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Lead US military satellites and open-source imagery have positioned the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and accompanying vessels off Oman, roughly 700km from Iran, weeks after the carrier reportedly entered the region in late January. The Lincoln, carrying about 90 aircraft and 5,680 crew, joins a wider US deployment that BBC Verify has tracked, including … Read more
Feb. 16, 2026 — Columbia University announced disciplinary steps after newly released documents showed Jeffrey Epstein helped his girlfriend gain admission to the university’s dental college. The school said it has severed ties with Dr. Enrico Magnani and removed Dr. Linda Moss-Salentijn from administrative duties while she remains a tenured faculty member. Columbia also identified … Read more
Lead Robert Duvall, the versatile actor known for immersing himself into a wide array of film, stage and television characters, has died at 95. His wife, Luciana Duvall, announced on Feb. 16, 2026, that he passed away at home on their horse farm in The Plains, Fauquier County, Virginia. Over a career spanning decades he … Read more
Lead Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly weighing whether to reopen merger discussions with Paramount after the rival studio submitted an improved proposal this month. The consideration comes after WBD agreed in December to sell its streaming and studios business to Netflix for $83 billion; Paramount previously offered about $108 billion for the entire company. Paramount’s … Read more
Lead Italian biathlete Rebecca Passler returned to her team at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics after a provisional suspension tied to a positive test for the banned substance letrozole was set aside on appeal. She resumed training on Monday at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena and is eligible only for the women’s relay on Wednesday. The … Read more
Lead: In February 2026 Ricursive Intelligence, a startup that applies AI to chip design, closed a combined $335 million in funding within months of launching, including a $300 million Series A at a $4 billion valuation led by Lightspeed and a prior $35 million seed from Sequoia. The company was founded by Anna Goldie (CEO) … Read more
Feb 16, 2026 — Atle Lie McGrath of Norway left the men’s Olympic slalom course in Bormio after missing a gate in his second run, abandoning his skis and walking toward the woods as a potential gold slipped away. Loïc Meillard of Switzerland ultimately won the gold on the Stelvio, with Austria’s Fabio Gstrein taking … Read more
On Feb. 16, 2026, a heated public comment session in Frisco, Texas — a fast-growing suburb north of Dallas where roughly one-third of residents are of Asian descent — turned attention from policy to prejudice. Residents and outside speakers contested the H-1B visa program, linking it to job losses and alleged fraud, while some framed … Read more
Lead: Dana Eden, 52, a co-creator and executive producer of the Apple TV series Tehran, was found dead on Sunday in a hotel room in Athens while the show’s fourth season was being filmed. Greek police said initial evidence did not indicate foul play and that Eden’s brother discovered her. Eden had travelled to Greece … Read more
A.J. Preller and the San Diego Padres have agreed to a multi-year contract extension, the club announced on February 2026. The deal’s financial terms were not disclosed. Preller, 48, had been entering the final year of his contract in 2026 and will now remain in the front office for the foreseeable future. The move locks … Read more
On Saturday in Lyon, 23-year-old mathematics student Quentin Deranque died two days after being set upon in a street confrontation that prosecutors say involved multiple attackers. Authorities opened a murder investigation on Monday after an autopsy found fatal skull and brain injuries; investigators say at least six people kicked and punched the victim. The episode … Read more
Bloomberg, cited by Push Square in February 2026, reports that Sony is considering delaying the PlayStation 6 launch from an earlier 2027 target to 2028 or even 2029. The possible postponement is being linked to rising RAM prices and stronger chip demand driven in part by AI workloads. Industry analysts and company insiders say the … Read more
Lead The NAACP and allied civil-rights groups asked a federal judge to restrict how the government can use voter information seized by the FBI from a Fulton County elections facility on Jan. 28. The groups say Georgia residents entrusted the state with sensitive registration and ballot data and that the seizure threatened privacy and voting … Read more
Lead Inglewood, Calif. — NBA All-Star Saturday on Feb. 15, 2026, at the Clippers’ Intuit Dome drew far fewer visible fans than recent years after organizers pushed the schedule into the early afternoon to avoid a Winter Olympics TV conflict. The day’s first event, the 3-point contest, began in front of sparse stands, and although … Read more
Presidents Day weekend 2026 has produced wide discounts on Apple hardware and Beats accessories across major online retailers, with many markdowns live through the end of the holiday weekend. Retailers are offering savings on 28 popular items, with reductions reaching as much as 50 percent on select accessories. Highlights include price cuts on AirPods Pro … Read more
