Douglas Siddens’ mother was among those who made it out with just the clothes on her back when a deadly, wind-fueled wildfire ripped through a mountain community in southern New Mexico.
The RV park where she lived was reduced to “metal frame rails and steel wheels,” said Siddens, who managed the site
“I had like 10 people displaced. They lost their homes and everything, including my mom,” he said.
The fire has destroyed more than 200 homes and killed two people since it broke out Tuesday near the village Ruidoso, a vacation spot that draws thousands of tourists and horse racing fans every summer.
Hundreds of homes and summer cabins dot the surrounding mountainsides. The RV park that Siddens managed is near where an elderly couple was found dead this week outside their charred residence.
Elsewhere in the US, crews have been battling large fires this week in Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado, where a new blaze forced evacuations Friday along the Rocky Mountain’s eastern front near Lyons about 18 miles (29 kilometers) north of Boulder.
That fire was burning in the Blue Mountains near the Larimer-Boulder county line about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Estes Park, the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.
In New Mexico, power was restored to all but a few hundred customers, but evacuation orders for close to 5,000 people remained in place.
Donations poured in from surrounding communities all too familiar with just how devastating wildfires can be.
It was a decade ago that fire ripped through part of the village of Ruidoso, putting the vacation spot on the map with the most destructive wildfire in New Mexico’s recorded history when more than 240 homes burned and nearly 70 square miles (181 square kilometers) of forest were blackened by a lightning-sparked blaze.
On Friday, Mayor Lynn Crawford was rallying heartbroken residents once again as firefighters tried to keep wind-whipped flames from making another run at the village. She said the response from their neighbors has been amazing.
“So we have plenty of food, we have plenty of clothes, those kinds of things but we still appreciate and need your prayers and your thoughts,” the mayor said during a briefing. “Again, our hearts go out to the family of the deceased, to those that have lost their homes.”
Authorities have yet to release the names of the couple who died. Their bodies were found after worried family members contacted police, saying the couple had planned to evacuate Tuesday when the fire exploded but were unaccounted for later that day.
While many older residents call Ruidoso home year round, the population of about 8,000 people expands to about 25,000 during the summer months as Texans and New Mexicans from hotter climates seek respite.
Fans also flock to Ruidoso Downs, home to one of the sport’s richest quarter-horse competitions. The racing season was expected to start May 27, and horses that board there aren’t in any danger as fire officials use the facility as a staging ground.
Part-time residents have taken to social media over the last few days, pleading with fire officials for updates on certain neighborhoods, hoping their family cabins weren’t among those damaged or destroyed.
The hotlines lit up Friday afternoon as people in the village called in to report more smoke. Fire information officer Mike DeFries said that was because there were flare-ups within the interior of the fire as the flames found pockets of unburned fuel.
While the fire didn’t make any runs at the lines crews had established, he said it was still a tough day for firefighters due to single-digit humidity, warmer temperatures and the wind.
Authorities reiterated that it was still too early to start letting people in to see the damage. They asked for patience as fire crews put out hot spots and tried to build a stronger perimeter around the blaze.
“It’s still an active fire area in there and it’s not a safe place,” DeFries said. “It’s going to require patience. At the same time, every step that we’re taking is designed to suppress this fire and to get people back home as soon as possible.”
New Mexico authorities said they suspect the fire, which has torched more than 9.5 square miles (24 square kilometers) of forest and grass, was sparked by a downed power line and the investigation continued Friday.
Hotter and drier weather coupled with decades of fire suppression have contributed to an increase in the number of acres burned by wildfires, fire scientists say. The problem is exacerbated by a more than 20-year Western megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change.
5,000 under evacuation orders as New Mexico wildfire rages
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5,000 under evacuation orders as New Mexico wildfire rages
- The hotlines lit up Friday afternoon as people in the village called in to report more smoke
- Authorities reiterated that it was still too early to start letting people in to see the damage
Musk calls Trump’s big beautiful bill ‘a disgusting abomination’
- Musk left his formal role in the administration last week as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk on Tuesday amplified his criticism of the sweeping tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump has been pushing fellow Republicans in Congress to embrace, calling it a “disgusting abomination” that will increase the deficit.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” the billionaire Musk wrote in an X post. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
The broadside comes as Trump pressures Republicans in the Senate to approve the legislation he dubbed the “big, beautiful bill,” which has been passed in the House of Representatives.
Trump appointed Musk, the world’s richest person, to lead a government cost-cutting and efficiency drive, during which he upended several federal agencies but ultimately failed to deliver the massive savings he had sought.
Musk left his formal role in the administration last week as his time as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end.
Trump administration moves to fast-track firings of federal workers for misconduct
- The proposal would allow agencies to refer misconduct cases to OPM instead of going through the traditional disciplinary process
President Donald Trump’s administration moved on Tuesday to make it easier to fire federal employees for misconduct, the latest step in a broader effort to overhaul the civil service and shrink the federal bureaucracy.
The US Office of Personnel Management published a proposed rule that would allow the office, which acts as the federal government’s human resources department, to direct other agencies to fire employees for conduct such as tax evasion, leaking sensitive information and refusing to testify in other workers’ disciplinary cases.
The rule would extend OPM’s existing power to designate job applicants as unsuitable for federal employment, to current federal employees, a change it said was necessary to hold government workers accountable to the public.
Federal workers have for decades been covered by an array of job protections, including the ability to contest firings by engaging in a lengthy administrative process.
The proposal would allow agencies to refer misconduct cases to OPM instead of going through the traditional disciplinary process. If OPM determines that removal of an employee is required, an agency would have five days to terminate them.
“Illogically, the government has far greater ability to bar someone from federal employment who has committed a serious crime or misconduct in the past than it does to remove someone who engages in the exact same behavior as a federal employee,” OPM said in the proposal.
The publication of the proposal kicked off a 30-day public comment period.
Since Trump’s second term began in January, the administration has moved aggressively to shrink the federal bureaucracy, including directing mass firings and layoffs and implementing changes to the civil service. Many of those policies have been met with court challenges and some have been temporarily blocked by judges.
OPM, which is closely linked to the White House, has played a key role in those efforts by attempting to give Trump more direct control of the federal workforce.
Many unions, Democrats and advocacy groups have said Trump’s various policies violate complex federal civil service and labor laws meant to regulate government employment and ensure that federal workers are insulated from political influence.
OPM on Tuesday said the policies agencies have followed for decades rely on overly cumbersome and restrictive procedures that protect misconduct.
“This arbitrary state of affairs seriously impairs the efficiency, effectiveness, and public perception of the Federal service,” the agency said.
Spain cancels contract for missiles built by Israeli subsidiary
MADRID: Spain has canceled a deal for anti-tank missile systems that were to be manufactured in Madrid by a subsidiary of an Israeli company, in a bid to move away from Israeli military technology, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
The decision will affect the license for 168 SPIKE LR2 anti-tank missile systems with an estimated value of 285 million euros ($325 million). The systems would have been developed in Spain by Pap Tecnos, a Madrid-based subsidiary of Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, according to local press.
“The goal is clear ... a total disconnection from Israeli technology,” government spokesperson Pilar Alegria said, adding the government is studying “the effects of the cancelation.”
Israel’s Defense Ministry referred questions on the decision to Rafael, which said it wasn’t aware of the cancelation. Pap Tecnos, located on the outskirts of Madrid, did not comment.
Spain approved the deal on Oct. 3, 2023, four days before an insurgent assault led by Hamas on southern Israel that sparked a devastating war in Gaza.
Authorities argued at the time that the systems used by the Spanish forces were obsolete and should be replaced with up-to-date versions like those used by allied armies.
Spain’s leftist government says it stopped exporting arms to Israel as of Oct. 2, 2023, but there were reports that some shipments slipped through.
The US late last year opened an investigation into whether NATO ally Spain denied port entry to at least three cargo vessels reportedly transporting US weapons to Israel.
Spain formally recognized a Palestinian state in May 2024 in a coordinated effort with Norway and Ireland.
A month later, Spain became the first European country to ask the top UN court, the International Court of Justice, permission to join a case mounted by South Africa that accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Macron to visit Meloni after rivalry creates tension on Ukraine, trade
- Macron is a fervent pro-European who has had a long rapport with Donald Trump
- Meloni is a nationalist with a strong transatlantic tilt who seems more ideologically aligned with the US president
PARIS/ROME: French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday, seeking to improve relations amid tensions between the two European leaders over Ukraine, trade and relations with the United States.
Macron is a fervent pro-European who has had a long rapport with Donald Trump, while Meloni is a nationalist with a strong transatlantic tilt who seems more ideologically aligned with the US president. They have advocated different — even competing — approaches to the new Trump era.
Meloni, whose country has a large trade surplus with the US, has sought to keep Europe aligned with the US, using the slogan “Make the West great again” in a meeting with Trump in Washington in April. Macron has pushed for the EU to take a more independent approach.
On the Russian war in Ukraine, Meloni has been skeptical about Macron’s “coalition of the willing” and a Franco-British plan put forward earlier this year to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement. Sending troops would be deeply unpopular in Italy.
Hostility flared publicly in recent weeks, with officials close to Macron and Meloni privately or openly criticizing their respective initiatives over Ukraine or trade.
Meloni was criticized in Italy for not traveling to Kyiv with Macron and the German, British and Polish leaders on May 10 and then for missing a call with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a summit in Albania a few days later.
After Meloni explained her absence by saying the meetings were about sending troops to Ukraine, her government was furious that Macron said publicly that the meetings were about a ceasefire and seemed to equate her justification with “Russian disinformation.”
French and Italian officials said Macron had taken the initiative to hold Tuesday’s meeting and sought to play down talk of a rift, saying the meeting and a working dinner would be an opportunity for Macron to show “respect” and “friendship.”
“The president is available to all of our European partners, whatever the political persuasion may be,” an Elysee official told reporters.
The Elysee said the two would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, the Mercosur trade deal and US tariffs, as well as industrial cooperation between the two countries, including Franco-Italian carmaker Stellantis, which appointed a new Italian chief executive last month.
Italian officials said the meeting was meant to “lay the foundations for a further strengthening of relations” and added that talks would also address the situation in the Middle East and Libya.
Both Italy and France are worried Russia might boost its presence in eastern Libya, to keep a foothold in the Mediterranean after Moscow’s ally President Bashar Assad was ousted in Syria in December.
“This Macron-Meloni meeting isn’t about rekindling Franco-Italian friendship. It’s about necessity, not nostalgia,” said Francesco Galietti of Rome-based consultancy Policy Sonar, saying the two capitals should find common ground on Libya “fast.”
French prosecutors treating Tunisian’s murder as suspected terrorism
- Hichem Miraoui was shot 5 times by his white neighbor last week, in what police believe was a racist killing
- It follows mounting concerns over hate crimes against Muslims in the country
LONDON: Prosecutors in France investigating the murder of a Tunisian man are treating the case as a suspected racist attack, The Times reported on Tuesday.
Hichem Miraoui, a 46-year-old hairdresser who had lived in France for 14 years, was shot five times on Saturday by his white neighbor, a 53-year-old named as Christophe B.
The involvement of counterterrorism prosecutors instead of criminal prosecutors in the alleged far-right killing is a first in France.
It follows mounting concerns over hate crimes against Muslims in the country after Malian man Aboubakar Cisse, 22, was stabbed to death outside a mosque in April.
In last week’s killing in the southern town of Puget-sur-Argens, a 25-year-old Turkish man was also shot but survived. The killer fled the scene by car but his partner alerted police, who arrested him.
Christophe B, a sports shooting enthusiast who carried gun permits, had earlier posted videos on social media declaring that he planned to kill foreigners.
He urged his compatriots to do the same, and in one video praised the late founder of France’s National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described the killing of Miraoui as a “racist act.” However, the minister was previously criticized for what anti-racism groups described as an inadequate response to Cisse’s murder.
Counterterrorism authorities were also questioned for failing to treat the Malian national’s killing as terrorism, with the investigation into the case being carried out by criminal prosecutors.
Retailleau on Tuesday visited the Tunisian Embassy in Paris to express solidarity with the community.
The Tunisian diaspora in France numbers more than 1 million people. More than 6 million Muslims reside in the country, about 10 percent of the population.
“Racism in France and elsewhere is a poison, and we see clearly that it is a poison which kills. Every racist act is an anti-French act,” Retailleau said.
Official government data shows that racist, xenophobic and anti-religious crimes rose by 11 percent in the country last year.
However, such crimes in France are also “vastly underreported” because “victims often don’t trust the police or the authorities,” said Jean-Marie Burguburu, chairman of the National Consultative Human Rights Commission.
