The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Wednesday, February 18th 2026
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
A free press depends on people who believe in it. As more outlets cave to the administration's demands to quiet opposing voices, our members enable reporting that holds firm to its values and serves the public interest. Already a member? "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday slammed CBS and its attorneys for releasing what he called a "crap" statement about his show. Then, he treated the statement like actual ...
Source: huffpost.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
Authorities announced late Tuesday night that six people who survived a backcountry avalanche had been rescued, though the search remained for nine others who had been swept up in the slide near Truckee. Search and rescue teams worked through a record-breaking storm after the slide was reported about 11:30 a.m. near Castle Peak in Nevada County. The severity of injuries for those who had been plucked out of the ...
Source: bradenton.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on three boats accused of smuggling drugs in Latin American waters, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration's monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers. The series of strikes conducted Monday brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
Australia bans citizen trying to return from IS camp in Syria Australia has barred a citizen linked to the Islamic State (IS) group from the country for up to two years. The person is among the group of 34 Australian women and children who tried to head home after being released from a Syrian camp earlier this week, only to be turned back by Syrian authorities for "technical reasons". The ban was issued "on advice ...
Source: bbc.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
The European Union is going after Shein for hooking customers with what it calls "addictive design." In a press release on Tuesday, the European Commission announced that it had launched a probe into Shein under its Digital Services Act. The Commission said it would investigate Shein for "addictive design, the lack of transparency of recommender systems, as well as the sale of illegal products, including child ...
Source: businessinsider.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
We might have assumed that gravity always remains steady and unchanging. But that might not be true after all. The strength of gravity actually changes from place to place across Earth. Scientists have found that one of the weakest spots is beneath Antarctica. In a new study published in Scientific Reports , researchers state that the "gravity hole" formed due to the rock's extremely slow movements deep inside the ...
Source: greenmatters.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
Users reported seeing a blank black screen with only the sidebar visible, or a "Something went wrong" message accompanied by pixel art. YouTube experienced an outage affecting thousands of users in the United States and other countries on February 17, 2026. The issue began around 8 PM Eastern Time and was reported by users in Canada, India, the Philippines, Australia, and Russia. Downdetector recorded 338,000 ...
Source: techbriefly.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
The Hollywood star is accused of hitting one man with closed fists and punching another in the nose in the city's French Quarter Reading Time: 2 minutes US actor Shia LaBeouf's Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans allegedly took a violent turn on Tuesday morning, landing him in hospital and facing charges of battery. The New Orleans Police Department confirmed that officers arrested the Megalopolis and Honey Boy ...
Source: scmp.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
Scientists tested the antibiotic resistance of an ancient bacterium found within 5,000-year-old ice layers . According to the study published in Frontiers in Microbiology , the bacterium called Psychrobacter SC65A.3 was extracted from Scărișoara Ice Cave in Romania from about 82 feet below. After testing the strain against 28 antibiotics, the researchers found that it was resistant to 10 of them, across 8 ...
Source: greenmatters.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
A free press depends on people who believe in it. As more outlets cave to the administration's demands to quiet opposing voices, our members enable reporting that holds firm to its values and serves the public interest. Already a member? NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump family company has filed to trademark the use of the president's name on airports but says it doesn't plan on charging a fee — at least for a ...
Source: huffpost.com
Wednesday, Feb 18th, 2026 -
News , via Wikimedia Commons US state trial begins for Georgia father of teenage school shooter The trial for the father of the teenager accused of the 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School began Monday, as prosecutors argue the father is culpable for giving his son the gun despite having notice of his son's previous threats. The father, Colin Gray, faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder, ...
Source: jurist.org
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was a civil rights icon, Baptist minister and two-time Democratic presidential candidate. A protege of Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson fought on the front lines of the battle against Jim Crow segregation laws as a college student. During the 1980s and 1990s, Jackson also negotiated the release of dozens of international hostages and prisoners, and became a vocal supporter of voting and LGBTQ ...
Source: cnbc.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
The media conglomerate announced Tuesday that it will let the Ellisons make another bid for the company over the next week, with two key stipulations: Their offer has to be more than $31 for each share of WBD, and it will be the last time the Ellisons get to make a formal pitch to the WBD board. Since then, the Ellisons, who bought Paramount last year and want to merge it with WBD, have argued that their offer of ...
Source: insider.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
Veteran American actor admired for his roles in Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies "You smell that? Do you smell that? ... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning," says Robert Duvall as the mad, hawkish, surf-loving Lt Col Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979), Francis Ford Coppola's two-and-a-half hour nightmarish ride ...
Source: theguardian.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
An 18-year-old Georgia man who ran toward the U.S. Capitol with a loaded shotgun has been arrested, according to U.S. Capitol Police. He was confronted at the base of the Capitol steps and was wearing a tactical vest when taken into custody. The incident occurred shortly after noon on Tuesday, on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol complex in Washington, D.C. said officers spotted a white Mercedes SUV parked in ...
Source: bnonews.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were to resume a second round of US-mediated peace talks in Geneva on Wednesday, though neither side signalled they were any closer to ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II. The talks are the latest diplomatic bid to halt the fighting which has killed hundreds of thousands, forced millions to flee and decimated much of eastern and southern Ukraine. The United States ...
Source: digitaljournal.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
Billionaire says he exercised 'terrible judgment' in maintaining contact with sex offender and Ghislaine Maxwell The billionaire Thomas Pritzker has stepped down as executive chair of the hotel chain Hyatt, after revelations over his ties with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein . Pritzker said he had exercised "terrible judgment" in maintaining contact with the sex offender and Ghislaine Maxwell , who was ...
Source: theguardian.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By KEN SWEET NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration is throwing its support behind the prediction market operators Kalshi and Polymarket in a critical legal battle between the growing prediction market industry and states that wish to ban these platforms. The move by Michael Selig, the recently appointed chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, could ...
Source: orlandosentinel.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
German agrochemical giant Bayer said Tuesday its subsidiary Monsanto had proposed a class settlement of up to $7.25 billion to settle claims that the Roundup weedkiller causes blood cancer, potentially drawing a line under years of costly litigation. Under the proposed agreement, Monsanto would make a series of declining annual payments for up to 21 years, Bayer said, adding that the deal still required court ...
Source: digitaljournal.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
In an interview at the Munich security conference, Clinton urged the Trump administration to 'get the files out' Hillary Clinton has accused the Trump administration of a "cover-up" over the Epstein files, while claiming that she and her husband are being forced to testify before Congress to deflect scrutiny from Donald Trump. In an interview with the BBC , Clinton said the US Department of Justice was ...
Source: theguardian.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem holds a press conference, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci/File Photo Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem got off to an immediately rocky start with the U.S. Coast Guard, according to new in-depth reporting. President Donald Trump's pick to lead DHS angered senior Coast Guard officials by prioritizing deportation flights over ...
Source: rawstory.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
The person who opened fire Monday during a youth hockey game at a Rhode Island ice rink was specifically targeting family members, killing an ex-wife and son as many fans dived for cover while a handful rushed the shooter to stop the attack, authorities said. Pawtucket Chief of Police Tina Goncalves said the shooter's ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and adult son Aidan Dorgan were killed and three others were injured: Rhonda ...
Source: wbur.org
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
President Donald Trump issued a statement Tuesday on the death of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson that included insults directed at former President Barack Obama and Democrats in general. The statement, posted on Trump's Truth Social account , started with the president saying he knew Jackson well. Trump described Jackson as "a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and 'street smarts.'" Related story: A ...
Source: mlive.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
GENEVA (AP) — Iran announced the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday for live fire drills in a rare show of force as its negotiators held another round of indirect talks with the United States over the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program. It was the first time Iran has announced the closure of the key international waterway, through which 20% of the world's oil passes, since the U.S. ...
Source: pbs.org
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
NEW YORK — A group of nonprofits filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against the Trump administration, arguing that its decision to remove the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York City this month violated a federal law that allows national parks and monuments to fly Confederate flags. The lawsuit, led by a foundation honoring Gilbert Baker, the artist who created the rainbow Pride ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
While no immediate danger exists, the companies have been notified and are working on fixes to protect millions of users' password vaults. Bitwarden, LastPass, and Dashlane are less secure than you might expect, at least if you go by the findings of security researchers at ETH Zurich and the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano. They've allegedly discovered serious security vulnerabilities in ...
Source: pcworld.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
Police assessing Stansted Airport private flights over Epstein ties Essex Police has said it is assessing information about private flights into and out of Stansted Airport following the publication of the Epstein files. The BBC understands that while the police is "assessing" the information, it would not necessarily lead to a full investigation. Last year a BBC investigation found 87 flights linked to the ...
Source: bbc.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
Geek Life: Fun stories, memes, humor and other random items at the intersection of tech, science, business and culture. Seattle-based real estate company Zillow has partnered with the company behind the long-running online game World of Warcraft in order to showcase players' creativity by exhibiting their virtual homes. A new microsite, " Zillow for Warcraft ," allows users to explore an assortment of designs for ...
Source: geekwire.com
Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2026 -
LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk's social media platform X faces a European Union privacy investigation after its Grok AI chatbot started spitting out nonconsensual deepfake images, Ireland's data privacy regulator said Tuesday. Ireland's Data Protection Commission said it notified X on Monday that it was opening the inquiry under the 27-nation EU's strict data privacy regulations, adding to the scrutiny X is facing ...
Source: apnews.com