The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Friday, February 20th 2026
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By PAN PYLAS LONDON (AP) — Police continued on Friday to search the former home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, a day after he was arrested and held in custody for the best part of 11 hours on suspicion of misconduct in public office linked to his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein . Following one of the most tumultuous days in the modern ...
Source: orlandosentinel.com
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
U.S. President Donald Trump has given Iran "10 to 15" days to make a meaningful deal over its nuclear program — or "really bad things" will happen. Oil prices held at six-month highs on Friday morning as energy market participants continue to closely monitor heightened geopolitical tensions. Strategists at Barclays said "if conflict is imminent it is likely to be short lived, in our view." In this article US ...
Source: cnbc.com
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
Six women killed in the deadliest avalanche in the United States in decades were part of a close group of eight friends on a guided backcountry ski trip when a powerful winter storm triggered a massive slide in California's Sierra Nevada, authorities and families said Thursday, as investigations began into why the tour continued despite avalanche warnings. The women were part of a close group of eight friends on a ...
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
In a Truth Social post, the U.S. president said his move was based on the "tremendous interest" in the subject, without providing additional details. Trump said the files will be related to unidentified aerial phenomena and unidentified flying objects. This comes after former U.S. President Barack Obama said on a podcast that aliens are real. Man and boy sit on a paved sidewalk and draw alien faces. U.S. President ...
Source: cnbc.com
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
Good news for taxpayers ages 65 or older: The 2025 tax season means a new deduction for certain older adults, giving them even more tax breaks. Last year's passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, gives seniors a $6,000 deduction, or $12,000 for married couples where both spouses qualify. And the deduction is available to filers who take the standard deduction or itemize. The new senior deduction is ...
Source: chicago.suntimes.com
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
MILAN — It was only fitting that Hilary Knight was in the middle of it all. As the United States women's hockey team prepared to receive their gold medals Thursday after a 2-1 win over Canada in overtime, the players lined up in numerical order. There was No. 21 in the center, with 12 teammates on one side and 10 on the other. Knight was in the middle of it an hour earlier, too, when a shot from Laila Edwards ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
– Ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday remained defiant in his first reaction to a for rebellion handed down by a Seoul court the previous day. In a statement released by his lawyers, Yoon maintained that his abrupt and short-lived declaration of martial law in December 2024 was done "solely for the sake of the nation and our people," and dismissed the Seoul Central District Court as biased ...
Source: news4jax.com
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
The Boeing-built craft was on its first crewed test flight to the International Space Station when its thrusters failed, leaving it dangerously out of control. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts "stranded" in space, came close to catastrophe because their spacecraft wasn't ready to fly, according to a scathing report by the space agency. The investigation classed the incident as a ...
Source: news.sky.com
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
You can now listen to Fox News articles! Ex-Victoria's Secret mogul Les Wexner's lawyer was caught on a hot mic jokingly threatening to "kill" him if he continued giving long answers to questions during his deposition on Jeffrey Epstein by the House Oversight Committee. The moment was caught after the committee released its full, nearly five-hour deposition of 88-year-old Wexner as part of its ongoing probe into ...
Source: foxnews.com
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
News , via Wikimedia Commons West Virginia attorney general sues Apple over encryption, child porn West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey filed suit against Apple on Thursday, arguing that the company turned a blind eye to iCloud encryption methods that facilitate mass transmission of child pornography. The suit focuses on Apple iCloud and its use of end-to-end encryption, which makes digital files ...
Source: jurist.org
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
The U.S. federal agency that enforces workplace civil rights is suing a regional Coca-Cola bottler for sex discrimination, alleging the company discriminated against male employees by only inviting women to a company-sponsored networking event. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit on behalf of a male employee of Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast who complained about a two-day networking ...
Source: wbur.org
Friday, Feb 20th, 2026 -
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA took another crack at fueling its giant moon rocket Thursday after leaks halted the initial dress rehearsal and delayed the first lunar trip by astronauts in more than half a century. For the second time this month, launch teams pumped more than 700,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) of supercold fuel into the rocket atop its launch pad. They counted all the way down to the ...
Source: military.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. Now, these tech giants are getting a chance to make their case in courtrooms around the country, including before a jury for the first time. Some of the biggest players from Meta to TikTok are facing federal ...
Source: news4jax.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
US Sen. Bernie Sanders used his appearance at a rally in Los Angeles on Wednesday to call out—in some cases by name—the billionaires using tiny slices of their fortunes to fight a proposed wealth tax in California. "What I can tell the oligarchs is that the American people are sick and tired of their greed," Sanders (I-Vt.) told an enthusiastic audience gathered at The Wiltern theater, with members of ...
Source: commondreams.org
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
The UK is blocking President Trump from using its military air bases for a possible attack on Iran — because the lefty government believes such strikes could violate international law and doesn't want Britain implicated, according to a new report. Trump has already hit back by slamming the UK prime minister's plan to resolve a long-running dispute over a strategically crucial chain of islands in the Indian ...
Source: nypost.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Immigrants who came to the U.S. as refugees could be detained after a year of arriving here under a new policy from the Department of Homeland Security. Refugees must either get a green card within a year, or "present themselves to the agency" to avoid detention, according to a Feb. 18 memo from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The move marks yet another attempt ...
Source: npr.org
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Dozens of world leaders and ministers are expected to deliver on Friday a shared view of how to handle artificial intelligence, wrapping up a five-day summit focused on the technology. It comes a day after OpenAI chief Sam Altman told the meeting in New Delhi that the fast-evolving sector needs regulation "urgently". Frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for companies, while also fuelling fears ...
Source: digitaljournal.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Independent United Nations human rights experts released a report Thursday detailing allegedly genocidal crimes committed by Sudanese rebels during an October offensive in Darfur, where thousands of people were killed and others tortured, raped, and starved during the capture of el-Fasher. The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan report, titled Hallmarks of Genocide in el-Fasher , found that ...
Source: commondreams.org
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
As inventory challenges persist in some markets and have improved in others, economists generally point to a Spring market with increased buyers, provided average mortgage rates remain at their recent years-long lows. The latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), released by Freddie Mac Thursday, shows the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaging 6.01%, down from 6.09% the previous week and hitting ...
Source: rismedia.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By MARIA SHERMAN Eric Dane, the celebrated actor best known for his roles on "Grey's Anatomy" and "Euphoria" and who later in life became an advocate for ALS awareness, died Thursday. He was 53. His representatives said Dane died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known also as Lou Gehrig's disease, less than a year after he announced his diagnosis. "He spent ...
Source: orlandosentinel.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Swipe for next article It comes after the National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to halt construction of the ballroom The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a panel made up of Trump appointees, has approved President Donald Trump 's White House ballroom proposal . At the panel's January meeting, some ...
Source: independent.co.uk
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
boom has reshaped the US's digital infrastructure map and the landscape as a whole. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta plan to spend more than $600 billion on in 2026 — a number so dizzyingly high that Wall Street is on high alert for signs of an AI bubble. That 35 gigawatts is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of the UK or Italy, and adding it would nearly double the existing data ...
Source: insider.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
EPA based rescission on reinterpretation of Clean Air Act section 202 On Feb. 12, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its final rule (published at 91 Fed. Reg. 7686) rescinding the 2009 Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases Under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act , 74 Fed. Reg. 66496 (Dec. 15, 2009) (Endangerment Finding) and all subsequent federal ...
Source: natlawreview.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Swipe for next article Stephen Colbert claims CBS told him not to broadcast an interview with Senate candidate James Talarico Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has clapped back at Stephen Colbert after he claims CBS told him not to air an interview with a Democratic ...
Source: independent.co.uk
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Alzheimer's blood tests predict what age people will be when the disease may cause symptoms, study finds Blood tests that detect a protein involved in Alzheimer's disease could help predict the age at which the disease may strike people long before they develop symptoms, according to a new study. But questions remain about the accuracy and uncertainty of these tests , and experts caution that the assays aren't ...
Source: scientificamerican.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
All AI-generated music includes Google's SynthID watermark for identification, providing ethical safeguards while making music creation more accessible to everyday users. Google is launching music generation in its Gemini app via the new Lyria 3 model developed by Google Deepmind. The feature is in beta and allows you to create 30-second pieces of music based on text prompts and/or uploaded images and videos, says ...
Source: pcworld.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Deal agreed to acquire British secondhand fashion resale app from Etsy as eBay attempts to fend off Amazon The online retailer eBay has agreed to buy the British secondhand fashion resale app Depop from Etsy for about $1.2bn (£890m) in cash, as eBay targets younger fashion-loving consumers. The deal comes at a time when secondhand marketplaces continue to soar in popularity , especially among gen Z shoppers ...
Source: theguardian.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
At the January 2026 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the voting body chose to leave interest rates unchanged . The Federal Reserve's dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment have been at crossroads the past few months; inflation has trickled up, but the labor market shows signs of softness. At the January meeting, concerns about inflation won, as documented in the now-published ...
Source: rismedia.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
By Ben Casselman and Ana Swanson President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised that his steep tariffs would reduce U.S. imports, shrink the trade deficit and lead to a revival in American manufacturing. So far, the opposite has occurred. U.S. imports grew last year, and the trade deficit in goods hit a record high, data released Thursday showed, as Trump's policies scrambled trade but did not halt it. That was ...
Source: miamiherald.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer MILAN (AP) — Alysa Liu had just delivered a near-flawless Olympic free skate on Thursday night, one that left a packed crowd inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena standing and roaring, when a television camera zoomed in on the American star as she was heading off the ice. "That's what I'm (expletive) talking about!" Liu shouted into ...
Source: orlandosentinel.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
The Hammond Bears? Indiana state legislators sure seem to think that's where Chicago's football team is headed after taking another legislative step toward the state border Thursday, though the Bears stopped short of committing to pulling up stakes from Illinois. An Indiana House committee unanimously advanced legislation creating a stadium finance authority that would help the team build a dome in northwest ...
Source: chicago.suntimes.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
weighs whether to strike down the policy at the center of his economic platform. The justices could rule as early as Friday on Trump's authority to impose the kind of broad global tariffs he implemented last year. Losing the case would deal a major economic and political blow to a signature initiative of his second term. "Thanks to the fact that we got elected on Nov. 5, and thanks to what I call the Trump tariffs, ...
Source: news.yahoo.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
The latest Gemini model makes impressive strides in benchmarks, but forthcoming models could give it a reality check. Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Model capabilities are ultimately relative, one expert said. Another week, another "smarter" model -- this time from Google, which just released Gemini 3.1 Pro. Gemini 3 outperformed several ...
Source: zdnet.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is apparently too bougie for budget economy. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking approval from the White House's Office of Management and Budget to purchase a luxury jet for $70 million, two Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News in a report published Thursday. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem testifies before the House Appropriations ...
Source: huffpost.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Bad Bunny to make lead acting debut in film inspired by Puerto Rican revolutionary Singer Bad Bunny is to take on his first lead acting role, starring in a film alongside Javier Bardem and Edward Norton. Porto Rico, described as a love letter to the 31-year-old's home of Puerto Rico, will be directed by rapper René Pérez, known as Residente. The film, which has been in development since 2023, is ...
Source: bbc.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Two Britons detained in Iran while on a round-the-world motorcycle trip have been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a revolutionary court for "spying," their family said Thursday. Husband and wife Craig and Lindsay Foreman, who were convicted and sentenced in a trial at which they were not permitted to present a defense, have been held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since they were arrested in ...
Source: upi.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An exhibit detailing the lives of nine people enslaved by President George Washington in Philadelphia is being reinstalled on Thursday, despite an ongoing legal fight between the city and the Trump administration. last month following an executive order by President Donald Trump. The city subsequently sued for the exhibit to be rehung and a federal judge set a for its full restoration. ...
Source: news.yahoo.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
Moderna said Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration changed course and will review an amended application for its new flu vaccine, a week after rejecting the original submission and fueling drugmaker and investor concerns over policy changes at the agency under President Donald Trump. Shares of the vaccine maker closed up 6% on Wednesday after falling as much as 12% just after the FDA refusal became public. The ...
Source: nbcnews.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
NEWARK, N.J. (PIX11) — Newark Liberty International Airport temporarily closed and grounded departing flights Wednesday night, according to the FAA. A JetBlue flight took off from Newark at 5:43 p.m. for West Palm Beach, Fla., and had to immediately return to the airport due to an engine failure, a source familiar with the incident told PIX11 News. ore landing, according to FlightAware . The plane ...
Source: wfla.com