June 14—The Schiller Institute’s Wednesday, June 12 Washington, D.C., National Press Club Emergency Press Conference, “The Danger of Nuclear War Is Real, and Must be Stopped,” was, in several ways, highly successful. Panelists Scott Ritter, Col. Richard Black (ret.), Col. Larry Wilkerson (ret.), and Schiller Institute founder and chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche were heard by nearly 2,000 people live, and more than 30,000 over the subsequent 24 hours. Diplomatic embassies and news agencies from around the world attended in person and via social media.At the same time, the war danger which required the emergency press availability to be so hastily organized, is escalating each day, almost by the hour. As the press conference was taking place on June 12, the United States imposed even more sanctions against Russia. Russia later responded by ending transactions at its financial exchanges in United States dollars, euros, or Hong Kong dollars—something that was coming, but has now, thanks to these recent actions taken by the United States, been accelerated. Meanwhile, Russian nuclear-capable (but unarmed) ships, (four in all), including the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the nuclear-powered submarine missile cruiser Kazan, visited the nation of Cuba, on what was referred to by United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as “something we’ve seen before.”Was Sullivan referring to October 1962 {Cuban Missiles Crisis]? And more importantly, would Sullivan actually know what he meant, if he were? As Executive Intelligence Review’s military analyst Carl Osgood reported, “The U.S. is so 'unconcerned' about the Russian task force, in fact, that the U.S. Navy deployed three guided-missile destroyers, joined by a French Navy frigate and a Canadian warship, as well as U.S. and Canadian aircraft, to monitor the passage of the Russian ships to Havana, just 90 miles off the tip of Florida. ‘Air and maritime assets under U.S. Northern Command have conducted operations to ensure the defense of the United States and Canada,’ the Pentagon said….”These are not, and will no longer be, normal days. We are, perhaps, no longer living in anything that will ever again resemble “normal times.” Our physical space-time has been permanently shifted, and “it is very possible,” as the late Dr. Fred Wills, former foreign minister of Guyana and close friend of Helga and Lyndon LaRouche, used to say, “to be caught below the level of historical events.” That is how nations, civilizations, and empires disappear. What each citizen must do, to not only survive, but also to grow and develop, is a “voluntaristic” approach to improving life by changing history.A former member of the United States National Security Agency (NSA) who viewed the June 12 event observed that Helga Zepp-LaRouche “tied it all together at the end. You need that, because, though I agree that it is necessary for people to be scared of the danger of an inevitable nuclear war, so that they will face it, it’s necessary to know what the world is that we are fighting for, if we are going to have the drive to win.” The Zepp-LaRouche Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture document may be the major reason why she has appeared on so many “hit lists” and “kill lists” issued by forces in Ukraine, and by extension, NATO. Her principles are revolutionary in their simplicity, and should be read and consulted as a short, intelligible declaration of “why we fight.” Speaking of “hit lists,” the U.S. Congress is now threatening to defund the Ukrainian “Data Journalism Agency” also known as “Texty,” a platform and non-governmental organization which had recently published a list with nearly 400 American citizens, including Harley Schlanger and Diane Sare and 76 organizations to be “hit.”Zepp-LaRouche’s evaluation of what the press conference accomplished, and what now needs to be done, is partially reproduced here, and is otherwise available in the transcript of her weekly webcast June 13, “The ‘Sole Superpower’ Heads Towards Bankruptcy and Irrelevance.” She was asked what her response was to the success of the Washington, D.C.-based panel with Ritter, Colonel Black, and Colonel Wilkerson:Zepp-LaRouche: "Well, I think it was an important first step. I think that the competence of the speakers, who all have military or intelligence backgrounds: Colonel Wilkerson was the chief of staff for Colin Powell, very outspoken and eloquently insightful. Naturally, Richard Black has a huge international following. People have enormous respect for his integrity as an American patriot. And Scott Ritter is maybe at this point the most outspoken critic of the U.S. policy of confrontation against Russia, in particular, but also against China. So, I think the combination of these speakers, together with me, was important to get across the urgency. Scott Ritter said it repeatedly: He said that when people tell him he shouldn’t scare people, he said that is exactly what we have to do, because only if people are waking up—I’m now using my own words—in the middle of the night full of sweat, being afraid that they will die soon if the policy is not changed, this is much better than sleepwalking into a catastrophe from which nobody may be left if it occurs.“So, I think this was very, very important. Immediately after we concluded this press conference, I turned on the German TV to watch the news. It was really like a completely different universe. Where people in our press conference were warning of what will happen if it comes to nuclear war and how real it is, the lack of reality in the German public debate, at least as it is transmitted by the mainstream media, is just mind boggling. Here you have Pistorius, the Defense Minister, calling for militarization of the German state, calling for a new draft army, which is fallen out of times completely; this is supposedly not the Cold War. "So, I would really urge you, our viewers, the most important thing you can do is please watch this press conference if you haven’t done so yet, and then send it around as widely as possible to all possible people; elected officials, social media contacts, institutions. I think that that is a very important warning message. “Is this enough already now to stop the train which, according to many military experts and leaders of Europe, East European states, has left the station already? I don’t think so. Because just today it was reported that the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Alexander Grushko, basically warned that there are very clear signs that NATO is preparing for a clash with Russia, including the option of involving nuclear weapons, and that the situation is completely dangerous. Therefore, I don’t think we have derailed this policy. I think we have given the people of good will a tool with which they can warn elected officials and their friends and associates, but a lot more has to be done.”

June 14—A nationally prominent German newspaper has put a spotlight on the role of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) in seeking to restrict free speech in Germany. The June 8 issue of Berliner Zeitung has a lengthy exposé of the role of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation’s (CCD) in recruiting German journalists in attacking other journalists alleging they are supporting Russia. The CCD is a U.S. State Department-supported agency in the Ukraine President’s office which generates lists of what it calls “information terrorists,” and recommending “action” be taken against them, as EIR has documented for example, in the attempted assassination of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico. The case of Armin Coerper, the head of the Moscow office of Germany’s ZDF state-run TV channel, is at the center of the Berliner Zeitung exposé.On Jan. 29, ZDF broadcast an on-the-ground report by Coerper on the situation in the war-torn city of Mariupol. Right at the beginning, the ZDF reporter said that he wanted to “make it very clear” that his report does not mean “that we recognize this occupation by Russia,” adding that it is important, however, to “get a picture on the ground.” He believes it is “personally important to report on a war from both sides.” Coerper goes on to explain that Mariupol is “not a ghost town,” but rather, there is electricity, hot water and internet access. Reconstruction is in full swing, workers from Russia and from Central Asia can be seen on the construction sites, and even the destroyed theater is being rebuilt. Coerper says that Russia is planning to resettle Russian citizens in Mariupol.Even that much reality was too much to be permitted. “In Germany, a storm of indignation breaks over Coerper and ZDF shortly afterwards,” Berliner Zeitung writes. Numerous journalists, including from Stern magazine, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Bild, denounced Coerper as an alleged “Russian propagandist” in the wildest terms. Interestingly, Stern provides ostensible evidence in the form of a tweet by Sergej Sumlenny, the long-standing head of the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s office in Kiev, now working at the European Resilience Initiative Center which closely cooperates with Ukraine’s CCD.“Practically no one takes Coerper’s side,” Berliner Zeitung notes. “Only the Austrian section of Reporters Without Borders writes on X that ‘the role of journalists is to present the reality on the ground objectively and impartially.’ Coerper had tried to get a ‘comprehensive picture’ of the situation.”The CCD’s hand behind this witch-hunt against Coerper—which included his name being added to the Myrotvorets kill list—became public later, when the CCD, backed up by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, sent a delegation to Berlin in April for meetings with the government-owned Federal Center of Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, BPB). According to the CCD itself, the trip was financed by the European Union.Berliner Zeitung wrote: “The meeting apparently also served the purpose of presenting the dissatisfaction of Ukrainians with German media to the representatives of the Federal government. The Center’s analysis, in which ZDF and Berliner Zeitung are accused of Russian propaganda, ‘was presented to German government officials.’”(As EIR magazine has reported, Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the Schiller Institute which she founded and chairs were included in the CCD’s dossier against German institutions and prominent individuals.)A spokesperson for the BPB told Berliner Zeitung: “The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation took part in all-day talks with the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland (BMI) on April 9 and in the morning of April 10. The BPB took part in a meeting on the afternoon of April 9, specifically employees from the Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe project group.”The Federal Foreign Office also confirmed a meeting with the Ukrainian disinformation “experts.” When asked by the Berliner Zeitung, the office said: “We are in contact with the Ukrainian government and civil society to combat disinformation. In this context, a meeting took place with the Ukrainian ‘Center to Counter Disinformation’ (sic) and the Ukrainian embassy in Berlin.”The Interior Ministry spokesperson told Berliner Zeitung that “The BMI clearly pointed out that ZDF is a public broadcaster and a reputable medium and that journalistically sound reporting on Ukraine—including possible criticism of Ukraine—is not to be described as disinformation in the opinion of the BMI.”The BPB states: “The conversation with the BPB was not about ZDF. The subject of this conversation was an exchange about political education programs. Media in general were just as little the subject of discussion as ZDF.”Asked by Berliner Zeitung what the character of the Foreign Ministry’s cooperation with the CCD is, the ministry replied evasively, just stating that it gathers information about disinformation. It did not state whether it shares the CCD’s claim that ZDF and Berliner Zeitung were “Russian disinformation” channels.

June 14—Underscoring the importance of the ongoing discussion within the BRICS on the subject of creating a new international financial architecture to replace the bankrupt speculative dollar system, investigative journalist Pepe Escober reported to Brazil’s Bom Dia 247 program, according to VeritXpres, that BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) President and former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had a meeting on the SPIEF sidelines in St. Petersburg  with the prominent Russian economist Sergey Glazyev, on the morning of June 7, “about creating a new commercial currency.” The account in Veritxpress.com says that "the scheduled half-hour meeting lasted more than one hour. Glazyev has been working on a cross-border payment system that bypasses the dollar, The Unit. The new currency will be used for commercial transactions and will be anchored in commodities, gold and a basket of currencies from different countries. This meeting between the president of the BRICS Bank, Rousseff and Glazyev is extremely important, as the current statutes of the BRICS Bank provide for all its collateral in dollars."Other sources familiar with Glazyev's work report that "The Unit" is similar in concept and purpose to an idea for a global exchange currency, The Demo, proposed to be used for commercial transactions in the Bretton Woods system by the U.S. President Franklin  Roosevelt, but was never implemented after his death in 1945. Glazyev is thought to have the backing for the concept from Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom he serves as an economic advisor.“According to [Pepe] Escobar, who spoke to Dilma and Glazyev upon leaving the meeting," the report continued. "Dilma seemed happy and told him that she enjoyed the meeting and thought the concept of The Unit was excellent. Glazyev also reported that the meeting was very productive and a new meeting was scheduled to deepen the discussion. Pepe Escobar stated that the idea of The Unit has already been positively evaluated by the Russian Ministry of Finance, and that one of Putin’s advisors confirmed this to Escobar yesterday. The journalist said he would not be surprised if the currency appeared tacitly approved during the BRICS summit in Kazan in October.”Although no other media accounts of the Rousseff-Glazyev discussion are available at this time, Escobar’s report on Glazyev’s view of a new currency is fully consistent with his stated views on these matters—views shaped significantly by his friendship over decades with the late American economist Lyndon LaRouche, as Glazyev himself has repeatedly stated publically, referring to Mr. LaRouche as a mentor. As for the adoption of that approach at the upcoming October BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, the outcome is still being fought out—with worried opposition coming from economists and leaders in many of the BRICS countries themselves who are overly influenced by the City of London and Wall Street’s approach. Glazyev has stated in other interviews, including with Escobar, that he does not see his plan being fully implemented for "a couple of years," although it is thought that he favors a phasing it in sooner than that.

June 13—Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ murderous chief in Gaza, has forced that terrorist organization to alter the terms of the ceasefire deal worked out by negotiators with the group’s Qatar-based leadership and passed 14-0 June 10 by the UN Security Council without opposition, with Russia abstaining. In so doing, he has taken the equally murderous Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu off a political hot seat which could have led to the collapse of his coalition government, cutting a pathway toward peace in the region.Had Hamas accepted the deal, as it was discussed in negotiations steered by America’s most able diplomat, CIA Director William Burns, it would have forced Bibi into announcing that he too would sign off on behalf of Israel—as he promised the U.S. The three-phase deal endorsed and passed by the UNSC was essentially the same as announced, at Burns' direction, by President “Sleepy Joe” Biden May 31 as the “Israeli plan.” It is the same as the plan rammed through Israel’s War Cabinet over Netanyahu’s initial objection, and, later, with his reluctant support.Bibi has delayed issuing a formal endorsement of the UNSC plan, sources report, hoping that Sinwar would force changes in it, thus providing him a way out, which is what happened. Sinwar’s alterations have allowed Netanyahu’s spokespeople to say that Hamas has effectively rejected the plan Bibi approved, without him having to say whether he actually endorsed it. His endorsement would have caused the lunatic religious zealots National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to quit, leading to the collapse of Netanyahu’s coalition government and early elections.Despite the psychotic initial elation over the “success” of the June 8 hostage rescue mission that freed only 4 hostages, it is beginning to sink in that that success came at a horrific cost in lives to Palestinians, and that such “rescues” put the lives of the remaining hostages at risk. As family members continue to demonstrate against the murderer Netanyahu, they cry out to the nation and to the world that the only hope for the return of their loved ones who are still alive will come from a ceasefire deal and an end to the war in Gaza, which in turn, can only happen if Bibi is removed.In proposing the Sinwar-backed changes, Hamas has reaffirmed its position: a ceasefire must lead to a permanent end to hostilities in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all areas of Gaza, the reconstruction of Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel.Hamas has proposed the deal stipulate the following timetable in Phase 1 of the deal: On Day 1, a complete cession of fire from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the withdrawal of the IDF from population centers. In exchange, Hamas would begin returning hostages. If the IDF does not withdraw, the release of hostages will be halted.On the third day, Hamas seeks an Israeli withdrawal from the Salah al-Din Road. In return, Hamas offers to release three hostages—living and dead—every three days, totaling 33.Sources in Hamas told Haaretz that “The amendments submitted are intended to ensure that the withdrawal and cease-fire be established in the first phase, and that Israel will therefore not be able to evade the implementation of all stages of the deal and return to fighting once all the hostages are released.”Hamas also opposes any preconditions on which Palestinian prisoners could be released from Israeli jails in return, opposing as well as their distancing from Gaza, and demands that their release be based on the amount of time they have spent in Israeli prisons. Hamas further demands that China, Russia and Türkiye be guarantors of the deal. According to the State Department, the U.S. will guarantee Israel's compliance, while Qatar and Egypt will guarantee that Hamas and other militant groups operating in Gaza comply with its terms.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirms that Hamas has proposed “numerous changes” in its response to the UNSC cease-fire proposal, and that while some of the changes are workable, some are not. Blinken says some of Hamas’ proposals in their response go well beyond what it had previously accepted in negotiations.“If Hamas had been smart, it would not have listened to Sinwar, but would have accepted the deal,” said a source. “The game here is to get rid of Netanyahu, as quickly as possible, before he can murder more Palestinians and launch a major war against Hezbollah on the West Bank. The longer he stays in office, the more people will die. This deal is a poison pill for Bibi. Force him to swallow it.”This and other sources say that most of the changes proposed could have been worked through in discussions to implement the plan. Paramount was to not create a way for Bibi to avoid his endorsement of the UNSC deal. The fact that Sinwar has once again provided his alleged nemesis with a way out and a way to continue the killing has raised further speculation as to whether the Hamas Gaza chief is more than a politically stupid terrorist.“Israel created Hamas as a force with money and authority in Gaza,” said a source. “They put Sinwar in power there. They have assets inside the Hamas organization, including in its leadership. The way he is acting, and has acted in the past, causes one to wonder if Sinwar is not himself an asset for Bibi. How come, for example, Sinwar, presumed at large "somewhere" in the tunnels beneath Gaza, always seems to escape attack and elimination by the IDF, yet they say he is their number one target? Strange isn’t it?”With each passing day with Bibi still in office and no ceasefire, Palestinians are dying. In a statement issued June 12, Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that more than one million people in Gaza are “expected to face death and starvation by the middle of July.”Burns, meanwhile, is continuing to try to work out a deal, in talks with mediators from Qatar and Egypt, as well as with Hamas and the Israelis. He remains committed to ending the war as soon as possible, and to preventing an explosion on the West Bank. Inside the Biden Administration, the people who oppose Bibi are  counting on the reluctance of the IDF command to get involved in a war with Hezbollah, which organization is a far superior fighting force than Hamas.Hezbollah has sophisticated weapons and possesses the largest missile and drone arsenal of any non-state entity—greater than many states. And, they have the capability to use them, as they showed June 12, firing hundreds of rockets into northern Israel after an Israeli airstrike on the village of Jwaya in south Lebanon that killed at least four people, including Hezbollah field commander Taleb Abdallah, the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since the start of the war.Hezbollah sources told Haaretzthat the group had launched its most extensive attack on Israel since the start of the war after Abdallah’s death. The IDF said 215 rockets were intercepted, but many were not.“Maybe Sinwar wants a war against Hezbollah, which organization Hamas generally hates,” said the source. “But all that means is that more Palestinians will die. The key now is to put the Gaza ceasefire deal back on track, if possible, and put Bibi in the political hot seat again. Things can still happen.”

June 12—The political screws are tightening on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and his genocidal war in Gaza against the Palestinian people and his crusade against a fully-sovereign Palestinian state.With the acceptance by the Hamas leadership of the terms of a three-phase ceasefire/hostage release proposal submitted by the United States and passed 14-0, (with Russia abstaining) by the UN Security Council June 10, the pressure is escalated on Bibi to make good on his pledge to U.S. officials, including CIA Director William Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is currently in Israel, that he accept the deal if Hamas does likewise. This is the same proposal, whose heavy lifting was done by Burns two weeks ago, and was put through the Israeli War Cabinet for approval, over Bibi’s objections, and ultimately with his support; this is virtually the identical deal that was made public by President "Sleepy Joe" Biden on May 31 and branded as an "israeli" proposal.The three-phase proposal would swap Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, require Israel to remove its forces from Gaza, and have both sides adhere to a temporary cease-fire, starting with a 6-week period, and then continuing until all captives are freed. The deal aims to create a permanent truce, as Biden has stated, and has broad support in the Israeli population, including the families of the hostages.There is, however, bitter opposition to the deal among the lunatic fringe of religious zealots and racists who are represented in the Israeli cabinet by National Security Minister Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have said they will resign if Bibi puts Israel behind the deal. Were that to happen, the government would fall, forcing new elections, which would serve as a mandate on Netanyahu’s messianic crusade against the Palestinian state, for which he used the murderous Hamas Oct. 7 raid as a cover.While Blinken told the press that Bibi backs the UN resolution, the Prime Minister has yet to say so directly himself. Sources report that he is hoping that Hamas might seek to alter the terms of the resolution, rather than simply negotiate its implementation, as the Qatar-based Hamas leadership has stated. These sources say that Bibi’s wildcard is his supposed nemesis, Yahya Sinwar, the scheming Palestinian politician who leads Hamas in Gaza and regularly spews forth venom and hate against Jews and Israel. “This has happened before,” said a source.  Sinwar demands changes that he knows Israel will not accept. And each time it gave Bibi an excuse to back away from the deal. If the Hamas leadership is smart, they will take the deal, because it would likely mean the end of Bibi.”This and other sources have offered an interesting speculation. It is known that Israel has both informants and agents inside the Hamas organization, including in high leadership circles. It was those informants and agents who provided Israeli intelligence with a blueprint for the Oct. 7 attack nearly a year before it took place. It is also known that Sinwar was the principal proponent of the savage Oct. 7 event,  that went far beyond any military objective, and brutally slaughtered  around 1,200 mostly innocent Israeli civilians, including women and children, and took 240 hostages. Sinwar pushed it through the Hamas leadership who feared exactly what happened in response—a Nazi-like war against the Palestinian people and the degrading of Hamas’ power and military arm by the same Netanyahu who once propped them up, and even funded them, because they, too, opposed a two-state solution. He told an Israeli journalist some time ago that even if hundreds of thousands of Palestinians died, it would be worth their deaths to help ultimately destroy “the Zionist state.”Sinwar repeated this view after the war started in messages he sent to Hamas officials in charge of cease-fire negotiations, as reported by the Wall Street Journal June 10, referring to the tens of thousands of Gazans killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 as “necessary sacrifices.” The Journal also quoted from a letter Sinwar sent to Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, (Chairman of Hamas’ Politburo since 2017) after three of Haniyeh’s sons were killed by an Israeli airstrike in April, saying their deaths and those of other Gazans would “infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to glory and honor.”“What if it is Sinwar, who is effectively the Israeli asset?” asked a source. “Sort of the Ying to Bibi’s Yang. His idiotic statements about martyrdom for the slaughtered to the contrary, what he has done has served neither the interests of Palestinians, nor Israelis, only the insane people around Bibi and Netanyahu himself. I would say he is Bibi’s asset, his ace in the hole.”Netanyahu originally responded to the UN vote by stating that he would not be ordered to participate in “meaningless” negotiations, but after meeting with Bibi yesterday, Blinkin said Bibi would support the deal if Hamas does. The Prime Minister's office would neither confirm nor deny Blinken's statements.Egyptian and Qatari mediators have reportedly received Hamas’ formal response to the proposal, though they have not revealed what that response is; they have yet to receive a formal response from Israel. After the UNSC vote, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that once both sides agree to the resolution, Washington will guarantee that Israel upholds the resolution’s obligations while Qatar and Egypt will do the same for Hamas. This arrangement was also worked out by Burns in his meetings with all sides, over the last 2 weeks.“It is Bibi who will be on the hot seat if indeed he has accepted the proposal,” said the source. [Former War Cabinet Minister Benny] Gantz is gone [having resigned from the coalition June 9]. That takes away Bibi’s cover. Meanwhile, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are going berserk, yelling about a sellout and a betrayal. They will pull down the government. As Burns knows, and has made even ‘Sleepy Joe’ [Biden]  understand; there can be no real pathway to peace unless Bibi is gone. That was the idea behind the three-phase proposal in the first place: Propose something that everyone but Bibi and the looneys could support, then force Bibi to eat it."Meanwhile, the threat of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant from crimes against humanity hangs over Netanyahu, as it does for Hamas leader Sinwar and others. In Bibi's case the pressure to issue this warrant has been jacked up by the horrific slaughter of Palestinians in last weekend's rescue mission of 4 Israeli hostages, which Bibi ordered and for which claimed was a "historic" victoy for Israel; nearly 300 Palestinians, including many women, children and elderly were killed, and around 800 wounded, with many losing limbs, according to medical personnel at strapped facilities in the region.Let’s see how this plays out over the next few hours and days,” the source concluded

June 12—One year ago, June 10, 2023, Helga Zepp-LaRouche organized and keynoted a Schiller Institute Conference, “The World Needs JFK’s Vision of Peace.” Zepp-LaRouche and her newly-organized International Peace Coalition had just begun meeting weekly on Fridays, holding a provocative but fruitful international dialogue, involving all national populations, on how to change the lethal popular culture of pessimism and indifference, to embark upon a new course of optimistic, mass-based, strategic policy-actions. One year later, the International Peace Coalition has held 53 consecutive Friday meetings, open to all those of good will, devoted to the task of establishing a new security and development architecture for the world. On June 10, 1963, JFK stated his vision of peace in these words: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. “Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable—that mankind is doomed—that we are gripped by forces we cannot control. We need not accept that view. Our problems are man-made—therefore, they can be solved by man.”Now, in the aftermath of the highly successful, annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum over June 508, attended by 19,000 people from 136 nations, forces for peace in the trans-Atlantic world must escalate. Today, the Schiller Institute will host, at the National Press Club, an Emergency Press Conference: “The Danger of Nuclear War Is Real, And Must Be Stopped.” The conference features Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector and U.S. Marine intelligence officer, who was recently illegally prevented by the United States State Department from traveling to Russia to address the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum; Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Founder and Chairwoman, Schiller Institute; Col. Richard H. Black (ret.), former head of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon and former Virginia State Senator; and Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).There is a great need to set the record straight as to who in the world is actually pushing for thermonuclear war. During a 22-minute exchange with moderator Sergey Karaganov at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin reminded the world that “I’m not the one who started talking about nuclear weapons. It was that little British prime minister.” Putin was referring to Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, who, in August of 2022, before she was even placed in that office, was asked about launching nuclear war, in an interview during a campaign event: “Your orders to our Trident boat captain on whether you, prime minister, is giving the order to unleash nuclear weapons. It would mean global annihilation … How does that thought make you feel?” In the words of London’s The Independent, which reported the incident at the time, “Truss appeared without emotion as she replied: ‘I think it’s an important duty of the prime minister and I’m ready to do that.’ She added: ‘I’m ready to do that.’”Shortly after she made the statement, Putin had criticized, not only Truss, but Western leaders who did not attempt to correct her. “You see, no one responded to that in any way. Suppose she just spaced out and let it slip. How can you say such things publicly? She did, though. They should have set her straight, or Washington could have publicly stated that it has nothing to do with this. We have no idea what she is talking about, they could have said. There was no need to hurt anyone’s feelings; all they had to do was dissociate themselves from what she said. But everyone was silent.” No such correction occurred, until Truss was removed from office.With respect to thermonuclear war, Putin emphasized, during his remarks over the weekend, and turning to directly address his audience for additional emphasis: “Please do not mention such things idly.” He received spontaneous, general applause, because people could sense both how serious he was about the gravity of even discussing the topic, and how different his manner of strategic thought is from leaders in NATO. They are, as you are reading this, through Ukraine, assaulting Russia’s early warning radar systems with American and British missiles inside Russian territory.In the assessment of Scott Ritter, the world may be one ATACMS missile strike short of thermonuclear annihilation. For that reason, something new and effective must emerge over the short term from the trans-Atlantic nations—a new leadership which has a grasp of reality. It is clear that the results of the just-concluded elections in Europe show the desire of the population for something better. There is, in the case of the United States, for example, access by the citizenry to the power of the Presidency, by means of independent actions taken by private citizens, who have qualified themselves to propose and implement such changes as are required to access and deploy that Presidential power on behalf of the General Welfare of the nation in particular, and the planet as a whole.That is not to suggest that there is presently a U.S. Presidential candidate of that caliber, or even inclination. The candidacies in New York of Diane Sare for U.S. Senate, and Jose Vega for Congress in the 15th CD, however, can represent the standard by which all other candidacies are measured on matters of strategic policy. Such a standard was set by economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, through his Presidential campaigns of 1976, 1980 and 1984, during which he proposed, and President Ronald Reagan adopted, his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) policy.Today, independent candidacies for office, in the United States and other nations as well, combined with an energetic citizenry, informed by the Alert Service now being daily made available by the Executive Intelligence Review, can prove JFK’s vision of peace to be correct. “No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable—and we believe they can do it again.”