The Balaam Declaration: A Call to Arms for the United Nations Climate Conference

Raging wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui have killed six people and displaced thousands more. Hundreds of homes and businesses have been destroyed as well, including within the historic town of Lahaina.

Leaders of eight South American countries that share the Amazon rainforest wrapped up a two-day summit in Belem, Brazil yesterday. By the end of the gathering, the group – known as the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, or ACTO – adopted a “new and ambitious shared agenda” to protect the rainforest, but it fell short of demands from some environmentalists and Indigenous groups.

And in headlines: Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated Wednesday, the Biden administration released new rules to restrict U.S. investments in certain high-tech industries in China, and six Idaho college professors and two teachers’ unions sued the state over a law that limits public funds for abortion-related speech.

Show Notes:
Help those affected by the fires in Maui

• Maui Mutual Aid Fund - https://www.bit.ly/mauimutualaide
• Hawai'i' Community Foundation Maui Strong Fund - https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong
• Fundraiser for Pūnana Leo o Lāhinā whose school site at Waiola Church, which burned down: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvvWWoqSl9V/
• Fundraiser for Nā ‘Āikane O Maui Cultural Center, which burned down: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvvJeNzy2WM/?img_index=1

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