Category: News
Más de 34 años de cárcel para cada uno de 11 militares acusados desaparición de 4 menores en Ecuador
Associated Press
QUITO (AP) — La justicia de Ecuador sentenció el lunes a 34 años y ocho meses de prisión a cada uno de los 11 militares acusados de ser los autores directos de la desaparición forzada y muerte de cuatro menores un año atrás, mientras que condenó a dos años y medio de cárcel a otros cinco que cooperaron con la fiscalía en la investigación del hecho.
Un tribunal penal dispuso además que los sentenciados paguen una multa simbólica de 10.000 dólares a la familia de cada víctima, que piden disculpas públicas, una ceremonia de desagravio “reconociendo la responsabilidad del Estado y la institución militar” y la capacitación en derechos humanos de los militares condenados. La justicia absolvió a uno de los procesados.
El ocho de diciembre de 2024, los hermanos Ismael y Josué Arroyo, de 15 y 14 años, y sus amigos, Saúl Arboleda, de 14, y Steven Medina, de 11, desaparecieron luego de jugar al fútbol en un barrio del sur de la ciudad portuaria de Guayaquil. Videos develaron que dos patrullas militares los detuvieron alegando una supuesta alerta de robo.
Luego de varios días desaparecidos, los restos calcinados de los menores fueron hallados cerca de una base militar.
The US Economy Is Stronger After One Year Of The Trump Administration
The US Economy Is Stronger After One Year Of The Trump Administration
One year into Donald Trump’s new presidency, the verdict from the data is clear: the apocalyptic consensus forecasts have failed, and the United States stands as the only major developed economy combining strong growth, controlled inflation and fiscal consolidation.
The same analysts and institutions that applauded massive stimulus, monetary excess and regulatory excess under the previous The same analysts and institutions that applauded massive stimulus, monetary excess, and regulatory excess under the previous administration now struggle to explain why the U.S. economy, which they expected to sink into stagflation, is instead outperforming all of its G7 peers. Furthermore, the U.S. peers that followed net-zero, big government and big tax policies are in secular stagnation.
From the “tariff tantrum” to a global surprise
When Trump announced his new wave of tariffs and trade policy, much of the global consensus rushed to predict a disaster. I called it the tariff tantrum. Commentators warned of an inflation surge beyond 2021 levels, 6%–7% Treasury yields, collapsing investment, a recession, and a world turning its back on the United States in favour of supposedly more responsible governments in Europe.
Twelve months later, none of those predictions materialised. Instead, the U.S. 10-year yield has fallen to 4.1%; the U.S. is the only G7 economy growing robustly, while those nations that doubled down on hyperregulation, aggressive climate‑driven restrictions, high taxes and ever‑bigger government spending are stuck in stagnation despite enjoying a very positive tailwind of low oil and gas prices.
The “tariff tantrum” never became the structural shock that critics announced, because tariffs—however debatable on other grounds—do not cause inflation because they do not add currency units to the economy; uncontrolled public spending and monetary excess do.
Growth, investment and a rare fiscal adjustment.
The performance of the U.S. economy in 2025 is extraordinary not just in relative terms, but on its own merits. Real GDP is growing by around 3.8%, with the Atlanta Fed tracking roughly 3.5% annualised in the third quarter, and private investment is expanding at close to double-digit rates. Crucially, this improvement is happening while federal spending is being cut, not expanded as in other peers: public expenditure has fallen by about 3% over the year instead of disguising poor growth with unproductive federal outlays.
All international institutions have had to adjust quickly. The IMF, which initially projected a much weaker performance, now expects U.S. growth of about 2.1% in 2026, and several major research houses have revised their forecasts for 2025 up to around 2.5%, after initially warning of zero or even negative growth. Some economists have publicly acknowledged that the profession misread both the resilience of the U.S. private sector and the real impact of the tariff shock, admitting that from January onwards the consensus The consensus was consistently incorrect about the direction of the economy.
The most important factor is that the American expansion is not due to another wave of debt-fuelled political spending but rather to the recovery of the private sector, investment, trade, and productivity. In a world where most developed nations’ governments responded to every problem with more spending, more debt and more regulation, the new U.S. strategy creates a significant difference, and the results are much better.
Inflation under control
The most significant deviation from the consensus narrative came from inflation. The Keynesian consensus that saw no inflation risk in 2021 when government spending and money supply were soaring unanimously warned in early 2025 that tariffs would push inflation to new annual highs, even above the peaks seen under the previous administration. Instead, by November the consumer price index stands at about 2.7%, below prior expectations of 3.0% and galaxies away from the 6–7% ruin scenario sold to the public.
Core inflation tells the same story. The underlying index, excluding food and energy, is running at around 2.6%, significantly lower than in September and October 2024, when the same commentators enthusiastically defended the Biden‑era mix of giant spending and rapid Fed rate cuts. Over the twelve months to November, the all‑items index has risen 2.7%, after 3.0% in the previous twelve‑month period, and core inflation has increased just 2.6%. There is no sign of a tariff‑induced inflation wave in aggregate prices, only the inertia from the debt and spending binge inherited in 2024.
If anything, the trajectory suggests that as final data come in—particularly for food and energy components—the reported CPI could end up even lower. Independent analysis shows a 2.5% inflation estimate for November.
The lesson is clear: it was never tariffs that drove the global inflation spike, but a combination of uncontrolled fiscal expansion and central banks monetising deficits. The U.S. experience in 2025 proved this point once again.
Deficit, debt, and the politics of discipline.
While many advanced economies continue to drift into deeper deficits and higher debt, the U.S. has managed a rare success: combining growth with early signs of fiscal consolidation. The federal deficit has fallen by roughly 22%, from about 2.07 trillion dollars in November 2024 to approximately 1.6 trillion a year later, thanks to a mix of higher tax and trade revenues and spending cuts. Measured as a share of GDP, the deficit has dropped from a disastrous 7.1% inherited from the previous administration to an estimated 5.9%. Considering that almost 97% of the 2025 budget was already spent when the Trump administration took office, due to prior spending decisions and the continuation bills approved in 2024, the deficit reduction is even more commendable.
The reduction has been accompanied by a major tax reform. Trump has implemented the largest tax cut in decades, bringing the tax wedge on families below 30%, according to estimates from the Tax Foundation. In most OECD economies, policy has been the opposite: higher taxes on work and capital, justified by short‑term revenue needs but negative for investment and productivity.
On the spending side, the numbers are even more remarkable given the starting point. The new administration inherited a budget almost fully pre‑committed. Continuation bills and prior decisions had already locked in around 97% of federal spending. However, federal outlays still fell by 5.6% in the first quarter of 2025 and 5.3% in the second, with total public spending down 3.1% in the first half of the year. Trump has ordered an 8% cut in federal spending for 2026, signalling that fiscal adjustments are a core policy priority.
Debt dynamics are also encouraging. The new administration took office with federal debt around 36.22 trillion dollars and a legacy of 100% of GDP in committed but unfunded liabilities and roughly 1.5 trillion in previously approved obligations. Despite this poisoned inheritance, the debt has stabilised and edged slightly down to about 36.21 trillion, while the debt‑to‑GDP ratio has declined from roughly 122% to 120%, according to the Federal Reserve and independent analysis figures. Even a modest reversal sends a powerful message.
Labour market: native workers improve, and government and immigration shrink.
The labour market picture may be the least understood aspect of the U.S. turnaround. November’s employment report shows the best month for native private‑sector employment in absolute, seasonally adjusted terms since 2015, with real wages rising and a clear shift away from public employment and low‑productivity jobs fuelled by uncontrolled immigration. Weekly real wages are up about 0.8% over the year, and workers in middle- and lower-income categories see real gains of roughly 1.4%. Net real wages after taxes are rising at the fastest pace in years.
The unemployment rate stands at 4.6%, higher than in Canada, the UK, France, Italy and the Eurozone average.
According to household survey data, native employment has increased from around 130.6 million in November 2024 to 133.3 million a year later—an addition of roughly 2.63 million jobs. Over the same period, foreign employment has fallen modestly, by about 21,000, and total public‑sector employment has dropped by 188,000.
This change—more native private-sector jobs and fewer government- and immigration-dependent jobs—is a huge difference compared with Canada, the UK, or most European economies, where employment gains include large public-sector and heavily subsidised job increases. The U.S. experience shows that a combination of deregulation, tax cuts and stricter control of public payrolls can still deliver better jobs and higher real wages for domestic workers.
Trade deals have been a success.
The evidence contradicts the notion that tariffs would destroy America’s position in global trade. The previous administration left behind a massive trade deficit—around 79.8 billion dollars in November 2024, seasonally adjusted, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. By September 2025, that deficit had fallen to roughly 52.8 billion, a reduction of about one-third compared with a year earlier.
The combination of targeted tariffs, renegotiated trade agreements, and a clearer defence of domestic industry has improved trade flows without triggering the inflation explosion that many had predicted.
Other improvements that matter.
The Trump administration has moved strongly on several fronts: banning central bank digital currencies, rolling back “woke” regulatory and freedom-of-speech limits, healthcare reform, and committing to scrap ten regulations for every new one approved. In foreign policy, Washington has pushed for a peace agreement in Gaza, a more realistic path to a solution in Ukraine based on pressure and sanctions on Russia, and stronger support for the return to democracy in countries like Venezuela.
The message for conservatives and centrists in Europe and Latin America is strong: If you want growth, jobs, and lower inflation, you cannot simply replicate the bureaucratic, high-tax, high-regulation model that has left much of the developed world stuck in secular stagnation. Trump may not fit the traditional label of a “classical liberal”, but the results of his first year in office show what a truly reformist conservative government can achieve.
For many in the international policy establishment, the uncomfortable reality is that the United States has delivered what others merely promised: stronger growth, controlled inflation, a narrower deficit, a better labour market for domestic workers, and initial stabilisation of debt. This has been achieved not by expanding the state and suppressing price signals, but by cutting taxes, reducing public spending, deregulating and trusting the private sector to respond.
Other advanced economies chose a different strategy: more bureaucracy, higher spending, and aggressive climate and social agendas financed with debt and taxes, and now find themselves in stagnation and a private sector recession despite favourable international energy prices reducing import expenses.
One year of Trump’s new term does not guarantee future success, and risks remain—from global shocks to central bank missteps—but it already offers an empirical challenge to the Keynesian consensus recommendations. If the U.S. had followed the net zero, big government and high tax policy suggestions of the mainstream consensus, it would now be in a disastrous fiscal and growth position, and inflation would be much higher, as the UK proves.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 12/22/2025 – 10:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/us-economy-stronger-after-one-year-trump-administration
Ucrania ataca terminal petrolera, aviones y barcos dentro de Rusia
Por SAMYA KULLAB
KIEV, Ucrania (AP) — Las fuerzas ucranianas bombardearon una terminal de petróleo, un oleoducto, dos cazas a reacción estacionados y dos barcos en una serie de ataques en suelo ruso, dijeron funcionarios el lunes.
Los ataques son parte de una campaña en curso para interrumpir el esfuerzo bélico ruso y sembrar el miedo detrás de la línea del frente, donde las tropas ucranianas, en inferioridad numérica, se esfuerzan por contener al ejército ruso después de casi cuatro años de guerra.
Los ataques también buscan socavar el intento del presidente Vladímir Putin de mostrar que Rusia está negociando desde una posición de fuerza militar en los esfuerzos de paz liderados por Estados Unidos, que aún no han logrado un avance en puntos clave.
El asesinato de un general ruso con un coche bomba en Moscú el lunes -los investigadores sospechan que Ucrania estuvo detrás-, podría ser otro ejemplo de que Kiev elige objetivos sorpresa.
Las fuerzas ucranianas atacaron la terminal de petróleo Tamanneftegaz, un depósito de municiones y un sitio de lanzamiento para drones de ataque dentro del territorio ruso y el territorio ucraniano controlado por Rusia, dijo el Estado Mayor de Ucrania en un comunicado el lunes.
Un oleoducto, dos muelles y dos barcos resultaron dañados en la región sureña de Krasnodar, y se desató un gran incendio, decía el comunicado, sin especificar qué tipo de armas se utilizaron en el ataque.
Agregó que un misil de fabricación ucraniana también alcanzó una base temporal de la 92ª Brigada de Barcos Fluviales de Rusia en Olenivka, en la península de Crimea, ocupada por Moscú.
Otro ataque por separado tuvo como objetivo un depósito de municiones en una porción controlada por Rusia de la región de Donetsk, con el objetivo de frenar el avance ruso allí, dijo el Estado Mayor General. También se golpeó un sitio de lanzamiento ruso para drones de ataque.
Partisanos ucranianos incendiaron dos cazas a reacción rusos en una operación el domingo por la noche en una base cerca de Lipetsk, una ciudad en el oeste de Rusia, según la inteligencia militar de Ucrania.
El Ministerio de Defensa de Rusia dijo solo que sus fuerzas derribaron 41 drones ucranianos durante la noche, tres de ellos sobre la región de Krasnodar.
Mientras tanto, las fuerzas rusas continuaron apuntando al sector energético de Ucrania, con el objetivo de privar a los civiles de calefacción y agua corriente durante el gélido invierno. Rusia ha intentado dejar sin energía a Ucrania a lo largo de la guerra. Kiev dice que esta táctica busca convertir el invierno en arma.
La infraestructura energética en cinco regiones fue atacada durante la noche, dijo el Ministerio de Energía de Ucrania.
Rusia atacó a Ucrania con 86 drones durante la noche, dijo la fuerza aérea de Ucrania. Las fuerzas ucranianas frenaron 58 de ellos, afirmó.
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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.
Comunidad afectada por adicciones lucha por mantener programa de jeringas tras orden de Trump
Por LAURA UNGAR
JEFFERSONVILLE, Indiana, EE.UU. (AP) — Dentro de un almacén en el Departamento de Salud del Condado Clark hay cajas con etiquetas que dicen “NO USAR”. Contienen hornillas y agua estéril que las personas utilizan para inyectarse drogas.
Los suministros, que provinieron del estado y fueron pagados con dinero federal, son para un programa donde los usuarios de drogas intercambian jeringas sucias por limpias, parte de una estrategia conocida como reducción de daños. Pero bajo una orden ejecutiva emitida en julio por el presidente Donald Trump, no se pueden usar subsidios federales para pagar por suministros como hornillas y torniquetes que “solo facilitan el uso drogas ilegales”. Ya desde antes las agujas no podían comprarse con dinero federal.
En algunos lugares, la orden está galvanizando el apoyo a los programas de intercambio de jeringas, que décadas de investigación demuestran son extremadamente efectivos para prevenir enfermedades entre los usuarios de drogas intravenosas y para llevarlos a tratamiento.
En otros, está alimentando una oposición que amenaza la existencia de los programas.
Indiana, liderada por republicanos, aprobó una ley que permite los intercambios hace una década después de que la pequeña ciudad de Austin se convirtiera en el epicentro del peor brote de VIH impulsado por drogas en la historia de Estados Unidos. A menos que los legisladores la extiendan, esa ley expirará el próximo año, y el número de intercambios ha ido disminuyendo. Los funcionarios estatales dijeron a los programas restantes que cumplieran con la orden de Trump, e incluso que descartaran suministros financiados por el gobierno federal como hornillas y torniquetes.
Por ahora, los trabajadores de salud del Condado Clark han encontrado una manera de seguir distribuyendo hornillas y otros artículos: comprarlos con dinero privado y empaquetarlos en bolsas ensambladas por empleados que no son pagados con fondos estatales o federales.
Mientras tanto, California, liderada por demócratas, ha continuado utilizando fondos estatales para suministros como pipas y jeringas. California alberga un número creciente de intercambios, con 70 de los más de 580 listados por la Red Norteamericana de Intercambio de Jeringas.
Algunos expertos en salud pública lamentan que los programas de servicios de jeringas hayan caído en una creciente politización y disenso.
El doctor Eric Yazel, funcionario de salud del Condado Clark, dice que los usuarios de drogas intravenosas probablemente se inyectarán con o sin suministros limpios. Los intercambios evitan que las personas compartan agujas y propaguen enfermedades, expresó, “disminuyendo el riesgo para la salud pública de toda la población”.
Pero Curtis Hill, un ex fiscal general de Indiana republicano, está entre los críticos que plantean la misma preocupación que la orden de Trump: “No queremos llegar a una situación en la que estemos promoviendo el uso de drogas”.
Ayuda con compasión
Cuando los participantes llegan al departamento de salud del Condado Clark, miran una lista de servicios y dicen que están allí por el “N.º 1”.
Eligen de un carrito con agujas, vendajes, contenedores para objetos punzantes y el medicamento para revertir sobredosis naloxona. Pueden recibir pruebas para VIH y hepatitis C; información sobre tratamiento de drogas; y folletos sobre bancos de alimentos, vivienda y colocación laboral. Incluso hay gorros tejidos a mano con notas alentadoras como “¡Tú puedes con esto!”
“Pasamos media hora, 45 minutos o más hablando con ellos sobre dónde están, si quieren tratamiento, si están listos”, explicó la directora del programa Dorothy Waterhouse. “Estos son nuestros hermanos, nuestras hermanas, nuestras madres, nuestros padres… Necesitamos compasión para asegurarnos de que estén recibiendo tratamiento”.
Es el intercambio más cercano a Austin, a 35 minutos en coche. El Condado Scott, donde se encuentra Austin, ya terminó su programa.
Joshua Gay vivía en un apartamento al otro lado de la calle cuando utilizó el intercambio del Condado Clark. Se inyectaba metanfetamina a diario.
“La adicción me quitó todo. Me quitó la vida, me quitó el trabajo, me quitó la salud. Me dejó la mente tan mal que ni siquiera me duchaba”, relató el hombre de 44 años, que ahora vive en Austin. “Dios me estaba diciendo, ‘Necesitas hacer algo’, y me llevó al intercambio de agujas”.
Hoy está sobrio. Buscó tratamiento para drogas en LifeSpring Health Systems después de ser animado por los trabajadores de salud y ahora anima a otros en recuperación a mantenerse saludables.
Cree que el intercambio de jeringas no solo lo salvó a él, sino que lo ayudó a salvar a otro, proporcionando la naloxona que usó para revivir a un amigo que sufrió una sobredosis de heroína.
Manteniendo el programa en marcha
Después de la orden de Trump, que se centró en la falta de vivienda, los funcionarios de salud de Indiana dijeron a los intercambios que ciertos artículos que proporcionaban ahora estaban prohibidos, citando una carta de la Administración de Servicios de Salud Mental y Abuso de Sustancias.
Aunque los trabajadores del Condado Clark han encontrado formas de proporcionar artículos financiados de manera privada por ahora, les preocupa que la ley de intercambio de Indiana expire el 1 de julio. Seis condados tienen intercambios, frente a nueve en 2020, a pesar del éxito de los programas.
En todo el estado, los intercambios han realizado más de 27.000 recomendaciones a tratamiento de drogas y proporcionado naloxona que revirtió casi 25,000 sobredosis, según información recopilada por el Centro Damien sin fines de lucro en Indianápolis.
Desde su inicio en 2017, el programa del Condado de Clark por sí solo ha distribuido más de 2.000 dosis de naloxona; realizado más de 4.300 derivaciones a tratamiento de drogas; y realizado más de 4.400 recomendaciones para pruebas de VIH o hepatitis C. Su tasa de devolución de jeringas es del 92%.
Expertos locales y nacionales en salud pública y adicciones señalan investigaciones que muestran que los intercambios no aumentan la basura de jeringas, el crimen o el uso de drogas intravenosas, y que cada dólar invertido devuelve un estimado de 7 dólares en costos de atención médica evitados.
Los intercambios están asociados con una reducción estimada del 50% en la incidencia de VIH y hepatitis C, dijo el año pasado el Centro para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades. El Condado Scott, donde el brote de VIH finalmente enfermó a 235 personas, tuvo menos de cinco casos nuevos al año en 2020 y 2021, justo antes de que terminara ese programa de jeringas. Los números se han mantenido bajos.
“Cuando estos programas comenzaron, yo estaba como, ‘No sé’. No lo entendía”, declaró Yazel. “Y entonces estudié el caso y comencé a entender el impacto”.
En otros lugares, una mezcla de apoyo y oposición
Indiana está entre los 43 estados con programas de servicios de jeringas, según la organización KFF.
El apoyo sigue siendo fuerte en muchos lugares. Este año en Hawai, por ejemplo, los legisladores aprobaron una ley que permite a las personas obtener tantas agujas limpias como necesiten en lugar de solo una para cada persona.
Pero proyectos en otros lugares, incluidos dos presentados en Virginia Occidental este año, proponen eliminar los programas de jeringas.
Este mes, el Departamento de Salud de Cabell-Huntington en Virginia Occidental dejó de distribuir agujas. La naloxona y las tiras de prueba de fentanilo siguen disponibles, junto con servicios como educación, pruebas de enfermedades y enlaces a atención.
“Las personas que vienen a vernos van a recibir las mismas sonrisas y los mismos abrazos”, indicó el doctor Michael Kilkenny, funcionario de salud. “Simplemente no vamos a estar distribuyendo jeringas u otras cosas que están en desagrado”.
Andrew Nixon, portavoz del Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos, enfatizó en un correo electrónico que los fondos federales aún pueden usarse para “servicios que salvan vidas” como la educación y la naloxona, reflejando un “compromiso para abordar la crisis de adicción y sobredosis que afecta a las comunidades en todo nuestro país”.
Un futuro incierto
Yazel espera un camino difícil por delante en Indiana.
“Para ser muy franco”, dijo, “tenemos una batalla cuesta arriba en la próxima sesión legislativa”.
El CEO del Centro Damien, Alan Witchey, cuya organización dirige un programa de jeringas, dijo que él y un grupo de defensores crearon un sitio web con información y una forma de contactar a los legisladores. Se han reunido con funcionarios electos, y un senador estatal presentó un proyecto de ley para extender la fecha de expiración hasta 2036.
“Sin estos programas, habrá una herramienta menos para abordar las enfermedades del trastorno por uso de sustancias, hepatitis C y VIH”, señaló Witchey. “Y eso podría llevarnos a un lugar muy peligroso. Hemos visto a dónde lleva esto”.
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The Associated Press recibe apoyo para sus coberturas de salud y ciencia de parte del Departamento de Educación Científica del Instituto Médico Howard Hughes y la Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. La AP es la única responsable del contenido.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Justicia de Ecuador condena a más de 34 años de cárcel a cada uno de los 11 autores de desaparición de 4 menores
QUITO (AP) — Justicia de Ecuador condena a más de 34 años de cárcel a cada uno de los 11 autores de desaparición de 4 menores.
Union Pacific’s plan to add trains in the Chicago area raises alarms
To make money on its proposed cross-country railroad, Union Pacific plans to double the number of trains on a 2-mile stretch of track on Chicago’s West Side where workers still throw switches by hand and trains crawl across century-old bridges at less than 15 miles per hour.
The railroad plans to add 12 trains per day on these dilapidated tracks, which run along Rockwell Avenue through North Lawndale and West Town.
After reaching Lake Street on the north, the additional trains will turn west and run 13 miles to a Union Pacific rail yard in Melrose Park.
They’ll have to thread their way through 58 passenger trains and up to 24 freight trains, which, according to Metra and Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning data, are running on these same tracks each weekday now.
Union Pacific outlined these and many similar changes nationwide in a 6,692-page application on Friday for federal approval of its proposed $85 billion merger with Norfolk Southern. If regulators say yes, the investor-owned railroad would carry nearly half of all U.S. rail freight.
The proposed traffic increases, and the additional trucks they’ll pump onto some of the already-congested and polluted streets and highways nearby, are setting off alarm bells in Chicago and surrounding suburbs.
“Adding 12 trains is a lot,” said Earl Wacker, a former CSX executive who now works with RINA North America, an environmental consultancy with offices in Chicago. “It’s going to have a pretty significant impact unless they add more capacity.”
According to the Union Pacific application, four of the additional trains will continue west past Melrose Park through the heart of DuPage and Kane counties. They’ll join the 58 Metra trains and up to 60 freight trains running on those lines each weekday now.
“I’m a capitalist, and I don’t mind people making money. But when the residents have to bear the brunt of the costs, I have a problem with that,” said state Sen. Seth Lewis, R-Bartlett.
“We all know there will be tremendous impacts locally with increased freight traffic and train lengths exceeding a mile long,” he said.
Kristen South, a Union Pacific spokesperson, declined to specify how many trains are currently running on these Chicago and Melrose Park tracks. But “localized impacts will be offset by the benefits of the merger,” she said in an email.
For example, in its application, Union Pacific proposed a series of additional cross-country trains that will either bypass Chicago or run straight through the city without stopping to exchange freight.
These new trains will reduce freight costs for shippers in Chicago and around the country, according to the application. They’ll cut the number of individual shipping containers moved by truck among Chicago’s rail yards by 350 per day, or about 10%.
The application, submitted to the federal Surface Transportation Board, will kick off not just coast-to-coast regulatory debates, but also soul-searching in Chicago about whether the city’s nearly two-century reign as the country’s preeminent freight crossroads will continue.
“There might be a slight diminution of Chicago as sort of the hub of everything,” said Tony Hatch, an independent railroad analyst in New York. “This could affect the number of logistics jobs in Chicagoland. It could also mean less congestion than we expected.”
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Currently, 18,000 drivers regularly haul containers among Chicago-area rail yards, according to Jason Hilsenbeck, president of LoadMatch, a Naperville company that helps drivers find freight to haul. Because of a prolonged freight slump, only about two-thirds of these drivers are working full time now, he said.
Chicago emerged as the country’s leading freight hub beginning in 1848. But railroads always found it easier and cheaper to hand their freight off to each other in and around the city than to build transcontinental railroads that actually passed through Chicago.
In some yards, they exchange groups of railcars. Elsewhere, they hand off individual shipping containers, tank cars and boxcars to each other and to different railroads.
Jim Vena, Union Pacific’s chief executive, says railroads must eliminate such inefficiencies, particularly in Chicago, if they’re to have any hope of improving volume, market share and market capitalization, which have been stagnant for years.
“The merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern is more than just a business deal,” Vena said during Friday’s announcement. “It’s a pivotal opportunity to strengthen America’s competitiveness, deliver exceptional service for our customers, enhance the safety of freight transportation and safeguard jobs for America.”
According to Larry Gross, an independent analyst in Denver, container trains captured just 10.9% of truck-size freight shipments longer than 500 miles in the U.S. in the third quarter, down from 12.5% in 2018.
Vena hopes to unclog Chicago in part by bypassing the city entirely.
For example, he’s proposing a new expedited intermodal or container train running from Los Angeles to Croxton, New Jersey, in 95 hours. That’s 17 hours less than the current service, which stops in Chicago to transfer containers across town from Union Pacific to Norfolk Southern by truck.
A Nortfolk Southern freight engine waits to connect with a train at the Norfolk Southern Ashland Yard, where segments of freight trains are exchanged between rail companies on Nov. 25, 2025. Chicago remains the center of the nation’s rail traffic. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Using tracks newly acquired from Norfolk Southern, the train would run through Kansas City and Springfield to reach Fort Wayne, Indiana, according to the application. But it won’t come close to Chicago.
Union Pacific is also proposing a series of expedited intermodal and boxcar-type trains that stop in Chicago only for crew changes, but not to swap freight.
For example, the railroad is proposing a new train to run from Lathrop, California, to Croxton in 83 hours. The train would stop in the Chicago suburb of Northlake only long enough to receive its new crew. In the application, Union Pacific says that’s 30 hours less than the same trip by truck. But the railroad counts only transit time between its own terminals, and not the additional time needed for local delivery of the freight.
But the stop will require split-second timing that has often eluded Union Pacific. Currently, only 70% to 95% of Northlake’s trains leave the yard on time, according to the application.
Continued delays could spell trouble for the 2-mile-long Lathrop-to-Croxton train. That’s because, when the train leaves Northlake, it will have to share track space with the dozens of daily Metra and freight trains already running through Melrose Park, and with pedestrians who sometimes seek shortcuts across the tracks.
Union Pacific is now in federal court battling the Surface Transportation Board over how much access to these tracks should cost. The railroad insists it’s not obligated to allow Metra to use the tracks at all after prior contracts expired. The STB ordered the railroad to do so anyway in September, saying it was protecting the public interest.
A switchman manually switches a track at the Norfolk Southern Ashland Yard in Chicago’s New City neighborhood on Nov. 27, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
And when some of the trains running through Melrose Park turn south near Rockwell Avenue in Chicago, they’ll encounter the hand switches and century-old bridges that Union Pacific and other railroads and public agencies have been planning to replace since 2003.
The railroads and government officials will break ground on a $170 million project to refurbish some but not all of these West Side tracks next year, according to a spokesman for CREATE. This is an acronym for the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program, a public-private partnership.
Some of these CREATE improvements will occur in Chicago’s 25th Ward, which Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez represents. He said he agrees that Chicago needs to upgrade its rail infrastructure. But some of his constituents, he said, worry about safety hazards, including a 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment in Ohio that spilled 11 cars of hazardous chemicals, including a cancer-causing chemical called vinyl chloride.
Since 2003, CREATE has raised less than half of the $5.8 billion it needs from railroad and government sources to complete its original project list.
On Friday, Union Pacific announced $2.1 billion in additional infrastructure improvements to facilitate the merger nationwide. But the railroad’s application did not specify any new investment for Chicago.
Under STB rules, Union Pacific will need to show that the merger would not just preserve competition but also enhance it, and produce public benefits that can’t be achieved any other way.
The board adopted this higher standard after a chaotic set of mergers in the 1990s not only disrupted train service but also reduced the number of big railroads operating in the U.S to four, increasing the potential for monopoly pricing abuse.
In 1960, three dozen so-called Class One or major railroads operated in the U.S.
As part of its mandate, the STB will also have to consider whether, as many independent analysts expect, a Union Pacific tie-up with Norfolk Southern would force the country’s two remaining big railroads, BNSF and CSX, to merge with each other or one of the two big railroads remaining in Canada.
Friday’s Union Pacific application could trigger not only the STB evaluation but also negotiations between Union Pacific and affected communities and industries.
Based on the outcome of those negotiations, the STB could place limits on route changes or price increases at the combined railroad. The board could also limit how many trains the combined railroad could run and how long each train would be.
But on Friday, Union Pacific said the merger would yield substantial public benefits so concessions won’t be necessary.
The railroad withdrew its prior commitment to spend $750 million for concessions to soften the merger’s impact on shippers and others. Union Pacific also excluded intermodal freight, its fastest-growing business, from its pledge to keep prices flat for competitors who need to continue using its tracks after the merger.
These steps angered some customers. The American Chemistry Council, which includes some of the country’s largest rail shippers, warned Friday it will fight any merger “that fails to promote competition over monopolies and drives prices even higher.”
Like everybody else in the railroad industry, Rick Paterson, an independent railroad analyst in New York, is trying to predict how the STB will react to Union Pacific’s hard line on concessions to shippers and others to enhance competition.
“If you’re a board member, you might say to yourself, ‘They’re not even trying and it’s a middle finger,’” Paterson said. “Or you might say, ‘The enhanced competition test was always vague and unsatisfiable as written. So I don’t blame them for not trying to satisfy an unsatisfiable test, and we’ll just go forward and evaluate what they’ve proposed based on its own merits.’”
A Union Pacific train moves north through the Garfield Park neighborhood on Dec. 8, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Paterson and others will begin to find out by Dec. 18, 2026, when the STB is required by law to either accept the application as complete, ask for modifications or reject it entirely. If the STB decides to move forward, its review could last 18 months or more.
Even if the STB says yes in the end, the two railroads would likely act primarily as separate units at first, as they give Norfolk Southern workers time to adapt to Union Pacific’s operating methods, said Brian Watt, managing partner at 1634 Co., a freight forwarder based in Winter Haven, Florida.
“Chicago looms large in the merger discussion not because it’s uniquely dysfunctional, but because it reveals the system’s design limits. It’s where handoffs accumulate, delays compound, and labor, terminal, and dispatch complexities intersect,” he said in an email.
“Chicago is not the disease. It’s the diagnostic,” Watt said. “If the railroad rushes to demonstrate theoretical synergies rather than operational discipline, Chicago will expose the mistake quickly and publicly.”
John Lippert is a freelancer.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/22/union-pacific-norfolk-southern-railroad-merger-illinois/
Macron Seeks New Talks With Putin, Forcing ‘Alternative’ Path To Stalled US Negotiations
Macron Seeks New Talks With Putin, Forcing ‘Alternative’ Path To Stalled US Negotiations
Suddenly French President Emmanuel Macron is deciding to revive his diplomacy with Moscow and is stepping in and “stealing the show” – as Politico has newly put it – at a moment US-Russia negotiations have been ‘constructive’ but largely slow and even stalled.
There’s been no breakthroughs in Miami this weekend involving White House envoy Steve Witkoff and his Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev, who sat across from Ukrainian national security adviser Rustem Umerov.
Macron’s office has said, coming just off a European Council summit which saw a controversial Russian assets confiscation plan for funding Ukraine fail to move forward, that France “welcomed” the idea of new direct talks with the Kremlin, but emphasized that negotiations would happen “in full transparency” for Ukraine and its European allies. “It is welcome that the Kremlin has publicly agreed to this approach. We will decide in the coming days on the best way to proceed,” the Elysee said Sunday.
On the so-called reparations plan, Politico writes that “Macron’s extended hand suggests he’s looking to return to the spotlight after months of European foreign-policy leadership by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.” The report notes that “Macron played a key role at a gathering of European leaders in sinking the ‘reparations loan’ from Russia’s frozen assets, which Merz had publicly backed.”
Macron had in the opening year of the war been the only Western leader of prominence to directly phone Putin on many occasions, seeking a solution to the crisis in the wake of the Russian army entering Ukraine in February 2022.
Apparently he now wants to take the lead on behalf of Europe in pushing an alternative plan for ending the war, again at a moment engagement on Trump’s plan seems to have gone nowhere:
Macron said at last week’s EU summit in Brussels that it would be “useful” for Europe to reach out to Putin to ensure that a peace deal in Ukraine is not negotiated solely by the United States, Russia and Ukraine. “I think that we Europeans and Ukrainians need to find a framework to engage a discussion in due form,” Macron told reporters as the summit wrapped up early Friday morning.
The Kremlin on Sunday “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue” with Macron on the issue, according to Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
From Moscow’s perspective, this is another PR and diplomatic ‘win’ – given the optics are that nearly four years into the war, and European leadership finds itself with little negotiating leverage while knowing Ukrainian forces are losing on the battlefield.
As Washington and Moscow now control the narrative, Macron wants to step in to force France’s say in any future outcome or settlement, rather than wait on the diplomatic sidelines. Arming Kiev to the teeth has done nothing but prolong the needless killing, and perhaps at least some European capitals are beginning to realize this.
The following was just from two weeks ago:
Emmanuel Macron has reportedly warned Volodymyr Zelenskyy that “there is a chance that the US will betray Ukraine on territory, without clarity on security guarantees”, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported, quoting a leaked note from a recent call with several European leaders.
Der Spiegel said it had obtained an English summary of Monday’s call, featuring what it said were direct quotations from European heads of government in which they expressed fundamental doubts about Washington’s approach to the talks.
The French president described the current tense phase of the negotiations as harbouring “a big danger” for Ukraine’s embattled president, according to the summary. Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, reportedly added that the Ukrainian leader needed to be “very careful”.
Macron admits it would be useful to talk to Putin-
“I see there are people who talk to Putin.”
What will happen if the Dimwit in Chief (Kallas) finds out? pic.twitter.com/Sb87fTIDSk
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) December 19, 2025
As for the greater realism lately coming from Washington, Vice President J.D. Vance has offered some fresh remarks acknowledging that the issue of territorial concessions in Donbass is hampering the conflict settlement process, and that this is the Zelensky government’s doing: “So that territorial concession is a significant hold-up in the negotiations,” he stated.
But, he explained, Ukraine knows full well that it will “eventually” lose the rest of the Donetsk region – already nearly under complete control of Russian forces. “The Ukrainians understandably see that as a major security problem, [even as] they privately acknowledge that eventually, they’ll probably lose Donetsk,” he emphasized.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 12/22/2025 – 10:25
Georgia Power Gets Green Light To Dramatically Grow Grid To Draw Data Centers
Georgia Power Gets Green Light To Dramatically Grow Grid To Draw Data Centers
Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Georgia Public Service Commission will allow the state’s largest electric utility to proceed with its $15 billion plan to build nearly 10,000 megawatts of new generation—two-thirds of its present capacity—within a decade to accommodate “large load” demand from data centers.
The five-member commission on Dec. 19 unanimously approved a “stipulated agreement” with Georgia Power Company that requires data center developers to pay capital improvement costs related to grid expansion, and that households and small businesses won’t be left with the bill should projected growth not materialize as anticipated.
The decision follows months of contentious debate before the commission, which re-surfaced before the final vote during three hours of laborious discussion on motions filed by advocacy groups questioning the certainty of those assurances, followed by animated public comment dominated by opponents.
Many were ushered out of the commission’s Atlanta chambers, chanting, “Nay, nay, nay! The people say, ‘Nay!’” so the vote could be conducted.
Among opponents’ claims was that the commission, which has until March 2026 to issue its final decision, was proceeding with the vote before two Democrats who defeated incumbent Republicans in a November election could be seated in January.
Many expressed anger over rising electricity costs for Georgia Power’s 2.8 million customers across 155 of the state’s 159 counties. The commission has approved six Georgia Power rate increases since 2023, costing the average household at least $43 a month, or an additional $500 a year, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, while, at the same time, its profits have increased 40 percent.
In July, the commission imposed a moratorium on Georgia Power rate hikes through 2028, but, as many noted, that freeze only applies to base use charges while exempting “reasonable and prudent” costs it incurred—approximately $860 million—in damage from 2024’s Hurricane Helene that can be “recovered” from customers.
Opponents argued that consumers will eventually be left paying for “stranded assets” in a massive build-out to serve data centers that become obsolete or out of business.
Georgia Power now generates between 14,000 and 15,000 megawatts of electricity, and in 2022, projected it would need 200 to 300 megawatts of grid growth over the next decade.
The 10,000 megawatt expansion—enough electricity to power nine million homes—includes at least 8,500 megawatts between 2029 and 2031. It is the largest projected percentage increase in electricity demand over the next five years in any state nationwide except Texas, according to a November Grid Strategies’ analysis.
The company said in testimony filed with the commission that 80 percent of the projected build-out will serve data center development, which it says will boost state and local economies, and “allow Georgia to contribute to the nation’s focus on the global importance of artificial intelligence and the digital economy.”
According to Florida-based Data Center Map, more than 166 of the nation’s 4,297 data centers are in Georgia—sixth most of any state—with Microsoft, Meta, QTS, and Trammell Crow among hyperscalers operating large-load operations.
But as documented by Baxtel, a data center market tracker, those numbers are poised to dramatically increase—more than 26 data centers are under construction and at least 52 planned within 60 miles of Atlanta.
Not all Georgians are enthused. Concerns over water and energy demands by “server farms” have prompted eight Georgia counties and cities to adopt moratoriums on data center development, including Atlanta, which in September 2024 prohibited data center projects within a 22-mile radius of its Beltline Overlay District.
‘Trade Secrets’
Under its “stipulated agreement” with the commission’s Public Interest Advocacy staff, Georgia Power said it agreed to file its next “rate case” in 2028 “in a manner that will ensure incremental revenue from large-load customers will provide benefits of at least $556 million per year, equivalent to $8.50 per month, or approximately $102 per year, for the typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month.”
Attorneys Jennifer Whitfield, representing Georgia Interfaith Power & Light and Southface Institute, Blan Holman on behalf of the Southern Renewable Energy Association, and Sierra Club’s Curt Thompson claimed in motions that information used in Georgia Power’s calculations are regarded as “trade secrets” so they cannot be reviewed.
They debated for 90 minutes with Georgia Power attorney Brandon Marco and Public Interest Advocacy attorney Christopher Collado about, among other issues, the distinction between public disclosure of proprietary information and requiring that information be “on the record” for those who sign non-disclosure agreements to review.
“We need to know today what the assumptions are in that financial promise if we’re going to enforce it down the road,” Whitfield said, requesting the commission “order Georgia Power to supplement the record with financial information related to showing its work as to what went into the financial stipulation promise.”
Advocates motioned for hearings on what information was provided to the commission and to ask Georgia Power “clarifying questions.”
Commission Chair Jason Shaw denied two motions but said one has merit.
“I will grant the request to schedule a hearing … to determine whether petitioners should be granted access to trade secret information under an appropriate confidentiality group,” he said.
Shaw said advocates “failed to justify” disclosure or hearings on Georgia Power’s confidential calculations, which Collado confirmed his staff has vetted.
Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald said anxiety is understandable, but misdirected in targeting the commission when it can only review applications for loads of 100 megawatts or more.
“We do not solicit data centers, they are solicited by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development,” he said. “They are solicited by [developers] coming in looking at Georgia because of the reliability of energy this state provides.”
Ultimately, McDonald said, “local governments are the ones that decide if a data center is going in, not the public service commission. I want that to be clearly understood.”
Commissioner Tim Echols, one of two incumbents defeated in November, said he was proud after serving 15 years on the commission that “my last vote” will provide “the power we need to keep the state moving forward until 2031.”
His biggest disappointment is the slow pace of nuclear development, which, he said, is the best way to generate the electricity needed to power AI development.
Hyperscalers “need to take the financial risk for building out America’s nuclear future because it doesn’t appear it’s going to happen any other way, and I do think they ultimately will,” Echols said. “They’re using the bulk of the power, and I think they should pay the bulk of the cost and take the risk.”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 12/22/2025 – 10:10
Two men killed in hit-and-run in Morgan Park
Two men were killed in a hit-and-run in the Morgan Park neighborhood early Sunday, police said.
A driver in a gray Jeep Grand Cherokee with an Illinois passenger plate hit and killed two pedestrians on the 11700 block of South Marshfield Avenue near Marshfield Plaza shopping area at around 1:15 a.m. Sunday, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Officers responding to an emergency medical call found a 30-year-old man and another adult man dead at Marshfield, police said.
The offender fled the scene, but the Jeep was recovered by police.
The police ask that any information be sent to the Major Accident Investigation Unit at CPDTIP.com.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/22/two-men-killed-in-hit-and-run-morgan-park/
Porter County, Northwest Health reach EMS deal
After an autumn of angst over the impending expiration at the end of the month of Porter County’s ambulance contract with Northwest Health, the county and hospital have come to a two-year agreement at an annual cost of $1.5 million for a minimum of four advanced life support and one basic life support ambulances. It’s a considerable, but expected, increase from the yearly ambulance subsidy of $450,000 the county currently pays.
The contract was unanimously approved by the Board of Commissioners at a special meeting Thursday evening and calls for an automatic extension for an additional three years unless the county provides written notice six months prior to the end of the initial term. Each ALS ambulance will be staffed by at least one certified paramedic and one EMT, while the BLS ambulance will be staffed by at least two EMTs.
The county will also provide up to $200,000 per year in performance-based capital funding with up to $120,000 of the 2026 funding made available to outfit the interior of an ambulance. A committee comprised of the Porter County E-911 Director, a representative of the Porter County Board of Commissioners, a representative or designee of the Porter County Council, two citizen members with experience in emergency response, public administration, or healthcare appointed by the board of commissioners, and one non-voting member of Northwest Health EMS administration will conduct monthly performance reviews based on average response time, average unit availability and readiness, clinical and operational quality, and mutual aid usage.
The committee’s verified score and recommendations will then be passed on to the board of commissioners who may authorize the monthly bonus of up to $16,667. “Northwest Health shall ensure uninterrupted coverage through equipment rotation, scheduling, or other measures, including coordination with mutual aid providers when appropriate,” the contract reads.
Northwest Health is permitted under the contract to perform out-of-county transfers to destinations in neighboring counties if said transfers don’t “materially impact” system coverage or response times. Long-distance transfers — those beyond neighboring counties — require Northwest Health to first attempt to secure another provider to perform the transfer. Only if such an alternative is not available may Northwest Health perform the transfer and it must be documented and explained at the next review committee meeting.
Northwest Health is also bound by the contract to notify the Porter County E-911 director when a contracted ambulance is assigned to a long-distance transfer expected to impact coverage.
“I think it was very well done,” said Commissioner Barb Regnitz, R-Center. “Congratulations on the committee.”
There will be no restrictions on patient or physician right to request a particular destination upon ambulance transport. Subcontractors for part or all of provided services are permitted in the contract. Northwest Health will be entitled to an inflationary adjustment beginning Jan. 1 of contract year 2.
The annual base funding will increase by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the 12-month period ending June 30 of the preceding year with a cap of 5%.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/22/porter-county-northwest-health-reach-ems-deal/
