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Russianoil shipments to Hungaryand Slovakia have been interrupted since Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials say wereRussian attacksthat damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude into Central Europe.

Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from a European Union policyprohibiting imports of Russian oil, have accused Ukraine — without providing evidence — of deliberately holding up supplies.

In a video posted on social media Wednesday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the interruption to oil deliveries was "a political decision made by the Ukrainian president himself."

Ukraine has denied such accusations.

Szijjártó added that Hungary has enough oil reserves to last more than three months, and that its energy security was assured.

As nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports, Hungary — an EU and NATO member — has maintained and even increased its supply of Russian oil and gas since Moscow launched itswar in Ukrainein February 2022.

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Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long argued Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching to energy sourced from elsewhere would cause animmediate economic collapse— an argumentsome experts dispute.

Widely seen as the Kremlin's biggest advocate in the EU, Orbán has vigorously opposed the bloc's efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion, and blasted attempts to hit Russia's energy revenues that help finance the war.

Facing what promises to be themost challenging election of his last 16 years in powerin April, Orbán has launched an aggressiveanti-Ukraineandanti-EUcampaign, seeking to convince voters that the neighboring country poses an existential risk to Hungary and that he is the only guarantor of its safety.

Following the interruption to Druzhba oil supplies at the end of January, Hungary's government asked neighboring Croatia to allow Russian oil delivered by sea to be pumped to refineries in Hungary and Slovakia via the Adria pipeline.

Croatia's Economy Minister Ante Šušnjar has said his country would not allow energy supplies in Central Europe be threatened, but pushed back on Hungary's request.

Writing on social media site X on Monday, Šušnjar said there are "no technical excuses left for staying tied to Russian crude for any EU country."

"A barrel bought from Russia may appear cheaper to some countries, but helps fund war and attacks on Ukrainian people," he wrote.

Jackson'sfamilyon Feb. 18 revealed preliminary funeral plans for the longtime activist whodied at 84following a lengthy illness withprogressive supranuclear palsy, a rare disease that causes a decline similar to Parkinson's disease but accelerated.

The towering civil rights iconbattled alongside Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases and shamed corporations for their lack of corporate diversity and failure to support voting rights. Jackson founded what would ultimately become the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and was a Democratic presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988, energizing and registering millions of Black voters.

As tributes pour in for Jackson and his family, the nation is preparing to mourn Jackson's prolific legacy of activism. Here's what we know about funeral plans and public observances in the coming days.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases, and shamed corporations for their lack of corporate diversity and failure to support voting rights, has died. He was 84.

See his family, including six children and his longtime wife, beginning here
with a family portrait outside the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated at the National Civil Rights Museum on April 3, 2018 in Memphis, Tenn.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Martin Luther King III, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Jackson's son Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge as they commemorate the 60th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" on March 9, 2025 in Selma, Alabama.

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See Civil Rights icon Jesse Jackson's family and history

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases, and shamed corporations for their lack of corporate diversity and failure to support voting rights,has died. He was 84.See his family, including six children and his longtime wife, beginning herewith a family portrait outside the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated at the National Civil Rights Museum on April 3, 2018 in Memphis, Tenn.

What we know about Jackson's funeral

Speaking in Chicago on Feb. 18, Jackson's family announced services to honor Jackson will begin "in earnest" next week. Jackson is expected to lie in state at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago, and a memorial service will be held at a nearby church that is yet to be determined.

A final celebration of life is set to be held the coalition's headquarters.

'Personality, grit and street smarts':Trump says he knew Jesse Jackson well

'All are welcome'

Anyone is invited to gather in remembrance of Jackson, his family said.

"We will do our best to accommodate everyone," Jackson's son, Jesse Jackson Jr., said on Feb. 18.

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"Come respectful and come to say thank you, but these homegoing services are welcome to all, Democrat, Republican, liberal and conservative, right wing, left wing, because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American," Jackson said.

He continued that the family will post further details and logistics about any services onJesseJacksonlegacy.com.

Jesse Jackson's most powerful quotes:'Keep the hope alive' and more

Why Chicago?

Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941, but the Windy City always represented a second home for him. At the time of his death, he lived on Chicago's South Shore and had contributed decades of local leadership to civil rights causes.

Jackson attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign until his sophomore year and then transferred North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro. After college, Jackson moved in 1964 to Chicago toattend the Chicago Theological Seminary.

He organized peers who drove from Chicago to Selma, Alabama, to join Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1965 campaign for voting rights, according tothe Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. He then went on to help King start a Chicago movement for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), coined "Operation Breadbasket." Jackson lead this Chicago chapter even after King's assassination, leading boycotts and protests in the city in defense of equal economic opportunities until 1971 when he formed PUSH and later the Rainbow Coalition. He then went on to run for president twice.

Chicagoremained a home basefor Jackson amid his local and national activist career, and was a site of multiple efforts spearheaded by the activist who sought tocall out corporationsand governments for diversity failures.

Photos:See memorable Jesse Jackson moments

Chicago residents are already pouring in to express grief for Jackson and support his family. Flowers, notes and other tributes at appeared at the coalition's headquarters, while mourners across the country also express their support for Jackson and his family.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:What we know about Jesse Jackson's funeral services, observances

LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - British police are assessing whether Jeffrey Epstein trafficked women through two London airports and one in central England on private flights, as ‌part of a now nationally coordinated effort to investigate the late sex offender's ties to Britain.

Three regional ‌police forces said on Wednesday they were reviewing information about private flights linked to Epstein following the publication by the U.S. government of ​millions of documents on the disgraced financier at the end of January.

Essex Police said it was looking at flights in and out of Stansted Airport, northeast of London, while Bedfordshire Police said it was assessing flights in and out of Luton Airport, northwest of the capital.

West Midlands Police said it was also assessing evidence connected to Epstein from ‌Birmingham Airport.

NATIONALLY COORDINATED EFFORTS

The forces' assessments, which ⁠do not constitute a full investigation, follow the establishment of a national coordination group to support individual police forces in examining Epstein's ties to Britain or British people.

"We continue to ⁠work collaboratively to assess the details being made public to allow us to understand any potential impact arising from the millions of documents that have been published," the National Police Chiefs' Council said in a statement.

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The BBC reported last year ​that incomplete ​flight logs and manifests showed that 87 flights linked to ​Epstein had arrived or departed from British ‌airports between the early 1990s and 2018, with unidentified "females" listed among the passengers.

Reuters could not independently verify the BBC's report.

Documents in the Epstein files reviewed by Reuters show multiple references to Stansted, including one that discussed whether a Russian woman with a U.S. visa could switch planes at the airport. The files also include dozens of references to UK visas.

Stansted, Luton and Birmingham airports said in separate statements that private flights were not managed by the ‌terminals they operate, and that Border Force was responsible for ​immigration and customs checks.

Border Force did not respond to a request ​for comment. Under British law, all individuals arriving ​in Britain are subject to thorough checks.

The Epstein furore has already had a major impact ‌in Britain.

Two other police forces are looking into ​Peter Mandelson, the former British ​ambassador to the U.S., and the younger brother of King Charles, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, over allegations of misconduct in public office. The Epstein files suggested both had forwarded confidential government documents to the late U.S. ​financier.

Both men have denied any wrongdoing ‌and said they regret their friendships with Epstein, but they have not responded to specific requests ​for comment after the latest files were published.

(Reporting by Muvija M and Sam Tabahriti; writing by ​Kate Holton; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jon Boyle)

Milan Cortina Olympics Snowboard

Nobody could blame 22-year-old Jake Canter for ignoring them.

Nine years after enduring a traumatic brain injury, the result of getting kicked in the head in a freak accident on a trampoline at an action-sports camp, that 22-year-old U.S. rider won theOlympicbronze medal in his sport'strick-filled trip down the hill — slopestyle.

That third-place finish Wednesday stamped an exclamation point on one of those only-at-the-Olympics kind of stories. It also exposed the flaw in all those dire diagnoses back then: The doctors were looking at Canter's brain when they should have checked his heart.

"I really just hope I made 13-year-old me lying in that hospital bed proud," Canter said. "This is for him, and everyone who supported me."

The accident fractured Canter's skull in four places. He ended up in a coma for four days. He lost hearing in his right ear. Six months later, after therapy, some of it on a snowboard, was beginning to help him regain his bearings, Canter felt an earache come on. That was the first symptom of meningitis.

Another coma followed, again for four days. In the end, he needed surgery in which doctors put bone cement in his skull and his right ear, gutting his equilibrium and forcing him to relearn how to walk, how to talk.

But how to snowboard?

"There were only so many people who believed I could go do the stuff I was doing prior to everything," Canter said. "I wanted to prove every doctor wrong that told me I couldn't do this. That's a big part of this."

Canter's bronze medal did not come on the prettiest day for snowboarding, or for slopestyle.

Twelve riders took three runs each down the course that has been lightly panned all week for a too-big rails section and a trio of jumps that are tightly bunched together, making it harder for the athletes to gather speed and throw their biggest tricks.

So when Canter, facing an all-or-nothing gamble for the podium on his third and final run, threw the day's only 1980-degree spin off the last jump, it made for compelling theater. When he landed it, things got better.

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He thrust his arms to the heavens and snapped his goggles off. He screamed "Let's Go!" then went to snowboarding's version of the"Kiss and Cry"area.

Judges took a full three minutes evaluating that run to see if it belonged on the podium. The score came up; they agreed it did. Su Yiming of China won gold while Taiga Hasegawa of Japan took silver.

About an hour later, Canter told the story of the traumatic brain injury and ticked off some other injuries — compound fractures to his right arm and a broken left hand that he rode with at the Olympics.

Not all of them have involved bones and fractures.

He told of a snowboarding friend who died from suicide in 2021. Canter, who grew up in the mountains of Colorado, has that friend's birthday tattooed on his left wrist.

"I didn't have a car at the time, he'd drive 45 minutes out of his way, take me to the resort," Canter said. "We spent a lot of time traveling together when we were younger. So, this is a special win for him."

Canter conceded that so much trauma over such a short life has taken its emotional toll. Mental health, a topic that has gained traction in Olympic circles in recent years, is something he's fine talking about. Sometimes, to get away from it all, therapy involved simply getting on a board and riding.

"It's the freedom it gives you, because you're in control," Canter said. "I can express myself a lot through my snowboarding. I feel more myself when I'm on my snowboard, as well."

On a magical day in Italy, snowboarding gave him yet another gift — maybe brought a few new fans along for the ride, too.

"I'm so lucky to be standing up here, and I'm showcasing my skills to the world," he said. "And this is the biggest stage to do it."

AP Winter Olympics:https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

The nine-time All-Star, who had surgery last March to repair a torn left ACL, is expected to return in 2026-27.

Irving, who turns 34 next month, is making "steady progress in rehabilitation and will remain actively engaged with the team through the remainder of the season," the Mavericks said.

"This decision wasn't easy, but it's the right one," Irving said in a statement. "I am grateful for the Mavericks organization, my teammates and our fans for their continued support throughout the process. I am looking forward to coming back stronger next season. The belief and drive I have inside only grows.

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"And I wanted to send a huge shoutout to ALL of my brothers and sisters out there who've torn their ACL or gotten injured doing what they love to do every day. THANK YOU for the inspiration. No fear!"

Irving missed the final 20 games of the 2024-25 season after the injury. He averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.3 steals in 50 games (all starts).

The Mavericks are 75-53 with Irving in the lineup since he joined the team in a February 2023 trade. They are 42-75 without him, including 19-35 this season.

Irving has averaged 23.7 points, 5.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 779 career games (all starts) with the Cleveland Cavaliers (2011-17), Boston Celtics (2017-19), Brooklyn Nets (2020-23) and Mavericks. He was the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and the 2011-12 NBA Rookie of the Year and won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2015-16.

--Field Level Media

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Russia Cuba

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and was set to meet later in the day with President Vladimir Putin.

Lavrov urged the U.S. to refrain from blockading Cuba, which has struggled to import oil for its power plants and refineries after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened any nation that sold oil to Cubawith tariffs.

"Together with most members of the global community, we are calling on the U.S. to show common sense, take a responsible approach and refrain from its plans of sea blockade," Lavrov said during the talks with Rodriguez.

He promised that Moscow will "continue supporting Cuba and its people in protecting the country's sovereignty and security."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also noted that "Russia, like many other countries, has consistently spoken against the blockade of the island."

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"We have our relations with Cuba, and we value these relations very much," Peskov told reporters. "And we intend to further develop them — of course, during difficult times, by providing appropriate assistance to our friends."

Asked whether sending fuel to Cuba could deraila recent warming of tieswith Washington, Peskov responded that "we don't think these issues are linked."

Putin has praised Trump's efforts to mediate an end to the conflict in Ukraine, and Moscow and Washington have discussed ways to revive their economic ties.

Venezuela, one of Cuba's main oil suppliers, stopped selling crude to the island in January after theU.S. captured then-President Nicolás Maduroin a pre-dawn raid and flew him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

Mexico alsocut off oil shipments to Cubain January, after Trump issued the tariff threat.

Russia's Izvestia news outlet last week cited the Russian embassy in Havana as saying that Moscow was preparing to send humanitarian fuel shipment to Havana in the near future. On Monday, Russian ambassador to Cuba, Viktor Koronelli, said that Moscow was looking into details of organizing assistance to Cuba but offered no specifics.

Cuba's fuel shortages already have forced Russian tourist companies to halt the sales of package tours to the island after the Cuban government said that itwill not provide fuel to planes that landon the island.