ABC World News Tonight with David Muir Full Broadcast - Feb. 18, 2026

David Muir, ABC's World News Tonight, America's. most watched newscast. Now streaming same day with all the breaking news of. the day on Disney Plus. Most watched, most trusted. Now on Disney Plus every night. Tonight, the breaking news. At least eight skiers buried alive. Authorities calling it the deadliest skiing. avalanche in U.S. history. Eight skiers killed, one. still missing at this hour, presumed dead. Five skiers and a guide rescued, forced to leave.

the bodies on the mountain. One of the rescuers is married to one of the. victims buried in the snow. Also breaking tonight, the images coming in, the fire emergency, large fires burning across. multiple states. Dramatic videos showing home after home in flames. Thousands forced to evacuate. in the northeast tonight, bracing for another potential. snowstorm that could hit legal bird tracking. three storms slamming this country tonight. There are also breaking developments. in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the FBI.

now exploring whether she might have been taken. across the border into Mexico. What we've learned also tonight, what walmart. is now doing after that video of that man and. Nancy Guthrie's front door, the alarming moments. tonight on board a Delta flight in midair, the. passenger who began attacking other passengers. on the flight tonight, Metta accused of making. instagram addictive to Children and teens. The landmark trial ceo Mark. Zuckerberg, whose company owns facebook and instagram. on the stand today in new york city, the social.

media stunned gone wrong, a teenager falling about 50. feet on the Queensborough Bridge, dangling as. they rescued him. The massive sinkholes in the. Northeast, once swallowing a dump truck carrying. asphalt to fill sinkholes and there are evacuations. underway tonight for the first time a shark recorded. in waters where sharks have never been seen. before and Team USA making history tonight. Michaela Schifrin's emotional. victory her first gold after losing her father.

And look at this the dog suddenly on the course. and sprinting across the finish line. From abc News World headquarters in New York. This is world news tonight with. David Muir. Good evening. We have breaking developments in the Nancy. Guthrie case. Also three storms hitting the U. S. The fires across multiple. states at this hour. But we begin with this deadly. avalanche, at least eight skiers buried alive in. the snow and ninth still missing and also presumed.

dead tonight. Authorities calling it the deadliest. skiing avalanche in U. S. History. The skiers caught in a massive avalanche. while on Castle Peak in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. near Donner Pass and Lake Tahoe. Rescuers facing treacherous conditions. trying to reach the scene, eight dead and ninth. believed to be dead as well. They had to leave the bodies on the mountain as. they rescued five skiers and a guide and adding to. the horror tonight, one of the rescuers was married. to one of the skiers killed and left on that. mountain. ABC's Trevor Ault leads us off near.

the avalanche site in California tonight. Tonight, the devastating ending to a daring search. effort in northern California. Officials say a massive avalanche the. size of a football field. back country skiers. Eight found deceased and a nint. is presumed dead. They we as a group that someone s. avalanche and then it ove quickly. The group of 11.

were returning from a thr in the back country near. far from Lake Tahoe. That avalanche hitting just before. noon, one guide and five skiers surviving rescued overnight. after contacting help with an SOS call. This is what the conditions. looked like at the time nearby. Extreme weather conditions, I would say is an understatement. Lots of snow, gale force winds, winds making. it impossible to see. With choppers grounded by the weather, it took rescue teams.

six hours on snowcats and skis to finally reach them. Two of them with injuries had to be carried back. The survivors had found three deceased members of their group. Search teams then found five more, all of. them close together. Because of the extreme conditions and the rush to. save the survivors, rescuers were forced to leave the. bodies of those eight killed there on the mountain. One of them is the spouse of one of the rescuers. -As you can understand, this has not only been. challenging for our community, it's been a challenging rescue,

but it's also been challenging emotionally. for our team and our organization. -The group's tour guide company, Blackbird Mountain Guides, has said they were working with investigators. in the search and recovery effort. -We're up here at 9,400 feet. -Earlier this week, they posted this video on Instagram, warning of a big storm coming two days before. what's now believed to be the deadliest avalanche in. more than 30 years. There were significant warnings. about this storm forecast of it.

Highway shut down. Other ski resorts were closed. Would these guides have known they. were potentially leading this group into a deadly. situation? Those are all questions that we're. asking uh and appreciate the patients while we. get through this and investigate the totality, not not just so that we know, but so these families. know. And David, with those eight bodies still. on the mountain, likely a ninth still missing. This remains an incredibly. dangerous situation. The location where the avalanche. occurred is now reloaded with snow. They say they could have another.

avalanche in the exact same spot that could. threaten the recovery teams and even potentially. rebury the bodies. David Trevor, leading us off. tonight. The pictures say everything there, Trevor. Thank you. We are also following the fire. emergency playing out across multiple states at this hour. All part of these storms, dramatic images coming. in, showing home after home and flames. In fact, thousands have been forced to. evacuate. These images right here are from Tyrone, Oklahoma. That's northwest of Oklahoma City and the. northeast bracing for what could be another major.

snowstorm. Lee Goldberg has the forecast and the. images of this fire emergency tonight. >> Tonight dramatic drone video showing the fire emergency. tearing through the heartland thousands forced to flee their. homes, a state of emergency declared in Oklahoma, fierce. flames from the side road fire in the panhandle burning. multiple homes to the ground in Tyrone a woman named Becky. racing to save animals nearby. >> You don't understand what's going on. I clean up we have all the horses. The Ranger road fire exploding to more than 225 square miles.

crossing state lines into Kansas. Several firefighters injured battling fires in the. region, including three when their fire truck overturned. In the town of Woodward, Oklahoma, 4,000 residents told to pack up and go as. the 43 fire approached. Darrell Stewart using a garden hose trying to protect his home. critical fire danger extending across the state. What is making it worse is that very low humidity and.

that causes the spark to go to flame faster. And tonight, crews also. battling wind driven fires in parts of the texas. panhandle. What a mess tonight. Let's get right to lee with the forecast. storms across this country tonight lee. It's amazing warnings advisories from coast to now. to coast. So we're looking at the high wind and the. fire danger that's going on from New Mexico all the. way to Iowa to the north. You have blizzard conditions in the northern. tier, winter weather advisory to the northeast, maybe. even a light snow into boston tonight in the.

west, five ft of snow in the Sierra and counting. avalanche danger remains high all the way to the. Rockies. Now, some of that pacific energy is headed. for the plains in midwest, so we're concerned for. severe storms for Illinois to Iowa tomorrow, damaging. winds, maybe even a reef tornado. Then late thursday into friday, the storm reaches the northeast rain from D. C. To new york, some snow in. new england and then all eyes on that developing. coastal storm. It's a third storm in the week. Our model suggesting a close. call david with snow along the coast, hopefully. the brunt offshore david, the track will determine. everything legal burger. Thanks to you again tonight.

There are also breaking developments in the. disappearance of Nancy Guthrie tonight. The FBI is now exploring whether she. might have been taken across the border into. Mexico. Also tonight, what walmart is now doing after. that video of that man at Nancy Guthrie's front. door and tonight as they continue to analyze DNA. found at Nancy Guthrie's home DNA that was not. hers or anyone in her family. We look at the new technology that has been. used in some recent national cases to look at. forensic genetic genealogy and could it be employed. here? Aaron Kuturski in Tucson for us again tonight.

Tonight, the FBI is now exploring the possibility. Nancy Guthrie was taken across the border. into Mexico, just 60 miles from her home. While there are no firm leads pointing south, law enforcement. sources tell ABC News the FBI has reached out to Mexican. authorities to put her disappearance on their radar. It comes as investigators are analyzing partial. DNA found inside Nancy Guthrie's house that. does not match the 84 year old grandmother. or anyone close to her. They're comparing it to criminal databases.

and looking at forensic genetic genealogy. The technology connected to. genetic genealogy. The family tree is changing. rapidly when it comes to what private labs can do to. help authorities track down potential suspects. One of those cutting edge labs, all through in Houston, Texas, David Middleman's the ceo in this case, someone that we're trying to return back to family. It's really important to do this super fast. You just can't afford to wait. You know, weeks every day matters. Middleman and his wife, Kristen, have built a high tech. forensic genealogy lab and their work has been used.

in high profile cases across the country. Middleman will not say if any of the. authorities have reached out to author him in the Guthrie case. He says state and local authorities. have for years counted on CODIS, the FBI's database where. criminals have had their 20 DNA markers inputted. What's eye-opening is that Authram's technology. allows them to go well beyond those 20 markers. in a DNA test that's been used for many years. DNA was how old? David reported on the new technology, visiting. their lab just last year. For the last 30 years, people have used a different kind.

of DNA testing technology that can measure 20 data. points in the DNA. This machine actually can read out the entire sequence. So whereas you might get 20 data points. in the earlier versions of this technology, this machine could give you anywhere. from 100,000 to a million data points. - 100,000 to a million? - 100,000 to a million data points. - Far more than what traditional testing shows. They then turn to publicly available genealogy databases. and using their own technology and AI advances.

to rapidly see if there are relatives out there. who uploaded their DNA and if that information can. then help crack a case. When you have a lot of markers then what you're. able to do is to make these precise measurements. You're a second or third cousin and if you know who those folks. are then you can use public records and family trees to. essentially reverse engineer the identity of the source for that. evidentiary DNA. Authram has helped the FBI before. In the Idaho College murders, they helped investigators. zero in on the suspect, Brian Koberger.

And since that case, they say artificial intelligence. and technology have only made their work more efficient. And tonight authorities are continuing to study that. video from Nancy Guthrie's front door. The gun, the holster, the. backpack, the clothes. Walmart is now searching receipts statewide. They're hopeful someone will see the video and remember. someone who bought those items or someone who. looks like this man. And tonight, for the first time, we are inside this 911. center in Tucson where operators are being inundated with.

tips 18 days into the search for Nancy Guthrie. Sheriff's Department, can you please hold? Is this in regards to the Nancy Guthrie case? This is the Sheriff's Department's. communications section. Thousands of tips about Nancy Guthrie have come right here. And when the information is viable, these call. takers don't wait. can get it right to the investigators. If there's a tip about Nancy Guthrie, it's coming. here. It's coming here. We've resorted to modifying our questioning and trying to. basically get down to the nitty gritty to kind of help vet.

some of these calls that are coming into the center. Get to the point. Get to the point, yes. And as the tips come in across this community, they're putting. up yellow ribbons. They have still not given up hope, Nancy Guthrie will come home. I live like one neighborhood over. Kerry told me there's a reason why this case has. touched so many. My mom is 83 and I just can't even. imagine if I was in that position as her family to. that's very sad. That's just it, right? It seems to be striking a chord with. everybody. Yeah, I feel like it's, you know, it's.

like America's mom, right? Again tonight, David investigators here in. Tucson are in touch with law enforcement officials. in Mexico just in case. And today investigators. received an anonymous donation allowing the reward. for information to double now $200,000. The number 1 800 call FBI David. Well, Aaron, it's just good to. see that in that 911 call center that the tips keep. coming in. Let's just keep hoping here. Aaron Guterski again tonight. Aaron, Thank you. This evening, the alarming moments on.

board a Delta flight just after take off the passenger. accused of attacking other passengers in midair. Here's Giovanni does. You're watching a midair emergency. minutes after takeoff. passengers on this early morning Delta flight from. Houston to Atlanta forced to jump into action. As the airline says, another. passenger began attacking people in the cabin. He stumbled to the back and just. start punching everybody. The crew reporting that passenger was trying to break.

into the cockpit. We had a passenger get up and try. to access the cockpit. But Delta tonight saying that the passenger did. not make contact with or attempt to access the flight. deck. The passenger seen screaming at flight attendants, the crew and some of those passengers try to. subdue him, holding him down. They had to sit on him and we had to turn the. plane around and go back. The flight turning around landing back at Houston's. Hobby Airport just 15 minutes after takeoff. That passenger escorted off the.

plane in zip ties. We see videos like this all the. time. People going crazy on planes, but I just never. thought that I would be witness witness. And David, the FAA is investigating. Meanwhile, as we came on the air tonight, Newark. had a short ground stop in place because a jet blue. flight to Palm Beach immediately returned to. the airport. The FAA says the crew reported smoke in. the cockpit. Passengers evacuated on those slides. Thankfully, everyone is safe. There were no injuries stated. All right, temporary ground stop at.

Newark there. Gio, thanks so much tonight. The ceo of Meadow, which owns. facebook and instagram on the stand today, Mark. Zuckerberg testifying in a landmark case. Now the company is accused of. making instagram addictive to Children and teens. Here's Elizabeth Schultz e tonight. Tonight, meta ceo Mark Zuckerberg. grilled in front of a jury for the first time in a. landmark trial over claims Instagram is designed to be. addictive for kids and teens. The case centered on a 20 year old who says she.

started using social media at age 10. Her lawsuit claiming the apps features. got her hooked, eventually leading to depression, anxiety and body image issues. Zuckerberg defending Instagram's current. restrictions that ban users under 13, but saying, "I always. wish we could have gotten there sooner," and testifying. the company has acknowledged for a while that people get. around the age restrictions. Zuckerberg also pressed about an internal email appearing. to show goals to boost the time spent on apps. by 12 percent.

The Meta CEO testifying, "We changed that.". Zuckerberg on the stand, two years after a Capitol Hill. hearing, where he apologized families whose children have. been harmed by social media. In a statement today, Meta saying they disagree with. the allegations in the lawsuit, adding the evidence. will show the plaintiff faced many significant. difficult challenges well before she ever used.

social media. Marine Molak, son David took his own. life at just 16 years old. She says social media contributed to David's. depression and anxiety. >> They know exactly what their platforms are doing. They are addicting kids and that they haven't done. anything about it to stop it. >> David, YouTube is also on trial but. denies the allegations. TikTok and Snapchat were named in the lawsuit but settled. This trial is seen as a bellwether for. more than 1000 cases against social media.

nationwide. David Elizabeth Schultz reporting tonight. Elizabeth, thanks overseas tonight. Nuclear talks between the U. S. And Iran continuing amid a military. buildup in the Middle East. With the second U. S. Carrier strike group closing in on the region, President Trump is looking to pressure Iran to. make a deal or risk U. S. Military action. The U. S. Insisting Iran must not be allowed to have. nuclear weapons. Meantime, tonight talks between. the U. S. Ukraine and Russia, ending in a. stalemate in Geneva. President Zelensky frustrated with the talk, saying. key issues, including occupied territories, remain.

unresolved tonight. Zelensky accusing Russia of dragging out the. negotiations. When we come back here tonight in. New York City, the social media stunt gone wrong. A teenager falling on the Queensborough Bridge. dangling as they rescued him. The massive sinkholes in the northeast. evacuations tonight, one swallowing a dump truck. that was actually carrying asphalt to fill other. sinkholes. And tonight for the first time, look at. this, a shark recorded in waters where sharks have. never been seen before where the shark was spotted in. a moment here.

Don't go away. tonight. Authorities believe a social media stunt. gone wrong in New York City. First responders using ropes to save a teenager. who had fallen about 50 feet down a narrow shaft. on the Queensborough Bridge in New York City. Authorities say that teenager is recovering. in the hospital tonight. Phillipsburg, New Jersey, near the Pennsylvania. border, declaring a state of emergency. Now several sinkholes, major. sinkholes opening up one swallowing a dump truck. delivering asphalt to actually fill other sinkholes. Multiple homes evacuated, dozens without power.

tonight. When we come back this evening for the. first time, a shark recorded in waters where sharks. have never been seen before, and you'll see the. pictures right here. To the index tonight, researchers studying the. frigid waters of Antarctica with a discovery, a. research camera right here on the seabed capturing. images of a large shark between 10 and 13 feet long. They say warming oceans may be driving sharks. to waters that were once too cold. When we come back tonight, the big news just coming. in from the Winter Games will go right to. Italy in a moment.

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, sponsored by Afrin. - Just in an overtime thriller, the US men's hockey. team beating Sweden, going to the semifinals, and another emotional victory tonight, Jenae Norman in Italy. Jenae? - Yeah, David, tonight. celebrations for US skier, Michaela Schifrin, winning. gold after eight years. We watched her win gold for the first time. more than a decade ago as a teen to become the. youngest Lollum gold medalist in history in 2014.

She won more gold in 2018 and now. taking home the top prize again. This time her first gold since losing her father back in 2020. and Team USA making history tonight. in men's team sprint cross country. skiing Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher. becoming the first Americans ever to. medal in the event earning silver and. Norwegian cross country skier Johannes. breaking the all time Winter Olympic gold medal record. He's now tied with Michael Phelps for. the most Olympic gold medals ever with 10.

He'll go for 11 this weekend and David. One more thing happened on the same course. This local dog wandered on during a. separate event, even crossing the finish. line along with the Olympians, dog and owner were reunited. David, yeah, no metal though. Thanks today. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Good night. David Muir, the most trusted anchor in America, the most. watched anchor in America. Thank you for making World News Tonight with David Muir the. number one newscast in America.