Por Logan Schiciano, CNN

El vicepresidente J. D. Vance afirmó que el presidente Trump no necesita disculparse por publicar un video racista, ahora eliminado, que mostraba al expresidente Barack Obama y a la ex primera dama Michelle Obama como simios en una jungla.

“¿Debería disculparse por publicar un video y luego eliminarlo? No, no lo creo,” declaró Vance en Azerbaiyán este miércoles al concluir un viaje al extranjero.

Trump se ha negado a disculparse por publicar el video en Truth Social la semana pasada, diciendo a los reporteros que “no cometió un error” y, en cambio, culpando a un miembro del personal de la Casa Blanca.

“Alguien se descuidó y no vio una parte muy pequeña”, manifestó Trump.

El presidente enfrentó críticas bipartidistas por el video y varios aliados cercanos le pidieron que lo eliminara y se disculpara.

Vance el miércoles minimizó la reacción. “No es una verdadera controversia. Tenemos problemas mucho, mucho más reales en los que enfocarnos”, inistió.

El vicepresidente de EE.UU. concluye este miércoles un viaje internacional que también incluyó a Armenia, donde Vance y su esposa, Usha Vance, asistieron a una ceremonia de colocación de ofrenda floral “para honrar a las víctimas del genocidio armenio de 1915”.

Después de ese acto, la cuenta en X de Vance publicó y luego eliminó un reconocimiento del genocidio armenio.

La publicación original se apartaba de la política del Gobierno de Trump, que no utiliza la palabra “genocidio” para referirse a las matanzas sistemáticas y deportaciones de armenios en lo que hoy es Turquía.

La cuenta de respuesta rápida de la Casa Blanca en X también publicó —pero luego eliminó— los comentarios de Vance sobre la visita al memorial.

Consultada sobre este asunto, la secretaria de prensa de la Casa Blanca, Karoline Leavitt, declaró a periodistas que no ha habido cambios en la política del Gobierno.

“En cuanto al tuit armenio al que usted se refiere, remito al mensaje emitido por la Casa Blanca en el Día de la Recordación Armenia, y no ha habido cambios en la política en este momento”, manifestó en la conferencia de prensa del martes.

La cuenta oficial de la vicepresidencia volvió a publicar posteriormente un mensaje de la secretaria de prensa de Vance, Taylor Van Kirk, que mostraba a la pareja vicepresidencial en la ceremonia e incluía una foto de la nota manuscrita de Vance en el libro de visitas.

El Comité Nacional Armenio de Estados Unidos calificó la eliminación como “una acción negacionista coherente con el vergonzoso retroceso del presidente Trump frente al recuerdo honesto estadounidense de un crimen reconocido por los 50 estados, el Congreso de EE.UU., la Casa Blanca y más de una docena de nuestros aliados de la OTAN”.

Vance —el primer vicepresidente o presidente en funciones de EE.UU. en visitar el país— dijo a periodistas que los armenios le pidieron visitar el sitio, y calificó la masacre como “algo muy terrible que ocurrió hace poco más de 100 años”.

Un portavoz de Vance dijo a CNN: “Esta es una cuenta gestionada por personal que existe principalmente para compartir fotos y videos de las actividades del vicepresidente. Para conocer la postura del vicepresidente sobre el fondo del asunto, remito a sus comentarios previos en la pista del aeropuerto en respuesta a la pregunta del pool (de periodistas)”.

Vance indicó que visitó el sitio “como una señal de respeto, tanto por las víctimas como por el Gobierno de Armenia”.

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By David Wright, CNN

(CNN) — “He’s running from his past, while ICE is in our communities,” the ad’s narrator says.

The target of the ad is Alex Bores, a congressional candidate in New York City who used to work for Palantir, the tech company with long ties to defense and intelligence agencies.

An image flashes of Bores’ LinkedIn page. The narrator notes Palantir’s work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose operations in New York City have sparked outcry on the left.

“ICE is powered by Bores’ tech. Manhattan is smarter than that,” the narrator says.

In a twist, the ad is backed by some of the very industry forces it condemns. The super PAC behind it is an affiliate of a new political committee, Leading The Future, launched last summer by a group of tech giants – including Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale – to confront a growing bipartisan backlash to artificial intelligence ahead of the midterm elections.

“Listen, we are on the verge of something amazing for our civilization, right?” Lonsdale said on CNBC in November. “But you have a lot of crazy populists, you have a patchwork of just really intense stuff they are doing that would just break all of this. And we can’t let that happen.”

Palantir executives and leaders from OpenAI and venture capital are wading into the political fray, with more than $100 million already pledged by Leading the Future to boost candidates friendly to AI. They’re also cutting big checks to congressional leaders and President Donald Trump’s political network.

The stakes are especially high this year. Congress is poised to craft the rules of the road for industry for the next decade or longer, and voters are growing increasingly worried about the consequences of AI development, from energy bills to privacy to job loss. Underscoring the tension, several Democrats have been pressured to return campaign contributions from Palantir-linked donors.

“The recent surge in election-related activities of big tech companies such as Palantir and OpenAI can be understood as preemptive measures against potential fallouts from the election,” said Syracuse University professor Hamid Ekbia, the founding director of the Academic Alliance for AI Policy. “Palantir, in specific, is in a vulnerable position because of recent revelations about its heavy involvement with ICE activities.”

Bores, who led one of the first major efforts to regulate artificial intelligence at the state level in New York, accused Leading The Future and its industry backers of hypocrisy.

“I quit their company over its ICE contract, choosing principle over my career and millions of dollars. They profited off of it, and are now using those funds to lie to New Yorkers and attack me,” he said in a statement.

Palantir did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A look at the money

Two prominent Palantir stakeholders have been active midterm donors: Peter Thiel, a co-founder and billionaire venture capitalist with close ties to Vice President JD Vance and others in the Trump administration, and the company’s CEO, Alex Karp.

Both Karp and Thiel gave hundreds of thousands of dollars last year to committees aligned with Republican congressional leadership, according to FEC records. Thiel’s giving in 2025 signals reengagement after he largely sat out the 2024 election cycle. Karp has a more enigmatic donor history.

FEC records show that in 2023, Karp gave $360,000 to the joint fundraising committee for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. A year later, he contributed $1 million to MAGA Inc.

Artificial intelligence has been a boon for Palantir, which has seen its market capitalization skyrocket by more than 1000% since 2

By Alicia Wallace, CNN

(CNN) — We’ll get a first look Wednesday at the state of the US job market as 2026 kicked off, as well as a clearer picture of hiring in 2025.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the January jobs report at 8:30 am ET Wednesday. The crucial employment snapshot is slightly delayed because of the brief government shutdown and will show whether the trajectory improved for the US labor market, which has been stuck in a low-hire and low-fire lull.

Last year, the economy posted its weakest year of job gains outside of a recession since 2003.

The year ended with the economy adding 50,000 jobs in December (roughly matching the average monthly gain for the year) and unemployment dipping to 4.4%, the BLS reported.

“Many workers feel stuck in their careers or feel frozen out of the job market,” said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at employment site Glassdoor.

The all-important churn needed for a healthy labor market has slowed considerably, and there are more people searching for jobs than are available.

The January jobs report will also include a series of critical revisions (namely, the annual benchmark revision) and statistical modeling adjustments that not only will provide a fuller look at past employment trends but also could very well shape our current and future view of the labor market.

There’s going to be a lot to unpack Wednesday, so here’s a cheat sheet to help get up to speed:

What are the expectations for hiring and unemployment in January?

In short: Expect to see more of the same. Heading into this year, economists said monthly job gains could hover around that 50,000-a-month range.

The recent batch of labor market data (both public and private) indicated that there’s a high likelihood that job growth was tepid, that unemployment remained subdued and that health care remained a primary driver of overall hiring.

There’s a possibility that seasonal and weather-related factors could result in a stronger-than-expected reading for January: Weaker holiday hiring has meant fewer post-holiday layoffs, and unseasonably warm weather during the early part of last month could have bolstered employment in industries like construction.

Economists’ latest consensus estimates are for job gains of 75,000 last month and for the jobless rate to stay at 4.4%, according to FactSet.

Why have job gains been relatively sluggish?

There is a combination of factors at play.

On the supply side, Baby Boomers are aging and retiring, population growth has slowed, and there’s been a sharp reduction in immigration and an increase in deportations.

On the demand side: Large employers are whittling down their ranks after over-hiring during the pandemic; high levels of uncertainty – particularly around the Trump administration’s sudden, shifting and sweeping domestic policy changes – have clouded businesses’ decision-making and stifled hiring; firms have shifted some investments away from hiring and toward equipment and technology (including artificial intelligence) to shore up productivity; and a high-cost environment alongside steep tariffs, federal funding cutbacks and aggressive immigration enforcement have negatively affected some businesses.

Joe Brusuelas, senior economist at RSM US, highlighted a few of those factors when pushing back on White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett’s claim Monday that subdued job gains are primarily the result of lower popula

Análisis de Allison Morrow, CNN

Los inversionistas confían en que la empresa matriz de Google, Alphabet, seguirá existiendo en 2126.

Cuando una empresa necesita recaudar fondos, generalmente puede vender acciones o emitir bonos. Esta semana, Google optó por los bonos. Sin embargo, la decisión de incluir un llamado bono centenario llamó la atención por varias razones.

El gigante tecnológico emitió este martes un bono corporativo poco común que vencerá dentro de 100 años, como parte de una ola de financiamiento multimillonaria para impulsar sus proyectos de inteligencia artificial.

Ahora, subrayemos esto: Google, una empresa pública valorada en casi US$ 4 billones, con más de US$ 73.000 millones en flujo de caja libre anual, recurre a los mercados de deuda para obtener aún más recursos. Esto se debe a que incluso los US$ 126.000 millones en efectivo de Google parecen insuficientes cuando la compañía planea duplicar su inversión en inteligencia artificial este año, hasta alcanzar los US$ 185.000 millones.

Las empresas normalmente no emiten bonos con plazos tan largos porque no suelen durar tanto tiempo. Tampoco las personas viven tanto ni podrían aprovecharlo. Si eres un inversionista común que compra un bono centenario de Google hoy, no estarás presente cuando venza. No te lo puedes llevar contigo.

Sin embargo, estos bonos tienen sentido para instituciones como fondos universitarios o gobiernos que se espera existan durante generaciones.

No es inusual que una empresa los emita, pero no es común. Y no siempre ha resultado bien para quienes lo han hecho.

IBM emitió su bono a 100 años en 1996, cuando dominaba el sector tecnológico. Pero poco después, competidores como Microsoft y Apple comenzaron a disputarle el liderazgo.

Otro ícono de los años 90, JC Penney, vendió US$ 500 millones en bonos centenarios en 1997, pero esos bonos se vendían por centavos de dólar 23 años después, cuando la empresa se declaró en bancarrota. (Los tenedores de bonos son acreedores, por lo que suelen estar en mejor posición que los accionistas en una quiebra, aunque la diferencia suele ser mínima).

La última empresa estadounidense en emitir este tipo de deuda fue Motorola, en 1997. (Para los jóvenes: Motorola fabricaba teléfonos móviles y buscapersonas. Si no sabes qué es un buscapersonas, búscalo en Google).

“Al inicio de 1997, Motorola estaba entre las 25 empresas más valiosas y con mayores ingresos en Estados Unidos”, tuiteó el inversionista Michael Burry, conocido por “The Big Short”. “La marca Motorola era la número uno en el país, por encima de Microsoft… Hoy Motorola ocupa el puesto 232 en capitalización bursátil y solo tiene US$ 11.000 millones en ventas”.

Motorola sigue operando y pagando su deuda, por lo que los tenedores de bonos siguen recibiendo pagos. No obstante, la emisión de ese bono, seguida de su declive, redujo el interés por este tipo de deuda a tan largo plazo. El bono no causó el declive de Motorola, pero la decisión de emitirlo reflejó un exceso de confianza corporativa.

Existe un mercado para estos bonos centenarios, pero no es grande. Realmente, solo tienen sentido para inversionistas institucionales, como aseguradoras y fondos de pensiones con obligaciones a largo plazo.

Hasta ahora, el mercado parece dispuesto a otorgar crédito a Alphabet. Y no es poco: la empresa recaudó casi US$ 32.000 millones en menos de 24 horas, según Bloomberg, que fue el primero en informar sobre la emisión del bono a 100 años. Alphabet vendió deuda en libras esterlinas y francos suizos este martes, tras una colocación de US$ 20.000 millones en Estados Unidos el día anterior. El bono a 100 años tuvo una demanda casi 10 vece

By Sheena McKenzie

(CNN) — After delighting onlookers with a series of stylish cameos at the Paris Games in 2024, Snoop Dogg is back at the Olympics with a new, slightly more official, job: coach. The gig comes with a fresh wardrobe of looks cooler than the snow-capped Italian alps.

So far, he’s been spotted draped in a full-length, white fluffy coat and fire engine-red hat and gloves, watching the women’s downhill race, and casually chatting with onlookers at the curling mixed doubles, adorned in a zip-jacket emblazoned with Team USA players’ faces.

Wandering the icy streets of Cortina in a furry hat, houndstooth coat and enough swagger to make the snowflake medal hanging from his neck jangle in agreement, Coach Snoop (as one of his beanies reads) appears in his element.

It’s the first time Team USA has had an honorary coach, a volunteer role that involves Snoop lending “his signature humor and heart to help motivate Team USA athletes,” according to the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

For those who think this is an odd partnership, the rapper-turned-hype man is a longtime sports fan. He was a torch-bearer at the 2024 Paris Games – and did so again at this year’s Winter Olympics. Much like in 2024, Snoop is reprising his role as a special correspondent for NBC, bringing his distinctive bold and flamboyant style and a genuine enthusiasm for whichever sport he happens to be commentating on – or throwing himself into, flailing limbs and all.

“It’s going down in Cortina,” he told NBC while walking the festive streets ahead of the opening ceremony, in sunglasses. “We got the beautiful people, good food, high fashion. I mean, I’m having a blast.”

So too, it seems, are the people behind his Team USA-themed wardrobe. Scroll on for Snoop Dogg’s most memorable Olympics outfits so far.

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