U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has broken her silence on 53 Texas migrant deaths

Kamala Harris hit out at Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s response to the news that at least 53 migrants had died after being left in an abandoned semitruck in San Antonio, Texas.

“How the governor of that state responded really highlights part of the problem because his response when there are 50 dead bodies in his state is to go straight to politics,” Harris said in an interview with NPR.

“Instead of dealing with the realities of the issue.”

kamala harris

Officials are investigating what appears to be one of the deadliest human smuggling cases in modern U.S. history.

Republicans are blaming the horrific incident on the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

“These deaths are on Biden,” Abbott tweeted on Monday night. “They are a result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”

President Joe Biden hit back at the governor and accused him of “political grandstanding”.

Harris argued the administration is taking “seriously” the issue of human smuggling.

“There have been over 2,000 arrests just in the last three months. I think there are at least eight indictments that have happened,” she said.

“We need to deal with that, right, in terms of the consequences of criminal behavior that results in death.”

“We also need to take seriously the fact that we have a broken immigration system that was decimated by the last administration,” she continued.

“And we’ve been trying, and we are on the path doing it, to fix that broken system.”

Harris was deemed the “border czar” by Biden upon entering office.

U.S. President Joe Biden announces increase in America’s military presence across Europe over threat from Vladimir Putin

It comes as tensions between Russia and the West remain tense over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

There will now be a permanent U.S. army headquarters in Poland, with new warships on their way to Spain, fighter jets to the UK and even ground troops to Romania.

Biden says the strategic alliance will be “strengthened in all directions across every domain – land, air and sea”.

NATO’s longstanding commitment to ‘defend every inch of its territory’ has been reaffirmed… and Biden warns “an attack against one is an attack against all.”

The pledge from Biden includes more naval destroyers stationed in Spain, two F-35 fighter jet squadrons positioned in the United Kingdom and a permanent headquarters in Poland for the U.S. 5th Army Corps.

This increased force posture comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on and countries in Europe grow increasingly nervous about the war on their continent.

“The United States and our allies, we’re going to step up,” Biden said the start of the NATO summit in Madrid.

“We’re proving that NATO is more needed now than it ever has been and it’s as important as it ever has been.”

U.S. presence grows

Since February, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. Department of Defense has increased the number of U.S. troops in Europe to more than 100,000 service members, up from 80,000.

Here’s what the U.S plans to do in each European country:

• Poland: permanent station for the 5th Army Corps Headquarters Forward Command Post, an Army garrison headquarters, and a field support battalion, to allow the U.S. to more easily deploy combat troops along NATO’s eastern flank
• Romania: position a rotational brigade combat team
• The Baltic region: increase rotational deployments of armored, aviation, air defense, and special operations forces
• Spain: increase the number of destroyers stationed at Rota from four to six
• United Kingdom: station two squadrons of F-35 fighter jets.
• Germany: forward-station an air defense artillery brigade headquarters, a short-range air defense battalion, a combat sustainment support battalion headquarters, and an engineer brigade headquarters
• Italy: forward-station a short-range air defense battery

The only surviving member of the terrorist group that was responsible for the Paris 2015 attacks has been found guilty. 

Salah Abdeslam was given life without parole, the harshest possible sentence for a convicted felon in France. 

The devastating attacks left 130 people dead and almost 500 wounded, with the ISIS group targeting bars, restaurants, a concert hall and outside the famed Stade De France.

The 32-year-old was found guilty of all five counts and is just the fifth person in French history to be sentenced to life without parole since it was legalised in 1994. 

 The court found that his explosives vest malfunctioned, dismissing his argument that he ditched the vest because he decided not to follow through with his attack.

The individual was one of 20 people on trial for the attacks, but is the sole defendant accused of physically carrying out the attacks. 

Presiding judge Jean-Louis Peries read the verdicts in a courthouse surrounded by unprecedented security, wrapping up a nine-month trial.

For months, the packed main chamber and 12 overflow rooms in the 13th century Justice Palace heard the harrowing accounts by the victims, along with testimony from Abdeslam.

Salah Abdeslam remained emotionless as his sentence was handed down.