Russian oligarch close to Putin paid for part of Donald Trump Jr’s lavish wedding

US president’s eldest child married Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson in three-day celebration across two exclusive private islands

By Lucy Campbell for The Guardian

September 14, 2026

Donald Trump Jr and his wife, Bettina, confirmed on Monday that a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin partially paid for the couple’s wedding celebrations in May, following a ProPublica report revealing Umar Kremlev spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the events.

Trump Jr, the US president’s eldest child, married the Palm Beach socialite in a lavish three-day celebration across two exclusive private islands in May.

Citing records and interviews with three anonymous sources familiar with the event, ProPublica reported that Kremlev, a member of the Russian president’s circle, footed the bill to rent one of the islands where a reception was held and where guests slept, along with other large expenses, including a huge firework show.

In a statement signed by the couple and shared on Bettina Trump’s Instagram after ProPublica’s report was published, they confirmed Kremlev’s contributions to the celebrations and characterized them as “an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful”.

A top Democrat demanded answers on the Trumps’ ties to Kremlev.

“Why did a Russian oligarch close to Putin fund Trump Jr.’s wedding in the Bahamas?” posted Robert Garcia, the ranking member and lead Democrat on the House oversight committee, on social media. “Umar Kremlev spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the President’s son. What did he get in return? We need answers.”

Kremlev has a longstanding relationship with Putin. He is the head of the International Boxing Association (IBA), a sporting body that has been backed by the state-owned Russian energy company Gazprom. According to ProPublica, the wedding payments came from an IBA-affiliated entity in Dubai that the boxing association uses for financial transactions.

n the days before the wedding party, he reportedly went to China as part of a delegation accompanying Putin, and the month prior the Russian president had bestowed him with a state honor, the Order of Friendship. The Ukrainian government has imposed sanctions on Kremlev, citing his closeness to Putin and Russian security services.

Alexander Lagutin, a businessperson who has held senior roles at a Russian defense contractor and a state-backed energy company, had been with Kremlev on the China trip. Kremlev’s right hand at the IBA, Elena Sobol, attended the wedding, too.

While the event was extravagant, the guest list was intimate, with only about 50 people attending, most of whom were immediate family, close friends and business partners of the couple. Then there was Kremlev, who reportedly didn’t attend the ceremony itself, which was limited to just 18 guests, but was present with a large contingent of Russians at the party, much to the confusion of the other guests. The group reportedly sometimes stood off by themselves speaking Russian, according to ProPublica.

The affair has raised questions about the implications of a member of Putin’s circle financially supporting and gaining such intimate access to the US president’s family. In recent years Trump Jr has emerged as a leading campaign surrogate for Trump and has even been touted as a potential political heir.

Donald Sherman, the president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), said it is in the public interest for Congress to strongly consider requiring financial disclosure statements of a president’s adult children, in addition to the president themselves.

The crux of the issue is the nature of the friendship, and whether the giving of gifts is genuine or designed to influence, Sherman said. “We know that private companies and foreign governments have been seeking to gain Don Jr’s favor in order to serve their own financial interests. And so, it’s important that there is a measure of transparency when folks tied to the Russian government are lavishing the president’s rich adult son with expensive gifts.”

He added: “Most of us learn as children that ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’. It’s one thing if, in the nature of this friendship, there’s a mutual exchange of lavish gifts. It’s another if someone’s daddy becomes president and then all of a sudden this new friend starts giving gifts – that context very much matters.”

In similar vein, retired FBI official Frank Montoya Jr told ProPublica: “If I’m paying for your wedding, at some point, you’re going to owe me something. This should be unthinkable for the son of the president.”

It remains unclear why Kremlev helped pay for the wedding and why he was there, when he appears to have only met Trump Jr – the executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, who has a personal net worth somewhere in the ballpark of $300m – quite recently.

Donald Trump famously didn’t attend the wedding. “He’d like me to go, but it’s going to be just a small, little private affair,” the US president told reporters a few days before the nuptials. “I said, you know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things.”

In response to detailed questions from ProPublica, a spokesperson for Trump Jr did not deny that Kremlev had helped fund the wedding. “Umar is a personal friend of Don,” the spokesperson said, adding Kremlev is “not someone he has a business relationship with” and that the men met through a mutual friend in the hunting world.

In their joint Instagram statement, Trump Jr and Bettina Trump thanked “our dear friend Umar” who “very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding”.

They said they “got married privately” on 22 May “surrounded ONLY by our family”, and said the Russian businessman had simply given them a gift.

“Friendship doesn’t require a political motive. Generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda. And sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift,” they said.

Taco Bell Foundation donates over $400K to 9 NM nonprofits

Donation part of over $ 30M nationwide grant allocations

BY GREGORY R.C. HASMAN / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 16, 2026

The Taco Bell Foundation announced on Monday it was allocating $32 million to 700 nonprofit organizations across the country.

Of that, $442,000 will go to nine New Mexico organizations, including $100,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Juan County (BGCSJC).

Fueled by fans who round up their Taco Bell order totals, the investment creates more opportunities for young people through education, career readiness, mentorship, and youth empowerment, a Taco Bell Foundation news release states.

“When you think about how this started, with fans giving a little extra at checkout, it’s incredible to see that generosity grow into $32 million for organizations serving young people across the country,” Taco Bell Foundation Executive Director Morgan Tabor said in a statement. “What I love most about Community Grants is how local they are. Taco Bell franchisees know these organizations, they believe in their work, and together we’re helping more young people see just how much is possible for their futures.”

Boys & Girls Clubs of San Juan County CEO Michelle Meyering said two of Farmington’s Taco Bells have been among the nation’s top locations for raising money through the Round Up program.

“We are really fortunate that in this community the customers know where the money goes,” she said.

Meyering said the money will go toward the nonprofit’s teen programs.

The eight other New Mexico grant recipients include: ACE Scholarships ($120,000), Junior Achievement of New Mexico ($53,460), College Advising Corps ($40,700), Boys & Girls Club of Gallup ($38,000), MANA de Albuquerque ($30,000), Future Focused Education ($30,000), Big Brothers Big Sisters of New Mexico ($15,000), and the Boys & Girls Club of Las Cruces, which also received $15,000.

“The organizations selected align with the Foundation’s focus on helping young people prepare for college, careers and what comes next, through areas including college and career readiness, mentorship and youth empowerment,” a Taco Bell Foundation spokesperson said in an email.

Since 1992, the foundation has awarded more than $278 million in grants and scholarships nationwide, according to the news release.

NM nonprofit receives $ 100K from Bank of America

Money to go toward new teen center that is slated to open by end of the year

BY GREGORY R.C. HASMAN / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 16, 2026

As a child, Mercedez Holtry was a member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Mexico, where she learned to play basketball and build her social and other skills.

When her parents got divorced, she said the Boys and Girls Club was “the space where I could just decompress and be at home.”

Over a decade later, Holtry is now the director of the club’s new teen center, slated to open at 3333 Truman NE by the end of the year, funded by a $100,000 grant.

“It’s a full circle moment to find my way back to this organization as an adult and be able to continue the mission of ensuring young people have a lot of opportunities,” Holtry said.

On Monday evening, Bank of America New Mexico surprised the nonprofit by presenting them with a $100,000 check during an event at the Albuquerque Museum kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month, which began on Tuesday.

The grant is part of the bank’s Neighborhood Builders initiative, a two-year leadership development and grant program that supports nonprofits addressing pressing community needs, including organizations dedicated to helping children. Beyond the funding, grant recipients are eligible for multiyear leadership training for nonprofit executives.

Since the program began in 2019, the bank has selected eight organizations, according to Bank of America.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Central New Mexico CEO Colby Wilson said that while the bank has donated to the nonprofit in the past, the $100,000 is the largest amount it has received from them “and the timing is just right.”

The organization is planning to open a new teen center which will include a digital arts or computer room where kids can learn skills like videography and photography. It will also have a podcast studio that will double as a music recording studio, Holtry said.

“We’re thinking of doing some poetry and hip-hop programming in here as well and utilizing this space to do really cool audio projects,” she said.

The teen center will also have a multipurpose room for community events and large gatherings, plus a kitchen that will support culinary arts programming and allow the club to provide free meals for up to 200 members per day, according to the organization’s website.

Holtry said the club will go to area schools and ask students to fill out surveys so they “can give us information or feedback on what they want to see here since it’s their center.”

NM-filmed ‘Pluribus’ wins six Emmys

Vince Gilligan’s Apple TV+ drama earned six awards, including a best actress win for Rhea Seehorn

BY ELIZABETH SECOR / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 16, 2026

The 78th Emmys aired Monday night, filled with glitz, glamour and awards. The Apple TV science fiction drama series “Pluribus,” by director Vince Gilligan, was nominated for 18 Emmys; it won six.

The series filmed at several locations in New Mexico, such as a temporary culde- sac built on the West Mesa, as well as at Coronado Center and Vernon’s Speakeasy.

Gilligan is well known for producing the shows “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” both of which were also filmed in the state. “Breaking Bad” won 16 Emmys over its series run.

“Pluribus” premiered in November 2025 and over a nine-episode season, followed Carol, played by Rhea Seehorn, in a post-apocalyptic world where a hive mind has taken over nearly everyone.

Seehorn won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and Gilligan won for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for Episode 1, “We Is Us.”

In her speech, Seehorn thanked Gilligan for giving her “the role of a lifetime” and “for creating sets where we all get to collaborate and we are actually made to feel safe to take risks so we get better as artists.”

She also thanked her fellow cast members and loved ones. This is Seehorn’s first Primetime Emmy win and fourth nomination.

The award for Outstanding Writing was Gilligan’s fifth Emmy win and 26th nomination. In his acceptance speech, Gilligan said the premise of a world where everyone gets along is “so sci-fi” and “so weird,” but not weirder than our current reality.

“These past 10 years you can’t write this stuff. I submit to you that a real world in which people get along is just as believable as what we’ve got now and achievable,” he said. “We will never agree on everything, but we can show respect to one another, maybe even kindness and we can stop listening to a relative few who tell us that that is for suckers and who get their power from dividing us.”

The four other Emmy wins for “Pluribus”: „ Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour) for Episode 1, “We Is Us.”

„ Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.

„ Outstanding Picture Editing for a Drama Series for Episode 1, “We Is Us.”

„ Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program for Episode 3, “Grenade.”

“Pluribus” has been renewed for a second season, and in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Gilligan said filming would start around late October to early November.

Karolina Wydra, who was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Zosia in “Pluribus,” spoke to USA Today from the Emmys red carpet on Monday about filming in the state.

“I love Albuquerque, New Mexico. I’m a huge fan of that place. I love Santa Fe. New Mexico is magical. It is truly magical,” she said, “and I’m very excited that we get to go back there again.”

What else happened at the Emmys?

“Widow’s Bay” broke a record for a comedy series with 14 awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series and three acting wins.

“Widow’s Bay” star Matthew Rhys won for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Stephen Root won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and Kate O’Flynn won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Dippold won for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

“The Pitt” won Outstanding Drama Series for the second straight year, and star Noah Wyle repeated as best actor in a drama, but the HBO Max emergency room drama won no other Emmys and underperformed its expectations.

Jean Smart won her fifth Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series award for the fifth and final season of “Hacks.”

PNM, Blackstone double ratepayer credits in merger application

New application asks the PRC to approve the $11. 5B merger, which includes $205M in rate credits

BY JUSTIN HORWATH / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 16, 2026

Public Service Company of New Mexico, the state’s largest utility, and Blackstone Infrastructure, the company looking to purchase PNM, more than doubled the amount of rate credits they will provide to ratepayers if the deal closes.

The proposed $11.5 billion merger between the state’s largest electric utility and a unit of one of the world’s largest private equity firms, Blackstone Inc., faced a setback in July. Members of the Public Regulation Commission ordered the two companies to unwind a $400 million sale of TXNM Energy stock to Blackstone affiliates, saying the transaction violated a state law prohibiting utility mergers without prior regulatory approval. That stock transaction gave Blackstone a 7.59% stake in TXNM, the parent company of PNM.

The companies went back to the drawing board on the deal. On Tuesday, PNM and Blackstone filed a request to amend their application with the PRC. A draft of the new application offers ratepayers $220 million in credits to their utility bills. The original application offered $105 million in such credits.

In addition to the $220 million in rate credits, the companies are offering an additional $80 million in benefits. That includes $40 million for workforce development and economic development initiatives for job training, scholarships, apprenticeships and other programs; $25 million in technology to develop virtual power plants, which are networks of connected devices such as solar panels and smart meters that act in concert to efficiently deliver power; and $15 million to PNM’s Good Neighbor Fund, which provides assistance to low-income ratepayers.

At public hearings about the merger, some New Mexicans characterized in public comments such community benefits packages as payoffs to sweeten the deals, making it more likely regulators will approve them. Asked about that contention, PNM and TXNM President and CEO Don Tarry said, “We just wanted to make a very compelling application that when reasonable people look at it, they go ‘This makes sense, and it’s in the interests of the consumers here and it’s in the interests of the state … ’” He said the benefits are both near and long term.

“Look at the Good Neighbor Fund; it’s about helping people for 10 years and increasing that,” Tarry said. “Look at the education and apprenticeship programs; it’s about improving and creating skill sets that we can drive economic development with. You look at the economic development; it’s about creating jobs and bringing businesses here.”

Utility companies are not legally required to attach community benefits packages to such deals, a Blackstone spokesperson said. In fact, utility regulators are unclear about what type of benefits utility mergers should offer ratepayers. In late August, PRC regulators asked the New Mexico Supreme court in a filing what standard the PRC should use to review such benefits.

Utilities offer the benefits to show how a merger would serve the public interest. For prior mergers, the PRC has maintained that utility mergers should provide ratepayers with a “net benefit” and utilities began offering multimillion community benefits packages.

But commissioners questioned whether the “net benefit” standard is simply a PRC rule, or whether it is grounded in state law, when they approved the purchase of New Mexico Gas Co. by private equity firm Bernhard Capital Partners in July. That deal included $22.4 million in rate credits to be distributed among the gas company’s 553,000 customers, $15 million in economic development and workforce initiatives and $7 million to a bill-assistance program.

At the July meeting, Commissioner Greg Nibert asserted that the “net benefit” standard is not state law. Rather, he said, state law provides that utility merger requests should only be rejected if they violate any laws. That standard would provide a continuation of service, rather than a net benefit.

The Supreme Court has not publicly released any guidance on the issue.

Vaccines Worked for Decades: Why Are Diseases Returning?

By David García Pérez

This article is translated from from Univadis Germany, part of the Medscape Professional Network. Pérez has previously written about the Oropouche virus, Ascariasis medication, and anthelmintic medications for Medscape.

September 9, 2026

Two Pennsylvania residents died after contracting measles, drawing renewed attention to a disease that the US declared eliminated. The deaths occurred amid an increase in cases, with more than 2777 measles cases confirmed in the US to date.

The increase is particularly striking because only three measles deaths were recorded in the US between 2001 and 2022, with the most recent occurring in 2015. The CDC subsequently confirmed three deaths in 2025.

The resurgence in the US is part of a broader phenomenon affecting other countries with well-established healthcare systems and raises an important question: Why are diseases that have been controlled for decades reappearing?

For decades, diseases including measles, diphtheria, and polio have ceased to be everyday threats in many high-income countries because of vaccination. However, some of these pathogens have once again found opportunities to spread.

In Europe, 127,350 measles cases were reported in 2024, twice the number reported in the previous year and the highest number recorded in the region since 1997. In addition, 38 deaths were reported. Although the number of cases fell to 33,998 in 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that the risk for new outbreaks would persist because of pockets of insufficiently vaccinated populations.

Italy offers a particularly striking example of how diseases that once seemed relegated to the past could become fatal.

Recently, an unvaccinated 4-year-old girl died of respiratory diphtheria in Palermo, Italy.

The diagnosis was later confirmed by the Italian National Institute of Health. The case occurred in an EU setting where diphtheria continues to be reported despite vaccination.

In 2024, 151 cases were reported in the EU and European Economic Area, including 83 caused by toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae and 65 caused by Corynebacterium ulcerans.

Nor is the problem limited to measles or diphtheria. In 2022, the US reported a case of paralytic polio in an unvaccinated adult in New York, the first detected in the country since 2013. The individual was infected with a type 2 vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV2), and viruses genetically related to the individual’s isolate were subsequently identified in wastewater from several counties, providing evidence of community transmission.

Germany subsequently reported to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) the detection of wild poliovirus type 1 in a wastewater sample from Hamburg, Germany, although no associated human cases had been identified.

The detection followed reports from several EU countries, including Finland, Germany, Poland, and Spain, which had detected VDPVs in wastewater in 2024. These findings prompted the ECDC to call for increased vaccination and surveillance.

The resurgence of these pathogens does not mean that vaccines have stopped functioning. Instead, it highlights a fundamental issue: When vaccination coverage declines, the number of susceptible individuals increases. These cases therefore raise a broader question: What is happening with vaccination in societies that have managed to keep these diseases at bay for decades?

Recent Data

Childhood vaccination has transformed global health and prevented millions of deaths; however, progress in vaccination coverage has slowed over the past decade.

A recent analysis published in The Lancet examined the coverage of 11 vaccine combinations across 204 countries and territories from 1980 through 2023. The analysis estimated that routine vaccination has prevented approximately 154 million child deaths since 1974. However, progress has stalled in many areas since 2010, and the coverage of at least one recommended vaccine has declined in 21 of the 36 high-income countries analyzed.

This decline was not limited to a single vaccine. According to the same study, the coverage of the first measles vaccine dose decreased between 2010 and 2023 in 100 of the 204 countries studied. Among high-income countries, declines occurred in France, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US. The COVID pandemic worsened a trend that had already shown signs of stagnation. Disruptions to healthcare services and immunization programs have led to losses in coverage that have not recovered uniformly.

The latest WHO and UNICEF data show that coverage has declined in some countries, while remaining stable or recovering in others. Therefore, a generalized decline in vaccination across all high-income countries cannot be assumed.

However, why is this happening? The answer is more complex than a single cause. The Lancet analysis identified health inequalities, consequences of the pandemic, and stagnation in immunization programs as major barriers to vaccination coverage. Another increasingly important factor is confidence in vaccines.

Misinformation and vaccine hesitancy can reduce vaccine acceptance, particularly when diseases prevented by vaccination are no longer perceived as daily threats. However, not every unvaccinated individual is hesitant to be vaccinated.

Difficulties in accessing healthcare, lack of information, problems completing vaccination schedules, and social inequalities may also account for some coverage gaps.

The future will depend to a large extent on which of these trends prevails. The study’s projections estimated that if the current trajectory continues, global coverage of the second measles vaccine dose will reach approximately 76% by 2030, well below the international target of 90%. In a more favorable scenario, the coverage could exceed 85%, whereas in an unfavorable scenario, it could be below 63%. These figures serve as a warning: Maintaining vaccination coverage requires not only making vaccines available but also ensuring that they reach the entire population and that individuals have confidence in them.

Restoring Lost Protection

Given this situation, restoring vaccination coverage is not simply a matter of compensating for doses that were missed during the pandemic. In Europe, current strategies also seek to identify where pockets of unvaccinated populations are concentrated and which barriers prevent some individuals from accessing or accepting vaccination.

The ECDC estimated that approximately 600,000 children aged 12-23 months may not have received at least one recommended childhood vaccine in Europe and has developed tools to help health authorities improve vaccination acceptance and coverage.

One strategy involves catch-up vaccination, which allows individuals who were not vaccinated at the recommended time to complete their vaccination dose. These interventions are combined with better identification of susceptible individuals and measures targeted specifically at communities where vaccination coverage is the lowest.

In Romania, for example, certain regions have increased measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination coverage by 25% during the first quarter of 2026, after implementing measures aimed at reversing the decline in vaccination rates.

The WHO and UNICEF have warned that, in Europe and Central Asia, coverage for several childhood vaccines has stagnated or declined compared with pre-pandemic levels.

The goal, therefore, should not simply be to return to pre-pandemic levels but to ensure that immunity gaps continue to narrow and that vaccination systems can quickly detect and address any decline in coverage. Vaccination is one of the most effective public health interventions. The challenge is to ensure that these tools reach all communities and that coverage remains high enough to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases from gaining a foothold and spreading.

Fuego 505 Wins NM State Fair Green Chile Cheeseburger Challenge

Restaurants from Aztec to Belen showcase the beloved NM dish in annual cook-off

BY GILLIAN BARKHURST / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 15, 2026

With griddles hot and green chile even hotter six restaurants vied for the title of best green chile cheeseburger on Monday at the New Mexico State Fair.

While some chefs stood over pots of bubbling green chile queso, others flipped caramelized onions and crisped patties as fairgoers looked on.

“You win the competition at the New Mexico State Fair and you win the world championships for green chile cheeseburgers,” said Matty Barela, co-owner of Fuego 505, a restaurant on Albuquerque’s West Side.

The Green Chile Cheeseburger Challenge is a long-running tradition at the State Fair. The contest is judged on overall components, presentation, the patty and, of course, the quality of green chile.

After chefs got the go-ahead to grill, each team had five minutes to prepare and plate their burger to be served in a blind taste test for a panel of eight judges. That panel included local royalty, like 2026 State Fair Queen Taylor Rolan, sponsor and media representatives, as well as the previous two-time winner, Leticia Romero of Isleta Grill. Each judge ate the equivalent of two cheeseburgers Monday as they sampled each restaurant’s offerings.

“I think the point is to eat as much as you can, burn your tongue off and wish you could do it all over again,” said Gena Goodson, associate publisher of Albuquerque the Magazine.

For restaurants, this award is more than just a plaque on a wall. Winning the championship represents a year of bragging rights for one of New Mexico’s most beloved dishes and the attention of hungry locals and tourists alike.

Christopher Goblet, the official scorekeeper for the competition, said in his 11 years of tallying ballots he’s seen countless restaurants prosper under the limelight.

“Look at Laguna Burger, they came here a number of years and now they’re in the airport,” Goblet said. “I think that the spirit of the State Fair is finding something new you can try and be proud of.”

With such high praise on the line, naturally, the competition was fierce. After two hours of tasting, deliberating and tallying — Fuego 505 took home the first-place prize, while La Villa Burgers & Boba in Santa Rosa won second and Fat Sats in Belen claimed third.

Aztec-based Badlands Burgers & Brews served up the most popular burger of the six and won the People’s Choice award. More than 100 fairgoers weighed in on that contest, ultimately choosing Badlands as the best of the best.

Though as scorekeeper Goblet carefully shielded his spreadsheet of votes, he said that this year’s competition was “a tight race.”

Frijoles Fire grows by 410 acres, but rain could spell relief

Forest Service: ‘Full containment will be a slow process’

BY JOHN MILLER / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 15, 2026

The Frijoles Fire is still on the move, but steady showers forecast through Friday could help wildland crews bring home suppression and containment efforts on the 15,956-acre blaze, which was discovered on Aug. 4.

The U.S. Forest Service reported on Monday that the Frijoles Fire had grown by about 410 acres since Friday, or a roughly 3% increase. Flames remain active around the fire’s northeastern perimeter and crept into fuel-dense drainages around Sierra Mosca, an 11,801-foot peak in the Pecos Wilderness.

Travelers and residents west of the fire reported a large smoke column on Friday in images shared widely across social media, but fire managers say the Frijoles Fire doesn’t pose any threats to people or property at this time.

Fire containment has lingered around 79%, and Monday’s update noted that the lightning-caused wildfire could continue growing modestly this month.

“Full containment will be a slow process as the terrain in the Pecos Wilderness is rugged and hazardous,” a Forest Service spokesperson wrote. “Firefighter and public safety are the number one priority.”

After securing the western perimeter of the wildfire, where the Frijoles Fire had threatened several small villages, the multiagency team assigned to the Frijoles Fire has been downsized from nearly 1,000 in August to 49 as of this week.

Those remaining personnel are working in conjunction with local rescue and medical teams to keep the blaze under control while it still burns.

Weather this week could turn the odds in their favor. Exceptionally warm, dry conditions this summer broke on Monday across much of the state. Rain showers raised relative humidity levels from a parched 10% on Friday to nearly 100% each morning this week in the area of the Frijoles Fire, according to the National Weather Service.

“That really slows fire growth as well, so we’re pretty optimistic, with all those things kind of coming in line, that fire growth should should slow down,” said Todd Shoemake, the lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. “I guess as far as the actual chances for rain, that they’re quite high.”

Those wetter conditions also raise the specter of additional lightning strikes and thunderstorm wind outflows, which can also drive fire growth.

Summer officially ends next week, on Sept. 22, so forest managers are also beginning to coordinate plans for potential prescribed burns and pile burns this fall to reduce accumulated dead and downed debris.

“We remain focused on this critical work to deliver on the agency priority to protect communities and natural resources from wildfire, but we also recognize that this year’s drought conditions may limit, or even pause, the work this fall and winter,” said Fire and Fuels Chief Jamie Long.

Sheriff: Oracle security detail suggested AI weapon detection at county meeting

Oracle says it offered metal detectors only

BY ALGERNON D’AMMASSA / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 15, 2026

LAS CRUCES — When Mahesh Thiagarajan, the Oracle Corp. executive overseeing construction of the data center known as Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa, appeared before the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners last week, one question in particular appeared to come as a surprise.

“It was reported to me that you wanted to bring in (artificial intelligence) scanners for this meeting,” Commissioner Susana Chaparro said during the Sept. 8 meeting. “Why?”

Thiagarajan briefly raised his arms and looked toward a colleague before saying, “I’m not aware of that. … It did not go through me.”

Chaparro asked interim County Manager Stephen Lopez — one of three interim county managers leading the county since the departure of County Manager Scott Andrews in July — for more details, saying she received the report from him.

Lopez said, “I don’t know if there was a want or an offer — that was communicated through the sheriff’s office, so I would have to defer to them as to what the exact wording was.”

Sheriff Kim Stewart was not present, and no clarification was immediately made as to what technology had been discussed, with whom, or why.

Security at the commissioners’ meetings has been heightened over the past year amid growing controversy over Project Jupiter, a 1,400-acre data center Oracle is building for use by OpenAI to train AI software.

Opponents in the community and environmental advocacy organizations have raised questions about the project’s environmental costs as well as its transparency about the development. Opponents have also mounted court challenges, prompting the state Supreme Court to pause an air quality permit application for fuel cell technology that would power the center.

The topic has dominated public comments at every regular session since the county approved industrial revenue bonds and other incentives to support the development, sometimes escalating to disruptions of meetings. On select occasions, the county has instituted extra security at the building entrance with metal detectors and bag inspections. At a July session, a scuffle took place in front of the dais involving county deputies, private security officers and residents. The incident culminated in three arrests.

Contacted by the Journal, Stewart said Chaparro’s question appeared to have been prompted by an informal suggestion from the Oracle security detail that accompanied Thiagarajan.

“They went to one of my captains and started talking about security at meetings,” she said. “The Oracle guy said, ‘We have some AI technology to determine if people are armed.’ That was what the conversation was about. … They came to us, and it was just a sidebar conversation, and it had to do with weaponry. It wasn’t to do with any facial recognition.”

Certain AI software products integrate with security cameras to scan and identify potential concealed firearms or knives and alert security personnel for investigation.

An Oracle spokesperson said the offer was not for AI technology at all, but metal detectors.

“Oracle’s offer of security support for the September Board of County Commissioners meeting was part of our ongoing efforts to support the county and maintain open communication with the public and local leaders,” the spokesperson said. “The offer included traditional metal detectors. Oracle did not offer AI-detection technology.”

Stewart said she had not discussed the proposal any further. She said there was no formal offer and that her office would not be open to one. “I’m not accepting one thing from Oracle. I think that’s a bad look,” she said.

That would not necessarily preclude the county from discussing security technology at the government building with Oracle, however.

Stewart and Lopez both confirmed that the sheriff’s office is primarily responsible for security at commission meetings, although uniformed employees of local contractor Security Concepts are also present in the chambers. Stewart said coordination between her agency and the contractor since the July incident was “going really well.”

Oracle did not respond to queries from the Journal about the discussion, and a spokesperson for the county did not answer questions regarding security at the government building.

Facebook faced roadblocks investigating Cambridge Analytica, former exec testifies

Sheryl Sandberg, former COO, said volume of app developers posed risks for Facebook

BY OLIVIER UYTTEBROUCK / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

September 15, 2026

A Santa Fe jury viewed a video deposition Monday from Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s former chief operations officer, who said the company encountered roadblocks investigating its role into the Cambridge Analytica data-breach scandal.

Just days after news of the scandal broke in March 2018, Sandberg warned colleagues in an email that Facebook’s third-party app developers posed a risk to the company going forward.

A copy of the email was viewed Monday by jurors in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe where a trial is underway in New Mexico’s lawsuit against Facebook.

“The single biggest issue we face – and I really need everyone to know this – is that there are a MILLION developers with access to the data,” Sandberg wrote in an email dated March 17, 2018. She sent the email to Facebook colleagues just five days after The New York Times and The Guardian published reports about Cambridge Analytica’s role in the 2016 presidential election.

New Mexico’s 2021 lawsuit against Facebook alleges that the now-defunct firm Cambridge Analytica harvested data from up to 87 million U.S. Facebook users and sold it to political campaigns, including the 2016 presidential campaign of President Donald Trump.

Top Facebook leaders, including founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, promised an investigation in response to March 2018 news reports about Cambridge Analytica. Facebook hired a law firm to examine the activities of third-party app developers but the investigation quickly ran into obstacles, Sandberg testified.

“I think we were unable to investigate all of the app developers because there were too many,” Sandberg testified. “We prioritized the largest of them, which is what you would do if you have a million developers.”

Facebook also lacked contact information for many of the developers, said Sandberg, who served as Facebook’s COO from 2008 to 2022.

“In fact, many apps were shut down after the investigation because we didn’t have up-to-date contact information,” she told jurors. “We would send them requests for information and they wouldn’t answer.”

New Mexico plans to wrap up its case on Wednesday, attorneys said Monday. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, plans to offer additional witnesses. The trial is scheduled through Oct. 2 before Judge Francis Mathew.

Cambridge Analytica

New Mexico alleges that a Cambridge University researcher, Aleksandr Kogan, launched a Facebook app in 2013 that ultimately accessed data from 87 million Americans, including app users and their Facebook friends.

Kogan sold the data to Cambridge Analytica, a London-based campaign consultant, the suit alleges. The firm’s clients included the 2016 presidential campaigns of Trump and Ted Cruz.

Sandberg said Facebook had difficulty investigating Kogan and Cambridge Analytica because they were based in Britain.

“Facebook was able to investigate only what happened on its own platform,” Sandberg said. “But an actual investigation of Cambridge Analytica and Mr. Kogan was not possible because he was in another country.”

Great Britain performed an audit and investigation into Cambridge Analytica but focused on the firm’s influence on the Brexit election, not the U.S. presidential election, Sandberg said.

“The only way to do an investigation is to get access to the data that Cambridge Analytica would have had or a campaign would have had, and we had access to neither,” she told jurors.

Facebook’s investigation reached no conclusions about Cambridge Analytica’s influence on the 2016 presidential election, Sandberg testified.

“I don’t believe it was proven that it swung the election, nor do I believe it was of a size that could have swung a whole election, even if it was true,” she said.