Top U S World Headlines June 29 2026

Welcome to Democracy Now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In Venezuela, nearly 50,000 people remain missing, five days after a pair of massive earthquakes struck near the capital, Caracas. The confirmed death toll is fast approaching 1,500, expected to soar as the window for finding survivors closes. There are reports of several aftershocks, rattling nerves of survivors, many of whom narrowly avoided being buried in the rubble of collapsed buildings. I feel very sad because of the loss of our neighbors, the loss of our neighbors. At least I was lucky enough to save my own life, but our neighbors, young people, full of life, were left in the rubble. And I imagine that if I hadn't left my room, I, too, would have been in that rubble and wouldn't have survived. The Trump administration says the U.S. and Iran have agreed to end attacks in the Persian Gulf after the two sides traded fire throughout the weekend. The renewed violence began Thursday when Iran fired on a Singapore flag container ship near the Strait of Hormuz. The Pentagon countered Friday with attacks on what it called Iranian missile and drone storage locations and radar sites. Iran responded with drone and missile attacks on a U.S. naval base in Bahrain and a Kuwaiti air base. Axios reports the two sides plan to meet Tuesday in Qatar to work out their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz. But Iran's deputy foreign minister later said there were no currently scheduled meetings with U.S. diplomats. Meanwhile, many Democrats are accusing Trump of violating a war powers resolution passed by the House earlier this month and approved by the Senate last week. California Congress member Ro Khanna wrote, These strikes are a blatant violation of the war powers resolution we passed. Trump must stop this war now or we will take him to court to compel him to do so. Khanna wrote. Israeli forces continued to strike southern Lebanon over the weekend, defying terms of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement. Lebanon's health ministry reported at least one person was killed Saturday, just a day after Israeli and Lebanese diplomats in Washington, D.C. signed a U.S.-brokered framework agreement on a peace deal. Hezbollah was not a party to the talks, and the deal does not require Israel withdraw from the vast stretches of southern Lebanon it now occupies. In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire have killed at least four Palestinians over the last 24 hours. Among the dead is Aileen Alfara, a 13-year-old girl struck by shrapnel from an Israeli tank shell that fired on Khan Younis. This follows deadly strikes Saturday on makeshift tents in al-Mawassi, an area Israel had designated as a safe zone. Those attacks left several wounded and killed two siblings, 15-year-old Isla Moussa and her 30-year-old brother Abdullah. The Palestinian health ministry reports Israel has killed at least 1,045 people in Gaza since it agreed on paper to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire last October. Meanwhile, the so-called Board of Peace set up by President Trump to govern Gaza is planning a sweeping grant of legal immunity for itself. That's according to The Guardian, which reports a draft of the resolution would also let the Board of Peace obtain public property in Gaza, quote, free of charge. Authorities in eastern Libya have released 10 Palestine Solidarity activists who were arrested in May as they attempted to break Israel's siege on Gaza. Members of the Global Samud Convoy were detained outside the city of Sirte as they attempted to bring ambulances, mobile homes and humanitarian aid to Gaza. Several countries across Europe have shattered temperature records as a deadly heat wave puts over 150 million people under extreme heat advisories. Germany, Hungary, Czechia, Poland and Denmark have all set records for their highest ever recorded temperatures. French authorities report more than 1,000 excess deaths due to the heat, with the mortality rate expected to rise even further. Here in the U.S., three firefighters were killed along the Colorado-Utah border over the weekend as they battled blazes that have scorched nearly 30,000 acres. They're among three dozen major wildfires burning across the U.S. as forecasters warn central and eastern states face dangerous and potentially record-breaking heat over the July 4th holiday. A federal appeals court has struck down the Trump administration's rollback of Biden era limits to Sirte pollution from coal-fired power plants. The EPA had sought to reverse a 2024 rule change, limiting the amount of fine particulate matter from power plants, factories and vehicles. Kenya's Human Rights Commission says at least six activists were brutally tortured by police in Nairobi following their arrest at an anti-government protest last week. They were among more than 350 people arrested across Kenya last Thursday as the government cracked down on demonstrations commemorating the second anniversary of a 2024 protest where 60 people were killed by security forces. This is Kenyan activist Hussein Khalid. We are telling the government compensation is not enough and they will not hoodwink us with money. This is a call for justice because every time there's a protest, innocent Kenyans are killed because these killer cops are not being arrested. They are not being held to account. President Trump has nominated a former Oklahoma state trooper to serve as the next director of ICE, that's Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lance Schroyer currently serves as an advisor to Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen. Schroyer's nomination comes after former ICE director Todd Lyons resigned in May amidst growing scrutiny over the agency's violent crackdown on protesters and immigrants. Schroyer has no previous experience with ICE. Trump wrote in a Truth Social Post, quote, The Senate must confirm Lance immediately. Do not delay, Trump wrote. Another immigrant has died in ICE custody. Felix Alcorta Rodriguez is at least the 20th reported ICE death this year. The 63-year-old Mexican immigrant was found unconscious the night of June 19th while detained at the Webb County Detention Center in Laredo, Texas. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. ICE has listed no cause of death. The Webb County Detention Center is operated by the for-profit prison company CoreCivic. Deaths in ICE custody have skyrocketed during Trump's second term, with the United Nations calling for prompt and independent investigations. In a statement, U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said, quote, Those responsible for violations of the law must be held to account, and the rights of the victims' families to truth, justice, and reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence must be upheld, Volker Turk said. Millions of people took to the streets of cities around the world over the weekend for pride celebrations. Here in the U.S., faced a conservative backlash led by the Republican governors of Indiana and Tennessee who declared June Pride Month as Nuclear Family Month. In Hungary, tens of thousands of people braved triple-digit heat to march through Budapest, the city's first pride event since longtime far-right leader Viktor Orban lost re-election. The march came a year after Orban's government ran through a constitutional amendment to outlaw pride events. It's much more relaxed than last year. Last year was a protest, more or less, but this year is like a celebration of freedom. People are much more optimistic right now. Like, probably it's because of the political change, but everyone is just so much more uplifted at the moment. And three agents of former U.S.-backed Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet's secret police have been sentenced to 15 years in prison for their role in the 1976 murder of Ronnie Moffitt in Washington, D.C. On September 21st, 1976, Pinochet's agents planted a car bomb that killed former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier along with his assistant Ronnie Moffitt, a U.S. citizen who worked at the Institute for Policy Studies. The bombing took place on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., blocks from the White House. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.