TV News LIES

It might head out to sea, or it might be a 'blockbuster" late-weekend blizzard for the East Coast.

As of the afternoon of Feb. 17, top computer models continue to pore through weather data to determine the direction and strength of a storm that's still several days away from the East Coast. At the moment, the models don't agree.

"While confidence in a storm is fairly high, the timing, track, and exact ... weather impacts remain highly uncertain," the National Weather Service said in an online forecast discussion posted Feb. 17 at 2:29 p.m EST.

The weather service said that the latest European weather model shows a "farther south track with little to no precipitation for the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast." However another model, the Europeans' AI model known as the EC-AIFS, "has been consistent in showing a fairly classic nor'easter set up for the region."

One forecaster, Weather Trader meteorologist Ryan Maue, in an email to USA TODAY, said the odds appear to be increasing for a major nor’easter with the potential for "blockbuster snowfall."

"A major storm is likely to develop out of the Southeast U.S. and emerge off the Mid-Atlantic and either head (1) east out to sea or (2) snuggle up nicely off New England," resulting in snow along the I-95 corridor, Maue said.

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Six backcountry skiers were stranded and 10 others were missing on Tuesday, Feb. 17, after an avalanche in Northern California swept through as a powerful winter storm battered the region with heavy snow and high winds.

Search and rescue teams were dispatched at around 11:30 a.m. local time after receiving reports of an avalanche incident involving a group of skiers in steep backcountry terrain in the Castle Peak area, northwest of Lake Tahoe, according to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office. The group included four mountain guides and 12 skiers.

By 3:45 p.m. local time, the sheriff's office said at least six skiers survived the avalanche and remained at the site, where they were still waiting for rescuers. The other 10 people remained unaccounted for, according to the sheriff's office.

"Highly skilled rescue ski teams have departed from both Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Adventure Center to make their way to the six known survivors, who have been directed to shelter in place as best they can in the conditions," the sheriff's office said in a statement.

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Juliette Bryant says she first met Jeffrey Epstein when she was a 20-year-old psychology and philosophy student in Cape Town, South Africa, who modeled part time. 

Her first interaction with the late American sex offender came by chance, when she was approached on a night out by a girl who offered to introduce her to a man who she said was described to her as American royalty. 

"She said she knew a man who was here who was the 'King Of America,' and he was here with Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker. She told me that his best friend Leslie Wexner owns Victoria's Secret and it would be a very good idea for me to meet them because it could possibly help with my modeling career," Bryant told CBS News on Sunday. "So we went along to the restaurant where they were having dinner down the road. And sure enough, there they were. Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker, Jeffrey Epstein, and a few government officials from South Africa."

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The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate who led the Civil Rights Movement for decades after the revered leader’s assassination, died Tuesday. He was 84.

As a young organizer in Chicago, Jackson was called to meet with King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, shortly before King was killed, and he publicly positioned himself thereafter as King’s successor.Santita Jackson confirmed that her father, who had a rare neurological disorder, died at home in Chicago, surrounded by family.

Santita Jackson confirmed that her father, who had a rare neurological disorder, died at home in Chicago, surrounded by family.

Jackson led a lifetime of crusades in the United States and abroad, advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues, including voting rights, job opportunities, education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.

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As President Donald Trump prepares to convene the first official meeting of his speciously named Board of Peace on Thursday, he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have re-escalated demands that Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions imminently disarm—with Netanyahu insisting that all small arms must be turned over before the Israeli military withdraws any of its forces.

“Very importantly, Hamas must uphold its commitment to Full and Immediate Demilitarization,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.

This demand is being presented as a condition for any reconstruction to begin in Gaza, with no guarantees for Palestinian security or sovereignty. A senior Israeli official also claimed Monday that Trump is considering imposing a two-month deadline for Palestinians to surrender their weapons. Both Trump and Netanyahu have threatened that a large-scale war against Gaza could resume if Hamas refuses to capitulate.

Meanwhile Hamas has not been part of any formal negotiations for several months. Amid media reports of new drafts and U.S. preparation for negotiations, Hamas leaders say there has been nothing formally presented to the movement and that no official meetings have been held with the group to discuss possible scenarios.

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Two Israeli female soldiers had to be rescued after being chased by a crowd of hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv.

Video footage from the scene shows two women running through streets littered with rubbish and overturned garbage bins, surrounded by guards as a mob of screaming black and white-clad ultra-Orthodox men chase after them. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are also known as the Haredim.

The Times of Israel reported that the women were squad commanders at the education and youth corps who were on an official home visit to a draftee set to join the unit when they were attacked.\

Israel has become polarised globally over its genocide in Gaza, but the war and need for fresh recruits have turbocharged a domestic divide in Israel over the military. Over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in the genocide.

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Donald Trump has vented his fury against a green energy deal between the British government and California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a likely future Democratic presidential candidate.

“The UK’s got enough trouble without getting involved with Gavin Newscum,” Trump said in an interview with Politico, using the derogatory nickname he reserves for Newsom. “Gavin is a loser. Everything he’s touched turns to garbage. His state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster.”

In an intervention that is likely to be clocked by British government officials wary of potential new landmines in the UK’s relationship with the White House, Trump went on to say it was “inappropriate” for Newsom to strike such agreements and “inappropriate for them [the UK] to be dealing with him”.

Newsom, one of the loudest domestic opponents of the US president on issues ranging from ICE deportation raids to the climate crisis, signed a memorandum of understanding in London with the UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband.

Their agreement is aimed at deepening existing cooperation between the UK and California and creates a new framework to scale up clean energy technologies and enhance ties between businesses and researchers in Britain and the US state, which is in effect the world’s fourth largest global economy.

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John Paulson, a hedge fund billionaire and one of Donald Trump’s earliest Wall Street backers, is planning to offshore an Ohio manufacturing plant to China despite heavy pushback from employees.

Workers at the plant call the move “a slap in our face”, after Paulson vocally defended domestic manufacturing, and are fighting to keep the plant open.

Conn Selmer, the largest US manufacturer of brass and orchestra instruments, told the union it planned to offshore most work at its Eastlake, Ohio, plant to China by the end of June 2026, eliminating 150 jobs.

United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2359, which represents the 150 employees, said workers were informed of the closing when it first sat down to bargain over their new union contract last month.

“We came in with a full proposal, fully prepared to bargain, and they started off with a presentation of telling us how bad we were doing,” said Robert Hines, president of UAW Local 2359 and an employee at the plant. The company told them there would be no bargaining and the plant would be closing.

Workers say offshoring is an attack on the union, citing rhetoric that the plant has not been productive despite previous praise from company management.

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