Welcome to Democracy Now, democracynow.org, The War and Peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. President Biden took to the podium Thursday evening for his first solo press conference this year as debate over whether Biden should remain the Democratic nominee reaches a fever pitch. Biden remained defiant, saying he's determined to, quote, finish the job, and reasserting he's best positioned to beat Donald Trump. Biden addressed concerns about his mental fitness. I've taken three significant and intense neurological exams by the neurologist. In each case, as recently as February, and they say I'm in good shape, okay. But Biden's performance was far from smooth as he accidentally called Vice President Kamala Harris, Vice President Trump. Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President, but I think she was not qualified to be President, so let's start there, number one. The fact is that the consideration is that I think I'm the most qualified person to run for President. I beat him once and I will.

beat him again just hours earlier at the NATO Summit. Biden mistakenly referred to the Ukrainian president Zelensky as President Putin as the three-day NATO Summit came to a close. And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine who has as much courage as he has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin, President Putin, he's going to beat President Putin, President Zelensky. I'm so focused on beating Putin. Three more House Democrats called on President Biden to step aside following the news conference. And more news from the NATO Summit: the US approved a new $225 million military aid package for Ukraine, including a Patriot missile system. Ukrainian President Zelensky again urged NATO allies to lift all restrictions on Ukraine's use of long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia, saying the move would be a game changer. Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez criticized NATO's double standard when it comes to support for Ukraine versus Gaza. What Spain has done has been to demand for Ukraine, as well as for Gaza, the same.

manner, and the same firmness in respecting international law. I believe that our strength lies in our unity and also in our coherence. We cannot and should not allow ourselves to be accused by anyone of having double standards in the defense of international law. In May, Spain formally recognized the state of Palestine. In related news, Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban traveled to meet with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Resort Thursday after leaving the NATO Summit in Washington. Orban, who also visited President Putin in Moscow as well as Beijing in recent weeks, says he's on a peace mission. In Gaza, rescue workers are recovering dozens of dead bodies following two days of non-stop Israeli attacks in western Gaza City, much of which has now been left in ruins. Survivors say their buildings were attacked in the middle of the night. One man, Musa ALU, says his family was forced from their shelter in the middle of the night by Israeli forces. My mother's in a wheelchair, my wife as well, and she has metal support.

in her arms and legs, my grandson is paralyzed. In the legs, his father had to carry him on his back. In more news from Gaza, at least 70 media organizations are urging Israel to give reporters unfettered access to the besieged territory. Media outlets, including the Associated Press, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, New York Times, and The Washington Post, said in a letter, The effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an impossible and unreasonable burden on local reporters to document a war through which they are living. More than 100 journalists have been killed since the start of the war, and those who remain are working in conditions of extreme deprivation, the newspapers wrote. In Israel, the first results of the military's investigation into its response to the October 7th attack by Hamas were published Thursday. The report finds the military was unprepared for the incursion into Butz bedi and was slow and disorganized in its response. Over 100 Israelis were killed, another 30 taken hostage from bedi. The report

however denied that hostages killed during a standoff between Hamas and Israeli soldiers were killed in Friendly Fire, as some have suggested. Though it did not offer evidence that Hamas killed them, members of kabut B expressed dissatisfaction with the military assessment. We know what are the conclusions, some conclusions, but not like the big picture conclusion, and uh, what could have done differently and what they are going to do on the next step, how can we feel secure again, safe again, how can we come back to live in the kibuts berry in Texas. 1 million people in the Houston area remain without power and water after Hurricane Barrel slammed into the region Monday amidst a protracted Heat Wave. Hospitals report a surge in patients with heat-related conditions and are unable to swiftly discharge patients if they don't have electricity at home to stay cool. Extreme heat has killed at least 28 people in the United States over the past week, most of those in California where wildfires have burned five times the average area this year, according to State officials. Las Vegas recently

reported a new record high of 120 degrees Fahrenheit and is on a record-breaking streak of at least six straight days of temperatures topping 115°. Last week, the Biden Administration proposed a new rule that would require employers to provide regular rest breaks and water to workers during high temperatures. The rule, which is facing opposition from industry and Republicans, could offer relief to some 500,000 agricultural workers and over 4 million construction workers Nationwide, many of whom are immigrants. In Nepal, over 60 people are missing after landslides swept two buses into a river earlier today. Over 90 people have been killed in Monsoon-triggered landslides and floods in Nepal over the past month. In Kenya, President William Ruto has fired nearly all his cabinet members amidst continued unrest, two weeks after Ruto scrapped a highly contested tax bill following mass protests. At least 41 people were killed as police violently cracked down on demonstrations on Thursday. The Kenya Human Rights Commission called on Ruto

to prosecute security chiefs responsible for the killings in Saudi Arabia a man's been sentenced to 20 years in prison for charges related to his social media activity. Assad algamdi, a 47-year-old teacher, was arrested in November, convicted of publishing false information and challenging the religion and justice of the king and the Crown Prince. He was held incommunicado, placed in solitary confinement in a Jeddah prison. He's also been denied medical attention for his epilepsy, suffering multiple seizures while in custody. According to Human Rights Watch, one of his brothers was sentenced to death last year over his tweets, some of which called for the release of political prisoners in the United Arab Emirates. Over 40 lawyers, academics, and political dissidents were sentenced to between 10 years to life in prison this week following a mass trial human rights groups are denouncing as a sham. More than 80 people were tried, many of whom had already been convicted years ago and were serving prison sentences for the or similar offenses, Human Rights Watch said.

the proceedings were marred by serious due process and fair trial violations, including the use of torture. Back in the United States, a federal court has ruled that Black Lives Matter activist Deray McKesson cannot be held responsible for injuries inflicted by someone else while attending a protest that McKesson had organized following the 2016 police killing of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The ruling came after the US Supreme Court in April declined to take the case. The ACLU hailed Thursday's decision in favor of McKesson as a crucial win for the First Amendment right to protest, and Reproductive Rights Advocates vowed to challenge a move by Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston, who on Wednesday disqualified a Grassroots ballot initiative that seeks to enshrine abortion access in Arkansas's Constitution. Thurston argued the group behind the proposed ballot Amendment for limited government failed to identify paid canvassers, tossing 14,000 of the more than 100,000 signatures collected. Voters in nearly a

dozen states could see abortion-related amendments on the ballot in November, and those are some of the headlines.

Top U.S. & World Headlines — July 12, 2024

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