While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 19, 2026
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A rescue team leaving for the site of an avalanche in California's Sierra Nevada mountains on Feb 17.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Eight skiers missing in California avalanche found dead
Eight of the nine skiers missing in California after an avalanche have been found dead and one remains missing in horrific blizzard conditions, police said on Feb 18.
Rescuers have been desperately searching for the group which was caught in the avalanche early Feb 17 on Castle Peak in the Tahoe area.
Earlier, six skiers were found alive, two of them being taken to hospital.
“We are still looking for one of the members at this time,” Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said, cautioning that the storm is hampering any movement. “Extreme weather conditions I would say is an understatement: lots of snow, gale-force winds, winds making it impossible to see.”
Meta no longer designs apps to maximise screentime
PHOTO: AFP
Meta Platforms chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg pushed back in court on Feb 18 against a lawyer’s suggestion that he had misled Congress about the design of its social media platforms, as a landmark trial over youth social media addiction continues.
Mr Zuckerberg was questioned on his statements to Congress in 2024, at a hearing where he said the company did not give its teams the goal of maximising time spent on its apps.
Mr Mark Lanier, a lawyer for a woman who accuses Meta of harming her mental health when she was a child, showed jurors emails from 2014 and 2015 in which Mr Zuckerberg laid out aims to increase time spent on the app by double-digit percentage points.
Ukraine general reveals new details of Zelensky rift
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ukraine’s popular ex-military chief has provided new details of a rift with President Volodymyr Zelensky, threatening to deepen a long-simmering conflict between the two wartime leaders amid new speculation around post-war elections.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who served as Kyiv’s top commander until February 2024 and is now its ambassador to London, told the Associated Press in an interview published on Feb 18 that he felt threatened by a 2022 raid by security agents and blamed Mr Zelensky for a major battlefield failure.
The remarks provide fresh context to a potential rivalry that has long gripped Kyiv’s political class.
U2 slam ICE agents, Putin in new Days Of Ash EP
PHOTO: DANNY NORTH
Irish rockers U2 released their first collection of new songs in nearly a decade on Feb 18, featuring a collaboration with singer Ed Sheeran and a Ukrainian musician and soldier.
The standalone Days Of Ash EP is “an immediate response to current events and inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the front lines of freedom”, according to the band’s website.
“These EP tracks couldn’t wait; these songs were impatient to be out in the world. They are songs of defiance and dismay,” frontman Bono said in a statement.
Gordon scores 4 for Newcastle in Champions League
PHOTO: EPA
Anthony Gordon struck four times in the first half as Newcastle United thrashed Qarabag 6-1 away in their Champions League playoff first leg on Feb 18, to all but book their place in the last 16.
Gordon opened the scoring in the third minute and Malick Thiaw headed in from a corner six minutes later to earn an early two-goal lead.
The 24-year-old Englishman made it 3-0 from the spot in the 32nd minute following a handball, added his third a minute later after a defensive error and converted another penalty in added time before the break, when keeper Mateusz Kochalski brought him down inside the box.
