WORLD Radio News - WORLD Radio News: 2-18-26 (3/3)

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

The latest headlines in three minutes from WORLD updated three times throughout the day.Sign-up for the daily Sift email at thesift.org.Support sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth at wng.org/donate.Additional support comes from WatersEdge. Competitive rates and supporting churches. 4.55% APY on a 13-month term investment. WatersEdge.com/invest

With World Radio News, I'm Kent Covington. In Geneva, there's progress, but no details can be disclosed at this stage. The lead negotiator for the Ukrainian delegation says the U.S. brokered peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are bearing some fruit. Rustam Umarov told reporters. The next step is to achieve the necessary level of consensus to submit the developed decisions for consideration by the presidents. The head of Russia's delegation said talks in Geneva were difficult but business-like,

and that he does expect another round of talks to be held in the near future. Officials in Northern California now say that at least eight skiers were killed in an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The 15-person skiing party was buried under snow near Donard Pass on Tuesday. Nevada County Sheriff's Captain Russell Green says eight were found dead this morning, but six others were rescued last night. We've been in contact, like I said, through a messaging app on some of the emergency beacons that they were equipped with. so we've been notified that six of them survived the initial avalanche. Green says two of the six rescued were transported to a local hospital for treatment.

Rescue parties continued scouring the area today for the last missing skier. An explosion at a fireworks shop in China's Hubei province has killed 12 people in the second such blast within the past week. Emergency responders put out the blaze at the fireworks shop in the town of Cheyong Young and central Hubei province on Wednesday afternoon. Investigators are now looking into the cause of the explosion. The United States is planning to deploy more high-tech missile systems in the Philippines to help deter aggression from China. World's Mary Muncie reports.

Beijing is not happy about it, but the U.S. and Philippines have announced joint security plans this year that include efforts to, quote, increase deployments of U.S. cutting-edged missiles and unmanned systems to the Philippines. It's meant to deter aggression in the South China Sea, where treaty allies again condemned what they called China's illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive activities. For World, I'm Mary Muncie. Will Netflix go from a streaming giant to a streaming bohemath by acquiring Warner Brothers discovery? The bidding war isn't over yet. Warner Brothers is briefly

reopening takeover talks with Paramount to hear the company's best and final offer over the next five days. But for now, Warner's board is still urging shareholders to back its proposed merger with Netflix. A special meeting is now scheduled for March 20th to hold vote on that merger, but federal regulators could raise objections to Netflix absorbing more of its top streaming competition. For World Radio, I'm Kent Covington. For more sound journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth, visit worldradiot news. Additional support comes from Waters Edge, competitive rates, and supporting churches. 4.55% APY on a 13-month term investment.

Watersedge.com slash invest.