内容摘要：The granite and bronze monument to the master navigator and cartographer in an inner-city Melbourne park was vandalized days after the anniversary of the first British settlers’ arrival at Sydney Cove was commemorated on Jan. 26. Opponents of

The granite and bronze monument to the master navigator and cartographer in an inner-city Melbourne park was vandalized days after the anniversary of the first British settlers’ arrival at Sydney Cove was commemorated on Jan. 26. Opponents of

The Hanford Viaduct construction site is shown in an aerial view, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Kings County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)The Hanford Viaduct construction site is shown in an aerial view, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Kings County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Construction is underway for a mostly privately funded high-speed system to carry riders fromCalifornia’s construction is far from completion. Of the 119 miles (192 kilometers) of construction underway in the Central Valley, only a 22-mile (35-kilometer) stretch is ready for the track-laying phase, which isn’t set to start until next year.Finishing the line in the Valley is just the first step. Next, the train has to extend north toward the San Francisco Bay Area and south toward Los Angeles. Choudri’s goal within the next 20 years is to build to Gilroy, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco. Under current public transit, it would then take at least one more train transfer to get into the city.

Southward, he envisions building to Palmdale, 37 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles. From there, it takes more than one hour to drive or two hours on an existing train line to reach Los Angeles.“In the ideal world, you can take the 500 miles, build it in your warehouse and then just drop it and everybody’s happy,” Choudri said. “But the programs are never built like that. You build incrementally and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

Critics say the project will never be completed and may leave towering and unusable infrastructure stretching through the state’s agricultural heartland. More than 50 structures have already been built, including underpasses, viaducts and bridges to separate the rail line from existing roadways for safety.

The Cedar Viaduct, designed to take high-speed trains over Cedar and North avenues and State Route 99, is shown in an aerial view, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Fresno, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)A crew with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority installs power poles for a home, at top right, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

A crew with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority installs power poles for a home, at top right, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)Many Navajo families still live without electricity, a product of historic neglect and the struggle to get services on the vast Native American reservation in the southwestern United States. Some rely on solar panels or generators, while others have no electricity whatsoever. (AP Video: Joshua A. Bickel)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of on how tribes and Indigenous communities are coping with and combating climate change.“We are a part of America that a lot of the time feels kind of left out,” said Vircynthia Charley, district manager at the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, a non-for-profit utility that provides electric, water, wastewater, natural gas and solar energy services.