Good morning.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is meeting China’s president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing. The talks between Blinken, who is on the first visit to China by a US secretary of state in five years, and Xi began at 4.30pm (0830 GMT).
Earlier on Monday, Blinken held extensive discussions with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi. Describing the US-China relationship as being at a low point, Wang said the root cause was the US’s wrong perception of China.
Blinken underscored the importance of open communication channels to manage their competition during more than three hours of talks with Wang, the state department said, calling their conversation “productive”.
Yesterday, Blinken held talks lasting more than seven a half hours – an hour more than expected – with the Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang.
How did the talks go? The US state department called the talks – which were held at an ornate state villa and included a banquet dinner – “candid, substantive and constructive” although they did not appear to make concrete progress on disputes that include Taiwan, trade, human rights and fentanyl.
What did Qin say? Behind closed doors, Qin told Blinken that relations between the US and China “are at the lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations”, according to the state-run broadcaster CCTV. “This does not conform to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, nor does it meet the common expectations of the international community,” Qin was reported as saying during the talks at the ancient Diaoyutai gardens.
Moscow blocking aid to flood-hit areas after dam destroyed, says UN
The UN has accused Russia of refusing to allow aid deliveries to Moscow-controlled areas affected by flooding following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam almost two weeks ago.
“The government of the Russian Federation has so far declined our request to access the areas under its temporary military control,” Denise Brown, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said in a statement.
“The UN will continue to engage to seek the necessary access. We urge the Russian authorities to act in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law. Aid cannot be denied to people who need it.”
Ukrainian and Russian authorities said the death toll from the flooding had risen to 52. Russian officials said 35 people had died in Moscow-controlled areas, while Ukraine‘s interior ministry said 17 people had died and 31 were missing, Reuters reported. More than 11,000 people have been evacuated on both sides.
What caused the dam to collapse? A team of international legal experts assisting Ukraine’s prosecutors in their investigation said it was “ highly likely” the dam’s collapse was caused by explosives planted by Russians.
What else is happening? The Russian military has “highly likely” started relocating troops from the eastern bank of the Dnipro River to Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update. “The DGF [Dnipro Group of Forces] redeployment likely reflects Russia’s perception that a major Ukrainian attack across the Dnipro is now less likely following the collapse of Kakhovka Dam and the resulting flooding,” the MoD writes.
Workers sue secretive elite club Bohemian Grove for wage theft
Workers at Bohemian Grove, one of the most elite and secretive clubs in the US, have filed a lawsuit alleging numerous unfair labor practices, including 16-hour workdays without breaks, and a failure to pay overtime and minimum wages to the workers.
Bohemian Grove, which attracts some of the world’s most powerful people to a mysterious gathering in the woods north of San Francisco, has long been the subject of fascination and conspiracy theories.
The lawsuit was brought by former valets who worked for several years at the club’s Monte Rio summer camp in Sonoma county, California. The secretive 2,700-acre camp near the Russian River has operated every summer for 150 years and is rumored to end in a ritual involving a human effigy and burning of a giant sacrificial owl.
The club was purportedly visited by the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas and billionaire donor Harlan Crow, and has been rumored over the years to be the site where Richard Nixon’s successful 1968 presidential election campaign was launched, and where J Robert Oppenheimer first discussed the Manhattan Project.
What does the lawsuit say? The lawsuit alleges about 100 separate camps that comprise the club each have one or more captains who violate numerous labor laws every summer. The complaint includes an allegation that Bohemian Grove treasurer, Bill Dawson, has personally directed valets to “falsify payroll records and to work off-the-clock”. The lawsuit alleges valets were paid only eight hours despite working 16-plus hours a day without breaks for the duration of a 14-day summer camp. Another allegation in the lawsuit claims a worker was directed to hide from a payroll employee when they made a surprise visit to the camp, as they were being paid under the table.
In other news …
Spotify’s head of podcast innovation and monetisation has labelled Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex “grifters” after their $20m, multi-year deal to make podcasts with the streaming platform came to an end after they made just 12 episodes.
Nine suspected people smugglers are to appear before a Greek court accused of piloting the fishing trawler that sank off the coast of Greece last week leaving hundreds missing and presumed dead in one of the Mediterranean’s worst boat disasters.
Some Republican politicians and officials fanned out yesterday to denounce Donald Trump over his handling of classified documents but also to question the motives of the US justice department in bringing an unprecedented 37-count indictment against the former president.
An American man has been charged with murder after an attack on US women in Germany. The two women, who had just earned computing-related college degrees, had gone to southern Germany to celebrate when a fellow American whom they met while hiking shoved them both down a steep slope last week, killing one and seriously wounding the other, according to officials.
Stat of the day: US ‘deeply troubled’ as Israel plans to approve thousands of homes in West Bank
The US says it is “deeply troubled” by the Israeli government’s tabling of plans to approve thousands of building permits in the occupied West Bank and has called on Israel to return to dialogue aimed at de-escalation. The plans for approval of 4,560 housing units in various areas of the West Bank were included on the agenda of Israel’s Supreme Planning Council that meets next week, although only 1,332 are up for final approval, with the remainder going through the preliminary clearance process. Most countries deem the settlements, built on land captured by Israel in 1967, as illegal. Their presence is one of the fundamental issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The US state department said it was “deeply troubled” by the latest move, which comes despite US pressure to halt the settlement expansion that Washington sees as an obstacle to peace.
Don’t miss this: Days of desperation: the diary of a woman forced to flee Texas for an abortion
Lauren Miller, 36, a long-life Texan, unexpectedly found herself needing abortion care shortly after Roe v Wade was overturned one year ago. Her fetus had no skull. Her pregnancy threatened her life, and that of her twin boy. When she first started writing a diary documenting her pregnancy, Miller had no idea of the obstacles she was about to face. Now, she is suing the state of Texas with the Center for Reproductive Rights alongside 14 other plaintiffs for being denied access to life-saving abortion care, writes Poppy Noor. Miller came to the Guardian wanting to publish her journal – a real-time diary of the twists and turns of going from discovering a very wanted pregnancy, to navigating the need for a termination in a state where abortion is now banned.
Climate check: India heatwave – nearly 100 dead amid warnings to stay indoors
At least 96 people died in two of India’s most populous states over the past several days, with swaths of the country reeling from a sweltering heatwave. The deaths happened in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and eastern Bihar, where authorities warned residents aged over 60 and others suffering various maladies to stay indoors during the daytime. April, May and June are generally the hottest months in most of India. But temperatures have become more intense in the past decade. During heatwaves, the country usually suffers severe water shortages, with tens of millions of its 1.4 billion people lacking running water. A study by World Weather Attribution, an academic group that examines the source of extreme heat, found that a searing heatwave in April that struck parts of south Asia was made at least 30 times more likely by climate change.
Last Thing: Flamin’ not? Critics say popular snack founding myth is a hoax
When Joe Biden welcomed the actor-director Eva Longoria to the White House for a screening of her Flamin’ Hot drama-documentary last week, the president hailed the story of the Mexican-American one-time janitor Richard Montañez as a tale of “courage”. First lady Jill Biden said Montañez helped change the way companies think about Latino customers, adding: “This film isn’t just about Richard. It’s about everyone who has been overlooked or underestimated.” But the Disney+ film has now revived questions of whether Montañez actually came up with the spicy Cheetos Flamin’ Hot recipe while working at a Frito-Lay plant in Rancho Cucamonga, California, in the late 1980s – he has claimed his idea was ripped off by company executives – or if the chilli-covered snack was the work of uncredited company workers for which he took credit.
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