Nearly all of Puerto Rico without power on New Year’s Eve
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
(PUERTO RICO) — An island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico Tuesday left millions of residents without power ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
As of Tuesday afternoon, less than 10% of customers on the island had their power restored, according to power company LUMA.
LUMA said the exact cause of the power outage, which began at 5:30 a.m. local time, remains under investigation.
“As part of our coordinated response, our LUMA team is in close communication and collaboration with island officials, including the Governor, Governor-elect, and our Mayors to keep them updated on the status of restoration,” the power company said.
Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi earlier said work was underway to restore the service at energy plants in San Juan and Palo Seco.
The U.S. territory has continued to face a slow rebuild of its infrastructure since Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage to the island in 2017.
In 2020, 1 million customers were without power following back-to-back earthquakes. An explosion and subsequent fire at a substation left 900,000 customers on the island without power in June 2021.
Another massive fire at a major power plant caused a massive outage for about 1.3 million customers in April 2022, followed by Hurricane Fiona in September of that year.
(WASHINGTON) — Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday that the Trump administration’s tariffs would likely raise prices for U.S. shoppers and retailers.
The scale and duration of the tariffs remain unclear but a portion of the taxes on imports will probably reach consumers, Powell told an economic forum in New York City on Friday.
“We’re at a stage where we’re still very uncertain about what will be tariffed, for how long, at what level,” Powell said. “But the likelihood is some of that will find its way. It will hit the exporters, the importers, the retailers and to some extent consumers.”
The Trump administration slapped 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariffs on imports from China. The fresh round of duties on Chinese goods doubled an initial set of tariffs placed on China last month.
Tariffs of this magnitude are widely expected to increase prices paid by U.S. shoppers, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to consumers.
“Everybody is forecasting some inflation effect from tariffs,” Powell said on Friday.
The remarks from Powell at the annual US Monetary Policy Forum marked a notable prediction from the nation’s top central banker charged with keeping inflation under control.
While acknowledging the likelihood of price hikes, however, Powell said the Fed’s response would depend on what exactly transpires.
A potentially temporary bump in prices may not warrant intervention, while a more sustained increase could require action, Powell said, noting that the strength of the economy affords the Fed time to assess the impact.
“In some cases, where we think it’s a one-time thing, the textbook would be to look through it,” Powell said. “If it turns into a series of things and it’s more than that — [and] if the increases are larger — that would matter.”
Powell spoke hours after Trump on Truth Social threatened to slap tariffs, sanctions and other measures on Russia in response to conduct in the war with Ukraine.
The tariffs may become necessary “based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now,” Trump said.
The potential move could expand Trump’s confrontational trade policy beyond an initial set of countries targeted this week.
Later on Friday, Trump told reporters at the White House that tariffs could cause “some disturbance” for the U.S.
The Trump administration has eased some of the tariffs against Canada and Mexico in recent days.
Trump issued a one-month delay for tariffs on auto-related goods from Mexico and Canada. The carve-out expanded soon afterward with an additional one-month pause for goods from Mexico and Canada compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, a free trade agreement.
In addition to tariffs, Powell mentioned other economic proposals pursued by the Trump administration, including measures affecting fiscal policy and regulation.
“The new administration is in the process of implementing significant policy changes,” Powell said. “Uncertainty around these changes and their likely effects remains high. We are focused on parsing the signal from the noise as the situation evolves. We are not in a hurry.”
Subway survivor Joseph Lynskey speaks with ABC News. ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A man who was pushed onto New York City subway tracks in the path of an oncoming train is recounting the harrowing, near-death experience that left him with a fractured skull, four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen.
“I just thought, ‘I’ve been pushed and I’m going to die,'” Joe Lynskey, 45, told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in a broadcast exclusive interview.
Lynskey had just finished a New Year’s Eve brunch with his friends when a stranger pushed him onto the tracks at the 18th Street station in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.
“It happened in a flash,” he said.
“The next thing I knew, I was flying through the air, and I saw the two lights of the train in my face and I could make out the shape of the conductor,” Lynskey said. “And then I crashed into the tracks and I smacked my head open on the ground.”
Lynskey survived the initial push, but he knew he was still in life-threatening danger due to the subway system’s electrified rail, known as the third rail.
“If you touch it at all, you will die immediately,” he said. “You cannot move. Don’t kick your feet, don’t struggle.”
Lynskey said he started screaming for help, and about 90 seconds in a woman responded to him and tried to keep him calm.
After about four minutes, Lynskey said he heard the sirens from rescuers rushing to the scene.
“They dragged me a few feet to the opening between the two subway cars and they told me to raise my hands above my head,” he said. “Two firefighters on the platform pulled me up onto the platform — and I heard my ribs crack. It was unbelievably painful.”
Lynskey spent seven days in the hospital, including five days in intensive care, as he recovered from his fractured skull, broken ribs and ruptured spleen.
The 23-year-old suspected of pushing Lynskey, Kamel Hawkins, fled the scene and was apprehended later that day. He was indicted on charges including attempted murder and has pleaded not guilty.
Asked what he would say to Hawkins, Lynskey replied, “I’m choosing not to focus on the anger or resentment or negativity.”
“I’m focusing on healing, recovering, getting myself back to my life,” he said.
Lynskey said that his experience is “a powerful reminder that this can all be taken away from you at any moment, and you have to keep going. Life is too short.”
Hawkins is next due in court on April 16.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called the attack “a brutal and unprovoked act of violence.”
“Every day, we will continue working closely with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who threaten the safety of New Yorkers utilizing our transit system,” Bragg said in a statement.
(NEW ORLEANS, La.) — Nearly a month after a terrorist drove a truck down Bourbon Street, killing 14 people, New Orleans is set to host Super Bowl 59.
At a press briefing Monday, officials said there were no credible threats to the game, or its many surrounding events.
“Right now we have no specific credible threats to this event … which I think should give us all a sense of security,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in New Orleans on Monday. “We recognize the importance of making sure that we’re doing due diligence and being prepared for events as proactive as possible, and pre-deploying resources and partnerships that will help us make sure that these events come off safely and with a focus on security.”
She added, “We have partners that we are dedicated to working with to make sure we get through these types of events in a way that has been important to focus on the priorities.”
NFL Chief of Security Cathy Lanier said in the days after the terrorist attack, the NFL changed their security plan.
“We have reviewed and re-reviewed all the details of what happened on Jan. 1,” Lainer said. “We have reviewed and re-reviewed each of our roles within the overarching security plan, and we have reassessed and stressed tested — our timing, our communication protocols, our contingency measures and our emergency response plans multiple times over, over the past several weeks.”
There will be over 2,700 state, federal and local law enforcement members securing the game, according to officials.
Lainer said the event is a “no-drone zone” meaning drones are not allowed anywhere near the stadium. A drone that was not cleared to fly over M&T Bank Stadium briefly halted the Steelers-Ravens wild card game last month.
Noem was on Bourbon Street on Monday at the site of the terrorist attack. Bollards that were not in place during the New Year’s celebrations, due to repair, are now back in place.
“We have an opportunity to learn from what happened,” Noem told reporters earlier in the day, she said she also wanted to honor the victims lost. “The Super Bowl is the biggest Homeland Security event we do every single year.”
The game gets a SEAR 1 rating — meaning there is a federal coordinator that is in charge of the security, in this case Eric DeLaune, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations’ New Orleans field office.
DeLaune is a Louisiana native and securing the game is personal for him, he said.
“I have worked to coordinate the security of the land, air and local waterways, with the vital support of our partners, leveraging a united front of all of those law enforcement entitles,” he said. “In the days ahead, there will be a significant increased law enforcement presence in New Orleans, some of which will be visible and obvious.”
