46 dead after trailer carrying migrants found in San Antonio
Officials say 46 people were found dead in and near a tractor-trailer and 16 others were taken to hospitals in a presumed migrant smuggling attempt into the United States. Police Chief William McManus said a city worker at the scene was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6 p.m. Monday. He said officers arrived to find a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partially opened gate to the trailer. Fire Chief Charles Hood said 12 of those taken to hospitals were adults and four were children. He said they were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer.
Lawyer who advised Trump says federal agents seized phone
A lawyer who aided former President Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 election results says in a federal court filing that federal agents have seized his cell phone. John Eastman says the agents took his phone as he left a restaurant last Wednesday evening. Federal law enforcement officials conducted similar activity around the country that day as part of broadening investigations into efforts by Trump allies to overturn the election results. The action was disclosed in a filing in federal court in New Mexico in which Eastman challenges the legitimacy of the warrant.
3 killed, dozens hurt in Amtrak train crash in Missouri
Three people were killed and dozens others were injured Monday when an Amtrak passenger train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago struck a dump truck and derailed in a remote, rural area of Missouri. A Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman says two of the people who died were on the train and one was in the truck. It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were hurt, the patrol said, but hospitals reported receiving more than 40 patients from the crash and were expecting more. Officials say Amtrak’s Southwest Chief was carrying about 207 passengers and crew members when the collision happened near Mendon at a rural intersection on a gravel road with no lights or electronic controls. The Highway Patrol said seven cars derailed.
Abortion-rights groups take up the fight in the states
The battle over abortion shifted to the states Monday as a weekend of protest and thanksgiving in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade reversal gave way to a wave of lawsuits, legislation and pitched political fights. With conservatives in roughly half of the states moving swiftly to end or dramatically restrict reproductive rights, and liberals in about 20 more scrambling to preserve them, the national debate suddenly fragmented into a contentious patchwork, with lawyers and lawmakers dissecting state constitutions and statutes after Friday’s ruling. “It’s all about the states from here on out,” said Jessie Hill, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University who has worked on abortion rights cases.
New York City’s noncitizen voting law is struck down
A law that would have allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections in New York City was struck down Monday by a state Supreme Court justice on Staten Island who said it violated the state constitution. The measure, which was passed by the City Council in December, would have allowed more than 800,000 permanent legal residents and people with authorization to work in the United States to vote for offices such as mayor and City Council. But Justice Ralph J. Porzio ruled that the new law conflicted with constitutional guidelines and state law stating that only eligible citizens can vote. To give noncitizens a right to vote would require a referendum, the judge wrote.
Amtrak train hits truck in missouri, killing 3
An Amtrak train carrying more than 200 passengers crashed into a dump truck in rural Missouri on Monday, killing three people and injuring an unknown number, authorities said. It was the second fatal accident involving the railroad service in two days. Two of the people killed were on the train, and the other was in the truck, authorities said. The extent of the passengers’ injuries was not immediately clear. The train was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago when it hit the truck, which was obstructing a public crossing at 12:42 p.m. near Mendon, Missouri, about 100 miles northeast of Kansas City, Missouri, Amtrak said. Eight cars and two locomotives derailed, Amtrak said.
NATO will sharply increase ready troops
NATO intends to significantly increase allied forces on “standby” in case of conflict from 40,000 to 300,000, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday in a news conference previewing the alliance’s annual summit this week in Madrid. The alliance will also increase the size of its deployments in Poland and the Baltic countries to brigade level, he said, in another response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In a forthcoming statement of priorities, the first since 2010, the leaders will “make clear that allies consider Russia as the most significant and direct threat to our security,” Stoltenberg said.
