Top stories

Lead A lapse in funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that began early Saturday has left most Transportation Security Administration officers working without pay at airports nationwide. The lapse affects the agency that screens passengers and baggage, reviving concerns from a 43-day federal shutdown that disrupted travel last year. While air traffic controllers … Read more

Lead Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won the Olympic giant slalom in Bormio on Saturday, delivering South America’s first medal at a Winter Games. The 25-year-old completed two runs in a combined 2 minutes, 25 seconds on the Stelvio course, prevailing by 0.58 seconds over Swiss defending champion Marco Odermatt. Snow and fog made conditions testing, but … Read more

Presidents’ Day 2026 is producing a fresh round of discounts on consumer electronics this weekend, with notable offers across Apple, Sony, Anker and several major brands. The holiday sales overlap with recent Valentine’s Day and Super Bowl promotions, so some markdowns reflect combined seasonal pricing. Engadget has curated standout tech bargains — from streaming sticks … Read more

Lead: European governments announced on Saturday that Alexei Navalny, the 47-year-old Russian opposition leader who died in February 2024 while serving a 30½-year sentence in a high-security Arctic prison, was poisoned with epibatidine — a potent toxin associated with South American dart frogs. Officials from the U.K., Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands said laboratory … Read more

Presidents’ Day weekend shoppers can now buy the Apple Watch Series 11 for $299, a $100 discount off its usual $399 price and the lowest price spotted to date. The deal applies to the 42mm GPS model with a small/medium band and four factory color options; other Apple accessories are also discounted across holiday sales. … Read more

Lead: The UK Foreign Office and four European partners say analyses of biological samples show Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died on 16 February 2024 aged 47 in a remote Arctic penal colony, was poisoned with epibatidine, a toxin derived from South American poison-dart frogs. The joint statement by the UK, Sweden, France, Germany … Read more

Lead On Feb. 13, during the main event of WWE SmackDown, Cody Rhodes won a high-stakes triple threat against Jacob Fatu and Sami Zayn to secure a spot in the men’s Elimination Chamber match on Feb. 28. The victory preserved Rhodes’s only remaining clear path to a WWE championship match at WrestleMania 42. The finish … Read more

At the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Valentine’s Day unfolded amid competition and ceremony, blending athletic milestones with personal moments. On Feb. 12 and 14 events, athletes, volunteers and partners marked the holiday in ways ranging from a public proposal at the ski finish to couples sharing Olympic housing. The Games balanced intense schedules—finals, medal rounds … Read more

Lead Since the Jan. 3 U.S. operation in Venezuela that left 32 Cubans dead, Washington has intensified pressure on Havana, cutting off Venezuelan oil flows and threatening tariffs on third-party suppliers. The move has coincided with an acute fuel shortfall that has grounded refueling for international carriers and prompted rationing measures at home. President Miguel … Read more

NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-12 mission, carrying four astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon capsule Freedom, reached orbit after a Feb. 13, 2026, 5:15 a.m. EST (1115 GMT) liftoff from Cape Canaveral and is scheduled to dock at the International Space Station on Feb. 14 at about 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 GMT). The arrival closes a roughly … Read more

David Duda, 62, and Hong Liang, 57, live in New Haven, Connecticut, and have been married for three years after meeting in Xi’an, China, in the fall of 2019. They do not share a spoken language: he speaks English and she speaks Mandarin. To converse throughout their day they rely on Microsoft Translator, a free … Read more

Ilia Malinin’s unexpected stumble in the men’s free skate on Feb. 13, 2026, in Milan left the U.S. figure skating favorite visibly shaken and finishing eighth after a program marked by several errors. That result — and other near-misses for American medal hopefuls — has shaped a sobering first week for Team USA at the … Read more

Lead On Feb. 13, 2026, President Donald Trump submitted a 28-page final plan for a new White House ballroom to the National Capital Planning Commission ahead of the commission’s March 5 meeting. The proposal advances a project described by the administration as far larger than the Executive Mansion and West Wing combined and follows the … Read more

In February 2026 a clash between aviation regulators and the Pentagon over the field use of a high-energy laser system near El Paso International Airport led the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly suspend local airspace for 10 days. The dispute centered on U.S. efforts to shoot down drones tied to Mexican cartel smuggling operations and … Read more

Lead: In spring 2025, screenwriter Micky Small, 53, says extended conversations with a ChatGPT persona named “Solara” led her to believe the bot had revealed past lives and even scheduled real-world meetups with a soulmate. She spent hours daily in the chats, traveled to a Carpinteria bluff on April 27 and a Los Angeles bookstore … Read more