Bitcoin has fallen roughly 44% from its October peak, and while the drawdown isn't crypto's deepest ever on a percentage basis, Bloomberg's Odd Lots newsletter lays out a case that this is the industry's worst winter yet. The macro backdrop was supposed to favor Bitcoin: public confidence in the dollar is shaky, the Trump administration has been crypto-friendly, and fiat currencies are under perceived stress globally. Yet gold, not Bitcoin, has been the safe haven of choice. The "we're so early" narrative is dead -- crypto ETFs exist, barriers to entry are zero, and the online community that once rallied holders through downturns has largely hollowed out. Institutional adoption arrived but hasn't lifted existing tokens like ETH or SOL; Wall Street cares about stablecoins and tokenization, not the coins themselves. AI is pulling both talent and miners toward data centers. Quantum computing advances threaten Bitcoin's encryption. And MicroStrategy and other Bitcoin treasury companies, once steady buyers during the bull run, are now large holders who may eventually become forced sellers.

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The CIA has shut down The World Factbook, one of its oldest and most recognizable public-facing intelligence publications, ending a run that began as a classified reference document in 1962 and evolved into a freely accessible digital resource that drew millions of views each year. The agency offered no explanation for the decision. Originally titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, the publication first went unclassified in 1971, was renamed a decade later, and moved online at CIA.gov in 1997. It served researchers, news organizations, teachers, students and international travelers. The site hosted more than 5,000 copyright-free photographs, some donated by CIA officers from their personal travel. Every page now redirects to a farewell announcement.

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Women hoping to visit their loved ones at New York prisons are being turned away after scanners pick up what they say are menstrual products. Some have had their visitation rights suspended.

The real threat to a secure and sustainable supply of rare earths is not that they are scarce, but that so much is wasted.

The world is angry. Canada’s been there all along.

Two Democrats, Analilia Mejia and Tom Malinowski, were leading in a race for their party’s nomination to replace Gov. Mikie Sherrill in the House.

Hikaru Fujita, who’s running in Sunday’s parliamentary election, is a standout in a country where expectant mothers rarely enter national politics.

The Winter Games, which officially open in Italy on Friday, are rooted in international cooperation. That feels out of place to some in a world where old rules no longer apply.

They will take place at 2 p.m. Eastern on Friday across four separate venues in Northern Italy.

Google's Quick Share-AirDrop interoperability, which has been exclusive to the Pixel 10 series since its surprise launch last year, is headed to a much broader set of Android devices in 2026. Eric Kay, Google's Vice President of Engineering for the Android platform, confirmed the expansion during a press briefing at the company's Taipei office, saying Google is "working with our partners to expand it into the rest of the ecosystem" and that announcements are coming "very soon." Nothing is the only OEM to have publicly confirmed it's working on support, though Qualcomm has also hinted at enabling the feature on Snapdragon-powered phones.

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Middle Eastern diplomats see a chance for negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program but have slim hopes for progress on other U.S. demands.

The deal reduces reciprocal tariffs and expands quotas for key trading goods, including Argentine beef — a flashpoint for American ranchers.

In a federal bellwether case, the jury ordered the ride-hailing giant to pay $8.5 million to Jaylynn Dean, who said one of its drivers assaulted her in 2023.

As they appeal a ruling blocking their redistricting efforts, the state’s Democrats proposed redrawing districts in a way that would strongly favor them.

TrumpRx is aimed at helping patients use their own money to buy medicines. But researchers who study drug pricing warned that many patients could pay too much if they use the site.

The European Commission is preparing to trial a communications platform built on Matrix, the open source messaging protocol already used by the French government, German healthcare providers and European armed forces, as a sovereign backup to Microsoft Teams. Signal currently serves as the backup tool but has proven too inflexible for an organization the Commission's size, it said. The Matrix-based solution could also eventually connect the Commission to other EU bodies like the Parliament.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to receive the Democratic nomination at the party’s state convention on Friday, even as her running-mate selection has drawn some debate.

Demonstrators, who were demanding that the university provide more protection for international students, blocked Broadway.

After hit men targeted the home of a prison manager in June, investigators say, the schemes of a criminal network involving the police unraveled.

With eight days until a deadline to keep the Department of Homeland Security running, bipartisan talks on reining in federal immigration agents’ tactics appeared to sputter before they had even gotten underway.