Hundreds of millions of dollars. What will it take for the nation to begin prioritizing investing in mass transit . Then we look at oil drilling from the the gulf of mexico to the arctic. Shell as it knowledged they will have to be the oil in place until the next summer gelling season, which is nine months away, and kill arctic sea. This is unacceptable. Amy despite protests from environmentalists, the Obama Administration has tentatively approved shells plans to begin oil drilling in the arctic as well as new drilling in the gulf of mexico near the site of the bp deepwater horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and sent millions of gallons of oil pouring into the ocean. We will go to seattle, the site of protest against the Arctic Drilling, and speak with Antonia Juhasz who recently dissipated in a dive in the gulf of mexico nearly a mile below the Ocean Surface to me getting closer to the side of the bp blowout than anyone has ever been. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Safety Officials Say an amtrak train that derailed in philadelphia tuesday night was traveling at twice the authorized speed. The engineer applied the emergency brakes when the train hit 106 Miles Per Hour just moments before the train went off its tracks. The locomotive and seven passenger cars derailed, with sef the train so mangled people had to be rescued with , the aid of hydraulic tools. Seven people are now dead more than 200 are injured. After visiting the crash site, philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter said the toll could have been worse. Deceit in the daytime is almost indestructible. To see it in the daytime is almost indescribable. It is incredible that so many people walked away from that scene last night. I saw people on the street behind us walking off of that train. And i dont know how that happened, but for the grace of god. Amy the engineer driving the amtrak train has been identified as 32yearold Brandon Bostian from new york. According to his attorney, bostian has no recollection of the crash itself and no explanation for what happened. Less than 24 hours after the crash, House Republicans voted to cut about a fifth of amtraks budget. He also rebuked attempts to provide funding for an advanced speedcontrol technology that federal investigators said would have prevented the accident. Well have more on the amtrak tragedy after headlines. The senate has agreed to take up president obamas effort to finalize a global trade deal. Under a compromise, the senate will vote on three separate trade measures, including the fasttrack Authority Obama seeks to negotiate the transpacific partnership, or tpp. The agreement was reached one day after Senate Democrats blocked debate on fasttrack. The house has overwhelmingly approved a measure that would rein in a key nsa surveillance tactic exposed by edward snowden. The usa freedom act calls for ending the bulk collection of telephone records by requiring the nsa to make specific requests to phone companies for a users data, rather than vacuuming up all the records at once. The vote comes just days after a federal Appeals Court found the bulk collection of phone records is illegal. The measure now goes to the senate, where Top Republicans are leading an effort to keep the bulk spying. Congress faces a june 1 deadline to reauthorize the phone records Collection Program before it expires. The house has also approved a revised measure of an antichoice measure withdrawn by republicans earlier this year following a loud outcry. The bill would ban most abortions after 20 weeks. Republican leaders dropped a requirement that rape and incest survivors seeking an exemption first report to police. But they instead imposed mandatory counseling or medical care for such women at least 48 hours before they have an abortion. Minors would have to report rape or incest to Law Enforcement or child protective services. In a statement, the center for reproductive rights said the measure is cruel and unconstitution in afghanistan, at least 14 people have en killed after gunmen attacked a guesthouse in the capital kabul. The attack at the Park Palace Hotel took place during a party for foreigners, and the dead include people from multiple countries, including a u. S. Citizen, several people from india, and afghan civilians. The taliban claimed responsibility, saying it had timed the attack to target important people and americans. The head of burundis armed forces says an attempted coup against president Pierre Nkurunziza has been thwarted. An army general had earlier claimed to have ousted the president after more than two weeks of protests. Scores of people have died and thousands have fled their homes since violence broke out over the president s bid for a third term. On wednesday, large celebrations erupted in the capital after the announcement of a coup. But the jovial scene was followed by heavy clashes between rival forces. Aides to the president have denounced the coup attempt as a joke and have vowed his return from a regional summit in tanzania. Dozens of people have died in a fire at a rubber slipper factory near the philippine capital of manila. At least 72 people have been reported dead and the toll is expected to rise. President obama is hosting leaders and top officials from gulf allies today in a summit at camp david. The meeting was apparently convened to address the countries concerns over the nuclear deal with iran. On wednesday, president obama welcomed the saudi delegation at the white house. This gives us an opportunity to discuss some of the bilateral issues including the crisis in yemen and how we can build on the ceasefire that has been established to restore a process for an inclusive legitimate government inside of yemen. And it will also give us a chance to discuss some of the broader issues that will be the topic of the gcc u. S. Summit tomorrow. Amy in an apparent snub tied to displeasure over the iran deal saudi Arabias King Salman is skipping todays summit. The white house says it will announce new initiatives on integrating Ballistic MissileDefense Systems and increasing joint military exercises. The vatican will officially recognize the state of palestine in a new treaty. The treaty concerns the vaticans interests in the occupied territories. Earlier drafts referred to the Palestine Liberation Organization rather than the state of palestine, but the vatican has referred to the state of palestine in other contexts since at least 2012 when the United Nations voted to recognize palestine as a nonmember observer state. Meanwhile, a ship has to parted from sweden in a bid to break the israeli blockade of gaza. It is caring medical equipment and solar panels as part of the third gaza freedom flotilla. The port of seattle has voted to seek the blockade of rigs used by the Oil Giant Shell for its planned drilling in the arctic this summer. Shell has signed a lease to station its rigs in the puget sound while it drills for oil in pristine and highly remote waters in the chukchi sea, off the coast of alaska. On tuesday, the port of seattles board called for a legal review of shells plans and a temporary postponement of its docking. The move came after a wave of activism challenging shells effort. In a move denounced by environmentalists, the Obama Administration granted shell conditional approval this week to begin its offshore oil drilling in the arctic. Well have more on that story later in the broadcast. Josh fox, director of the documentary that expose the fracking industry, has been arrested along with 20 other people after forming a human blockade at the natural gas george facility in upstate new york. He asked was part of a longstanding campaign to expand a Drinking Water source for hundred thousand people. We will speak with him friday on democracy now five of the worlds top banks are reportedly set to plead guilty to a number of fraud and antitrust charges in the United States. According to the new york times, barclays, jpmorgan chase, citigroup and the royal bank of scotland will together pay billions of dollars in fines and plead guilty to rigging the price of foreign currencies as early as next week. Ubs is also expected to plead guilty to charges and pay a 500 million fine. The Justice Department is voiding a previous nonprosecution agreement with ubs over its apparent violations of the terms. The guilty pleas arent expected to impact the banks operations. The times said the securities and Exchange Commission will likely approve waivers that would let the banks conduct business as usual despite being felons. The military has dropped punitive measures against a Guantanamo Bay nurse who last year became the first known prison official to refuse to forcefeed hungerstriking prisoners. The Unidentified Navy medical officer faced potential disciplinary charges that could have led to a discharge and loss of benefits. But the pentagon announced wednesday it wont take action. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermmen shaikh. Nermeen welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. The death toll from tuesdays amtrak Train Derailment outside of philadelphia is now at seven and is expected to rise. About a dozen passengers are still missing. Some 200 people were injured several critically. Seven cars derailed, with sections of the train so mangled people had to be rescued with the aid of hydraulic tools. Authorities now say the train was traveling at about 106 Miles Per Hour, more than double the speed limit as it headed into a steep curve. National Transportation Safety board member Robert Sumwalt said yesterday the accident was preventable. I think were looking probably at either a signal cause or human factor cause probably more likely the latter. That being the case, that is exactly the kind of issue that positive train control is designed to address. And as such, if it turns out to be one or both of those causes, positive train control would absolutely have prevented this accident. Nermeen it prevents trains from going faster than the speed limit. It was not installed at the site of tuesdays crash. Federal rules require the National Rail network to have an operating positive train control system by the end of the year, but in march, the Senate Commerce committee voted to extend the deadline for implementing the new technology until at least 2020. Just hours after the crash, the republicancontrolled House Appropriations committee rejected a democratic amendment to offer 825 million to speed up positive train control implementation. They voted to cut amtraks budget by 250,000. Amy rail advocates have long called for the United States to greatly increase its spending on the nations rail infrastructure. One recent study estimated 21 billion is needed to repair and replace existing rail assets in the northeast corridor. Well, to talk more about the accident, were joined now by two guests. In washington, d. C. , Edward Wytkind is the president of the Transportation Trades Department of the aflcio, which represents 2 million transportation workers including the vast majority of , amtrak workers. And in denver, were joined by david sirota, Senior Writer at the International Business times. His recent piece is headlined, lawmakers moved to delay rail safety rule weeks before philadelphia derailment. We welcome you both to democracy now david, lets start with you on the issue of safety. Everything is being made of the fact that train as it was making that turn coming out of the philadelphia train station around three miles outside of philadelphia headed to new york, that it was going at 106 Miles Per Hour and it looks like seconds before, it was reduced to Something Like 102 Miles Per Hour. The media, very much laying the blame on the engineer. Can you talk about what could have prevented this from happening . Well, there is a technology called positive train control, which is a pretty, by our standards, lowtech technology. I mean logistically, the logistical challenge to implement it, but it is not rocket science. In 2008, Congress Passed a bill mandating that positive train control be up limited on the nations rails by the end of this year, 2015. That seems like a long time, but what happened a few weeks ago was under pressure from the private Rail Industry, the congress began moving forward a bill to delay the deadline for the implementation of positive train control. So a couple of weeks ago, before this crash senators in a bipartisan fashion on the Senate Science and Commerce Committee pushed through a bill to delay the rule. The ntsb has said if positive train control had been implemented on the stretch of railway, which it wasnt, that this crash would have been prevented. And we looked at some of the campaign contributions, the chief sponsor of the bill senator roy blunt missouri has taken 290,000 from the railroad industry. It is not to say if the bill had passed or didnt pass it would have solved everything but it shows that congress has not been really pushing the Rail Industry to get this implement it. I should add in 2011, the Obama Administration in a Court Proceeding limited the scope of the amount of tracks the positive train control should apply to under that rule. Nermeen Edward Wytkind, could you give us a sense to the general state of the transportation infrastructure here in the United States is like . The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation a d on the state of the infrastructure in its latest report. Could you comment on that . As far back as you can look this has become the lost generation, a generation that has stopped investing. It is not because the people around america dont want to invest, it is because the people we elect are basically not getting the job done. And so were bridges falling down, railroads and transit systems that dont have the money to implement technology as we hear with the positive train control. We have ports that are no longer competitive with the rest of the world. We have an Aviation System that is using 50 plus year old technology. And all of that adds up to a tremendous challenge to keep our system not only efficient and technologysavvy but to keep it safe. When you have lifesaving technologies like positive train control, those things need to be implemented and we should not be extending as far as the eye can see the timetable by which the industry has to implement it. And so it is a said state. Im not proud of it. We work very hard in washington to make a different case, but we dont have enough people elected in the congress who understand the urgency of the problem or are willing to do anything about it. Amy Edward Wytkind, you represent the engineer, the head of the union that represents many rail workers all over the country. Can you talk about as head of the transportation straight department of the aflcio what you feel needs to be done . And his response saying he doesnt remember what happened . Of course, we dont really know what happened. He was taken to the hospital and then he was released right away. His lawyers said he doesnt remember what happened. Well, look. Unfortunately, and you alluded to this in your opening, theres been a bit of a media frenzy focused exquisitely on the engineer. Frankly, a lot of the comments that up and made i agree with the ntsb have been inflammatory and overthetop. As far as im concerned im not going to comment on anything specific regarding the engineer and what happened at the moment but everyone is attending to rush to judgment and that is the problem with the transportation industry. We focus so much on the Human Factors that we dont look around us and see what else could happen. Whether it is rail or any other part of the transportation industry, to make things safer. Theyre all sorts of things were not addressing. For example, we have Chronic Fatigue in the Rail Industry. In the Rail Industry wont talk to about that on camera because they would not want to admit their workers are all chronically fatigued and unwilling to agree to federal measures that would make the workforce better able to do its job and not be so tired every time they come to wor