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
U.S. Indicts 5 Men Suspected of Aiding Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Program

Five men are accused of conspiring to smuggle aircraft parts, electronic components, and other technical equipment from the U.S. to Pakistan to support that country’s nuclear program. Between September 2014 and October 2019, the group operated an international network of front companies that existed to acquire goods for a Pakistani group.    MORE
North Korea Abandons Nuclear Freeze Pledge, Blames 'Brutal' U.S. Sanctions

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had set an end of December deadline for denuclearization talks with the United States. Over the past two years, North Korea claims they had halted nuclear tests and test firing of inter-continental ballistic missiles “in order to build confidence with the United States”.  However, stated an envoy, “If the U.S. persists in such hostile policy towards (North Korea) there will never be the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” MORE
Majority of Millennials See Catastrophic War as Real Possibility and Believe There Should Be Limits

A survey of more than 16,000 millennials in 16 countries and territories last year explored millennials' views on conflict, the future of warfare and the values underpinning international humanitarian law. Although 84 percent of the respondents believe the use of nuclear weapons is never acceptable, 54 percent believe it is more likely than not that a nuclear attack will occur in the next decade.  MORE
IMMIGRATION
TAKE ACTION: Defund Remain in Mexico Program

It is now a year since the Trump Administration started sending asylum seekers back to Mexico to wait until their cases are considered. More than 56,000 women, men, and children have been sent back to unsanitary and unsafe conditions south of the U.S. border. The Sisters of Mercy urges us to demand that our legislators oppose this inhumane policy.  TAKE ACTION    
In Immigration Courts Across US: Nonstop Chaos

Reporters visited 11 courts across the country and found crushing caseloads, impossible hearing schedules, children everywhere and a shortage of translators. Frequent changes in the law and rules for how judges manage their dockets make it impossible to know what the future holds when immigrants finally have their day in court. Paper files are often misplaced, and interpreters are often missing.  MORE
U.S. Judge Blocks Trump Order Requiring Local Officials' Consent to Take Refugees

A U.S. federal judge ruled last week to block an executive order by President Trump that only allows refugees to be resettled if state and local officials agree to accept them. Last week, Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas became the first statewide official to refuse to accept refugees. The latest ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte, temporarily stops the U.S. government from enforcing that position.  MORE
ENVIRONMENT
TAKE ACTION: Tell Legislators to Put Wildlife Over Waste

Each year, Americans throw away millions of foam cups and take-out boxes.  Keeping our drinks hot or cold isn't worth polluting our environment for hundreds of years. Environment Iowa urges us to tell our legislators to support a ban on foam cups and boxes made of polystyrene to reduce pollution in our oceans and protect wildlife.  TAKE ACTION
A Blob of Hot Water in the Pacific Ocean Killed a Million Seabirds

As many as one million seabirds died at sea in less than 12 months in one of the largest mass die-offs in recorded history -- and researchers say warm ocean waters are to blame. The birds appeared to have died of starvation, washing up along North America's west coast, from California to Alaska. Now, scientists say they know what caused it: a huge section of warm ocean water in the northeast Pacific Ocean dubbed "the Blob."  MORE
Germany Goes Greener With $95 Billion Push for Train Over Plane

Germany launched a $95-billion plan to modernize and expand its creaky railway system as part of a broader plan to reduce the country's carbon emissions and slow global warming. The 10-year plan's cost will be shared between the federal government and the state-owned railway.  MORE
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
TAKE ACTION: Take Forced Labor Out of Palm Oil Products

Vast stretches of the Malaysian rainforest have been destroyed for palm oil plantations linked to forced labor. Plantations that contribute to many everyday products including shampoo, chocolate, lipstick, and even ice cream, but the environmental and human cost keeps piling up. Freedom United invites us to help block imports of tainted goods and put pressure on exploitative companies to clean up their act and protect workers.  TAKE ACTION
Human Trafficking Lawsuits Allege Hotels Ignored Problem

Lawyers representing human trafficking victims want a single federal judge to oversee multiple lawsuits alleging that major hotel chains have ignored human trafficking taking place on their premises. Attorneys have asked a federal panel to consolidate at least 21 such lawsuits pending in 11 states into a single case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio arguing that the lawsuits contain the same basic allegations.  MORE
Nebraska Could Tax Escort Services to Hit Human Traffickers

A Nebraska state lawmaker is trying to hit traffickers in the wallet with a proposed sales tax on dating and escort services. The bill introduced would eliminate a sales tax exemption for businesses that act as a front for prostitution and human trafficking. It appears that escort services haven’t been required to pay Nebraska taxes for decades because lawmakers never bothered to impose one on the industry. MORE
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT
This New Approach to Domestic Violence in Massachusetts Is Helping Save Lives

Advocates in a Boston-area city have created what is believed to be the nation’s first domestic violence high-risk team. They found that domestic violence escalates in predictable patterns, and identifying those patterns presents an opportunity to prevent it. There are now 26 high-risk teams across the state, bringing advocates together with police, prosecutors, corrections officers, emergency room staff and others to help victims in the most lethal situations.  MORE
Ex-Little Leaguers Accuse Staten Island Coach of Sex-Abuse

James Manfredonia said he was an innocent teenager in the 1970s when Tony Sagona, his Little League baseball coach, sexually abused him and other boys in the lineup of their Staten Island, New York, team. But neither he nor any of the other players told anybody. So when the New York Legislature passed the Child Victims Act this year and opened a window for victims to sue regardless of when the abuse took place, Manfredonia began hunting for his old team rosters.  MORE
POVERTY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
'Cruel to Its Core': 15 State Attorneys General Sue Trump Over Effort to Strip Food Assistance from Nation's Poor

Calling the Trump administration's attempt to gut the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program "unlawful" and well as "cruel," 15 state attorneys general, as well as the city of New York, filed a lawsuit last week against the Agriculture Department over its new requirements for the program, a month after they were finalized.  MORE
Global Wealth Inequality Is ‘Founded on Sexism,’ Says Oxfam International

Wealth inequality is also a story of gender inequality. Or more precisely, wealth inequality is in part because of gender inequality, according to Oxfam International’s latest report on global inequality, released this week.  The report indicates that the imbalance of wealth between men and women is at least partially due to the unpaid care work and domestic work that women are often responsible for.    MORE
DEATH PENALTY

Abel Ochoa is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on February 6 murders of Cecilia Ochoa, Crystal Ochoa, Ana Ochoa, Bartolo Alivizo, and Jacqueline Saleh. Please hold Abel, Cecelia, Crystal, Ana, Bartolo, Jacqueline, their families, and the people of Texas in prayer.  TAKE ACTION