The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Friday, February 20th 2026
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
LONDON (AP) — He was reportedly his mother Queen Elizabeth II's favorite, but the former Prince Andrew has long been a headache for Britain's royal family. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested Thursday, his 66th birthday, on suspicion of misconduct in public office in an inquiry stemming from his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. He is the first senior British royal to be arrested since King Charles I, ...
Source: pbs.org
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
, the U.N. said Thursday, and President Donald Trump promised more money to the financially strapped world organization. The Trump administration's payment last week is earmarked for the U.N.'s regular operating budget, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told The Associated Press. The U.N. has said the United States owes $2.196 billion to its regular budget, including $767 million for this year, as well as ...
Source: news.yahoo.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
The Federal Communications Commission is investigating ABC's "The View" over possible violations of the requirement that broadcast stations give equal time to political candidates when they appear on-air, according to the head of the agency that oversees U.S. broadcast airwaves. "The FCC has an enforcement action underway on that," Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters after an agency meeting Wednesday, in response ...
Source: apnews.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
As Texas voters head into the 2026 primary, candidates are using artificial intelligence to mock opponents and sharpen attacks. This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune . Texas voters heading to the polls for the 2026 primary are encountering a campaign trail shaped by artificial intelligence, as candidates use the technology to mock opponents and dramatize political attacks. A bill in the Texas Legislature ...
Source: route-fifty.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
By The Florida House passed a bill on Thursday roughly along party lines seeking to repeal property taxes on everything except for those funding schools — a concept closely resembling what Gov. Ron DeSantis has been campaigning on for a year, but has yet to deliver a proposal on. "Our actions today are not sudden, nor do they meet any reasonable definition of quick," Miami House Speaker Daniel Perez said ...
Source: miamiherald.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
In a closed-door session at his Ohio home on Wednesday, billionaire Leslie Wexner faced mounting questions from United States lawmakers about Jeffrey Epstein's rise to wealth and influence – and the role he may have played in that ascent. Five members of the House Oversight Committee had travelled to depose the 88-year-old after Democrats subpoenaed him in the wake of the latest US Department of Justice ...
Source: aljazeera.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Behind the scenes, real journalism faces real resistance. We keep reporting anyway. Member support protects our independence and keeps tough stories in the light. Join today to help defend a free press. Already a member? AUSTIN, Texas – Seven months and $60 million later, Senate Republicans' efforts to rescue one of their caucus' leading members have proven totally ineffective, driving worries the party could ...
Source: huffpost.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 -
Trump told the U.K. not to "give away" the Chagos Islands, which is where a joint U.S.-U.K. military base is located. The president suggested the Chagos deal was prompted by "Wokeism" after the U.K. has come under pressure to hand the islands back to Mauritius. The U.S. is due to hold talks with Mauritius on the issue next week. U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hold a press ...
Source: cnbc.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration has issued a sweeping new order that could lead to the arrest of tens of thousands of refugees who are lawfully in the United States but do not yet have permanent residency, overturning years of legal and immigration safeguards. A memo filed by the Department of Homeland Security ahead of a Thursday federal court hearing in Minnesota says refugees applying ...
Source: pbs.org
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
– A "campaign of destruction" in October by Sudanese paramilitary forces against non-Arab communities in and near shows "hallmarks of genocide," U.N.-backed human rights experts reported Thursday, a dramatic finding in the country's devastating war. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces — which are at war with the Sudanese military — carried out mass killings and other atrocities in the city of ...
Source: news4jax.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
Yoon was jailed for life over his 2024 martial law declaration. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty during the January hearing. The latest ruling followed a prior five-year obstruction sentence. Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life imprisonment Thursday after being found guilty of leading an insurrection during his declaration of martial law in December 2024. The ruling, delivered ...
Source: cnbc.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
The old saying "Everything is bigger in Texas" now applies to data centers. The Lone Star State is on track to unseat Virginia as the world's largest data center market by 2030, new research from Jones Lang LaSalle shows. The shift indicates how drastically the data center development boom has reshaped the US's digital infrastructure map and the landscape as a whole. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta plan to ...
Source: businessinsider.com
Thursday, Feb 19th, 2026 -
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a panel made up of President Donald Trump's appointees , on Thursday approved his proposal to build a ballroom larger than the White House itself where the East Wing once stood. The seven-member panel is one of two federal agencies that must approve Trump's plans for the ballroom. The National Capital Planning Commission, which has jurisdiction over ...
Source: apnews.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 -
The 911 call reported an apparent suicide. A 55-year-old Cuban "tried to hang himself," a federal contractor alerted emergency responders last month from a sprawling El Paso immigrant detention center. By the next day, records show that Geraldo Lunas Campos had died at the facility, marking the second fatality in weeks at the hastily constructed Fort Bliss Army tent structure known as Camp East Montana. Immigration ...
Source: truthout.org