Category: News
Patriots avanzan al Super Bowl al vencer 10-7 a Broncos en nevado juego de campeonato de la AFC
DENVER (AP) — Patriots avanzan al Super Bowl al vencer 10-7 a Broncos en nevado juego de campeonato de la AFC.
Minneapolis mourns ICU nurse killed by a Border Patrol agent as a warmhearted neighbor and caregiver
MINNEAPOLIS — As Minneapolis mourned the intensive care nurse killed by Border Patrol officers in a hail of gunfire, those who knew Alex Pretti came forward Sunday to dispute the narrative of top Trump administration officials that he was a violent “domestic terrorist” and would-be assassin.
Pretti, 37, was remembered as kind and warm-hearted by his family, neighbors and the loved ones of the ailing veterans he treated at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.
A 2024 video posted to social media showed Pretti reading a final salute at the foot of the flag-draped body of veteran Terrance Lee Randolph, who died at the hospital.
“Today we remember that freedom is not free,” Pretti, wearing navy blue scrubs, says in the video. “We have to work for it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it.”
Randolph’s son, Mac Randolph, remembered Pretti caring for his father in his final days and said he found the words “very on point” in the wake of Saturday’s deadly shooting.
Family members say Pretti cared deeply about people and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city. He had participated in protests following the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs officer.
Pretti was also an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed getting in adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog who recently died.
“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” Michael Pretti told The Associated Press on Saturday shortly after his son’s death. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
Pretti was a U.S. citizen, born in Illinois. Like Good, court records show he had no criminal record, and his family said he had never had any interactions with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets.
In a recent conversation with their son, his parents, who live in Colorado, told him to be careful when protesting.
“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”
The Department of Homeland Security said the man was shot after he “approached” Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Officials did not specify if Pretti brandished the gun. In bystander videos of the shooting that emerged soon after, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand but none appears to show him with a visible weapon.
Family members said Pretti owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota. They said they had never known him to carry it.
Alex Pretti’s family struggles for information about what happened
The family first learned of the shooting when they were called by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and said the man killed appeared to be their son. They then tried reaching out to officials in Minnesota.
“I can’t get any information from anybody,” Michael Pretti said Saturday. “The police, they said call Border Patrol, Border Patrol’s closed, the hospitals won’t answer any questions.”
Eventually, the parents called the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who they said confirmed had a body matching the name and description of their son.
As of Saturday evening, the family said they had still not heard from anyone at a federal law enforcement agency about their son’s death.
After seeing videos of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and others suggesting their son was a “domestic terrorist” who attacked the officers who shot him, they issued a written statement describing themselves as both heartbroken and angry.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the family said. They added that videos showed Alex Pretti was not holding a gun when he was tackled by federal agents, but holding his phone with one hand and using the other to shield a woman who was being pepper-sprayed.
“Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man,” they said.
Alex Pretti grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he played football, baseball and ran track for Preble High School. He was a Boy Scout and sang in the Green Bay Boy Choir.
After graduation, he went to the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, society and the environment, according to the family. He worked as a research scientist before returning to school to become a registered nurse.
Alex Pretti had protested before
Pretti’s ex-wife, who spoke to the AP but later said she didn’t want her name used, said she was not surprised he would have been involved in protesting Trump’s immigration crackdown. She said she had not spoken to him since they divorced more than two years ago and she moved to another state.
She said he was a Democratic voter and that he had participated in the wave of street protests following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, not far from the couple’s neighborhood. She described him a someone who might shout at law enforcement officers at a protest, but she had never known him to be physically confrontational.
She said Pretti got a permit to carry a concealed firearm about three years ago and that he owned at least one semiautomatic handgun when they separated.
Pretti had ‘a great heart’
Pretti lived in a four-unit condominium building about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from where he was shot. Neighbors described him as quiet and warmhearted.
“He’s a wonderful person,” said Sue Gitar, who lived downstairs from Pretti and said he moved into the building about three years ago. “He has a great heart.”
If there was something suspicious going on in the neighborhood, or when they worried the building might have a gas leak, he would jump in to help.
Pretti lived alone and worked long hours as a nurse, but he was not a loner, his neighbors said, and would sometimes have friends over.
His neighbors knew he had guns — he’d occasionally take a rifle to shoot at a gun range — but were surprised at the idea that he might carry a pistol on the streets.
“I never thought of him as a person who carried a gun,” said Gitar.
As a light dusting of snow fell over Minneapolis Sunday morning, community members lit candles, laid fresh flowers and stood somberly around a makeshift vigil at the site of Pretti’s death. Pine cones were assembled to read, “Long live Alex Pretti.” Some bouquets had a layer of frost from being out all night. A few Minneapolis police cars stood nearby.
Pretti was passionate about the outdoors
A competitive bicycle racer who lavished care on his new Audi, Pretti had also been deeply attached to his dog, who died about a year ago.
His parents said their last conversation with their son was a couple days before his death. They talked about repairs he had done to the garage door of his home. The worker was a Latino man, and they said with all that was happening in Minneapolis he gave the man a $100 tip.
Pretti’s mother said her son cared immensely about the direction the country was headed, especially the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental regulations.
“He hated that, you know, people were just trashing the land,” Susan Pretti said. “He was an outdoorsman. He took his dog everywhere he went. You know, he loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.”
Biesecker reported from Washington and Mustian from New York. Associated Press reporter Tim Sullivan contributed from Minneapolis.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/25/minneapolis-mourns-man-killed-border-patrol-agent/
Cunningham y los Pistons aplastan 139-116 a los Kings para su 5ta victoria en seis juegos
DETROIT (AP) — Cade Cunningham logró 29 puntos y 11 asistencias, y los Pistons de Detroit aplastaron 139-116 a los Kings de Sacramento el domingo para su quinta victoria en seis juegos.
Los Pistons, líderes de la Conferencia Este, se recuperaron de una derrota en casa ante Houston el viernes por la noche para mejorar a 33-11. Empatados a 35 después del primer cuarto, Detroit se despegó en el segundo al superar a los Kings 43-30.
Cunningham acertó 13 de 22 tiros de campo, encestando tres de cinco triples. El pívot de los Pistons, Jalen Duren, añadió 18 unidades con siete de ocho en tiros, y Tobias Harris sumó 16.
Malik Monk lideró a Sacramento con 19 tantos, y DeMar DeRozan tuvo 16. Los Kings han perdido cinco consecutivos, dejando su marca en 12-35.
Domantas Sabonis jugó su quinto partido para Sacramento después de perderse dos meses debido a una lesión en la rodilla. Logró 12 puntos con seis de siete en tiros, además de ocho asistencias y siete rebotes en 24:44.
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Deportes en español AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Penske gana las 24 de Daytona por tercer año seguido en un final emocionante
Por JENNA FRYER
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida, EE.UU. (AP) — El tiempo de Felipe Nasr en la Fórmula 1 había terminado después de dos temporadas decepcionantes y el brasileño se quedó con poco que hacer como piloto de carreras de monoplazas.
Migró a los autos deportivos y pasó cuatro temporadas conduciendo para el equipo propiedad del presidente de NASCAR, Jim France. Luego surgió una oportunidad que no pudo rechazar: una reunión clandestina con Roger Penske para discutir el desarrollo de un nuevo programa de autos deportivos con el respaldo de fábrica de Porsche.
Se encontraron en un estacionamiento y Penske quedó inmediatamente impresionado.
“Se presentó con un traje azul y dije: ‘Ese es mi tipo de persona’”, dijo el domingo el propietario del equipo de 88 años.
El equipo Penske abrió el 60 aniversario de su organización con una victoria en la primera carrera del año —nada menos que un triplete— en las 24 Horas de Daytona.
“El manejo que ha hecho para nosotros, al final, probablemente fue uno de los mejores que he visto”, expresó Penske.
El equipo Penske se convirtió en el tercer equipo en los 64 años de historia de la carrera de resistencia más prestigiosa de Estados Unidos en ganar tres veces consecutivas. Su equipo Porsche Penske Motorsports se unió a Chip Ganassi Racing y Wayne Taylor Racing como los únicos equipos en ganar tres carreras consecutivas de autos deportivos en el Daytona International Speedway.
Fue la quinta victoria general de Rolex en el evento para Porsche y la 46ta general de IMSA para Penske.
Lo más impresionante para Penske es que el equipo ha ganado tres años seguidos con tres alineaciones diferentes; Nasr, el cerrador de Penske, es el único constante en las tres entradas, y estaba abiertamente llorando en la línea de meta.
“Es un momento con el que soñé: el deseo de ganar es lo que te hace ir más allá y más lejos”, manifestó Nasr. “Amo este deporte, amo esta serie, y que la carrera de 24 horas se decida en los últimos minutos es simplemente increíble”.
La hazaña de Nasr hace que sean seis años consecutivos en los que un piloto brasileño ha sido parte del equipo ganador. El cuatro veces ganador de las 500 Millas de Indianápolis, Helio Castroneves, fue parte del equipo ganador en 2021, 2022 y 2023.
Nasr en realidad tiene cuatro títulos de Rolex, excepto que su cuarto no fue en la clase superior.
Este no fue fácil para Nasr, conduciendo frente a lo que los oficiales de Daytona llamaron la mayor multitud de Rolex en la historia de la carrera, mientras mantenía a raya a su antiguo equipo, el Cadillac de Action Express Racing, durante la última hora para ganar el título general. El auto de Action Express originalmente ganó la pole, pero fue descalificado en la inspección posterior.
Eso obligó al Cadillac No. 31 a comenzar último en su clase, y la alineación de Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, el piloto de Fórmula 1 de Mercedes Fred Vesti y la estrella en ascenso de NASCAR Connor Zilisch se abrieron camino hasta el segundo lugar durante las 24 horas.
Nasr y Aitken cerraron las carreras para sus respectivos equipos y Aitken tuvo varias buenas oportunidades de adelantar a Nasr para ganar en los últimos 25 minutos, pero Nasr le cerró el paso en cada oportunidad.
Nasr se dirigió a la victoria en el Porsche 963 No. 7 renovado con sus compañeros de equipo Julien Andlauer y Laurin Heinrich. El Porsche venció al Cadillac por uno minuto, 0,569 segundos.
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Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Un ataque de un grupo vinculado al EI en el este del Congo dejó al menos 25 muertos, dice grupo activista
GOMA, República Democrática del Congo (AP) — Un ataque de un grupo vinculado al EI en el este del Congo dejó al menos 25 muertos, dice grupo activista.
Trump afirma que EEUU usó arma secreta para desactivar equipo venezolano en operativo contra Maduro
WASHINGTON (AP) — El presidente Donald Trump aseguró que las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses utilizaron un arma secreta, a la que se refirió como “El Desconcertante”, para desactivar equipamiento militar venezolano durante el operativo para capturar a Nicolás Maduro.
El mandatario estadounidense, ratificó además su amenaza de realizar ataques por tierra contra los cárteles del narcotráfico, incluso en México.
El mandatario comentó durante una entrevista publicada el viernes con el New York Post sobre los reportes de que Estados Unidos cuenta con un arma de energía pulsada y dijo: “El Desconcertante. No se me permite hablar de eso”. Aseguró, sin embargo, que el nuevo armamento hizo que el equipo venezolano “no funcionara”.
“Nunca pudieron lanzar sus cohetes. Tenían cohetes rusos y chinos, y nunca lanzaron uno”, afirmó Trump en la entrevista. “Entramos, ellos presionaron sus botones y nada funcionó. Estaban preparados para nosotros”.
Al describir la redada en el complejo de Maduro, Trump había dicho previamente que Estados Unidos había apagado “casi todas las luces en Caracas,” pero no detalló cómo lo lograron.
Trump también indicó que Estados Unidos continuará con su campaña de ataques militares y podría extenderla desde Sudamérica hacia Norteamérica como parte de los intentos de su gobierno por ir detrás de los cárteles del narcotráfico.
“Conocemos sus rutas. Sabemos todo sobre ellos. Sabemos dónde viven. Sabemos todo sobre ellos,” afirmó. “Vamos a golpear a los cárteles”.
Cuando se le preguntó si pudiera haber ataques en México o Centroamérica, el presidente respondió: “Podría ser en cualquier parte”.
Estados Unidos realizó el viernes un ataque contra una embarcación que presuntamente transportaba drogas en el Pacífico, la primera acción de este tipo desde la captura de Maduro.
Con esto se eleva a por lo menos 36 el número de ataques conocidos contra embarcaciones en el mar Caribe y el Pacífico desde principios de septiembre, los cuales han cobrado la vida de al menos a 117 personas.
Trump dijo que Estados Unidos ha sacado el petróleo de al menos siete buques relacionados con Venezuela que han sido incautados, aunque no dio a conocer la ubicación actual de las embarcaciones.
“No se me permite decirlo”, subrayó Trump. “Pero pongámoslo de esta manera, no tienen petróleo. Tomamos el petróleo”.
Durante la entrevista, el presidente también dijo que todavía intenta decidir dónde colocar el Premio Nobel de la Paz que la líder opositora venezolana María Corina Machado le entregó a principios de este mes. El premio yace contra una estatua en el Despacho Oval.
Trump también declaró al periódico que el marco de un acuerdo de seguridad ártica que alcanzó con el jefe de la OTAN, Mark Rutte, le daría a Estados Unidos la propiedad de la tierra donde se encuentran las bases estadounidenses.
“Tendremos todo lo que queremos,” dijo Trump. “Tenemos algunas conversaciones interesantes en marcha”.
Por el momento se desconoce gran parte del posible acuerdo. Los gobiernos de Dinamarca y Groenlandia han dicho que la soberanía de la isla no es negociable y un portavoz de la OTAN aseguró que Rutte no propuso ningún “compromiso con la soberanía” durante sus conversaciones con Trump.
El presidente declaró también que no asistiría al Super Bowl y dijo que la decisión de tener presentaciones de Bad Bunny y Green Day durante el encuentro fue una “elección terrible”. El mandatario acudió al partido del año pasado en Nueva Orleans.
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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.
After snowstorm, bitter cold will grip Chicago again, weather officials warn
On the tail end of a polar blast followed by a massive winter storm that has hit over 200 million people across the country and covered the Chicago area with several inches of snow, officials warn that the extreme weather won’t let up, even if the snowflakes stop falling as forecast by early Sunday evening.
Between midnight and noon on Monday, Cook County will again experience “dangerously cold” wind chills as low as minus 20 degrees, and even colder away from the lake.
People with exposed skin could experience frostbite in as little as 30 minutes, so experts urge staying indoors, and say those who must go outside should dress in several layers, including a hat, face mask and gloves.
As of Saturday, the Chicago area had received 24.5 inches of snow this season, compared to a normal of almost 18 inches by this date, according to the latest National Weather Service data.
The seasonal total will be even higher after Sunday’s snowfall ends: By the afternoon, snow accumulation totals ranged between 2 and 8 inches of snow in the city and surrounding suburbs, according to a map of local reports from the NWS. Nonetheless, it likely won’t come close to the 73.6 inches accumulated by this date in the winter of 1978-79, which was the snowiest on record for the area, with a final tally of 89.7 inches.
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Lake-effect snow like this weekend’s occurs when cold air moves across the open, warm water of the Great Lakes, picking up heat and moisture. Made less dense, the air then rises, cools and condenses into clouds, which produce heavy snow in narrow bands downwind.
After years of little snow across the Chicago area, record-breaking snowfall and below-freezing temperatures earlier this winter — as well as the weekend’s massive storm — might seem to contradict scientific reports of winters getting warmer.
But trends in recent decades point to an overall warming of average temperatures across all seasons from human activities such as fossil-fuel burning that release heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. And that overall warming doesn’t rule out some occasional outliers, including extreme cold and winter storms.
These usually occur because of a weakened polar vortex, which is a constant cold, low-pressure system of air circulating counterclockwise around both of the Earth’s poles like a wall that contains cold air.
When unstable, the polar vortex can cause the jet stream — a band of strong wind that generally travels from west to east and acts as a boundary between cold, polar air and warmer air farther south — to buckle, sending bitterly cold air from the Arctic southward into North America.
Chicago Tribune’s Christy Freitag contributed.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/25/chicago-cold-snow-polar-vortex/
Maybe Truflation Is On To Something
Maybe Truflation Is On To Something
By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities
The Fed
On the betting apps, it looks like Rick Rieder has become the odds on favorite to win. I like the idea of mixing things up at the Fed and think that having a market practitioner in charge would be an interesting change. If he gets the nomination, expect more of a focus across the yield curve (our view all along of how the Fed will operate in 2026). The balance sheet is less likely to be used as a blunt, lumbering tool (prescribed amounts for well-telegraphed time periods), but rather something to shape the curve to fit policy more frequently.
The Fed – Coordination Should Be Encouraged, Not Feared
I think coordination and cooperation between the Fed, Treasury, and the admin is good. It doesn’t defeat “independence” and has happened in the past – typically, in times of stress, with COVID being the most recent example. I continue to believe the announcement that the Fed would buy fixed income ETFs changed the trajectory of the corporate bond market overnight. For those of you following the T-Report, you know I strongly believe in the ETF Spiral™, where ETFs trading at a discount to NAV help create more selling pressure. It might seem counterintuitive, but that is a hill I will stand on and fight to the end (and have a few times). At the time, even VCSH (a short-dated corporate bond ETF) was trading at a large discount to NAV (more than 3% if I remember correctly). That ETF Spiral™ was adding to the problems at the front-end of the corporate bond market. When the announcement came that the Fed would buy these ETFs, the problem corrected itself quite literally overnight, and the corporate bond market began to heal, rapidly.
I bring this up because:
The Federal Reserve did not have the mandate to buy corporate bond ETFs. They just didn’t.
The Federal Reserve did not have the “plumbing,” in any case, to buy ETFs. They weren’t set up to do it at all.
But…
The Treasury could take that risk, but didn’t have the funds to buy a lot.
The solution was a “CLO” type of structure, where Treasury provided the “equity” capital. They would take the losses. The Fed could leverage that money, something within their repertoire.
Voila – the ability to buy corporate bond ETFs was created through a clever interaction of the Treasury and the Fed, both using tools in their toolkit. (I am sure I have overly simplified this, but the gist of the story remains the same).
They still didn’t have the “plumbing” and I think it took a month before any corporate bond ETFs were purchased, but that didn’t matter, as the problem resolved itself overnight. That shows the power of the balance sheet on markets (which we witnessed recently again, when the agencies announced greater purchases of mortgage-backed bonds and spreads collapsed even before the first additional bond was purchased).
The morals of the story are:
Coordination should be welcomed and does not eliminate the independence of the Fed.
The balance sheet is an incredibly powerful tool, and taking a new approach to its usage, could unlock some interesting new ways to shape the curve.
The Fed Won’t Cut, But They Should
The bond market is pricing in a 0.03% chance of a cut in January (which is also, sadly, the realistic probability of the Bills ever winning a Super Bowl). So, we will not get a cut this week. We are also unlikely to see a cut slated for the meeting in March.
I think the case that the “Neutral Rate” is lower than where the Fed seems to think it is, is a strong one. Miran surprised me with that argument, but I actually like it and agree.
January jobs could be strong. We continue to believe the data overstates jobs in Jan/Feb and understates jobs in the summer, as the seasonal adjustments no longer reflect seasonal reality. Construction has shifted from Northeast-centric to Southern-centric. The “gig” economy has shifted how “seasonal” workers are hired, which along with the earlier start of shopping (especially on-line, where “Black Friday” sales start before Thanksgiving) means the BLS adds too many jobs back in January. In any case, I will admit, I expect a strong jobs report for January, but it will be “adjustment” driven more than reality driven, and my case for cutting depends on other arguments.
The ”crowd-sourced” data doesn’t paint a pretty picture.
The QUITS rate in the JOLTS data remains weak. It has improved a smidge and has been affected by the government shutdown (in terms of preparation of the data), but is still below the average of the past decade. This just tells me that people with the sorts of jobs that can say “take this job and shove it” aren’t saying that. They are keeping their head down and keeping their job because they know how difficult it is to find another job.
While I think the jobs data warrants attention and gives the Fed the ammunition they need to at least look for cuts, I think they are stuck in some mythical world of higher inflation.
Again, many of these committee members were in camp “transitory” which turned out not to be transitory. Many of the people on this Fed were still doing QE when they were already talking about hiking rates. QE does not need to be well telegraphed. For the life of me, I cannot understand why we would be doing QE when hikes are on the table.
Finally, for those who manage risk, you often have “stop losses” because when something goes wrong on a view, it is difficult to change your mind. You don’t necessarily think well. So, stop losses force change. Corporations tend to see “heads roll” if a major strategic blunder occurs. I still do not think anyone from “team transitory” lost their job.
So, we are stuck, I believe, with a Fed that is fighting their own past mistakes. They are too worried about being wrong to act.
Why does OER still exist?
Had the Fed just looked at Zillow Rent, we would have cut off QE much sooner and probably started hiking sooner. Maybe, with the shutdown, and being forced to look at alternative data, the Fed will be more wholistic in their choice of data to be dependent on? OER is fraught with issues. (Only a portion of the market is evaluated each month, and the premise that most rentals are single family homes, is now ludicrous). Even the Cleveland Fed has developed a real-time rent estimate. Why not rely more heavily on that? Housing in CPI is currently overstated and will certainly come down in the next few quarters (just math). So cut now, rather than waiting for this particularly bad data set to conform to reality.
Maybe Truflation is on to something?
Truflation only attempts to capture part of the inflation story. But wow, it is telling a very different story than core PCE (the Fed’s preferred measure). I wouldn’t pay attention, except Truflation showed more inflation, sooner than CPI did back during time “transitory.” Again, had the Fed given this data set some serious consideration, we would have stopped QE earlier and hiked sooner.
The Fed should cut, but they won’t.
Electricity Inflation
If you want to get a room with a hundred or more people engaged and focused on one topic, this is the chart to use (as I learned in Baltimore on Friday).
It has slowed of late (kind of, I guess), but is and will be one of the biggest issues politicians face in coming elections. Enough on that for now, but that is why our ProSec™ theme focuses on power generation, from solar, to coal, to gas, to fission, to fusion (I don’t see wind getting traction under this admin).
Does the EU Need Change?
The German Chancellor said that the EU was the “world champion of overregulation.” If you haven’t seen the Venn diagrams of who leads what between China, the U.S., and the EU, they are funny. There is overlap between the U.S. and China while the EU stands alone on “regulation.”
Hungary blocked the EU from sending a “joint statement” to the U.S. in response to Greenland. Sure, sticks and stones may break my bones, but joint statements will never hurt me, so it was likely to be an ineffective tactic to begin with. But sometimes ineffective is better than nothing. Hungary, at $220 billon of GDP, got to determine EU policy? I get inclusion, but this is going to be difficult if the “weakest” link has control, thereby elevating it to the “strongest” link.
You know that I felt Europe had “one job” in regards to Russia. Their job was to seize the frozen assets and come to the U.S. with “oodles” of money to spend on weapons for Ukraine (with no need to fund the purchases, etc.) Belgium said no. Maybe Hungary and Slovakia did too (can’t tell from AI or from memory).
Not saying that “might is right,” but if Germany and France and others are aligned, doesn’t that mean something?
No idea how Europe will react to so much of what is going on, though I think Europe is going to adopt ProSec™ far sooner than I had expected.
ProSec For Housing Affordability
We could do a whole section on housing affordability and we will. But today it is too cold and the report is already getting too long (though I somehow find myself in Palm Beach this weekend, so guess I should stop writing about the cold). So far, the evidence is largely anecdotal, but I’ve had several really encouraging discussion on this subject.
Production for Security has the potential to create jobs in areas that currently are not overly crowded and very expensive.
Some areas have a high cost of land. That makes it difficult to create affordable housing. While construction costs (especially the materials) don’t vary as much region to region, they do vary (especially labor).
If we can create pockets of new jobs in new areas, it could reduce the average cost of home prices in the U.S. without causing existing home prices to drop much.
That is the key – building new homes in areas that are less expensive to build in makes the average go down, without hurting existing home prices too much (there will be some drag as people move out of some expensive areas).
Just starting to explore this idea, but look at the housing boom that occurred in conjunction with the shale boom. 1Could we be at the early stages of a self-correcting housing affordability solution? New jobs in new areas?
Something to ponder (in a positive way).
ProSec Is Going Global After Davos
During the President’s speech/lecture/admonishment/address/whatever you want to call it, he did specifically say something to the effect of:
The earths and minerals are NOT rare, it is the processed earths and minerals that are rare.
This is the point we have been trying to make, and it seems like it is finally being addressed properly. The real bottleneck is in the processed and refined versions. See last weekend’s Production, Security, and Resilience for more on that.
For what it is worth, I think there is more to the Greenland and Venezuela story on rare earths and critical minerals. I think the “surprise” will be not just extracting more from these two countries, but also processing and refining more there. It fits the theme of keeping production of “things” we need in the Western Hemisphere where the U.S. has a renewed focus.
Bottom Line
Stay warm. The Fed won’t cut, but they should
January has been a long month already, only 11 more months to go until 2027.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 01/25/2026 – 17:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/maybe-truflation-something
Formar un fondo de emergencia podría parecer difícil, pero estos consejos pueden ayudarle
Por ADRIANA MORGA
NUEVA YORK (AP) — Tal vez su automóvil se averió, le robaron la computadora o tuvo que acudir a una sala de urgencias médicas. Las emergencias son inevitables, pero usted puede prepararse para enfrentarlas desarrollando un fondo de emergencia.
“Hay tantas cosas que suceden en nuestras vidas que no esperamos, y la mayoría de ellas requieren medios financieros para superarlas”, señaló Miklos Ringbauer, contador público certificado.
El estándar de la industria es ahorrar de tres a seis meses de gastos en un fondo de emergencia. Sin embargo, esto puede parecer abrumador si usted vive al día o si tiene deudas. Pero si se encuentra en alguna de estas situaciones, es aún más crucial construir una red de seguridad financiera que pueda ayudarle en tiempos de crisis.
“Los fondos de emergencia le permiten evitar caer en más deudas”, señaló Jaime Eckels, planificadora financiera certificada y líder en gestión de patrimonio para Plante Moran Financial Advisors.
Supongamos que usted está pagando varias tarjetas de crédito y otros préstamos. En ese caso, Rachel Lawrence, jefa de asesoramiento y planificación para Monarch Money —una aplicación de planificación financiera y presupuestos—, recomienda que haga los pagos mínimos mientras construye su fondo de emergencia. Una vez que haya alcanzado una cantidad que sienta adecuada para su estilo de vida, puede seguir abordando su deuda de manera más enérgica.
Ya sea que quiera iniciar un fondo de emergencia o crear mejores hábitos mientras ahorra, aquí hay algunas recomendaciones de expertos:
Comience con pequeños hitos
La idea de ahorrar para cubrir de tres a seis meses de gastos puede ser abrumadora, por lo que es mejor comenzar con un hito más pequeño. Lawrence recomienda iniciar con una meta de ahorrar 1.000 dólares, y luego pasar a ahorrar el equivalente a uno, tres y seis meses de gastos.
La forma en que aborde este objetivo puede variar dependiendo de cuáles sean sus ingresos y su presupuesto. Pero comenzar con metas pequeñas y alcanzables puede ayudarle a construir un fondo de emergencia sin sentirse presionado financieramente.
“Comenzar con poco está bien. Incluso si son 20 dólares tomados directamente de su cheque de pago, esas pequeñas cosas pueden sumar”, apuntó Eckels.
Ella recomienda construir su fondo de emergencia en una cuenta separada de su cuenta de ahorros regular, idealmente una cuenta de ahorros de alto rendimiento, que ofrece una tasa de interés más alta que una cuenta de ahorros tradicional.
Decida cuál es la cantidad adecuada para su vida
Saber cuánto ahorrar para su fondo de emergencia depende de su situación de vida. Lawrence sugiere que evalúe sus propias responsabilidades financieras para estimar a cuánto debería ascender su fondo de emergencia ideal.
Para profesionales solteros sin responsabilidades financieras significativas, tales como una hipoteca o un coche, la cantidad podría ser de 2.000 a 3.000 dólares. En cambio, las personas con hijos y varias mascotas podrían aspirar a ahorrar para cubrir seis meses de gastos.
“No hay una solución única para todos. Todo el mundo es diferente, especialmente si se tienen gastos variables cada mes”, expresó Ringbauer.
Lawrence recomienda que las personas que trabajan por su cuenta mantengan dos fondos de emergencia: uno para sobrellevar los meses de bajos ingresos, y otro para verdaderas emergencias. Para desarrollar su cuenta de reserva, Lawrence recomienda apartar algo de dinero durante los meses de altos ingresos.
“Guarda usted esa cantidad en su cuenta de reserva hasta que tenga dos o tres meses de la cantidad que desea”, señaló. “Porque de esa manera, en cualquier mes en el que disponga de menos dinero, puede retirar de la reserva y no pasa nada”.
Automatice sus ahorros
Eckels recomienda configurar ahorros automáticos, una forma que requiere poco esfuerzo para desarrollar su fondo de emergencia.
Programar sus ahorros para que sean retirados de su cuenta bancaria tan pronto llegue su cheque de pago es una forma efectiva de construir un hábito de ahorro sin tener que transferir el dinero manualmente.
“Siempre le digo a la gente que, si nunca estuvo en su cuenta bancaria, nunca lo tuvo, ¿verdad?”, añade Eckels.
Recomienda también que sus clientes abran una cuenta separada, una que no esté en el mismo banco que su cuenta corriente, para que no se sientan tentados a transferir el dinero en una situación que realmente no sea una emergencia.
Hágalo visible
A medida que avanza hacia su objetivo de tener un fondo de emergencia, el hacer visibles sus avances puede ayudarle a mantenerlo motivado, según Lawrence.
Ella recomienda ser creativo con la forma en que rastrea su progreso, idealmente con un método que le traiga alegría.
“Usted quiere que su cerebro se sienta recompensado lo más frecuentemente posible, cuando ve un montón de progreso”, señaló.
Algunas opciones para que sus avances sean visibles incluyen dibujar un rastreador tipo termómetro y mantenerlo actualizado a medida que usted se encamina hacia su objetivo, documentar su progreso en un rastreador de desarrollo de hábitos en su teléfono, o usar una aplicación de presupuestos con una herramienta de seguimiento.
Ahorre ingresos inesperados
Si su presupuesto es realmente ajustado y no tiene mucho margen de maniobra para apartar dinero que le permita crear un fondo de emergencia, Lawrence recomienda ahorrar ingresos inesperados.
“Ganancias que tal vez no esperaba, tales como reembolsos fiscales o recibir un tercer cheque de pago cuando normalmente le pagan dos veces al mes, o un bono, son sus mejores formas de avanzar cuando usted está ajustado”, apuntó Lawrence.
En general, ella recomienda que las personas destinen el 10% de su ingreso inesperado para sí mismas y el resto para su fondo de emergencia. Con esa distribución, es posible ahorrar y a la vez sentirse recompensado por el ingreso inesperado.
Si lo usa, no se sienta culpable
Es probable que ocurra una emergencia, y cuando suceda, no necesita sentirse culpable por usar su fondo de emergencia, agregó Lawrence. En cambio, es mejor pensar en cómo ha logrado su objetivo de construir una red de seguridad financiera para sí mismo.
“No se sentiría mal por dar su enganche para comprar una casa, no se sentiría mal por ahorrar para la jubilación, y de hecho para jubilarse”, añadió.
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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.
Germán Berterame marca en victoria 1-0 de México a Bolivia en partido amistoso
SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia (AP) — Germán Berterame aprovechó una falla para convertir el gol con el que México venció el domingo 1-0 a domicilio a Bolivia, en el segundo de los juegos de preparación del Tri con miras al Mundial, en el qu perdieron a Israel Reyes por lesión.
Berterame abrió el marcador a los 68 minutos, gracias al deficiente despeje del arquero Carlos Lampe a un centro al área, el cual dejó a merced del delantero naturalizado mexicano para mandarlo al fondo de las redes con una media vuelta.
La segunda victoria tricolor en el año, luego del 1-0 del jueves ante Panamá, quedó empañada cuando el zaguero Israel Reyes pidió su cambio, luego de sufrir un fuerte golpe en un costado que hizo que saliera del campo sobre un carrito de asistencia.
Hasta antes del tanto de Berterame, quien se unió hace unos días al Inter de Miami de Lionel Messi en la MLS, el conjunto boliviano había dominado y tuvo la oportunidad de romper el cero con un disparo de Carlos Melgar desde el balcón del área, que dio en la base del poste en los primeros minutos del complemento.
Los anfitriones afrontaron los minutos finales con 10 elementos por la expulsión de Robson Matheus, luego de hacer una dura entrada sobre Berterame que le valió la tarjeta roja directa.
El árbitro colombiano Carlos Betancourt también expulsó segundos después a Rafael Márquez, auxiliar técnico mexicano, por sus reclamos a la entrada de Matheus.
Berterame, argentino de nacimiento, celebró su segundo tanto en su octavo encuentro como delantero de la Selección Mexicana tras completar su proceso de naturalización.
Con este resultado, México extendió su paso perfecto en partidos amistosos contra Bolivia con su décima victoria. Mientras que en los enfrentamientos en todas las competencias y amistosos, el Tri celebró su 11ra victoria, a cambio de una derrota y un par de empates en 14 enfrentamientos.
El seleccionador mexicano Javier Aguirre presentó un equipo titular con nueve cambios con relación al que presentó el jueves en Panamá. El Vasco aprovechó estos encuentros de preparación para conocer más jugadores de la Liga MX, antes de conformar la lista definitiva con la que afrontará el Mundial a mediados de año como uno de los anfitriones junto con Estados Unidos y Canadá.
En el caso de Bolivia, se jugará su clasificación en un repechaje en marzo.
