Top U.S. & World Headlines June 20, 2023

welcome to democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman Secretary of State Anthony blinken has wrapped up a two-day trip to China on Monday he met with Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing for half an hour as both sides expressed a desire to stabilize relations to relieve soaring tensions between the world powers blinken also met with China's top Foreign Affairs official Wang Yi

who urged the United States to stop hyping up the threat posed by China blinken is the first U.S Secretary of State to visit China since 2018. this is Chinese president Xi Jinping state-to-state interaction should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity I hope that through this visit Mr secretary you will make more positive contributions to stabilizing China's U.S relations after the talks concluded Anthony blinken

spoke to reporters in Beijing in every meeting I stress that direct engagement and sustained communication at senior levels is the best way to responsibly manage our differences and ensure that competition does not Veer into conflict and I heard the same from my Chinese counterparts we both agree on the need to stabilize our relationship six Palestinians were killed and another 90 injured during a massive Israeli raid

on the Janine refugee camp and the occupied West Bank Monday the dead included a 15-year-old Palestinian boy at least one Palestinian journalist was shot and injured during the raid which was met by Fierce resistance Israel deployed U.S made Apache helicopter gunships for the first time inside the West Bank in nearly 20 years the raid came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin netanyahu's government agreed to

accelerate the process for approving new settlements in the West Bank despite criticism from the United Nations European union and the United States more than 3 000 people have died in Sudan over the past two months since fighting began between rival military factions this according to Sudan's Health Minister a new 72-hour ceasefire began Sunday a day after an airstrike in the capital Khartoum killed 17 including five

children meanwhile U.N Secretary General Antonio guterres has expressed alarm about the deteriorating situation in westar4 I am particularly concerned by reports of gender babies and sexual violence and by the ethnic dimension of the violence in Janina targeted attacks against civilians based on their ethnic identities could amount to crimes against humanity in news from Uganda around 42 people including 37 students were killed on Friday in an

attack on a school located near uganda's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo the children and teens were between the ages of 13 and 18. Ugandan authorities have blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic forces a group with ties to the Islamic State based in the DRC six students are believed to have been abducted a group of African leaders have met with Ukrainian president vlodimir zielinski

and Kiev and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to push for an end to the Ukraine war this is South African president Ciro ramaposa speaking in Moscow and we are here communicate that we would like this war to be ended the presidents of Senegal Zambia and comoros as well as top envoys from Egypt Uganda and the Republic of Congo also took part in the talks Pentagon

Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg died Friday at the age of 92 just months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer Ellsberg risked his life in prison by copying and then leaking 7000 pages of top secret documents outlining the obscured history of the U.S war in Vietnam the leak helped take down President Nixon and the war in Vietnam and led to a major victory for press Freedom Ellsberg would

go on to become deeply involved in the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements he also inspired a new generation of whistleblowers will spend the hour remembering Dan Ellsberg in his own words after headlines the justice department has accused the Minneapolis Police Department of disproportionately targeting black and Native American people and frequently using excessive and unlawful use of force the findings come in an investigation launched after the police

murder of George Floyd in May 2020. attorney general Merrick Garland spoke Friday the patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible as one city leader told us quote these systemic issues didn't just occur on May 25th 2020. there were instances like that that were being reported by the community long before that The Washington Post is reporting the justice department and the FBI

waited more than a year before opening a probe into the role play by former president Donald Trump and his top Associates in the January 6 Insurrection in efforts to overturn the 2020 election according to the Washington Post a top Deputy to FBI director Christopher Wray quashed a plan early on to directly investigate Trump attorney general Merrick Garland supported the FBI's decision to focus on individuals who

raided the capital instead of trump and his associates meanwhile Donald Trump appeared on Fox News Monday and talked about being arraigned on federal felony charges for mishandling classified documents during the interview Trump appeared to admit he did not comply with requests to return classified documents he was interviewed by Fox's Brett Bear and you know why not just hand them over them because I had boxes I

want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out I don't want to hand that over to Nara yet and I was very busy as you've sort of seen yeah but according to the indictment you then tell this Aid to move to other locations after telling your lawyers to say you'd fully complied with the subpoena when you hadn't but before I send boxes

over I have to take all of my things out these boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things the gun violence archive reports there were at least 19 mass shootings over the long weekend in the United States at least 12 people died more than a hundred were injured across the country in Willowbrook Illinois one person died 22 were hurt in a shooting in the parking lot

of a mall during a Juneteenth celebration in Washington state two people were shot dead three were injured at a campground near a music festival meanwhile in St Louis Missouri a 17 year old was shot dead another 11 teenagers were wounded at a party in health news the Associated Press reports one and a half million people have been dropped from Medicaid in recent months as states begin

to purge the roles after the lifting of a pandemic era Rule and eligibility the AP said most were dropped for not filling out paperwork while the number of Medicaid recipients grew by over 20 percent during the pandemic analysts estimate as many as 15 million people could lose their coverage over the next year at least 170 people have died in Northern India in a scorching Heat Wave

overwhelming hospitals and morgues in the region power outages have left people with no running water fans or air conditioners temperatures top 110 degrees Fahrenheit other regions of the world were also battered by heat waves in recent days in Mexico at least eight people have died due to the extreme heat meanwhile in the Southern United States at least six people were reported dead hundreds of thousands Pace

power outages as temperatures soared in Arizona Texas Louisiana Oklahoma and Mississippi some 30 million people were under excessive heat warnings as the heat also set off a series of tornadoes and storms today Mark's World Refugee day according to the United Nations the number of refugees globally has reached over 35 million that's 8 million more than a year ago this comes as concern is growing that as

many as 700 people trying to reach Europe may have drowned in last week's shipwreck in Greece authorities have recovered 80 bodies but hundreds more are feared to have drowned many of the passengers were from Egypt Syria Pakistan Afghanistan and Palestine on Monday Pakistan declared a day of mourning for pakistanis who drown the Greek Coast Guard is facing backlash over its failure to help rescue passengers before

the overcrowded fishing boat sank and United Nations member states have adopted an historic treaty to protect marine life in the high seas as warming ocean temperatures and pollution threaten millions of species the first ever agreement will create a special U.N body charged with managing conservation of ocean life and established Marine protected areas the treaty will also establish new rules assessing the environmental impacts of exploitative commercial

activities on the ocean including excessive fishing and those are some of the headlines that says democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report