US intel shows Israel ‘not responsible’ for hospital strike
US intelligence shows Israel was not to blame for a strike on a Gaza hospital, the White House said on Wednesday, as President Joe Biden said it appeared to be the result of a misfired rocket fired by a “terrorist group.”
Mr Biden has backed Israel’s insistence that it did not carry out Tuesday’s hospital strike that killed several hundred people. The Palestinian militant group Hamas says Israel was responsible.
“While we continue to collect information, our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information, is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said, on social media.
The Senate Intelligence Committee echoed Mr Biden’s view, after reviewing intelligence on the attack.
Republican Jordan fails again in House speaker bid
Outspoken conservative Jim Jordan sought more time to bolster his faltering bid for the top job in the US House of Representatives after losing a second vote on Wednesday, while his fellow Republicans considered a backup option for the leaderless chamber.
Mr Jordan, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, for a second straight day fell short of the 217 votes needed to fill the vacant speaker’s chair, as 22 Republicans and all 212 Democrats voted against him.
He said he would not make another attempt until Thursday at the earliest.
Eight civilians killed in Russian attacks; Ukraine makes gains
Russian attacks overnight and on Wednesday killed at least eight civilians in Ukraine, while senior Ukrainian military officials said their troops had made some headway in counteroffensive operations in the southern theatre.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly video address, said the death toll had risen to five from four in a morning missile strike on a residential building in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
Officials said a 31-year-old woman was killed in an attack on the village of Obukhivka in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk and a man and a woman were killed in an overnight attack on the southern region of Kherson.
Americans’ net worth surged during Covid-19 pandemic
Americans experienced a record surge in net worth propelled by unprecedented government stimulus during the Covid-19 pandemic, laying the groundwork for economic resilience in 2023.
Inflation-adjusted median net worth jumped 37 per cent to US$192,900 ($264,600) from 2019 to 2022, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
That marked the largest three-year increase in data back to 1989, and it was more than double the next-largest one on record, the Fed said.
Brazil’s Neymar has torn knee ligament, facing surgery
Football superstar Neymar has a torn ligament and meniscus in his left knee and will have to undergo surgery after being injured during Brazil’s 2-0 loss to Uruguay, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) said on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old, who joined Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal from Paris Saint-Germain in August, was stretchered off in tears just before halftime in Brazil’s 2026 World Cup qualifying match in Montevideo on Tuesday.
Neymar will undergo surgery for the injuries at a “yet-to-be-determined date,” the CBF said, after a series of medical exams on the player in Sao Paulo.
