Thursday, February 19, 2026
Updated 12m ago
U.S. forces repositioned near Iran as President Trump weighed possible strikes, prompting warnings of imminent conflict while Iran fortified nuclear and military sites, officials and satellite images showed.
In the U.S., Stephen Colbert said CBS barred his interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico and CBS denied the claim; Colbert then published the segment online.
Ukrainian and Russian delegations, mediated by the United States, ended talks in Geneva on Wednesday after a two-hour session with no breakthrough, and Kyiv accused Moscow of delay.
The U.S. Defense Department and AI firm Anthropic clashed over how artificial intelligence should be used in future battlefields, prompting safety and policy concerns among officials in Washington.
Mikaela Shiffrin won the women's slalom gold at Milano‑Cortina, dominating the race and finishing ahead of Switzerland's Camille Rast and Sweden's Anna Swenn‑Larsson.
Les Wexner testified before a House oversight committee in Washington on Wednesday, saying Epstein had "duped" him and denying wrongdoing, while Democrats called his answers not credible.
The White House warned Iran it would be "well-advised" to strike a deal or face possible military action, while Tehran said nuclear talks and IAEA contacts had progressed.
The Financial Times reported that ECB President Christine Lagarde planned to leave before France’s 2027 presidential election, while the European Central Bank said she had made no decision.
Inflation slowed in Europe in January: France’s consumer prices rose 0.3% year-on-year and U.K. inflation fell to 3%, while U.S. Fed officials warned progress toward 2% could be uneven.
U.S. regulators reversed course and agreed to review Moderna's mRNA influenza vaccine application after backlash from the company and the biotech industry.
Researchers warned that chikungunya could spread across much of Europe because Aedes mosquitoes can transmit the virus at lower temperatures, lengthening seasonal transmission windows.
Environmental and public health groups sued the EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., challenging the agency’s repeal of the endangerment finding that underpins federal greenhouse-gas limits.
Storm Pedro hit western France on Thursday, prompting red flood warnings, evacuations and two emergency shelters opened in Bordeaux as authorities warned of coastal inundations.
More than eighty film artists accused the Berlinale and jury president Wim Wenders of silence on Gaza and urged the festival to condemn what they called Israeli "genocide."
U2 released Days of Ash, a six track politically charged EP that was their first new music since 2017 and featured songs criticizing ICE and other political figures.
United States and Canada reached the Olympic men's ice hockey semifinals in Milan after narrow quarterfinal overtime wins, Quinn Hughes and Mitch Marner scoring the decisive goals.
A dog ran onto the cross-country ski course in Lago di Tesero during team-sprint qualifying at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics and sprinted to the finish behind competitors.
Eight skiers were found dead and one remained missing after an avalanche struck a guided backcountry skiing group near Lake Tahoe in California, authorities said.
Civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson died, prompting family tributes and retrospectives that praised his role nationalizing the movement and pressing companies for racial and economic justice.
Bad Bunny was announced to star in Porto Rico, a historical drama about early-20th-century Puerto Rican revolutionaries directed by René "Residente" Pérez, with Javier Bardem and producer Alejandro Iñárritu.
Lindsey Vonn said she was headed for further surgery after breaking her leg in a crash at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina, and revealed her dog died that day.
