Brian Melley, The Associated Press – Jun 19, 2024 / 6:54 am | Story: 493118
Photo: The Canadian Press
In this handout photo, Just Stop Oil protesters sit after spraying an orange substance on Stonehenge, in Salisbury, England, Wednesday June 19, 2024. (Just Stop Oil via AP)
Two climate protesters were arrested Wednesday for spraying orange paint on the ancient Stonehenge monument in southern England, police said.
The latest act by Just Stop Oil was quickly condemned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a “disgraceful act of vandalism.”
The incident came just a day before thousands are expected to gather at the 4,500-year-old stone circle to celebrate the summer solstice — the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
English Heritage, which manages the site, said it was “extremely upsetting” and said curators were investigating the damage. Just Stop Oil said on the social media platform X that the paint was made of cornstarch and would dissolve in the rain.
Wiltshire Police said the pair were arrested on suspicion of damaging one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Stonehenge was built on the flat lands of Salisbury Plain in stages starting 5,000 years ago, with the unique stone circle erected in the late Neolithic period about 2,500 B.C. Some of the stones, the so-called bluestones, are known to have come from southwest Wales, nearly 150 miles (240 kilometers) away, but the origins of others remain a mystery.
Just Stop Oil is one of many groups around Europe that have gained attention — and received a lot of blowback — for disrupting sporting events, splashing paint and food on famous works of art and interrupting traffic to draw attention to global warming.
The group said it acted in response to the Labour Party’s recent election manifesto. Labour has said if it wins the election on July 4, it would not issue further licenses for oil and gas exploration. Just Stop Oil backs the moratorium but said it wasn’t enough.
In a statement, the group said Labour, which is leading in polls and widely expected by pundits and politicians to lead the next government, needs to go further and sign a treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.
“Continuing to burn coal, oil and gas will result in the death of millions,” the group said in a statement.
The Associated Press – Jun 19, 2024 / 6:54 am | Story: 493117
Photo: AMNA
Firefighting aircraft and helicopters are battling the blaze east of Athens.
Scores of Greek firefighters and water-bombing aircraft were trying to contain a large wildfire on the fringes of Athens that forced authorities to issue evacuation orders Wednesday for two nearby settlements.
Television footage showed flames coursing through low scrub and olive trees in a sparsely inhabited area near Vari, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of central Athens.
Fire service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said the blaze spread very fast due to strong winds that at times reached gale force.
“Where necessary, residents are being removed from their homes with the help of the police,” he said.
No injuries were immediately reported. State ERT television showed destroyed plastic boats in a yacht and speedboat parking area, while Greek media reported that several businesses and two homes had been damaged.
The fire service said more than 70 firefighters, assisted by 13 water-dropping planes and helicopters, were working to control the blaze.
The surrounding area is dotted with hundreds of scattered buildings, both homes and businesses.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Dozens of wildfires have broken out in Greece in recent days amid scorching summer temperatures, but they were extinguished before causing extensive damage. Several people were arrested and charged with accidentally starting the blazes.
Vathrakogiannis, the fire service spokesman, said Wednesday was “a very difficult day” due to the weather conditions.
“In the past few hours we’ve been constantly getting new fires — almost one every ten minutes,” he said. “Most were dealt with immediately.”
The greater Athens area has been declared at a high risk of fire Wednesday and Thursday.
Wildfires are common in Greece’s dry, hot summers, and have caused scores of deaths in recent years. Authorities have warned of a particularly high risk this summer following a dry, warm winter that has left vegetation tinder-dry.
Firefighters and aircraft were battling another major fire Wednesday in the southern Peloponnese region, with authorities ordering the evacuation of one village. Another wildfire was burning on the Aegean Sea island of Naxos.
Earlier. the fire service said it had brought under control another blaze near Markopoulo, east of Athens, and on the island of Evia.
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Kim Tong-hyung, The Associated Press – Jun 19, 2024 / 6:48 am | Story: 493119
Photo: The Canadian Press
Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, attend a gala concert in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement Wednesday that pledges mutual aid if either country faces “aggression,” a strategic pact that comes as both face escalating standoffs with the West.
Details of the deal were not immediately clear, but it could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. Both leaders described it as a major upgrade of their relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties.
The summit came as Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years and the U.S. and its allies expressed growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship,” and that the deal was their “strongest ever treaty,” putting the relationship at the level of an alliance. He vowed full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Putin called it a “breakthrough document” reflecting shared desires to move relations to a higher level.
North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts say necessitated Moscow’s military intervention if the North came under attack. The deal was discarded after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by one in 2000 that offered weaker security assurances. It wasn’t immediately clear if the new deal provides a similar level of protection as the 1961 treaty.
Kim met Putin at the airport, where the two shook hands, hugged twice and rode together in a limousine. The huge motorcade rolled through the capital’s brightly lit streets, where buildings were decorated with giant Russian flags and portraits of Putin.
After spending the night at a state guest house, Putin was welcomed Wednesday morning in a ceremony at the city’s main square, filled with what appeared to be tens of thousands of spectators, including children with balloons and people in coordinated T-shirts of the red, white and blue national colors of both countries. Crowds lining the streets chanted “Welcome Putin,” and waved flowers and flags.
Putin and Kim saluted an honor guard and walked across a red carpet. Kim introduced key members of his leadership including Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui; top aide and ruling party secretary Jo Yong Won; and the leader’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong.
At their talks, Putin thanked Kim for North Korea’s support in Ukraine, part of what he said was a “fight against the imperialist hegemonistic policies of the U.S. and its satellites against the Russian Federation.”
Putin praised ties that he traced to the Soviet army fighting the Japanese military on the Korean Peninsula at the end of World War II, and Moscow’s support for Pyongyang during the Korean War.
What kind of support was pledged in the agreement was not spelled out. Kim has used similar language before, consistently saying North Korea supports what he describes as a just action to protect Russia’s interests and blaming the crisis on the West’s “hegemonic policy.”
North Korea is under heavy U.N. Security Council sanctions over its weapons program, while Russia also faces sanctions by the U.S. and its Western partners over its invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. and South Korean officials accuse the North of providing Russia with artillery, missiles and other military equipment for use in Ukraine, possibly in return for key military technologies and aid. On Tuesday, a U.S. State Department spokesman said that in recent months, Washington has seen North Korea “unlawfully transfer dozens of ballistic missiles and over 11,000 containers of munitions to aid Russia’s war effort.”
Both Pyongyang and Moscow deny accusations of weapons transfers, which would violate multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions that Russia previously endorsed.
Along with China, Russia has provided political cover for Kim’s efforts to advance his nuclear arsenal, repeatedly blocking U.S.-led efforts to impose fresh U.N. sanctions on the North over its weapons tests.
In March, a Russian veto in the Security Council ended monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it buys weapons from Pyongyang.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Pyongyang the leaders exchanged gifts after the talks. Putin presented Kim with a Russian-made Aurus limousine and other gifts, including a tea set and a naval officer’s dagger. Ushakov said Kim’s presents to Putin included artwork depicting the Russian leader.
Later, Putin and Kim attended a concert featuring marching soldiers, weapons-throwing, dancing and patriotic songs. Putin clapped and spoke to Kim through a translator, saying something that made both laugh.
At a dinner before Putin’s scheduled departure for Vietnam, he cited a proverb that said “a close neighbor is better than a distant relative,” while Kim toasted the “immortality of the invincible DPRK-Russia relations that are the envy of the world.”
Earlier, Putin said the partnership included cooperation in political, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian fields, in addition to security. He added that Russia would not rule out developing military-technical cooperation with North Korea.
The Kremlin’s website said they also signed an agreement to build a road bridge on their border, and another on cooperation in health care, medical education and science.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Putin’s visit to North Korea illustrates how Russia tries, “in desperation, to develop and to strengthen relations with countries that can provide it with what it needs to continue the war of aggression that it started against Ukraine.”
Koo Byoungsam, spokesperson of South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said the Seoul government was still interpreting the results of the summit, including what Russia’s response might be if the North comes under attack.
China is North Korea’s biggest ally and economic lifeline, accounting for most of the country’s trade. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said high-level exchanges between Moscow and Pyongyang are “bilateral arrangements between two sovereign states,” without giving a specific assessment of the agreements.
Sam Greene of the Center for European Policy Analysis said Putin’s trip to Pyongyang is an indication of how beholden he is to some other countries since invading Ukraine. Previously, “it was always the North Koreans coming to Russia. It wasn’t the other way around,” he said.
The trip is a good way to make “the West nervous” by demonstrating Moscow has interests and clout beyond Ukraine, Greene added.
The North could also seek to increase labor exports to Russia and other activities to get foreign currency in defiance of U.N. sanctions, according to the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea’s main spy agency. There will likely be talks about expanding cooperation in agriculture, fisheries and mining and further promoting Russian tourism to North Korea, the institute said.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with the pace of both Kim’s weapons tests and combined military exercises involving the U.S., South Korea and Japan intensifying in a tit-for-tat cycle.
The Koreas also have engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare that involved North Korea dropping tons of trash on the South with balloons, and the South broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers.
John Seewer And Patrick Orsagos, The Associated Press – Jun 19, 2024 / 6:17 am | Story: 493112
Photo: The Canadian Press
Children run through water provided by the Benton Harbor Department of Public Safety during Spray and Play on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, at City Center Park in downtown Benton Harbor, Mich. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)
A blast of heat and humidity in the Midwest and Northeast days before the official start of summer put a wet blanket on outdoor activities from festivals to sports camps as officials urged people to take precautions.
Cities that opened cooling centers this week advised that Wednesday’s Juneteenth holiday means some public libraries, senior centers and pools where residents could beat the heat will be closed.
The dangerous temperatures were expected to peak in the eastern Great Lakes and New England on Wednesday and Thursday, and in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic on Friday and Saturday, the National Weather Service said. Heat index readings were expected to reach 100 to 105 degrees (37.7 C to 40.5 C) in many locations.
People and even zoo animals were forced to find ways to thwart the muggy weather.
An organization that provides produce to areas with limited access to fresh food in Columbus, Ohio, prepared frozen towels and packed cold water for their workers.
“Hydration is the key,” said Monique McCoy, market manager for the Local Matters Veggie Van.
In Toledo, Ohio, the city canceled a weekly fitness event and a neighboring suburb called off a street fair as temperatures reached the mid-90s (about 35 C). A food bank in upstate New York canceled deliveries for Wednesday out of concern for staff and volunteers.
Schools in New York canceled field trips Tuesday to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, where workers turned on water misters for visitors and the animals. Elephants and other animals were getting chunks of ice in their pools, said Ted Fox, the zoo’s executive director.
“Even the tigers love to lick the ice and put their heads on them when it’s this warm,” Fox said.
The blast of extreme temperatures came a little too early for many.
“This is hot for just moving in to summer, so I’m hoping that we’re going to see the downward trend in the temperature here soon because this is a warm one,” said Krista Voltolini, who was selling produce at a farmer’s market in Columbus.
A recent study found that climate change is making heat waves move more slowly and affect more people for a longer time. Last year, the U.S. saw the most heat waves — abnormally hot weather lasting more than two days — since 1936.
Chicago broke a 1957 temperature record Monday with a high of 97 degrees (36.1 C). Wednesday will be another hot day, but a cold front will bring relief to areas near Lake Michigan on Thursday and Friday, the National Weather Service in Chicago said.
That relief won’t come in time for the closure of all but one cooling center in Chicago on the Juneteenth holiday.
“It’s extremely alarming that we are shrinking our cooling centers in the middle of a heat wave,” state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe told The Chicago Sun-Times. LaPointe represents Chicago’s Northwest Side and advocates for people who do not have permanent shelter and other vulnerable populations.
Officials have urged people to limit outdoor activities when possible and to check in with family members and neighbors who may be vulnerable to the heat.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul activated the National Guard to assist in any heat emergencies that develop over the next several days. She also said admission and parking fees at state parks, pools and beaches would be waived on Wednesday and Thursday.
“This is a time of significant risk, and we’re doing our best to make sure that all lives are protected,” Hochul said Tuesday.
In California, wildfires erupted east of San Francisco in the state’s historic Gold Country region and in the mountains of northern Los Angeles County after what had been a quiet start to fire season. Wildfires in southern New Mexico damaged 500 buildings Tuesday in a mountain village of 7,000 people that had been evacuated with little time to spare.
Meanwhile, a fresh batch of tropical moisture was bringing an increasing threat of heavy rain and flash flooding to the central Gulf Coast. Hurricane season this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory.
Adithi Ramakrishnan, The Associated Press – Jun 19, 2024 / 6:01 am | Story: 493111
Photo: The Canadian Press
FILE – Revelers gather at the ancient stone circle Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, near Salisbury, England, June 21, 2023. Summer kicks off in the Northern Hemisphere once again with the summer solstice on Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
It’s time for the start of summer — with a full moon to boot.
Here’s what to know about the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere on Thursday.
What is the summer solstice?
The Earth spins on a tilt as it revolves around the sun. The summer solstice occurs for Earth’s upper half when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted most closely toward the sun. This also marks the longest day and shortest night of the year.
Around the same time, the Southern Hemisphere is at its most extreme tilt away from the sun, entering winter solstice and its shortest day of the year.
Six months later, the halves will switch it up: The Northern Hemisphere will experience a winter solstice, and the Southern Hemisphere will have a summer solstice.
What is an equinox?
Equinoxes mark the start of spring and autumn, and happen when Earth’s axis and orbit line up such that both hemispheres get an equal amount of sunlight.
The vernal equinox on March 19 kicked off spring, and the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22 will usher in fall.
What is the strawberry moon?
This year’s summer solstice comes with a treat: the first full moon of the summer, coined the strawberry moon. The moon won’t be pink or red in color: Its name comes from several Indigenous tribes who noticed that its timing coincided with the strawberry harvest.
On Friday evening, cast your eyes to the southeast to glimpse the full moon peeking above the horizon.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Samy Magdy, The Associated Press – Jun 19, 2024 / 5:58 am | Story: 493109
Photo: The Canadian Press
Muslim pilgrims use umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun as they arrive to cast stones at pillars in the symbolic stoning of the devil, the last rite of the annual hajj, in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Muslim pilgrims were wrapping up the Hajj pilgrimage in the deadly summer heat on Tuesday with the third day of the symbolic stoning of the devil, and the farewell circling around Kaaba in Mecca’s Grand Mosque. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Hundreds of people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced intense high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said Wednesday as people tried to claim their loved ones’ bodies.
Saudi Arabia has not commented on the death toll amid the heat during the pilgrimage, required of every able Muslim once in their life, nor offered any causes for those who died. However, hundreds of people had lined up at the Emergency Complex in Al-Muaisem neighborhood in Mecca, trying to get information about their missing family members.
One list circulating online suggested at least 550 people died during the five-day Hajj. A medic who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss information not released publicly by the government said that the names listed appeared genuine. That medic and another official who also spoke on condition of anonymity said they believed at least 600 bodies were at the facility. The list offered no cause of death.
Each year, the Hajj draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from low-income nations, “many of whom have had little, if any, pre-Hajj health care,” an article in the April edition of the Journal of Infection and Public Health said. Communicable illnesses can spread among the gathered masses, many of whom saved their entire lives for their trips and can be elderly with preexisting health conditions, the paper added.
However, the number of dead this year suggests something caused the number of deaths to swell. Already, several countries have said some of their pilgrims died because of the heat that swept across the holy sites at Mecca, including Jordan and Tunisia.
Temperatures on Tuesday reached 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and the sacred sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Center for Meteorology. Onlookers saw some people faint while trying to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil,
At the Grand Mosque in Mecca, temperatures reached 51.8 C (125 F) on Monday though pilgrims had already left for Mina, authorities said.
Others, including many Egyptians, lost track of their loved ones in the heat and the crowds. More than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6 million pilgrims from 22 countries, and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, according to the Saudi Hajj authorities.
On Wednesday at the medical complex in Mecca, an Egyptian man collapsed to the ground when he heard the name of mother among the dead. He cried for some time before grabbing his cellphone and calling a travel agent, shouting: “He left her to die!” The crowd tried to calm the man.
Security appeared tight at the complex, with an official reading out names of the dead and the nationalities, which included people from Algeria, Egypt and India. Those who said they were kin of the dead were allowed inside to identify the deceased.
The AP could not independently confirm the causes of death for those bodies held at the complex. Saudi officials did not respond to questions seeking more information.
The kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family maintains a major influence in the Muslim world through its oil wealth and management of Islam’s holiest sites. Like Saudi monarchs before him, King Salman has taken the title of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, referring to the Grand Mosque in Mecca home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray towards five times a day, and the Prophet’s Mosque in the nearby city of Medina.
Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on crowd control and safety measures for those attending the annual five-day pilgrimage, but the sheer number of participants makes ensuring their safety difficult.
Climate change could make the risk even greater. A 2019 study by experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that even if the world succeeds in mitigating the worst effects of climate change, the Hajj would be held in temperatures exceeding an “extreme danger threshold” from 2047 to 2052, and from 2079 to 2086.
Islam follows a lunar calendar, so the Hajj falls around 11 days earlier each year. In 2030, the Hajj will occur in April, and over the next several years it will fall in the winter, when temperatures are milder.
A 2015 stampede in Mina during the hajj killed over 2,400 pilgrims, the deadliest incident to ever strike the pilgrimage, an AP count showed. Saudi Arabia has never acknowledged the full toll of the stampede. A separate crane collapse at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, which preceded the Mina disaster, killed 111 people.
The second-deadliest incident at hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people.
The Associated Press – Jun 19, 2024 / 5:40 am | Story: 493106
Photo: The Canadian Press
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a video conference as part as the AI Summit Seoul 2024 from the Elysee Palace in Paris, Tuesday, May, 21, 2024. (Yoan Valat, Pool via AP)
The European Union’s executive arm on Wednesday criticized France for running up excessive debt, a stinging rebuke at the height of an election campaign where President Emmanuel Macron is facing a strong challenge from the extreme right and the left.
France was one of seven nations instructed by the EU Commission to start a so-called “excessive deficit procedure,” the first step in a long process before any member state can be hemmed in and moved to take corrective action.
“Deficit criteria is not fulfilled in seven of our member states,” said EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, pointing the finger at Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Slovakia and Poland, in addition to France.
For decades, the EU has set out targets for member states to keep their annual deficit within 3% of Gross Domestic Product and overall debt within 60% of output. Those targets have been disregarded when it was convenient, sometimes even by countries like Germany and France, the biggest economies in the bloc.
The French annual deficit stood over 5% last year.
Over the past years, exceptional circumstances like the COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine allowed for leniency, but that has now come to an end.
Still, Wednesday’s announcement touched a nerve in France, after Macron called snap elections after he lost out to the hard right of Marine Le Pen in the EU parliamentary polls on June 9.
Le Pen’s National Rally and a new united left front are polling ahead of Macron’s party in the elections, and both challengers have put forward plans where deficit spending to get out of the economic rut is essential.
Jamie Stengle, The Associated Press – Jun 18, 2024 / 8:47 pm | Story: 493083
Photo: The Canadian Press
Pastor Robert Morris applauds during a roundtable discussion at Gateway Church Dallas Campus,
The pastor of a Texas megachurch has resigned after a woman said he had sexually abused her on multiple occasions in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12.
Gateway Church’s board of elders said in a statement Tuesday that they’d accepted the resignation of Robert Morris, the church’s senior pastor and founder. The board said it had hired a law firm to to conduct an independent review to make sure they “have a complete understanding of the events” from 1982 to 1987.
The allegations came to light Friday on the religious watchdog blog The Wartburg Watch. Cindy Clemishire, Morris’ accuser, told The Dallas Morning News in an interview Saturday that she met Morris in 1981, when he was a traveling preacher and began preaching at her family’s church in Oklahoma. She said Morris and his wife and young son became close to her family. She said he was staying at her house in 1982 when he asked her to come to his room. He told her to lay on his bed and then began touching her inappropriately, said Clemishire, now 54.
She said the abuse continued for about the next four-and-a-half years. The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Clemishire has done.
When asked about the allegations by The Christian Post, Morris, 62, said in a statement to the publication that when he was in his early 20s he was “involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.”
“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said in the statement. “This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years.”
The board said that before Friday, they “did not have all of the facts of the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including her age at the time and the length of the abuse.” They said that their understanding of the “extramarital relationship” that Morris had discussed many times throughout his ministry was not that it was “abuse of a 12-year-old child.”
The church, based in the Dallas suburb of Southlake, was founded by Morris in 2000 and has multiple locations in the area and says over 100,000 people attend each weekend. Morris, the founding pastor, has been politically active. He was among those on former President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board. The church hosted Trump on its Dallas campus in 2020 for a discussion on race relations and the economy.
Morris did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment sent to his email at the church.
Morgan Lee, The Associated Press – Jun 18, 2024 / 8:35 pm | Story: 493090
Photo: The Canadian Press
An air tanker soars through a large plume of smoke over and around wildfire-affected areas in the village of Ruidoso, N.M., Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Thousands of southern New Mexico residents fled a mountainous village as a wind-whipped wildfire tore through homes and other buildings, and killed at least one person. Officials warned the danger isn’t over.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency that covers Ruidoso and neighboring tribal lands and deployed National Guard troops to the area. A top-level fire management team is expected to take over Wednesday, and winds will continue to challenge crews, officials said.
The governor’s office confirmed the fatality but said it had no other details.
Christy Hood, a real estate agent in Ruidoso, said the evacuation order Monday came so quickly that she and her husband Richard, only had time to grab their two children and two dogs.
“As we were leaving, there were flames in front of me and to the side of me,” she said. “And all the animals were just running — charging — trying to get out.”
The family headed out of Ruidoso, but heavy traffic turned what should have been a 15-minute drive to leave town into a harrowing two-hour ordeal.
“It looked like the sky was on fire. It was bright orange,” she said. “Honestly, it looked like the apocalypse. It was terrifying and sparks were falling on us.”
More than 500 structures have been destroyed or damaged, but it’s unclear how many were homes. A flyover to provide more accurate mapping and a better assessment of damage was planned Tuesday night, Lujan Grisham said.
“It will really allow us to see inside the fire in a way that we cannot do now because it is too dangerous to be in the heart of the fire,” she said.
The emergency declaration frees up funding and resources to manage the crisis in Lincoln County and the Mescalero Apache Reservation. Lujan Grisham said two fires have together consumed more than 31 square miles (80 square kilometers).
Other than the one fatality, no one has been seriously injured, she said.
Nationwide, wildfires have scorched more than 3,280 square miles (8,495 square kilometers) this year — a figure higher than the 10-year averages, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. About 20 wildfires currently burning are considered large, and include blazes in California and Washington state.
On Tuesday, two wildfires menaced Ruidoso, a high-altitude vacation getaway nestled within the Lincoln National Forest with a casino, golf course and ski resort operated by the Mescalero Apache Tribe nearby. What caused the blazes hasn’t been determined, but the Southwest Coordination Center listed them as human-caused.
New Mexico has grappled in recent years with a devastating series of wildfires, including a 2022 blaze caused by a pair of prescribed fires set by the U.S. Forest Service that merged during drought conditions to become the largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history. That year, a separate fire consumed 200 homes in Ruidoso and resulted in two deaths.
This week, Ruidoso officials didn’t mince words as smoke darkened the evening sky Monday and 100-foot (30-meter) flames climbed a ridgeline: “GO NOW: Do not attempt to gather belongings or protect your home. Evacuate immediately.”
Jacquie and Ernie Escajeda were at church Monday in Ruidoso, located about 130 miles (210 kilometers) southeast of Albuquerque, when they heard about a fire about 20 miles (30 kilometers) away. By mid-morning, smoke was rising above a mountain behind their house and the smell filled the air.
The couple started watching their cellphones and turned on the radio for updates. There was no “get ready,” nor “get set” — it was just “go,” Ernie Escajeda said. They grabbed legal documents and other belongings and headed out.
“Within an hour, the police department, the fire department, everybody’s there blocking, barricading the roads to our area and telling everybody to leave,” he said. “Thank God we were ready.”
Earlier Tuesday, they learned the home of their best friends didn’t survive the fire, Jacquie Escajeda said.
“There’s only one home standing in their whole little division that they live in, so there are a lot of structures lost,” she said. “We have no idea if we’re going to have a home to go to.”
Public Service Company of New Mexico shut off power to part of the village due to wildfire. The Ruidoso Downs that hosts horse races and the Lincoln Medical Center were evacuated later Tuesday.
Amid highway closures, many evacuees had little choice but to flee eastward and into the city of Roswell, 75 miles (121 kilometers) away, where hotels and shelters were set up. A rural gas station along the evacuation route was overrun with people and cars.
“The Walmart parking lot is packed with people in RVs,” said Enrique Moreno, director of Roswell Community Disaster Relief. “Every single hotel in Roswell is filled to capacity right now. … We go to the gas stations and we see just a bunch of people hanging around their cars.”
Animals and livestock were moved to the state fairgrounds in Roswell, including five horses that arrived Monday night, as well as four llamas, according to Leslie Robertson, the office manager. Robertson said 30 more horses were headed her way Tuesday evening.
Both the South Fork Fire and the smaller Salt Fire started on the Mescalero Apache Reservation where the tribe’s president declared a state of emergency.
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Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Washington, D.C.; Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona; and Rio Yamat and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas; and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.
Seung Min Kim, The Associated Press – Jun 18, 2024 / 2:00 pm | Story: 493005
Photo: The Canadian Press
President Joe Biden and Bill Clinton participate in a fundraising event, March 28, 2024, in New York.
President Joe Biden is again joining forces with former President Bill Clinton to rake in campaign cash, with a joint fundraiser with the two men Tuesday set to raise $8 million — part of a roughly $40 million total that Biden’s reelection campaign has pulled in the last five days.
The vast majority of the $40 million sum, confirmed by a Biden campaign official, comes from Saturday’s glitzy fundraiser with Biden and former President Barack Obama in Los Angeles that raised more than $30 million. Meanwhile, first lady Jill Biden has been on her own personal fundraising swing that has brought in $1.5 million.
Biden and Clinton, who appeared together with Obama at a March fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York, are headlining Tuesday’s event, which is being held at the home of former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton adviser. Jill Biden and former first lady Hillary Clinton will also be at the fundraiser in McLean, Va., a tony suburb of Washington, D.C.
“Three events and more than $40 million raised is further proof of the energy behind President Biden and Vice President Harris,” campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said. “Our supporters understand the stakes. The cash we raised since Friday means more ads, more organizers, and more direct contacts with the voters who will decide this close election in November — meanwhile Trump continues to scramble after having zero resources or presence in battleground states for months.”
Last weekend’s Los Angeles event — which also featured actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts in addition to Biden and Obama — was the largest single fundraiser in Democratic Party history.
Biden has ramped up his fundraising sprint as his presumptive Republican challenger, Donald Trump, shows signs that he is gaining ground in the money game. For instance, Trump raised $50.5 million at an April gathering of major donors at the Florida home of billionaire investor John Paulson.
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee say they’ve raised $141 million in May, padded by tens of millions of dollars in contributions that flowed in after Trump’s guilty verdict in his criminal hush money trial. The Biden campaign has yet to release its May fundraising figures.
Morgan Lee, The Associated Press – Jun 18, 2024 / 1:44 pm | Story: 492998
Photo: The Canadian Press
Smoke from a wildfire rises over trees in Ruidoso, N.M., Monday, June 17, 2024. Residents of the mountain village of about 7,000 residents fled their homes under evacuation orders with little time to rescue belongings. (Jacquie Escajeda via AP)
A wildfire swept into the mountain village of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico on Tuesday, destroying or damaging hundreds of structures after residents fled under evacuation orders with little time to rescue belongings.
Ruidoso City Councilor Greg Cory said he learned during a Tuesday briefing by wildfire-incident commanders that 500 structures had been damaged. It was unclear how many homes were engulfed by the fast-moving flames in Ruidoso, a village of 7,000 residents.
“The fire is out of control, but I’ve heard of no injuries or fatalities,” Cory said during a brief telephone interview from Clovis, New Mexico, where he and his wife and grandson arrived after driving about three hours Monday evening from Ruidoso.
They were among hundreds of Ruidoso residents who fled for their lives through traffic-clogged downtown streets in the normally pastoral vacation destination, as smoke darkened the evening sky and 100-foot (30-meter) flames climbed a ridgeline.
Christy Hood, a real estate agent in Ruidoso, said Monday’s order to evacuate came so quickly that she and her husband, Richard, only had time to grab their 11-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter, and their two dogs.
“We don’t have clothes or a toothbrush,” she said. “We truly don’t have anything.”
Police were going up and down the streets telling people to drop everything and go, she said.
“As we were leaving, there were flames in front of me and to the side of me,” she said. “And all the animals were just running — charging — trying to get out.”
They headed out of Ruidoso, but heavy traffic turned what’s normally a 15-minute drive into a harrowing two-hour ordeal.
“It looked like the sky was on fire. It was bright orange,” she said. “Honestly, it looked like the apocalypse. It was terrifying and sparks were falling on us.”
On social media posts, Ruidoso officials didn’t mince words: “GO NOW: Do not attempt to gather belongings or protect your home. Evacuate immediately.” As cellphone and internet service faltered, many villagers tuned into AM radio for updates.
Jacquie and Ernie Escajeda were at church Monday in Ruidoso, located about 130 miles (210 kilometers) southeast of Albuquerque, when they heard about a fire in a nearby community about 20 miles (30 kilometers) away. They said they didn’t think much of it, but by mid-morning, smoke rose above a mountain behind their house and the smell filled the air. Air tankers were flying overhead, traffic picked up in the small village and the winds blew strongly through the trees.
The couple started watching their cellphones and turned on the radio for updates. There was no “get ready,” nor “get set” — it was just “go,” Ernie Escajeda said. They grabbed legal documents and other belongings and headed out.
“Within an hour, the police department, the fire department, everybody’s there blocking, barricading the roads to our area and telling everybody to leave,” he said. “Thank God we were ready.”
Earlier Tuesday, the couple got a call from friends who are on vacation in Utah but have a home in Ruidoso that they’ve been told was destroyed, Jacquie Escajeda said.
“They lost their home,” she said. “There’s only one home standing in their whole little division that they live in, so there are a lot of structures lost. We have no idea if we’re going to have a home to go to.”
Public Service Company of New Mexico shut off power to part of the village due to the fire, which was estimated to be about 22 square miles (56 square kilometers) with no containment, forestry and village officials said Tuesday morning.
Accountant Steve Jones said he and his wife evacuated overnight as emergency crews arrived at their doorstep and dense smoke filled the Ruidoso valley, making it difficult to breathe.
“We had a 40-mph (55-kph) wind that was taking this fire all along the ridge, we could literally see 100-foot (30-meter) flames,” said Jones, who relocated in a camper. “That’s why it consumed so much acreage.”
Amid highway closures, many evacuees had little choice but to flee eastward onto the Great Plains and the city of Roswell, 75 miles (121 kilometers) away, where hotels and shelters quickly filled. A rural gas station along the evacuation route was overrun with people and cars.
“I’ve never seen so many cars in one place, it was total chaos,” said Hood, who took shelter at a church in Roswell with her family, sleeping on air mattresses.
Several hundred families have arrived at shelters and hotels in Roswell, said Enrique Moreno, director of Roswell Community Disaster Relief.
“The Walmart parking lot is packed with people in RVs,” he said. “Every single hotel in Roswell is filled to capacity right now. … We go to the gas stations and we see just a bunch of people hanging around their cars.”
New Mexico has grappled in recent years with a devastating series of wildfires, including a 2022 blaze caused by a pair of prescribed fires set by the U.S. Forest Service that merged during drought conditions to become the largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history. That year, a separate fire consumed 200 homes in Ruidoso and resulted in two deaths.
On Tuesday, two fires menaced Ruidoso, a high-altitude vacation getaway nestled within the Lincoln National Forest near amenities including a casino, golf course and ski resort operated by the Mescalero Apache Tribe.
The nearby horse racing track at Ruidoso Downs said its facilities were safe, in a Tuesday morning post on social media, without responding to phone calls and messages. Beyond the track, animals and livestock were moved to the New Mexico State Fairgrounds in Roswell, including five horses that arrived Monday night, as well as four llamas, according to Leslie Robertson, the office manager.
“We’re getting a lot of phone calls, so we’re expecting people to head this way,” she said, noting robust donations of hay and feed.
The South Fork Fire started Monday on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, where the tribal president issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency. It was burning on tribal and U.S. Forest Service land within areas surrounding Ruidoso. Wind-whipped flames advanced rapidly on Ruidoso.
A second fire, called the Salt Fire, also was burning on the Mescalero reservation and southwest of Ruidoso. It was over 7 square miles (19 square kilometers) as of Tuesday morning with no containment, the forestry division said.
In California, firefighters have increased their containment of a large wildfire that is burning in steep, hard-to-reach areas in mountains north of Los Angeles, officials said. But hot, dry, windy weather could challenge their efforts Tuesday.
The Associated Press – Jun 18, 2024 / 10:17 am | Story: 492949
Photo: The Canadian Press
This photo provided by Santa Rosa County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office shows Benjamin Brown.
A plastic surgeon in the Florida Panhandle was charged with his wife’s death after she suffered a cardiac arrest and died days after he performed after-hours procedures on her in his clinic last year, authorities said.
Benjamin Brown was arrested Monday on a charge of manslaughter by culpable negligence, which is a second-degree felony, He was released from the Santa Rosa County Jail after posting a $50,000 bond.
There was no online court docket for Brown as of Tuesday morning so it was unknown if he had an attorney. No one answered the phone at his clinic.
Brown’s wife, Hillary Brown, went into cardiac arrest in November while her husband was performing procedures on her at his clinic in Pensacola, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. She was taken to a hospital and died a week later, the sheriff’s office said.
Last month, the Florida Department of Health filed an administrative complaint before the state Board of Medicine, seeking penalties against Brown up to the revocation or suspension of his license. The complaint involved his wife’s case and other cases.
Unsupervised by her husband or any other health care practitioner, Hillary Brown prepared her own local anesthesia and filled intravenous bags for the procedures which included arm liposuction, lip injections and an ear adjustment, according to the Department of Health complaint.
She also ingested several pills, including a sedative, pain killer and antibiotic, before falling into a sedated state, though the consumption of those pills wasn’t documented, the complaint said.
“The minimum prevailing professional standard of care requires that physicians not permit a patient to prepare medication for use in their own surgery,” the complaint said.
During the procedures, Hillary Brown’s feet began twitching and she told her husband that her vision was starting to blur and that she saw “orange.” Benjamin Brown injected more lidocaine, an anesthetic, into her face. The Department of Health said she became unresponsive and had a seizure.
A medical assistant asked Benjamin Brown if they should call 911, and he said “no,” according to the complaint. Over the next 10 or 20 minutes, the medical assistant repeated her question about whether they should call for paramedics, and he said, “no” or “wait,” the complaint said.
When Hillary Brown’s breathing became shallow and her pulse and blood oxygen levels became low, after about 10 to 20 minutes, Benjamin Brown told his assistants to call 911 and he began performing resuscitation efforts on her, the complaint said.
Also last month, the Department of Health issued an emergency order restricting Benjamin Brown’s license to performing procedures only at a hospital under the supervision of another physician. His wife had given injections and performed laser treatment on patients even though she wasn’t a licensed health care practitioner, the order said.
Addressing the procedures involving his wife last November, the order noted that muscle twitches and blurred vision are early signs of lidocaine toxicity. The order described Benjamin Brown’s treatment of his wife as “careless and haphazard.”
“The level of disregard that Dr. Brown paid to patient safety, even when the patient was his wife, indicates that Dr. Brown is unwilling or incapable of providing the appropriate level of care his future patients,” the order said.
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