Laura Barron-Lopez:
The day’s other news begins with the restoration of power in Puerto Rico following an island-wide outage that struck on New Year’s Eve.
The U.S. territory’s private energy provider says that as, of this afternoon, 98 percent of its customers have their lights back on. But LUMA Energy warns there could be temporary outages in the coming days as it works to fully restore power across the island. The exact cause of the outage is still under investigation, but early indications point to a problem with an underground power line.
At the peak of yesterday’s outage, nearly 90 percent of LUMA Energy customers were without power, forcing people to start the new year in darkness.
And, in Las Vegas, authorities say one person is dead and seven others were injured today when a Tesla Cybertruck caught fire and exploded outside the city’s Trump International Hotel. Eyewitness video captured the vehicle as it burned in the valet area of the hotel. The driver is the only known fatality.
The cause of the explosion is unclear, though a law enforcement official tells the Associated Press that the truck appeared to be carrying a load of fireworks. Authorities are reportedly investigating the explosion as a possible act of terror.
Authorities in New York City have arrested and charged a 23-year-old man after a Manhattan subway passenger was shoved onto the tracks as a train approached. Security camera footage shows the 45-year-old victim wearing an orange jacket being pushed violently from behind. Police say he’s in critical, but stable condition.
The suspect has been identified as Kamel Hawkins. He has been charged with attempted murder and second-degree assault. It’s just the latest act of violence to raise concerns among New York’s transit passengers. The police figures show major crimes on subways are down compared to last year.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least a dozen Palestinians in Gaza overnight, as the war grinds on into the new year. Hospital officials say one strike hit a refugee camp in Central Gaza, killing a woman and child. Israeli forces say the attack was in response to militant rocket fire that had come from the area.
Another strike hit a home in Northern Gaza, killing seven and wounding a dozen others. The Israeli military has been conducting a major offensive in that area since early October.
Ukraine is putting the brakes on Russian gas flow through its pipeline network to European customers. The shutoff in supplies comes nearly three years after Russia invaded Ukraine. That’s because a five-year agreement between the two countries had kept the gas flowing, but the deal expired at the end of 2024 and Ukraine has refused to extend it.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said the stoppage will have a drastic impact on European Union countries, but not on Russia.
Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia (through interpreter): Nobody, I repeat, nobody is pushing Slovakia away from the European community. But we must see that selfish national interests are beginning to dominate this community. In world politics, it absolutely applies that it does not matter whether elephants love or fight; the grass always suffers. I do not want Slovakia to be such grass.
