Mar-a-Lago, blizzard, French far-right death and hockey
By Reuters
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Tara Oakes
Hi, I’m Tara Oakes in Liverpool. It’s Sunday, February 22nd. Today.
Tara Oakes
Secret service agents kill a man seen at the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago. A major storm triggers blizzard warnings along the East Coast. Thousands march in France after the killing of a right-wing activist. And the USA beat Canada in overtime for the men’s ice hockey Olympic gold. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week.
Tara Oakes
Secret service agents say they have shot and killed a man trying to breach a secure perimeter at U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Agents say they spotted the man at the North Gate around 1.30 AM EST carrying what looks like a shotgun and a fuel can. The suspect’s intentions at the resort are unclear. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump is currently in Washington.
Tara Oakes
It was an Olympics final worth the wait. After a nail-bitingly close game, the United States has defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime to win the gold medal in men’s ice hockey. It’s the third time the men’s team have got the Olympic gold medal, but they’re first since 1980. The U.S. women’s ice-hockey team also won the gold with a matching 2-1 win over Canada. The men’s game brings this year’s Winter Olympics to a close. With the closing ceremony celebrating Italian culture expected later in the evening.
Tara Oakes
Now to the U.S. East Coast, where blizzard warnings are up for New York City and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut as a major storm moves in, with up to 18 inches of snow expected through Monday. It’s the first blizzard warning in New York city since 2017. Head to Reuters.com and the Reuters app for more as the storm hits, and stay tuned for some surprising data about how this U.S. winter compares to other years.
Tara Oakes
Students at several universities in Iran have started the new semester with protests, some turning into clashes with pro-government groups. One video purportedly shows rows of marchers at Tehran Sharif University of Technology condemning Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a quote, murderous leader. The protests coincided with 40-day morning ceremonies for thousands killed in last month’s crackdown, the worst since the 1979 revolution. Separately, a senior Iranian official has told Reuters that Iran and the U.S. remain far apart on the scope and mechanism for lifting sanctions with new nuclear talks set for early March that could pave the way for an interim deal.
Tara Oakes
India has delayed sending a trade delegation to Washington after the U.S. Supreme Court upended Trump’s tariff policy, and Trump responded with a temporary 15% global tariff on all imports. The pause leaves talks with India and billions in planned purchases in limbo with no new date set for the trip.
Tara Oakes
President Trump says he’s sending a hospital ship to Greenland, announcing the move on social media and claiming it’s already on the way. He says he is working with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, whose connection to the matter is unclear. The U.S. Navy has two hospital ships, the Mercy and the Comfort, but neither are stationed in Louisiana. Neither the White House, Landry’s office, nor the Pentagon responded to queries about the plan. Or who in Denmark or Greenland requested help. The move comes after months of tension over Trump’s push to buy the Danish territory. And just hours after Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command said it had evacuated a crew member who required urgent medical treatment from a US submarine in Greenland’s waters.
Tara Oakes
Now you might be hunkering down right now for that East Coast storm. But you might also be surprised that the data actually shows that this year’s winter still falls short of expectations. News applications editor Ben Welsh in New York explains why.
Ben Welsh
After a string of dud winters where Central Park barely got dusted, New York City is finally having a real winter. New Yorkers are getting out their sleds, they’re building snowmen, they are having to shovel off their sidewalks and clean off their cars and deal with all the hassles that come with the snow too. But if you look at the data, this winter is really still pretty mid by historical standards. The snowfall we’ve seen this year is actually below the median for what’s been typical over the previous 30. And many previous winters had significantly more snow.
Tara Oakes
I’m sure that’ll make you feel reassured when this next wave of snow hits. Zooming out from the East Coast, Ben says North America as a whole is in what researchers are calling a snow drought, with the numbers getting dragged down by large portions of the American West.
Ben Welsh
Just to give you one data point, this January in the Mountain West States, only 400,000 kilometers of ground were covered with snow. Now, while that might sound like a lot, the average over the previous 25 years was nearly three times higher, 1.2 million kilometers covered in snow. That’s how dry it’s been. All that said, the snowstorms we’re seeing this month are significant and they’re dangerous and they’ve definitely been deadly. The snowstorm we’ve seen near Lake Tahoe and Northern California have resulted in eight skiers dying in an avalanche. These are serious, significant storms, and they’re bringing up what had been a very dry winter closer to something like the historic norm.
Tara Oakes
Thousands of people marched in the city of Lyon, France, on Saturday, where far-right activist Quentin Deranque was beaten to death at a rally last weekend. Many protesters wore surgical masks and sunglasses to cover their faces and chanted, ‘we are at home’ and, ‘antifa assassin.’ Local authorities say over 3,000 people participated and reported Nazi salutes and racist insults from some protesters. Seven people are under formal investigation for their alleged role in Deranque’s murder, including a former aide to a lawmaker for the Hard Left Front’s Unbowed, or LFI, party, which has condemned the killing. Our reporter, Gianluca Lo Nostro, has more from Paris.
Gianluca Lo Nostro
This individual in particular is called Jacques-Elie Favrot. He was an assistant to a lawmaker from the Hard Left France Unbowed party. And so far several suspects have been accused of direct participation in the beating, but particularly the involvement of the former assistant to the lawmaker has stirred tensions quite a bit.
Tara Oakes
The far right party, the National Rally, has urged supporters to avoid rallies for fear of unrest. But Gianluca says the incident has still intensified polarization between left and right.
Gianluca Lo Nostro
This incident has given the far-right National Rally an opening to cast itself as a victim of deadly extremist violence. We’ve seen the National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella accusing political opponents of enabling LFI, but at the same time, the National Rally do not want to be seen anymore as a militant political force in the country, but perhaps as a more reliable option. There have been comparisons to Charlie Kirk, who died in the United States last year. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, called the killing a wound for all of Europe. She’s not speaking only as Italy’s Prime Minister, but she’s also one of the closest European leaders to Donald Trump.
Tara Oakes
Posting on social media on Friday, a top state department official called  Deranque’s killing an act of political violence, saying the department would, quote, continue to watch this case.  Deranque’s death was the first allegedly carried out by hard left individuals since 2022, according to newspaper Le Monde. Reuters has reported at least five killings allegedly carried by far right individuals in the same period, including one investigated as terrorism.
Tara Oakes
For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don’t forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. If you’re listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters, seven days a week. We’ll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.
