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Lead: In February 2026 the South Orange & Maplewood School District removed Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao from an Advanced Placement English Literature class at Columbia High School in Maplewood, N.J., after a wave of student mental-health emergencies. Superintendent Jason Bing said administrators requested the removal as part of an immediate … Read more

President Trump said on Friday he is “considering” a limited military strike on Iran as the Pentagon executes the largest U.S. force buildup in the Middle East in two decades. The administration’s deliberations follow a 12-day campaign last June in which U.S. forces joined Israeli strikes, a cease-fire was reached within days and there were … Read more

Lead: House Speaker Mike Johnson has declined a family request for the late Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., 84, to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, according to people familiar with the decision. The civil rights leader died this week and was widely praised across party lines for decades of activism and political work. … Read more

US freeskier Hunter Hess said on Friday that President Donald Trump’s labeling of him as a “real loser” has only sharpened his resolve at the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics. Hess had earlier said he felt mixed about representing the United States amid current political tensions, a comment that drew a public rebuke from Trump. Rather than … Read more

On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that personal income rose by 86.2 billion dollars, a 0.3 percent monthly increase for December 2025, with disposable personal income up 75.7 billion dollars (0.3 percent) and personal consumption expenditures rising 91.0 billion dollars (0.4 percent). The release, originally scheduled for January 29, 2026, … Read more

Lead A coastal winter storm expected Sunday into Monday could drop a widespread 2 to 6 inches of snow across New Jersey, the National Weather Service said in an initial forecast on Feb. 20, 2026. Forecasters warned the numbers are tentative and likely to change as the storm’s track becomes clearer. Snow is forecast to … Read more

Federal officials say the Trump administration will shift its interior-immigration strategy, exporting the focused enforcement methods used by Tom Homan in Minneapolis to other cities across the country. The decision follows intense public backlash and chaotic scenes in Minneapolis late last month — including the shooting deaths of two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex … Read more

Lead Sidney Crosby will not play for Canada in the Olympic men’s hockey semifinal against Finland on Friday in Milan after suffering a lower-body injury in Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime quarterfinal win over Czechia. Crosby, 38, exited that game in the second period and underwent an MRI that team sources said was not the worst-case result. … Read more

Even years after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, people who lived under occupation in eastern Ukraine describe daily fear, collapsing services and a steady erosion of civil life. Former residents such as Inna Vnukova recount hiding in basements, Russian patrols and a hazardous escape in March 2022; many others fled or were displaced. In … Read more

Bath & Body Works has launched a branded storefront on Amazon in the U.S., making a selection of its top fragrances, body washes, hand soaps and candles available with Prime-eligible shipping. The move was announced in February 2026 and is intended to reach customers on a platform that accounts for a large share of online … Read more

2026-02-20 Lead: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has refused a US request to permit use of RAF Fairford and the Diego Garcia base for any US preemptive strikes on Iran, multiple UK outlets reported on 20 February 2026. The decision, according to those reports citing government sources, rests on concerns that facilitating such operations could … Read more

Lead Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson remained unbeaten with a first-round stoppage over veteran Hugo Lezama on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, at the Showcenter Complex in Monterrey, Mexico. Steveson, 25, absorbed a heavy wheel kick mid-exchange but quickly regained control and finished Lezama with ground strikes in the main event of MFL 3. The win … Read more

In January 2026 a decades-old sewer line collapsed on the Maryland bank of the Potomac River northwest of Washington, D.C., releasing raw wastewater into the river. Utility operators reported more than 200 million gallons escaped in the initial days, with some accounts citing about 243 million gallons in total; crews have since installed pumps and … Read more

Researchers at the University of Padova report in Science (covered by NPR on Feb. 19, 2026) that newly hatched domestic chicks link the nonsense sounds “bouba” and “kiki” with rounded and spiky shapes, respectively. In controlled trials, three-day-old chicks trained to seek a combined blob-and-spike panel then preferentially approached the rounded figure when they heard … Read more

Lead William Foege, the American epidemiologist widely credited with developing the surveillance-and-containment strategy that helped end smallpox, has died, an obituary in The Times reports. His work in field epidemiology and later leadership at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control shaped modern infectious-disease response. The campaign he helped design contributed directly to the last naturally … Read more