Top U.S. & World Headlines June 22, 2023

welcome to democracynowdemocracynow.org the War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman a Spanish charity says as many as 39 Asylum Seekers have drowned including Four Women and a baby after their boats sank in the Atlantic Ocean near the Canary Islands it's the latest in a deadly series of shipwrecks involving Asylum Seekers along the Atlantic route to Spain where last year at least 45 shipwrecks and over 500

deaths were reported meanwhile police in Pakistan have arrested seven people accused of sharing responsibility for the deaths of as many as 700 migrants who died last week drowning after their overcrowded fishing vessel sank off the coast of Greece Israel's military has killed three Palestinians in the first targeted assassination airstrike in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades Palestinian Fighters with Hamas and Islamic Jihad promised

retribution for the Drone attack which came just two days after the Israeli military used u.s-made Apache helicopters during a raid in Janine that killed seven Palestinians and wounded dozens of others elsewhere in the West Bank hundreds of mourners joined a funeral procession for omahatan a 27 year old Palestinian father of two who was killed Wednesday when hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the village of termisaya setting

fire to homes and vehicles cactin's mother Hannon spoke to reporters at the funeral he was the first one to go out whenever there were settlers I would say my darling Omar stay a little farther away from them and don't forget your kids but he would say that I will take care of the kids he used to tell me that every time the U.S state Department's office

of Palestinian Affairs said it was appalled by the attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers adding quote we call for Israeli authorities to immediately Stop the Violence protect U.S and Palestinian civilians and prosecute those responsible unquote in Ukraine an explosion has damaged a key bridge connecting the Russian occupied territory of Crimea to the Ukrainian Mainland russia-backed officials say the damage to the changar bridge appeared to be

caused by a long-range cruise missile of the kind Supply to Ukraine by the UK and France elsewhere Russia's military says it shot down three drones outside Moscow that appeared to be targeting military warehouses at the Kremlin Russian President Vladimir Putin said a counter-offensive launch by Ukraine earlier this month has largely stalled as I've already said as is well known the Ukrainian Armed Forces started the counter-offensive

on June 4th using their strategic reserves oddly enough currently we're seeing a certain law it has to do with the fact that the enemy is suffering serious losses Wall Street Journal reporter Evan gershwitch appeared in a Moscow courtroom today where a judge denied his request to be released from pre-trial detention reporters were briefly allowed to photograph Evan who was held in a glass enclosure wearing a

t-shirt and blue jeans he's been jailed since March on Espionage charges and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Washington D.C as part of a four-day State visit President Biden will hold a formal State dinner for Modi tonight Modi will also address a joint session of Congress today he becomes the first Indian Prime Minister to address Congress

twice on Wednesday New York congressmember Alexandra casio-cortez said she will join four other Democratic lawmakers and boycotting modi's address writing in a statement quote a joint address is among the most prestigious invitations and honors the United States Congress can extend we should not do so for individuals with deeply troubling human rights Record She said all five Indian American members of Congress including California's rokana and Congressional

Progressive caucus chair pramila jayapal are attending modi's speech we'll have more unrendra modi's State visit after headlines a federal judge in Washington D.C has sentenced a California man to more than 12 years in prison over his role in the January 6 2021 Insurrection at the Capitol forty-year-old Daniel D.J Rodriguez shouted Trump one as he was led from the courtroom following a sentencing Wednesday U.S District Judge

Schiff accusing him of spreading false claims about former president Trump and the Trump campaign's ties to Russia Schiff is just the third member of Congress to face Center in over 40 years he served as lead manager during Trump's first impeachment trial and had a prominent role in the house select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the capitol Congress membership spoke from the house floor

just ahead of Wednesday's vote today I wear this partisan vote as a badge of honor knowing that I have lived my oath knowing that I have done my duty to hold a dangerous and out of control president accountable after the house voted 213-209 along party lines to Center Congress membership house Democrats erupted into chance of Shame as house Speaker Kevin McCarthy called for order several Democrats

shouted what about Santos a reference to New York Republican Congress member George Santos who has not faced censure by his party even after his indictment on multiple felony charges meanwhile far-right Congress members Lauren bobert and Marjorie Taylor green got into a heated argument on the house floor Wednesday over competing resolutions that seek to impeach President Joe Biden over his handling of the U.S Southern Border House

speaker Kevin McCarthy called in Republicans to vote today to send bobert's impeachment resolution for review by the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees and news from Guantanamo prosecutors have discovered there are videos of guards forcing a Saudi prisoner to leave a cell around the time the man reportedly admitted to plotting the attack on the USS coal off the coast of Yemen in 2000 which killed 17 Sailors

attorneys for Abdul Rahim al-nashiri have said his admission of guilt was tainted by years of torture first at CIA black sites in later at Guantanamo the U.N working group on arbitrary detention recently called for the immediate release of alnashiri due to his mistreatment and news from Atlanta Georgia opponents of a proposed massive police training center known as cop City are hoping to begin collecting signatures soon

to force a city-wide referendum on the project in November on Wednesday the Atlanta City Clerk approved the language of the referendum petition to stop the 90 million dollar project meanwhile The Intercept reports Georgia's attorney general Chris Carr has played a key role in the case of a legal Observer with the Southern Poverty Law Center who faces domestic terrorism charges after being arrested in March the DeKalb

County's district attorney had recommended dropping charges against the legal Observer Thomas Webb Jurgens but Georgia's Republican attorney general overruled them the U.S department of Agriculture has approved the sale of lab-grown meat for the first time the usda's approval on Wednesday came after the Food and Drug Administration in March cleared cultured chicken cell material made by the company good meat as safe for use as human food

proponents say lab-grown meat provides a Humane option for people who wish to consume meat but don't want to contribute to animal suffering greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental damage caused by factory farming and according Montana has heard closing arguments in a landmark lawsuit brought by 16 young people who say their state violated their constitutional rights to a clean environment as it push policies promoting the burning

of coal oil and gas a witness for the plaintiffs testified that Montana has never denied a permit for a fossil fuel project a ruling from a Montana state district judge is expected sometime in July it could set an important precedent for similar lawsuits pending in other states meanwhile that Coalition of more than 250 groups delivered a petition to attorney general Merrick Garland on Wednesday demanding the

Department of Justice and its opposition to allowing a youth climate lawsuit against the U.S government to proceed in court the petition was signed by over 50 000 people this is John beer Jr executive director of the Port Arthur Community Action Network in Texas which is supporting the children's climate lawsuit our youth will be living here long after us therefore we must support that quest to secure

our climate Justice and protect their constitutional rights the youth Across the Nation expected youth living in environmental justice communities like the front line Gulf Coastal communities of color in my own part of the country Port Arthur Texas continue to suffer harm from the climate crisis including pollution and also from social and environmental Injustice 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 nermeen Sheikh heiner mean hi Amy and Welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world