Wednesday, June 16 top stories
Hello, it is Wednesday, June 16. I am taking Alex’s place this week. Ready for today’s top news?
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There is a widespread heat wave in the western U.S., impacting California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.
There are many cities that are under an “excessive heat” watch or warning. Several areas have broken records for the highest temperature.
For example, on Sunday in Salt Lake City, it was 102 degrees, which broke the previous record of 100 degrees in 1918. In Phoenix and Las Vegas, temperatures are about 115 F.
Weather forecasters say it is normal for it to be very hot during this time, but they are concerned that the temperatures are staying up for a prolonged time.
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In Munich, Germany, a protester for environmentalist group Greenpeace parachuted into the middle of an Euro 2020 game between France and Germany, but it didn’t go smoothly as the parachuter hit overhead camera wires, causing him to lose control. Two spectators were injured from falling debris. France’s coach was almost hit. The parachutist landed on the field and was detained.
Greenpeace apologized and said they intended to just have the protester glide around the stadium using a “fan” motor and drop a balloon to send a message to Volkswagen to stop making motors that use gasoline.
Munich police said they are investigating several possible criminal violations.
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The G-7 is an organization of the world’s seven largest wealthy democracies. They are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States. Russia joined in 1998, but was excluded in 2014 for its takeover of Crimea.
G-7 leaders on Sunday wrapped up their annual summit, a three-day event in Cornwall, UK. They announced commitments to joint actions against forced labor, ransomware and corruption. They also pledged to defeat covid-19 and help countries in need recover from it by donating 1 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines.
Biden is asking leaders to form a unified front against China’s use of forced labor and human rights abuses. But not all allies are enthusiastic to prod China over those violations.
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The Putin-Biden summit was being closely watched around the world as US-Russia relations remained tense.
The agenda for the presidents’ meeting is expected to include strategic stability between two nations, potentially a range of topics such as the fate of Navalny, Ukraine, Belarus and the outlook for U.S. and Russian nationals imprisoned in each other’s countries.
The two leaders shook hands as they greeted each other in Switzerland, chosen as the location for the summit due to its history of political neutrality.
Putin said, “Mr President, I would like to thank you for your initiative to meet today”. Biden responded, “It is always better to meet face to face.”
Putin, who was first to brief reporters, said the meeting had been constructive, without hostility, and had shown the leaders' desire to understand each other.
He said it was "hard to say" if relations with the United States would improve, but that there was a "glimpse of hope" regarding mutual trust.
Biden, speaking shortly afterwards, said there was "no substitute for face-to-face dialogue", and that he had told Putin his agenda was "not against Russia", but "for the American people".
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That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/13/g7-summit-live-updates/
https://www.reuters.com/world/wide-disagreements-low-expectations-biden-putin-meet-2021-06-15/
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/16/putin-biden-summit-in-geneva-2021.html