By Erin Banco NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Palestinian militant group Hamas has recruited between 10,000 and 15,000 members since the start of its war with Israel, according to two congressional sources briefed on U.S. intelligence, suggesting the Iran-backed fighters could remain a persistent threat to Israel. The intelligence indicates a similar number of Hamas fighters have been killed during that period, the sources said. The latest official U.S. estimates have not been previously reported. … Read more…

By Hannah Lang and Trevor Hunnicutt (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an order to create a cryptocurrency working group, fulfilling a campaign promise after he courted cash from digital asset companies pledging to be a “crypto president.” The crypto advisory council is expected to advise on digital asset policy, work with Congress on crypto legislation, help establish Trump’s promised bitcoin reserve and coordinate between agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity … Read more…

By Trevor Hunnicutt WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was not sure the United States should be spending anything on NATO, telling reporters the U.S. was protecting NATO members, but they were “not protecting us.” Trump earlier demanded that other members of the transatlantic alliance spend 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense – a huge increase from the current 2% goal and a level that no NATO country, … Read more…

By Ana Mano SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian beef companies do not expect to be hurt by potential new tariffs from President Donald Trump’s administration because of low inventories of cattle in the U.S. and a sizable tariff that already exists on these exports. Roberto Perosa, head of the Brazilian beef exporters association ABIEC, said in an interview on Wednesday that Brazilian beef exports outside a 65,000-ton annual quota already are slapped with a 26.4% … Read more…

(Reuters) – E-commerce giant Amazon.com is exiting its operations in Quebec, leading to the loss of about 1,700 full-time jobs, a company spokesperson said on Wednesday. The online retailer will phase out operations across seven sites in the province — the only location in Canada with unionized Amazon employees — over the next two months. It will return to a third-party delivery model, relying on local small businesses, similar to its approach before 2020. “Following … Read more…

By Doyinsola Oladipo NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some Meta social media users said on Wednesday that their accounts re-followed the profiles of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and first lady Melania Trump after they had unfollowed those accounts once Trump took office for his second term. When a presidential administration changes, the official White House social media accounts roll over to the new elected officials. That happened in 2017 and 2021, when Trump … Read more…