Headlines June 12, 2023 from Democracy Now!

Federal and local law enforcement agencies say they’ve stepped up security and are monitoring online threats from far-right supporters of Donald Trump ahead of his appearance at a Miami federal court Tuesday. Trump is facing criminal charges for taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate when he exited the White House.

At Georgia’s Republican state convention over the weekend, Arizona’s defeated gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake said she and 75 million others would defend Trump, adding, “Most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA.” Trump, who also spoke at the Georgia convention, said he is still running for the 2024 presidency, as he lashed out at the Biden administration.

Donald Trump: “Now the Marxist left is once again using the same corrupt DOJ and the same corrupt FBI and the attorney general and the local district attorneys to interfere in our elections at a level that our country and few countries have ever seen before. They’re cheating. They’re crooked. They’re corrupt. These criminals cannot be rewarded. They must be defeated. You have to defeat them.”

On Friday, the Justice Department unsealed the indictment against Trump, containing 37 felony counts, including obstruction of justice and violations of the Espionage Act. Photographs show towering stacks of document boxes piled up in various parts of Trump’s Florida estate, including a ballroom stage and a bathroom. We’ll have more on this story after headlines with The Nation’s Elie Mystal.

Back in the U.S., the city of New Haven, Connecticut, has reached a historic $45 million settlement with Randy Cox, a Black man who was left paralyzed after he was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police van without a seat belt. After the van made an abrupt stop, Cox slid headfirst into a metal partition, seriously injuring his neck and spine. Officers then ignored his pleas for help. Five officers have pleaded “not guilty” to criminal charges including second-degree reckless endangerment.

In Philadelphia, an elevated highway collapsed Sunday following a crash and oil tanker truck fire on Interstate 95. No deaths or injuries were reported. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said it could take months to repair the major East Coast artery.

In Colombia, four Indigenous children were found alive in the Amazon 40 days after their plane crashed in the rainforest in early May. The siblings, ranging from just 11 months to 13 years old, survived eating plants and seeds they’d been taught were edible. The search and rescue efforts were largely led by Indigenous community members, who guided Colombian troops through the region.

In more news from Colombia, the National Liberation Army, or ELN — the country’s largest remaining guerrilla group — and Colombian officials have signed a ceasefire agreement after months of negotiations. This is President Gustavo Petro, who’s vowed to bring “total peace” to Colombia.

President Gustavo Petro: “Today, the signing of these partial agreements brings you to a ceasefire, to a point that you had never experienced in the peace talks, to a ceasefire that follows with a promise, that on May ’25, on May 2025, the decades-long war between the ELN guerrilla and the state of Colombia will definitively cease.”

At least 25 people in Pakistan were killed by torrential rains in the country’s northwest, which caused houses to collapse and trees to be uprooted. Meanwhile, authorities have put in place emergency measures as a “severe and intense” cyclone approaches Pakistan and India.

In Somalia, over 20 people, most of them children and teens, were killed Friday in a southern town after an unexploded mortar shell detonated near where the victims were playing. More than 50 people were injured in the blast. Another six people were killed Saturday during a six-hour siege of a beachside hotel by the armed group al-Shabab in the capital Mogadishu.

Media tycoon, billionaire and four-time Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has died at the age of 86. Berlusconi was first elected prime minister in 1994, leveraging his unrivaled influence over public opinion in Italy, where he controlled newspapers, magazines and three major TV channels. Throughout his career, Berlusconi faced multiple criminal charges, including abuse of office, bribery, corruption and paying for sex with an underage girl. Most of the charges ended in dismissals after Berlusconi’s government passed laws shielding him from prosecution, but a tax fraud conviction in 2013 barred him from public office for six years.