Airports in Calgary, Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto are asking passengers travelling through U.S. Customs to allow for extra time to pass through security checks. While most airports didn't explain the reason behind the NEXUS closure Sunday, Vancouver International Airport said on its website that it's suspended until further notice "due to the partial U.S. Government shutdown."

The Defense Secretary featured in a series of videos on official U.S. government social media accounts this week, showing off his skills in the weight room

Berkshire Hathaway's utility subsidiary, PacifiCorp, is set to pay a $575 million settlement to the U.S. government for wildfire-related claims.

Beijing Blasts Trump After US Releases New Details On Alleged 2020 Chinese Nuclear Test Update: Despite the Lunar New Year holiday, Beijing has made it known it is not best pleased with Washington digging up Nuke blasts from the past. Issuing a statement via state mouthpiece (@HuXijin_GT), the CCP suggested an ulterior motive for the timing of this announcement: "Trump is eager to resume nuclear testing and needs a plausible reason, and accusing China of conducting nuclear tests is the perfect pretext. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Yeaw stated on Tuesday that the US is prepared to conduct low-yield nuclear tests in response to alleged secret nuclear tests by China and Russia. The US is being far too hasty; having just fabricated rumors that China conducted an explosive nuclear test nearly six years ago, they are already announcing their own low-yield nuclear test. Washington's motives for spreading these rumors are too clear; they can't even be bothered to feign it." Hard to disagree with the latter point. *  *  * As Kimberley Hayek detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, a senior State Department official released additional evidence Tuesday in support of U.S. allegations that China conducted an underground nuclear test in June 2020, as global arms control frameworks unravel. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Yeaw, while speaking to a Hudson Institute meeting, discussed data from a remote seismic station in Kazakhstan that recorded a magnitude 2.75 “explosion” approximately 450 miles from China’s Lop Nur test grounds on June 22, 2020. “I’ve looked at additional data since then. There is very little possibility I would say that it is anything but an explosion, a singular explosion,” Yeaw said, underscoring that the data were not consistent with blasts from mining. “It’s also entirely not consistent with an earthquake,” said Yeaw, a former intelligence analyst and defense official who holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering. “It is ... what you would expect with a nuclear explosive test.” Yeaw argued that China tried to hide the event through decoupling, detonating the device in a spacious underground cavity to diminish seismic waves. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Thomas DiNanno earlier this month accused China of performing such secretive nuclear arms tests and implementing measures to restrict seismic evidence. “Today, I can reveal that the U.S. Government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons,” DiNanno said. These claims back up Yeaw’s assertions of concealment tactics. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which monitors global explosions, noted that available data do not allow for firm conclusions. Executive Secretary Robert Floyd said in a statement that the seismic monitoring station in Kazakhstan captured “two very small seismic events” 12 seconds apart on June 22, 2020. The organization’s network detects events equivalent to 551 tons (500 metric tons) of TNT or more, according to Floyd. “These two events were far below that level,” Floyd said. “As a result, with this data alone, it is not possible to assess the cause of these events with confidence.” China, a signatory to the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty but not a ratifier, rejected the initial U.S. accusation at an international conference this month. Beijing’s last acknowledged underground test occurred in 1996. The United States, which also signed but did not ratify the treaty, is legally bound to its terms under international norms. America’s final underground test was in 1992, with subsequent reliance on sophisticated simulations and supercomputers for warhead maintenance. President Donald Trump recently called on China to take part in trilateral talks with Russia to support the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which ended Feb. 5. China refused the invitation, arguing that its arsenal is far smaller than those of the United States and Russia. The Pentagon estimates China’s current operational warheads at more than 600. The stockpile is expected to exceed 1,000 by 2030. The Federation of American Scientists, an organization working to minimize the risks of nuclear threats, tracks Russia as currently having 5,459 warheads, while the United States has 5,177. The New START accord expiration removes caps on deployed strategic warheads and delivery vehicles, potentially accelerating buildups. Russia and the United States said they would informally observe limits. Tyler Durden Thu, 02/19/2026 - 04:15

Obama Says Aliens Exist But Are Not Kept In Area 51 Authored by Rachel Roberts via The Epoch Times, Former U.S. President Barack Obama said in a Feb. 14 podcast interview that aliens are real but that none are kept at the secretive Area 51 military base in the Nevada desert, later adding that he didn’t see any evidence indicating that extraterrestrials have contacted Earth during his presidency. In the interview, when asked, “Are aliens real?” Obama replied, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them—and they’re not being kept in [Area 51]. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.” Obama became the first leader of the United States to affirm the existence of extraterrestrial life when questioned by progressive podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen in a video posted on YouTube. After the interview went viral, Obama said on Instagram that he wanted to “clarify” his comments to Cohen, writing that he was “trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round” while speaking on the podcast. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” he wrote. “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!” In 2013, Obama was possibly the first U.S. leader to acknowledge the existence of Area 51, an Air Force base built during the Cold War, which has long been rumored to house extraterrestrials and unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Cohen did not ask Obama a follow-up question on the issue. Instead, he asked the former president what his first question had been upon entering the White House. “Where are the aliens?” Obama joked in response. Some critics, including British political commentator Calvin Robinson, said Cohen should have asked Obama for more information about aliens. “When a former President of the United States says on the record there are aliens, YOU FOLLOW UP WITH RELEVANT QUESTIONS. You do not continue reading from your script,” he wrote on X. The U.S. government first acknowledged Area 51’s existence in 2013 through a Freedom of Information request and has declassified documents detailing its history and purpose. The base has been a testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the U-2 in the 1950s and later the F-117 stealth fighter. Trump Admin on Aliens President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism about the existence of aliens, while acknowledging that “anything is possible.” Trump addressed the subject in several media appearances during the 2024 presidential campaign. On a podcast with Lex Fridman, Trump said he would consider pushing the Pentagon to release additional UFO footage that many believe is classified. “Oh yeah, sure, I’ll do that. I would do that. I’d love to do that,” Trump said, noting that public pressure to disclose records relating to UFOs is similar to that surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination. On Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast in June 2025, Trump said, “Am I a believer? No, I can’t say I am." “But I have met with people, serious people, that say there’s some really strange things flying around out there.” Trump added that given the size of the universe, “Why wouldn’t there be something, somebody?” Vice President JD Vance has expressed his personal enthusiasm, telling the “Ruthless” podcast in August 2025 that he is “obsessed with the whole UFO thing.” “What’s actually going on? What were those videos all about? What’s actually happening?” Vance probed. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said last August that she believes aliens may exist and that the U.S. government holds classified information on the subject. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in Washington on Dec. 2, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images Gabbard pledged to share disclosures from ongoing investigations into UFOs amid growing discussion of the phenomena at the highest levels of government. Pentagon Cases Unresolved The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) continues to investigate more than 1,600 reports of “unidentified aerial phenomena,” an official term that has largely replaced “UFOs.” At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in November 2024, AARO’s director, Jon T. Kosloski, detailed cases the military believes it has solved—such as the widely circulated 2016 “GOFAST” video, now thought to show an object flying at 13,000 feet rather than right above the water—as well as other incidents which have so far defied explanation. Previous presidents, including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, have discussed their curiosity about alien life without confirming a belief in it. Carter reported that he saw an unidentified bright object in the sky when he was governor of Georgia in 1969, although he later said it was likely a natural phenomenon. A view of Area 51. Google Maps/Screenshot via The Epoch Times Clinton said that he was curious about the possibility of extraterrestrial life and that he had asked aides to look into both Area 51 and the Roswell incident of 1947, which gave rise to much speculation about a government cover-up. After Air Force personnel recovered metallic and rubber debris near Roswell, New Mexico, the U.S. Army Air Forces announced that they were in possession of a “flying disc” before retracting the statement within a day. Clinton said he was told there was no evidence of alien life in connection with the incident. In 1995, he joked about the Roswell incident, saying, “If the U.S. Air Force did recover any alien bodies, they didn’t tell me about it.” The American public is increasingly convinced that aliens exist and have visited Earth, according to recent polls. More than half (56 percent) of Americans believe extraterrestrials definitely or probably exist, according to a 2025 YouGov poll. Democrat (61 percent) and Independent (59 percent) voters are more likely than Republicans (46 percent) to believe aliens exist, with 73 percent of Americans believing the government would hide evidence of UFOs if it had any, and just 13 percent thinking it would be transparent, according to the same survey. Tyler Durden Tue, 02/17/2026 - 17:00

The U.S. government briefly listed major Chinese tech companies Alibaba and Baidu as firms aiding China’s military. This accusation highlights ongoing tensions in technology and national security between the two nations.

The U.S. government states that comments made by its ambassador regarding Israel and the Middle East were misinterpreted and taken out of context.

The U.S. government has released an updated travel advisory for Ivory Coast, providing key safety tips for travelers planning to visit the country.

Palantir's recent win of a U.S. government contract raises questions about its potential impact on the company's future trajectory.

The U.S. government is investing $1.6 billion in USA Rare Earth, prompting analysis on the stock's potential as a buy.

Some Japanese companies have sued the U.S. government over the tariffs, seeking a refund.

The U.S. government has issued an updated travel advisory for Ivory Coast, providing key safety tips for travelers to the West African nation.

Donald Trump's ability to sue the U.S. government is being challenged in a $10 billion IRS case.

The U.S. government plans to expand its policy of revoking passports for parents who are delinquent on child support payments.

A judge has mandated that the U.S. government retrieve a student who was deported to Honduras while traveling for Thanksgiving. The ruling gives the U.S. two weeks to facilitate the student's return.