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Lead: The Chicago Bears are weighing a dramatic relocation from Soldier Field to Hammond, Indiana, after Indiana lawmakers last week cleared a legislative path for an out‑of‑state stadium plan. The proposal follows decades of rent, renovation costs and political friction with the Chicago Park District, and comes as the franchise evaluates a cheaper, team-controlled alternative … Read more

Lead: Actress Melissa Claire Egan, best known for playing Chelsea on The Young and the Restless, announced in late January that she has been diagnosed with coronary heart disease. The 44-year-old said early detection and medication have her prognosis stabilized, and she used her platform to urge other women to get screened. Egan named her … Read more

Lead: New genetic analyses indicate that encounters between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, tens of thousands of years ago in Eurasia, were biased in direction: most interbreeding appears to have involved Neanderthal males and human females. Researchers report this pattern helps explain why Neanderthal ancestry is scarce on the human X chromosome but comparatively enriched … Read more

Lead Netflix has released the first trailer for Dynasty: The Murdochs, a four-part documentary that examines the internal struggle to control Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The series, directed by Liz Garbus, draws on thousands of pages of documents, emails and text messages and foregrounds tensions among Rupert Murdoch and his children—Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence … Read more

Lead Mayor Zohran Mamdani travelled to Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, for an unannounced meeting with President Donald J. Trump. Multiple people familiar with the plans said the session was scheduled for 1 p.m.; a mayoral spokeswoman confirmed the meeting after initial reporting. The precise agenda was not fully disclosed, but several sources … Read more

Lead: On 26 February 2026, Taliban authorities said Afghan forces launched cross-border attacks on Pakistani military positions along the Durand Line in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes last week. The Afghan eastern military corps described “heavy clashes” beginning late Thursday in Nangarhar and Paktia provinces, while Pakistan’s authorities said their forces responded and denied that … Read more

On Feb. 26, 2026, a federal judge in Washington declined to pause construction of the ballroom planned for the site of the demolished East Wing of the White House, ruling that the current lawsuit must be revised before courts may consider the core legal questions. Judge Richard J. Leon said the complaint filed by preservationists … Read more

Lead On Feb. 26, 2026, Freddie Mac reported the average U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 5.98 percent, the first time the measure has been under 6 percent since September 2022. Economists and industry analysts say that drop can cut monthly payments by several hundred dollars for a typical borrower, but early data show … Read more

Google announced on February 26, 2026 that its latest image-generation model, Nano Banana 2 (technically Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), is now available and will be the default image model across the Gemini app and other Google products. The company says the model produces more realistic images than its predecessors while delivering faster generation times and … Read more

Lead: Columbia University said federal Department of Homeland Security agents entered a Columbia-owned residence early on Feb. 26, 2026, and detained a senior student. University officials said they are investigating how the officers gained access after being told officers misrepresented their identity. The student, identified by friends as Ellie Aghayeva, an international senior in neuroscience … Read more

Lead On Feb. 26, 2026, U.S. and Iranian delegations held a third round of indirect nuclear talks in Geneva mediated by Oman, aiming to stave off a wider conflict as the U.S. repositioned a large fleet to the Middle East. Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, said the sessions ended for the day but “will resume … Read more

Lead: On February 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would, if finalized, cut MBaer Merchant Bank AG off from the U.S. financial system. The proposal invokes section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act to designate MBaer a primary money laundering concern … Read more

Lead: Researchers led by Xin’an Zhou unveiled a set of Wi‑Fi attacks called “AirSnitch” at the 2026 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium that can defeat client isolation in home, office, and enterprise networks. The techniques exploit desynchronization between the physical (Layer‑1) and link (Layer‑2) layers to mount a bidirectional man‑in‑the‑middle (MitM) capable of viewing … Read more

Sidney Crosby watched Wednesday’s Little Penguins Learn to Play session at UPMC Lemieux Complex but will be sidelined from games for about a month after a right-leg injury suffered Feb. 18 during the Olympic quarterfinal in Milan. The Pittsburgh Penguins placed their captain on injured reserve earlier the same day, and Crosby said he expects … Read more

U.S. Treasury yields eased on Thursday as investors paused ahead of a key wholesale inflation report and parsed fresh labor-market figures. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 4.023%, the 30-year yield fell to 4.675% and the 2-year note declined to 3.452%. The Labor Department said initial unemployment claims for the week ended Feb. 21 … Read more