• Trump’s Big Bill to be signed Friday after marathon vote and marathon speech by Dem leader Hakeem Jeffries;
• Democratic and labor leaders say Big Budget Bill will hurt workers and destroy the middle class;
• SF sues Trump over EPA termination of Environment Climate Justice grants;
• Advocates fear state cannabis tax proposals could unravel and hurt programs for children
• MALDEF planning million dollar lawsuit over US citizen arrested for filming ICE raid

The post Trump’s Big Bill to be signed Friday after marathon vote; Advocates fear state cannabis tax bills could unravel funding and hurt programs for children – July 3, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

A Tibetan athlete, Lobsang Tharchin, finished third in the Pangong Ice Ultra, an ultra-marathon on a high-altitude frozen lake that straddles India’s northern Ladakh region and Tibet.

Some 20 runners competed in the 55-kilometer (34-mile) race through snow and ice at an elevation of 4,274 meters (14,000 feet) and in temperatures that fell to minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4 F).

Tharchin, 33, from Ladakh’s Tibetan Sonam Ling Settlement in northern India, finished Wednesday with a time of 5:19:10, proudly holding up the Tibetan flag at the finish line.

It marks the first time a Tibetan has finished in the top three of the Ice Ultra, which is a new addition in this year’s event, called the Pangong Frozen Lake Marathon. It was held in Ladakh, a mountainous region administered by India.

“Running on ice for the first time in this freezing weather was both an incredible experience and a great challenge,“ Tharchin said.

“With no special preparation, securing third place is a great honor,” he said. “As a Tibetan, being able to carry the Tibetan flag and display it filled me with immense happiness.”

(RFA)

The event was started in 2023 to promote winter tourism around Pangong Lake and to raise awareness about climate change and the specific challenges faceing the Ladakh region, said event organizer Jampa Tseten.

“As global temperatures rise, the melting of glaciers in Ladakh is becoming a stark reality,” he told Radio Free Asia. “It is crucial to encourage the local community to live in harmony with the environment.”

The event was organized by Adventure Sports Foundation of Ladakh and is also referred to as “The Last Run” to draw attention to melting glaciers. The theme of this year’s edition was “Save Water and Save Glaciers.”

(Planet Labs)

During its first edition in 2023, the event was officially recognized by the Guinness Book of World Record as Asia’s first and the world’s highest frozen lake marathon.

Another Tibetan Namgyal Tsering, 27, claimed third place in the shorter, 21-kilometer (13-mile) category of the event, called the Pagong Frozen Lake Marathon, organized by Adventure Sports Foundation of Ladakh. Ladakh is a mountainous region administered by India.

(RFA)

Among the 300 who participated in the event, about half were Ladakhis, while others included Indian soldiers and approximately 30 Tibetans. The youngest was 7 years old and the oldest 60.

The marathon received support from the administration of the Union Territory of Ladakh under the Jal Jeevan Mission, an Indian government initiative to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections to all households in rural India.

Translated by Tenzin Palmo for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Thinley Choedon for RFA Tibetan.

The TCS New York City Marathon is one of the city’s most anticipated and iconic annual sporting events, attracting runners and spectators of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities from around the world. More than 50,000 runners are expected this year, after the race returned to full capacity last year.

We invite you to join Team Innocence Project.

Each member of the team commits to raising a required minimum of $3,500 by race day and receives:

• Guaranteed entry into the 2023 TCS NYC Marathon
• An Innocence Project race jersey
• A personal fundraising page on Haku
• Fundraising tips and support from Innocence Project staff
• Opportunities to run and train with fellow team members

Applications for Team IP will open on March 1! Please note, runners are responsible for their own registration fees — $255 for NYRR members, $295 for non-members, and $358 for non-U.S. residents.

If you already have an entry but would like to support the Innocence Project by fundraising, please contact Crystal Ortiz at cortiz@innocenceproject.org or 646.842.1647.

The post Join the Innocence Project 2023 TCS New York City Marathon Team appeared first on Innocence Project.

This content originally appeared on Innocence Project and was authored by Henry Decker.

Delegates resolved to focus their initial efforts on strengthening the development and dissemination of lifesaving technologies in low-income nations.

"Delegates agreed that a key priority must be to secure science and technology sovereignty."

This decision comes one year after Cuban officials announced, at a press conference convened by the Progressive International (PI), their plan to deliver 200 million homegrown Covid-19 vaccine doses to impoverished countries abandoned by their wealthy counterparts and Big Pharma—along with tools to enable domestic production and expert support to improve distribution.

It also comes as Cuba assumes the presidency of the Group of 77 (G77), a bloc of 134 developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America where "the combined crises of food, energy, and environment" are escalating, PI noted.

"What is the common vision to guide the Global South out of this crisis?" the coalition asked. "What is the plan to win it? What is the New International Economic Order for the 21st century?"

"After two days of detailed discussions about how to transform our shared world, delegates agreed that a key priority must be to secure science and technology sovereignty," PI general coordinator David Adler said Sunday at the conclusion of the Havana Congress. "From pharmaceuticals to green tech, from digital currencies to microchips, too much of humanity is locked out of both benefiting from scientific advances and contributing to new ones. We will, as today's declaration calls for, work to build 'a planetary bloc led by the South and reinforced by the solidarities of the North' to liberate knowledge and peoples."

Speaking at the January 12 ceremony during which Cuba ascended to the G77 presidency, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla emphasized the need for coordinated action across the Global South on science and tech, arguing that "scientific-technical development is today monopolized by a club of countries that monopolize most of the patents, technologies, research centers, and promote the drain of talent from our countries."

The G77 Summit on Science, Technology, and Innovation, scheduled for September in Havana, seeks to "unite, complement each other, integrate our national capacities so as not to be relegated to future pandemics," said Parrilla.

During his speech on the first day of the Havana Congress, meanwhile, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis called for a new non-aligned movement to "end the legalized robbery of people and Earth fueling climate catastrophe."

Read the full Havana Declaration on the New International Economic Order:

The Havana Congress,

Recalling the role of the Cuban Revolution in the struggle to unite the Southern nations of the world, and the spirit of the 1966 Havana Tricontinental Conference that convened peoples from Asia, Africa, and Latin America to chart a path to collective liberation in the face of severe global crises and sustained imperial subjugation;

Hearing the echoes of that history today, as crises of hunger, disease, and war once again overwhelm the world, compounded by a rapidly changing climate and the droughts, floods, and hurricanes that not only threaten to inflame conflicts between peoples, but also risk the extinction of humanity at large;

Celebrating the legacy of the anti-colonial struggle, and the victories won by combining a program of sovereign development at home, solidarity for national liberation abroad, and a strong Southern bloc to force concessions to its interests, culminating in the adoption of the U.N. Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order (NIEO);

Acknowledging that the project of decolonization remains incomplete, disrupted by concerted attacks on the unity of the South in the form of wars, coups, sanctions, structural adjustment, and the false promise that sovereign development might be won through integration into a hierarchical world system;

Emphasizing that the result has been the sustained divergence between North and South, characterized by the same dynamics that defined the international economic order five decades prior: the extraction of natural resources, the enclosure of 'intellectual property,' the plunder of structural adjustment, and the exclusion of the multilateral system;

Recognizing that despite these setbacks, the flame of Southern resistance did not die; that the pursuit of sovereign development has yielded unprecedented achievements—from mass literacy and universal healthcare to poverty alleviation and medical innovation—that enable a renewed campaign of Southern cooperation today;

Stressing that this potential for Southern unity is perceived as a threat to Northern powers, which seek once again to preserve their position in the hierarchy of the world system through mechanisms of economic exclusion, political coercion, and military aggression;

Seizing the opportunity of the present historical juncture, when the crisis of the existing world system can either entrench inequalities or embolden the call to reclaim Southern protagonism in the construction of a new world order based on justice, equity, and peace;

The Havana Congress calls to:

• Renew the Non-Aligned Movement: In the face of increasing geopolitical tensions born from a decisive shift in the global balance of power, the Congress calls to resist the siren song of the new Cold War and to renew the project of non-alignment, grounded in the principles of sovereignty, peace, and cooperation articulated at the 1955 Bandung Conference, 1961 Non-Aligned Conference, 1966 Tricontinental Conference, and beyond.
• Renovate the NIEO: To accompany the renewed non-aligned movement, the Congress calls to renovate the vision for a New International Economic Order fit for the 21st century; a vision that must draw inspiration from the original Declaration, but also account for the key issues—from digital technology to environmental breakdown—that define the present conditions for sovereign development; and to enshrine this vision in a new U.N. Declaration on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
• Assert Southern Power: The Congress recognizes that economic liberation will not be granted, but must be seized. As the original call for a New International Economic Order was won through the exercise of collective power in the coordinated production of petroleum, so our vision today can only be realized through the collective action of the South and the formation of new and alternative institutions to share critical technology, tackle sovereign debt, drive development finance, face future pandemics together, as well as coordinate positions on international climate action and the protection of national sovereignty over the extraction of natural resources.
• Accompany Cuba in the G77: The Congress recognizes the critical opportunity afforded by Cuba's presidency of the Group of 77 plus China to lead the South out of the present crisis and channel the lessons of its Revolution toward concrete proposals and ambitious initiatives to transform the broader international system.
• Build a Planetary Bloc: The Congress calls on all peoples and nations of the world to join in this struggle to definitively achieve the New International Economic Order; to build a planetary bloc led by the South and reinforced by the solidarities of the North, whose peoples recognize their obligation to resist the crimes committed in their names; and to bring the spirit of this Havana Congress into the communities that we call home.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Be a part of this special event: Join Team Innocence Project, and run to raise awareness about wrongful convictions while fundraising to help free the innocent. 

Each member of the team commits to raising a required minimum of $1,500 by race day and receives:

• Guaranteed entry into the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon
• An Innocence Project jersey
• A personal fundraising page on Haku
• Fundraising tips and support from Innocence Project staff
• Opportunities to run and train with fellow team members

To apply to join our charity team, please complete this form before Jan. 10. Team members will be notified of acceptance by Jan. 17. Please note that runners are responsible for their own registration fees: $130 for NYRR members and $145 for non-members. 

If you already have an entry but would like to support the Innocence Project by fundraising, please contact Crystal Ortiz at cortiz@innocenceproject.org or 646-842-1647.

The post Join Team Innocence Project for the 2023 United Airlines NYC Half Marathon appeared first on Innocence Project.

This content originally appeared on Innocence Project and was authored by Henry Decker.

 This year’s marathon will require all runners participating to be fully vaccinated. Many event elements will be restored including bringing back on-course entertainment and activations. 

We invite you to join Team Innocence Project.

Each member of the team commits to raising a required minimum of $3,500 by race day and receives:

• Guaranteed entry into the 2022 TCS NYC Marathon
• An Innocence Project race jersey
• A personal fundraising page on Crowdrise
• Fundraising tips and support from Innocence Project staff
• Opportunities to run and train with fellow team members.

Apply to join the team, here. Please note, runners are responsible for their own registration fees – $255 for NYRR members, $295 for non-members and $358 for non-U.S. residents

If you already have an entry but would like to support the Innocence Project by fundraising, please contact Indrani Nicodemus inicodemus@innocenceproject.org or 212.405.6024.

The post Join the Innocence Project 2022 TCS New York City Marathon Team appeared first on Innocence Project.

This content originally appeared on Innocence Project and was authored by Dani Selby.

“Estoy bien, no te preocupes (I am good, don’t worry).”

In one way or another, Mr. Boquete, who came to the U.S. as a Cuban refugee in 1980 has always been on the move. He calls himself a survivor, and makes friends easily, everywhere he goes. 

Since we first met at the Innocence Project Network Conference in San Antonio in 2016, we became fast friends and Mr. Boquete and I have kept in touch. Months later, he asked me to get him a last-minute slot in the Brooklyn half marathon, without having trained for it, to commemorate 10 years of his freedom. I was moved to tears to see him, along with fellow exoneree Jeff Deskovic, cross the finish line in Coney Island as he threw boxing jabs and danced around like Muhammad Ali.

“Life is great because I’m free.”

In the time that I’ve known him, he’s lived a nomadic life, frequently calling from a new cell phone number, but always with the same message: “Life is great because I’m free.” Even when he calls from the bed where he sleeps in his truck, a temporary motel room, or the gym where he bathes.

In the summer of 2020, I spent several weeks with Mr. Boquete in Chicago and teamed up with VeryTaste to produce a short film about Mr. Boquete’s extraordinary path to freedom and his life today.

At the time of his trial, he only spoke Spanish, was unable to navigate the complicated legal system, and was let down by his legal team. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison and the day he arrived at the maximum security prison, he had one goal and that was to leave.

Mr. Boquete was wrongly convicted of attempted sexual battery and assault in Florida in 1983. Two years later, he escaped Florida’s Glades Correctional Institution — a place he never should have been — and lived on the run as a fugitive from injustice for 11 years before he was caught and reincarcerated.  The Innocence Project then took up his case, and he was freed by the courts – with an apology from the State Attorney’s Office – in 2006.

Because of Mr. Boquete’s non-violent criminal record from the years he was a prison escapee, Florida will not compensate Mr. Boquete for any of the time he spent wrongly imprisoned. It is the only state in the country with a so-called “clean hands ban” in its compensation statute – one that prevents people with unrelated convictions from being compensated altogether.

Mr. Boquete lives on a disability subsidy of $783 per month.

Since his exoneration in 2006, Mr. Boquete has frequently been homeless. Due to his post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis, he is unable to work full-time and lives on a disability subsidy of $783 per month.

Mr. Boquete, along with Robert DuBoise, Clemente Aguirre, Nathan Meyers, and other exonerees, the Innocence Project and the Florida Innocence Project have lobbied the Florida legislature to remove the “clean hands” clause as well as a prohibitively short 90-day filing deadline that prevents many exonerees from actually being compensated. This year, two bills — S.B. 526 and H.B. 241 — could bring justice to Mr. Boquete, Mr. DuBoise, and many others exonerated people who are struggling to make ends meet after spending decades in prison for crimes they did not commit.

Mr. Boquete maintains a high spirit and wants people to know that while he is homeless and urges the state of Florida to fix the law, he holds onto joy through boating, fishing, and his love for children. He returned to Cuba for the first time in 2018, raising money and supplies to give back to his hometown, where many live below the poverty line. He dreams of opening a gym, Real Innocent Fugitive, to give children whose families are experiencing poverty a chance to become boxers and athletes in Miami. 

“I want to get the youth on a positive path. I want to use my story to do beautiful things,” Mr. Boquete said. 

A Run for Freedom: Orlando Boquete’s Story

Presented by Innocence Project

A verytaste Co-Production

Director: Alicia Maule 

Producers: Alicia Maule, Daniel Selby

Translation: Isabel Vasquez

Cinematography: Johnny Castle, Nick Castle, VeryTaste

The post Watch: A Run For Freedom: Orlando Boquete’s Story appeared first on Innocence Project.

This content originally appeared on Innocence Project and was authored by Alicia Maule.

The 2021 TCS New York City Marathon will commemorate the race’s 50th running with runners from all over the world participating in-person and virtually. The marathon began in 1970 and has become one of the most anticipated annual mass sporting events in New York City. This year’s marathon will once again bring together people of all ages and abilities reflecting the resilience and strength of the running community.

On Sunday, November 7, 2021, the Innocence Project will return as a TCS NYC Marathon charity partner and we invite you to join Team Innocence Project.

Each member of the team commits to raising a required minimum of $3,500 by race day and receives:

• Guaranteed entry into the 2020 TCS NYC Marathon
• An Innocence Project race jersey
• A personal fundraising page on Crowdrise
• Fundraising tips and support from Innocence Project staff
• Opportunities to run and train with fellow team members.

Apply to join the team, here. Please note, runners are responsible for their own registration fees – $255 for NYRR members, $295 for non-members and $358 for non-U.S. residents

If you already have an entry but would like to support the Innocence Project by fundraising, please contact Indrani Nicodemus inicodemus@innocenceproject.org or 212.405.6024.

To stay updated on all our charity team events, follow Team Innocence Project on Facebook.

The post Join the Innocence Project 2021 TCS New York City Marathon Team appeared first on Innocence Project.

This content originally appeared on Innocence Project and was authored by Alicia Maule.

On Sunday, November 1, 2020, the Innocence Project will return as a TCS NYC Marathon charity partner and we invite you to join Team Innocence Project. 

Each member of the team commits to raising a required minimum of $3,500 by race day and receives:

• Guaranteed entry into the 2019 TCS NYC Marathon
• An Innocence Project race jersey
• A personal fundraising page on Crowdrise
• Fundraising tips and support from Innocence Project staff
• Opportunities to run and train with fellow team members.

Apply to join the team, here. Please note, runners are responsible for their own registration fees – $255 for NYRR members, $295 for non-members and $358 for non-U.S. residents

If you already have an entry but would like to support the Innocence Project by fundraising, please contact Indrani Nicodemus inicodemus@innocenceproject.org or 212.405.6024.

To stay updated on all our charity team events, follow Team Innocence Project on Facebook.