Month: June 2022

At least forty-six migrants have been found dead inside a tractor-trailer found near Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX, along with 16 others — 12 adults and four children — who have been taken to hospitals, local officials in San Antonio said on Monday evening.

The grim discovery was made late Monday afternoon, when Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) responded to a call on Monday regarding an alleged ‘human smuggling event.’  According to officials, there was no working air-conditioning on the tractor-trailer, or water, and that those transported to hospitals were hot to the touch. The victims are suffering from heat exhaustion, the San Antonio Fire Department said.  Temperatures in San Antonio reached up to 100 degrees on Monday, per the National Weather Service.

San Antonio Police Chief William P. McManus said in a video posted on San Antonio Police Department’s Facebook that that three people were in custody. He stated that they do not know if the three people in custody are absolutely connected with human trafficking, adding that Homeland Security Investigations has now taken over the investigation.

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Three people were killed and dozens injured in northern Missouri on Monday after an Amtrak passenger train collided with a dump truck and derailed. Officials said Southwest Chief Train 4 was carrying 207 passengers and additional crew members from Los Angeles to Chicago when it hit a truck near Mendon, Missouri, at approximately 12:43 p.m. local time. An official from the Missouri State Highway Patrol said the crossing was “uncontrolled” and had no lights or crossing rails, which is common in more rural areas.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Corporal Justin Dunn said at a press conference that seven of the train’s eight cars derailed.  He added that two of the victims were on the train and the other was in the truck. It’s not clear if the train victims were passengers or crew members. All passengers have been transported from the scene, Dunn said. As many as 50 people were injured with many of the minor injuries being treated at a nearby school.

Amtrak did not provide any additional information about the crash or the condition of the train and its passengers. Missouri Governor Mike Parson said he’s “saddened” to hear of the derailment, adding that “Missouri Department of Public Safety, Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers, and other emergency management personnel are responding.”

The Missouri derailment is Amtrak’s second train crash in two days. An Amtrak train and passenger car collided in Northern California Sunday, killing three people in the car; no one on board that train was seriously injured.

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President Joe Biden announced during a summit with the leaders of the Group of Seven on Sunday that the United States will contribute $200 billion to a global infrastructure initiative. The United States committed to provide $200 billion to the program throughout the next five years in combination with contributions from other G7 members for an overall target of $600 billion.

Biden said in remarks at the summit: “Developing countries often lack the essential infrastructure to help navigate global shocks like a pandemic, so they feel the impacts more acutely and they have a harder timer recovering in our deeply connected world. That’s not just a humanitarian concern. It’s an economic and a security concern for all of us.”

The effort comes as China has spent nearly a decade investing in infrastructure in Africa and Asia, including financing for projects such as seaports and 5G wireless networks through its Belt and Road Initiative. Biden did not explicitly mention China during his remarks but said that when “democracies do all that we can offer” they can triumph over autocracies and offer “better options for people around the world.” Said Biden: “This isn’t a charity. It’s an investment that will deliver returns for everyone, including the American people, the people of all our nations. It will boost all of our economies and give a chance for us to share our positive vision for the future.”

In remarks before the meeting, Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the nations will “continue working on the economic challenges” each faces while standing together against Russia’s aggression in Europe. A senior White House official said that Biden and other G7 leaders will “continue to work to hold Putin accountable” while the United States, Britain, Canada and Japan announced they have banned the import of Russian gold, which is Moscow’s largest non-energy export at about $15.47 billion last year.

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