Hearing officer withdraws from air permit case

BY ALGERNON D’AMMASSA / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 25, 2026

The hearing examiner overseeing an air quality permit application for the data center known as Project Jupiter recused himself and withdrew from the case over the weekend in an order made public Monday.

Max Shepherd, responding to an emergency motion filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center that sought his disqualification, denied a hearing on the matter and concluded, “I hereby disqualify and recuse myself from acting as the Hearing Officer in this case effective immediately.”

The New Mexico Environment Department named Shepherd to preside over permits sought by Yucca Growth Infrastructure for emissions from planned microgrid power generating facilities at the Santa Teresa data center under construction for tenants Oracle Corp. and OpenAI.

The controversial application seeks approval for a methane-fueled fuel cell system to supply power to the data center, with greenhouse gas emissions estimated between 8.8 million and over 10 million tons per year.

The state Supreme Court granted a temporary stay on the proceeding Sunday night after clean energy advocate New Energy Economy filed an emergency writ seeking to dismiss the permit application, arguing that the State Land Office’s refusal to approve a proposed natural gas pipeline route through state trust land meant the project did not have an established fuel source.

The air permit hearing would have opened on Sept. 14 in Santa Teresa, with a deadline for the Environment Department to make its decision on the permit by Nov. 23, but the temporary stay has paused the process while the state’s high court reviews it. It will not decide the question of the air permit itself.

Last week, Yucca Growth Infrastructure called New Energy Economy’s petition “an attempt to circumvent the procedural deadlines of NMED’s air permit process.”

Shepherd ruled in July that the hearing would begin Oct. 19 only to move it up to Sept. 14. Challengers to the permit have connected that reversal to a meeting that week among Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and representatives of Oracle. Shepherd’s decision cut time for opponents to review technical records and for expert witnesses to prepare testimony by an Aug. 24 deadline, NEE said.

As the dispute unfolded earlier this month, Lujan Grisham and her office maintained that the hearing process was proceeding independently.

The petition further complained that Shepherd allowed the NMED to produce the full administrative record on the same day as the deadline for challengers’ technical testimony, which would have fallen on Monday.

Initially, Shepherd ordered Yucca Growth to file a response to the petition, only to reverse himself days later and say the question should be argued at the hearing.

New Energy Economy’s executive director, Mariel Nanasi, complained that the inconsistent orders turned the process “upside down,” barred meaningful public participation and prevented technical experts from preparing for the hearing.

On Monday, Nanasi welcomed Shepherd’s recusal “after a litany of reversals that repeatedly undermined confidence in the fairness of this proceeding,” she said.

“That withdrawal speaks volumes,” she continued. “The process became so compromised that even the presiding officer could no longer credibly continue.”

The Center for Biological Diversity’s senior attorney in New Mexico, Colin Cox, told the Journal Monday he met Shepherd’s decision with “a mixture of surprise and relief.”

“We’ve consistently been asking just for the bare minimum level of due process,” Cox said. “Mr. Shepherd has repeatedly denied our requests for information and for time to review a proposal for what would be the largest source of air pollution in the state of New Mexico. It deserves a thorough hearing.”

Maslyn Locke, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center’s senior attorney, said Shepherd made the right call.

“His pattern of reversing his decisions showed what we perceived to be a clear pattern of favoritism and bias towards NMED and YGI that would have made a fair hearing completely impossible,” Locke said Monday afternoon. “We’re hopeful that, if this process moves forward, impacted community members and supporting organizations will not only have a say in the selection of the next hearing officer, but will also be provided all constitutional guarantees we are entitled to.”

Shepherd did not respond to a query from the Journal.

Cox also welcomed the state Supreme Court’s review of the process, saying, “We need someone outside of the Michelle Lujan Grisham administration to give this project the scrutiny it deserves and make sure agencies are following the law.”

The Environment Department did not immediately comment on Shepherd’s recusal. The Journal has also reached out to Yucca Growth Infrastructure for comment, but has not heard back.

NM Supreme Court intervenes in Project Jupiter construction

Justices pause permit hearing, water well use

BY ALGERNON D’AMMASSA / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 25, 2026

The New Mexico Supreme Court has intervened in the construction of the state’s largest data center project.

In a pair of orders filed Sunday night, the court indicated it would consider separate petitions filed by opponents of Project Jupiter that raised arguments about legal processes vital to the completion of the 1,400acre data center campus in Santa Teresa.

Under construction since last September, the project is building four data centers for AI training capacity to be used by Oracle and OpenAI, along with an office complex and an on-site power generating facility to supply the data center with electricity.

The power system, as proposed in a permit application by Yucca Growth Infrastructure, would use methane to power a fuel cell system by Bloom Energy projected to supply 2.45 gigawatts and emit an estimated 8.8 to 10 million tons of greenhouse gases annually.

The first court order responded to a petition by New Energy Economy, a clean energy advocacy organization, arguing that the New Mexico Environment Department cannot proceed with its Sept. 14 public hearing on the data center’s air quality permit application because it has not established a fuel source for the data center.

New Energy Economy Executive Director Mariel Nanasi in a statement called the order “an extraordinary and necessary intervention.”

The justices are not being asked to decide for or against issuing the permit. The temporary stay allows the court time to review New Energy Economy’s petition and the threshold issue it raises.

NEE argued that the application is not ripe for a hearing due to setbacks in establishing a route for a pipeline that would supply 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from El Paso across 18 miles of private, federal and state trust land.

Dallas-based company Energy Transfer has proposed the pipeline.

However, New Mexico’s State Land Office has denied access to state land for part of the route, and in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings the company recently stated the pipeline may not be ready for service until 2027.

New Energy Economy argued that the application should be dismissed until the microgrid’s fuel source was in place.

“The public was being railroaded through a process designed to move at extraordinary speed while opponents were denied the tools necessary to test the Applicant’s claims,” Nanasi said in her written statement. “That sequence of events raises grave questions about political pressure and whether this process was being driven toward a predetermined result instead of a search for the truth.”

An Oracle spokesperson defended the permitting process and said, “We are committed to protecting New Mexico’s resources, are abiding by every applicable regulatory process and public review period, and have complied with every required timeline along the way.”

“The effort to bypass the (Environment) department’s established procedural deadlines is unwarranted, but we will continue to share facts about the project transparently and are confident the regulatory process will prevail,” Oracle’s spokesperson said. “The effort to bypass the department’s established procedural deadlines is unwarranted, but we will continue to share facts about the project transparently and are confident the regulatory process will prevail.”

Also on Sunday night, the state Supreme Court issued another unanimous order with the potential to temporarily slow or halt construction in the near future.

Legality of water well in question

The court called a temporary halt to the state’s authorization of a new water well currently supporting construction of Project Jupiter.

The order, filed at 8:33 p.m., granted a request by the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity for a temporary stay on an emergency authorization for a new well on a historic water right, through which the state permitted use of a groundwater source near the Project Jupiter site.

The nonprofit filed an emergency petition last week challenging the Office of the State Engineer’s approval of the well last October. Based on meter readings, the petition alleges over 100 million gallons of water have been pumped from the well since April.

Petitioner Santa Teresa Capital of El Paso applied to OSE for a change to an existing water right — historically intended for irrigating a sod farm — plus an emergency authorization to drill a replacement well. The water right allows up to 2,400 acre-feet per year.

OSE granted the authorization two days later; yet, after 10 months and despite a formal protest filed in January, the agency has yet to call a hearing.

The center is asking the state’s high court to declare the authorization unlawful, temporarily halt activity and schedule the legally mandated hearing to determine whether the new well and water use are in the public interest.

A spokesperson for OSE declined to comment on the court’s order Monday, as it pertains to pending litigation.

“We’re thrilled this stay from the New Mexico Supreme Court blocks Project Jupiter’s unlawful water permit for now,” Colin Cox, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity based in New Mexico, said in a written statement. “Our precious freshwater is safe from this wildly unpopular mega data center. New Mexico has strict laws to protect our water that must be enforced. No company is above the law.”

Oracle’s spokesperson told the Journal, “We are deeply saddened that this order impacts a local small business. The immediate impact of this order falls on the region’s only commercial sod farm and the 14 Santa Teresa residents whose jobs depend on its operations.”

Oracle pointed to its plans for a closed-loop cooling system and a “carefully developed plan” to manage water use for the center’s operations. It also announced a regional water efficiency program in collaboration with an agricultural tech company, Arable, it claims will conserve 21 million gallons per year.

“Although the stay is not permanent, it gives people a chance to breathe, both literally and figuratively,” said Maslyn Locke, a senior attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. “It also shows that New Mexico has at least one branch of the government that may not be willing to let Project Jupiter developers simply get everything they want when they want it.”

NM House Rep. Joseph Hernandez acknowledges and apologizes for police incident at Chicago hotel

Democrat says he will seek professional help for ‘challenges with alcohol’ after reports of public nudity, disturbing guests

BY JOHN MILLER / A;BUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 25, 2026

New Mexico House Rep. Joseph Hernandez, D-Shiprock, apologized late Sunday after the Journal reported he was allegedly found naked and banging on doors at a Chicago hotel last month before being removed from the premises.

“I want to sincerely apologize to my family and my community for my behavior during a recent stay in Chicago,” Hernandez wrote in a Facebook post. “My conduct was not reflective of my role as a state representative or my duty to you — my constituents, and I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

Before details of the episode emerged, Hernandez had issued a two-sentence statement through New Mexico House Democrats, vaguely referring to a “negative experience” he had with security and police that caused him to leave the Holiday Inn at Wolf Point on July 29. A National Conference of State Legislatures summit was being held in Chicago at the time, though organizers have not released a list of attendees.

The response left much open to interpretation, suggesting that the representative might not have been culpable in the incident and that he possibly left the hotel of his own accord.

A Chicago Police Department report recently released to the Journal and two eyewitnesses allege that the representative was naked, running around the 17th floor of the hotel and “banging on other guests’ doors” before police were called and escorted the representative from the premises.

One of the witnesses also claimed the representative pushed him near an elevator before police arrived, but the representative does not appear to have been charged in connection with the incident.

Both eyewitnesses, who spoke to the Journal on the condition of anonymity to protect their employment, stated that Hernandez had “passed out” on a couch in the lobby of the hotel on a previous night of his stay, leading to his first encounter with security.

In his statement on Monday, Hernandez said he was “seeking professional help to address my challenges with alcohol,” describing the incident as a “regretful lapse in judgement.”

“I am truly sorry for disappointing all those who put their faith in me, and I am committed to making meaningful changes to recover my health, regain your trust, and uphold the high standards you deserve from your elected representative,” he wrote.

The representative could not be reached for further comment on Monday.

Details of the incident prompted backlash across social media, with some constituents and even fellow House officials calling for Hernandez’s resignation — which neither Hernandez nor House Democrats have addressed directly.

“We’re very disappointed in what transpired in Chicago,” Democratic House Speaker Javier Martínez said in a statement Monday. “We also want to make sure that Representative Hernandez gets the help he needs to show up as the best version of himself for his family and community.”

Speaking to the Journal last month, Martínez said he had planned to speak with Hernandez about the incident directly, but the speaker added that he could not speak to whether a complaint about the representative’s behavior had been filed with the New Mexico Interim Legislative Ethics Committee.

House Rep. Jim Townsend, R-Artesia, called the incident “an embarrassment” on social media and said he was concerned that the Democrat- led Legislature would not take disciplinary action against one of its own.

“He is a Democrat, so chances are it will be immediately forgotten,” Townsend wrote in a Facebook post.

Hernandez took office in 2025. After winning the Democratic primary in June, the one-term representative is now up against Republican challenger Heather Ellison in the November general to retain his District 4 seat.

Last month, Ellison joined calls for the representative “to tell the truth and take accountability for what happened.”

Dolly Parton, Superstar Whose Songs Spoke to Millions, Dies at 80

Known for her outsize persona, appearance and talent, she rose from rural poverty to become a top-selling singer, songwriter and entrepreneur.

By Bill Friskics-Warren for The New York Times

August 25, 2026

Dolly Parton, a rags-to-riches daughter of Appalachia who for six decades ruled country music with an outsize personality and prairie wit that enshrined her as one of the 20th century’s most cherished American originals, died on Tuesday in Nashville. She was 80.

Her death was announced in a video posted on social media by her nephew Bryan Seaver. No cause was provided. Concerns about Ms. Parton’s health, which began last year as she postponed and later canceled a Las Vegas residency, grew to the point that she took to social media last fall to confirm that “I ain’t dead yet.” In May, she said she had responded well to treatment after, as she put it, her immune and digestive systems “got all out of whack” in recent years.

Ms. Parton’s life, as depicted in autobiographical songs like “Coat of Many Colors” and “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” was the stuff of make-believe, from her hardscrabble beginnings in Appalachia to her glittering stardom in Nashville and beyond.

The writer Chet Flippo likened her to the Big Rock Candy Mountain, the Depression-era symbol of abundance personified by Ms. Parton’s voluptuous figure, rhinestone-studded stage costumes and blonde bouffant wigs. Her songs spoke to millions, confronting privation and loss even as they radiated possibility and hope.

Ms. Parton cannily exploited — and transcended — rural stereotypes and kitsch to fashion a down-home chic entirely her own. (“A country girl’s idea of glam,” she called it in the song “Backwoods Barbie.”) In the process, she became an international celebrity who headlined stadium tours, starred in Hollywood movies, built a business empire and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone. Her at times girlish soprano notwithstanding, she was anything but the “dumb blonde” invoked in the title of her 1966 single.

“I’ve created this and played it up — the makeup, the whole persona,” Ms. Parton said, alluding to her plastic surgeries as well as her colloquial “Dollyisms” in a 2002 interview with The Times.

“But this isn’t all I am,” she added. “It’s not even most of what I am. Hopefully people can see beneath the hair to know there’s a brain, beneath the boobs to know there’s a heart and behind all the other stuff to know there’s some talent.”

Inducted into both the country music and rock ’n’ roll halls of fame, Ms. Parton was the top-ranking female singer on country radio from 1967 to 1993, and had a total of 25 No. 1 country singles.

Her early breakthrough came in 1967 when she was hired as the “girl singer” on “The Porter Wagoner Show,” a syndicated country music television variety program. Several years later, she had No. 1 country hits with records like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You.”

Both songs were among about 3,000 titles she published in her lifetime, hundreds of which have been recorded by other artists, including Tina Turner, Norah Jones, the White Stripes, Merle Haggard, RuPaul and Whitney Houston.

Featured in the 1992 movie “The Bodyguard,” Ms. Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” spent 14 weeks at the top of the pop chart. The song had previously been a No. 1 country single twice, in versions released by Ms. Parton in 1974 and 1982.

With Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, Ms. Parton blazed a trail for women in country music, inspiring contemporaries like Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, as well as latter-day hitmakers like Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves and Taylor Swift. She recorded a pair of albums, “Trio” and “Trio II,” with Ms. Ronstadt and Ms. Harris.

“I can’t imagine anybody, especially in country, who doesn’t try to emulate Dolly in some way,” Ms. Harris said on the occasion of Ms. Parton’s Kennedy Center Honors award in 2006.

Ms. Parton was one of country music’s greatest ambassadors, but she also collaborated widely with artists outside traditional Nashville circles, including Mavis Staples, Queen Latifah, Julio Iglesias and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. “Islands in the Stream,” a triple platinum-selling duet Ms. Parton recorded with Kenny Rogers, topped both the country and pop charts in 1983. (The song was written by Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees.)

Stylistically, Ms. Parton’s music ran the gamut: mountain bluegrass and soul-inflected countrypolitan, disco-era pop and covers of classic rock touchstones written by Neil Young and Led Zeppelin — all of it rendered indelible by her irrepressible spirit and alternately keening and gossamer soprano drawl.

She wrote unabashedly, in simple Southern vernacular, about growing up as the daughter of an illiterate sharecropper.

“I’ve seen Daddy’s hands break open and bleed / And I’ve seen him work ’til he’s stiff as a board,” she sang over wistful harmonica and acoustic guitar in “In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).” “I’ve seen Mama layin’ in sufferin’ and sickness / In need of a doctor we couldn’t afford. / Anything at all was more than we had / In the good old days when times were bad.”

In “Coat of Many Colors,” maybe her most beloved original, Ms. Parton plumbed childhood feelings of pride and humiliation. In this case, the coat in question — quilted from rags and originally a source of delight and the expression of a mother’s love — becomes an object of ridicule when Dolly’s classmates poke fun at her for wearing it to school.

So with patches on my britches

And holes in both my shoes,

In my coat of many colors

I hurried off to school

Just to find the others laughing

And making fun of me

In my coat of many colors

My Mama made for me

“That little song is like a world of things,” Ms. Parton said of “Coat of Many Colors” in “Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics” (2020), written with Robert K. Oermann. “It teaches about bullying, about love, about acceptance, about good parents. That little story has even been written into a schoolbook to teach children about being different.”

Empathy was a hallmark of Ms. Parton’s songwriting, perhaps nowhere so much as in “Down From Dover” and “Daddy Come Get Me,” harrowing Southern gothic ballads about teen pregnancy and how patriarchy blames and victimizes young women.

Assertive women populated Ms. Parton’s songs, whether through her proto-feminist rewrite of Jimmie Rodgers’s “Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8)” or by advocating parity in the bedroom (“Touch Your Woman”) and in the workplace (“9 to 5”).

“It’s a rich man’s game / No matter what they call it / And you spend your life / Putting money in his wallet,” Ms. Parton sang, with a mixture of fury and resolve, in the 1980 pink-collar comedy “9 to 5.” Besides writing and performing the movie’s theme song, a No. 1 pop and country hit, she also starred in the film as a beleaguered secretary drudging for a sexist boss, alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.


Ms. Parton would go on to star in other films, among them “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982), with Burt Reynolds; “Steel Magnolias” (1989), with Julia Roberts and Shirley MacLaine; and “Straight Talk” (1992), with James Woods.

In 1976, she became the first woman in country music to host her own syndicated TV series; a decade later, she had an hourlong variety show on ABC. But for all her reach and command as an entertainer — including her ubiquitous appearances on TV talk shows and specials — Ms. Parton viewed herself, first and foremost, as a songwriter.

“Writing’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast,” she told The Times in 2002. “I ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder. I write every day, even when I’m on a plane, in the tub or on the bus. It burns in me.”

She continued: “Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out. Not everything I write is good, but it’s all good for me — like therapy.”

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on Jan. 19, 1946, the fourth of 12 children of Robert Lee and Avie Lee (Owens) Parton, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Sevier County, Tenn. Her father was a tenant farmer, and her mother was a homemaker who sang old Anglo-Celtic ballads and hymns while doing housework.

The Partons were so poor that Dolly’s father had to pay the doctor who attended her birth with a sack of cornmeal. Ms. Parton may have grown up without plumbing, heat, electricity and other modern conveniences, but she always insisted that she also grew up happy, and that music offered her a refuge from want.

“Most of us in the household learned to play early on,” she said in “Dolly Parton, Songteller.” “Every time anybody showed up, any uncle or aunt who knew how to play an instrument, I’d have them show me how to play a little bit on the banjo, the guitar, the autoharp or whatever instrument was around.”

When she was 5 or so, she wrote her first song, a ditty about a corncob doll with corn-silk hair called “Little Tiny Tasseltop.” She started singing on radio and on TV at 10, on the “Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour” in Knoxville, securing bookings with the help of her uncle Bill Owens, who also bought her her first guitar. The two would go on to write many songs together.

Ms. Parton made her recording debut in 1959, the same year she made her first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry. In 1962, she signed a songwriting deal with Tree International Publishing (now part of Sony Music Publishing). Two years later, she became the first person in her family to graduate from high school.

In 1966, Ms. Parton married Carl Dean, an asphalt contractor who shunned the limelight. The couple had met two years earlier, at a laundromat in Nashville, when Ms. Parton was 18. Mr. Dean died in 2025.

Ms. Parton is survived by six of her siblings: Willadeene Parton, Robert Lee Parton Jr., Stella Parton, Cassie Parton, Freida Parton and Rachel Ann Parton George.

n 1965, Ms. Parton signed a recording contract with Monument Records, not long before she and her uncle wrote two Top 10 country songs for the singer Bill Phillips. She released the first of her roughly 90 Top 40 country hits — “Dumb Blonde,” a plucky denunciation of female stereotypes — in 1966.

In 1967, she began her seven-year tenure with “The Porter Wagoner Show.” She and Mr. Wagoner would go on to release 21 hit duets together, including “Holding On to Nothin’” (1968) and “Just Someone I Used to Know” (1969).

But with the arrival of the 1970s — and in no small part because of the national exposure she received on Mr. Wagoner’s show — Ms. Parton started to eclipse her employer in popularity.

The tension that resulted was further aggravated when she began steadily producing No. 1 country singles like “Joshua” and “Jolene.” Ms. Parton parted ways with Mr. Wagoner in 1974 to concentrate on her solo career, but not before writing “I Will Always Love You” as an expression of gratitude and farewell.

The separation initially proved difficult for Ms. Parton, both emotionally and financially, but it also opened doors to new opportunities like the chance to host her own TV show. She was named female artist of the year by the Country Music Association in each of the first two years (1975 and 1976) after her break with Mr. Wagoner.

Embracing a more pop approach than she had earlier in her career, Ms. Parton continued her ascendance on the charts in the late ’70s with blockbuster hits like “Here You Come Again” and “Heartbreaker.” Both were No. 1 country singles that crossed over to the pop Top 40. The Country Music Association awarded her its top honor, entertainer of the year, in 1978.

After her 1980 recording of “9 to 5” earned her two Grammy Awards and an Oscar nomination, Ms. Parton turned her attention to movies, TV appearances and the development, in the mid-1980s, of Dollywood, her Smoky Mountain theme park, among other business ventures.

In 1987, she released the first of her two albums with Ms. Ronstadt and Ms. Harris, the platinum-selling “Trio.” She hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1989 and teamed up with Ms. Lynn and Ms. Wynette to record the album “Honky Tonk Angels” in 1993.

She published her memoir, “Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business,” a New York Times best seller, in 1994. The next year, she established the Imagination Library, a philanthropic endeavor through which more than 200 million books have been distributed to babies and young children. A show about her life, “Dolly: A True Original Musical,” is scheduled to open on Broadway in early 2027.

Endowed with a surfeit of creativity and an unflagging work ethic, Ms. Parton admitted in interviews to sleeping as few as three hours a night. She was nominated for more than 50 Grammy Awards, 10 of which she won, along with being recognized for lifetime achievement by the Recording Academy in 2011.

Ms. Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2005. In 2022, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

But perhaps even more remarkable than the profusion of accolades and awards was Ms. Parton’s unstinting generosity of spirit — her commitment, born of deep religious convictions and an immense heart, to seeing the humanity in all people.

Ms. Parton not only sang the traditional Southern gospel music her mother taught her; she also wrote and sang “Travelin’ Thru,” an Oscar-nominated song from “Transamerica,” the 2005 movie about a transgender woman seeking to connect with her son. In 2017, Ms. Parton collaborated with Miley Cyrus, her goddaughter, to record “Rainbowland,” a tribute to gay pride and liberation.

“You have to accept everything and everybody,” she said in “Songteller,” talking about the lessons to be learned about open-mindedness and inclusion from “Coat of Many Colors.”

Time and again in her career, Ms. Parton reflected on her impoverished upbringing and how she followed her dreams to escape it. “I wanted to be free,” she told Rolling Stone in 1977. “I had my songs to sing, I had an ambition, and it burned inside me.”

She added: “It was something I knew would take me out of the mountains. I knew I could see worlds beyond the Smoky Mountains.”

Frijoles Fire grows to over 15,000 acres

Firefighters made ‘good progress’ strengthening containment lines, according to U.S. Forest Service

BY GREGORY R.C. HASMAN JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 24, 2026

The Frijoles Fire is approaching 50% containment as it nears its third week in northern New Mexico.

Firefighters have made “good progress” strengthening containment lines and building depth of up to 200 feet in the western portion of the fire. As of Sunday morning, the 15,220-acre fire’s containment was at 45%, up 3% from Saturday evening, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The fire, which began on Aug. 4 and is believed to have been caused by lightning, is the third largest one reported in the state this year, behind only the Seven Cabins Fire, 31,870 acres, and Line Fire, 30,144, according to NM Fire Info.

The California Complex Interagency Incident Management Team 8 has been given permission to start building contingency lines north of the fire in the Carson National Forest. To the northeast, the Navajo and Gila hotshots will evaluate where to engage “to more accurately extinguish isolated pockets,” according to the forest service.

Firefighters are expected to face warm and dry conditions with highs in the 80s and daily 20% chances of afternoon thunderstorms through Tuesday. Those odds increase to 50% on Wednesday, said Matt DeMaria, National Weather Service of Albuquerque meteorologist.

The hot weather will cause trees and shrubs to dry up faster, “which could potentially make the fire more active,” he said.

But, DeMaria added, Crews will have several days “between now and then to prepare.”

As of Sunday, total personnel on the fire was 981.

A community meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at the Truchas Community Center, 60 County Road 75.

In Santa Fe County, all of Cundiyo, Cerro Piñon and the Borrego Mesa area — specifically near forest roads 440 and 306 — are in “Set” status while Nambé Pueblo Lake remains in “Ready” status. While in Rio Arriba County, Cordova is in “Ready” status.

Missile silo (yes, a missile silo) to host Roswell festival

Three-day November event at Cold War relic will feature food, music, science, paranormal programming — and maybe some aliens

BY LOGAN ROYCE BEITMEN / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 24, 2026

If 1969’s Woodstock festival promised three days of peace and music, a new three-day festival coming to Roswell this November promises peace, music, science, technology and possibly aliens.

Held at a decommissioned nuclear missile silo in an undisclosed location near Roswell, Atomika Festival will feature musical performances by Grammy- winning hip-hop producer Flying Lotus and electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani, as well as talks by Harvard University extraterrestrial researcher Avi Loeb and the hosts of “Last Podcast on the Left,” a paranormal comedy program, among others. For the full lineup, and to purchase tickets, visit atomikafest. com.

“The best way to describe Atomika Fest is ‘a classified interstellar transmission from the desert,’” festival organizer Nik Halik said. “… We’re merging space science, immersive art, electronic music and speculative dialogue at a retrofitted Cold War missile silo.”

The ultra-exclusive festival is limited to 1,000 participants. Tickets start at $545, with additional fees for on-site camping and accommodations ranging from $615 to $9,545.

Halik, an Australian-born venture capitalist, has long been fascinated by outer space.

“At age 4, I proclaimed to my parents that I wanted to become an astronaut, and my father was a communist, interestingly enough. I asked for a poster of Neil Armstrong to grace my bedroom wall. Instead, he gave me a poster of Yuri Gagarin, the first Soviet cosmonaut to represent humanity and basically view the earth (from outer space),” Halik said.

Halik had a full-circle moment in 2007, when he was selected as a civilian cosmonaut. He trained at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, and served as the official backup for the Soyuz TMA-13 mission to the International Space Station.

Halik envisions Atomika as a way to move past Cold War-era political divisions, offering a more harmonious vision for humanity’s future.

“All I really want to do is provide a wide canvas for a complex that was built for weapons of mass destruction, converting it to a calibrated constellation for forward-thinking creators, scientists, artists and musicians,” Halik said. “It’s now being designed as a deliberate poetic act of changing the polarity of the architecture. … We all come together in Roswell … (which) for a weekend, becomes the center of everything.”

As the lights and music of the festival fade away each night, Halik imagines participants gazing up at the stars together.

“Across an expansive desert landscape … the stars will shine with a rare brilliance in one of the darkest locations,” Halik said. “It’s really a dreamlike setting.”

New legal challenges target Project Jupiter construction

Petitions target construction water well, allege bias in air permit process

BY ALGERNON D’AMMASSA  / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 23, 2026

The state Supreme Court received another petition Thursday, the second over two days, related to the rapid construction of a 1,400-acre AI data center in Santa Teresa.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed an emergency petition challenging the Office of the State Engineer’s approval of a well supplying groundwater for the data center’s construction. Based on meter readings, the petition alleges over 100 million gallons of water have been pumped from the new well since April.

Known as Project Jupiter, the controversial project began its construction phase in September for use by Oracle and OpenAI.

On Oct. 21, 2025, petitioner Santa Teresa Capital of El Paso applied for a change to an existing water right, plus an emergency authorization to drill a replacement well next to a historic well associated with a sod farm close to the Project Jupiter location. The historic water right allows up to 2,400 acre-feet per year.

OSE granted the emergency authorization two days later but, after 10 months, has yet to hold a hearing, despite a formal protest filed in January by the center.

The petition argues that the use of an emergency authorization to expedite Project Jupiter’s construction violates New Mexico water law. The center is asking the court to declare OSE’s emergency authorization unlawful, temporarily halt the activity and schedule a legally mandated hearing to determine whether the new well and water use are in the public interest.

“New Mexico water law sets clear and strict obligations that the state engineer has to follow when considering any changes in well location or water use,” Colin Cox, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity based in New Mexico, stated in a news release. “These include informing community members of the proposed changes and requiring the state to hold a public hearing. These are critical due process protections that have been cast aside for Project Jupiter.”

The OSE declined to comment on the petition.

Hearing examiner challenged

Also Thursday, the Center for Biological Diversity joined the New Mexico Environmental Law Center in filing a petition with the state Environment Department seeking to remove the hearing examiner presiding over an upcoming public hearing about air quality permits sought by Yucca Growth Infrastructure.

The petition seeks approval for the data center’s plan for methane- fueled fuel cell technology to supply power to the data center, with greenhouse gas emissions estimated between 8.8 and over 10 million tons per year.

The deadline for NMED’s decision is Nov. 23.

The potential pollution has roiled residents of Santa Teresa and Sunland Park, where memories are still fresh of health impacts from the former ASARCO smelter in neighboring El Paso.

The state Environment Department is set to open a public hearing in Santa Teresa on Sept. 14.

On Wednesday, clean energy advocate New Energy Economy filed an emergency writ with the state Supreme Court seeking a temporary stay, arguing that a series of orders by hearing examiner Max Shepherd have deprived opponents of due process.

Yucca Growth Infrastructure decried the New Energy Economy’s petition as “an attempt to circumvent the procedural deadlines of NMED’s air permit process” and said it was “committed to following the schedule the department has provided.”

The center and the Environmental Law Center’s new petition seeks to disqualify Shepherd as hearing examiner and pause the hearing until a new examiner is in place and procedures ensuring due process are established.

Shepherd did not respond to a query from the Journal.

The petition argues that Shepherd’s alleged “fast-tracking of this proceeding, arbitrary and inconsistent rulings, frequent reversals and consistent favoritism towards the (Environment) Department and (Yucca Growth Infrastructure) demonstrates that he is not conducting a fair and impartial proceeding and he is not providing all parties the opportunity to develop the record.”

Opponents of the project have argued that the September hearing, as well as the prehearing schedule, offered insufficient time for expert witnesses to review technical evidence and prepare testimony.

The petition cites a February 2025 memorandum of understanding between the state of New Mexico and Project Jupiter’s initial developer, BorderPlex Digital Assets stating that the NMED, as a state agency, “desires the development and construction” of what was referred to at the time as a “digital infrastructure campus,” with no mention of Oracle or OpenAI’s involvement.

In light of that commitment, NMELC senior staff attorney Maslyn Locke said, “It’s not clear to me how we could ever get a fair hearing on this application.”

In a comment for the Journal, Locke continued, “Our hope is that, by clearly laying out Mr. Shepherd’s pattern, the Department will finally understand the significant due process violations that have resulted from this process. The people of Sunland Park deserve better than the Department’s rubber stamp on the largest proposed polluter in the state.”

NMED spokesperson Drew Goretzka said the department is “requesting that the hearing officer convene a status conference with all parties to determine appropriate next steps.”

“(Neither) the Environment Secretary nor NMED staff set the hearing schedule,” Goretzka wrote to the Journal. “Hearing dates, filing deadlines and other procedural decisions outside of regulatory decision deadlines are made by the independent hearing officer.”

Goretzka said the decision to remove Shepherd or not falls to Deputy Secretary John Rhoderick, “with whom NMED staff are not permitted to discuss Project Jupiter matters.”

Lawmaker caught with pants down in Chicago

Records, eyewitnesses describe a late-night disturbance involving public nudity, banging on doors and police escort off hotel property

BY JOHN MILLER / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

August 23, 2026

When first asked about an encounter he had with security and law enforcement at a Chicago hotel last month, New Mexico House Rep. Joseph Hernandez issued a two-sentence statement, alluding to “a negative interaction” that he said ended quickly, with him finding new accommodations in the city.

But an incident report the Chicago Police Department recently released to the Journal indicates that what happened the morning of July 29, when the representative left the Holiday Inn at Wolf Point, was neither unremarkable nor brief.

The heavily redacted document summarizes a roughly two-hour incident that began at 2:30 a.m. on the high-rise’s 17th floor, where the representative was staying.

That’s when someone contacted emergency services about a man “running around naked” and “banging and knocking on other guests’ doors.”

While the individual’s name is redacted from the report, descriptors of the 38-year-old suspect appear to match Hernandez, and two eyewitnesses independently attested they are certain the man suspected in the disturbance is the Shiprock Democrat running for reelection this year.

According to a travel log the Journal obtained last month, Hernandez checked into room 1745 on the 17th floor under a government discount code on July 26 and checked out the morning of July 29, the day of the incident.

Two Chicago police officers responded to the complaint of the naked man causing a disturbance around 2:44 a.m., finding him by then “fully clothed” and standing by security, according to the incident summary.

They described him as 5-foot-6, 280 pounds, with short black hair and a light-brown complexion, birth date of 1987.

Officers indicated that the suspect had pulled up photos of himself on his phone, “demanding (responding officers) to know who he is …” and insisting he be allowed to return to his room.

A hotel staff member evidently nixed that idea, informing officers that the man’s reservation had been “cancelled due to (his) behavior and breaking hotel rules.”

Police say they accompanied the man to his room to collect his belongings and then escorted him out of the hotel, explaining that he had been “formally trespassed from the property.” They waited as he ordered transportation from a ride share service that took him to another hotel.

Rep stays silent

The short statement Hernandez provided to the Journal last month about the premature end to his stay at the hotel follows a similar sequence, though the representative has declined multiple requests for comment to explain why the incident escalated to include police or led him to leave the property.

“During my recent stay in Chicago, I had a negative experience with a hotel security guard that resulted in a visit from Chicago Police,” Hernandez said in the statement. “The situation was resolved quickly as I relocated to a new hotel, where I stayed for the remainder of my trip.”

Legislators from around the country traveled to Chicago for the National Conference of State Legislatures summit the week Hernandez was there, but the organization would not release a list of attendees and the representative had also not filed any travel receipts related to the trip as of Aug. 14, according to the Legislative Council Service.

Asked about the incident when reached on his cellphone July 31, Hernandez said little, making reference to “a security guard” and then claiming he was losing the signal, despite no interference with the phone call.

He said he would be available for a call later that afternoon, but never answered his phone again and did not respond to requests for comment last week.

Legislative spokesperson Pamela Armstrong told the Journal this month that House leadership has advised her that all questions on the matter should flow through her, but she also did not provide a response to requests for comment for this story.

Eyewitness accounts

The two eyewitnesses, who live in Chicago and spoke to the Journal on the condition of anonymity to protect their employment, said hotel staff and security searched the man’s name from the incident online and were stunned when their inquiry led them to a photo of Hernandez on the New Mexico Legislature website.

When the Journal sent the witnesses another photo of Hernandez and asked them to rank their level of certainty on a scale of 1-10 that the man accused of causing the disturbance and the representative are one and the same, they didn’t equivocate.

One witness said, “10,” and the other responded, “If not an 11.”

The allegations made in the police report were evidence- based, they claim, both stating that other hotel guests, including a female, were alarmed to find the representative naked and banging on their doors in the wee hours of July 29.

One of the witnesses said they were involved in the response to the incident directly and claimed Hernandez “pushed” them near an elevator as they attempted to get him back to his room.

Once police arrived, however, the witness said Hernandez had put his clothes back on and accused security and the hotel of racial bias.

The other witness said cameras were likely operating in the elevator where the alleged altercation occurred, but it’s unclear how closely the responding officers examined the events described in the original complaint.

The call relayed by the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications classified the original dispatch notice as a “sex offense call,” but the Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting code on the report was “criminal trespass.”

Police do not appear to have filed any charges tied to what happened, and Hernandez is not listed anywhere in Chicago First Municipal District court records.

The police report also doesn’t indicate whether officers interviewed any other guests, sought surveillance footage for review or otherwise investigated the potentially criminal allegations, such as breach of peace or disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors in Illinois.

On a separate evening during Hernandez’s stay, the witnesses said security was called after the representative “passed out” with his shoes off on a couch in the lobby of the hotel, which sits at the confluence of the north, south and main branches of the Chicago River and shares space with the higher-floor Hotel Voco.

As of Saturday, the Chicago Emergency Communication Center had not provided records of any other police responses to the hotel on July 29.

Ethical standards, upcoming election

Reached by phone earlier this month, Democratic House Speaker Javier Martínez said he planned to ask Hernandez about the incident directly, but could not speak to whether an official ethics investigation had been or would be opened.

Outside of the regular 30-day session, the House speaker said any ethics complaints are filed with the New Mexico Interim Legislative Ethics Committee, which former director, Raul Burciaga, currently leads in a contract role.

Similar to most states, ethics complaints against House and Senate officials in New Mexico remain confidential unless they result in a public hearing, the final stage in the disciplinary process, so it remains unclear whether any official complaints have been filed against Hernandez.

“If a complaint has been filed, there is a process whereby leadership gets together and determines whether or not it should move forward for an investigation,” Burciaga explained. “If it goes to an investigation, the investigation is conducted confidentially, so there’s still no release of that information, and it is up to the investigative subcommittee to determine whether or not there is probable cause to move forward.”

The 38-year-old Navajo Nation member from Pueblo, Colorado, moved to the Four Corners when he was young and won this year’s Democratic primary.

Hernandez took office in 2025 after defeating Republican candidate Lincoln Mark for the District 4 seat, which was vacated after former Rep. Anthony Allison, D-Fruitland, retired.

Hernandez has been a vocal advocate for clean energy alternatives in the oil-and-gas-dominated district. The longtime community organizer is one of the youngest New Mexicans to represent District 4, which encompasses Sandoval County, parts of Farmington and a significant swath of Navajo Nation in the Four Corners.

In November, he will face Republican challenger Heather Ellison, an educator and fellow Navajo, who in a statement on Aug. 6 urged Hernandez to explain what happened in Chicago.

“Legislators are held to a certain ethical standard, and they have a responsibility to be transparent, especially when spending taxpayer dollars,” Ellison said. “This incident is certainly concerning, and I call upon Representative Hernandez to tell the truth and take accountability for what happened.”

Protesters ‘shame’ New Mexico public officials over data center

By Nicholas Gilmore ngilmore@sfnewmexican.com for The Santa Fe New Mexican

August 21, 2026

Dozens of people gathered outside a state government building around midday Friday to protest the huge Project Jupiter data center under construction near Santa Teresa in far Southern New Mexico.

At least 100 people — with signs, banners and a few costumes — joined the demonstration at a Santa Fe complex that houses the New Mexico Environment Department, where a permitting process for the hyperscale data center is under way.

Some sang the tune of Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World,” but changed the chorus to “No Jupiter.”

The protest highlighted popular frustrations with data center development that have bubbled up in New Mexico and across the country as many question the water use and staggering energy demands of planned projects.

Sunland Park resident Irene Rodriguez made the trek to the state capital to express her opposition to Project Jupiter, which is going up several miles from her home. She encouraged attendees to keep fighting and do “whatever it takes to take them out.”

“They’re only there for billionaires,” Rodriguez said of the project. “They’re just going to make a lot of money for them, and for us, nothing.”

Jonathan Juárez, an organizer from the group Youth United for Climate Crisis Action, or YUCCA, said opposition to projects like Jupiter — which developers plan to power with natural gas — has grown as members of the public see the fossil fuel-reliant developments negotiated behind closed doors, then fast-tracked for government approvals.

“There has never been the transparency that the public deserves for this, being what would become the most polluting facility in the state,” Juárez said. “It’s not receiving nearly the amount of scrutiny it deserves.”

Juárez noted the project has ignited opposition from residents across the state and has drawn thousands of public comments to the Environment Department urging officials to reject the permit.

Meanwhile, Project Jupiter developers have launched an aggressive campaign aiming to rouse support with television ads, mailers and canvassers. Developers have pointed to commitments for funding local water infrastructure and education investments and promised new jobs on the site.

The focal point of the protest was a skit alleging a “web of corruption” among Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who supports the project, her appointees and other public officials and attorneys who, protesters argued, have paved the way for Project Jupiter.

One of those lampooned was Max Shepherd, who has flip-flopped on several decisions while presiding over the Environment Department proceeding, which is expected to result in a decision regarding a proposed air quality permit for the facility.

“My name is Max Shepherd, and I am the hearing officer overseeing Project Jupiter’s air permit,” said a man wearing a cardboard cutout of the hearing officer’s face. “Y’all know who I am, right? Y’all remember voting for me? Well, if there’s one thing that I like to do, it’s change my mind.”

The hearing officer initially set a date for a public hearing to take place in October. Then, after attorneys for the developer argued for an accelerated timeline, Shepherd moved the hearing up more than a month, to September. The reversal came just days after officials from information technology company Oracle, Project Jupiter’s primary tenant, met with Lujan Grisham, records from the Governor’s Office showed.

The governor has denied that she has made any attempts to influence the outcome of the permitting proceeding, saying through a spokesperson she took the meeting with Oracle to “stay informed” on the project.

Some environmental advocates who are taking part in the proceeding cried foul, however, decrying what they see as a lack of due process in the regulatory proceeding.

“I’ve changed my mind three times — each time, Project Jupiter’s path gets easier,” the protester-performer said. “The public gets less time; the experts get less information, and the process just keeps on rolling.”

Other protesters portrayed Environment Secretary James Kenney, State Engineer Elizabeth Anderson and attorneys Jennifer Bradfute and Marcus Rael, reciting monologues about their roles in the process.

Demonstrators booed and yelled “shame!” in response.

The performance was meant to illustrate the planned hyperscaler data center is not the result of “one permit, one agency or one bad decision,” said Zephyr Jaramillo, another organizer from YUCCA, but “a series of decisions being made across our government that will determine what will happen to our air, our water, our land, our communities and our children for the next several generations.”

“We leave here with a clear message,” she said. “We are paying attention. We are asking questions. We are connecting the dots, and we are not going away.”

As Russian missiles rain down on Kyiv, casualties mount and the mood darkens

Ukraine’s military has run out of US Patriot interceptors to repel ballistic attacks, which have one aim, the capital’s mayor says: to destroy morale

By Dan Sabbagh in Kyiv for The Guardian

August 22, 2026

Viktor, 23, Sofiia, 18, and their dog, Teddy, were bedding down for the night on Thursday at the Dorohozhychi metro station three stops from Kyiv’s city centre. The couple have sheltered here “every night for the past three weeks”, Viktor said, as the missile threat to the city worsened; the dog, only three months old, has been with them a fortnight. Teddy lies quietly, knowing no different a life.

The atmosphere in the Ukrainian capital has shifted in the past couple of months as the war has returned more sharply to the home front. Russian high-speed ballistic missiles are routinely targeting the city and Ukraine’s military have run out of the interceptors from the only weapon system that can stop them, US-made Patriots. The anxiety that hangs over the wartime city has intensified.

“Before, if you heard an air-raid warning you still had time to pack your stuff and get to the shelter. Now you have a warning and then in 30 seconds you have explosions, so you have no time,” Sofiia said. A night earlier, a wave of missiles targeted the city within minutes of the first warning, at 11.51pm. Sixteen people were reported killed after the missiles struck locations including residential blocks in the suburbs. Warnings of drone attacks followed for several more hours, fraying nerves after the opening hits.

City dwellers had been fearing a big attack on Wednesday night. It had been a few days since the last one – and there were also reports that Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers were flying to the war zone. They launch cruise missiles, but their presence in the air heralds a wider missile and drone attack. The lower hall at Dorohozhychi metro was packed by 10pm that night, Viktor said, with tents or people lying on ground sheets, almost no space left for the couple as they arrived.

Earlier on Thursday, in the morning, the grim aftermath of the missile strikes on residential areaswas clearly visible. Two missiles struck the Solomianskyi district west of the centre, one shearing off the top floor of a 10-storey apartment block, killing two people, the second crashing into a disused building in the centre of a car park, reducing it to a scatter of rubble, while local people tried to see if there was any hope for their cars – the ones that were not completely burnt out.

The rear end of Vitalii’s car was smashed in by the blast, and it appears to be a write-off. The 42-year-old said he works for an insurance company, yet admitted he had not insured his own vehicle. After a while, however, the car started, remarkably, its engine having faced away from the blast. At first the impact of the overnight attack may be financial, but Vitalii said its real effect will be psychological. “We are alive, our arms and legs whole. We will go on. But now it will be more scary.”

Kyiv’s mayor, the former champion heavyweight Vitali Klitschko, arrived on the scene. “These attacks on the city have one aim – to drive people into depression,” he said. He is pressed about how many new bomb shelters the city has built, which might avoid people having to sleep in metro stations that reopen at 6am. He could offer no figure to one questioner.

Ukraine’s military no longer announces how many ballistics come in because it cannot stop them, though hits can easily heard from bedrooms right across the capital. In July, the last full month for which figures are available, 437 civilians were killed across Ukraine and 2,610 injured according to UN figures – the highest number recorded killed since May 2022.

Though it is August and the daily temperatures are frequently in the 30s, much of the talk is about the winter to come, when people expect to lose central heating and electricity as so many homes did last year when apartment temperatures in the worst-affected districts dropped to 4-5C. Kyiv’s infrastructure appears defenceless and those who can have long bought generators, batteries, electric radiators and anything else for emergency heating, but worries linger.

“We are prepared to cope without electricity and without central heating – we did our homework, prepared the apartment and lasted last dreadful winter,” said Maria Hlazunova, who lives in the centre of the city. “But water … I’m afraid of lacking the opportunity to wash hands and food properly. Not to mention the toilet,” which she acknowledges is a particular source of anxiety. Residents know the city has only one wastewater treatment site, at Bortnychi. It has not yet been hit.

Ukraine has defended itself by stepping up its attacks on Russia, long-range targeting first of the country’s oil refineries, leading to queues at petrol stations, and more recently by targeting warehouses, e-commerce sites that Kyiv says are also used by the military for logistics. It has been effective, though Russia has responded in kind – bombing and destroying warehouses just outside Kyiv, the medium-term economic consequences from the destruction uncertain.

Early on Thursday, a food distribution warehouse near Ukraine’s unused Boryspil commercial airport was completely destroyed by a missile attack. The fire spread because a succession of drone warnings – Shaheds were flying above – meant that emergency workers could not safely attend at first. When the Guardian visited in the afternoon, parts of the burnt-out site were still smouldering, and there were a handful of employees who recognised their jobs had disappeared in the wreckage.

Viktoriia Ruban, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s state emergency services in Kyiv region, the area just outside the city, described a change in Russian military tactics. “Previously, the Russians would strike the Kyiv region at night. Now it’s three or four hours, then a strike; another three or four hours, then another strike. Whether it’s morning or daytime – it makes no difference now,” she said, and the observation applies also to the capital city where daytime alerts have become more common.

Iryna Chechotkina, the co-founder of Rozetka, Ukraine’s most successful e-commerce distributor, showed a few journalists around the ruins of what was her company’s largest distribution hub near Brovary, north-east of Kyiv. It was a modern automated facility, built for $70m, capable of sending 100,000 parcels a day, and employing 1,000. But it was totally destroyed by three missiles on the night of August 4-5, the inferno so great that in places only bent-over cranes can be made out.

It was a clearly difficult visit for the businesswoman, amid worries that more of the company’s warehouses could be struck, affecting Rozetka and the 50,000 vendors who rely on its service. But the wider military reality is fragile.

“How can a country defend itself against ballistic threats if we have nothing with which to shoot them down?” she asked. “It’s very hard for me; I’m a mother of four and I’ve sacrificed time with them to build this place. It’s my life’s work.” Breaking into English, she added: “This is not easy.”