By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN President Donald Trump is such an awful human being that just writing about him feels degrading. What president would denigrate his predecessor in front of China’s leader the way Trump mocked Joe Biden, now suffering from cancer, by pointing out that a framed picture of an autopen was hanging in the White House instead of Biden’s portrait? Alas, though, when someone as morally warped as Trump — whose first secretary of state called him a “moron” — assume

US stock futures steadied on Wednesday after Treasury yields advanced to fresh multidecade highs and investors awaited the latest signal on sticky inflation. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) and those on the S&P 500 (ES=F) rose just above the flatline. Contracts for the Nasdaq-100 (NQ=F) slipped into the red after stocks fell fractionally the day before. Stocks continue to be caught in the undertow of rising bond yields and volatile oil prices as the war in

By THE STAR STAFF Gov. Jenniffer González Colón on Wednesday announced the allocation of $26.5 million to cover school transportation costs for the Special Education Program and the renewal of technology services used by government entities, following the Financial Oversight and Management Board’s approval of the funds. “This approval, secured by my administration, allows us to direct resources toward an essential service for our Special Education students and their families,

José Roberto “Billi” Martínez Ramírez (1954-2026) (X via fundacionrhc) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The Star José Roberto Martínez Ramírez, an adviser to governors on historical and political matters and a tireless promoter of the arts in a developing commonwealth, was widely regarded as a Renaissance man in a flourishing industrial society. Martínez served in multiple public roles, including director of the Puerto Rico Office in Washington, D.C., director of the island’s Eu

Insists firing was due to incompetence; Rep. ‘Cony’ Varela calls for House probe into contract pressure allegations By THE STAR STAFF Family Secretary Suzanne Roig Fuertes denied on Wednesday that the dismissal of Blanca Medina Díaz, director of the Administration for the Socioeconomic Development of the Family (ADSEF), was related to an alleged contract involving federal funds. “There has never been a contract here. OK, there has never been a contract. There wasn’t even a dr

Former Bayamón Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera Rivera, seen here with Gov. Jenniffer González Colón, died Wednesday at the age of 97. The New Progressive Party leader served as mayor of the municipality for 24 years. (Facebook via Jenniffer González Colón) Governor declares three days of mourning By THE STAR STAFF Former Bayamón Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera Rivera, who led the municipality for 24 years, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 97, announced his son and the current mayor, Ra

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 23, 2026. Cruz is a chief proponent of the Protect College Sports Act, which passed in the Senate by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 77-22. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times) By THE STAR STAFF The U.S. Senate earlier this week approved a sweeping remake of collegiate sports regulations in an effort to restore stability to an athletic landscape that has been upended by constant transfers, fr

The OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco on June 1, 2026. During the testing phase for OpenAI’s newest artificial intelligence model, known as GPT-6.1 Astra, it showed high levels of what the company saw as deception, or a willingness to mislead users about its actions. (Manuel Orbegozo/The New York Times) By SHEERA FRENKEL OpenAI said earlier this week that it would not release its newest artificial intelligence model because of security concerns raised by its researchers, i