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NEW DELHI — Bill Gates pulled out of India's AI Impact Summit hours before his scheduled keynote on Thursday, as scrutiny over his ties to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein intensified following the release of U.S. Justice Department emails. The abrupt withdrawal of Microsoft's co-founder dealt a fresh blow to a flagship event already marred by organizational lapses, a robot row and complaints of traffic chaos. The six-day event still notched more than $200 billion in investment pledges for AI infrastructure in India.

Economic growth cooled near the end of 2025 while inflation held firm, according to data released Friday that could complicate the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path. Gross domestic produce rose at an annualized rate of just 1.4%, according to Commerce Department numbers adjusted for seasonality and inflation. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 2.5% gain.

This morning, EPA released the official Federal Register version of its Rescission of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding as to motor vehicles. The Federal Register cite is 91 F.R. 7686. This official version of the Rescission, in printed, single-spaced and triple column format, is only 111 pages, versus the 436 pages the previous preliminary version; however, the text appears to be substantially unchanged. It only took literal minutes for the first lawsuit challenging the Rescission to get filed. Here, via the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists, is a copy of a Petition that they say was filed today...

The Florida House of Representatives approved a joint resolution on Thursday to put in motion a possible constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would completely end non-school property taxes for homesteaded properties beginning on Jan. 1, 2027. The final vote was 80-30, with all Republicans supporting the proposal and all Democrats opposing it. The chances of Floridians actually voting on the amendment are long, however. The Florida Senate has yet to propose any bill during this legislative session addressing property taxes. Joint resolutions can only be placed on the ballot if they are approved by a three-fifths majority in...

An anti-ICE agitator stole an ambulance, packed it with gas cans and rammed the emergency vehicle into a DHS office in Meridian, Idaho. Meridian Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea said the suspect stole the ambulance from St. Luke’s Hospital and poured accelerant inside of the vehicle. “We want to emphasize that this was a serious criminal act,” Police Chief Basterrechea said. “The theft and destruction of an emergency vehicle not only created a risk to responding personnel, but it also temporarily removed a critical medical resource from the community,” he said. The police chief said “there has been a lot of...

Israel Airports Authority confirmed that Carlson was "politely asked a few routine questions, in accordance with standard procedures applied to many travelers" in a late Wednesday X/Twitter post. By Niriam Sela-Eitam. February 19, 2026. Tucker Carlson was seen hugging and taking a photograph with a Ben-Gurion Airport employee, according to footage circulating on social media on Thursday, contradicting his claim to The Daily Mail that he was detained and hauled off by security. In the video, he was seen smiling and hugging staff at the airport. He appeared to be unaccompanied, further contradicting his claims that he was travelling with...

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) spoke out against a deal with Iran, referring to the Islamic Republic as a “cancer". His comments came in an interview with Fox News, amid tensions between the US and Iran. “How could you allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb? Now, people have always said that. Well, you know, [President Donald Trump] actually did something to actually prevent Iran from doing that," said Fetterman. “If they have 900 pounds of near weapons-grade uranium why wouldn't you strike that? Why wouldn't you hold them accountable that way? And now here we are again, and now we've...

“Crisis is when brittleness meets shock. “— Yuri Bezmenov’s Ghost on X. By shutting down the government for a minimum of ten days supposedly over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Wile E. Coyote Democratic Party is about to blow up another Acme bomb in its mangy muzzle. I will tell you why. First, this DHS business is just a stupid prank to bamboozle the public. It will not shut down ICE operations, as Chuck Schumer pretends. ICE was already funded with $75-billion in last year’s Big Beautiful Bill. The shutdown will only defund the Coast Guard...

New York City’s new Democratic Socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani is having trouble finding the means to fund his radical left-wing agenda so he is now going to an old favorite for Democrats – defunding the police. Apparently, Democrats have still not learned their painful lesson in this exercise in stupidity. To make matters worse, it has now been reported that Mamdani needs so much money because he is creating all kinds of new diversity positions in his cabinet, another lesson the left has not yet learned. Mamdani’s predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, proposed at the end of his term that...

I invited @TuckerCarlson to take advantage of his upcoming visit to Israel and meet our thriving Christian community - to see with his own eyes the people and realities he speaks about so confidently and so often on his platform.This letter was sent a week ago to every email address listed on his website. Not a single response. For someone who claims to care so deeply about the Christians in the Holy Land - @TuckerCarlson, your silence is deafening…

20 February 2026 Friday after Ash Wednesday basilica of FatimaReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet. Year: A(II).First readingIsaiah 58:1-9The sort of fast that pleases meThus says the Lord:Shout for all you are worth, raise your voice like a trumpet.Proclaim their faults to my people, their sins to the House of Jacob.They seek me day after day, they long to know my ways,like a nation that wants to act with integrity and not ignore the law of its God.They ask me for laws that are just, they long for God to draw near:‘Why should we fast if you never see it,...

Somehow, they didn't foresee this happening when the billionaires fled the fleecing. Most of New York City's public employee unions endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor -- UFT teachers union, AFSCME, SEIU Local 1199 -- a lot of the big important ones. So it must have come as a surprise them that Mamdani's first target to finance his huge $120 billion budget is likely to come not from billionaires, as he claimed would happen, but from a raid on their pension funds, which by the way, cannot flee. Oh, what irony. Instead of going after the millionaires when the billionaires fled,...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(2/20/26)[Prayer]A New Study For A New Year: PersonalitiesGenesis 27:30-49 30 And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. 32 And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art...

IDAHO FALLS — Two young adults are facing felony charges after police say they beat a 16-year-old girl bloody, allegedly slamming her head on the ground for flirting with one of them. Kierstan Leann Morgan, 19, and Jiler Joe-Bryan Hainsworth, 18, were both charged in 7th District Court with felony aggravated battery and felony witness intimidation. Hainsworth is also facing a misdemeanor assault charge. Court documents show the witness intimidation charge against Morgan was dropped on Aug. 21. Morgan faces a possible 15-year prison sentence if convicted, whereas Hainsworth faces a possible 20-year sentence.

France advancing bill to criminalize anti-Zionism. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announces government will back bill to ban anti-Zionist phrases. 'Calling to destroy Israel is calling for genocide.' French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced the country's intention to make anti-Zionism a criminal offense. She made the statement during a speech at the annual meeting of the Council of Jewish Institutions in France. Speaking at the annual gathering of the French Jewish Institutions Council, Lecornu clarified that the government would no longer settle for simply imposing penalties for classic antisemitism, promising, "In April, we will bring to Parliament a bill that...

A former pastor at a Western Kentucky church has been arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a minor, Kentucky State Police announced Monday. David Rodgers, 40, of Utica, was arrested around 7:35 p.m. Feb. 16 after an investigation determined he had a sexual relationship with a juvenile “through a position of special trust.”

ith all eyes on the U.S. military buildup around Iran right now, the Russia-Ukraine War has been temporarily upstaged. It will not play second fiddle for long. The recent trilateral talks in Geneva involving the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States have been unable to resolve a principal issue of disagreement: Ukraine’s martial-law-president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s refusal to cede any land and Russia’s insistence that the Donbas region — specifically the four eastern territories that have already held a referendum in support of becoming part of the Russian Federation — be acknowledged as sovereign Russian territory. As the war heads...

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced the country's intention to make anti-Zionism a criminal offense. She made the statement during a speech at the Speaking at the annual gathering of the French Jewish Institutions Council, Lecornu clarified that the government would no longer settle for simply imposing penalties for classic antisemitism, promising, "In April, we will bring to Parliament a bill that criminalizes anti-Zionist expressions." He explained, "To define oneself as anti-Zionist is to question Israel's right to exist. It's a call for the destruction of an entire people under the guise of ideology." .....

In a stretch of Louisiana with about 170 fossil fuel and petrochemical plants, premature death is a fact of life for people living nearby. The air is so polluted and the cancer rates so high it is known as Cancer Alley. “Most adults in the area are attending two to three funerals per month,” said Gary C. Watson Jr., who was born and raised in St. John the Baptist Parish, a majority Black community in Cancer Alley about 30 miles outside of New Orleans. His father survived cancer, but in recent years, at least five relatives have died from it....

A Virginia judge has just blocked an April referendum on the Democrats’ egregious gerrymandered map for the state.Tazewell County Circuit Court issued the welcome ruling Thursday, according to Just the News. The ruling was a response to an emergency filing from the Virginia GOP and the Republican National Committee. The gerrymandering is not only blatantly partisan, it violates the law.