Overnight Monday, temperatures in Hamilton are expected to dip below –15 C, the city says, prompting the medical officer of health to issue a cold alert.

With the wind chill, it will feel like –22 C, according to Environment Canada. There’s a chance for flurries in the evening.

Tuesday morning will feel like –20 C, with a wind chill of -12 in the afternoon. Temperatures will increase Wednesday to a high of 1 C.

The federal weather agency has not issued a warning for the area.

In Hamilton, the medical officer puts cold alerts in place when temperatures are expected to be below –15 C or feel like –20 or colder with the wind chill.

In response to the alert, the city and social service providers focus on providing warm spaces for people experiencing homelessness, such as recreation centres and library branches during regular business hours.

The best place for residents during a cold weather alert is indoors, says the medical officer of health. If people must be outside they should:

• Dress in layers of clothing. Keep inner layers dry. Wet clothing increases the risk of cold injury.

• Protect your face, ears and hands with a scarf, hat, and gloves.

• To protect your feet, socks must be dry. Wool is a good material to keep your feet dry.

• Drink warm fluids, but avoid caffeine and alcohol.

• Avoid strenuous exercise.

Today’s Quarter Moon brings whatever needs to be addressed into the spotlight. There’s no shying away from big things today.

Sagittarius, Aries and Gemini, amotions will spur that you didn’t expect. Whether your relationships with others or yourself, don’t be afraid to confront hard truths.

The cosmos is feeling bold today, so make sure you follow suit. Bravery may nit come easily, but it is necessary.

Ahead, you’ll find all the star signs’ horoscopes for today: Tuesday February 24, 2026.

Like checking your horoscope every morning? You can now sign up to our free daily newsletter to get a personalised reading for your star sign delivered straight to your inbox.

To download your free Unique Personal Horoscope based on your time, date and place of birth, visit patrickarundell.com/free-birth-chart/.

Aries

March 21 to April 20

Want action? The universe may be responding with riddles and feelings. Today’s lunar checkpoint lights up your communication zone, urging you to pause, reflect and rethink that impulsive text. Emotions and logic are both in the mix, so be curious, but give your instincts a vote too. Not every question needs an answer. And you’re not off track – you’re just mid story.

Head here for everything you need to know about being an Aries

Taurus

April 21 to May 21

A push-pull between practical priorities and idealistic visions shows up today. Feel conflicted between what makes sense and what speaks to your soul? Financial matters, self-worth or values could come up for review, so are you investing your time and energy wisely? Don’t rush decisions, instead try to explore your options. A thoughtful pause now saves headaches later.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Taurus

Gemini

May 22 to June 21

The Quarter Moon shines a light on you and the many versions of you currently debating in your head. You’re buzzing with thoughts, ideas and plans, but it helps to feel first, then act. Career or life direction may seem vague, but certainty is found by staying open. Don’t rush to define it all, instead let the questions breathe. For now, emotional insights are just as important as strategies.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Gemini

Cancer

June 22 to July 23

Does your inner world feel stirred up like a teacup in a storm? Your mind may be racing, your feelings surging and insight seems out of reach. Old emotions, spiritual questions or behind-the-scenes worries may bubble up, but don’t ignore them. This is a day for reflection, not reaction. Trust your intuition even if it talks in riddles, as the detour can often lead to the real destination.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Cancer

Leo

July 24 to August 23

Part of you wants to charm the crowd, lead the group meeting and juggle big ideas, while the other part craves a soulful moment alone with your thoughts. This is a day to check if your social circles and ambitions truly reflect your deeper desires. Be relaxed and curious about your plans and leave them open to revision. Magic happens when your deeper truth aligns with your words.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Leo

Virgo

August 24 to September 23

Today’s lunation highlights issues between your career ambitions and personal connections. You like to be in control, but emotions and other people may not play by your rules. The Sun invites caring and flexibility, while the Moon stirs restless thoughts about your path and purpose. The result? You don’t need all the answers, just the right questions. Loosen your grip a little.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Virgo

Libra

September 24 to October 23

Is your inner philosopher looking for some action? You may be caught between wanting clarity and floating through fog, seeking truth, yet distracted by shiny thoughts and emotional detours. Work, wellness or routines can feel off sync, asking you to zoom out and realign. Let go of overthinking and trust your deeper knowing. Today isn’t about perfection, it’s about perspective.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Libra

Scorpio

October 24 to November 22

Your emotional depths may be stirred up but analysing it all logically could be impossible. Feel torn between diving into desire and pulling back for an overview, especially in matters of intimacy, creativity or trust? It’s a tug-of-war between vulnerability and detachment, so let it be both. Talk it out, feel it through and don’t rush resolution. Go for soulful edits, not final drafts.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Scorpio

Sagittarius

November 23 to December 21

Today’s Quarter Moon spotlights relationships and the balancing act between head and heart. Conversations may twist like storylines and emotions bubble beneath witty banter. You desire connection, but also space. The Sun pulls you inward towards home and feeling, while the Moon stirs up dialogue and diversions with others. Let instinct translate what logic can’t quite grasp.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Sagittarius

Capricorn

December 22 to January 20

Today is like a celestial check-in between doing and being. Your to-do list may be overflowing, but your soul is whispering, ‘Relax, please.’ You’re juggling work, wellness and emotional static, and trying to stay productive while navigating a sea of subtle feelings. No need to micromanage it all. It’s not about conquering the mountain, but about adjusting your footing.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Capricorn

Aquarius

January 21 to February 19

The Moon in Gemini squares off with the Sun in Pisces, causing a skirmish between light-hearted fun and deeper meaning. Your creative spark is lit, but so is your sensitivity around self-worth and values. You may feel torn between expressing yourself freely and second guessing whether it truly matters. And it does. You’re busy collecting stardust for your next masterpiece.

Head here for everything you need to know about being an Aquarius

Pisces

February 20 to March 20

The dance between your inner world and outer demands is highlighted. You may be feeling everything, yet the world is asking for answers, emails and small talk you’d rather skip. Home, family or emotional comfort can tug at you, even as your mind races with decisions. Make space for stillness and let feelings inform facts. You’re not being moody, you’re just recalibrating.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Pisces

Your daily Metro.co.uk horoscope is here every morning, seven days a week (yes, including weekends!). To check your forecast, head to our dedicated horoscopes page.

Check out the tarot horoscope reading for the month of February here.

MORE: Daily horoscope February 23, 2026: Today’s predictions for your star sign

MORE: What does the week have in store? Your tarot horoscope reading for February 23 to March 1

MORE: Daily horoscope February 22, 2026: Today’s predictions for your star sign

Comments


Add as preferred source

A deadly confrontation at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Sunday is the latest in a string of high-profile security incidents threatening President Donald Trump, as former Secret Service officials warn that low-tech, lone actors now pose one of the toughest challenges to presidential protection.

“It should be quite clear to all of us by now that Trump is the most threatened president in the history of the U.S.,” former Secret Service agent William “Bill” Gage told Fox News Digital Monday, pointing to multiple high-profile incidents in recent years. Unlike past presidencies, where threat levels often subsided over time, Gage said, “the longer he’s president, the more these attacks keep happening.”

Gage said the most difficult cases to prevent are often the least sophisticated. The recent incidents, he noted, were “super low-tech attacks by people with zero training,” using rudimentary weapons. “If you were standing behind them in line at Starbucks, you wouldn’t have given them a second look,” he said.

Gage said the threat landscape shifted over the course of his 12-year career as a Secret Service agent. When he joined the Secret Service in 2002, he said the agency was moving away from what he described as the traditional “lone gunman” model — figures like Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated John F. Kennedy, or international militants such as “Carlos the Jackal,” one of the world’s most wanted terrorists in the ‘70s and ’80s — and adapting to a post-9/11 world focused on coordinated terrorist networks like al Qaeda and later ISIS.

“But if you look at Butler and the two incidents at Mar-a-Lago, those were super low-tech attacks,” Gage said. “The low-tech actors are the ones that tend to slip through the cracks.”

He also warned of a potential copycat effect when details of such incidents become public. 

“If it were up to the Secret Service, they would never report any of these incidents ever,” Gage said, arguing that widespread coverage allows others to “study what happened” and attempt to refine it. 

In today’s hyperconnected political climate, he said, that dynamic adds another layer of complexity for agents trying to stop the next threat before it materializes.

In the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, a 21-year-old man identified as Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service agents and a local sheriff’s deputy after entering the secure perimeter of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Authorities say Martin drove through the north gate carrying a shotgun and a gasoline can. After being ordered to drop both, he dropped the can but raised the shotgun toward officers, who fired and killed him at the scene. Trump and First lady Melania Trump were in Washington at the time.

The incident marked the third highly publicized security encounter involving Trump in less than two years. In July 2024, a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing Trump’s ear and killing an attendee before being shot by a Secret Service sniper. In September 2024, a man armed with a rifle was confronted by agents near Trump’s golf course while he was playing; that suspect was later convicted on attempted assassination charges.

While the incidents have drawn intense attention, former Deputy Assistant Director Don Mihalek said the latest Mar-a-Lago intrusion does not necessarily signal a breakdown in protective systems.

“He got through an exterior gate of an active club,” Mihalek told Fox News Digital. “This wasn’t someone reaching the president’s residence.” Agents confronted the suspect within seconds, he said, describing the rapid response as evidence that overlapping security layers functioned as designed.

Mihalek said presidential protection relies on multiple rings of security because outer perimeters at properties like Mar-a-Lago cannot be sealed in the same way as the White House. “If he ended up in the president’s house on Mar-a-Lago, that might be a different conversation,” he said.

He also cautioned against viewing recent incidents in isolation, noting that presidents routinely face roughly 2,000 threats per year, most of which are mitigated before the public ever becomes aware of them. “These just happen to be very public instances,” Mihalek said, arguing that the social media era amplifies perceptions of escalation.

GUNFIRE, ARSON AND VANDALISM: TRACKING POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN AMERICA

Mihalek pointed to last summer’s rally shooting in Butler as an example of how early intervention can be decisive, noting that local law enforcement had reportedly identified the suspect prior to the attack. “If somebody had walked up and said, ‘Hey, who are you?’ we wouldn’t be talking about Butler,” he said.

As Trump prepares to address Congress at the State of the Union, both former officials said the security posture at the Capitol is unlikely to change in response to the weekend incident.

The annual address is designated a National Special Security Event — the highest level of federal security planning — triggering coordination among the Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police, FBI, War Department and other agencies. The designation allows for expanded perimeter controls, airspace restrictions and continuity-of-government planning.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Gage, who previously led advance planning for State of the Union addresses, said the event operates under a well-established security “blueprint” built to account for worst-case scenarios. “There’s really no way to increase it anymore,” he said.

Both former officials said the defining challenge for presidential protection today is unpredictability: individuals with minimal training, rudimentary weapons and the ability to find reinforcement online. Unlike organized extremist networks, such actors may leave few detectable signals before acting.

Related Article

The older brother of the Tumbler Ridge school shooter has been arrested in Alberta.

Wood Buffalo RCMP in Fort McMurray, Alta., confirmed to Global News that Jacob VanRoostelaar was arrested in Sylvan Lake after being wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for attempted murder.

Police said that, at the time of his arrest, VanRoostelaar had brass knuckles on him and now faces two new weapons offences and five new offences for breaching previous conditions.

VanRoostelaar was originally charged with attempted murder and breaking and entering in Fort McMurray in 2024, RCMP said.

VanRoostelaar is the older brother of Jesse VanRoostelaar, who shot and killed eight people, including her mother and half-brother, in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Feb. 10.

She also shot and killed five students and an educator at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School before dying from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Tumbler Ridge RCMP said.

Trending Now

• 26K Canadians in Mexico as cartel violence hits Puerto Vallarta: minister

• U.S. judge permanently bars release of report on Trump document case

Her father, Justin VanRootselaar, issued a statement last week saying in part: “As the biological father of the individual responsible, I carry a sorrow that is difficult to put into words. I was estranged from Jesse Strang and was not part of his life. His mother declined my involvement from the beginning, and I was not given the opportunity to be a part of raising him.

“Jesse did not use the VanRootselaar family name at any point in his life. While that distance is the reality of our relationship, it does not lessen the heartbreak I feel for the pain that has been caused to innocent people and to the town we call home.”

RCMP identified the shooter as “Jesse Van Rootselaar” and said she was assigned male at birth but had started transitioning to female.

Global News is spelling the surname as VanRootselaar to match the father’s spelling of the last name.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The finding comes in the updated joint Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA5) issued on Monday by the Government, the World Bank Group, the European Commission and the United Nations. 

It was released as the full-scale Russian invasion enters a fifth year on 24 February, with direct damage now reaching over $195 billion – up from $176 billion in the previous assessment published last February.  

“This devastating war is a stain on our collective consciousness and remains a threat to regional and international peace and security,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement, reiterating his call for an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire as a first step towards lasting peace.

Rebuilding the nation 

RDNA5 covers the period from February 2022 to December 2025 and complements reform and investment efforts underway as Ukraine continues along the path to European Union (EU) accession. 

The sectors with the highest reconstruction and recovery needs are transport (over $96 billion), energy (nearly $91 billion) and housing (almost $90 billion).  Some $63 billion is needed to rebuild the commerce and industry sector, and over $55 billion for agriculture.

The cost of explosives hazard management and debris clearance is almost $28 billion, despite some progress in surveying and demining that helped to contain losses in the sector. 

Attacks on energy and transport

Housing, transport and energy are the worst hit. Moreover, damage, losses and needs remain concentrated in frontline oblasts (administrative regions) and major metropolitan areas.

Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector, amid record winter temperatures. The result has been a roughly 21 per cent increase in damaged or destroyed assets since the last assessment.

Transport sector needs have increased by around 24 per cent due to intensified attacks on rail and ports over the past year, while 14 per cent of housing has been damaged or destroyed, impacting over three million households.

“Despite the widespread damage that continues to mount against Ukraine’s people, economy and infrastructure, the entire country continues to press on with remarkable strength and resolve,” said Anna Bjerde, World Bank Managing Director of Operations. 

Private sector investment 

The partners noted that the private sector – which has faced unprecedented disruption – will play a critical role in recovery and reconstruction.

However, unlocking the full potential of both domestic and international private investment will depend on sustained reforms to improve the business environment, strengthen competition, expand access to finance, address labour constraints, and align production with EU green and digital standards.

“Russia’s war of aggression continues to have a devastating impact on Ukraine,” said EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos.

She underlined that the regional bloc “will continue to play a key role in supporting Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery”, including by mobilising more private investments and encouraging key reforms that will attract investment and bring the country closer to EU membership. 

Put people at the centre of recovery 

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, stressed that people are central to the country’s recovery.

 “Ukraine’s most critical asset is its people,” he said. “Refugee return, veteran reintegration, and women’s labor force participation will shape economic recovery as much as capital flows and rebuilding infrastructure. Recovery must be human-centered and community-based.” 

RDNA5 notes that the authorities are taking significant steps, with support from development partners, to meet recovery and reconstruction priorities for 2026.

This includes investment in funding for destroyed housing, demining and economic support programmes, totalling more than $15 billion. Additionally, at least $20 billion in needs have already been met since the war began through urgent repairs and early recovery activities in essential sectors such as housing, energy, education and transport.

“Amid unprecedented Russian attacks on energy infrastructure and homes across Ukraine this winter, our people show resilience, our entrepreneurs keep working. We still manage to recover fast and develop further,” said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, thanking the UN and partners for their support. 

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday that street encampments won’t be torn down during one of the worst blizzards in New York City’s history — even as homeless people kept camping out and rejecting offers for shelter.

The bomb cyclone offered a new wintry test for Mamdani’s administration after its response to another storm in January descended into a prolonged, deadly crisis that consumed much of his first 60 days in office.

“The blizzard is a time when our focus should be not on physical infrastructure, but on people and on getting them indoors,” Mamdani argued during a news conference over Winter Storm Hernando.

Nineteen New Yorkers died amid the first blast of winter weather, as critics assailed Mamdani’s arguably feckless response to getting homeless people into shelter.

Hizzoner less than a week ago had reversed his past opposition to clearing out homeless encampments, albeit by giving vagrants a new seven-day notice before they’re rousted.

This storm, outreach workers placed 79 homeless New Yorkers into shelters as up to 2 feet of snow fell on the city — and none of those were involuntary removals, Mamdani said.

But some homeless New Yorkers still flat-out refused help as they slept in the blizzard conditions, The Post witnessed firsthand on the Manhattan Bridge’s footpath.

Several tents were completely covered by snow on the bridge’s Manhattan side as FDNY responders and NYPD officers, along with a private ambulance crew, arrived to make sure the indigent occupants were safe.

“I’m alright,” one man said, shaking his head as responders peeled back the tarps.

An FDNY EMT said the man had rejected appeals made in both English and Spanish.

“We can’t remove them. People have the right to be homeless in New York City,” the EMT said.

Two NYPD officers stood nearby as the worker tried to coax the tent dwellers into better shelter, but didn’t remove the man.

Out of 130 homeless people contacted by police, 127 refused to go into shelters. Only two accepted city services, police officials said.

While city outreach teams did not pull anyone off the streets against their will, NYPD officers involuntarily removed one person whom they deemed a risk to themselves, a police department spokesperson said.

Cops can conduct involuntary removals that take homeless people off the streets if they’re deemed a danger to themselves or others — however, EMTs have no power to pull the person inside.

Those removals are different from the practice of tearing down encampments, which is called a “homeless sweep.”

Both came under scrutiny during the last winter storm. Mamdani was slammed for the 19 outdoor deaths, most from hypothermia, as he contended involuntary removals should only be done as a last resort.

Outreach teams with a licensed clinician conducted 33 involuntary removals between Jan. 19 and Feb. 10, roughly the span of the last storm and subsequent cold snap, according to city officials.

NYPD officers conducted 52 removals during that same time period, a spokesperson for the department said.

No deaths have been tied to the latest wintry blast, Mamdani said.

“We are not aware of any deaths related to this blizzard on our city streets or in public areas,” he said.

— Additional reporting by Amanda Woods