In Texas, at least 46 migrants were found dead inside a sweltering tractor-trailer that was left abandoned on a remote road in San Antonio Monday. Sixteen survivors were hospitalized, including four children, to be treated for heat stroke and exhaustion as the region faces a scorching heat wave. Local authorities said a city worker heard a cry for help from inside the truck Monday afternoon and found a body on the ground outside the trailer’s partially opened gate. This is San Antonio’s Fire Chief Charles Hood.

Charles Hood: “The patients that we saw were hot to the touch. They were suffering from heat stroke, heat exhaustion. No signs of water in the vehicle. It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig.”

This is among the deadliest tragedies in recent decades of people attempting to cross into the U.S. and comes as the Biden administration continues to enforce harsh border policies blocking most people from safely entering through ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border. Thousands are forced to take on extremely dangerous routes and rely on smugglers. 

Judges in Louisiana and Utah have temporarily blocked statewide abortion bans from taking effect following Friday’s Supreme Court ruling striking down Roe v. Wade. On Monday, a judge in New Orleans sided with reproductive rights groups who argued Louisiana’s “trigger law” ban on abortions was unconstitutionally vague. Meanwhile, a judge in Salt Lake City on Monday granted a two-week stay of Utah’s “trigger law” abortion ban after Planned Parenthood sued to block it.

In Texas, a Harris County judge hears arguments today in a lawsuit brought by abortion providers who want to block a pre-Roe v. Wade abortion ban from taking effect. The law, which has not been enforced for nearly a half-century, criminalizes anyone performing an abortion or assisting in one.

In South Dakota, Republican Governor Kristi Noem is calling on lawmakers to pass a bill banning state residents from holding telemedicine appointments with healthcare providers who prescribe abortion pills and deliver them through the mail. Medication abortions represent half of all U.S. abortions, and demand for the pills has soared since Friday’s Supreme Court ruling.

In California, state lawmakers on Monday agreed to put a constitutional amendment up for a vote on the November ballot that would enshrine the legal right to an abortion. Los Angeles resident Raquel Rojas joined hundreds of protesters who took to the streets Monday.

Raquel Rojas: “We are protesting here for everybody’s right to have body autonomy, for the undocumented women, for the Black women, for the Indigenous women, for the women in domestic violence domestic partnerships and the women that are going to get pregnant against their will. How is it possible that AR-15 has more rights in this country than a woman? We are failing our girls if we are not out in the streets.”

On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday she’s preparing votes on several bills guaranteeing access to abortions and protecting the data of people who use reproductive health apps. Pelosi also called on her Democratic colleagues to eliminate the filibuster in order to overcome Republican opposition to reproductive rights bills in the Senate. We’ll have much more on the battle over abortion rights later in the broadcast. 

The House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection has announced a surprise hearing today. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, is expected to testify publicly. Hutchinson was previously interviewed by the committee behind closed doors, where she named several Republican lawmakers who inquired about pardons over their efforts to overturn the 2020 election. According to CNN, it was Hutchinson who revealed that Trump supported the mob’s chants of “Hang Mike Pence” on January 6 and that Trump had complained about Pence being hustled to safety while Trump’s supporters breached the Capitol.

Elsewhere, former Trump lawyer John Eastman revealed Monday that federal agents seized his cellphone last week as part of a broadening investigation into the insurrection. Meanwhile, Ali Alexander, the founder of the so-called Stop the Steal pro-Trump group said Monday he testified before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., last Friday. Alexander is suing the January 6 committee to prevent it from obtaining his phone records.

In central Ukraine, a Russian missile struck a crowded shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk Monday, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens. At least 36 others remain missing. One survivor said she was shopping with her husband when the blast threw her into the air.

Ludmyla Mykhailets: “I flew headfirst, and splinters hit my body. The whole place was collapsing. Then I landed on the floor, and I don’t know if I was conscious or unconscious. I didn’t understand anything. I opened my eyes, and I saw a big piece of rubble was on top of me. I started to scream, 'Help me!' Water was coming from somewhere. The water woke me up.”

Elsewhere, Russian shells continued to rain down on the city of Kharkiv, where officials say five people were killed, 30 others injured, and an elementary school was destroyed. 

In Germany, leaders of the G7 condemned Russia’s latest attacks as “sickening,” “cruel” and “horrendous” and pledged to support Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion “for as long as it takes.” G7 leaders concluded their summit with a pledge to spend $5 billion this year to help ensure worldwide food security after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated a global food crisis. 

Today President Biden is traveling to a summit of NATO leaders in Madrid, where NBC reports he will announce an extended buildup of U.S. troops in Poland and the Baltic nations. Ahead of the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance would massively increase the number of its forces on high alert — from 40,000 to more than seven times that amount.

Jens Stoltenberg: “We will transform the NATO response force and increase the number of our high-readiness forces to well over 300,000.”

In Jordan, at least 13 people were killed and more than 250 others injured Monday after a cloud of toxic gas burst from a storage tank at the Port of Aqaba. The disaster struck after a cable snapped as it lifted a tank filled with 25 tons of toxic chlorine onto a ship. 

France is calling on Western powers to continue negotiations that would allow Venezuela and Iran to return to the oil market in an attempt to combat the energy crisis and rising prices due to the war in Ukraine. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded in a televised address from Caracas Monday.

President Nicolás Maduro: “I would tell President Macron: Venezuela is ready to receive all the French companies that want to come to produce gas and petrol for the European market, for the global market. You are welcome to come whenever. The road is paved. We are prepared, ready and happy to do it.”

This comes as senior U.S. government officials recently secretly traveled to Caracas in the latest attempt to reestablish ties with the Venezuelan government and release U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela. 

In Ecuador, Indigenous leaders have agreed to meet with government officials to negotiate demands for lower fuel and food prices as massive protests enter a third week. On Sunday, right-wing President Guillermo Lasso promised lower fuel prices to try to quench the anti-government uprising.

President Guillermo Lasso: “I have decided to reduce the price of gasoline extra and ethanol-blended gasoline by 10 cents per gallon, and also diesel by 10 cents per gallon. Ecuadorians who seek dialogue will find a government with an outstretched hand. Those who seek chaos, violence and terrorism will find the full force of the law.”

In Missouri, at least three people were killed and dozens more injured Monday after an Amtrak train carrying more than 250 people collided with a dump truck northeast of Kansas City. Investigators say the crash occurred at a railroad crossing that didn’t have warning lights or protective gates. 

Here in New York, a state Supreme Court judge in Staten Island has struck down a law that would have allowed some 800,000 noncitizens to vote in local elections in New York City. The measure was set to go into effect in January. Judge Ralph Porzio argued the law violated state constitutional guidelines.

California is set to become the first state to grant all undocumented immigrants access to state-subsidized health insurance. Governor Gavin Newsom announced Sunday that a budget deal had been struck with California’s Legislature including an expansion to the state’s Medicare that could expand coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income, undocumented adults between the ages of 26 and 49. California already provided state Medicare to undocumented children, adults under the age of 26, and 50 years and older. 

In Lisbon, Portugal, the United Nations has kicked off a five-day conference on restoring the health of the world’s oceans. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that global heating is pushing ocean temperatures to record levels, creating fiercer and more frequent storms and pushing sea levels higher. Rob Higgs, a climate activist with the group Extinction Rebellion, joined protests ahead of the talks.

Rob Higgs: “The oceans are empty. We’re catching less fish now than we were 30 years ago, with all the advances in technology. The seas are dying, and we need an appropriate urgency that we’re not seeing from our leaders.”