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Feb 19, 2026

Russian-run areas of Ukraine face water, heat and housing woes

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Russian-run areas of Ukraine face water, heat and housing woes

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Nearly four years into itsfull-scale invasion,Russia controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory. Many of the estimated 3 million to 5 million people who remain in regions under Moscow's control face housing, water, power, heat and health care woes.

Associated Press A woman gets drinking water distributed by authorities in the city of Donetsk in the Russian-controlled part of eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo) Civilians gather to receive drinking water distributed by the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry in Mariupol on May 27, 2022, after the seaside city in eastern Ukraine fell to Moscow's troops. (AP Photo, File) Oleksii Vnukov, right, his wife, Inna Vnukova, center left, and their children Evhen, left, and Alisa, pose during an interview with The Associated Press in their apartment in Tallinn, Estonia, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo) Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties, poses in her office in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits) A view inside Mariupol's Drama Theater on Monday, April 4, 2022, after the landmark was heavily damaged during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces that led to Moscow's takeover of the seaside city. (AP Photo, File)

Russia Ukraine War Occupation

EvenPresident Vladimir Putinhas acknowledged "many truly pressing, urgent problems" in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which were illegally annexed by Moscow months after the all-out war began on Feb. 24, 2022.

Russian citizenship,language and culture is forced upon residents, including in school lesson plans and textbooks.

Some residents live in fear of being accused of sympathizing with Kyiv,according to Ukrainianswho have left. Many have been imprisoned, beaten and killed, according to human rights activists.

Russia established a "vast network ofsecret and official detention centerswhere tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians" are held indefinitely without charge, said Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Center for Civil Liberties.

Russian officials have refused to comment on past allegations by U.N. human rights officials that it tortures civilians and prisoners of war.

One family's plight

Inna Vnukova spent the first days of the Russian occupation in the Luhansk region hiding in a damp basement with her family. Outside in her village of Kudriashivka, soldiers bullied residents, set up checkpoints and looted homes. There was constant shelling.

"Everyone was very scared and afraid to go outside," Vnukova told The Associated Press in Estonia, where she now lives. The troops sought out officials and civil servants like her and her husband, Oleksii Vnukov.

In mid-March 2022, she and her 16-year-old son, Zhenya, fled the village with her brother's family, even though it meant leaving her husband behind temporarily. They risked a trip by car to nearby Starobilsk, waving a white sheet amid mortar fire.

Oleksii Vnukov, a court security officer, stayed for nearly two weeks. Russian soldiers twice threatened to kill him before he escaped.

"The people there aren't living, they're just surviving," he said of the 150 people — including the couple's parents — who still live in the village that once was home to 800.

Vnukova and her husband have a new life in Estonia, where she works in a printing house and he is an electrician. Their son is now 20, and they have a 1-year-old daughter, Alisa.

Life in shattered Mariupol

Russian forcesbesieged Mariupolfor weeks before the port city fell in May 2022. The bombing of theDonetsk Academic Regional Drama Theateron March 16 of that year killed nearly 600 people in and around the building, an AP investigation found — the war's single deadliest known attack against civilians.

Most of the population of about a half-million fled but many hid in basements, said a former actor who huddled for months with his parents.

The former actor, now in Estonia, spoke on condition of anonymity to not endanger his 76-year-old parents, still in Mariupol. They took Russian citizenship to get medical care and a one-time payment equivalent to $1,300 per person as compensation for their destroyed home, he said.

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Housing remains a problem even though the population is about half of what it was before the war. New apartments are sold to Russian newcomers — not those who lost their homes, according to complaints sent by video to Putin.

Not everyone opposesthe Russian takeover.The former actor says half of the members of his old troupe support the Kremlin. Still, he said his parents asked him not to send postcards in Ukrainian because "it could be dangerous."

Crumbling infrastructure

Years of war and neglect have saddled many cities with crumbling municipal services.

In Alchevsk, a city in the Luhansk region, over half the homes are without heat in this bitterly cold winter. Five warming stations have been set up.

In the Donetsk region, water trucks fill barrels outside apartment blocks — but they freeze solid in winter, said a resident who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared repercussions. "There's constant squabbling over water," she said.

Moscow encourages Russians to move to the occupied regions, offering various benefits. Teachers, doctors and cultural workers are promised salary supplements if they live there for five years.

The northeastern city of Sievierodonetsk, once home to 140,000 people, suffered significant damage and now has only 45,000 mostly elderly or disabled residents. Only one ambulance crew serves the city, and Russian medical workers rotate in to staff its hospital, said a 67-year-old former engineer who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

"I know how difficult it is now for the residents of the liberated cities and towns. There are many truly pressing, urgent problems," Putin said in September. He cited the need for reliable water supplies and access to health care, and said he has launched a "large-scale socioeconomic development program" for the regions.

Living in fear

Stanislav Shkuta, 25, fromNova Kakhovka in the Kherson region,said he narrowly escaped arrest several times before reaching Ukrainian-controlled territory in 2023. He recalled being on a bus that was stopped by Russian soldiers, and "men and women were asked to strip to the waist to see if they had Ukrainian tattoos."

Shkuta, now in Estonia, said he "turned white with fear, wondering if I'd cleared everything on my phone."

Friends who stayed in Nova Kakhovka say life has worsened, with suspected Ukrainian sympathizers stopped on the street or in surprise door-to-door inspections, he added.

Mykhailo Savva of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine said "Russian special services continue to identify disloyal Ukrainians, extract confessions, and continue to detain people," with residents facing document checks and mass searches.

Human rights groups say Russia used "filtration camps" early in the war to identify potentially disloyal individuals, as well as anyone who worked for the government, helped the Ukrainian army or had relatives in the military, along with journalists, teachers, scientists and politicians.

About 16,000 civilians have been detained illegally, but that number could be much higher because many are held incommunicado, said Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.

Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed.

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TIME100 Health Panel Discusses Efforts to Prevent Heart Disease

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TIME100 Health Panel Discusses Efforts to Prevent Heart Disease

Arianna Huffington, Dr. Sadiya Khan, Victor Bultó Credit - Taylor Hill—FilmMagic/Getty Images; Courtesy Sadiya Khan; Courtesy of Novartis

Time

At the TIME100 Health Impact Dinner in New York City on Thursday, TIME executive editor Nikhil Kumar kicked off a panel discussion with one big question: Why is heart disease stillthe leading cause of deathfor men and women?

"Perhaps before we answer the question of why it's the leading cause of death today," replied Dr. Sadiya Khan, a professor of cardiovascular epidemiology and an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, "we have to know where we started."

She began by telling a story: In 1945, when then-President Franklin Roosevelt died, his death seemed "sudden and unexpected," Khan said. But looking back at the notes from his doctors, Khan said, it's clear that he had had very high blood pressure for years that was untreated.

"None of us would sit on that today," Khan said. "We now know we can treat blood pressure. We can add years, decades of life by treating blood pressure. But we still don't do it. And we still don't achieve that success."

Millions of peoplein the U.S. have high blood pressure, but many of them don't receive adequate treatment, Khan said. "So I think the answer is: we've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go."

Khan, who was on the 2026TIME100 Healthlist for her work on assessing cardiovascular risk early, was joined onstage Thursday by Arianna Huffington, the founder and chief executive officer of health and wellness company Thrive Global, and Victor Bultó, president of Novartis U.S., which sponsored the event in New York City.

Kumar turned the discussion over to Bultó, asking him why Novartis has not only developed therapies to tackle heart disease but has shifted towards addressing human behavior. Bultó, who was also on the 2026TIME100 Healthlist, said that the technology that can reduce cardiovascular risk events and add years to many people's lives already exists—but isn't being utilized.

"We had to shift from being just a medical sciences company to start shifting into being a social sciences company to understand what is the underlying behavior that actually underpins this," he said.

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Bultó said that his team has learned that humans tend to be "wired to take the dopamine hit of something that gives us pleasure today and discount all the damage it's going to do in the future." Now, experts are advocating for greater understanding on how people can change those behaviors.

Khan also talked about her efforts in targeting young women to help them avoid cardiovascular issues later in life. She said that for many young women, healthcare is often focused around pregnancy. And many women experience complications during pregnancy, such as high blood pressure, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes. She herself had gestational diabetes, and she hadn't realized that it has aconnection to heart disease.

"We're learning so much more that these early markers can actually be signals and be a red flag about the future. And the important thing is not that that's scary or that means that I'm going to have a heart attack, but that I can do something about it now," Khan said. "I can focus on the health behaviors that are going to prevent this from progressing and really make a difference. And with that information, we can empower people—young women, young men—to really be able to take hold of their own health much earlier than we used to think about it."

"I mean, even today, if you Google heart attack or heart disease, you get a picture of an older person, and that's not where we should be," she continued. "We have to start much earlier."

Huffington called it "inspiring" that both Khan, a prominent doctor, and Bultó, the head of a big pharma company, were willing to talk about the impact that both medicines and behaviors can have on human health.

She said that there are five critical behaviors to consider when it comes to health: sleep, stress, food, exercise, and connection.

"It's a whole new playbook for pharma that used to basically sell you a drug, have a purely transactional relationship with you, and now is changing that to actually be your partner on your health journey, which obviously includes medicines, but it also includes behavior," Huffington said.

TIME100 Impact Dinner: Leaders Shaping the Future of Health was presented by Novartis and Aster DM Healthcare.

Contact usatletters@time.com.

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NASA report recalls dysfunction, heated emotions during Boeing's botched Starliner flight

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NASA report recalls dysfunction, heated emotions during Boeing's botched Starliner flight

By Joey Roulette

Reuters

WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - NASA on Thursday released a sweeping report on Boeing's botched Starliner mission that kept two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station for nine months, detailing communication breakdowns and "unprofessional behavior" as the agency and its longtime contractor struggled to agree on how to safely return the crew to Earth.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman ripped into Boeing and ‌agency leadership for their handling of the Starliner mission during a news conference timed with the release of a 300-page report detailing technical and oversight failures behind the spacecraft's first crewed mission, ‌which concluded last year.

"Starliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected, but the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not hardware," Isaacman wrote in a letter to NASA employees, which he posted in full on X.

"It is decision making and leadership that, ​if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight," he added, echoing findings in the report's "cultural and organizational" section.

Starliner's technical failures kept NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the ISS for nine months in a high-stakes test mission initially planned to last roughly a week.

On Earth, according to the report, Boeing and NASA officials sparred in tense meetings on how best to bring the crew home, with "unprofessional behavior" and yelling matches that countered the agency's norms of healthy technical debate and crisis management.

The report, completed in November and citing interviews with unnamed NASA officials, said "numerous interviewees mentioned defensive, unhealthy, contentious meetings during technical disagreements early in the mission."

"There was yelling in meetings. It was ‌emotionally charged and unproductive," one official reported. "It was probably the ugliest environment that ⁠I've been in," another said.

"There wasn't a clear path for conflict resolution between the teams. That led to a lot of frayed relationships and emotions," said another.

Boeing said in a statement that it was "grateful to NASA for its thorough investigation and the opportunity to contribute to it." The company, it added, has made progress on fixing Starliner's technical ⁠issues and has made organizational changes.

"WE FAILED THEM"

Wilmore and Williams, both veteran test pilots and astronauts, launched as Starliner's first test crew in June 2024. Five of the spacecraft's maneuvering thrusters failed roughly 24 hours into flight as it was approaching the ISS for an autonomous docking, prompting the crew to manually intervene.

The thruster issues were among four primary technical flaws Starliner experienced during the mission that set off months of debate and ground tests as "Butch and Suni" stayed on the ISS. They ​returned ​to Earth last year on a SpaceX craft after NASA opted to return Starliner to Earth empty.

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"They have so much grace, ​and they're so competent, the two of them. And we failed them. The agency ‌failed them," NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya told reporters.

Williams, now 60, retired from NASA in December, logging 608 days in space across three missions in her 27-year NASA career. Wilmore, now 63, retired in August after spending 25 years at the agency, clocking 464 days in space across three missions.

The report also describes a "fragile partnership dynamic" between NASA and Boeing, in which agency officials' concerns that Boeing could drop out of NASA's Commercial Crew Program influenced officials' decision-making on critical mission issues.

"This reluctance to challenge Boeing's interpretations and failure to act on engineering concerns has contributed to risk acceptance and a fragile partnership dynamic."

NASA retroactively classified the Starliner mission as a "Type A" mishap, the agency's most severe category of mission failure, triggered by factors such as damage to a spacecraft exceeding $2 million or a crew member's death or permanent disability.

Boeing has spent tens of millions of dollars on efforts to ‌fix Starliner following the mission,. The company has taken roughly $2 billion in charges so far on the program since 2016.

But NASA ​last year reduced the contract's total value to $3.7 billion and cut the number of planned Starliner flights from six to four, as ​Boeing's engineering struggles inch closer to 2030, the planned retirement of the ISS.

RARE LEVEL OF DISCLOSURE FROM ​NASA'S COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM

NASA's decision to release a redacted version of its investigative findings was praised by former NASA officials and astronauts and marked a rare move for an ‌agency office that has often sought to portray its collaboration with Boeing's Starliner unit ​as positive and constructive.

"It isn't easy, but if previous Admins ​had done same, safety & public trust would be higher," Lori Garver, former Deputy NASA Administrator and a key architect of the agency's commercial-focused contracting model, said of Isaacman's decision to release the report.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program seeded development of Boeing's Starliner and SpaceX's Dragon capsule. The agency has made an imperative of having two U.S. vehicles for transporting its astronauts to the ISS in case one encounters issues.

The ​Dragon capsule has flown over 13 crews for NASA since 2020 with no ‌mission failures, helping position Elon Musk's SpaceX as the U.S. space program's most prominent contractor.

Isaacman, a former customer of SpaceX's Dragon program who spent millions of dollars commanding two private missions ​in orbit, has long been critical of Boeing and other giant government contractors involved in delayed and over-budget programs, a view that has been shared by the Pentagon. Isaacman's ties with ​Musk concerned lawmakers during his confirmation hearings.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, David Gregorio and Diane Craft)

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2026 MLS season betting preview: Lionel Messi's Inter Miami are favorites to repeat

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2026 MLS season betting preview: Lionel Messi's Inter Miami are favorites to repeat

The 31st Major League Soccer season will begin this weekend, andthere are more storylines than everheading into another exciting campaign.

Yahoo Sports

Lionel Messi helped Inter Miami win the club's first MLS title in 2025, recording two assists in Inter Miami's 3-1 MLS Cup win over the Vancouver Whitecaps. Inter Miami opens the season as the +400 betting favorite atBetMGMsportsbooks, just ahead of Los Angeles FC at +600.

LAFC has plenty of appeal as well, adding former Tottenham star Son Heung-min in the middle of last season. The franchise won its first — and only — MLS Cup back in 2022. LAFC opens its season Saturday in Los Angeles against Messi and the defending champs. LAFC is a +110 favorite on the three-way line, with Inter Miami at +210 and a draw at +270.

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San Diego FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps — 2025 MLS Cup runner-ups — have the next-best odds at +900, followed by the Philadelphia Union and FC Cincinnati at 14-1.

Sporting Kansas City and original MLS franchise DC United have the longest odds of any team to win this year's title at 80-1.

It's a unique season for MLS as well, with the 2026 World Cup taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The league will take a break from May 25 to July 16, in the middle of the season, to accommodate players participating on their international teams.

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NBA reportedly planning anti-tanking measures, with possibilities including flat odds for all draft lottery teams

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NBA reportedly planning anti-tanking measures, with possibilities including flat odds for all draft lottery teams

The NBA's anti-tanking plans are coming into focus.

Yahoo Sports

The league has informed its 30 general managers it plans to make anti-tanking rule changes for next season,according to ESPN's Shams Charania. Possible changes reportedly include:

  • First-round pick protections being limited to top four or top 14;

  • Freezing lottery odds after the NBA trade deadline or later;

  • Preventing teams from picking in the top four in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom-three finishes;

  • Forbidding teams from picking in the top four after making the conference finals;

  • Basing lottery odds on two-year records;

  • Expanding the lottery to play-in teams;

  • And flattening the lottery odds for all teams involved.

To be clear, the NBA wouldn't be pursuing all of those options. But even one or two of them could mark a sea change for how the league's less competitive teams do business.

The idea of locking teams out of the top four if they made it the previous year has already been implemented in Major League Baseball's draft lottery, and the popularity of the measure depends on which fan base you're talking to.

Former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, currently working as a senior adviser to basketball operations for the NBA, was reportedly present at the league's GM meeting Thursday and called for an "attack" on the problem that the executives should be prepared for in the coming year.

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NBA teams are tanking hard this season, for a reason

These changes are being discussed amid one of the most tank-heavy seasons in living memory, in whichthe Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers have already been fined six-figure sums for "overt" tanking behavior, as described by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

Tanking has been an accepted cost of doing business in the NBA for decades, buta litany of teams have been racing to the bottom this year, and a spate of injuries have left them unlikely to be any better for the rest of the regular season.

The Sacramento Kings, current owners of the worst record in the league,have now lost Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine to season-ending surgeries. The Washington Wizards, with the second-worst record,are still without trade acquisitions Anthony Davis and Trae Young, and no one is expecting them to be rushed back. The Dallas Mavericks won't be seeing Kyrie Irving or Dereck Lively again this season, and Cooper Flagg also remains out. Ja Morant is still out for the Memphis Grizzlies, who sent away Jaren Jackson Jr. at the trade deadline.

The reason why teams would be so committed this year is one of the most loaded draft classes in NBA history, with a remarkable collection of freshman currently making an impact at the college level. Darryn Peterson of Kansas, AJ Dybantsa of BYU and Cameron Boozer of Duke all stand out, but this is also a class where a franchise-changing talent could easily be found anywhere in the top 10, and maybe beyond.

The situation has proven controversial, all the way up to the NBA's ownership.Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia was ranting about "losing behavior done by losers" hours before the possible anti-tanking measure were reported, whileMavericks minority owner Mark Cuban was telling his peers to embrace the tank earlier this week.

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From the sports desk: Two golden moments on the ice

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From the sports desk: Two golden moments on the ice

Hello from Milan and Cortina, where American figure skaterAlysa Liusummed up today's events quite succinctly. After her nearly flawless performance in the women's free skate, cameras caught Liu saying, "That's what I'm f---ing talking about!"

NBC Universal Team USA celebrates on the ice (Julien De Rosa / AFP - Getty Images)

Liu wonthe gold medalin women's singles figure skating, the first for an American woman since 2002, before Liu was born. And the U.S. women's hockey team beat rival Canada, 2-1, in overtime to win its first gold medal since 2018.

Our correspondents have it all covered below and atNBC News. Catch it all streaming onPeacock.

Live from Milan Cortina

Image: Figure Skating - Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: Day 13 (Elsa / Getty Images)

During her free skate today,Alysa Liuseemed to be smiling the whole time, as she moved gracefully across the ice. When she finished, she smiled again, stuck out her tongue and raised her hands. Liu had left figure skating after the 2022 Beijing Games, only to return, on her own terms, and fall back in love with the sport.

Then Liu had to wait for two more skaters to go before she learned:She had won gold. Soon, she was being guided through a back hallway toward the medal ceremony. In that quiet moment, NBC cameras caught her reflecting on her performance.

"I just, like, can't process this," Liu said. "There's no way. I really liked my skate a lot."

On Tuesday, Liu had ended the short program in third place. Then she scored a 150.20 during today's free skate, giving her a total score of 226.79, vaulting her into first place.

Fellow AmericanAmber Glennhad started the day in 13th, after a mistake cost her points during the short program. But she made a spectacular recovery today, scoring a season-best 147.52 in the free skate, which helped her finish in fifth.

After she finished her routine, she appeared to mouth the words "So close."

A team USA hockey player and two Team Canada players on the ice during gameplay. (Maja Hitij / Getty Images)

About an hour earlier, theU.S. women's hockey teamhad its own chance at glory.

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For about 57 minutes today, Team USA couldn't break through. After scoring more than 30 goals in the tournament, the U.S. had been held scoreless and trailed Canada 1-0. All the U.S. needed,Hilary Knightsaid afterward, was to "put one good shot on net."

With just over two minutes left to play,Laila Edwardsfired toward the goal, where Knight had camped out in front of the goalie. Knight deflected the puck into the net, tying the game.

Then, in overtime, Team USA'sMegan Kellermade an incredible individual play, maneuvering around a defender and then chipping the puck past the goalie.

"We knew it was a matter of time, just leaning on them, slowly, slowly," Knight said in an interview with NBC. "But you can also run out of time against a great team. Fortunate that we have an amazing squad to be able to get the job done."

This marked Team USA's third gold medal and first since 2018. The Americans finished these Olympics 7-0 and outscored their opponents 33-2. With that goal,Knight also became the all-time leading scorerfor U.S. women's hockey at the Olympics.

"I'm just happy to have a gold medal," she said. "Oh, my gosh, this feels amazing."

Speedskating Corner

A close shot of Jordan Stolz as he skates, wearing a full-body spandex suit with hood. (Daniel Munoz / AFP via Getty Images)

AfterJordan Stolzcrossed the finish line of the 1,500-meter speedskating final, he bent over, put his hands on his legs and breathed heavily.Stolz had finished secondbehind China'sZhongyan Ning, by only 0.77 seconds, and took silver.

"Ning's time was a surprise. He had the race of his life," Stolz told reporters after the race. "I didn't know much about placings until I crossed the finish line. But I was hoping if it wasn't going to be gold, I hoped I could get a silver."

Stolz got off to a slow start and admitted he "didn't have one of [his] best" races. He still has a chance to secure his third gold of these Games: He'll compete in the speedskating mass start event Saturday.

Photo of the Day

An athlete bites her gold medal while lying on the ice wrapped in an American flag. (Julien de Rosa / AFP via Getty Images)

When to Watch

In the quarterfinals of the men's hockey tournament, three of the four games went to overtime. The semifinals should be appointment viewing. Are the USA and Canada on a collision course for the gold medal game? Or can Finland or Slovakia pull off an upset? Tune in to find out.

All times are in Eastern, and an asterisk signifies a medal event:

Friday, Feb. 20

  • 4:30 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men's aerials qualification 1

  • 4:30 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men's freeski halfpipe qualification 1

  • 5:15 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men's aerials qualification 2

  • 5:27 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men's freeski halfpipe qualification 2

  • 6 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, women's ski cross 1/8 finals

  • 6:35 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, women's ski cross quarterfinals

  • 6:54 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, women's ski cross semifinals

  • 7:10 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, women's ski cross finals*

  • 7:30 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men's aerials finals*

  • 8:05 a.m.: Curling, women's semifinals

  • 8:15 a.m.: Biathlon, men's 15 km mass start*

  • 10:30 a.m.: Speedskating, women's 1,500-meter*

  • 10:40 a.m.: Men's hockey, semifinals, Canada vs. Finland

  • 12 p.m.: Bobsled, two-woman heat 1

  • 1:05 p.m.: Curling, men's bronze medal game*

  • 1:30 p.m.: Freestyle skiing, men's freeski halfpipe final*

  • 1:50 p.m.: Bobsled, two-woman heat 2

  • 2:15 p.m.: Short track speedskating, women's 1,500-meter quarterfinals

  • 3:02 p.m.: Short track speedskating, women's 1,500-meter semifinals

  • 3:10 p.m.: Men's hockey, semifinals, USA vs. Slovakia

  • 3:30 p.m.: Short track speedskating, men's 5,000-meter relay finals*

  • 4:07 p.m.: Short track speedskating, women's 1,500-meter finals*

That's it for now! We'll be back tomorrow.

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Alien files incoming: Trump orders government release of UFO records

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Alien files incoming: Trump orders government release of UFO records

By Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt

Reuters

WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would direct federal agencies to begin releasing government files related to aliens and unidentified ‌flying objects, pointing to what he described as strong public interest in the issue.

In a social ‌media post, Trump said he would order Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and other agencies to release the information, calling the matter "extremely interesting ​and important."

Earlier in the day, Trump, without providing evidence, accused former President Barack Obama of improperly disclosing classified information when discussing aliens publicly, saying Obama "made a big mistake."

"He took it out of classified information ... He's not supposed to be doing that," Trump told reporters while traveling to Georgia.

During an interview with podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen ‌released on Saturday, Obama was asked ⁠if aliens were real.

"They're real, but I haven't seen them, and they're not being kept in ... Area 51. There's no underground facility unless there's this enormous conspiracy and ⁠they hid it from the president of the United States," Obama said.

Area 51 is a classified Air Force facility in Nevada that fringe theorists have speculated holds alien bodies and a crashed spaceship. CIA archives released in 2013 ​said it ​was a test site for top-secret spy planes.

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PENTAGON INVESTIGATIONS

There ​was no indication in Obama's remarks that the ‌former president released classified information. Obama's office did not respond to a request for comment.

"I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!" Obama said in an Instagram post on Sunday.

In the post, Obama explained his belief that aliens exist by saying the statistical odds of life beyond Earth were high because the universe is so vast. He added that the chances of extraterrestrial life ‌visiting Earth were low given the distance.

Following his comments on Obama, ​Trump added that he had not seen evidence that aliens ​exist, saying, "I don't know if they're real or ​not."

In recent years, the Pentagon has investigated reports of UFOs, and senior military leaders ‌said in 2022 they found no evidence ​to suggest that aliens had ​visited Earth or crash-landed here.

A 2024 Pentagon report said U.S. government investigations since the end of World War Two had found no evidence of extraterrestrial technology and most sightings were misidentified ordinary objects ​and phenomena.

The website of the National ‌Archives and Records Administration says it has records related to UFOs across numerous collections.

(Reporting by ​Nandita Bose, Trevor Hunnicutt and Ryan Patrick Jones; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by ​Michelle Nichols, Colleen Jenkins, Cynthia Osterman and Kate Mayberry)

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