By Laura Sharman, Patrick Snell, CNN

(CNN) — A 16-year-old from New Zealand has set a new world record for the fastest mile run by an under–18 athlete.

Sam Ruthe crossed the finish line in an extraordinary 3:48.88 minutes at the John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston, United States on Saturday, outpacing a field of professionals to win the invitational heat on an indoor track.

“I didn’t feel like I was going that fast to be honest. I still don’t believe it… I’m completely stoked,” Ruthe told the track broadcaster Flo Track after the record-breaking outing.

Approaching his final lap, Ruthe was in second place behind Belgian Pieter Sisk. But with a burst of speed in the final 100 meters, he surged ahead to finish 1.43 seconds quicker than Sisk.

The teenager said the Boston race was only meant to be a “rust buster” to shake off the cobwebs after making the 9,000-mile (14,500-kilometer) journey from his home country three days earlier.

“There’s definitely more in the tank… I’ve got three more races and could probably go a bit faster,” he said immediately after the race.

Ruthe caught the attention of the athletics world last March, when he became the youngest athlete on record to run a sub-four-minute mile, clocking 3:58.35 in Auckland.

His performance in Boston on Saturday also set a new New Zealand record for any age, surpassing Olympic gold medalist John Walker’s time of 3:49.08, which he ran in Norway aged 30, more than four decades ago, according to Athletics New Zealand. Walker was the first man in history to run a sub–3:50 mile.

“I really didn’t expect to get Walker’s national record (today),” Ruthe told CNN Sports. “I hoped to get it one day but that was a real surprise as I thought it may have been three or four years away. I feel like I’m the luckiest person in the world.”

The teen athlete comes from a family of runners. His parents Ben and Jessica Ruthe are both national-level champion athletes in New Zealand and his grandmother Rosemary Stirling is a 1972 Olympian.

“To see him achieve (the record time) so early and at such a level is wonderful but comes with significant challenges,” Ben Ruthe told CNN Sports.

“The time he ran today, for example, is faster than anyone has ever run in New Zealand, so (to keep developing) he needs to travel for racing and quite considerable distances. It took 50 hours to get to Boston from home but all well worth it to get good competition,” he said.

The Boston University Track and Tennis Center is widely considered one of the fastest indoor tracks in the world, known for producing several national and world records.

But running indoors was an “unusual” experience for Ruthe, because New Zealand does not have indoor tracks.

“I was a bit worried about tight turns and tactics because of the sharp turns on a short track but I got into a really good spot early and it all just felt good,” he said.

Ruthe’s time now ranks as the 11th-fastest indoor mile for all ages, but he is still 3.7 seconds off the indoor world record set last year by Jakob Ingebrigtsen, 25, who ran a time of 3:45.14 in Liévin, France.

Athletics records set on indoor 200m tracks and outdoor 400m tracks are kept separate, according to World Athletics, because they are not directly comparable, due to differences in track size, tighter i

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By Esha Mitra and Rhea Mogul, CNN

New Delhi (CNN) — Ravinder Kumar wades through ankle-deep sludge every day to leave his home in Sharma Enclave in northwest Delhi – yet inside the brick tenement, he does not have a drop to drink.

Surrounded by filth, the 55-year-old twists his plastic taps regularly, hoping for relief.

“Water comes once every three days, and even then, you only get clean water for an hour,” the father of three told CNN on Monday.

“It’s difficult to bathe. The water is black at times. We wash once every four or five days.”

Kumar is one of millions of residents in the Indian capital suffering sporadic water shortages due to rising ammonia levels in the Yamuna River that last week forced six of the city’s nine major water plants to shut down.

Water from the Yamuna – considered sacred and worshipped by millions – has become so polluted by ammonia from industrial waste that water plants have been unable to treat it.

In this city of 20 million people, the Delhi Water Board said last Thursday that 43 neighborhoods – home to about two million people – had been affected by water shortages.

CNN reached out to resident welfare associations in all 43 neighborhoods on Tuesday, and of those, 10 – representing more than 600,000 people – told CNN they’d received no water for days.

Others said it was turned off for no more than a day, and some said the water was still available but at a reduced level.

The board told CNN supplies were restored two days later – on January 24. However, earlier this week, some residents told CNN they still didn’t have a reliable supply.

When CNN visited Sharma Enclave on Friday, some residents were using water they’d stored when taps flowed for a short time on Thursday. The water was yellow and smelled like rotting eggs. They told CNN they didn’t expect any new supplies until Sunday as water is brought every three days.

“Everyone’s health is deteriorating,” said Shashi Bala, who lives in the neighborhood. “Everything is dirty here.”

CNN has contacted the Delhi chief minister’s office and the Haryana state government for comment regarding the high pollution levels in the Yamuna River and the consequent water shortage, but received no response.

The Yamuna River flows south from a glacier in the Himalayas for 855 miles (1,376 kilometers) through several Indian states.

Delhi was designed around its banks in the 17th century, when the river fed the canals that cooled royal palaces.

Today, the Yamuna serves as the backbone of Delhi’s water infrastructure, providing roughly 40% of the capital’s supply. But for decades, sections of it have been plagued by the dumping of toxic chemicals and untreated sewage.

Though only 2% of the river’s length flows through the capital, Delhi contributes about 76% of its total pollution, according to a government monitoring committee.

Dissolved oxygen levels frequently plummet to zero, transforming the historic waterway into a septic drain that suffocates aqua

Por Eric Bradner, CNN

Marla Ailor asistió a la investidura del presidente Donald Trump el año pasado con su familia y recordó haber pensado que fue un día largo.

Así que el viernes suspiró aliviada mientras veía el documental sobre Melania Trump y observaba que, después de un día que incluyó tres bailes y regresar a la Casa Blanca a las 2:00 a.m., la primera dama se quitó los tacones.

“Es una prueba de resistencia”, dijo. “Realmente aprecias por lo que tienen que pasar para superar un evento así, y cómo debe ser realmente su día”.

Ailor, secretaria-tesorera electa de la cercana ciudad de Westfield, fue una de unas 100 personas —en su mayoría mujeres mayores— que llenaron casi por completo las 10 filas de asientos de un cine Regal al noreste de Indianápolis el viernes, en una de las primeras proyecciones de “Melania” de Amazon MGM Studios, que documenta un periodo de 20 días previo al regreso de Trump a la presidencia. En Carmel, un grupo de unas 20 mujeres activas en la política local compraron entradas para la función de las 12:45 p.m.

La película no fue un éxito en todas las ciudades el día de su estreno. En algunos cines, las salas estaban casi vacías. En la ciudad de Washington, la primera función del día —a las 11:30 a.m. en Regal Gallery Place, en el centro— estaba ocupada en aproximadamente un tercio, y casi todos los presentes eran periodistas. Entre los asistentes había representantes de NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post y The Atlantic.

Antes de que comenzaran los avances, un reportero preguntó en voz alta: “¿Son periodistas todos aquí?”
Un coro de respuestas se escuchó en la sala: “Aquí”. “Aquí”. “Aquí”.

“¿Algún civil?”, preguntó el hombre.

“Soy civil”, dijo una mujer, quien agregó que estaba allí con una amiga periodista.

Algunos críticos han alegado que la película, que costó varios millones de dólares, podría haberse hecho con un motivo oculto. El presidente el jueves desestimó las sugerencias de que los US$ 40 millones que Amazon MGM Studios pagó por los derechos pudieran constituir corrupción. “Creo que va a ser muy importante. Muestra la vida en la Casa Blanca. En realidad, es algo grande”, dijo a los periodistas en la alfombra roja de un estreno en el Kennedy Center.

En la película, es el presidente, y no la primera dama, quien provoca la mayoría de las risas. En una escena, Donald Trump le pregunta a su esposa si vio su discurso de victoria la noche de las elecciones, y ella responde —aparentemente apurada por terminar la llamada— que lo verá después en las noticias. Los asistentes se rieron cuando le dijeron que viajaría a la investidura con el presidente saliente Joe Biden y él respondió: “Ese será un viaje interesante”.

En Londres, algunos de los asistentes al estreno del documental lo criticaron después. Una persona dijo que “es como si Victoria Beckham se convirtiera en primera dama”.

Los hermanos Daniel y Elise Fairweather no disfrutaron la película, aunque Daniel —quien la calificó de “insensible”— dijo que le agrada Melania Trump. “Está rodeada de aduladores”, comentó Elise Fairweather.

Aun así, en todo Estados Unidos el viernes, muchos simpatizantes de Trump dijeron que compraron entradas para ver “Melania” en su día de estreno porque querían demostrar su apoyo a la primera familia.

Fuera de un cine AMC en Los Ángeles, Mary Eike, una contadora jubilada de 74 años y partidaria de Trump, dijo que llegó temprano para ver la primera función. Cuando CNN le preguntó qué la motivó a ver la película, Eike re

By Ethan Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — Democrats notched another victory Saturday in special elections during President Donald Trump’s second term, flipping a seat in the Texas Senate that Trump won by 17 points in 2024.

Taylor Rehmet, a union president and Air Force veteran, will defeat Trump-backed Leigh Wambsganss in a runoff for the Fort Worth-area 9th District, according to a CNN projection.

Rehmet won 48% in November’s first round against Wambsganss, a GOP activist and executive at conservative wireless provider Patriot Mobile, and one other Republican. His victory Saturday marks the latest success for Democrats ahead of this year’s midterms.

Trump had made a late push for Wambsganss, posting on social media in support of her campaign three times in the last two days of the race.

Democrats flipped more than 20 state legislative seats in special or regularly scheduled elections last year. Most recently, in December they won a Georgia district that Trump had carried by about 12 points.

The Texas seat has been vacant since last summer, when Republican Kelly Hancock resigned to become the state’s acting comptroller.

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By Kristen Holmes, Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump joked that he might sue his newly selected Federal Reserve chair nominee, Kevin Warsh, over lowering interest rates in a speech to an elite group of Washington’s power set on Saturday night, according to a person who attended the dinner.

The speech, delivered to an audience that included a bipartisan mix of political leaders, senior military officials, diplomats and business executives, ran for over an hour, according to the person, who added that Trump made several quips that came off as mean and did not always seem to have the room on his side.

Trump told reporters afterward on Air Force One that it was a “roast,” and that he expected his nominee, who is a former Fed governor, would lower interest rates.

It marked Trump’s first appearance as president at the annual and exclusive Alfalfa Club dinner, which took place at the Capital Hilton hotel Saturday night.

At one point, the person who attended the dinner said, Trump appeared to make a joke about former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and invited him to stand up. But after the crowd applauded Romney loudly, Trump said he couldn’t joke about Romney in a room of people so fond of him.

The president also called his wife Melania a “movie star” after her documentary film was released last week, and said he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop bombing Ukraine due to the cold, which he has previously said.

According to a seating chart obtained by CNN, Trump sat at the head table near his chief of staff, Susie Wiles; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum; CIA Director John Ratcliffe; Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller; New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte; UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba; former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy; and World Economic Forum President Borge Brende among others.

Former President George W Bush; Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Elena Kagan; Sen. Mitch McConnell; Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; and several other Cabinet members and foreign ambassadors were also expected to be in attendance, according to the seating chart.

Trump’s joke about Warsh comes as the president has repeatedly pressured the current chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, to lower interest rates, including by calling him a “numbskull,” “moron” and “jerk” for not lowering them more quickly. Powell was also expected to attend the dinner in Washington, DC.

The president announced Friday that he was nominating Warsh to be the next Federal Reserve chair, capping a search that began in September for Powell’s replacement.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has met with Trump at the White House multiple times, was also expected to attend the dinner.

The guest list underscored the Alfalfa Club’s reputation of blending figures from across party lines and ideological divides, including both allies of the president and prominent officials who have at times been openly critical of him.

The president, who typically leaves Washington for Florida on Fridays, departed for his Mar-a-Lago residence after the dinner on Saturday night.

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