Thousands rallied in Washington on Saturday against U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, denouncing the escalation and demanding an immediate halt to the war.
Protesters marched from surrounding areas into downtown Washington, converging on the National Mall outside the Capitol. They condemned the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran as unnecessary and warned the actions would backfire.
"Sending billions of dollars for what? I don't know. People in Gaza are suffering and being treated like dirt. People in Iran, all the innocent people being killed," said Danny, a protester at the rally.
Among the demonstrators was David, a U.S. veteran, who called the strikes on Iran unjust and warned the United States is heading down a dangerous path. He said the war will drag on without winners, with ripple effects that will burden the international community for years.
"A lot of people realize, the people in uniform who feel that this is not our war, this is not a war that's winnable, begun to see the consequences. These disruptions are going to take decades to overcome. Already we are destabilizing the global economy," he said.
The protests followed joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran and other Iranian cities on Feb. 28, which killed Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei along with senior commanders and civilians.
Thousands rally in Washington against US-Israeli strikes on Iran
Thousands rally in Washington against US-Israeli strikes on Iran
A total of 12 group standards for connected vehicles in two areas -- collaborative intelligent connected vehicles based on advanced mobile telecommunication" and "intelligent driving on complex roads" -- were officially released at an industry conference in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, on Saturday.
The standards were issued by the China Association of Automation in collaboration with Central South University and 10 other universities and research institutions. These standards convert achievements from national key research and development programs, including "vehicle-road-cloud integration," into a series of group standards. This initiative fills critical gaps in standards for cooperative driving testing and decision-making on complex roads.
"First, we standardize industry order and unify technology and testing standards to break the bottleneck of enterprises competing individually, promoting orderly development of the industry. Second, we accelerate technology transformation by creating bridges for innovation and implementation, which will lower R and D costs for enterprises and consolidate the foundation for industry growth. Third, we empower new quality productive forces, promote the integration of multiple industries, drive upgrades in the industrial chain, and support the construction of a modern industrial system. In the meantime, we also improve the standard collaboration framework to help the industry engage in international competition," said Hou Zengguang, vice president of the Chinese Association of Automation and professor at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The two-day national conference on new quality productive forces and intelligent industry development concluded on Saturday.
China releases group standards for intelligent connected vehicles
