Trump promises $500 rebates for Obamacare ‘overcharges’ he blames on Biden

President Donald Trump on Thursday promised to send $500 rebate checks to an estimated 1 million enrollees in Affordable Care Act health insurance plans, who he says were overcharged when former President Joe Biden was in the White House.

Trump claimed the money would compensate Obamacare enrollees in 30 mostly Republican states for what he called “gross mismanagement” of ACA funds including user fees from insurance companies that consumers may have unknowingly paid for through higher premiums.

“Our Administration is doing the right thing and giving the money back to the people who were wrongly ripped off,” Trump said in a recorded address released on the White House social media.

Critics derided the plan as a gimmick ahead of the midterm congressional elections. It wasn’t immediately clear exactly who may get the rebates, how the amount was calculated or whether congressional approval may be required. Enrollees in 30 states may receive the rebates, most of which in the Midwest and South.

—New York Daily News

Hottest summer on record roasts Colorado, world, data shows

DENVER — Record-breaking temperatures hit the world this summer, marking Colorado’s most sweltering season and the globe’s hottest month on record, according to meteorological data.

Colorado averaged 69.4 degrees between June, July and August — meteorological summer — this year, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. That’s Colorado’s hottest average summer temperature on record, which dates back to 1895, according to the agency.

The previous record summer high of 68.7 degrees was set in 2012, NOAA data shows. That’s a 0.7-degree difference. On the other end, Colorado’s coolest summer on record is marked by a 61-degree average in 1915, according to NOAA.

This summer tied with 2024 for the hottest on record internationally, and August marked the world’s hottest month ever, according to a new report from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Average global temperatures reached 62.53 degrees, according to the report.

—The Denver Post

Trump administration tells California its key water plan is ‘unworkable’

LOS ANGELES — The huge inland body of water that is the heart of California’s water system is under major stress.

That’s why state officials say they worked for years to come up with a plan to help halt the ecological decline of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Now that plan is under attack from the Trump administration and the largest irrigation authority in the Central Valley.

In a letter, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says California’s plan for the Delta will shortchange farmers by restricting how much water the federal government pumps from the state’s largest rivers. The letter says the plan threatens the “entire fabric of California’s agricultural economy.”

—Los Angeles Times

Russian drone over Moldova grounds plane carrying Zelenskyy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s planned flight to Oslo was disrupted on Tuesday by a Russian drone as he was set to depart for the funeral of King Harald, according to Norwegian and Moldovan authorities.

It wasn’t immediately clear how close a call it was for the Ukrainian president. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told public broadcaster NRK the plane was almost hit when it was taking off.

The incursion only stalled takeoff before the drone that arrived via Ukraine exploded “some 160 km” (99 miles) from the airport an hour later, Dumitru Ciorici, a Moldovan government spokesman, said on Wednesday evening.

It was the second drone incident involving top Ukrainian officials this month, after a jet-powered drone hit the office of the head of the internal security service SBU in downtown Kyiv last week. Zelenskyy blamed Russia and vowed to deliver an “appropriate, tangible response” to the strike.

—Bloomberg News