Search for Nancy Guthrie continues into 9th day after family says, ‘we will pay’

(NEW YORK) — Cold and snowy conditions dominated the winter season in the Northeast with much of the region experiencing its coldest winter in a decade or more, and several cities seeing their biggest snowfall in years. However, if you live in other parts of the country, this winter was very different.

Meteorological winter — December to February — was unseasonably warm across much of the contiguous U.S., ranking as the second-warmest winter on record since 1895, behind the 2023-24 season, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

While the Northeast faced persistent blasts of bitter cold and snow, exceptional winter warmth in the West nearly pushed the nation to a new all-time high for the season.

Nine states finished off with their warmest winter on record: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. Dozens of cities in the West and Plains saw a top 5 warmest winter with cities such as Albuquerque, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City seeing their all-time warmest.

Dallas, Texas, recorded 16 days with high temperatures of at least 80°F, the highest seasonal total on record.

For much of the country, winter was not only exceptionally warm, but exceptionally dry, ranking as the driest winter in 45 years across the Lower 48. Much of the western United States entered the season already grappling with drought, and persistent warmth fueled the worst snow drought in decades across parts of the Rockies as more precipitation fell as rain instead of snow.

Drought on its own already stresses water supplies, agriculture, and ecosystems. But when winter fails to deliver significant mountain snow, those impacts can intensify, according to NOAA.

A persistent snow drought can trigger a cascade of hydrologic changes. Low snowpack and early snowmelt can affect vegetation, reduce surface and subsurface water storage and alter streamflow, all of which directly impact water management and planning across the West.

Snowmelt supplies a large share of the region’s water used by communities, agriculture, and ecosystems. In some states, up to about 75 percent of water supplies can come from melting snow, according to the USGS.

The Colorado River provides water for more than 40 million people and fuels hydropower resources in seven states: California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

Widespread, persistent drier-than-average conditions also impacted parts of the Heartland and Southeast, bringing drought expansion and intensification during the winter months. Multiple states, including Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Nebraska, experienced one of their driest winters on record.

According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report released on March 5, more than half of the contiguous U.S. is experiencing drought conditions, an increase of about 10% from the beginning of February.

Florida is enduring its worst drought in 25 years, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System, with a heightened risk of wildfires this spring as conditions worsen across the state.

All of Florida is currently experiencing some level of drought, with more than 70% of the state facing an extreme drought level 3 of 4, U.S. Drought Monitor data shows.

“We expect the drought to continue or even worsen in the next couple of months, as we are in the heart of peninsular Florida’s dry season that usually lasts until mid-May,” Florida State Climatologist David Zierden told ABC News. “Then the summer convective rains kick in and provide some relief.”

The National Interagency Fire Center says Florida faces an above-average risk of significant wildland fires throughout meteorological spring, which began on March 1. Dozens of counties across the state have issued burn bans due to the ongoing drought and elevated wildfire risk.

The worsening conditions are raising concerns beyond wildfires, including impacts to water supplies and agriculture.

“Four of the five Water Management districts have either voluntary or mandatory water restrictions limiting outdoor irrigation,” Zierden added. “Range and pasture for cattle is the agricultural commodity that is hit hardest right now.”

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(NEW YORK) — There is evidence that the planet is healing amid massive efforts to mitigate climate change and fight biodiversity loss.

Once-threatened species are rebounding, lawmakers are making policy changes that increase protections against harmful practices and preservation of ecosystems has come to the forefront, according to recent events.

The wins, however, don’t cancel out the realities that the planet continues to be on a tipping point. The world is currently off track to meet the goal outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the United Nations.

The planet has entered an era of “water bankruptcy,” due to irreversible damage to water systems, according to the U.N.’s University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. Deforestation is continuing to occur at a rapid rate, including 16.6 million acres of tropical primary forests lost in 2024 – equivalent to 18 soccer fields per minute, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Despite the losses, recent environmental wins prove that efforts to protect the planet and its inhabitants are working.

Threatened species are recovering

Most sea turtles are rebounding worldwide as a result of conservation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Green turtles made an especially notable recovery. Once hunted to near-extinction for their eggs – used to make turtle soup – green turtle populations have risen significantly since the 1970s, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s 2025 update to its Red List of Threatened Species. Their status was downgraded from endangered to least concern.

Global conservation efforts included protecting eggs, releasing hatchlings on beaches and reducing capture in fishing nets, according to the IUCN.

Endangered Central California coast coho salmon are returning to Central California’s Russian River after decades of absence – an indicator of river restoration. During the 2024 to 2025 spawning season, more than 30,000 adult coho salmon migrated to the rivers along the Mendocino Coasts – double the record-breaking number of 15,000 seen in the previous season, according to NOAA Fisheries.

A group of wild horses known as Przewalski’s horses has returned to Central Asia after being driven to near-extinction in the 1960s.

In 2024, several zoos took part in the first stages of the reintroduction of the horses to their native Kazakhstan.

Subsequent efforts brought the Przewalski’s horses to neighboring Mongolia.

Przewalski’s horses are known as the last surviving lineage of true wild horses. Their populations declined as a result of habitat loss, overhunting and hybridization with domestic horses, according to the WWF’s Natural Habitat Adventures.

Countries taking action to protect natural resources

In the U.S., the federal government under the Trump administration has taken several actions that could potentially harm the environment, including granting fossil fuel operations in the Gulf exemption from Endangered Species Act protections; the Senate voted to overturn Biden-era Arctic protections; and the U.S. Department of the Interior reached a nearly $1 billion deal with French energy company, TotalEnergies, to end the company’s offshore wind development.

But other countries are making strides in protecting vast amounts of land and water.

Earlier this year, the High Seas Biodiversity Treaty – aimed to protect 60% of the global ocean that is beyond national jurisdiction – entered into force globally.

Adopted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the treaty opened for signature in September 2023 and could safeguard marine ecosystems beyond national borders.

In July 2026, Ethiopia launched a national campaign to plant 700 million trees a day, aiming to plant 50 billion trees by the end of 2026.

The I-25 Greenland wildlife overpass near Larkspur in Colorado opened in December 2025. The overpass is the largest in the U.S. and will allow elk, pronghorn, mule deer, black bears, mountain lions and a variety of other species to cross, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Italy will ban the killing of male chicks starting in 2027, ending the deaths of 34 million birds every year. Male chicks are often killed because they cannot produce eggs.

Poland, once the largest fur-producing country in Europe with mink, fox, chinchilla and raccoon dog farms housing around 3.4 million animals, has banned fur farming. The European Union is considering a union-wide ban on fur production.

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(NEW YORK) — Ian Maxwell, the brother of convicted Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, is speaking out on his sister’s ongoing effort to overturn her conviction, her recent Congressional deposition, her transfer to a federal prison camp in Texas, and more in a broad interview Tuesday with ABC News.

Ian Maxwell’s comments come a week after his sister invoked the Fifth Amendment during a closed-door virtual deposition before the House Oversight Committee last Monday, where she was asked questions about her relationship with Epstein and her involvement in the late sex offender’s criminal activity.

“The legal advice was absolutely clear. And you need to think about this quite carefully,” Ian Maxwell said of his sister’s decision to not answer the questions, reiterating that she did speak with United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July.

“He asked her over two days of questioning several hundred questions. She didn’t fail to answer a single one of those,” he said.

During her interview with Blanche, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, Maxwell continued to deny any involvement in Epstein’s sexual exploitation and said she had not witnessed any wrongdoing by any other man — including Trump or former President Bill Clinton.  Maxwell was granted limited immunity for the interview as long as she answered questions truthfully.

Ian Maxwell also touched on the possibility of President Trump pardoning his sister, though he noted she had not asked Trump for a pardon. He said the idea that she could exonerate Trump and Clinton of any wrongdoing with her testimony was attributable to a former lawyer of Maxwell’s.

“Ghislaine has not asked President Trump for a pardon. The fact of the matter is that the Epstein scandal is being used by both sides of the aisle to beat the present president and the former president,” he said.

Ian Maxwell also discussed a petition pending in federal court in New York that seeks to overturn her conviction or reduce her sentence.

The petition alleges nine separate grounds — including juror misconduct and government suppression of evidence — for Ghislaine Maxwell’s contention that constitutional violations undermined the integrity of her 2021 trial.

“I am hopeful that the petition will reach the judge presiding over the petition based on the evidence, the evidentiary record,” he said.

In the interview, the British businessman addressed Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer from a federal prison in Florida to a federal prison camp in Texas over the summer.

“Ghislaine is possibly the most notorious prisoner in the U.S. federal system today,” he said. “We know that prison is a very violent place. Jeffrey Epstein died. Ghislaine did have many threats in Tallahassee where she was. It was a notoriously violent and dangerous place for her own safety. She had to be moved.”

At the time of the move, the reason for the transfer was not made clear. FCI Tallahassee in Florida, where Maxwell had been held, is a “low security” prison for men and women, while FPC Bryan is a “minimum security” camp just for women.

Ian Maxwell disputed the idea that his sister was transferred as any sort of reward for protecting Trump.

“President Trump has not done anything wrong. You tell me, have you found anything wrong in the papers yet? I haven’t seen anything there,” he said regarding the recent release of Epstein files by the Justice Department.

Ian Maxwell also discussed the authenticity of a photograph of his sister with the former Prince Andrew and his late accuser Virginia Giuffre.

“I would maintain that Ghislaine continues to have tremendous doubt about the picture that was published and believes that it is not the original and may have been doctored in some way. We don’t know,” said Ian Maxwell, who backs his sister’s stance that she was not responsible for introducing the former prince to Epstein.

Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on five of six counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls. In his interview, Ian Maxwell maintained that his sister “did not receive a fair trial” and said that “the verdict is deeply unsafe.”

Ian Maxwell was asked to elaborate on claims made in Ghislaine Maxwell’s pending petition that as many as 25 other men settled claims privately with Epstein accusers.

“The only person who is in jail, the only person whose been tried and found guilty is a woman, my sister,” Ian Maxwell said. “All of these men have disappeared into the ether.”

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