Category: News
Sistema de tormentas trae fuertes lluvias al noroeste de EEUU
The Associated Press
Caían fuertes lluvias en el noroeste de Estados Unidos el martes a medida que un sistema de tormentas inusualmente fuerte llamado río atmosférico pasaba por la región, informó el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional.
Los bomberos rescataron a dos personas que quedaron atrapadas por las aguas crecidas en un campamento en el área de Gold Bar, en el condado de Snohomish, al norte de Seattle, el lunes por la noche, reportó KOMO-TV. Los equipos utilizaron drones y embarcaciones de rescate acuático para alcanzarlos y llevarlos a un lugar seguro, dijeron las autoridades.
La policía de Gold Bar indicó en redes sociales el lunes por la noche que los agentes estaban yendo de puerta en puerta en el vecindario de Moonlight Drive para advertir a los residentes sobre las inundaciones inminentes.
Un deslizamiento de tierra cerró la Interestatal 90 en dirección este durante la noche en North Bend, a unos 50 kilómetros (unas 30 millas) al este de Seattle, según el Departamento de Transporte del Estado de Washington. Los equipos iban a reevaluar la carretera a la luz del día.
El Centro de Predicción del Tiempo del servicio meteorológico pronosticó varios días de lluvias intensas en el oeste de Washington y el noroeste de Oregon, con la corriente en chorro transpacífica trayendo fuertes lluvias a lo largo de la costa y más de 30 centímetros (1 pie) de nieve nueva en las Montañas Rocosas de Wyoming. Hay alertas de inundación vigentes a lo largo de la costa y en las Cascadas hasta mediados de semana.
La oficina del servicio meteorológico en Seattle indicó en redes sociales el martes por la mañana que el río atmosférico se desplazó hacia el sur, pero la precipitación se desplazará nuevamente hacia el norte más tarde en el día, trayendo otra ronda de lluvias intensas y empeorando las inundaciones.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Bad News Democrats: Tesla Takedown Operation Fails As Purchase Sentiment Recovers
Bad News Democrats: Tesla Takedown Operation Fails As Purchase Sentiment Recovers
Sentiment around Elon Musk’s Tesla brand has significantly improved from the low levels seen earlier this spring, following a coordinated takedown effort by Democratic-aligned billionaire-funded NGOs, left-wing activist networks, far-left militant groups, progressive lawmakers, and left-leaning corporate media operating in what appeared to be a decentralized manner (really in unison) with one objective: damaging the company’s reputation and crush sales to force Musk out of DOGE.
At the time, Musk was leading the DOGE efforts to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in federal agencies. Democratic-aligned interests and their billionaire funders were infuriated that Musk and the Trump administration disrupted the magic money tree that funneled taxpayer dollars into their nonprofit networks.
The response mechanism of the same leftist political machinery that targeted Trump for his America First beliefs, such as the BLM riots and other color-revolution-style efforts to delegitimize his presidency, was redirected by left-wing activist networks (protest industrial complex) toward killing Tesla. These operations were shielded behind nonprofits and front groups in a sinister effort called “Tesla Takedown.”
DEVELOPING: Video provided to the Review-Journal shows several @Tesla vehicles engulfed in flames after Las Vegas police say they were set on fire by an individual early Tuesday morning.
UPDATES→ https://t.co/sZQr9j1E5A pic.twitter.com/uXeLsdpTVl
— Las Vegas Review-Journal (@reviewjournal) March 18, 2025
From Tesla showrooms getting firebombed by far-left militant groups to leftist politicians rooting for the company’s bankruptcy to coordinated protest activity at showrooms and the endless streams of negative press by left-leaning corporate press, painting Musk as quite literally Hitler, the highly coordinated pressure campaign actually did work and crushed consumer sentiment around the brand.
To visualize this brand-damaging campaign, we turn to Goldman analyst Mark Delaney’s latest note on the U.S. auto sector. In it, we find HundredX Net Purchase Intent data, a metric that estimates how likely a consumer (or group of consumers) is to buy a product or service within a given timeframe.
The data show that while NPI had been drifting lower in 2024 due to higher auto-loan rates and slowing EV sales, it began plunging in 1Q25 and didn’t bottom until late spring. This sharp dip in NPI coincides with the Tesla Takedown pressure campaign mounted by Democratic-aligned groups to kill the brand.
🚨 NEW: The ATF is investigating after multiple Tesla Cybertrucks caught fire earlier this week in the Seattle area.
This comes amid a grassroots movement called “Tesla Takedown,” where people are protesting outside Tesla dealerships to show their disapproval of @elonmusk and… pic.twitter.com/NdK8Hulvkf
— FRONTLINES TPUSA (@FrontlinesTPUSA) March 11, 2025
“Tim Walz made this retarded comment.”
Tesla is up 50% since Tim Walz made this retarded comment pic.twitter.com/XtMaj4PBsD
— Not Jerome Powell (@alifarhat79) May 13, 2025
However, there’s bad news for Democrats and their billionaire backers who were determined to derail America First: NPI has now staged a recovery and is back in positive territory.
Here’s a refresher on how the Democratic Party operates with pressure campaigns that are all part of the same color revolution wheel, trying to collapse the America First agenda:
Tesla Takedown Organizers Plan Color Revolution To “Kill” Brand & “Death Spiral” For Investors
Tim Walz Embarrassingly Walks Back Rooting For Tesla Stock Crash
Democratic leaders lack a coherent economic plan (well, besides socialism and Marxism) or long-term national strategy to ensure U.S. competitiveness into the 2030s. Democratic-aligned NGOs and activist networks are primarily focused on regime change in the White House and hellbent on derailing America First via their color-revolution-style operations.
Related:
General Flynn Calls For National Address From Trump On Color Revolution Threat
“At What Point Does This Become Treason?”
Political warfare is ramping up. The left has already resorted to violence via militant groups. This will get a lot worse before it gets better unless reforms are seen across the entire nonprofit world.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/09/2025 – 10:20
México anuncia acciones con Guatemala en frontera tras incursión de cárteles en ese país
Associated Press
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (AP) — El secretario de Defensa de México, el general Ricardo Trevilla, dijo el martes que el ejército mexicano realizará operaciones en paralelo con Guatemala en la frontera común tras los recientes hechos de violencia ocurridos en territorio guatemalteco por la incursión de cárteles mexicanos que dejaron un civil muerto y un militar guatemalteco herido.
Al ser preguntado sobre esos sucesos en la conferencia presidencial matutina, Trevilla dijo que el ejército mexicano se desplegó en su lado de la frontera en cuanto recibió información de los incidentes y que desde este martes se iniciaron acciones “coincidentes” de las Fuerzas Armadas de los dos países —cada uno en su territorio—, operativos previstos en principio hasta el jueves aunque “si es necesario se prolongarán el tiempo que se requiera”.
El general agregó que los incidentes fueron protagonizados por dos grupos enfrentados, uno vinculado al Cártel de Sinaloa y otro a un cártel que opera en Chiapas y Guatemala.
En junio de este año un comando armado de presuntos narcotraficantes mexicanos cruzó la frontera de México hacia Guatemala huyendo de agentes de su país que los perseguían tras un incidente armado que dejó a cinco miembros de seguridad muertos.
En la persecución los agentes mexicanos incursionaron en territorio guatemalteco. Del lado de Guatemala, policías y militares no accionaron sus armas y supuestamente, sin saberlo, dejaron que los narcos escaparan.
El incidente provocó investigaciones en ambos países y la disculpa del gobierno mexicano a Guatemala.
Juez da luz verde para revelar archivos de Ghislaine Maxwell, la allegada de Epstein
Por MICHAEL R. SISAK
NUEVA YORK (AP) — El Departamento de Justicia puede hacer públicos los materiales de investigación de un caso de tráfico sexual contra Ghislaine Maxwell, la antigua confidente de Jeffrey Epstein, afirmó el martes un juez federal.
El juez Paul A. Engelmayer dictaminó después de que el Departamento de Justicia solicitara en noviembre a dos jueces en Nueva York que desclasificaran las transcripciones del jurado especial y los documentos de los casos de Maxwell y Epstein, junto con materiales de investigación que podrían sumar cientos o miles de documentos previamente no publicados.
El fallo, tras la aprobación el mes pasado de la Ley de Transparencia de los Archivos de Epstein, significa que los registros podrían hacerse públicos en un plazo de 10 días. La ley requiere que el Departamento de Justicia proporcione al público los registros relacionados con Epstein en un formato buscable antes del 19 de diciembre.
Engelmayer es el segundo juez que permite al Departamento de Justicia divulgar públicamente registros judiciales de Epstein que antes eran secretos. La semana pasada, un juez en Florida concedió la solicitud del departamento de difundir transcripciones de una investigación federal abandonada sobre Epstein en la década de 2000.
Una solicitud para liberar registros del caso de tráfico sexual de Epstein de 2019 aún está pendiente.
El Departamento de Justicia dijo que el Congreso tenía la intención de desclasificar los documentos cuando aprobó la ley de transparencia, que el presidente Donald Trump firmó el mes pasado.
Tres jueces —dos en Nueva York y uno en Florida— habían rechazado previamente una solicitud inusual del departamento para desclasificar las transcripciones del jurado preliminar.
Sin embargo, la última solicitud amplió dramáticamente los archivos que el departamento dijo que planeaba liberar para abarcar 18 categorías de materiales de investigación recopilados en la extensa investigación de tráfico sexual.
Epstein, un financiero, fue arrestado en julio de 2019 por cargos de tráfico sexual, un mes antes de ser encontrado muerto en una celda de una cárcel federal. La muerte fue declarada un suicidio. Maxwell fue condenada por cargos de tráfico sexual en diciembre de 2021. Está cumpliendo una sentencia de prisión de 20 años. Maxwell, una socialité británica, fue trasladada durante el verano de una prisión federal en Florida a un campamento penitenciario en Texas, ya que su caso penal generó una renovada atención pública.
En respuesta a una solicitud de los jueces de Nueva York para obtener más detalles sobre lo que se publicaría, el departamento dijo en presentaciones recientes en el tribunal federal de Manhattan que los materiales incluirían 18 categorías, incluidas órdenes de registro, registros financieros, notas de entrevistas a sobrevivientes, datos de dispositivos electrónicos y material de investigaciones anteriores de Epstein en Florida.
El gobierno declaró que estaba consultando con los sobrevivientes y sus abogados y planeaba censurar los registros para proteger las identidades de los sobrevivientes y prevenir la difusión de imágenes sexualizadas.
Después de la solicitud para desclasificar los archivos el mes pasado, dos jueces en Nueva York invitaron a Maxwell, la herencia de Epstein y a los acusadores a proporcionar opiniones sobre la solicitud.
El abogado de Maxwell indicó que su cliente no tomó posición sobre la desclasificación solicitada, excepto para señalar que sus planes de presentar una petición de hábeas corpus podrían verse frustrados porque la divulgación de los materiales “crearía un prejuicio indebido tan severo que cerraría la posibilidad de un nuevo juicio justo” si la solicitud de hábeas corpus tuviera éxito.
Los abogados de la herencia de Epstein no tomaron posición. Al menos una acusadora vocal de Epstein, Annie Farmer, señaló a través de su abogada, Sigrid S. McCawley, que Farmer “es cautelosa ante la posibilidad de que cualquier denegación de las mociones pueda ser utilizada por otros como pretexto o excusa para continuar reteniendo información crucial sobre los crímenes de Epstein”.
En agosto, los jueces Richard M. Berman y Paul A. Engelmayer en Manhattan negaron las solicitudes del departamento para desclasificar las transcripciones y otros materiales de los casos de Epstein y Maxwell, dictaminando que tales divulgaciones rara vez se permiten.
Decenas de miles de páginas de registros relacionados con Epstein y Maxwell ya han sido liberadas a través de demandas, divulgaciones públicas y solicitudes de la Ley de Libertad de Información.
Muchos de los materiales que el Departamento de Justicia planea difundir provienen de informes, fotografías, videos y otros materiales recopilados por la policía en Palm Beach, Florida, y la fiscalía federal allí, ambos de los cuales investigaron a Epstein a mediados de la década de 2000.
El año pasado, un juez de Florida ordenó la difusión de unas 150 páginas de transcripciones de un jurado estatal que investigó a Epstein en 2006. El 5 de diciembre, a solicitud del Departamento de Justicia, un juez de Florida ordenó la desclasificación de transcripciones de un jurado federal allí que también investigó a Epstein.
Esa investigación terminó en 2008 con un acuerdo entonces secreto que permitió a Epstein evitar cargos federales al declararse culpable de un cargo estatal de prostitución. Cumplió 13 meses en un programa de trabajo en la cárcel. La solicitud de desclasificación de archivos de investigación el mes pasado, dos jueces en Nueva York invitaron a Maxwell, la herencia de Epstein y a los acusadores a proporcionar opiniones sobre la solicitud.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Trump Reversing “Humphrey’s Executor” Is NOT Priced In
Trump Reversing “Humphrey’s Executor” Is NOT Priced In
By Michael Every of Rabobank
There are key central bank decisions this week, starting with the RBA today. However, the market has already priced in their expected outcomes. What it’s failing to price in, though it’s more important, is the stream of political and geopolitical developments in which it operates. Not Trump threatening Mexico with an extra 5% tariff over water; nor threats of tariffs on Indian rice and Canadian fertilizer; nor Trump about to unveil a $12bn farm aid package, tasking his top advisers with finding ways to lower soaring beef prices; nor Nigeria helping foil a coup in Benin, Thailand and Cambodia attacking each other, and Israel bombing Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Rather, the US Supreme Court appears ready to overturn decades of precedent to grant Trump the power to fire a swathe of government officials. Reversing ‘Humphrey’s Executor’ will allow him to overcome legal and bureaucratic resistance to the Gramscian changes he’s introducing to the political economy. That isn’t priced in. Indeed, despite Justice Kavanaugh’s opposition, it could put the Fed in the firing line too, with Governor Cook’s court case in January and a Fed Chair nominee, likely Hassett, promised within weeks. That isn’t priced in either.
Neither is Friday’s US National Security Strategy (NSS) even if for some countries and many markets it implies staggering changes ahead.
It’s America First, starting with “protecting the country and its way of life” and ending with “restoring US spiritual and cultural health”.
Its working principles are a focused definition of national interests; peace through strength; a predisposition to non-interventionism; flexible realism; the primacy of nations; a balance of power; pro-American worker; fairness; and competence and merit.
Its priorities begin with “The era of mass migration is over”; protection of core rights and liberties; burden-sharing and burden-shifting; realignment through peace; and economic security, focused on balanced trade, access to critical supply chains and materials, reindustrialisation, rebuilding the defence industrial base, energy dominance, and financial sector dominance.
In the Americas, the US wants to “enlist” new friends to work with it, and it will expand its military presence there via a ‘Trump Corollary” to Monroe Doctrine. The goal is for “partner nations” to build up their domestic economies, while a “stronger and more sophisticated” Western Hemisphere grows for the US. That’s not the traditional US model of US cheap labour and resource extraction. The plan is also to “expand” its list of partners while pushing out influence from “non-hemispheric competitors”, which sounds like regime change, a long-standing tradition.
In Asia, the aim is to “win the economic future” and “prevent military confrontation. Even with Trump agreeing to sell older Nvidia chips to China, the NSS states: “we will rebalance America’s economic relationship with China, prioritising reciprocity and fairness to restore American economic independence. Trade with China should be balanced and focused on non-sensitive factors.” Indeed, the US will “resist predatory, state-directed subsidies and industrial strategies,” etc. Moreover, “We must encourage… prominent nations in adopting trade policies that help rebalance China’s economy toward household consumption.” So, a US bloc with a common external tariff against China. This “must be accompanied by a robust and ongoing focus on deterrence to prevent war in the Indo-Pacific”, and from Taiwan to the South China Sea, this means much more military burden-sharing from US allies and partners.
For Europe, the emphasis is on decline and the starker “prospect of civilisational erasure.” There is a litany of US complaints about the EU’s strategy and the view that “should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies.” This is then sharpened to, “Over the long term, it is more than plausible that within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European. As such, it is an open question whether they will view their place in the world, or their alliance with the US, in the same way as those who signed the NATO charter.”
While the FT talks of ‘Trump’s America and a clash of civilizations with Europe’, the NSS argues “Europe remains strategically and culturally vital to the US…Not only can we not afford to write Europe off – doing so would be self-defeating for what this strategy aims to achieve…. Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory. We will need a strong Europe to help us successfully compete, and to work in concert with us to prevent any adversary from dominating Europe.” So, the US wants to remake Europe state by state, ignoring the EU. The NSS says policy will prioritise “Cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.”
The NSS also says “It is a core interest of the US to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.” Yet after meeting Macron, Merz, and Starmer yesterday, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says he won’t yield any territory to Russia. The war may grind on… and the US may walk away, leaving Europe to pay and provide materiel for it. In parallel, Reuters reports the US plans to hand over the running of European NATO by end-2027. If so, European plans to raise core defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 would be completely inadequate, more so if there is war nor peace. This could require spending 8-10% of GDP for the next two years; or Russia might win, which Europe has said is “existential” for it. The Deputy Secretary of State also just posted that the US will no longer accept NATO meeting with it and talking ‘alliance’, then after it leaves, the same countries changing hats to ‘EU’ and pushing policies that undermine US interests. He implies one or the other will have to change. That has huge implications of its own, including the US openly playing divide and rule via security with the EU: east/north vs west/south.
In short, the NSS puts Europe –as currently constituted– in a terrible geopolitical position with no good options. The response so far has been silence (‘As Trump goes on the attack, von der Leyen goes into hiding’). Limited conversation around the topic focuses on the mistakes that the US is making. OK, **but what will EUROPE DO**? Chatter of ‘working with China’ rather than the US –as Macron was maybe angling for when not threatening to use Europe’s trade-bazooka on Beijing– would just ensure the US becomes openly antagonistic; and Chinese trade practices are set in place, as its trade surplus hit a new high. We were here on tariffs too, before the EU yielded.
Tellingly, the NSS plan for the Middle East – “Shift burdens, build peace” actually looks like the easier region to deal with, as does Africa’s “Look to partner with select countries to ameliorate conflict.” Cynics might add that reads like a future NSS Europe text.
This might all seem abstract to markets (“What does this mean for the ECB?”) but it was the ECB’s Lagarde who underlined the world which made Europe prosperous is disappearing. The one that opened up on Friday is likely to be even more transformative as: JP Morgan’s Dimon attacks Europe’s economic record; Ford’s CEO warns Europe is risking the future of its auto industry; the EU steel industry is “in disarray”; France is shielding an €18bn Russian asset pot from the EU ‘reparations loan’ push, where Germany faces a €52bn potential bill for guaranteeing it – and Japan won’t join in.
That leaves one hope for the EU to cling to: that the NSS is just aspirational shelfware. Yet if the Supreme Court rules for Trump on Humphrey’s Executor, the NSS may be backed by new US political-economy hardware and software. That’s called a fat tail risk – and it’s NOT priced in!
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/09/2025 – 10:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trump-reversing-humphreys-executor-not-priced
Primera dama francesa enfrenta críticas por usar un insulto contra manifestantes feministas
Por JOHN LEICESTER
PARÍS (AP) — Brigitte Macron fue criticada el martes después de que surgiera un video en el que se la ve usando un insulto contra manifestantes feministas.
En la escena, filmada el domingo, la primera dama de Francia aparece en una conversación tras bambalinas en el teatro Folies Bergère de París con Ary Abittan, un actor y humorista francés previamente acusado de violación, antes de una actuación que estaba a punto de dar. La noche anterior, activistas feministas interrumpieron su espectáculo con gritos de ”¡Abittan, violador!”
Antes de la actuación del domingo, Brigitte Macron le preguntó cómo se sentía. Cuando él dijo que estaba asustado, ella hizo una referencia despectiva y sexista hacia las mujeres, añadiendo: “Las echaremos”.
Su oficina dijo en un comunicado que la primera dama había tratado de calmar los nervios del actor: “Como se muestra en el video, la única intención de la señora Macron era tranquilizar a un artista que, en su camerino antes de salir al escenario, acababa de decirle: ‘Estoy asustado’, porque su espectáculo había sido interrumpido la noche anterior”.
“De ninguna manera ataca una causa. Sin embargo, desaprueba los métodos radicales utilizados para impedir que un artista actúe en el escenario, como fue el caso el sábado por la noche”.
El grupo feminista “Nous Toutes” (“Todas Nosotras”) dijo que sus activistas interrumpieron el espectáculo de Abittan para protestar contra lo que describieron como “la cultura de la impunidad” en torno a la violencia sexual en Francia.
Los magistrados dieron por terminada la investigación de la acusación de violación de 2021 contra Abittan por falta de pruebas en 2024, una decisión que luego fue confirmada en apelación en enero de este año, según los medios franceses.
En un comunicado en Instagram, Nous Toutes dijo: “Denunciamos a los lugares que despliegan una alfombra roja para hombres acusados de violación, normalizando la violencia sexista y sexual. Es un insulto público a las víctimas. Víctimas, les creemos. Violadores, no les perdonamos”.
Los opositores del presidente Emmanuel Macron en la izquierda de la política francesa criticaron el uso de un insulto sexista por parte de su esposa y algunos dijeron que debería disculparse.
Entre los críticos se encontraba el expresidente francés François Hollande. En declaraciones a la
emisora RTL, Hollande dijo: “Hay un problema de vulgaridad”.
Pero en la extrema derecha francesa, el legislador de Agrupación Nacional, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, dijo que los comentarios de Brigitte Macron fueron hechos en privado y “robados”.
“Si cada uno de nosotros fuera filmado entre bastidores diciendo cosas con amigos, creo que habría mucho que comentar,” dijo a la emisora BFMTV. “Todo esto es muy hipócrita”.
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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.
ComEd offers customers $803 million in energy credits while seeking $268 million reconciliation rate hike
After a summer of sky-high electric bills, ComEd is offering Chicago customers some relief next year with $803 million in state-mandated nuclear energy credits and a new low-income discount program.
The average ComEd residential customer can expect to receive about $65 in total bill credits over five months to partially offset high electric supply rates as part of the state’s clean energy legislation. In addition, qualified low-income customers are eligible for up to two years of percentage-based savings on their monthly bills beginning in January.
But ComEd is also seeking a one-time $268.5 million reconciliation rate adjustment from the Illinois Commerce Commission this month to recover extra capital expenses the utility said it incurred above its projected budget in 2024.
If the annual reconciliation adjustment is approved, ComEd customers will see higher delivery charges on their monthly bills next year, cutting into the energy credits and low-income discounts.
While the reconciliation increase request covers a variety of expense overruns, nonprofit watchdog group Citizens Utility Board is most concerned with $48 million the utility is seeking for the botched implementation of a new computer billing system last year.
ComEd installed the customer information and billing management system in February 2024, which left millions of customers unable to pay bills or see their balances online for more than a week, while some solar customers didn’t receive their renewable energy credits for months.
Nearly one-fifth of the utility’s rate adjustment request is to recover costs associated with the bungled billing upgrade, everything from the protracted implementation of the new computer system to high-intensity support for customers to smooth the impacts during the bumpy rollout, according to ComEd.
“It’s ridiculous for ComEd to try to raise our rates in connection with billing problems the utility giant created itself,” CUB Executive Director Sarah Moskowitz said in a news release. ”Customers shouldn’t pay higher rates for ComEd’s incompetence.”
ComEd customers are already dealing with higher delivery charges after the ICC approved a four-year, $606 million rate hike last December as part of the utility’s power grid improvement plan, increasing average residential customer bills by $1.84 per month through 2027.
The $268.5 million reconciliation adjustment would raise average ComEd residential customer bills by an additional $3.41 per month in 2026, the utility said.
“As part of the required annual reconciliation process, ComEd has filed a request with regulators for a $268 million adjustment to reflect prudently incurred costs for delivering safe, reliable service to more than 9 million people across northern Illinois in 2024,” ComEd said in a statement Monday.
In November, two administrative judges issued a proposed order recommending the ICC reduce the requested reconciliation rate increase by $16.4 million. Consumer advocates would like to see a more significant reduction in the reconciliation request when the ICC issues its final order later this month.
The ComEd rate request is tied to delivery charges, which generally represent half the monthly bill.
Meanwhile, supply charges – the other half of the bill – have been going through the roof, in large part due to increased demand from the proliferation of power-hungry data centers.
ComEd customers saw their bills spike over the summer from the one-two punch of higher wholesale electricity prices and increased usage during a heat wave, with some reporting a triple-digit increase in their total bills during the month of June.
PJM Interconnection manages the electricity supply grid for 13 states, including ComEd’s 4.2 million customers in northern Illinois. In July, an annual capacity auction for expected reserve electricity needed during peak demand jumped 22% to a record $329.17 per Megawatt-day, meaning even higher supply prices for ComEd and its customers beginning in June 2026.
Last week, ComEd announced it would be rebating $803 million as part of the state’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which requires nuclear plants to issue customers a Carbon Mitigation Credit when energy prices are high.
The average ComEd customer can expect to receive about $13 per month in carbon credits on their electric bills over the first five months of 2026, the utility said. A subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon, ComEd serves about 70% of the state’s customers.
“Thanks to the foresight and leadership of Governor Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly, CEJA puts our customers on a path to a cleaner future while upholding our commitment to ensuring sustainability and affordability,” Gil Quiniones, president and CEO of ComEd, said in a news release.
ComEd, which saw a $10 million relief fund for low- to moderate-income customers depleted in a matter of weeks during the summer, also announced last week it is launching the low-income discount program in January, offering a percentage-based monthly savings for qualified applicants.
The program is designed to reduce energy bills to 3-6% of household income, with savings based on average use and income tier. Customers who qualify will receive the discount for 12 to 24 months.
CUB’s Moskowitz applauded both initiatives, and said in a statement the consumer group plans to “spread the word” about the low-income discount program to people who qualify. But at the same time, CUB said the utility’s wasteful spending and delivery rate hike requests are pushing more customers to need assistance in paying their bills.
To that point, the new customer service and billing system — an ostensible upgrade for the utility — still isn’t working correctly, according to CUB.
“ComEd broke it,” Moskowitz said in the news release. “Customers shouldn’t have to pay to fix it.”
The ICC is expected to rule on the $268.5 million reconciliation rate hike by Dec. 20.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/09/comed-energy-credits-rate-hike/
White House Draws Up Post-Maduro Plans As Trump Warns His “Days Are Numbered”
White House Draws Up Post-Maduro Plans As Trump Warns His “Days Are Numbered”
In a new interview with Politico released Tuesday President Trump stated that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s “days are numbered” but still declined to say exactly what he has planned in terms of potential military action against Venezuela.
He was asked specifically whether he might order boots on the ground in Venezuela, to which Trump responded simply, “I don’t comment on that.” Trump was also pressed on how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of regime change. Trump said, “I don’t want to say that.”
“But you want to see him out?” asked Politico reporter Dasha Burns. “I wouldn’t say that one way or the other,” Trump said, while criticizing the socialist strongman’s rule. But then later he conceded that he wouldn’t rule out an American ground invasion and that’s when the commander-in-chief said of Maduro, “His days are numbered.”
Donald Trump: ‘Maduro’s days are numbered.’
The brazen imperialist war to steal the world’s largest oil reserves looms. pic.twitter.com/9QgCP7k1tu
— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) December 9, 2025
But there are apparently robust plans for the ‘day after’ Maduro which have been prepared by the White House and Pentagon. These contingencies have no doubt been intensely discussed especially following the months-long major US naval build-up in the southern Caribbean.
A fresh CNN report indicates Tuesday that the “Trump administration is working on day-after plans in the event Maduro is ousted from power, according to two senior administration officials and another source familiar with the discussions.”
The sources said the plans have been “quietly drafted” and are highly classified. “They include multiple options for what US action could look like to fill the power vacuum and stabilize the country if Maduro voluntarily leaves as part of a negotiated departure or is forced into leaving after US strikes on targets inside Venezuela or other direct action, the sources said,” writes CNN.
Washington has had a recent history of facilitating regime change in supposedly ‘rogue states’ only to see once highly stable societies descend into disaster, chaos, and mass killings. Such happened everywhere from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to most recently in Syria – where Druze, Christians, and Alawites continue to suffer at the hands of hardline Sunnis.
The Venezuela plans are being ‘closely held’ – CNN explains:
“It’s the job of the federal government to always prepare for plans A, B and C,” said a senior administration official, noting that the president would not be making the threats he’s making if he did not have a team ready with a series of options for any potential outcome.
Another source familiar with the planning said that it is “the responsibility of the US government to prepare for all scenarios around the world that may or may not unfold.” The plans are being closely held at the Homeland Security Council at the White House, the source added, which is led by Stephen Miller who has worked closely with Secretary of State and acting national security adviser Marco Rubio on the efforts related to Venezuela in recent months.
Opposition leaders Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado, Getty images
Apparently the US-supported Venezuelan opposition also factors in, and has been doing its own planning and preparations:
The opposition has been formulating “100 hour” and “100 day” plans for next steps if Maduro is ousted, and those plans have been shared with different parts of the Trump administration, a source familiar said. It is unclear how much the administration has incorporated any aspects of those plans into its thinking, the source said.
Washington has already anointed María Corina Machado and Edmundo González as the anti-Maduro oppositionists who will lead a political transition.
The US has going back to the Biden administration called Gonzalez the rightful “president-elect” of the oil-rich but corrupt country, and Trump has also described him as the true president after Maduro allegedly ‘stole’ the last election.
60 Minutes says there are only three possible outcomes in Venezuela: Maduro flees, gets captured by the US, or is assassinated. So they’re presupposing the inevitability of US-imposed regime change. Always fascinating when CBS News winds up in total alignment with the Trump Admin pic.twitter.com/ZE5zOtC4ll
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 27, 2025
Maduro is recently said to have offered serious overtures to the US regarding access to the nation’s huge underground oil reserves, but has also lately rejected Trump demands for him to immediately step down and exit the country.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/09/2025 – 09:40
África Occidental declara estado de emergencia debido a aumento de golpes militares
Por DYEPKAZAH SHIBAYAN y WILSON MCMAKIN
ABUYA, Nigeria (AP) — La reciente proliferación de golpes militares y las crisis de seguridad en África Occidental han dejado a la región en un estado de emergencia, afirmó un funcionario regional el martes.
Omar Touray, presidente de la Comisión de la Comunidad Económica de Estados de África Occidental (CEDEAO), manifestó que ha habido una “creciente erosión de la inclusividad electoral en múltiples estados”.
Touray expresó al consejo de mediación y seguridad del bloque el martes en Abuya, la capital de Nigeria, que a pesar de los esfuerzos por fortalecer los principios constitucionales, los estados miembros aún están presenciando acciones que los socavan.
“Los eventos de las últimas semanas han mostrado la necesidad imperiosa de una seria introspección sobre el futuro de nuestra democracia y la urgente necesidad de invertir en la seguridad de nuestra comunidad”, declaró Touray. “Ante esta situación, Excelencias, es seguro declarar que nuestra comunidad está en un estado de emergencia”.
El domingo, un grupo de soldados apareció en la televisión estatal de Benín para anunciar la disolución del gobierno en un intento de golpe que fracasó.
Esa insurrección fue la más reciente en una serie de alzamientos que han sacudido la región de África Occidental.
El mes pasado, un golpe militar en Guinea-Bisáu destituyó al presidente Umaro Embalo tras unas elecciones disputadas en las que tanto él como el candidato de la oposición se declararon ganadores.
La declaración de Touray puede ser un intento de restaurar la credibilidad del bloque tras una intervención amenazada pero nunca llevada a cabo en Níger en 2023, indicó Ulf Laessing, jefe del programa Sahel en la Fundación Konrad Adenauer.
“La CEDEAO está preocupada de que los golpes se conviertan en la nueva norma en África Occidental”, comentó Laessing. Recordó que en Níger en 2023, el grupo amenazó con una intervención militar y estableció plazos sin tener una fuerza de reserva. “Ahora intentan mostrar que van en serio”, añadió.
No está claro qué cambiará la declaración, o si desencadenará una nueva respuesta del bloque.
La CEDEAO ha tomado medidas similares antes, notablemente durante las guerras civiles en Liberia y Sierra Leona, aunque sin definirlas como estados de emergencia.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
From aliens to flat earthers, Tyson debunks bad science at Sinai Forum
Neil deGrasse Tyson gave a rousing defense of scientific principles in his characteristic brash way during his Purdue Northwest Sinai Forum presentation Sunday.
His talk gathered what PNW Sinai Forum Executive Director Leslie Plesac said was the largest group of high school and college students in recent memory for the lecture series.
Superstitions that persist even in the 21st century include elevators being designed without a 13th floor, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said Sunday. (Doug Ross/Post-Tribune)
“There’s a growing anti-intellectual strain in this society,” warned the astrophysicist, himself a star science communicator as well as director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
“If you think the world is flat and you have influence over others,” he said, that’s when bad science becomes dangerous.
Tyson took a jab at people who believe the Earth is flat, including rapper B.o.B, who started a GoFundMe account in an attempt to prove Earth is flat.
“Discovery and exploration got us out of the caves,” Tyson said. Humans today are “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
This Deutsche mark shows Germany’s pride in science and mathematics, honoring the creator of the bell curve, something U.S. currency doesn’t value, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said Sunday. (Doug Ross/Post-Tribune)
“When you stand on the shoulders of those who came before, you might just realize the Earth isn’t flat,” he said.
Earth’s curvature isn’t obvious to anyone looking for the spherical planet’s curved edges from a low altitude because the planet is so large.
Tyson cited “Mad Mike Hughes,” who built a rocket in an attempt to prove the Earth was flat. Hughes died when the rocket exploded.
The Darwin Award, Tyson said, is awarded to childless people who die doing something incredibly dumb. “This culls the herd of really stupid people,” he said.
The lunar eclipse, Tyson pointed out, is proof the Earth is round. “This curve here is Earth’s conical shadow in space,” he said. “Notice the shadow is curved. The ancient Greeks noticed this.”
“There is only one shape whose shadow is always curved,” he said. That’s a sphere, not a flat disc.
Debunking bad science includes discussing alien concepts too.
“People want there to be aliens so badly, they take eyewitness testimony and want it to be reality,” Tyson said. But eyewitnesses can be wrong. “I need a witness, said no scientist ever.”
He shared news coverage of his visit to an Idaho ice cream parlor, with a store employee detailing the types of ice cream Tyson supposedly tried, but he insists he purchased his favorite, strawberry, and no other kind.
“Either they’re lying or the other black person in Idaho stopped by,” Tyson said.
With UFOs, unidentified flying objects, “you just admitted you don’t know what you’re looking at,” he said.
Those fuzzy photos from years ago can be debunked, he said. Throw a hubcap in the air, and you can create a UFO photo. “The hubcap aliens are visiting Earth.”
Those glowing clouds? That’s a natural phenomenon from light reflecting off the sun under certain conditions.
Remember seeing those photos that purported to show a spaceship crash-landed here? “I don’t want to meet those aliens. I want to meet the ones who know how to navigate,” Tyson said.
Now that smartphones are ubiquitous, there are fewer stories of UFOs and alien abductions, he said. “In the era of the smartphone, the reports of alien abductions have basically been reduced to zero” despite the 4 billion images and 1 million hours of video uploaded to the internet on a daily basis.
“Either the aliens must love restricted military airspace or they are really fuzzy,” Tyson said.
Abduction stories are entertaining but even those reports are dwindling. “It’s really weird that aliens would come from across the galaxy just to probe your orifices,” Tyson said.
Remember those stereotypical images of purported aliens with giant eyes? Those eyes are so large there’s less room for a brain in their cranium, Tyson said.
Tyson often gets calls to comment on scientific discoveries.
The James Webb telescope has optics vastly superior to the Hubble telescope that preceded it. It’s generating images and discoveries that amaze the public. “Any time this makes a discovery, they call a scientist,” he said, but they should also call the engineers who figured out how to fold it up and launch it into space.
Tyson took issue with Americans’ attitudes when it comes to science and mathematics.
On the giant screen behind him, show showed a Statista.com chart based on 2015 data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a list of countries in which 18- to 29-year-olds struggle with numeracy, or math skills. The United States was on the top of the list, based on 2015 data.
Another ranking showed the percentage of different countries’ population that believed humans evolved from an earlier species of animals. The United States was near the bottom of that list, just above Turkey.
Belief systems, too, got a few Tyson jabs.
“This is the 21st century. We have full-grown adults engineering elevators without the number 13,” he said.
The German History Museum in Munich displayed a sign for floor -1.
A bell curve formula on a Deutsche mark from the pre-Euro era honored Carl Friedrich Gauss. “We have one scientist on our currency. Who is that? Benjamin Franklin. If you don’t know that, you don’t make enough to know who’s on the $100 bill,” Tyson said.
And Franklin was chosen because he was a Founding Father, not because of his scientific background.
Tyson fielded a few questions from the audience on science issues.
One woman said she had seen recent data about young galaxies having a preferred direction of rotation and wondering what that meant.
“It could mean that we’re all living in a black hole. Deal with it,” Tyon replied.
“The problem with that study is it’s only one section of the universe and not all sections. It remains to be verified by other studies. That’s how science fully works,” he said.
A boy asked about the boiling temperature of water not being the same at different locations.
If you boil water at sea level, like in Northwest Indiana, the temperature will stop going up at 212 degrees because the excess energy is converting water to steam while the water is boiling.
“The water the temperature boils at relates to how much air pressure is pressing down on your water,” he said. At a higher altitude, cooking times change because there’s less air pressure.
That’s on Earth. Get prepared to have your mind blown.
“If the air pressure is so thin you can lower the boiling point of water so low that it equals the freezing point of water,” as is the case on Mars, you can have a vat of boiling water that can sustain ice cubes and generates steam, Tyson said. “Solid, liquid and gas, the triple point of water.”
Urschel Laboratories President and CEO Rik Urschel, a self-professed astronomy buff, said he “was over-the-moon excited” about the prospect of bringing Tyson to speak in Northwest Indiana ever since 2017, when he began working with Plesac and others to line up speakers for the annual series.
Urschel, who had the Saturn V model rocket he built as a kid on display in his office, told of using a telescope in his parents’ driveway in 1986 to see Halley’s Comet.
Earlier this fall, PNW declined to disclose how much Tyson would be paid for his talk, claiming it was a “trade secret.” Tyson is represented by Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau, Inc., which did not respond to a request for comment, but another agency’s website lists his speaker’s fee as $100,000 or more.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
