Dozens of US state and local leaders will be at talks in Brazil with president’s team expected to send no representatives
The Trump administration appears to be sitting out this month’s United Nations climate talks known as Cop30, telling the Guardian it will not deploy any high-level representatives to the negotiations.
But dozens of US subnational leaders attend to promote their climate efforts.
Continue reading...Kahikinui fire is 85% contained as firefighting crews battle blazes in Pacific north-west, California and the Rockies
A fast-moving Hawaii brush fire fueled by fierce winds forced the evacuation of about 50 Maui residents on the opposite side of the same island where a devastating blaze killed more than 100 people two years ago.
The fire started on Sunday in a sparsely populated area with land set aside for Native Hawaiians.
Continue reading...New Mexico judge rules immigrants did not know they were entering US military zone, marking setback for Trump
A federal judge in New Mexico on Thursday dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of immigrants caught in a new military zone on the US-Mexico border, marking a setback for Trump administration efforts to raise penalties for unlawful crossings into the US.
Chief US magistrate judge Gregory Wormuth began filing the dismissals late on Wednesday, ruling that immigrants did not know they were entering the military zone in New Mexico and therefore could not be charged, according to court documents and a defense attorney.
Continue reading...Victims identified in shooting that occurred at a park after ‘an altercation between two groups of people’, police say
Police have arrested three people in connection with a mass shooting on Friday night at an “unsanctioned car show” in Las Cruces, New Mexico that left three people killed and at least 15 others injured.
Local police said the shooting occurred at around 10pm on Friday at Young Park following “an altercation between two groups of people”. There were approximately 200 people at the park when the shooting occurred.
Continue reading...The actor was likely alone in his house for days, disoriented and too frail to seek help, after death of wife Betsy Arakawa
The actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, who were found dead last month in Santa Fe, New Mexico, were rarely apart from each other, and it’s that closeness that may have led to the circumstances of their deaths.
Arakawa had become Hackman’s caregiver in his later years when he developed Alzheimer’s disease and became incapable of carrying out even the simplest of tasks. She ran the household errands, made sure he remained active and protected him from illnesses.
Continue reading...New Mexico town shocked by deaths of actor, wife and dog – but answers to critical questions may take time to emerge
As New Mexico authorities investigate the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, their adopted home town of Santa Fe is grappling with the mystery of what happened to the couple.
Hackman, a Hollywood legend with two Academy Awards picked up over a 60-year career, and Arakawa, a classical pianist, had lived in the area for decades and had embraced the close-knit community that is New Mexico’s capital city.
Continue reading...Prosecutors said Brad Lunsford, found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, shot Presley Eze at point-blank range in 2022
A former police officer was found guilty on Wednesday of voluntary manslaughter in the killing of Presley Eze during a 2022 confrontation at a New Mexico gas station.
Brad Lunsford, who is white, had pleaded not guilty in the fatal shooting of Eze, who was Black. The former Las Cruces officer’s attorney, Jose Coronado, said he would ask the judge to review the verdict for its legal sufficiency.
Continue reading...Modest family home in Albuquerque has a price tag fit for a meth kingpin – but owner Joanne Quintana warns buyers to prepare for hundreds of visitors a day
The modest suburban home used as Walter White’s family abode in Breaking Bad is officially on the market for US$4m – almost 10 times the median sale price in its neighbourhood.
The ranch-style house in Albuquerque, New Mexico has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a back yard pool, which featured in crucial scenes in the show. The median price of a house in the same postcode is $421,000, according to real estate company Zillow.
Continue reading...Democratic top elections officials are concerned about inflammatory and AI-generated content
A group of Democratic secretaries of state are calling on social media companies to detail their plans to moderate inflammatory content and artificial intelligence on their platforms during and after election day.
Seven secretaries of state – representing Maine, Rhode Island, Illinois, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and New Mexico – sent the letters to Google, X and Meta on Friday. Secretaries of state typically play some role in overseeing elections in their states.
Continue reading...Mississippi’s firearm-related violence rate nearly double that of Haiti, which is plagued by political and gang strife
A new report by the Commonwealth Fund finds some US states have firearm death rates comparable to countries in conflict, and even states with the fewest firearms deaths are far higher than peer developed democracies.
For instance, Mississippi’s rate of firearm-related violence (28.5 per 100,000 people) was nearly double that of Haiti (15.1 per 100,000) in 2021, when mercenaries assassinated the country’s president, unleashing a fresh round of gang warfare which pushed the country into a state of civil war.
Continue reading...National guard conducting search-and-rescue missions as officials say more than 300 people rescued since Saturday
The New Mexico national guard is conducting search and rescue missions in Roswell after record rainfall resulted in severe flooding.
New Mexico state police said on Sunday that at least two people have died as a result of the flash flood, but information on the victims or the circumstances of their deaths were not immediately released.
Continue reading...In 2020, nine bodies were found near US-Mexico border. In the first eight months of 2024, there were 108.
Ten times as many migrants died in New Mexico near the US-Mexico border in each of the last two years compared with just five years ago.
During the first eight months of 2024, the bodies of 108 presumed migrants, mostly from Mexico and Central America, were found near the border in New Mexico, according to the most recent data. Many of the bodies were discovered less than 10 miles (16km) from El Paso.
Continue reading...Hannah Gutierrez-Reed changed her plea in exchange for a reduced sentence for carrying a gun into a bar
The weapons supervisor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film Rust pleaded guilty Monday to a separate criminal charge of carrying a gun into a licensed liquor establishment.
Movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed agreed to change her plea to guilty on the charge in exchange for a reduced sentence of 18 months supervised probation.
Continue reading...Much of the land near the atomic bomb’s birthplace was converted to recreational areas, but toxic waste remains
Soil, plants and water along popular recreation spots near Los Alamos, New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, are contaminated with “extreme concentrations” of plutonium, a new study has found, but calls for the federal government to act have been dismissed.
Michael Ketterer, a Northern Arizona University scientist and lead researcher on the project, said the plutonium levels in and around New Mexico’s Acid Canyon were among the highest he had ever seen in a publicly accessible area in the US during his decades-long career – comparable to what is found in Ukraine at the site of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.
Continue reading...Actor’s defense team at Rust film set shooting trial accuses state of concealing ammunition turned over to police
The judge in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial is considering a motion from the defense to dismiss the case after the actor’s lawyers argued that the state improperly withheld evidence.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the Rust armorer who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year, was initially expected take the stand at Baldwin’s trial on Friday. But the proceedings took a dramatic turn as Baldwin’s defense team accused the state of concealing evidence that would have been favorable to the actor and asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to throw out the case.
Continue reading...Actor on trial in New Mexico for involuntary manslaughter after shot from gun he was holding killed cinematographer
The jury in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial on Wednesday viewed harrowing footage depicting the aftermath of the shooting on a New Mexico film set and medics’ desperate efforts to treat cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch where the actor and crew were filming the western Rust was captured via body-camera footage from a New Mexico sheriff’s deputy who responded to the incident and testified in court this week.
Continue reading...Residents rescued by boat as Governor Kim Reynolds declares disaster in 21 counties in north of state
Floodwaters forced people out of their homes in parts of Iowa, the result of weeks of rain, while much of the US longed for relief on Saturday from yet another round of extraordinary heat.
Sirens blared at 2am in Rock Valley, Iowa, population 4,200, where people in hundreds of homes were told to get out as the Rock River could no longer take rain that has slammed the region. The city lacked running water because wells were unusable.
Continue reading...Actor is due to go to trial over death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed on set of Rust
Fewer than three weeks before actor Alec Baldwin is due to go on trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico, prosecutors have said that he “engaged in horseplay with the revolver”, including firing a blank round at a crew member on the set of Rust before the tragic accident occurred.
Baldwin is facing involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Continue reading...Tropical storm due to form in Gulf of Mexico, adding to extreme weather as north-east and midwest bake
Potential Tropical Cyclone One – a slow churning system of low atmospheric pressure in the Gulf of Mexico – was badgering the Texas coast but had not fully developed, meteorologists said on Wednesday.
The storm, which will be named Tropical Storm Alberto when it forms fully, is set to unleash powerful winds, heavy rain and flood threats across the entire southern US, Mexico and Central America. Storm-force winds, which stretch more than 400 miles (640km) from the storm’s center, are already affecting southern Texas.
This article was amended on 19 June 2024 to correct a quotation from Bill Nye.
Continue reading...At least one killed as residents of Ruidoso escape blazes which are 0% contained
Two fast-moving fires killed at least one person in New Mexico, claimed 1,400 structures and forced the evacuations of thousands of residents as firefighters hope cooler temperatures and the chance of rain could bring some relief as they struggle to bring the “out of control” blazes to heel .
A state of emergency has been declared by New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, and by the Mescalero Apache Tribal Council, to speed recovery and response funding into the region.
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