June 21 top stories

It is June 21. Here are today’s top stories.

Deadly violence in West Bank

On Tuesday two Palestinian militants shot and killed four Israeli civilians, including a 17-year-old boy, at a gas station/restaurant. This happened near Eli, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian organization Hamas said the shooting was in retaliation for an Israeli military raid on Monday in the Palestinian city of Jenin that left at least seven Palestinians dead, including a 15-year-old girl. Over 20 people were seriously injured. Israel’s military said they came under heavy fire during the raid and returned fire to extract its soldiers. An Israeli military helicopter was involved.

The deadly violence in the West Bank has continued into today. News reports said about 400 armed Israeli citizens who lived in the West Bank settlement of Shilo stormed a Palestinian village, torching homes and cars and shooting at residents. One Palestinian was killed and 12 others were injured.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said he vows to strike hard at terror and that he has approved plans to build 1,000 new homes in Eli.

Biden says Xi Jinping a dictator who got embarrassed

BBC reported that on Tuesday at a fundraising dinner in California, President Biden said Chinese leader Xi Jinping was very embarrassed after the U.S. shot down the balloon full of spy equipment. Biden said he didn't even realize it was up there and that it is embarrassing for him as a dictator.

The Chinese government did not like the remarks. A spokesperson said the comments are "absurd and irresponsible" and "an open political provocation."

There are now U.S.-China tensions not long after U.S. Secretary of State Blinken had a historic meeting with Xi Jinping in which they pledged to "stabilize" their relationship so they don't veer into conflict.

Banging sounds detected in search for sub

A group of searchers for the missing submersible that was exploring the Titanic shipwreck said they heard “banging sounds” in half-hour intervals and believe that it is a likely sign of life.

The banging sounds were picked up by a Canadian aircraft that was searching for the submersible.

The searchers said they are doing everything possible with all the resources they have and are in touch with the Coast Guard and the White House.

There are five people inside the submersible and as of this afternoon, it has about 20 hours of oxygen left after going missing on Sunday.

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41 women killed in Honduras prison

In distressing news, 41 women were murdered at a women’s prison in Honduras on Tuesday.

The country’s president Xiomara Castro said the killers were members of a gang called Barrio 18 that brought guns and machetes into a prison. She vowed to take drastic measures.

26 of the victims were burned to death and the remaining were shot or stabbed.

AP News said relatives of the victims said they had previously expressed fears that they would be attacked by the Barrio 18 gang.

AP said the head of the country’s prison system suggested that the riot started because of recent attempts by authorities to crack down on illicit activity inside prisons.

Judge strikes down Arkansas’ transgender care ban

NPR reported that a federal judge ruled that the state of Arkansas violated the U.S. Constitution when it banned all gender-affirming/transgender treatments for people under 18.

Arkansas’ law was the first in the country that banned transgender care for minors when it passed in 2021.

The judge who made the ruling, U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr., said it would cause irreparable harm to trans minors if they are deprived of treatments like hormone therapy.

NPR said the verdict comes after an eight-day trial in December where several of the state’s witnesses admitted they didn’t have experience treating transgender teens.

Arkansas’ Attorney General Griffin said the state would appeal.

U.S. sues Amazon over Prime subscriptions

The Federal Trade Commission, a U.S. agency, has filed a lawsuit against Amazon with allegations that Amazon is tricking consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions.

The FTC said Amazon deliberately made it much harder to cancel subscriptions than to enroll in Prime by creating a “labyrinthine” cancellation process.

The FTC said Amazon internally referred to the cancellation process as the “Iliad Flow,” naming it after Homer’s epic story about the Trojan war. That process required consumers to navigate a four-page, six-click, fifteen-option cancellation process with many distractions intended to derail the customer.

Amazon has over 200 million paid Prime subscribers as of 2021.

CNBC said it is the third lawsuit the FTC has filed against Amazon in the last month and that

Amazon in May agreed to pay FTC over $30 million to settle cases alleging privacy lapses in its Alexa and Ring units.

That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/19/deaths-injuries-as-israeli-forces-raid-jenin

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65963017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/20/israel-jenin-palestinians-helicopters-raid/

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-21/ty-article/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/19/middleeast/israel-jenin-idf-clashes-west-bank-intl-hnk/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/21/west-bank-israeli-rampage-palestinians/

https://7news.com.au/news/world/banging-sounds-heard-in-search-for-missing-titan-submersible-c-11045022

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65969802