Category: News
“Out Of Touch”: Marylanders Fume As Gov. Moore Prioritizes Building Energy-Hungry ‘Sphere’ Amid Power Bill Crisis
“Out Of Touch”: Marylanders Fume As Gov. Moore Prioritizes Building Energy-Hungry ‘Sphere’ Amid Power Bill Crisis
Marylanders are raging at left-wing Governor Wes Moore, accusing him of fast-tracking a massively power-hungry Sphere entertainment venue near Washington, DC, while working-class households across the central part of the state are drowning under crushing electricity bills.
“So this Governor spends money he doesn’t even have yet. 200 million dollars of the cost for the Sphere at National Harbor will come from the State of Maryland’s 2027 budget. He is so out of touch with what MD residents need and doesn’t care as long as his name is in the headlines every day,” Maryland resident Amy Milberger Seaman wrote in a Facebook group called “BGE Victims,” which has nearly 15,000 residents upset about exploding power bills.
Local media outlet WBAL-TV reported Monday that Sphere Entertainment plans to build its second U.S. Sphere venue in National Harbor, in Prince George’s County.
The Sphere will be slightly smaller than the one in Las Vegas, seating 6,000. Gov. Moore called the project the largest economic development project in the county’s history. The venue is expected to be funded through a mix of public and private financing, including $200 million in incentives from the state.
The venue will include an exosphere exterior LED display and a 16K x 16K interior screen, the highest-resolution LED display in the world.
Residents are furious about the new Sphere because at peak power, it uses around 28 megawatts (MW), enough to power roughly 21,000 homes. Adding more demand to an already tight power grid because of just bad policies, after years of backfiring’ climate crisis’ policies stripped reliable fossil fuel spare capacity.
Here’s what others in the Facebook group are saying about Moore:
“He is an Obama want-a-be. He loves being a celebrity. Loves having his picture taken. So much so he has at least 3 photographers. Maybe more. He is a liar, clueless about budgets. Overspends our hard earned tax dollars. He needs to go,” resident Cheryl Gaigler Utz said.
Resident Toby Allred said, “Wasteful spending!!! That’s what Democratic politicians love to do with OUR money!!”
Others said, “Build a natural gas and Power Plants First!!!“
Maryland Democrats really dropped the ball on power grid management. They put a fake climate crisis first, retired fossil fuel power generators early, and denied any new reliable fossil fuel power generation capacity on the grid, all while pushing unreliable solar and wind. The end result of bad stewardship is bankrupting the working class in the central part of the state with exploding power bills.
Maryland is a one-party rule of Democratic kings and queens. Prioritizing the Sphere over working-class folks comes as no surprise.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/20/2026 – 20:30
Trillizos adolescentes representan a Jamaica: uno compite en Olímpicos, dos animan tras quedar fuera
Por PAT GRAHAM
Los trillizos adolescentes que representan a Jamaica en las carreras de esquí se dirigirán a los Juegos Olímpicos de Milán-Cortina: uno para competir y dos para animarlo desde las gradas.
Las posibilidades de Helaina y Henniyah Rivers, de ganarse un lugar junto a su hermano Henri IV, se evaporaron el fin de semana pasado, cuando se quedaron a poco de lograrlo. Pero el equipo Rivers aún se dirigirá el mes próximo a Bormio, Italia, para ver a Henri IV competir en el eslalon.
Los trillizos estaban en una misión este invierno para representar a Jamaica, el país natal de su madre, en los Juegos Olímpicos y cumplir un sueño familiar que comenzó cuando su padre, siendo niño, encontró un par de esquíes y botas en un ático. Quieren ser un catalizador para inspirar a otros esquiadores negros en lo que es un deporte predominantemente blanco.
Por supuesto, las hermanas estaban decepcionadas. Desde noviembre, cada una ha competido más de 20 veces en carreras por todas partes en un esfuerzo por ganarse un lugar. Pero todo se ha canalizado ahora en apoyo y felicidad por su hermano.
“Solo les dije lo orgulloso que estaba de todo lo que han hecho hasta este punto”, expresó su padre, Henri, en una entrevista telefónica con The Associated Press. “No importa si clasificas o no, intentaste y diste lo mejor de ti. Lo dejaste todo en la pista y eso es todo. Haces lo mejor cada vez y no importa tanto dónde estén los resultados”.
Los jóvenes de 18 años, nacidos con minutos de diferencia en Brooklyn, han estado por todo el mundo compitiendo en carreras de menor nivel en un esfuerzo por clasificar para los eventos técnicos, eslalon y eslalon gigante. Su última oportunidad fue el fin de semana pasado en el área de esquí Proctor en Nueva Hampshire, una carrera de eslalon.
Henniyah fue 55ª mientras que Helaina llegó a la segunda manga pero no terminó. Simplemente se quedaron sin tiempo para mejorar lo suficiente su ubicación como para ganarse un lugar en Cortina, el sitio de las carreras femeninas que contará con Mikaela Shiffrin y Lindsey Vonn, de 41 años.
“Ellas lo ven como pensando: ‘¡Oh, no lo logré’!”, comentó su padre. “No tiene nada que ver con eso. Perseveraron. Hemos estado en la carretera durante las últimas ocho semanas y simplemente aguantaron e hicieron lo que tenían que hacer. Se quedaron un poco cortas. Está bien”.
En dos semanas, la familia se va a Italia. Sus integrantes verán a Henri IV desfilar en la ceremonia de apertura, con su nuevo equipo de Jamaica, y luego lo animarán cuando compita el 16 de febrero en el eslalon.
“No hay manera de que no estemos allí para eso”, manifestó el padre.
Después de los Juegos Olímpicos, los trillizos pondrán su mirada en el campeonato mundial juvenil de esquí alpino que se llevará a cabo en Noruega del 5 al 15 de marzo.
Luego, vendrá el entrenamiento con la vista puesta en los Juegos de Invierno de 2030 en los Alpes franceses.
“Pueden ver lo que va a suceder”, dijo su padre, quien es el presidente de la National Brotherhood of Snowsports (NBS), una organización que ayuda a atletas negros en deportes de invierno. “Así que en 2030, todos van a representar. Todos lo lograrán.
“Tienen varias oportunidades más por delante”.
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Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Un vistazo a la Junta de Paz creada por Trump y quiénes han sido invitados
Por JULIA FRANKEL
JERUSALÉN (AP) — La Junta de Paz, liderada por el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump, fue concebida originalmente como un grupo pequeño de líderes mundiales que supervisarían el plan de alto al fuego en Gaza. Pero las ambiciones del gobierno de Trump se han expandido hacia un concepto más extenso y Trump ha invitado a docenas de naciones e insinuado que dicha agrupación pronto mediará en conflictos globales —como un pseudoconsejo de Seguridad de Naciones Unidas—.
Se esperan más detalles cuando Trump participe en un anuncio sobre la Junta de Paz el jueves en la reunión del Foro Económico Mundial en Davos, Suiza.
Los estatutos de la junta aún no se han hecho públicos, pero un borrador obtenido por The Associated Press indica que gran parte del poder estará en manos de Trump. Una contribución de 1.000 millones de dólares asegura la membresía permanente, según el borrador.
Esto es lo que hay que saber:
El alcance de la Junta de Paz parece ir más allá de Gaza
El gobierno de Trump ahora parece visualizar que la Junta de Paz tenga un alcance mucho más amplio y más allá de Gaza.
Cuando un periodista le preguntó el martes si la junta debería reemplazar a la ONU, Trump respondió: “Podría ser”. Afirmó que el organismo mundial “no ha sido de mucha ayuda” y “nunca ha alcanzado su potencial”, pero también dijo que la ONU debería continuar “porque el potencial es enorme”.
En cartas enviadas el viernes a varios líderes mundiales para invitarlos a la junta, Trump dijo que esta “adoptará un enfoque nuevo y audaz para resolver conflictos globales”, lo que indica que podría actuar como rival del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU —el órgano más poderoso de la organización mundial, creado tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial—.
Un borrador de los estatutos de la junta —obtenido de un diplomático europeo y cuyo contenido fue confirmado por un funcionario estadounidense el lunes— utiliza un lenguaje ambicioso para describir sus aspiraciones.
Enfatiza “la necesidad de un organismo internacional de consolidación de la paz más ágil y eficaz” y afirma que una “paz duradera” requiere “la valentía de alejarse de modelos e instituciones que han fracasado con demasiada frecuencia”. Añade el objetivo de “asegurar la paz en lugares donde ha resultado elusiva durante demasiado tiempo”.
Según los estatutos, el presidente de dicha junta —que Trump dice que será él— tiene la facultad de invitar a los Estados miembros, resolver cualquier empate en una votación, decidir la frecuencia de las reuniones y crear o disolver entidades subsidiarias.
Los gastos de la Junta de la Paz se financiarán con las contribuciones de los Estados miembros, que cumplen mandatos de tres años. Los miembros que aporten “más de mil millones de dólares estadounidenses en efectivo” durante su primer año podrán tener un puesto permanente en la junta, dice el borrador.
El borrador se encuentra en constante revisión, no está finalizado y podría sufrir cambios significativos, según el funcionario estadounidense, quien no estaba autorizado a hacer comentarios públicos y habló bajo condición de anonimato.
Se ha invitado a países de todo el mundo
Hasta el momento, Emiratos Árabes Unidos, Marruecos, Vietnam, Kazajistán, Hungría, Argentina y Bielorrusia han aceptado participar.
Trump también envió cartas de invitación a Santiago Peña, presidente paraguayo; Mark Carney, primer ministro canadiense; Abdul Fatah el-Sissi, presidente de Egipto; y a Recep Tayyip Erdogan, el presidente turco. Además, Rusia, Israel, India, Eslovenia, Tailandia y la Comisión Europea han dicho que recibieron invitaciones.
El Kremlin “estudia los detalles” ahora y buscará claridad sobre “todos los matices” en comunicaciones con Estados Unidos, declaró Dmitry Peskovel, portavoz del Kremlin. Trump confirmó el lunes por la noche que Vladímir Putin, el presidente ruso, fue invitado.
Se ha invitado a Israel a unirse, aunque se desconoce si Benjamin Netanyahu, el primer ministro israelí, ha aceptado la oferta, informó un funcionario israelí quien habló bajo condición de anonimato para tratar un asunto diplomático entre bastidores.
La oficina de Netanyahu afirmó anteriormente que la composición de la junta —que incluye a Turquía, un rival regional clave— no fue coordinada con el gobierno israelí y “es contraria a su política”, sin aclarar sus objeciones. Bezalel Smotrich, el ministro de finanzas israelí de extrema derecha, criticó a la junta y pidió a Israel que asuma la responsabilidad unilateral del futuro de Gaza.
No quedó claro de inmediato cuántos o cuáles otros líderes recibirían invitaciones.
Algunos aliados de Estados Unidos ya han declinado
Francia, que mantiene un desacuerdo con el gobierno de Trump por su deseo de anexar Groenlandia —un territorio autónomo de Dinamarca, que es aliado de la OTAN—, no planea unirse a la Junta de la Paz por el momento.
“Sí a implementar el plan de paz presentado por el presidente de Estados Unidos, que apoyamos incondicionalmente, pero no a la creación de una organización como la que se ha presentado, que reemplazaría a Naciones Unidas”, dijo el martes Jean-Noël Barrot, el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores francés.
Cuando se le informó el lunes por la noche que era improbable que Emmanuel Macron —el presidente francés— se uniera, Trump respondió: “Bueno, nadie lo quiere porque dejará el cargo muy pronto”.
Un día después, Trump se refirió a Macron como “amigo mío”, pero reiteró que el líder francés “no estará allí por mucho más tiempo”.
Los otros comités que trabajarán con la Junta de Paz
La Casa Blanca anunció que una junta ejecutiva trabajará para implementar la visión de la Junta de Paz.
Los miembros de la junta ejecutiva incluyen a Marco Rubio, secretario de Estado estadounidense; Steve Witkoff, enviado de Trump; Jared Kushner, yerno de Trump; Tony Blair, ex primer ministro británico; Marc Rowan, director general de Apollo Global Management; Ajay Banga, presidente del Banco Mundial; y Robert Gabriel, asesor adjunto de seguridad nacional de Trump.
La Casa Blanca también anunció a los miembros de otra junta, la Junta Ejecutiva de Gaza, que, según el alto al fuego, estarán a cargo de implementar la complicada segunda fase del acuerdo. Esto incluye el despliegue de una fuerza de seguridad internacional, el desarme de Hamás y la reconstrucción del territorio devastado por la guerra.
Nickolay Mladenov, expolítico búlgaro y enviado de la ONU para Oriente Medio, será el representante de la junta ejecutiva de Gaza que supervise los asuntos cotidianos. Otros miembros son: Witkoff; Kushner; Blair; Rowan; Hakan Fidan, ministro de Asuntos Exteriores turco; Ali Al-Thawadi, diplomático catarí; Hassan Rashad, director de la Agencia General de Inteligencia de Egipto; Reem Al-Hashimy, ministra emiratí; Yakir Gabay, empresario israelí; y Sigrid Kaag, ex vice primera ministra de Holanda y experta en Oriente Medio.
La junta también supervisará a un comité recién nombrado de tecnócratas palestinos que gestionará los asuntos cotidianos de Gaza.
___
Los periodistas de The Associated Press Sam Mednick, en Tel Aviv, Israel; Matthew Lee y Aamer Madhani, en Washington; y Catherine Gaschka, en París, contribuyeron a este despacho.
President Trump recaps his first year back in office with winding remarks, paper tossing and impressions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump wanted to recap his first year back in office. And it felt like he wanted to spend the next year doing it.
For more than 100 minutes, the president held forth Tuesday at the White House, where he went on a winding journey through his last year, interspersed with plenty of asides, a few impressions of other politicians and critics and, eventually, questions from the media.
Trump riffed on things his administration has done, starting with an awkwardly quiet stretch of show-and-tell in which he held up photographs of people he said immigration officers had arrested in Minnesota.
“I’m going through this because I think we have plenty of time,” Trump said.
The drawn-out performance came at a moment of international alarm and domestic tension. Trump over the weekend shook the NATO alliance by threatening tariffs on Europe to strong-arm his aim of taking over Greenland. At home, tensions were high after his administration ordered 1,500 active-duty soldiers to be ready to possibly deploy to the streets of Minneapolis as he threatens to impose the Insurrection Act.
Tuesday’s news conference came just hours before Trump was set to head to Europe for a meeting with global leaders anxious to discuss his designs on Greenland, the new international peacemaking body he wants to form and a myriad of other global issues.
His fellow Republicans have been urging him to speak more to voters’ concerns about affordability as they stare down crucial midterm elections this year.
“One of the reasons I’m doing this news conference, I think it’s important — we have taken a mess and made it really good,” Trump said. “It’s going to get even better.”
Trump tosses stack of accomplishments
For more than 10 minutes, he showed off mugshots of people he said had been arrested, remarking on their alleged crimes. At one point, he asked the reporters in the room, “You’re not getting bored with this, right?”
Seeming to realize he was losing his audience, Trump told them they were lucky that he only went through “like 100” mugshots, then tossed the stack on the Briefing Room floor next to his lectern.
After futzing with a large binder clip, remarking on how it could have taken his finger off, he assured everyone, “I would not have shown the pain.” He threw the binder clip on the floor, too.
Not long after, he hoisted into the air a thick stack of paper with the word “Accomplishments” written in bold letters on top, a list he said would take him more than a week to read.
“It’s big stuff too. We have the hottest country in the world,” Trump said.
And then the president threw the accomplishments onto the floor, where they landed with a loud thud.
Trump has long said he is his best spokesman, dating back to his real estate days, when he was known for calling reporters to promote projects or pitch ideas. On Tuesday, he seemed to acknowledge that some of his economic arguments weren’t landing with voters.
“Maybe I have bad public relations people, but we’re not getting it across,” Trump said.
Hell’s Angels and other tangents
But as he touted accomplishments, he also went on some tangents.
In talking about immigration enforcement actions, Trump claimed that the immigrants his administration has removed from the U.S. make the Hell’s Angels “look like the sweetest people on Earth,” only to then pause and compliment the infamous motorcycle gang.
“I like the Hell’s Angels,” Trump said. “They voted for me. They protected me, actually.”
On his signing of an executive order “to bring back mental institutions and insane asylums,” Trump waxed nostalgic, telling a story of walking to Little League baseball with his mother, who told him a nearby psychiatric facility was home to “very sick people.”
The president also had a moment of reflection on the divine. Trump has suggested in the past that intervention from above brought him back into office and saved him from an assassination attempt. A reporter asked Tuesday if he believed God was proud of him.
“I do,” Trump said, giving a soft laugh. “I think God is very proud of the job I’ve done, and that includes for religion.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/20/trump-first-year-back-in-office/
Pakistan To Send Chinese Warplanes To Libyan Faction Under Gen. Haftar
Pakistan To Send Chinese Warplanes To Libyan Faction Under Gen. Haftar
Pakistan has sealed a deal worth over $4 billion to sell military equipment, including warplanes jointly built with China, to General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, according to a report by Reuters.
The deal could significantly alter the military balance of power in the oil-rich North African country, where Haftar rules over the eastern half and a UN-recognized government led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh in Tripoli controls the west.
Pakistan Air Force JF-17, via Military Watch Magazine
“Please make your armed forces as strong as possible because armed forces did guarantee the existence of countries,” Pakistan military chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said in a visit to Benghazi last week, where he met Haftar’s son, Saddam. Reuters reported that the arms deal was finalized in that meeting.
“Libya is a land of lions,” Munir said in a video clip of his address to Libyan National Army officers, referencing the Libyan Islamic Scholar Omar al-Mukhtar, whose struggle in the 1920-1930s against the Italian occupation of Libya was made famous in the 1981 movie Lion of the Desert starring Anthony Quinn.
A copy of the arms deal seen by Reuters before it was finalized said Haftar’s LNA would purchase 16 JF-17 fighter jets, a multirole combat aircraft jointly developed by Pakistan and China, along with 12 Super Mushak trainer aircraft, used for basic pilot training.
One of the Pakistani officials who spoke with Reuters said the agreement would be spread over two and a half years, with land, sea and air equipment included. Two Pakistani officials said the deal could reach up to $4.6bn – Pakistan’s largest in history.
Neither the Tripoli government nor Haftar’s forces have a substantial air force. Haftar made a failed bid to conquer Tripoli in 2019 with the backing of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Russia. Turkey intervened to defend the government in Tripoli, sending mercenaries and TB2 drones. Since then, it has stationed thousands of troops in the Western half of Libya and sealed a controversial maritime agreement with the government in Tripoli.
Dbeibeh was nominated prime minister of Libya in 2021 as part of a UN-backed process to prepare the country for elections. Instead, he has consolidated power in his hands and curried favor with powerful militias that control Tripoli to stay in power.
After the NATO-led removal of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya became a theatre for proxy conflict between Gulf states and Turkey. However, those battle lines have blurred in recent years.
Libya’s shifting alliances
The UAE and Saudi Arabia have extended ties to Tripoli, while Turkey has courted Haftar through his son and likely successor, Saddam. Earlier this year, discussions were held about Khalifa Haftar visiting Turkey, but the visit never materialized.
Islamabad is close to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The latter remains the closest Gulf state to Haftar, but Saudi Arabia also provided support and lobbied on his behalf. Russia’s embassy in Riyadh once served as a facilitator for Haftar’s close ties to Moscow, MEE reported.
The Haftar family’s ties with Egypt have come under strain over their support and coordination with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan.
Libya’s lawless southeast and Sudan’s Darfur share a border, and Haftar has facilitated the shipment of arms to the RSF, MEE has reported. Arab officials in June said that forces aligned with Haftar launched a cross-border attack alongside the RSF on forces loyal to the Sudanese army, which Cairo backs.
Pakistan’s decision to sell arms to Haftar could also complicate its diplomatic relations with a key partner. While the Gulf states may not be alarmed by the deal, it could rile Turkey, which has close diplomatic and security links to Pakistan.
Ankara backs Pakistan in its territorial dispute with India over Kashmir. Turkey is the third largest arms supplier to Pakistan, although it is massively outperformed by the largest, China.
Pakistan’s rising role
Pakistan’s cash-strapped government is trying to boost its arms exports, capitalising on its military hardware’s performance in a deadly military clash with India in May.
Arms have poured into Libya for years despite an arms embargo that the UN has imposed on the country since 2011.mAlthough Pakistan will be selling Chinese weapons to Haftar, Pakistan’s relations with the US have also improved substantially since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in October, live from a Gaza ceasefire signing ceremony in Egypt. Munir, who is seen as the more influential Pakistani leader, has met twice with Trump this year and is expected to visit the White House a third time to discuss Gaza.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/20/2026 – 20:05
Trump resume su primer año de gobierno con comentarios dispersos, imitaciones y arrojando papeles
Por MICHELLE L. PRICE y MEG KINNARD
WASHINGTON (AP) — El presidente Donald Trump quería recapitular su primer año de regreso en la Casa Blanca. Y se sintió como si hacerlo le fuera a tomar todo el próximo año.
El presidente se extendió el martes durante más de 100 minutos en la Casa Blanca, donde emprendió un sinuoso viaje a través de su último año, intercalado con muchas digresiones, algunas imitaciones de críticos y otros políticos y, finalmente, preguntas de los medios.
Trump improvisó sobre las cosas que su gobierno ha hecho, comenzando con un tramo incómodamente silencioso en el que mostró fotografías de personas que, según él, han sido detenidas en Minnesota por agentes de inmigración.
“Hago esto porque creo que tenemos mucho tiempo”, señaló Trump.
La prolongada presentación se produjo en un momento de alarma internacional y tensiones dentro del país. Durante el fin de semana, Trump estremeció a la alianza de la OTAN al amenazar a Europa con aranceles a fin de alcanzar su objetivo de tomar el control de Groenlandia. A nivel nacional, las tensiones se recrudecieron después de que su gobierno ordenó que 1.500 soldados en servicio activo estén listos para un posible despliegue a las calles de Minneapolis mientras amenaza con imponer la Ley de Insurrección.
La conferencia de prensa del martes se llevó a cabo apenas horas antes de que Trump parta rumbo a Europa para reunirse con dignatarios mundiales ansiosos por discutir sus planes en torno a Groenlandia, el nuevo cuerpo internacional de paz que quiere formar y varios otros temas globales.
Los republicanos han instado al presidente a hablar más sobre las preocupaciones de los votantes en cuestiones como la asequibilidad mientras se enfrentan a unas cruciales elecciones intermedias este año.
“Una de las razones por las que estoy haciendo esta conferencia de prensa, creo que es importante: recibimos un desastre y lo hemos mejorado mucho”, dijo Trump. “Va a mejorar aún más”.
Trump presume una pila de logros
Durante más de 10 minutos, mostró fotos de personas que, según él, habían sido arrestadas, comentando sobre sus supuestos crímenes. En un momento le preguntó a los reporteros en la sala: “No se están aburriendo con esto, ¿verdad?”.
Pareciendo darse cuenta de que estaba perdiendo al público, Trump les dijo que tenían suerte de que sólo hubiera pasado “como 100” fotos, luego lanzó la pila de imágenes al suelo de la Sala de Prensa.
Después de juguetear con un gran clip de carpeta, afirmando que pudo haberle arrancado el dedo, le aseguró a todos: “No hubiera mostrado dolor”. También arrojó el clip al suelo.
Poco después, levantó un gruesa pila de papeles con la palabra “Logros” en la parte superior, una lista que, según él, le tomaría más de una semana leer.
“También son cosas importantes. Tenemos el mejor país del mundo”, subrayó Trump.
Y luego arrojó los logros al suelo.
Desde sus días en el sector inmobiliario, cuando era conocido por llamar a los reporteros para promocionar proyectos o presentar ideas, Trump ha dicho que es su mejor portavoz. El martes pareció reconocer que algunos de sus argumentos económicos no estaban resonando entre los votantes.
“Tal vez tengo malas personas de relaciones públicas, pero no lo estamos llegando”, aseguró Trump.
Hell’s Angels y otras digresiones
También se desvió mientras promocionaba sus logros.
Al hablar sobre las operaciones de inmigración, Trump afirmó que los inmigrantes que su gobierno ha deportado del país hacen que los Hell’s Angels “parezcan las personas más dulces del mundo”, sólo para luego elogiar a la infame banda de motociclistas.
“Me caen bien los Hell’s Angels”, dijo Trump. “Votaron por mí. De hecho, me protegieron”.
Sobre su orden ejecutiva “para traer de vuelta las instituciones psiquiátricas y manicomios”, Trump se puso nostálgico y contó una anécdota de cuando iba a un juego de béisbol de Liga Infantil con su madre, quien le dijo que una instalación psiquiátrica cercana era el hogar de “personas muy enfermas”.
El presidente también tuvo un momento de reflexión religiosa. Trump ha insinuado en otras ocasiones que una intervención divina lo llevó de regreso al cargo y lo salvó de un intento de asesinato. Un reportero le preguntó el martes si creía que Dios estaba orgulloso de él.
“Sí”, respondió Trump, dando una suave risa. “Creo que Dios está muy orgulloso del trabajo que he hecho, y eso incluye la religión”.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Paris mourns Valentino, the last titan of couture’s golden age
PARIS — Valentino Garavani’s death cast a long shadow over the opening day of Paris Fashion Week menswear Tuesday, with front-row guests and industry figures mourning the passing of one of the last towering names of 20th-century couture — an Italian designer whose working life was closely entwined with the Paris runways.
Valentino, 93, died at his Rome residence, the Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti Foundation said in a statement announcing his death. While he built his house in Rome, he spent decades presenting collections in France.
He “was one of the last big couturiers who really embodied what was fashion in the 20th century,” said Pierre Groppo, fashion editor-in-chief at Vanity Fair France.
On a day meant to sell the future, many guests said they were thinking about what fashion has lost: the couturier as a living institution.
Groppo pointed to the codes that made Valentino instantly legible — “the dots, the ruffles, the knots” — and to a generation of designers who, he said, “in a way, invented what is celebrity culture.”
Valentino’s vision was built on a simple idea: make women look luminous, then make the moment unforgettable.
He dressed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor, among others, fixed his signature “Valentino red” in the public imagination, and — through his decades-long partnership with Giancarlo Giammetti — helped turn the designer himself into part of the spectacle, as recognizable as the clients in his front row.
The end of a fashion era
Prominent fashion writer Luke Leitch framed the loss in similarly outsized terms, calling Valentino “the last of the fashion ‘leviathans of that generation’,” and saying it was “absolutely” the end of a certain class of designer: figures whose names could carry a global house, and whose authority came not from viral speed but from permanence.
Trained in Paris before founding his maison in Rome, Valentino became a rare bridge figure: Italian by origin, but fluent in the rituals that made Paris couture an institution. His career moved between those two capitals of elegance, bringing Roman grandeur into a system that still treats fashion not only as commerce, but as ceremony.
Even as he aged, the house’s founder kept turning up at its couture and ready-to-wear shows, as observed by one Associated Press journalist — until he eventually retreated from public life, all the while radiating quiet grandeur from his front-row seat.
For some in Paris on Tuesday, the loss felt personal precisely because Valentino’s world was never only Italian.
Groppo recalled the designer as “very much more than a fashion brand,” adding: “It was a lifestyle.”
That lifestyle — couture polish, social glamour, and the conviction that elegance could be a form of power — remains a reference point even as fashion accelerates toward louder branding and faster cycles.
“It’s quite sad as he’s so important to the fashion industry, and he contributed a lot and I cannot forget the stunning red he created,” said Lolo Zhang, a Chinese fashion influencer attending Louis Vuitton ’s show in Paris.
“He always celebrated pure beauty, and architecture for the silhouette, and how he used color. The old era just passed by.”
Other guests described a delayed realization — the kind that arrives only when a figure who seemed permanent is suddenly gone.
YSL, Chanel and Valentino
“There are some people who want to be Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel. … There are also people who are spontaneously Valentino,” said Guy-Claude Agboton, deputy editor of Ideat magazine. “It’s a question of identity.”
For Paris fashion observer Benedict Epinay, the grief was bound up with memory. And with the emotional charge of Valentino’s final bow.
“It was such a great moment. I was lucky enough to attend the last show he gave,” Epinay said. “It was so moving because we knew at that time it was the last show.”
Fashion observer Arfan Ghani pointed to what Valentino represented to younger designers: a “classy” standard of restraint in an era that often rewards noise.
“Because it was very classical materials,” Ghani said. “It wasn’t as loud as a lot of other of these brands are with branding.”
Paris-based sculptor Ranti Bam described Valentino in the language of form: less trend than structure, less look than line.
“As a sculptor I saw Valentino as an artist,” Bam said. “He transcended fashion into sculpture.”
“He didn’t follow trends, he pursued form,” she added. “That’s why his work doesn’t date, it endures.”
The fashion house Valentino has for years continued under a new generation of leadership and design — still showcased in Paris.
Associated Press writer Amy Seraphin in Paris contributed to this report.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/20/paris-mourns-valentino/
Salford, el club de Beckham y Neville, avanza a encuentro de Copa FA contra Man City
SALFORD, Inglaterra (AP) — Salford City enfrentará al Manchester City en la cuarta ronda de la Copa de la FA ras vencer el martes 3-2 al Swindon Town.
Luke Garbutt anotó el gol de la victoria para el club de cuarta división con un tiro libre curvado a los 68 minutos. El club es propiedad de un consorcio que incluye a los exjugadores del Manchester United, David Beckham y Gary Neville.
Salford superó la tercera ronda por primera vez en su historia y la recompensa es otro viaje al Etihad Stadium el 14 de febrero.
El City venció 8-0 a Salford en la tercera ronda la temporada pasada.
___
Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/deportes
Gov. JB Pritzker, Attorney General Kwame Raoul look back on first year of Trump 2.0
Gov. JB Pritzker and other Illinois leaders on Tuesday marked the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term by vowing to keep pushing back on the administration’s actions, while acknowledging that months of uncertainty, funding cuts and legal fights had taken a toll.
From widespread freezes on federal grants in January to an unprecedented 64-day surge of deportation raids in and around Chicago in the autumn, the first 365 days of the second Republican Trump administration have had a seismic impact on Illinois, Pritzker and fellow Democrat Attorney General Kwame Raoul said at separate events.
“When you’re governor, you want very much to try to address all these problems. And the resources that we know are available, and that have historically been available to the states — that now the federal government has taken away. And we can’t fix all of these things,” Pritzker said, following a roundtable-style discussion in Uptown with several Illinoisans who said they had been adversely affected by recent federal actions.
In terms of cuts, services from Head Start preschool to AmeriCorps to mental health support have faced significant trimming, though in some cases the Trump administration reversed its decisions to stop funding or was forced by a court to change course. In the coming year, Illinois will likely need to deal with cuts to food assistance and Medicaid as a result of Trump’s tax and spend bill signed into law this summer.
As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have had less of a presence in Chicago in recent weeks than in the fall, Pritzker on Tuesday said Illinois “wrote the playbook” for pushing back on agents’ tactics as they move into Minnesota and other parts of the country.
“I’ve had many conversations — several conversations, I should say, with the governor of Minnesota (Tim Walz) to offer any help that we’ve got,” Pritzker said.
The Trump administration has said its immigration enforcement targets the “worst of the worst” individuals who have both committed violent crimes and are in the country without legal status. In Minneapolis, as in Chicago, however, many people without violent criminal records have also been swept up.
Speakers at Pritzker’s roundtable listed ICE activity, funding cuts, the government shutdown last fall and potentially rising health care costs at the top of their concerns.
They also said they felt targeted by the Trump administration’s actions on multiple fronts, including a working mother who advocates for food security and a doctor dealing with medical issues of his own.
Student Jacky Salgado, center, speaks during a roundtable event with Gov. JB Pritzker and others in Uptown, Jan. 20, 2026. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Master’s student Jacky Salgado said she had to deal with both uncertainty about funding for her position as a research assistant at the University of Illinois Chicago and the added stress of supporting loved ones as they feared immigration enforcement.
“It was just a lot, and I wasn’t the only one,” she said. “I finished the semester out, but it was definitely hard academically, mentally, even physically, having to get up even earlier.”
At a separate event, Raoul, whose office has been fighting the Trump administration in court over many of the policies Trump has sought to enact, said the federal administration’s actions strained his staff of attorneys.
Since Trump took office Jan. 20, 2025, Raoul said, his office has filed more than 50 lawsuits — often partnering with other states’ attorneys general. And it has weighed in on other cases with over 100 legal opinions, including against tactics immigration enforcement agents have used during missions, the Trump administration’s attempt to deploy Illinois National Guard troops against Pritzker’s wishes, its attempt to eliminate birthright citizenship and dismantle certain federal government operations.
“He has said on national TV that he does not know whether or not he has to follow the Constitution,” Raoul said of Trump during a downtown Chicago news conference, flanked by a number of lawyers from his office. “Over the past year, he has repeatedly demonstrated a disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law at large. His unlawful actions this past year have been intended to demoralize, confuse and exhaust.”
In a tight budget climate in Illinois, especially amid uncertainty about how much federal money the Trump administration will deprive the state, Raoul has pushed for his office to receive more state funding as it files more lawsuits and challenges Trump’s measures.
“Today, I’m joined by the hardworking attorneys of my office to say we are not demoralized and we’re certainly not exhausted,” Raoul also said. “We’re standing our ground to defend the rights of the people of Illinois and the rule of law, and we’re winning.”
Raoul said he’s hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court, despite its 6-3 conservative majority, will issue more favorable rulings for his office as it did in late December when the high court refused to allow Trump to deploy Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago-area streets. But Raoul has also noted that his office’s efforts prompted the Trump administration to back off or second-guess its moves.
“The strain has been a real one. It has required more than what we would call reasonable hours for these people behind me,” Raoul said.
Gov. JB Pritzker participates in a roundtable discussion in Uptown, Jan. 20, 2026, with Illinoisans who said they had been adversely affected by recent federal actions. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Pritzker’s opposition to Trump has elevated his national political stature, even more than in 2024, when he was vetted as a potential running mate for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Another Democratic governor considered to be Harris’ vice presidential nominee was Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has reportedly written in a new book that he was asked by the Harris team about his ties to Israel to a point that he found offensive.
Both Shapiro and Pritzker are Jewish.
Answering reporters’ questions after his roundtable Tuesday, Pritzker said he didn’t find the Harris campaign’s questions to be inappropriate when he was vetted.
“The questions are tough. I think you’ve got to be tough during the process. I recognize why the questions are tough,” Pritzker said.
“I mean, what’s appropriate and inappropriate in the context of getting, as one pundit calls it, an MRI for your soul, when you’re out there in the national political arena?” Pritzker said.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/20/pritzker-raoul-trump-one-year/
Fauci & Collins Brushed Off ‘Impressive’ Data For COVID Natural Immunity
Fauci & Collins Brushed Off ‘Impressive’ Data For COVID Natural Immunity
Newly released emails reveal that senior Biden administration health officials privately grappling with research suggesting recovery from Covid-19 infection provided stronger protection than vaccination alone – at the very moment the federal government was preparing sweeping vaccine mandates in 2021.
The correspondence, released under the Freedom of Information Act to the watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust and shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation, offers the clearest documentary evidence to date that top officials recognized scientific uncertainties around one-size-fits-all vaccination policies, even as they publicly dismissed the value of natural immunity.
At the center of the internal debate was a massive Israeli study of nearly 800,000 people that found prior infection conferred substantially stronger protection against reinfection than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. In private emails, Dr. Anthony Fauci described the findings as “rather impressive,” acknowledging both the scale and rigor of the research, which had received prominent coverage in Science.
“The data [in the Israeli study] as reported in the news article look rather impressive . . . . but I would imagine that it is more complicated than we think . . . . [I]t is conceivable and possibly likely that those who have had a serious systemic infection develop a high level of immunity that even surpasses that of full vaccination,” Fauci wrote in an Aug. 27, 2021 email with the subject line “RE: Post infection protection vs vaccine immunity.”
Yet the same emails reveal officials’ concern that such findings could undermine the administration’s push for universal vaccination – and later, mandates – by complicating public messaging.
The documents lend new weight to claims made over the past four years by critics inside and outside government that federal agencies sidelined natural immunity not because of weak evidence, but because it was administratively inconvenient. Verifying prior infection, several officials suggested, would make policy enforcement harder and public guidance less uniform.
Acknowledging the Evidence – Privately
In exchanges with colleagues that included the surgeon general, the NIH director, and the CDC director, Fauci weighed the Israeli data against a far smaller CDC study of a few hundred Kentuckians. That CDC analysis, published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, suggested vaccination after infection reduced reinfection risk more than infection alone. As Just the News points out, “The Biden administration often used MMWR, also not peer-reviewed, to push weak research that justified its policies.”
The contrast was stark. The Israeli research – though a preprint at the time – showed natural immunity was many times more protective against reinfection and symptomatic disease. Fauci conceded the Israeli work was compelling, even while noting its retrospective design and voluntary testing.
He also speculated that the strength of natural immunity likely varied with illness severity, suggesting that recovery from “serious systemic infection” might offer better protection than vaccination – an assessment that ran counter to the administration’s public insistence that vaccination was superior across the board.
Bureaucracy Over Nuance
The emails echo statements later made by Paul Offit, a pediatrician and longtime FDA vaccine adviser, who admitted on a podcast four years ago that senior officials discussed – but ultimately rejected – recognizing natural immunity as a basis for exemption from vaccine mandates. According to Offit, the group broadly agreed that prior infection mattered immunologically. The obstacle, he said, was bureaucratic: how to document it.
NEW FOIA’d documents show that Fauci privately acknowledged “impressive” data showed natural immunity was more protective than COVID vaccines even as the Biden admin implemented mandates in 2021.
Privately officials acknowledged the strength of a study of 770,000+ people showing… pic.twitter.com/NeklY4t9GT
— Emily Kopp (@emilyakopp) January 14, 2026
Offit has since criticized aspects of the administration’s Covid vaccine strategy, including booster recommendations for low-risk groups and what he described as selective data-sharing with advisory committees. His term on a key FDA vaccine panel was not extended in 2022.
While the pediatrician and vaccine inventor told Just the News the meeting’s importance had been exaggerated, Offit elaborated after the 2024 election on the 2021 meeting’s details, telling the same podcast “we all basically agreed” on an exemption but “the question was, bureaucratically,” how to verify natural immunity.
He also said Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told him at a 2023 meeting that the feds didn’t target “high-risk groups” for vaccination because that was too “nuanced” and some at high risk wouldn’t get jabbed unless everyone was told to do it. -Just the News
The newly released records also show senior officials struggling to reconcile conflicting data while preparing talking points to counter claims that vaccines were unnecessary for those already infected. In one email, CDC Covid response medical officer John Brooks summarized the state of the science: both infection and vaccination induce immunity; infection-derived protection appeared more durable; but infection carried higher risks and vaccination was “safe.”
Dr. John Brooks, CDC Chief Medical Officer, told a US Senate investigation that when the @CDC recommended cloth masks on March 31, 2020, the evidence in favor was “iron clad.”
Implication: the CDC ignored the RCTs & never followed evidence-based medicine principles. pic.twitter.com/RboW68NbsB
— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) January 16, 2024
Still, Brooks acknowledged that some of the data supporting boosters were thin – one cited study involved only four subjects – and that the CDC lacked a comprehensive meta-analysis comparing infection- and vaccine-induced immunity.
Messaging vs. Evidence
Francis Collins, then director of the NIH, privately described the Israeli natural-immunity findings as “somewhat puzzling,” precisely because the study appeared well designed. He asked colleagues whether the CDC had synthesized all available evidence, noting that officials had repeatedly told the public vaccines provided better protection.
“Does CDC have a ready meta-analysis of all of the studies that have compared the immunity from natural infection to vaccination?” Collins asked. “Most of us have been saying up until now that vaccines are actually better for providing immunity – what does the overall synthesis of the data now say?“
As JTN notes further, those private doubts contrasted sharply with Collins’s earlier public posture, particularly his aggressive dismissal of the Great Barrington Declaration, whose authors argued for focused protection rather than universal restrictions and mandates. In the emails, Collins appeared far more circumspect, seeking nuance rather than certainty.
Protect the Public’s Trust has accused the CDC of misrepresenting its own Kentucky study, noting that agency press materials blurred the distinction between vaccination after infection and vaccination versus infection alone. The group filed a formal scientific-integrity complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services over what it called misleading public claims.
Michael Chamberlain, the organization’s director, told the Daily Caller that the emails show officials attempting to “bury what didn’t fit their preferred narrative,” even as Americans relied on foreign research for answers to basic questions about Covid immunity.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/20/2026 – 19:40
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fauci-collins-brushed-impressive-data-covid-natural-immunity
