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Monday, February 23, 2026

LIVE UPDATES: Winter Storm Hernando 'Bombs Out,' Knocks Out Power To Hundreds Of Thousands; 10,000 Flights Canceled

February 23, 2026
LIVE UPDATES: Winter Storm Hernando 'Bombs Out,' Knocks Out Power To Hundreds Of Thousands; 10,000 Flights Canceled

Snow is piling up rapidly and powerful winds are making the situation worse for tens of millions in the Northeast as Winter Storm Hernando enters its second day, making travel impossible across much of the heavily populated region.

The Weather Channel

Power outages continue to spike and entire cities are shut down today, and we have all the latest news and updates for you to track the storm as it intensifies off the East Coast. Stay with us all day and refresh this page frequently so you can see the latest information.

(MORE:What To Expect From Hernando|Maps Tracker Page)

(06:06 a.m. EST) Flight Cancellations Surge Past 10,000

According toFlightAware data, there have been more than 10,000 flights canceled from yesterday through tomorrow in the U.S., virtually all of them in the path of Winter Storm Hernando. That includes more than 5,300 flights today alone.

Another 1,300 flights have already been canceled for tomorrow, so if you have flight plans, it's best to check (frequently) with your airline, especially if you'll be flying into or out of the Northeast.

(05:55 a.m. EST) We're Dealing With 'Heart-Attack Snow'

From digital meteorologistCaitlin Kaiser:

With temperatures hovering around or just below freezing, this relatively "warmer" air can hold a lot more moisture. This means the snow that is falling is heavier and wetter, which earns its nickname "heart-attack snow" for a reason.

The heavier the snow, the more strain it puts on your cardiovascular system when you're trying to shovel. So, you'll want to take extra care before heading out.

Read moreon heart-attack snow and how to stay safe while shoveling.

(05:17 a.m. EST) It's Officially A Bomb Cyclone

With a drop in central pressure of about 40 millibars in 12 hours, this nor'easter has gone above and beyond to meet the criteria of a bomb cyclone. In fact, it achieved the requirement in about nine hours.

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To read more about what criteria must be met for a storm to "bomb out,"click here.

(05:00 a.m. EST) Scenes From A Snow-Dusted Times Square

People take photos with the snow in Times Square on Feb. 22, 2026, in New York, New York. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images) Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images Even fierce snowstorms can be peaceful sometimes. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images) Workers shovel snow in the early-morning hours of Feb. 23, 2026, in Times Square. (Photo by Craig T Fruchtman/Getty Images) Photo by Craig T Fruchtman/Getty Images

(04:39 a.m. EST) Power Outages Spike To More Than 250,000

As expected with a windy nor'easter that's dumping heavy snow, power outages are rising rapidly. According toPowerOutage.us, these states have the lion's share of the quarter-million homes and businesses currently in the dark amif frigid conditions:

- New Jersey: 103,000 customers

- Delaware: 68,000

- Maryland: 33,000

(04:15 a.m. EST) Top Snow Totals To Start The Morning

Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

Winter Storm Hernando really raged overnight. Here are the highest snow totals from this storm, which continues to rapidly escalate, so far:

- Freehold, New Jersey: 17.9 inches

- Mount Holly, New Jersey: 16.2 inches

- South Jersey Regional Airport: 15.3 inches

To see Sunday's live coverage as it played out,read the full recap here.

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EU says it will accept no increase in US tariffs after Supreme Court ruling: 'a deal is a deal'

February 23, 2026
EU says it will accept no increase in US tariffs after Supreme Court ruling: 'a deal is a deal'

By Philip Blenkinsop

Reuters

(Reuters) - The European Commission demanded on Sunday that the United States stick to the terms of an EU-U.S. trade deal reached last year, after ‌the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump's global tariffs and he responded with new levies ‌across the board.

The Commission, which negotiates trade policy on behalf of the 27 EU member states, said Washington must provide "full clarity" ​on the steps it intends to take following the court ruling.

After the court struck down Trump's global tariffs on Friday, the U.S. president announced temporary, across-the-board tariffs of 10%, which he then hiked to 15% a day later.

"The current situation is not conducive to delivering 'fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial' transatlantic trade and investment, as agreed ‌to by both sides" in the joint ⁠statement setting out the terms of last year's trade agreement, the Commission said. "A deal is a deal."

The comments were far more strongly worded than the Commission's initial ⁠response on Friday, which had said only that it was studying the outcome of the Supreme Court decision and keeping in contact with the U.S. administration.

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Last year's trade deal set a 15% U.S. tariff rate for most ​EU goods, ​apart from those covered by other sectoral tariffs such ​as on steel. It also allowed zero ‌tariffs on some products such as aircraft and spare parts. The EU agreed to remove import duties on many U.S. goods and withdrew a threat to retaliate with higher levies.

It is not clear whether Trump's new 15% tariffs supersede the EU-U.S. deal. If they do, the EU's zero tariff exemptions could disappear. The new tariffs could also be placed on top of pre-existing 'most-favoured-nation' U.S. duties, which is not the case ‌under the EU-U.S. deal.

Furthermore, the comparative advantage the EU had ​with a 15% tariff would appear to have disappeared as ​even countries without a deal face that ​rate.

Trade policy monitor Global Trade Alert estimates that the EU as a whole will ‌be 0.8 percentage points worse off, with Italy ​facing an extra 1.7 ​percentage points of U.S. tariffs.

"In particular, EU products must continue to benefit from the most competitive treatment, with no increases in tariffs beyond the clear and all-inclusive ceiling previously agreed," the EU ​executive said, adding that unpredictable tariffs ‌were disruptive and undermined confidence across global markets.

It said that EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic ​had discussed the issue with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard ​Lutnick on Saturday.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop;Editing by Peter Graff)

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North Korea's ruling party re-elects Kim Jong Un general secretary

February 23, 2026
North Korea's ruling party re-elects Kim Jong Un general secretary

By Jack Kim and Kyu-seok Shim

Reuters North Korean leader Kim Jong Un applauds as he attends the Ninth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) where he was re-elected as general secretary, in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this picture released February 23, 2026 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS North Korean leader Kim Jong Un applauds as he attends the Ninth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) where he was re-elected as general secretary, in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this picture released February 23, 2026 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS North Korean leader Kim Jong Un participates in the Ninth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) where he was re-elected as general secretary, in Pyongyang, North Korea, February 22, 2026, in this picture released February 23, 2026 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS

North Korea ruling Workers' Party re-elects Kim Jong Un as general secretary, KCNA says

SEOUL, Feb 23 (Reuters) - North Korea's ruling Workers' Party re-elected Kim Jong Un as general secretary at a party congress ‌meeting on Sunday, state media said, a move seen as underlining his ‌absolute grip on power and greater confidence over domestic stability.

In a report published on Monday, KCNA state news ​agency credited Kim with raising the prestige of the country, placing it globally on a solid footing to pursue its revolutionary crusade and hardening the military "into an elite and powerful army."

Under his leadership, "the war deterrence of the country with the nuclear forces as its ‌pivot has been radically improved," ⁠KCNA said in the laudatory report of the fourth day of the congress' proceedings.

The reaffirmation of his authority "amounts to a declaration that Kim ⁠Jong Un has ended the regime's 'crisis‑management mode' and entered a phase of confident, stable long‑term rule," Lim Eul-chul, an expert on North Korea at Kyungnam University, said.

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The delegates also elected ​members of ​the party Central Committee and adopted revisions to ​the party rules, KCNA said. It ‌did not provide details of the changes to the party charter, but some senior officials appeared to be dropped from the committee.

Former Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong, Supreme People's Assembly Standing Committee Chairman Choe Ryong Hae, and a top party military official, Ri Pyong Chol, were among those who were sidelined in a likely change of the ‌old guard, analysts said.

There has been no sign ​of Kim's teenage daughter, known as Ju Ae, attending ​the conference so far, amid speculation ​she is being groomed to succeed her father as leader. The ‌ninth iteration of the party congress, normally ​held every five ​years for several days, opened on Thursday with 5,000 delegates and is being watched by South Korea for any revelation of new domestic and external policy directions.

There ​have been no signs ‌of significant policy initiatives so far, the sessions focusing on having overcome an ​economic crisis and progress made under the Party's leadership.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; ​editing by Diane Craft and Stephen Coates)

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The moments that defined the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics

February 23, 2026
The moments that defined the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics

MILAN — TheseWinter Olympicswere the most spread-out in history, with four venues hosting speedskating, hockey and figure skating in the city's outskirts while the rest of the Games' 12 sports were scattered across difficult-to-reach mountain towns hours away.

NBC Universal

But those who made the effort to get to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics witnessed a Games remembered for a "King," crashes, cheating scandals, drones, historic medal hauls and triumphs by the host nation.

U.S. earns record 12 gold medals

Those dozen golds marked the most ever won by the U.S. at a single Winter Olympics. First-time gold medalists included bobsledderElana Meyers Taylor,the 41-year-old who won the monobob by four-hundredths of a second;Jordan Stolz,who won gold medals in long-track speedskating's 500 and 1000 meters, and Alex Ferreira, the 31-year-old winner of freeski halfpipe.

U.S. hockey sweeps gold

With a sweep of the hockey gold medals, theU.S. men won an Olympic tournament for the first time since 1980, and the women for the first time since 2018.

Trailing archrival Canada, 1-0, with two minutes left in regulation, captain Hilary Knight, playing her fifth and final Olympics, sent the gold-medal game to overtime. Veteran Megan Keller then scored the golden goal in a stirring comeback to earn the U.S.women their third-ever Olympic gold and first since 2018. The win capped a roller-coaster two days for Knight, who had proposed to speedskater Brittany Bowe one day earlier.

The men's tournament, the first to feature NHL players since 2014, also came down to a Canada-U.S. final that ended with Jack Hughes' golden goal in overtime.

Stunning results for U.S. figure skating

After the U.S. won the team event — made up of men's singles, women's singles, pair skating and ice dance — it appeared the country was on the verge of a potential sweep in the individual performances. It didn't exactly end that way.

Ilia Malinin, the big gold-medal favorite in men's singles, entered the final with a lead but had multiple falls anddropped all the way to eighthfor arguably the biggest upset of the Games. He said thepressure got the best of him.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the favorite in pairs, had stellar performancesbut took silverafter Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France(somewhat controversially) outscored them.

The highlight of the Olympics, however, may have been Alysa Liu. The 20-year-old, who retired from figure skating four years ago,put on a performance for the agesin the women's singles final and claimed gold while winning on her terms.

"That's what I'm f-----g talking about," Liu said as she skated off the ice following her gold-clinching performance.

Norway dominates the medal count

Despite having a population of just 5.6 million, the Nordic nation has long been a power in the Winter Olympics' endurance sports like cross-country skiing and biathlon.

But Norway's dominance grew to historic levels in Italy, where it led the medal count with 41, making it the first country to earn more than 40 medals at a single Winter Olympics. Six of itsgold medals were earned by cross-country skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, known as "King Klæbo," who became the first person ever to win that many at a Winter Games and only the fifth athlete to win six-plus golds at any Olympics, joining swimmers Mark Spitz (seven in 1972), Kristin Otto (six in 1988) and Michael Phelps (six each in 2004 and 2008) and gymnast Vitaly Scherbo (six in 1992).

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Lindsey Vonn's comeback ends in a crash

Forced into retirement by injuries in 2019 before mounting a comeback in 2024, the American superstar skier, 41, entered the Olympics enjoying the healthiest season she could remember.

That changed less than a week before the women's downhill began, when she tore a knee ligament in a crash. Determined to compete in a brace despite the injury, Vonn qualified for the downhill final with one of the fastest times in the entire field. But only 13 seconds into her run, she hooked a gate with her right arm andwas sent spiraling, head-over-skis, into a crashthat left a Cortina d'Ampezzo crowd full of her friends and family silent. She has undergone five surgeries, andher father has saidhe does not want her to race again.

Johnson and Shiffrin win skiing gold

In the same downhill race where Vonn crashed, U.S. teammateBreezy Johnsonsliced down the treacherous Tofane course to join Vonn as the only other woman in U.S. history to win Olympic gold in the downhill. In Alpine skiing's team combined event, Johnson and teammate Mikaela Shiffrin finished fourth, while Americans Paula Moltzan and Jackie Wiles — less than a year removed from surviving a plane crash — earned bronze.

Johnson would end the Games on a happy note after herboyfriend proposedat the base of the giant slalom competition. Shiffrin, who hadn't earned an Olympic medal since 2018,had a cathartic end to the Games by dominating slalom for gold.

Ukrainian athlete barred from racing

Vladyslav Heraskevych planned to compete in skeleton while wearing a helmet featuring images of Ukrainian athletes who had been killed since Russia's invasion of the country in 2022. But the helmet did not comply with the International Olympic Committee's "athlete expression guidelines," the IOC said, and a jury of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation disqualified Heraskevych from competing. His refusal to wear another helmet stemmed from his belief that there are things"more important than medals," he said.

Trump calls U.S. athlete a 'loser'

Asked how he felt about representing the U.S., freeski athlete Hunter Hess responded that "just because I'm wearing the flag, doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S." That quickly caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who took to social media to call Hess a "loser." The attention sparked by the comment was "challenging" to deal with, Hess later said, but he stood by his comment andeven flashed an "L" sign after finishing a run,a self-aware nod to Trump's comment.

"I love the United States of America," Hess said. "I cannot say that enough. My original statement, I felt like I said that, but apparently people didn't take it that way."

Italy enjoys its best ever Winter Olympics

Before these Games, the high-water mark for Italian success at a Winter Olympics came in 1994, when the Azzurri won 20 total medals, including seven golds.

On its home turf this month, the host nation smashed those marks, winning 30 medals, the third most of any country, and 10 golds. Speedskater Francesca Lollobrigida won the 3,000 meters in an Olympic record on her 35th birthday, then celebrated with her 2-year-old son. She added another gold later in the Games. A year after suffering a devastating leg injury, Federica Brignone won gold in giant slalom. And speedskater Arianna Fontana won her 14th career Olympic medal.

Cheating admissions and allegations

Norwegian cross-country skier Sturla Holm Lægreid's emotional admission in a postrace interview that he had cheated on his girlfriend and hoped to win her back quickly made him one of the most talked-about athletes at the Olympics. "I hope that committing social suicide [like this] might show her how much I love her,"he said.By the end of the Games he'd won five medals, but not his ex.

Lægreid wasn't the only athlete caught up in a cheating scandal, however. On the ice, Canada and Sweden got into a heated shouting match after the Swedes accused Canada's Marc Kennedy of an illegal double touch during a curling match.

Kennedy could be heard hurling swears at the Swedish team. When asked why he got so upset, Kennedy said: "He's still accusing us of cheating, and I didn't like it. So I told him where to stick it, because we're the wrong team to do that to."

You'd never seen an Olympics like these

For the first time, an athlete representing South America won a Winter Olympics medal. That was thanks toLucas Pinheiro Braathen, the Oslo-borngiant slalom racer who previously represented Norway, retired from the sport, then returned under the flag of Brazil, where his mother was raised.

Skiers like Pinheiro Braathen were captured throughout the Olympics fromnever-before-seen camera angles by small, agile dronesthat trailed athletes at speeds of up to 75 mph. The immersive views of athletes racing down slopes, sliding courses and speedskating tracks were a hit with viewers.

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Campaigners demand action after 4 Premier League players racially abused on 'appalling weekend'

February 23, 2026
Campaigners demand action after 4 Premier League players racially abused on 'appalling weekend'

LONDON (AP) — Anti-discrimination campaigners bemoaned an "appalling weekend" in thePremier Leagueafter four players weretargeted with racial abuseon their social media accounts following games.

Associated Press Chelsea's Wesley Fofana runs during a training session in Cobham, Surrey, England, Tuesday Jan. 27, 2026, one day ahead of their Champions League soccer match against Napoli. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP) Burnley's Hannibal Mejbri, left, and Mansfield Town's Luke Bolton during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burnley and Mansfield Town in Burnley, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Richard Sellers/PA via AP) Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tolu Arokodare missed a chance to score during the English Premier League soccer match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and AFC Bournemouth in Wolverhampton, England, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

Britain Champions League Soccer

Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana and Burnley midfielder Hannibal Mejbri shared images of racist messages they were sent privately over Instagram following their teams' match at Stamford Bridge on Saturday that finished 1-1.

Wolverhampton striker Tolu Arokodare showed racially aggravated messages he received on Instagram after a 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace on Sunday, during which he had a penalty saved.

Sunderland said its winger, Romaine Mundle, was also subjected to "vile online racist abuse" after his substitute appearance in a 3-1 home loss to Fulham.

Kick It Out, a British-based anti-discrimination charity, repeated its calls for platforms to do more to address the problem.

"This has been an appalling weekend after four players called out the racist abuse they've received on social media. But the sad fact is, we know it happens regularly," the organization said.

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"The message from them is loud and clear: action must follow. Players cannot be expected to tolerate this behavior, and nor should anyone else."

The Premier League also condemned the abuse of the players.

"There are serious consequences for anybody found guilty of discrimination and we will offer our full support with their investigations," the competition said. "Football is for everyone — there is no room for racism."

The 22-year-old Mundle has since deleted his Instagram account, the Sunderland Echo newspaper reported.

The incidents came days after UEFA began an investigation into claims by Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior that he wasracially abusedon the field by Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni during a Champions League game in Lisbon.

AP soccer:https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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