AFP

Fifty undocumented migrants died after the tractor-trailer rig they were being smuggled in was abandoned Monday outside of San Antonio, Texas. Here is what we know about the tragedy:

– Who were the migrants? –

Officials at the scene intially put the toll at 46, and said 16 people, 12 adults and four children, were taken to hospital. The toll was later increased to 50, and media reports said several had died in hospital.

US officials did not give any breakdown by age, gender or nationality of the dead. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said 22 were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala and two from Honduras. Lopez Obrador said he did not have information about the nationality of the others.

It is unclear whether there were other people who escaped earlier from the trailer.

– How were they found? –

The large tractor-trailer they were in was abandoned on the side of a road in a sparsely populated area about eight miles (14 kilometers) from the center of San Antonio. It was beside a railroad track and near several auto junkyards and car parts businesses.

It was also just a short distance from Interstate 35, which connects San Antonio with Laredo, a major hub on the Texas-Mexico border, 250 kilometers (150 miles) to the south.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said authorities were first alerted to the trailer by an emergency call at about 5:50 pm local time (2250 GMT).

He said a worker in a nearby building heard a cry for help and went to investigate. The worker found the trailer with its door partly open, and looked in to see a number of dead bodies.

– How did they die? –

San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said the trailer was designed as a refrigerated space yet did not have a working air conditioning unit. 

Sixteen people, including four children, were taken from the trailer alive apparently suffering from acute heatstroke and dehydration. The high temperature in San Antonio Monday was 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius). 

According to Patterson, which makes cooling equipment for trailers, temperatures in hot weather can rise to as much as 150 degrees inside an uncooled, unvented trailer.

– Who’s behind the tragedy? –

Still unknown. McManus said three people have been detained, but added that officials were not certain they were involved. Border officials say well-organized human smuggling rings run such operations, earning large sums of money from those wanting to sneak into the United States.

On June 14, 80 people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador were discovered inside a tractor-trailer at a highway checkpoint north of Laredo, Texas. Three weeks earlier, agents intercepted a trailer with 48 people inside near Sierra Blanca, Texas.

President Joe Biden said the incident “underscores the need to go after the multi-billion-dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths.”

Western allies vowed on Tuesday to boost NATO’s defences and to back Ukraine to the end as Moscow demanded Kyiv’s surrender.

Allied leaders were gathered in Madrid for a NATO summit, even as Russian missiles continued to pound Ukrainian cities.

The NATO leaders faced tough talks with Turkey to unblock Sweden’s and Finland’s bids to defy Russian threats join the Atlantic alliance. 

But they were determined to preserve a united front in the face of Moscow’s four-month-old invasion of pro-Western Ukraine.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters arriving with President Joe Biden that Washington will announce “historic” new long-term military deployments in Europe.

The reinforcements will join NATO’s eastern flank, Russia’s nervous neighbours like the Baltic states, and reflect a long-term change “in the strategic reality” elsewhere in Europe.

Ahead of the summit, NATO chief Jen Stoltenberg has said the allies would boost their high-readiness forces from 40,000 to 300,000 men.

Before travelling to Madrid, Biden and other leaders of the G7 powers — the world’s richest democracies — had held a summit in the German Alps.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz boasted afterwards that his country, a laggard in defence spending, would build “the largest conventional army within the NATO framework in Europe”.

Russia’s invasion, he said, had convinced Berlin “that we should spend more… an average of around 70 to 80 billion euros a year on defence over the next few years”.

NATO member Bulgaria announced just ahead of the summit that it would expel 70 staff from Russia’s diplomatic mission accused of working against its interests.

At the G7 summit, the leaders agreed to impose new sanctions targeting Moscow’s defence industry, raising tariffs and banning gold imports from the country.

The US Treasury said the measures “strike at the heart of Russia’s ability to develop and deploy weapons and technology used for Vladimir Putin’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine,” 

The new set of sanctions target Rostec, Russia’s largest defence conglomerate, as well as military units and officers implicated in human rights abuses in Ukraine, the Treasury said.

Putin’s Kremlin was not fazed by the sanctions, warning that Ukraine’s forces’ only option was to lay down their arms in the face of the Russian invasion.

“The Ukrainian side can stop everything before the end of today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“An order for the nationalist units to lay down their arms is necessary,” he said, adding that Kyiv had to fulfil a list of Moscow’s demands.

– ‘Everything burned’ –

The consequences of Russia’s four-month-old invasion were on display in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, where shaken civilians recounted Monday’s missile strike on a shopping mall.

“Everything burned, really everything, like a spark to a touchpaper. I heard people screaming. It was horror,” witness Polina Puchintseva told AFP.

All that was left of centre — scene of at least 18 deaths — was charred debris, chunks of blackened walls and lettering from a smashed store front.

Russia claims its missile salvo was aimed at an arms depot — but none of the civilians who talked to AFP knew of any weapons store in the neighbourhood.

And, outside Russia, the latest carnage sparked only Ukrainian fury and western solidarity.

“Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,” the G7 leaders said in a statement, condemning the “abominable attack”.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky declared on his social media channels: “Only total insane terrorists, who should have no place on Earth, can strike missiles at civilian objects.

“Russia must be recognised as a state sponsor of terrorism. The world can and therefore must stop Russian terror,” he added.

The G7 leaders did not go so far as to brand Putin a terrorist — but they vowed that Russia, already under tough sanctions, would face more economic pain.

“The G7 stands united in its support for Ukraine,” Scholz told reporters. 

“We will continue to keep up and drive up the economic and political costs of this war for President Putin and his regime.”

– Oil price cap? –

Over the three days of their summit, the G7 had announced several new measures to put the squeeze on Putin, including a plan to work towards a price cap on Russian oil.

The group also agreed to impose an import ban on Russian gold. At the same time, the G7 powers heaped financial support on Ukraine, with aid now reaching $29.5 billion.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the West was “to give the Ukrainians the strategic endurance they need to try to shift the dial, to try to change the dynamic of the position”.

The Madrid summit will also try to overcome Turkey’s objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, and Biden is to talk to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged NATO allies to show they were united.

“The message that should come out of Madrid is a message of unity and strength for member countries, as well as for those that wish to join and whose applications we are supporting,” Macron said.

Sweden and Finland, traditionally non-aligned militarily, asked to join NATO after Putin’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey accuses them of harbouring wanted Kurdish militants.

Erdogan met Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish premier Magdalena Andersson ahead of the NATO talks as the would be allies struggled to persuade him to drop their veto.

Meanwhile, with fierce artillery duels continuing in the eastern Donbas region, Ukrainian officials said the central city of Dnipro and several other sites had been hit by more Russian missiles.

Pro-Moscow forces detained Igor Kolykhayev, the elected mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.

Russian media said the “nationalist” was an opponent of Moscow’s supposed efforts to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, but Kolykhayev’s aides said he had been “kidnapped” by the city’s illegitimate occupiers.

The United Nations said that 6.2 million people are now estimated to have been displaced within Ukraine, in addition to 5.26 million who have fled abroad.

“Ukraine now faces a brutality which we haven’t seen in Europe since the Second World War,” NATO Stoltenberg said as leaders began to gather in the Spanish capital.

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US authorities opened a criminal investigation Tuesday after 50 migrants packed into a stifling trailer died in Texas, with President Joe Biden blaming professional smugglers for the tragedy.

A spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the toll had risen overnight after the tractor-trailer rig was discovered Monday abandoned on an isolated road near the city of San Antonio.

Sixteen people, including four children, were taken to hospital suffering from extreme dehydration. Most of the fatalities were Mexican, and US media said some victims died in hospital.

Biden said the grim incident underscored the need to shut down “the multi-billion dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants.”

“The tragic loss of life in San Antonio, Texas that took place yesterday is horrifying and heartbreaking,” he said in a statement.

– Intense heat –

It was the most deadly single incident involving migrants along the southern border in memory, and drew more attention to the risks that hundreds of thousands of people face seeking to enter the United States from Mexico without permission.

The intense heat of the region is one of the greatest threats, to those smuggled in vehicles and others who cross on foot and try to make their way into the country across sweltering desert.

On Monday, the high temperature in San Antonio was 103 degrees Fahrenheit, or 39.4 degrees Celsius, and the temperature in the unvented trailer would have been much higher.

According to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, most of the dead were from Mexico and Central America.

“It’s a tremendous misfortune… so far there are 50 dead: 22 from Mexico, seven from Guatemala, two from Honduras and 19 still without information about their nationality,” Lopez Obrador told reporters.

– Common route –

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said authorities were first alerted to the trailer by an emergency call at about 5:50 pm local time (2250 GMT).

“A worker who works in one of the buildings up here behind me heard a cry for help,” he told reporters. 

The worker “came out to investigate, found a trailer with the doors partially open, opened them up to take a look, and found a number of deceased individuals inside,” McManus said.

San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said it was a refrigerated tractor-trailer but there appeared to be no working air-conditioning. 

Three people have been taken into custody but officials gave no further details.

The tragedy came five years after 10 migrants were found dead in a trailer with broken air conditioning and clogged ventilation holes near San Antonio. 

In recent weeks Border Patrol officers have discovered other attempts to bring undocumented travelers into the country in large trucks.

On June 14, 80 people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador were discovered inside a tractor-trailer when it was inspected by agents at a highway checkpoint north of Laredo, a border hub in southeastern Texas.

Three weeks earlier, agents intercepted a trailer with 48 people inside near Sierra Blanca in western Texas.

– ‘Desperation of migrants’ –

San Antonio, which lies 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the border, is a major transit route for human smugglers as well as tens of thousands of migrants who cross the border, request asylum, and are allowed to continue on.

“This speaks to the desperation of migrants who would put their lives in the hands of callous human smugglers who show no regard for human life,” said US Customs and Border Protection agency director Chris Magnus.

The case immediately became a focus of politics when Republicans attacked Democratic President Biden for allegedly being soft on immigration.

“These deaths are on Biden. They are a result of his deadly open border policies,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Under Biden more than 200,000 people attempting to enter the country illegally have been interdicted at the border each month and sent back.

But there is no good estimate of the thousands more that succeed in staying inside the country.

Biden said he had already launched an anti-smuggling campaign that focused on the networks and arrested 2,400 people in recent months.

“Exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful, as is political grandstanding around tragedy,” he said.

Airbnb has made permanent its pandemic-era prohibition of parties at the properties rented out globally through its app, saying Tuesday the rules have been effective against problematic events.

The rental platform has gradually tightened its policies on parties after complaints and some high-profile trouble, including a 2019 shooting that killed five in California.

Airbnb provisionally barred events in 2020 as a measure against the spread of Covid, but it turned out to also be effective against large or disruptive gatherings.

“Over time, the party ban became much more than a public health measure. It developed into a bedrock community policy,” the company said.

In the past, property owners were given the room to use their best judgment on whether to allow parties, but rules tightened to bar “party houses” as well as large events advertised on social media.

After the pandemic hit, bringing the closure of many nightlife venues, people in some cases turned to hosting events at places rented through Airbnb, which in turn became a problem.

But Airbnb argued the tighter rules have been effective in reducing the rate of rowdiness complaints it has received.

Under the new policy Airbnb will also lift its 16-person cap at rental properties, a rule enacted against Covid but which will now take into account that certain larger or outdoor sites are OK for bigger groups. 

The company said people breaking the rules face consequences from account suspension to full removal from the platform, adding that in 2021, over 6,600 guests were suspended over the party ban.

The leaders of Finland and Sweden met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid in a bid to get him to drop objections to them joining.

Erdogan has stubbornly refused to greenlight the applications from the Nordic pair — lodged in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine — despite calls from his NATO allies to clear the path for them to enter.

He was expected to meet with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday on the sidelines of the gathering focused on responding to the Kremlin’s invasion of its pro-Western neighbour.

Turkey can essentially veto Finland and Sweden from joining NATO since all members must agree to taking on new members.

Ankara has accused Finland and more particularly Sweden of offering a safe haven to Kurdish militants who have been waging decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

The Turkish leader has also called on the two countries to lift arms embargoes imposed on Turkey in 2019 over Ankara’s military offensive in Syria.

Sweden and Finland went into the NATO meeting open to the possibility that Turkey might only lift its objections after the summit concludes on Thursday.

“We have made progress. That is definitely the case,” said Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde.

“We are prepared for something positive to happen today, but also for it to take more time,” she added. “We must be patient and continue discussions even after the summit.”

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said he was neither “optimistic nor pessimistic at this stage”.

But Erdogan said he wanted to see the results of preparatory talks held on Monday in Brussels before deciding whether Sweden and Finland had done enough to lift his objections to their membership of NATO.

“We will see what point they (Finland and Sweden) have reached,” he said on Monday before flying to Madrid for the summit. 

“We do not want empty words. We want results.”

– ‘Interest of the alliance´-

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden and Erdogan would “at some point” meet on Wednesday on the sidelines of the summit.

But he stressed the United States was not adopting a “brokering role” and would leave the NATO secretary general in charge.

“Rather, we’re going to do what many other allies have done which is indicate publicly and privately that we believe it is in the interest of the alliance to get this done,” he added.

“And we also believe that Finland and Sweden have taken significant steps forward in terms of addressing Turkey’s concerns.”

Analysts believe the meeting between Erdogan and Biden could play a crucial role in breaking down Turkey’s resistance to bids by Sweden and Finland to join the Western defence alliance in response to the war.

The two leaders have had a chilly relationship since Biden’s election because of US concerns about human rights under Erdogan.

Biden and Erdogan last met briefly in October on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Rome.

– Fighter jet talks –

Erdogan’s ability to maintain a close working relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin while supporting Ukraine’s war effort has made him an important player in the conflict.

But those ties have also complicated his relations with Biden and NATO.

Washington has sanctioned Ankara for taking delivery of an advanced Russian missile defence system in 2019.

The purchase saw the United States drop Turkey from the F-35 joint strike fighter programme and impose trade restrictions on its military procurement agency.

But Washington has signalled it may be willing to move past the dispute.

Biden’s administration has dangled the possibility of supplying Ankara with older-generation F-16 jets that could replenish Turkey’s ageing air force fleet.

“The most important issue is the F-16 issue. It is still on the table,” Erdogan said of his upcoming talks with Biden.

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