Category: News
President Trump nominates next leader of National Park Service
President Donald Trump has nominated for director of the National Park Service an executive from a hospitality company that holds extensive contracts with the agency he would lead.
The nomination of Scott Socha late Wednesday follows widespread firings within the Park Service as part of efforts by Trump’s Republican administration to sharply reduce its size. The administration also has faced blowback for the removal or planned removal of national park exhibits about slavery, climate change and the destruction of Native American culture.
Administration officials have said they are removing “disparaging” messages under an order last year from Trump. Critics accuse it of trying to whitewash the nation’s history.
Socha is a president for parks and resorts at Delaware North, which describes itself as one of the world’s largest privately owned hospitality and entertainment companies, with more than $4 billion in revenue in 2022. The company provides hospitality services in at least six national parks, including Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Shenandoah, said spokesperson Cait Zulewski.
The Buffalo, New York-based company has more than 40,000 employees, according to its website. Socha has been with it since 1999 and will continue in his role there while his nomination is pending, Zulewski said.
The company referred further questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press.
The Senate must confirm Socha’s nomination.
Trump last year proposed cutting the Park Service’s $2.9 billion budget by more than $900 million. Park supporters and former employees said that would effectively gut the agency.
The cuts were blocked by lawmakers in Congress who recently voted to keep the service’s budget at about the same amount as the last two years. However the parks already have lost almost a quarter of their employees, or more than 4,000 positions, due to firings and other changes since Trump took office, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group.
Association director Theresa Pierno said Thursday it was ready to work with Socha, but he must reverse course on recent policies. The Park Service has gone more than a year without a confirmed director.
“If confirmed, he must put the Park Service’s mission first, stand up for park staff, fill critical vacancies and halt attacks on our nation’s history,” Pierno said. “Given Mr. Socha’s years of experience working with the Park Service, we hope he will be that leader.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/12/trump-national-park-service-nominee/
Half Of Gen Z Brings Parents To Job Interviews: Survey
Half Of Gen Z Brings Parents To Job Interviews: Survey
Authored by Oscar Mackey via The College Fix,
80% said their parents have communicated with their manager at least once…
Over 50% of college-age job seekers had their parents sit with them at an in-person interview, a January survey by Resume Templates found. What’s more, over 35% of surveyed individuals reported parents either writing a cover letter or performing a test assignment for them.
Julia Toothacre, a career coach and chief career strategist at the survey group, said she had never seen parents this involved in their child’s job searches in the past.
“When I was doing career development at the college level, we would see parents come in to talk about majors and sometimes career choices, but they weren’t sitting in on interviews or communicating with managers,” Toothacre told The College Fix in a recent interview via email.
When asked what she believed caused this trend, Toothacre replied, “I think COVID played a larger role in this parental involvement than many people want to admit.”
She elaborated:
“Right now, one of the main factors is the unpredictable market. I think parents are seeing how difficult it’s been to get hired and how many entry-level and early-career positions are being replaced with AI or simply being limited.
“Second, I believe this generation, while more emotionally aware, also experiences greater anxiety than previous generations. Couple that with living through COVID during formative years, and there is going to be a portion of this generation that feels like they need additional support,” Toothacre told The Fix.
The survey polled young adults ages 18-23.
Parental involvement in this survey was defined as “the actions a parent took for their child during the job search process.”
The young adults surveyed reported parental involvement was often repeated. They also said parents submitted applications (64%), completed test assignments (51%), and sat in on in-person interviews (51%).
Additionally, 80% said their parents have communicated with their manager at least once, including 67% who reported multiple instances. During these interactions, the most common topic was their schedule or hours (58%), and the second most common was workplace accommodations (38%).
What’s more, young men were more likely to report repeated involvement by their parents than young women: 70% of men said their parents submitted an application for them compared to 59% of women. Young men also reported a similar trend in parents writing emails (61% vs. 52%) and joining multiple in-person interviews (57% vs. 47%).
The career service group also polled 181 parents in a separate survey. A majority of the parents said their involvement was requested by their child, and their reasons for doing tasks on their child’s behalf included a difficult job market, inexperience, and anxiety.
According to the parents surveyed, 71% reported their adult child requesting help, while 25% offered help.
When asked about the survey, Lenore Skenazy, a journalist and founder of Let Grow, a movement advocating for child independence, said parents to step back and let their children learn more on their own. Speaking with The Fix in a recent phone interview, she said doing so encourages resilience and independence.
“It’s a natural impulse, helping our kids,” Skenazy said.
And while it’s good for young adults to ask for help, she said parents also need to let their children step up. The older children become, the more parents need to trust them to do things on their own, Skenazy said.
A 2024 survey by Resume Templates found similar results with one in four young adults saying they brought their parents to a job interview, The Fix reported previously.
“[I]t’s becoming clear that constant adult supervision and intervention are hurting young people. This over-assistance is undermining their self-confidence and competence,” Skenazy told The Fix at the time.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 02/12/2026 – 18:25
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/half-gen-z-brings-parents-job-interviews-survey
Bill aimed at curbing electric rates passes out of Senate committee
A Northwest Indiana state senator introduced two amendments to a House electric affordability bill that were shot down before the legislation makes its way to the Senate floor.
State Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton, introduced an amendment that would require electric utilities to offer 12-month payment plans and another that would require companies to explain rates in customer billing. Both amendments failed in a 2-7 vote Thursday morning.
“I’ve been contacted non-stop by folks in my community just asking for help with the recent rate increases,” Pol said.
Although the amendments failed, House Bill 1002 — authored by state Rep. Alaina Shonkwiler, R-Noblesville — passed the Senate Appropriations Committee in a unanimous vote. The bill is expected to move to the Senate floor on second reading at a later date.
Shonkwiler’s legislation is one of the Indiana House’s priority bills this session, and it is designed to help lower electric utility costs statewide. House Bill 1002 introduces both performance-based and multiyear ratemaking, Shonkwiler said Thursday morning.
If passed, the bill would allow some residential ratepayers to be placed on budget billing plans on July 1, and utilities will be prohibited from disconnecting low-income customers’ services during periods with extreme heat warnings. House Bill 1002 also ties utility profits to performance metrics, including affordability and service restoration, and utilities will use a three-year rate plan.
“This ensures predictability for families who want it while fully preserving the individual decision-making,” Shonkwiler said. “Paired with safeguards during extreme weather and increased transparency, these provisions are about protecting households from volatility, not directing how users manage their energy.”
Pol introduced his first amendment because he thinks budget billing would help more customers if it was expanded to a year. As of now, most budget billing plans are six months.
“This would prohibit the electricity supplier from assessing late fees or delinquency fees when they’re in compliance with those plans,” Pol said.
Pol believed his second amendment would help make bills more understandable for customers, and it would require rate information and quarterly reports on “customer-facing” reports. He said customers are getting bills and don’t understand what they’re paying for.
“Our utility users want to be able to flip the switch and know that it’s working,” Pol said. “There needs to be a little bit better explanation because folks are absolutely losing it right now when they open their bills and see what they owe.”
Before the committee passed the bill, state Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, said he supports the legislation and making electricity more affordable, but he’d like to see the legislature take greater action to make utilities affordable.
Qaddoura would like for communities with data centers to no longer grant 50-year tax exemptions to the developers, saying that the existing precedent for state law allows for exemptions to renew for up to five years. He’d also like the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to not allow rate increases of more than 3%.
“I think it’s helpful to cap an appointed board’s authority to a certain percentage, just in case the mechanics of the performance don’t work,” he said. “They can go back to the IURC for rate approval. Capping their rate approval on an annual basis for increases might be helpful.”
Qaddoura was the only committee member who voted with Pol to pass his amendments.
Toni Preckwinkle calls for charges against federal immigration agents in local shootings
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and ten of the 17 commissioners on the board called Thursday for State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke to “pursue all available charges” against federal agents involved in the killing of Silverio Villegas González and the shooting of Marimar Martinez.
“We support thorough law enforcement investigations wherever federal agents have violated the law,” the group statement from Preckwinkle and board members said. All eleven signatories are Democrats. “We urge the Cook County State’s Attorney to act swiftly, proactively and transparently to ensure accountability and deliver justice for the families and communities who have been harmed.”
Debates about filing charges in the shootings and other instances of alleged criminal behavior by federal agents have been front and center in recent weeks, as Mayor Brandon Johnson and Burke have publicly disagreed about his executive order directing Chicago police to investigate federal immigration agents for possible felony charges.
Johnson’s order said the charges would be “at the direction of the Mayor’s office,” which he later backed off of after Burke pointed out that the taint of politics could undermine cases.
In an emailed statement, Burke spokeswoman Elyssa Cherney on Thursday said the office does “not conduct independent investigations into criminal conduct and lacks jurisdiction over federal agencies, except in extremely narrow and limited circumstances. CCSAO reviews evidence that is presented by law enforcement after a formal investigation has been conducted.”
But after witnessing “ICE actions here and across the country, State’s Attorney Burke directed her legal team to draft a protocol that ensures the process for moving forward with cases involving on-duty ICE agent conduct is clear and grounded in the law. We have shared that draft Protocol with local and state law enforcement and other prosecutors’ offices for their review and collaboration.”
Burke has been a critic of immigration agents’ “thuggish behavior,” but has emphasized her office is limited in its ability to prosecute federal agents’ for on-duty actions, telling county commissioners late last year that the U.S. Attorney’s Law Enforcement Accountability Division was the agency to determine whether an agent “exceeded the boundaries of what they are allowed to do within their capacity.”
Villegas González was killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Franklin Park last September. Martinez was shot by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago in October.
Preckwinkle spokeswoman Cara Yi said Thursday’s statement represented a “general call to all applicable law enforcement agencies to investigate” and that the policy and legal teams between the President’s office and State’s Attorney have been in touch.
Legal experts have said local prosecution for a range of alleged charges — from assault to civil rights abuses to first-degree murder — would be challenging and have little precedent.
Marimar Martinez’s attorney, Chris Parente, said at a Wednesday news conference he had not been in touch with Burke’s office, but did not rule out a future local investigation. The FBI still has Martinez’s car while the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Bend, Ind. continues their investigation. Until that federal probe wraps up, local authorities can’t investigate.
Besides Preckwinkle, other signatories included county commissioners Tara Stamps, Jessica Vasquez, Bill Lowry, Stanley Moore, Alma Anaya, Kevin Morrison, Frank Aguilar, Josina Morita, Maggie Trevor and Kisha McCaskill. All are up for re-election this year.
“We also recognize that excessive force has historically been used against the Black community–justice must be applied consistently and anything less weakens the integrity of the very institutions meant to serve our communities,” the statement calling for Burke to pursue charges says. “No officer and no agency is above the law.”
Tribune reporter Jason Meisner contributed.
A 54-year-old personal injury lawyer from Minnesota becomes the oldest US Winter Olympian
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The stakes were low — and the time ripe — for a 54-year-old personal injury lawyer and six-time winner of Minnesota Attorney of the Year to make Olympic history.
It was the end of the U.S. men’s curling match against Switzerland on Thursday and the Americans were down 8-2.
The team called a substitution. Rich Ruohonen, from Brooklyn Park, Minn., stepped onto the ice. He hurled the corner guard and watched his stone, biting his lip until it arrived safely at the left flank of the house.
“Yeah, baby! Good shot, Rich!” skip Danny Casper — who was born in 2001, making him 30 years younger than Ruohonen — shouted across the ice.
A red headband earns quirky US curling star a nod from ‘Pommel Horse Guy’ at Winter Olympics
U.S. fans gave a standing ovation. The lawyer looked wistful. He had just become the oldest person to compete for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics.
“I would have rather done it when we were up 8-2 instead of down 8-2,” he said, “but I really appreciate the guys giving me a chance.”
Since inviting Ruohonen onto their Gen-Z team as an alternate for Casper, who has Guillain-Barre syndrome, he has become something of an honorary uncle: driving them around, waking them up for morning trainings and buying them snacks.
All while holding that much-discussed full-time job.
“We got Rich. Uh, he’s a lawyer. I don’t know if you guys knew that,” Casper said at a recent news conference, after that fact already had been mentioned four times. Curlers from the U.S. women’s and men’s teams cracked up.
“If you need a lawyer, I think you can call Rich,” Casper said a few minutes later, again to uproarious laughter.
All jokes aside, it’s a serious commitment.
“I get up three days a week at 5 in the morning, leave my house by 5:15 in the morning, go drive 30 miles to work out and train,” Ruohonen told the AP.
He then heads to his law practice and works all day before returning at 6 p.m. and then heading to practice again. He spends Thursday through Sunday away at curling tournaments, toting around a collared shirt and a tie so he can handle hearings on Zoom from the road.
He has two kids with his wife, Sherri: Nicholas, 21, and Hannah, 24. He has taught them to curl — as his father taught him —- but says Nick prefers hockey.
Though his teammates poke fun and make him the butt of the occasional TikTok video, there’s clearly a lot of love on both sides.
It’s because of the younger teammates that Ruohonen finally got his Olympic moment after falling just short on several occasions. And it’s because of Ruohonen that the team has a mentor and a connection to the older generation of the sport, some of whom they defeated to clinch their Olympic qualification.
“I came from the days when guys were smoking cigarettes out on the ice and all we did was throw rocks and think that we could be better,” Ruohonen said while praising his teammates’ work ethic.
“Look at these guys. Every one of them’s ripped. And every one of them sweeps their butt off.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/12/curling-oldest-us-olympian-rich-ruohonen/
US men’s hockey team opens Olympics with 5-1 rout of Latvia behind pair of Brock Nelson goals
MILAN — Brock Nelson scored twice, four teammates had two assists apiece and the U.S. opened the Olympics by rolling past Latvia 5-1 on Thursday night in a dominant showcase of some of the country’s best NHL players.
Bouncing back from having a pair of goals wiped out by coach’s challenges and Latvia tying it at 1, the Americans found their groove and for long stretches barely let their opponents have the puck. The U.S. outshot Latvia 38-18 and needed starter Connor Hellebuyck to make only 17 saves.
2026 Winter Olympics: Meet the medalists from the United States
Elvis Merzļikins was under siege at the other end, after Nelson’s second goal sat in the crease with his head bowed in his lap. An odd-man rush became a version of Harlem Globetrotters on ice with pass after pass: Jack Hughes to brother Quinn to Matthew Tkachuk, back to Jack Hughes and then to Nelson to tap into a half-open net with 11.1 seconds left in the second period.
Brady Tkachuk scored the first U.S. goal of the tournament less than six minutes in, and Tage Thompson roofed a nifty backhander on the power play, making coach Mike Sullivan look smart for putting the 6-foot-6 winger on the loaded top unit. Four goals on 32 shots was enough to chase Merzļikins, who was pulled to start the third for Artūrs Šilovs.
Captain Auston Matthews welcomed Šilovs to the Olympics with a power-play goal, assisted on by Jack Eichel and Quinn Hughes. Each of them had two assists, along with Matthew Tkachuk and Jack Hughes.
The U.S. next plays Denmark on Saturday night before wrapping up the preliminary round 24 hours later against Germany.
Canada looks like the favorite in win
Macklin Celebrini scored Canada’s first goal in the return of the NHL to the Olympics, and Jordan Binnington stopped all 26 shots he faced in a 5-0 defeat of Czechia that showed the tournament favorite is already a well-oiled machine.
“Our intentions were really good with the way we played,” captain Sidney Crosby said. “I thought we were physical. We were moving our feet. The execution, sometimes that comes with time. But even other times we did some good things and executed well. Just a matter of building off of that.”
Celebrini, his country’s youngest player at 19, deflected a shot by Cale Makar past Lukas Dostal with 5.7 seconds left in the first, putting an exclamation point on a terrific, back-and-forth period. After Mitch Marner’s saucer pass to Mark Stone for his goal and Bo Horvat’s on a breakaway later in the second, Czechia never stood a chance.
“When you’re playing in the Olympics for the first time, it never gets old, and everybody’s got their jitters,” coach Jon Cooper said. “You know what I liked? I thought we got better as that game went on.”
The handful of times Binnington got tested, he was there to make the save. Before Celebrini scored, Binnington kept it 0-0 by making a left-pad stop on Michal Kempny and reaching out to smother David Kampf’s rebound attempt.
At the other end of the ice, Dostal played well but was helpless to slow down much of the onslaught. There was nothing he could do on the Crosby-to-Connor McDavid-to-Nathan MacKinnon tic-tac-toe power-play goal in the third period.
“Two of the best players ever to play passing it to me is cool,” MacKinnon said. “I didn’t do much for that one. Just blessed to be on the back side. Anyone would have put that in.”
The same trio combined for almost the same goal in opening game of the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago. Canada won that Olympic appetizer by beating the U.S. in overtime.
McDavid finished with three assists, including one on Nick Suzuki’s goal that made it 5-0.
Timo Meier scores twice as Switzerland shuts out France
Timo Meier of the New Jersey Devils scored twice in the third period, 39-year-old national team goaltender Leonardo Genoni stopped all 27 shots he faced and Switzerland shut out France 4-0.
Damien Riat scored 55 seconds in, J.J. Moser of the Tampa Bay Lightning made it a two-goal lead three minutes in and there wasn’t much to worry about the rest of the way, outshooting Switzerland 43-27.
“It helps you a lot if you score two in the first, whatever it was, five minutes,” Moser said. “It just gives you a little bit more comfort, more confidence also for the rest of the game.”
The goals by Meier put the game out of reach after he and his teammates tilted the ice toward Keller. Meier called it “a mature performance there how we put the game away.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/12/us-hockey-latvia-winter-olympics/
India’s Richest Man Sees Company Shares Dip After OFAC Request On Iranian LPG Allegations
India’s Richest Man Sees Company Shares Dip After OFAC Request On Iranian LPG Allegations
Shares of Adani Enterprises Ltd fell as much as 3.5% in Mumbai earlier this week before trimming losses, after the company disclosed that a US agency has sought information over alleged imports of Iranian petroleum products.
In a stock exchange filing, the flagship of the Adani Group said it received a request on Feb. 4 from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), according to Telegraph India and Bloomberg.
The outreach followed voluntary discussions the company initiated after a June 2025 Wall Street Journal report that claimed Adani-linked firms may have brought Iranian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) into India, potentially exposing transactions to US sanctions risk.
The company said OFAC is conducting a civil inquiry into certain transactions routed through US financial institutions that may have involved, directly or indirectly, Iran or sanctioned parties. It emphasized that the communication “does not contain any findings of aberrations/non-compliances” and that it is “voluntarily engaging and fully co-operating” with the US authority.
The Journal had reported that US prosecutors were examining whether companies controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani imported Iranian LPG through Mundra port in Gujarat. It also said some tankers operating between Mundra and the Persian Gulf displayed characteristics experts associate with sanctions evasion. Purchases of Iranian oil and related products are restricted under US sanctions tied to Tehran’s nuclear programme.
At the time, the conglomerate described the allegations as “baseless and mischievous” and said it “categorically denies any deliberate engagement in sanctions evasion or trade involving Iranian-origin LPG.” The group added that it does not handle cargo from Iran at its ports or manage vessels owned by Iranian entities.
Adani Enterprises said the matter has no financial impact. LPG contributed 1.46% of the company’s revenue and about 0.5% of overall group revenue in the fiscal year ended March 2025. It added that it halted all LPG imports from June 2, 2025, out of “abundant caution.”
The inquiry comes as the group continues to face scrutiny in the US, including a separate bribery probe and earlier allegations of stock manipulation and accounting irregularities by short seller Hindenburg Research in 2023, claims the conglomerate has denied.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 02/12/2026 – 18:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/adani-shares-dip-after-ofac-request-iranian-lpg-allegations
What to know about EPA decision to revoke a scientific finding that helped fight climate change
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday revoked its own 2009 “endangerment finding,” a scientific conclusion that for 16 years has been the central basis for regulating planet-warming emissions from power plants, vehicles and other sources.
The finding itself is straightforward: Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases — caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas — endanger public health and welfare.
It was adopted after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases are air pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
The Trump administration says the finding hurts industry and the economy and that the Obama and Biden administrations twisted science to determine that greenhouse gases are a public health risk.
Environmentalists say those gases are a clear threat because climate change worsens weather disasters such as floods, heat waves and drought.
Here’s what to know:
How has the endangerment finding been used?
Since taking effect in 2010, during President Barack Obama’s first term, the endangerment finding has been the legal underpinning for new regulations targeting emissions from vehicles, oil and gas facilities and large industries, including power plants.
The EPA also determined that greenhouse gas emissions from some aircraft endanger health and welfare, setting the stage for future regulations.
Under President Donald Trump, the Department of Energy has suggested that climate models used by scientists to predict warming have overreached, that long-term trends for disasters generally don’t show much change and that climate has little impact on the economy.
Why does it matter?
Climate scientists warn that overturning the endangerment finding undermines decades of scientific progress and damages the credibility of U.S. institutions tasked with protecting the environment.
More importantly, scientists say rising global temperatures — the hottest years on record have all occurred since 2009 — cause more extreme weather that endangers people and causes billions of dollars in damage from more frequent and severe heat waves, wildfires, droughts and catastrophic flooding from more-intense storms.
The EPA action repeals all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks, but experts say it could trigger a broader undoing of climate regulations for stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities. It also could prevent future administrations from proposing rules to address global warming because they would have to restart the scientific and legal process to establish a new endangerment finding, which could take years and face legal challenges, said David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
What happens next?
Environmental groups are sure to challenge the revocation in court.
So far, federal courts have repeatedly rejected legal challenges to the finding, including a 2023 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/12/epa-climate-change-endangerment-finding-explainer/
California: Jueza desestima caso de deportación de jardinero mexicano y padre de 3 marines de EEUU
Por CHRISTOPHER WEBER
LOS ÁNGELES (AP) — Una jueza de inmigración desestimó el caso de deportación contra un jardinero mexicano que fue arrestado en el sur de California el año pasado. Ahora, el padre de tres marines de Estados Unidos está en camino de obtener la residencia legal permanente en el país.
Narciso Barranco, quien llegó a Estados Unidos desde México en la década de 1990 y no tiene estatus legal, fue detenido en junio. El caso atrajo una enorme atención en momentos en que la batida migratoria del gobierno del presidente Donald Trump era objeto de escrutinio y protestas.
Testigos publicaron videos del momento en que Barranco fue arrestado Santa Ana, una ciudad del condado de Orange. Agentes federales forcejearon con Barranco y lo inmovilizaron contra el suelo fuera de un restaurante IHOP, donde realizaba trabajo de jardinería.
Barranco fue trasladado a un centro de detención de Los Ángeles y quedó sometido a un proceso de deportación. Fue liberado un mes después, luego de pagar una fianza de 3.000 dólares y se le ordenó portar un dispositivo de rastreo electrónico en el tobillo.
En una orden del 28 de enero que dio por terminado el caso de deportación, la jueza Kristin S. Piepmeier indicó que Barranco, de 49 años, había aportado pruebas de que es padre de tres hijos nacidos en Estados Unidos que pertenecen a las fuerzas armadas, volviéndolo elegible para solicitar un estatus legal.
El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional informó el jueves que apelará la decisión de la jueza, que fue reportada en primera instancia por The New York Times.
La abogada de Barranco, Lisa Ramirez, señaló que su cliente siente un “enorme alivio” ahora que los agentes de inmigración le retiraron el dispositivo de rastreo y dejaron de realizar sus revisiones periódicas.
“La naturaleza agresiva de su detención fue algo traumático”, aseguró Ramirez el jueves. “El señor Barranco no tiene ningún antecedente penal. Fueron por él porque era un jardinero de tez morena en las calles de Santa Ana”.
Ramirez explicó que Barranco ha solicitado el beneficio de permiso de permanencia temporal en el país, un programa que protege de la deportación a los padres de miembros de las fuerzas armadas de Estados Unidos y les ayuda a obtener la residencia permanente. De aprobarse la solicitud, Barranco recibirá un permiso de trabajo. Calculó que el proceso podría tardar al menos seis meses.
La subsecretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Tricia McLaughlin, reiteró las afirmaciones previas del gobierno de que Barranco se negó a acatar las órdenes de los agentes y blandió su desbrozadora en contra de uno de ellos.
“Los agentes tomaron las medidas apropiadas y siguieron su entrenamiento para usar la fuerza mínima necesaria para resolver la situación de una manera que prioriza la seguridad del público y de nuestros agentes”, afirmó McLaughlin el jueves en un comunicado.
Su hijo Alejandro Barranco contó a The Associated Press en junio que su padre no atacó a nadie, no tenía antecedentes penales y es amable y trabajador. El veterano del Cuerpo de Infantería de Marina de Estados Unidos sostuvo que el uso de la fuerza fue innecesario y difería mucho de su entrenamiento militar. Alejandro Barranco participó en la evacuación de personal y aliados afganos del ejército de Estados Unidos desde Afganistán en 2021.
Alejandro dejó el Cuerpo de Infantería de Marina en 2023. Sus dos hermanos aún son marines en servicio activo.
___
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
China’s Central Bank Keeps Buying Gold… And Dumping US Debt
China’s Central Bank Keeps Buying Gold… And Dumping US Debt
Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times,
China’s ferocious appetite for gold is influencing the global metals market, and that demand is what will keep driving up metal prices, according to Michael Howell, founder of CrossBorder Capital.
The People’s Bank of China’s gold holdings totaled 74.19 million fine troy ounces by the end of January, up from 74.15 million in the previous month, according to recent central bank data.
Beijing’s value of gold reserves also surged to $369.58 billion, from $319.45 billion in December 2025.
Gold accounts for almost 9 percent of China’s total reserves, the World Gold Council estimates.
The metals market has been on a roller coaster ride over the past few months.
Gold prices are currently trading at about $5,000 per ounce—up by 17 percent this year—on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Silver, the sister commodity to gold, is hovering at about $80 per ounce. The white metal has fallen sharply since reaching an all-time high of $121.
The commodities boom will continue, with a focus on oil and gold, Howell said in a recent interview with Siyamak Khorrami, host of EpochTV’s “California Insider.”
Global financial markets are experiencing a commodities boom, particularly in industrials, which coincides with the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure. At the same time, Howell said, energy is also witnessing a dramatic increase.
“Stronger economic activity worldwide will elevate oil prices from their current subdued levels,” he said. “Gold has had a tremendous rally over the last 18 months. It’s defied most predictions, but it continues to go up.”
China is playing an outsized role in its meteoric ascent.
Although retail traders are fueling sizable inflows into gold investments, China has been on a gold-buying spree for years as part of the country’s de-dollarization efforts.
For more than a decade, Beijing has been diversifying its foreign exchange reserves to reduce its exposure to the U.S. dollar and American assets, particularly Treasury securities.
In October, China’s holdings of U.S. debt fell to $688.7 billion, down by nearly 10 percent from the previous year, according to Treasury Department data.
Reports have surfaced that Chinese regulators have advised banks to trim their holdings of U.S. government bonds because of market volatility. Whether this shows up in the data over the coming months could further cement China’s long-term plans to ditch the dollar and remain in gold.
Influential Force in Gold Markets
As China remains one of the world’s largest buyers, it will also maintain an immense influence in global gold markets, according to Howell.
“The reason gold is going up is because of what’s happening in China,” he said.
It is no secret that China has largely shaped the global metals market through physical demand, whether through industrial consumption or retail use.
But recent activity on the Shanghai Futures Exchange indicates that Beijing is also influencing prices, said Ewa Manthey, commodities strategist at ING.
“Rising turnover and open interest signal a greater role for speculative positioning in driving momentum, and notably, key price breaks in gold and silver have increasingly occurred during Asian hours, with Europe and the US following rather than leading,” Manthey said in a Feb. 6 research note.
Domestic investors are increasingly turning to commodity futures to express macro views and hedge risks, as property markets are weak, equities are uneven, and capital outflows face tighter controls, according to Manthey.
In this environment of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, metals—across the base and precious spectrum—have become a more prominent alternative investment channel.
Gold trading at a premium in China sends various signals to global markets, mainly the sign that domestic stockpiling is underway. This, Manthey said, sends the message that supplies are tightening and worldwide availability could be tightening.
Although fundamentals trump short-term speculative forces in precious metals, influential noise can trigger greater volatility and abrupt, sharper price corrections.
The Great Debasement
One long-term factor supporting the bullish case for gold is money printing.
Over the years, China has frequently engaged in monetary debasement through aggressive stimulus programs.
Howell estimates that officials have injected more than $1 trillion in liquidity into the financial system to prop up the world’s second-largest economy amid diminished household demand, trade strife, and slowing factory activity. At the same time, China is grappling with enormous debt.
“China’s probably got the biggest problem of the lot, because it’s still sitting on that huge real estate debt which has been saddling the economy,” Howell said.
Although Evergrande and Country Garden have not captured international attention lately, the fallout of China’s real estate bubble burst persists, featuring a mountain of red ink.
Today, China’s general government debt accounts for more than 100 percent of gross domestic product, reflecting the years-long dependence on credit-fueled growth.
The only solution for the authorities to prevent a debt-fueled crisis is to print money, according to Howell. Although defaults are one strategy, they would inevitably destroy the credit system.
“So what happens is central banks come in, and they print money, and that is the solution to every financial crisis you can think of going backwards, and that will be the solution to future financial crises,” Howell said.
“Given the fact that the debt levels are rising remorselessly year after year after year, politicians are kicking the can down the road,” he said. “They’ve got no appetite to control spending, and they just think the easy way out is either take on more debt or print money.”
At a time when assets have become the go-to investment for institutional investors and armchair traders, one of the most important strategies is to refrain from selling gold.
“You don’t want to be selling gold right now,” he said. “Strategically, you’ve got to hold gold.”
Good as Gold
In 10 years, gold could reach $10,000 per ounce, according to Howell—and he is not the only one presenting a bullish prognostication.
Yardeni Research forecasts $10,000 by the end of the decade.
“This is all happening because rising geopolitical tensions are driving a military arms race, and defense companies need metals to increase their output,” Yardeni Research said in a Jan. 25 research note.
“Also boosting metals prices is the geopolitical AI arms race, which is escalating capital spending on technology.”
Meanwhile, “deep currents” are supporting gold’s rally, such as U.S. deficit spending and central bank buying, said David Miller, senior portfolio manager at Catalyst Funds.
“These are very powerful forces and will likely drive gold significantly higher over the next three, five, or even [10] years,” Miller said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 02/12/2026 – 17:40
https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/chinas-central-bank-keeps-buying-gold-and-dumping-us-debt
