By John Towfighi, CNN

New York (CNN) — A nervous mood swept through markets Tuesday as stocks stumbled and bitcoin slumped to its lowest level since November 2024.

The Dow was down 360 points, or 0.73%. The broader S&P 500 fell 1.25%, retreating after briefly flirting with a record high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped 2%.

In a sign of the risk-averse mood, bitcoin dropped almost 7% across the past day and fell just below $73,000, hitting its lowest level since President Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election. Bitcoin then slightly rebounded and traded just below $75,000.

Bitcoin is down roughly 41% since hitting a record high above $126,000 in October. The Trump administration has touted pro-crypto policies, with the president promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world.”

But bitcoin — the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value — has whipsawed in price and struggled to regain ground in recent months amid a series of sell-offs.

While stocks and bitcoin were lower, gold and silver surged higher, extending recent bouts of volatility. Gold futures gained 6.8% to $4,967 a troy ounce. Silver futures soared 10% to roughly $84.78 a troy ounce.

Gold, considered a haven amid uncertainty, has now outpaced bitcoin across the past five years, according to FactSet data.

“[Bitcoin’s] divergence from gold is a sign that most investors currently view gold as the dominant store-of-value asset, especially in periods of currency debasement, geopolitical turmoil and uncertainty over macroeconomic conditions,” Gerry O’Shea, head of global market insights at Hashdex, said in an email.

O’Shea said he expects continued near-term volatility for bitcoin as the crypto industry seeks more regulatory clarity and crypto integrates into mainstream financial infrastructure, but he thinks bitcoin’s appeal will increase.

Stocks were led by declines in shares of many technology and artificial intelligence companies. Tech stalwarts Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) fell 3.2% and 2.4%, respectively. Nvidia (NVDA), the star of the AI trade, fell 4.1%, weighing on markets.

There have been lingering concerns on Wall Street about just how profitable the AI boom will prove to be, and whether companies’ enormous amounts of spending will ultimately be justified. Microsoft shares dropped 10% on Thursday, erasing nearly $360 billion in market value, after the company reported less growth in cloud sales than expected and increased AI spending.

Wall Street is in the midst of corporate earnings season, and traders are digesting results for the last quarter. Investors are increasingly scrutinizing spending forecasts and focusing on how companies will be able to turn a profit to justify their expenditures.

Meanwhile, shares of software companies also fell amid nerves about developments in AI eating into their business models. Salesforce shares (CRM) were down 8%.

While markets were lower, Walmart shares (WMT) gained 2.1%, lifting the company’s market value above the $1 trillion mark for the first time.

Markets extended their losses and volatility picked up after reports that the United States shot down an Iranian drone that had been approaching a US aircraft carrier.

Wall Street’s fear gauge, the VIX, jumped 19%. The VIX briefly traded at 20 points, a threshold that signals elevated volatility in markets.

Oil futures rose amid escalating US-Iran tensions. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 1.9% to $6

LOMPOC, Calif. (KEYT) - Allan Hancock College’s Fire and E.M.S. Training Programs have a new ambulance to use for hands-on training.

A brief but official presentation ceremony was held at the college’s Public Safety Training Complex in Lompoc Tuesday morning.

Members of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department were joined by county EMS representatives, as well as Allan Hancock College administrators.

This ambulance was purchased in 2008 and served the Lompoc Valley on the front lines before entering reserve status.

The donation adds to a collection of vehicles donated by county fire and emergency services, and this ambulance is now the newest model the college’s training center has access to.

Officials say that, as Hancock’s Fire and EMS Training programs continue to expand, it’s vital for cadets to have hands-on training with up-to-date equipment.

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Por Ian Kerner, CNN

Las dificultades con la intimidad, las relaciones y el sexo suelen ser el tema de conversación cuando me reúno con un grupo de colegas terapeutas para hablar sobre lo que se viene en nuestras prácticas y dónde podemos necesitar orientación. Un grupo pequeño nos encontramos cada quince días durante el almuerzo para discutir estos asuntos clínicos, algún estudio de investigación reciente o si algún día todos seremos reemplazados por inteligencia artificial.

Normalmente no hablamos de series de televisión, pero hace poco dejamos de lado esos temas para analizar por qué la innovadora serie canadiense “Heated Rivalry”, un drama sobre los jugadores de hockey ficticios Ilya Rozanov y Shane Hollander que se enamoran, está causando un gran impacto cultural. (La serie se transmite en Estados Unidos por HBO Max, propiedad de Warner Bros. Discovery, empresa matriz de CNN).

Dado que la serie desmonta los estereotipos sobre la sexualidad gay, hace que el consentimiento sea atractivo y aborda la ansiedad y la culpa que muchas veces reprimimos respecto al sexo, nuestra conversación pudo haberse extendido por horas, pero esto es lo que más nos llamó la atención.

Alerta de spoilers: si aún no has visto los seis episodios, ten en cuenta que a continuación hay spoilers.

Sí, “Heated Rivalry” tiene dos protagonistas atractivos, escenarios hermosos —¡esa cabaña!— y mucho sexo. Pero su atractivo parece ser más profundo, según mis colegas especializados en terapia centrada en el sexo y las relaciones, que han visto la serie.

Como sabemos, un estreno en el momento oportuno puede ser clave, y eso podría explicar parte de su popularidad.

“Durante una epidemia de soledad, ‘Heated Rivalry’ es un imán para quienes están hambrientos de contacto, conexión y afecto”, explicó Eva Dillon, terapeuta sexual en Nueva York. “Ofrece un modelo convincente de cómo una relación puede evolucionar de la atracción y el erotismo a un conocimiento profundo del otro. En la cultura actual de encuentros casuales, este modelo que transita de la atracción a la vulnerabilidad real y al afecto profundo resulta especialmente necesario”.

La serie también ayuda a visualizar cómo podrían —y deberían— ser las relaciones, dijo Scott Duquette, terapeuta sexual en Nueva York: “En muchos sentidos, ‘Heated Rivalry’ es un cuento de hadas. Nos permite imaginar que los desafíos pueden superarse, que podemos sentirnos seguros en nuestras relaciones y que la vida puede darnos placer, sanación y emoción. Nos invita a tener esperanza”.

Incluso puede inspirar a algunas personas a ser menos inhibidas respecto al sexo.

“La popularidad de la serie y las conversaciones abiertas que ha generado crean un efecto en cadena, permitiendo que la gente saque a la luz una parte de sí mismos —una parte que antes podía estar ‘guardada’— que quiere ser flexible y no estar limitada por estereotipos de género u orientación sexual, así como por expectativas rígidas de cómo debe progresar una relación romántica”, explica la terapeuta Nanaho Sawano, con licencia tanto en Nueva York como en Nueva Jersey.

Los dos protagonistas, Rozanov y Hollander, son sexualmente diversos y están dispuestos a explorar las múltiples formas en que pueden sentir placer sexual juntos sin verse limitados por las rígidas expectativas de roles que suelen estar presentes en las relaciones heterosexuales.

“Independientemente del género o la orientación, nos invita a reflexionar sobre cómo vemos las relaciones más allá de la perspectiva culturalmente normativa”, dijo Lily Hetzler, psicoterapeuta en Nueva York. “Ver la serie no se trata de ser gay, sino de conectarnos con la vitalidad de nuestra sexualidad, explorar todo el espectro de nuestra orientación y dejar de aferrarnos a la narrativa de cómo deber

By Daniel Dale, Alicia Wallace, Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed on Friday under the name of President Donald Trump. Trump criticized experts who warned that his tariff policies would cause economic destruction, writing that “the spectacular economic numbers coming out every single day” are proof that he was right and they were wrong.

But Trump’s rosy case was based in part on figures that are plain false or highly misleading, using cherry-picked beginning and ending points for various calculations to serve the president’s argument. And some of his qualitative claims were also inaccurate.

Here is a fact check.

Investment in the US

Trump repeated his regular false claim that in less than one year back in office, “we have secured commitments for more than $18 trillion” in new investment in the US, “a number that is unfathomable to many.” The number is not only unfathomable but factually incorrect. As of Tuesday, four days after the op-ed came out, the White House’s own website said the figure for “major investment announcements” during this Trump term was $9.6 trillion, and even that is a major exaggeration; a detailed CNN review in October found the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges, pledges that were about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment in the US, and vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges.

A growth estimate from a Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta model

Trump accurately noted that gross domestic product grew by an annual rate of 4.4% in the third quarter of 2025, but then he said that, despite the impact of the fall government shutdown, “the fourth quarter is projected by the Atlanta Fed to be well over 5%, a number like our country has not seen in many years.” While the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model was estimating fourth-quarter 2025 growth of more than 5% just over a week ago, the latest update from the model, released four days before Trump’s op-ed was published, was down to 4.2%. Also, some other estimates suggest fourth-quarter growth was lower than 4.2%.

Trump didn’t define “many years,” but 4.2% growth in the fourth quarter of 2025 would be the fastest since the third quarter of 2023, during the Biden administration, aside from the 4.4% growth in the third quarter of 2025 under Trump.

The trade deficit

Trump claimed that, in an incredible achievement, “we have slashed our monthly trade deficit by an astonishing 77% — all with virtually no inflation, which everyone said could not be done.” We’ll address the “virtually no inflation” claim below, but the claim of a 77% decline in the trade deficit is misleading — an apparent reference to a one-time decline in October that quickly reversed in November.

Here are three big reasons why the “77%” claim is misleading.

1) The trade deficit jumped in November after a sharp fall in October. The trade deficit — the difference between the value of goods and services imported to the US and goods and services exported from the US — has been vol

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