Top U.S. & World Headlines June 21, 2023

welcome to democracynowdemocracynow.org the War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman a federal judge has struck down Arkansas's first in the nation ban on gender affirming care for transgender youth Judge James Moody Jr ruled the ban to be unconstitutional because it discriminates against transgender people and violates the rights of doctors in his decision Moody wrote quote rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics the evidence showed

the prohibited Medical Care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that by prohibiting it the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing unquote one of the plaintiffs who sued Arkansas over the ban was the 17 year old trans student named Dylan Brandt who responded to the ruling by saying quote transgender kids across the country are having their own Futures threatened by laws

like this one and it's up to all of us to speak out fight back and give them hope unquote on Tuesday night Israeli settlers rated 10 Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank setting fire to homes and vehicles the attacks came hours after two Palestinian gunmen shot dead four Israelis and injured four Others near a Jewish settlement the alleged gunmen were later shot dead the militant

group Hamas said the attack was a response to Israel's massive air and ground rate on the Janine refugee camp on Monday during which Israel deployed U.S made Apache helicopter gunships For The First Time in the West Bank in nearly two decades the death toll from Israel's raid on the refugee camp reached seven today following the death of a 15-year-old Palestinian girl named sadil nachnia who was

shot by Israeli gunfire Palestinians living in Janine said they're now afraid to let their children go outside this is hadil Joss whose husband was shot dead by Israeli forces Monday there's no safe place in the camp at any minute there could be a raid we are afraid for our children to go outside if I want to go to the market I will be in a hurry

to be back home so I can feel safe with my children at home in Honduras at least 41 women were killed Tuesday after an attack by gang members inside a women's prison in the town of Tamara Reports say the women had repeatedly complained about receiving threats from gangs inside the prison but were ignored some of the women were burned to death others were stabbed and shot

relatives of the victims are demanding Justice you want to know who are alive because they're human beings they're our family we want to see them and know how they are if all of the authorities are quiet what are we doing here staying silent as well no we want answers Honduran president Shimara Castro the first female president of Honduras has fired Honduras as security minister accusing prison

authorities of aiding gang members in the massacre federal police in Brazil have revealed a top aide to former right-wing presidential year to bolsonaro had gathered documents outlining plans to Stage a possible military coup last year after bolsonaro was defeated by Luis ignacia Lula de Silva Brazilian police found the planning documents on the phone of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Sid who was arrested last month for his role

in falsifying bolsonaro's covid-19 vaccination records the Pentagon has announced accounting errors have freed up an additional 6.2 billion dollars to spend on arms for Ukraine last month the Pentagon said it had made a three billion accounting error but officials now say the error is twice as large due to the overestimation of the value of military aid packages in news from Sudan heavy fighting has resumed in

fighting is really generating this huge Exodus and if there is no not going to be a sustainable ceasefire and then peace I don't think that we will see an end to it people will continue to be displaced inside or go outside in fact in addition to the 500 000 there are almost two million that have moved inside the country because they have nowhere else to go

amnesty Internationals urging countries across the America is to stop their racist treatment of Haitian Asylum Seekers as thousands continue to flee Haiti due to worsening gang violence extreme poverty and a deteriorating political crisis the group denounced the mass deportations torture detention and violence faced by Haitians in the United States Mexico the Dominican Republic Chile and other nations where Haitians pass through in their search for protection

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in New York Tuesday to begin a four-day State visit on Thursday President Biden will hold a formal State dinner from ODI hours after he addresses a joint session of Congress the Biden administration's attempting to strengthen ties to India as part of an effort to counter China's Growing Power in the indo-pacific region Modi is head of the Hindu nationalist BJP party

he was once banned from the United States and charges he did not intervene in a massacre against Muslims in 2002 in the Indian state of Gujarat that he headed at least three Democratic lawmakers planned to boycott modi's address to Congress Representatives Jamie Raskin ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib in a post on social media to Lieb wrote quote shameful that Modi has been given a platform at

our nation's capital his long history of Human Rights abuses anti-democratic actions targeting Muslims and religious minorities and censoring journalists is unacceptable she said Hunter Biden the son of the president has reached a deal with Federal prosecutors to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges as part of a deal that allow him to avoid facing prosecution on a separate gun charge the deal caps a multi-year investigation

by the U.S attorney in Delaware who is appointed by Donald Trump but allowed to stay in his role by President Biden House Republicans have described the deal as a slap on the wrist and a vowed to continue to investigate Hunter Biden and his overseas business ventures a disciplinary hearing has begun in California for attorney John Eastman who advised Donald Trump on ways to overturn the 2020

election at the time Eastman was the dean of the Chapman University Law School in Southern California Eastman faces 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California the process could lead to his disbarment the federal judge overseeing Donald Trump's trial for mishandling classified documents has said an initial trial date of August 14th one week before the first Republican presidential debate U.S District Court Judge Aileen

Cannon set the date on Tuesday but many legal experts expect the trial will be delayed cannons at trump-appointed judge who served on the federal bench for less than three years according to the New York Times she's only overseen four short criminal trials in her time on the bench in labor news Senator Bernie Sanders has launched a senate investigation into the dangerous working conditions at Amazon warehouses

in a letter to Amazon chief executive officer Andy jassy Sanders wrote Amazon is one of the most valuable companies in the world worth 1.3 trillion dollars and its founder Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men in the world worth nearly 150 billion dollars Amazon should be one of the safest places in America to work not one of the most dangerous Sanders said propublica has revealed

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito took an undisclosed luxury fishing vacation with Republican Mega donor pole singer in 2008 and then later ruled in singer's favor in several cases according to propublica the billionaire hedge fund manager gave Alito a free ride on his luxury jet to Alaska for a trip where one participant bragged about drinking thousand dollar bottles of wine Alito never reported the all-expenses paid trip

on disclosure form since the trip Paul singer's hedge fund came before The Supreme Court at least 10 times and Alito never recused himself propublica reports alito's trip was organized by Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society who's played a key role in pushing the court to the right hours prior to the publication of propublica's report Alito published a column in the Wall Street Journal headline propublica misleads

its readers in the peace Justice Alito acknowledged taking the trip but denied violating any ethics rules heat records continue to be shattered in Texas and Mexico as a massive heat Dome remains over the region in San Angelo Texas temperatures reached 114 degrees Fahrenheit Tuesday breaking the old record by three degrees and Laredo temperatures hit 115 degrees Monday according to the organization climate Central climate change is

making the extreme heat five times as likely to occur in parts of Texas on this first day of summer meteorologists are taking part in the sixth annual show your stripes day to raise awareness about the link between weather and the climate crisis a massive search effort continues in the Atlantic Ocean after a tourist submersible went missing during a trip to explore the wreck of the Titanic

which sits over 12 000 feet below sea level five passengers are on board including the founder of Ocean Gate Expeditions which organize the trip for years the company or ignored warnings by its own staff and experts that the company's Deep Water Missions could lead to a catastrophe because the submarine did not meet industry standards tickets for the mission reportedly cost 250 thousand dollars each passengers aboard

the ship include two billionaires Hamish Harding from Britain and shasada dawood from Pakistan who was on board with his son and many are questioning the massive media coverage of the Titanic adventurers in light of the lack of attention paid to the thousands of migrants Lost at Sea as they attempt to reach Europe fleeing persecution poverty and the impacts of the climate crisis in their home countries

this comes as authorities in Greece have recovered three more bodies of men who drowned last week in one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks in years the official death toll is an 81 but the New York Times reports as many as 700 migrants may have died when their overcrowded ships sang off the sank off the coast of Greece and those are some of the headlines this is

democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman in New York joined by democracy Now co-host Juan Gonzalez in Chicago haiwan hi Amy and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world