US news

US news

"The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues," said Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook post.

"A fairly rapid change of a head of state prompted by U.S. military forces is always going to bring back memories of Iraq in one way or another," says Raad Alkadiri, a managing partner at 3TEN32 Associates, a political risk consultancy, who lived in Iraq from 2003 to 2007. But Alkadiri says there's a key difference, and that's the way the Trump administration is taking control of Venezuela's oil.

The Mercury provides news and fun every single day-but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support! Good morning, Portland! Ignore what Punxsutawney Phil predicted earlier this week because it doesn't feel much like winter. Today, we can expect partly sunny skies and a high of 61 degrees with a low of 42.

Late Tuesday, entertainment news site TMZ reported it had received an alleged ransom note demanding a specific, substantial payment in Bitcoin - reportedly in the millions - in exchange for Guthrie's safe return. The note included a deadline for payment and a threat of harm if the demand was not met, and was sent with a Bitcoin wallet address that TMZ verified as a real on-chain account.

The homeless man accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in Manhattan's Stuyvesant Town has officially been charged with five counts of rape. According to police sources, 33-year-old Germaine Parham, who already has a laundry list of prior arrests, was slapped with a host of charges on Tuesday night for the vicious Jan. 29 attack of the young teen. Police sources said Parham has 32 prior arrests, primarily for robbery.

In the case of the TMZ letter, the outlet did not reveal the Bitcoin address-a term that describes a long string of random letters and numbers similar to a bank account-but confirmed it was a genuine address on the blockchain. The outlet said that the note had a deadline for the ransom, as well as details of an item damaged at the victim's Tucson-area home. The blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis did not speculate on the legitimacy of the letters.

The Army recently published a Request For Information on Autonomous Decontamination Systems (ADS) to see what might be out there in the existing commercial market to help its Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) troops more easily clean up contaminated vehicles, infrastructure, and terrain. "ADS will reduce manpower and optimize resources required for decontamination operations while mitigating the risk of exposure of warfighters to Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents through robotic means," the Army said in its RFI.

The US dollar traded in a consolidation phase on Wednesday, as a partial government shutdown continues to delay key economic releases and keeps investors in a wait-and-see mode. With job data postponed, markets are temporarily deprived of fresh evidence on the health of the US labour market, limiting directional moves in the market. Markets could react to new data, including the ISM Services PMI figures release later today.

To Michael Burry, the man who famously shorted the US housing market before its collapse in 2008, it could be a sign of an impending disaster. In a Substack post this week, Burry warned that further losses for Bitcoin could put a major strain on the balance sheets of investors that overindexed on crypto, leading to further selloffs and a "death spiral" that could be difficult to recover from.

Amber Glenn achieved a lifelong goal, sealing her Olympic bid by winning her third consecutive U.S. championship last month. Her first celebration came with her opponents. "We all deserve it," Glenn said with her arms wrapped around national silver medalist Alysa Liu and bronze medalist Isabeau Levito. The spirit of collaboration has brought U.S. figure skating into a new golden age. The 16-athlete team the United States sent to Milan may be the country's strongest Olympic team in decades. With three reigning world champions and three current Grand Prix final champions, the United States is poised for one of its best Olympic Games ever in figure skating.

Global markets are getting overbought. It might be time to rotate Notably, global markets seem to be entering a period of historically "overbought" levels. With stocks across the globe running hot, well above their moving averages, while market sentiment skews a bit too greedy, and it certainly feels like a market correction is not only a long time coming, but a nice thing to have with all the froth that's built up after a sensational 2025.

Higher-income Americans and those with college degrees have ramped up their spending more quickly in the past three years than other consumers, according to new data released Tuesday, evidence of worsening inequality that may explain some of the growing pessimism about the economy. The data, released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, also show that in the final three months of last year, lower-income and rural households faced higher inflation than higher-income households.