Reno, Nevada, has been named the happiest place to live in America, chosen as an reformative and affordable ‘modern boomtown’ with fair weather and creative outlets year round.

The city was chosen by Outside, based on factors including overall well-being, public land and affordability, and climate change and inclusivity. 

Millions of surveys were scoured to assess the best urban areas in the US for well-being, before the researchers looked at house and rental prices and general walkability.

Reno was ultimately judged the best in class, undertaking massive transformations to become more inclusive and accessible, attracting major companies like Amazon and Tesla without losing sight of its local arts and crafts culture.

Reno placed above Wilmington, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Charlottesville, Hood River, Minneapolis, Glenwood Springs, Harrisburg and Plano to clinch the top spot among regions with a population between 5,000 and 500,000.

Reno, Nevada

Population: 273,448

Median house price: $550,000

Percentage parkland: 5%

Outside described Reno as a ‘modern boomtown’, bustling with green, open spaces, climbing gyms and a summer arts festival as part of a local revival. 

The outlet noted ‘ample public land and mountain vibe’ in its decision to award the city the top spot in the rankings.

With a new bike trail attracting cyclists, and nearby Lake Tahoe welcoming in skiers, the city has enough adventure for locals and tourists year-round, making it a go-to destination inclusive of all.

Wilmington, Delaware

Population: 71,569

Median house price: $255,000

Percentage parkland: 6.8%

Well-connected Wilmington neighbors Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore and Washington D.C., offering walkability and community to residents.

Delaware’s largest city is built at the meeting point of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, and has had its riverfront revitalized in recent years.

Wilmington boasts nearly 70 parks, including the 178-acre Brandywine Park and the Alapocas Run, a 415-acre space filled with hiking and biking trails.

Outside reports that the city has an inclusive local culture, with LGBTQ+ community leader Dinea Elliott Collins saying: ‘When I travel to other parts of the country, I realize how safe and comfortable I feel in Wilmington.’ 

New Orleans, Louisiana 

Population: 369,749

Median house price: $360,000

Percentage parkland: 23%

Some 80 per cent of residents in New Orleans live within a ten-minute walk of a park, making the city one of the most attractive for residents who enjoy outdoor spaces.

Culturally, the city has many attractions bringing visitors each year – from the colonial-era French Quarter to St Charles Avenue and Magazine Street’s rows of antique shops.

New Orleans remains one of the country’s most-visited cities for its deep and complex history, preserving its past in a number of significant museums.

In 2016, the city was also ranked the best in the US for live music, cocktail hour and cheap eats – but last for safety.

Outside references the city’s culture and cuisine, friendliness towards LQBTQ+ people and ‘underrated’ green spaces in awarding it third place. 

Cincinnati, Ohio   

Population: 309,513

Median house price: $272,750

Percentage parkland: 17 per cent

In the late 1800s, Cincy was dubbed the ‘Paris of America’, due to ambitious architectural projects that still line the streets of its urban center.

Developed as a river town for shipping, the city remains an industralized hub with a large economy attractive to large employers and a quaint market pavilion for merchants to sell local produce.

It also remains one of the greenest, with 88 per cent of residents living ten-minutes from a park – and a temperate climate ensuring beautiful year-round vistas to be found in the city’s 365 parks and recreation areas.

Benefitting from large-scale immigration from Germany in the 1840s, the city also benefits from a rich brewing tradition and has more than 80 organizations still making local beer – surely pushing it up the rankings for happiest places to live.

Charlottesville, Virginia

Population: 45,373

Median house price: $456,000

Percentage parkland: 10 per cent

The independent city of Charlottesville is much smaller than most of its competitors but boasts the same balance of work opportunities and scenic getaways shared by the country’s happiest.

Outside notes the city’s local University of Virginia has given Charlottesville a ‘vibrant startup culture’, with high rates of graduates and low unemployment. 

The city’s commercial district, The Corner, also provides Charlottesville with a number of college bars and restaurants, as well as a considerable nightlife scene.

Around the city, a 20-mile trail offers hikers and bikers a picturesque loop lined with places beautiful riverside spaces, and a number of breweries are ‘scattered throughout the surrounding countryside’, according to Outside.

Hood River, Oregon

Population: 8,352

Median house price: $656,750

Percentage parkland: 4

The small town of Hood River is noted for its rich outdoors activities, leading with a ‘vast network’ of trails and spaces to surf the Columbia River.

The town is only an hour east of Portland and remains connected to local hubs, but retains an independent presence and rich local food scene helped by its rural farms. 

While rents are a little higher than in other happy cities, Hood River has taken steps to build new developments for residents on lower incomes.

The city is also taking strides towards reflecting ambitions of racial and social equity in policymaking.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Population: 425,096

Median house price: $340,000

Percentage parkland: 15 per cent

Minneapolis scored 97 on Outside’s ranking for cyclists, and was this year voted number one in People for Bikes’ annual large-city ratings. 

With 180 parks, the city offers residents lush scenery joined together by an expansive network of cycle paths and trails.

The city is also noted for its investment into low-income neighborhoods and its ‘excellent’ hospitals.

Outside notes that the murder of George Floyd in 2020 ‘revealed serious problems with law enforcement’ in the city.

The police department has reportedly undergone a number of reforms in the years since.

Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Population: 10,264

Median house price: $726,720

Percentage parkland: 2

The resort city of Glenwood Springs placed eighth on Outside’s list of the top 15 happiest places to live in the US, credited for its hot springs and easy access to outdoor sports activities.

The town is situated in the Rocky Mountains at the meeting point of the Roaring Fork River and the Colorado River, creating stunning vistas. 

Since the 1980s, coordinated investment has transformed the town’s geography to better accommodate hikers and cyclists, building modern trails and reducing congestion in the center.

The region’s newfound popularity has, however, pushed up housing costs – which officials are looking to tackle with new affordable housing projects. 

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Population: 50,183

Median house price: $176,000

Percentage parkland: 8

The Pennsylvania capital has long been a desirable destination for young families with affordable housing and vibrant cultural outlets.

In 2010, the city was ranked the second best place in the country to raise a family, after Des Moines, Iowa.

Since then, Harrisburg has attracted steady growth in the number of bars, concerts and events – in turn building a significant music and entertainment scene in recent years.

Again, the city benefits from local mountains, cycling trails and spaces to kayak for those keen on soaking up the local environment. 

Plano, Texas

Population: 289,547

Median house price: $540,000

Percentage parkland: 3

Plano, Texas, ranked tenth in Outside’s list of the happiest places to live in the US.

The city is one of the larger nominations, the 72nd most populous city in the country, and remains one of the fastest growing.

Steadily, Plano has attracted grown into a significant business hub and the headquarters of many major corporations.

Still, the city itself enjoys 85 parks and public pools – and preserves access to two nature preserves around the town, spanning some 1,000+ acres in total.

Plano now boasts a lively music and entertainment scene, a host of restaurants – and a farmers’ market. 

Anchorage, Alaska 

Population: 287,145

Median house price: $400,000

Percentage parkland: 80

Alaska’s largest city is 80 per cent parkland, despite hosting nearly 300,000 people, and spans 1,706 square miles – making it the fourth-largest by area in the United States.

Surprisingly, though, the city remains highly walkable and accessible to cyclists – relying on a trail network covering more than 500 miles. 

According to the Anchorage Park Foundation, 95 per cent of residents say the trails make the city a great place.

Others cite the wildlife and fantastic views, as well as the city’s investment in preserving and celebrating local history and languages.

Madison, Wisconsin

Population: 272,903

Median house price: $395,000

Percentage parkland: 14

Between two lakes, Madison enjoys vast landscapes and more than 280 parks, increasingly accessible as the city invests in new tracks and trails.

In winter, residents can also enjoy the city’s sports scene – including ice skating, hockey, ice fishing and cross-country skiing.

One of the most accessible cities by bike, residents can quickly zip between the city’s 18 conservation parks and a bustling city, known for its museums and galleries.

Madison is the fastest-growing city in the state, featuring a lively technology sector and exciting opportunities in health start ups.

Frederick, Maryland 

Population: 82,175

Median house price: $435,000

Percentage parkland: 7.8

Frederick is just an hour from Baltimore and Washington D.C., and is one of the more walkable cities on the list.

Nearly 90 per cent of residents live within ten minutes of a park – and sprawling public lands make the city ideal for hikers.

Frederick is home to a number of antique shops and themed events, preserving its unique culture – while continuing to invest in new arts and entertainment outlets.

Saint Petersburg, Florida

Population: 261,256

Median house price: $430,000

Percentage parkland: 14

With 244 miles of shoreline, St Petersburg is ideal for beachgoers and fishers.

As well as celebrating a number of professional sports teams, the city is also home to quieter activities, like the Salvador Dali Museum, a number of libraries and the Chihuly Collection.

Residents can enjoy the city’s breadth of historical districts, all with unique draws and cultural artefacts.

St Petersburg may not be the most walkable city on the list, but remains attractive to cyclists and rollerbladers. 

Tacoma, Washington

Population: 221,776

Median house price: $472,500

Percentage parkland: 7

Tacoma is a little smaller than St Petersburg but still enjoys 46 miles of coastline and beaches.

The city is home to 120 parks and remains fairly accessible by foot and by bike, connecting large forests and outdoor spaces with the cultural hubs in the city.

Nearby, Tacoma also has access to Mount Rainier – and is only 90 minutes from the slopes at Crystal Mountain.

Cleaning up Commencement Bay and the Dune Peninsula in recent years have opened up the city’s natural spaces for visitors to enjoy. 

A Nevada widow whose husband died from an accidental fentanyl overdose is shedding light on the harrowing impact of the drug.

Jacob Wade, 26, a former Marine, had been a devoted family man to his wife, Britain Tomlin, and children, Walker and Blakely, when he accidentally overdosed on a drug cocktail laced with fentanyl in February.

It’s unclear what other drugs Mr Wade was taking, but accidental overdoses involving fentanyl have become an increasingly common tale in the US. Many victims don’t even know they’re taking it. 

Ms Tomlin is now warning against the dangers of the drug, which kills one American every eight minutes.

‘Fentanyl robbed us of a wonderful man – a devoted husband, a loving son, and a caring father,’ she said.

‘I’m determined to raise awareness about the devastating fentanyl and opioid crisis, urging the government to step up its efforts in aiding those grappling with addiction.’

‘We need more resources to support individuals battling substance abuse and to assist their families.’

Ms Tomlin and Mr Wade met in 2018 after he returned home from the military. The two shared an ‘instant connection.’

‘Before we knew it, we were married and embracing the arrival of our precious kids,’ Ms Tomlin said.  

Mr Wade was an aspiring entrepreneur who spent his free time fishing, hiking, and riding his dirt bike. He also regularly volunteered in his community, such as building homes for families in need. 

But he also had a history of drug use that started when he was a teenager. It started with marijuana before escalating to harder drugs. 

‘Throughout our relationship, he put in tremendous effort to break free from his addiction, and there were moments when he believed he had conquered it. But then, he would fall back into old patterns, and the cycle would restart,’ Ms Tomlin said. 

‘Drug dependency had transformed Jacob into a different version of himself – someone who no longer recognized the person he had become.’

‘The actions he took while under the influence haunted him when he was sober, casting a shadow of sadness and self-disappointment.’

The Department of Homeland Security has declared fentanyl the ‘single greatest challenge the US faces as a country.’  

The potent synthetic opioid is 50 times stronger than heroin and 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. It is used by doctors for patients in serious pain or with terminal illnesses.

It is cheap, highly addictive, relatively easy to smuggle into the US, and cost-effective for dealers to mix it into their supplies, which saves them money and can extend or boost the high that users experience.

But it takes a vanishingly small dose of fentanyl to cause a fatal overdose. Just two milligrams, the equivalent of five grains of salt, is enough to cause death.

Because it is cut into other popular drugs, many people who die of overdoses do not know they are taking fentanyl. Fentanyl has also been partially blamed for America’s sharp fall in life expectancy over the past three years.

It’s now found in everything from cocaine to molly and street benzodiazepines like Xanax.

The opioid being cut with virtually every street drug in the country killed a record 75,000 Americans in 2021 in the latest numbers, the equivalent of 1,500 lives lost weekly. 

And deaths from fentanyl-laced drugs have risen 50-fold in just over a decade. 

It was also linked to the death of Euphoria star Angus Cloud, 25, who died earlier this year from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, cocaine, and meth. 

‘It’s so common to think addiction is just a choice. How could the people we love willingly go down that path of using drugs or risking their lives? They have so much to live for, and their choices affect many others,’ Ms Tomlin said. 

‘We tend to label those who make such choices as selfish, self-destructive, irresponsible, and reckless. But the truth is that addiction doesn’t stick to any specific type. It doesn’t care if you’re strong or weak, selfless or selfish, kind or heartless. It can hit anyone.’

Ms Tomlin said that her relationship with Mr Wade was strained at the time of his death. She had recently moved out with the kids and was temporarily staying with family. 

On the day he died, he had stopped responding to her texts. Mr Wade’s parents found him unresponsive.

‘I couldn’t go upstairs as paramedics were still trying to help him. My kids were in the car with our neighbors, witnessing the police, ambulances, and fire trucks gathered around our home,’ Ms Tomlin said. 

‘Even today, my daughter, who was just three years old, remembers how her daddy was put on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance.’

At the hospital, doctors informed her that Mr Wade had passed. 

‘I fell apart, dreading how to break the news to our children and his parents,’ Ms Tomlin said. 

‘I spent about an hour with him, and before leaving, I took a necklace I had given him and left a bracelet with his mom. I whispered my final words and left, carrying the weight of that heart-wrenching day with me.’

After her husband’s death, Ms Tomlin took to social media to bring awareness to fentanyl and drug overdoses. 

“If you know someone struggling, don’t wait – take action,’ she said. 

‘Show them kindness and honesty, reach out as soon as possible, and keep checking in. Life’s too short to let fear of judgment hold us back. Yes, my grief is always there, heavy and strong.’

‘I’ll carry Jacob with me wherever I go. But you know what? Despite all that pain, I’ve found ways to grow and experience real happiness.’

‘My life isn’t done yet. Jacob’s memory lives on, cherished by everyone who loved him.’

Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Narcan, the nasal spray that rapidly reverses opioid overdoses.  

The medicine can now be sold over the counter without a prescription.

America has already set a record for ‘billion-dollar’ disasters in a given year – even with three months to go and the peak of hurricane season still remaining. 

According to NOAA, which has been tracking billion-dollar weather disasters in the US since 1980 and adjusting costs for inflation, this year’s storms have already cost more than $57.6billion and claimed at least 253 lives.

The disasters include the Maui wildfires, Hurricane Idalia in Florida and flooding in the Northeast. 

There have been 23 billion-dollar storms this year, beating the previous record of 22 in 2020, according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA applied climatologist Adam Smith, who tracks the billion-dollar weather events, said Monday he does ‘not expect things to slow down anytime soon.’

‘We’re seeing the fingerprints of climate change all over our nation,’ he said. 

The organization listed an August 11 Minnesota hailstorm and severe storms in early August and mid-July across the Midwest and parts of the South among the 23 costly weather events.

The organization has not yet taken into account the damage brought on by Tropical Storm Hilary, which walloped California along the coast, as well as parts of Nevada and Washington.

Droughts in the South and Midwest have also yet to be added to the count, as costs are still being totaled.

Each of the weather events listed have cost at least $1billion in damage.  

Smith said the shockingly high number of costly weather events is both due to a rise in the number of disasters, and because more areas are being built in risk-prone locations.

‘Exposure plus vulnerability plus climate change is supercharging more of these into billion-dollar disasters,’ Smith said.

‘This year, a lot of the action has been across the center states, north central, south and southeastern states.’

He added he thought the record established in 2020 would last for many years because the 22 billion-dollar disasters that year far surpassed the previous record of 16.

After this year’s partial results, however, he no longer believes new records will hold for very long. 

Weather experts say the country needs to become more adaptable to weather events, because there are only more each year.

‘The climate has already changed and neither the built environment nor the response systems are keeping up with the change,’ Former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Craig Fugate said.

University of Arizona climate scientist Katharine Jacobs said ‘adding more energy to the atmosphere and the oceans will increase intensity and frequency of extreme events.’

‘Many of this year’s events are very unusual and in some cases unprecedented.’ 

Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field called the rise of billion-dollar disasters ‘very troubling.’

‘But there are things we can do to reverse the trend,’ he added. ‘If we want to reduce the damages from severe weather, we need to accelerate progress on both stopping climate change and building resilience.’ 

Geologists have uncovered what they believe could be the world’s largest lithium deposit inside an ancient supervolcano along the Nevada-Oregon border in the US.

Clay containing up to 40 million metric tons of the precious metal was identified throughout the 28-mile-long McDermitt Caldera – nearly double what has been found in Bolivia’s salt flats that have long held the record for the most lithium deposits.

While the amount of lithium is based on estimates – no drilling has taken place – scientists have found high concentrations of lithium in the caldera since the 1970s.

As of 2022, the average battery-grade lithium carbonate price was $37,000 per metric ton, meaning the volcano is potentially sitting on $1.48 trillion worth of the precious metal.

Canada-based Lithium Americas Corporation plans to begin mining as early as 2026, mine the region for the next 40 years, and then backfill the pit. However, the plan has been criticized due to the environmental impact of mining and claims that the site is on sacred Native American land.

Lithium is a critical component for batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles and solar panels –  and China has dominated the market for decades because 90 percent of the metal mined is refined in the nation.

Anouk Borst, a geologist at KU Leuven University who was not involved in the study, told Chemistry World: ‘If you believe their back-of-the-envelope estimation, this is a very, very significant deposit of lithium.

‘It could change the dynamics of lithium globally, in terms of price, security of supply and geopolitics.’

McDermitt Caldera is believed to have formed about 19 million years ago, and last erupted 16 million years ago.

Geologists believe the eruption pushed minerals from the ground to the surface, which left lithium-rich smectite clay.

Faults and fractures also formed from the explosion that provided a way for lithium to rise to the surface of the crater. 

A lake formed within the caldera after the last eruption, and the team analyzed sediments, finding high lithium concentrations. 

The team shared in the study published in Science Advances that they hand-picked claystone samples from McDerrmitt Caldera and found they were also high in lithium concentrations.

Previous drilling in Thacker Pass, located nearby and owned by Lithium Americas, has 13.7 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent and was previously known as the largest deposit in the US.

To identify which supervolcanoes offer the best sources of lithium, researchers measured the original concentration of lithium in the magma. 

Because lithium is a volatile element that easily shifts from solid to liquid to vapor, it is tough to measure directly, and its original concentrations are poorly known.

The team looked at tiny bits of magma trapped in crystals during growth within the magma chamber. 

These ‘melt inclusions,’ completely encapsulated within the crystals, survive the supereruption and remain intact throughout the weathering process. 

As such, melt inclusions record the original concentrations of lithium and other elements in the magma. 

Researchers sliced through the host crystals to expose these preserved magma blebs, which are 10 to 100 microns in diameter, then analyzed them with the Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Microprobe in the SHRIMP-RG Laboratory at Stanford Earth.

The took is used to measure the ratio of lead to uranium to calculate the age of the mineral grain, which allowed researchers to identify the caldera’s lithium enrichment degree.

These results were then compared with data from a technique that details the chemical composition and physical properties of whole-rock samples and clay separates.

Researchers also noted in the paper that trioctahedral magnesian smectite clay minerals, which are lithium-bearing clay minerals, were found abundantly in the caldera.

Tom Benson with Lithium Americas and Columbia University told DailyMail.com that he began studying the McDermitt caldera in 2012 to understand why it contained so many different deposits.

‘I soon began to realize that Li [lithium] was the behemoth, occurring throughout the caldera from the northern tip in Oregon to the southern tip in Nevada,’ Benson said. 

Tom Benson with Lithium Americas and Columbia University told DailyMail.com that he began studying the McDermitt caldera in 2012 to understand why it contained so many different deposits.

‘I soon began to realize that Li [lithium] was the behemoth, occurring throughout the caldera from the northern tip in Oregon to the southern tip in Nevada,’ Benson said. 

‘So, I quickly changed my focus to understanding the origin of the Li deposit, as little to no information was known about its genesis at the time.’

‘This study shows caldera-wide drilling that demonstrates that this smectite to illite conversion at depth only occurs in the Montana Mountains and to the south around the Thacker Pass area. 

Benson continued to explain that lithium-bearing sediments are right at the surface of the Earth, which ‘makes the deposit one of the least impactful mines ever to be built.’

‘We will do a process called strip mining in which we dig a small hole to the bottom of the resource, and after about five years, start migrating the pit eastward, said Beson.

‘As we do that, we will start backfilling the pit (with material that has only touched the water, so it is benign to the environment – in fact, likely better because we will have removed As, Sb, and other heavy metals from the ground that are contained in the clay). 

‘Once the pit has reached its 40-year mine life, the pit will be completely backfilled and revegetated, leaving it much like how it looks today, if not more vegetated, and at a slightly lower elevation.’

Benson noted that phase one of the project aims to mine 40,000 tons annually, yielding $1.6 million in yearly revenue. 

‘The US would have its own lithium supply, and industries would be less scared about supply shortages.’ 

The US is slowly abandoning gas-powered cars for electric vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – but the shift also means it will be more reliant on other countries, like China, to provide the necessary materials.

Extracting lithium on US soil would help the nation on its path to self-reliance, which the country has strived to – but has yet to obtain.

The nation is home to only one active lithium mine, Clayton Valley, near Silver Peak, Nevada, but many companies are working to change that. 

The US imports hundreds of millions of lithium-ion batteries each year, with the volume ever increasing. 

According to data from the UN Comtrade Database, China accounted for most UUS battery imports last year, with a total trade value of $9.3 billion. South Korea and Japan are popular sources, with batteries worth $1.3 and $1.0 billion imported to the U.S. in 2022. 

The total import value of lithium-ion batteries nearly tripled since 2020, reaching $13.9 billion last year.

Data has proposed that about one million metric tons of lithium will be needed to meet global demand by 2040 – an eight-fold increase from the total global production in 2022.

‘Developing a sustainable and diverse supply chain to meet lower-carbon energy and national security goals requires mining the highest-grade domestic lithium resources with the lowest waste: ore strip ratios to minimize both the volume of material extracted from the Earth,’ the researchers wrote in a study published in Science Advances.

‘Volcano sedimentary lithium resources have the potential to meet this requirement, as they tend to be shallow, high-tonnage deposits with low waste: ore strip ratios.

While the discovery could be great news for the US economy, it spells trouble for Native American tribes that claim the land is sacred.

The Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock people are pushing back on mining, stating the project would ‘authorize almost 100 acres of disturbance from 267 exploration drill sites.’

The tribes are part of the People of the Red Mountain organization, which said there are 91 significant cultural sites in the area.

‘The global search for lithium has become a form of ‘green’ colonialism,’ People of Red Mountain, an Indigenous-led organization created to protect the sacred site, said in an August statement

‘The Caldera holds many first foods, medicines, and hunting grounds for tribal people both past and present.’ 

The organization is now trying to stop on the Oregon side of the caldera.

While lithium is critical in the transition to clean energy, extracting white gold can lead to long-term ecological damage.

The lithium extraction process uses a lot of water— more than 500,000 liters per ton of lithium.

Miners drill a hole in salt flats to extract lithium and pump salty, mineral-rich brine to the surface.

After several months, the water evaporates, leaving a mixture of manganese, potassium, borax and lithium salts, filtered and placed into another evaporation pool.

After 12 and 18 months, the mixture is sufficiently filtered to extract lithium carbonate.

Over a year, producing 60,000 tons of lithium could devastate the surrounding environment – up to 30 million tons of earth needs to be dug. 

This is more than the annual amount of dirt dug up to produce all coal output of all but seven or eight US states

In May 2016, dead fish were found floating in China’s Liqi River, where a toxic chemical leaked from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine.

Cow and yak carcasses were also found floating in the river, likely killed by drinking the contaminated water.

Lithium extraction also harms the soil and causes air contamination.

In Argentina’s Salar de Hombre Muerto, residents believe lithium operations contaminated streams used by humans and livestock for crop irrigation.

In Chile, the landscape is marred by mountains of discarded salt and canals filled with contaminated water with an unnatural blue hue.

According to Guillermo Gonzalez, a lithium battery expert from the University of Chile, ‘This isn’t a green solution – it’s not a solution at all.’

President Joe Biden touched down in Kahului on the island of Maui Monday where he greeted local politicians with hugs, handshakes and condolences in light of the island’s devastating wildfires. 

He and First Lady Jill paused their summer vacation at Lake Tahoe in Nevada on Monday to visit Hawaii.

The president appeared more somber in tone than when he told a reporter he had ‘no comment’ on the inferno’s devastation while relaxing at his Delaware beach house last Sunday.

Biden was met with some protests from local residents who held signs with messages like ‘he’s too late,’ ‘he should’ve been here much earlier,’ and ‘actions speak louder than words.’ 

The death toll in Maui has topped 114 – already making the inferno one of the nation’s deadliest in history – and an estimated 1,000 people are still unaccounted for. Officials are still analyzing the factors that contributed to the massive inferno, including problems with its electrical grid.

Biden will visit with those who lost homes and loved ones during the disaster and be briefed by public officials. The White house said he has continued to receive briefings over the weekend, after Biden issued a series of public statements on the disaster following his early stumbles.

The president left behind a more tranquil setting – he is renting the home of billionaire former presidential candidate and climate activist Tom Steyer on the eastern side of Lake Tahoe.

He has been accompanied on that vacation by his son Hunter, who has been dealing with the collapse of his plea deal on tax charges, and whose probe is now being overseen by U.S. attorney David Weiss in the role of special prosecutor. 

After taking criticism for his ‘no comment’ while at the beach, Biden has been making repeated references to the tragedy. 

He spoke at Camp David about financial contributions by Japan and South Korea announced at the summit, then boarded Marine One to make his way to Nevada.

‘I want to start by expressing my appreciation for the contribution that your countries have made for relief following the devastating wildfires in Hawaii. I want to thank you both on behalf of the American people,’ he said. Biden also said FEMA was preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Hilary in Southern California.

On Thursday he promised to offer assistance to Maui for ‘as long as it takes’  during a recorded message that aired on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America.’

‘The entire nation is with you as you recover, rebuild and grieve,’ he said. 

The wildfire that broke out August 8 in the town of Lahaina is now the deadliest in more than a century, and the fifth-deadliest on record for the U.S. 

‘We’ll be with you for as long as it takes, I promise you,’ the president added. He noted the federal government has already taken action to send hundreds of emergency personnel and thousands of meals and supplies to the historic tourist town ravaged by flames. 

Before Biden announced his visit, Republicans compared his lack of a visit to East Palestine, Ohio – where a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals, displacing 100s. Biden had promised to visit the Ohio town but never did. 

Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans tore into him. Trump said he was refusing ‘to help or comment on the tragedy’ and called the moment ‘horrible and unacceptable.’

Biden first issued his ‘no comment’ while while staying at the beach near his Delaware home.

Then while breezing by reporters he made a terse comment, saying he was ‘looking at it.’ 

Back at the White House, a reporter asked Biden at the White House: ‘Can you tell us about your Hawaii trip?’ 

‘No, not now,’ Biden said, before staff eventually announced details.

It call came during a time when Biden might have preferred some distance form the press, following the appointment of the special counsel for his son. 

Biden and the first lady are traveling to Maui on Monday to comfort survivors of the devastating wildfires that ripped through the western part of the Hawaiian island earlier this month, as his administration responds to the devastation whose full scope is still unknown.

The Bidens are taking a detour from their weeklong vacation in the Lake Tahoe area for the day trip to Lahaina, a historic town of 13,000 people that was virtually destroyed by the flames. While there, the first couple will meet with first responders and be briefed by state and local officials about the ongoing response.

They will also view the damaged town, both from helicopters and on the ground, and the Democratic president will deliver remarks paying tribute to the victims of the wildfires, which have killed more than 100 people since they began on Aug. 8.

The president will also tap Bob Fenton, a regional leader at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as chief federal response coordinator for the Maui wildfires, ensuring that someone from his administration will be responsible for long-term recovery efforts. It will take years to rebuild Lahaina, where just about every building was obliterated.

‘I know how profoundly loss can impact a family and a community and I know nothing can replace the loss of life,’ Biden said in a statement ahead of the trip. ‘I will do everything in my power to help Maui recover and rebuild from this tragedy. And throughout our efforts, we are focused on respecting sacred lands, cultures, and traditions.’

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said that as of Sunday about 85% of the affected area had been searched and nearly 2,000 people remained without power and 10,000 were without telecom connectivity. Water in parts of west Maui is not safe to drink.

While immediate aid such as water, food and blankets has been readily distributed to residents, Schatz said that cellphones, identification and other documents that people would need to help them enroll in longer-term aid programs were burned in the fires, adding more challenges to the application process.

More than 1,000 federal officials remain on the ground in Hawaii to respond to the wildfires, according to the White House. The administration has doled out more than $8 million in aid to affected families.

Schatz, who will be with Biden as the president travels to his home state on Monday, stressed that officials were ‘still responding to the disaster’ and ‘We are not yet in a recovery phase.’

‘As bad as this looks, it´s actually worse,’ he said in a phone interview on Sunday. ‘What you can´t see is the damage to utility infrastructure. What you can´t see is the thousands of kids who are trying to figure out how to go to school this fall. What you can´t see is the first responders who went into the flames without regard for their own safety and had their own homes burned down.’

While vacationing in Lake Tahoe, Biden has been on the phone regularly with officials to get briefed on updates to the wildfire response, the White House said.

US midterm elections 2022: Arizona still has 400,000 votes to count in its largest county, Nevada could not be called until TOMORROW as Georgia runoff is confirmed and counting drags on

By Katelyn Caralle, U.S. Political Reporter In Las Vegas, Nevada and Elizabeth Elkind, Politics Reporter For Dailymail.Com and Chris Matthews For Mailonline

Updated: 20:18 EDT, 9 November 2022

Few famous faces of the modern era have sought out solace and seclusion so assiduously as the woman who (once upon a time) would have been queen.

One of Princess Diana’s favourite spots was behind the vertiginous walls of the Byblos Hotel, secreted away in a sliver of idyllic Andalusian countryside, midway between Malaga and Marbella.

Sister hotel to the Byblos in St Tropez, it blazed a brief hedonistic trail through the tail end of the 20th century. Following a £35 million restoration, a very different iteration of the property has appeared. It has been renamed La Zambra and exudes a zen-like peacefulness. Sunlight and shadows dance off geometric pools and a subtle sprinkling of fountains conjures up a modernist invocation of a Moorish palace.

The acclaimed minimalist Majorca-based, father-and-son design team, Esteva I Esteva, has created a sophisticated contemporary property of 197 spacious rooms looking out over either the Robert Trent Jones-designed golf courses or the Sierra Nevada.

Three restaurants, overseen by Iker Gonzalez Ayerbe, a former ambassador for Basque gastronomy, deliver modern Iberian cuisine, incorporating exceptional tapas.

There are three pools, one for children, also provided for with their own club, a couple of tennis courts, and a padel court.

But for spa junkies, the Mood Spa, at 2,500 sq m, is now the largest on the Costa del Sol and boasts 12 treatment rooms, Turkish baths, saunas and ice showers.

At just 30 minutes from Malaga airport, the property’s location remains one of its stand-out attributes. Within the same amount of time, guests can also be in Marbella’s historic centre marvelling at the city’s amazing 15-year transformation from drug-fuelled dump into charming, culturally infused urban oasis.

With the coast 15 minutes away, the best of all worlds is readily available. As are the mesmerisingly beautiful landscapes of the Andalusian hinterland encircling the property, demanding to be explored. For those who can’t abide being parted from their sunbed for too long, one of the most endearing of Andalusia’s famous hilltop white villages is also 15 minutes away — Mijas Pueblo. The hotel can even organise a quad bike trip.

Fifty years of intense development along the Costa del Sol would appear to have done little to mar this warren of whitewashed alleyways and inviting little eateries. For a more challenging excursion, the Caminito del Rey, dubbed the Walkway of Death, is a terrifying-looking path perched precariously 100 metres up above El Chorro gorge. 

It was originally constructed for workers building a dam and remained closed for years. A safer, officially sanctioned pathway opened in 2015.

The hotel can arrange access and the Caminito, for those with a head for heights, is a truly fabulous day out.

While La Zambra is unrecognisable from the old Byblos, those high walls remain. Getting inside might not involve jumping through the security hoops of its jet-set heyday (which didn’t prevent Princess Diana from getting famously papped there), but they once again encompass another altogether different, yet equally opulent, haven from which to both embrace and retreat from the Costa del Sol.

A baby boy who was born at just 22 weeks and faced a lifetime of disability has defied the odds and started to walk and talk.

Eli James, now a year old, weighed just 1lb 3oz when he was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, in March last year. He was so small his mother’s wedding a ring could fit on his wrist.

Paloma Aguilar, 34, and her husband Eliesar, 45, were told that if their son survived, he would likely face permanent physical and mental disabilities. But after being discharged from the ICU in late July, he has gone from strength to strength.

Mrs Aguilar said: ‘He’s starting to walk right now and saying his first words – Dadda was the first. Everyone has been surprised with his progress.’

She added that her son was a little smaller than other one-year-olds but was catching up ‘quite fast’. 

Babies born earlier than 22 weeks are generally too physically underdeveloped to be successfully treated with intensive care and have almost no chance of survival. 

But each year in the US about 5,000 babies are born in the uncertain window between 22 and 23 weeks, when chances of survival are very low but not zero.

Studies indicate that between a fifth and third of babies born at 22 weeks and given intensive care survive. 

Eli – the youngest of four children – was born at 22 weeks and one day.

Mrs Aguilar said her pregnancy had been going to plan until her waters suddenly broke one day after a scan.

She said: ‘We had an ultrasound one Friday when I was 22 weeks, and everything appeared normal.

‘Then my water broke that Friday evening, at midnight, and early Saturday morning, I went to the hospital.

‘When I arrived, they told me that I was three centimeters dilated and that the baby was not viable.’

Doctors tried to help Mrs Aguilar to delay the birth, but warned that an infection was putting both mother and baby at risk.

She was diagnosed with chorioamnionitis, a bacterial infection of the fetal membranes surrounding the baby and in the placenta. It can also spread into the amniotic fluid, or the liquid that surrounds and protects the fetus.

Mrs Aguilar tried to delay the birth, but three days after her waters broke, she gave birth to her son.

Speaking about the birth, Mrs Aguilar said: ‘It was actually quite painful even though he was small, because it happened so fast.

‘So I didn’t have anything to help me with the pain. He just came out on the bed when the nurse was barely coming in to see me.

‘They showed him to me briefly before taking him away.’

After the birth, Ms Aguilar, her husband and Eli faced an incredibly difficult time as the infant fought for his life.

She explained: ‘When I saw him, it was scary.

‘But I always have faith. I had faith that if he made it this far, that he was strong.

‘Even getting a PICC line [used to administer medication and nutrition] in him was scary. 

‘The doctor told me that they had brought in the smallest needle in the country, which was as thin as a piece of hair, and even that was too big to fit through his veins.’

Ms Aguilar said that Eli’s incredible fight for his life lasted several months, and while he was ‘mostly stable’, one evening, medics once again feared for his life.

‘There was one point where he like got really sick, and they called us at three in the morning to the hospital because he wasn’t doing well,’ she revealed.

‘There was always ups and downs, but for the most part, he was he was stable.’

A small town in Nevada is being terrorized by a ‘biblical’ infestation of cannibalistic Mormon crickets that have blanketed roadways, invaded buildings, and alarmed residents.

The two-inch-long pests that have taken over Elko, Nevada are not only devouring all the crops, but are also a traffic hazard leaving roads dangerously-slick after millions of the crickets were squashed by cars, with their entrails creating a slippery surface.

Residents are also dealing with the mob of insects blanketing the ground, crawling up walls, and infesting buildings.

Despite their name, the insects are technically large katydids that closely resemble grasshoppers, according to the University of Nevada, Reno. They don’t fly, but instead walk or hop. And while totally harmless to humans, the bugs are nonetheless frightening locals who suffer from insect phobias.

Skin-crawling footage shared on social media shows the town under attack along with several other Nevada counties as the swarm of insects moves across the state. 

‘When we looked out here the whole wall was just covered. That really, really freaked me out,’ resident Colette Reynolds told KLAS.

A spokesperson for the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital told KSL that the hospital had to deploy brooms and leaf blowers to clear the way for patients to get into the building.

The Nevada Department of Transportation has been plowing and sanding roads to get rid of the squashed bugs that have made the roads slick. 

‘You can see that they’re moving and crawling and the whole road is crawling and it just makes your skin crawl. It’s just so gross,’ Stephanie Garrett added. 

The plague-like images also show how dangerous the roads are now with the added layer of squashed bugs.

‘They get run over, two or three come out and eat their buddy, and they get run over, and the roads can get covered with crickets and they can get slick,’ Jeff Knight, an entomologist for the Nevada agriculture department, told KSL. 

‘The bigger issue is these afternoon thunderstorms and put a little water on that and it gets slick, we’ve had a number of accidents caused by crickets.’ 

Knight has been treating Nevada’s farmland for Mormon crickets since 1976 and has experienced about 40 outbreaks in that time. 

‘The band of crickets in Elko [Nevada] is probably a thousand acres, and we’ve had bands even bigger than that,’ he said. 

‘The drought is probably what triggered them to start hatching. Once they do they have the upper hand, so their populations increase for several years then drop off.’  

Knight added that the insects lay their eggs in the summer, which lie dormant in the winter and hatch in the spring. But the hatchlings were delayed because of the unusually rainy winter, he said. 

The swarms moving across Nevada can last four to six years before they are brought under control by other insects and predators, Knight told the Guardian.

‘[Population density] is what triggers them to say, ‘There’s too many of us here, we’ve got to start moving.’ 

Mormon cricket infestations are not new to the western United States and there’s not much residents can do besides just wait it out, entomologists said. 

Last year around this time, Oregon was also battling massive swarms of both Mormon crickets and grasshoppers.

Not only do the insects feast on crops, but they are also cannibals and will eat each other, dead or alive, if not satiated with protein. 

The area had been stricken with drought, which created ideal conditions for grasshopper and Mormon cricket eggs to hatch.

Mormon crickets are named after swarms of the insects destroyed the fields of Mormon settlers in Utah in the mid-19th century. 

They have continued to devastate corn, oats, wheat, rye and barley, some of the state’s most profitable crops, according to Utah State University.