By Alex Cosh ∙ The Maple ∙ February 18, 2026
A Scotiabank subsidiary has sold all of its remaining shares in an Israeli arms company, according to reports on recent regulatory filings.
The news comes after more than three years of public campaigns calling on Scotiabank to divest from Elbit Systems, a company that plays a key role in arming the Israeli military as it commits genocide in Gaza.
As reported by The Intercept in 2023, Scotiabank’s 1832 Asset Management held an estimated $500 million stake in Elbit Systems, making the Canadian bank the largest foreign shareholder in the Israeli arms company at the time.
Activists promptly organized pressure campaigns calling on Scotiabank to cut ties with Elbit Systems. This ramped up after Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
Over the course of 2024, 1832 Asset Management significantly reduced its stake in Elbit Systems. The Scotiabank subsidiary did slightly increase its stake last year, before dissolving all remaining shares in the most recent reporting period.
The campaign calling on Scotiabank to cut ties with Elbit Systems included a protest at the prestigious Giller Prize gala in November 2023, an event that was sponsored by Scotiabank at the time. As reported by The Breach, two activists took to the stage and unfurled a banner reading “Scotiabank Funds Genocide.”
Later in the evening, another activist mounted the stage shouting “Scotiabank is complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people!” All three were charged with mischief and use of a forged document.
The protest galvanized a coalition of hundreds of writers and artists, who came together to form No Arms In The Arts. The charges against the protesters were ultimately dropped, and the Giller Prize eventually cut ties with Scotiabank in February 2025, ending a 20-year relationship.
Other actions included flash protests, sit-ins at Scotiabank branches and national days of action.
The bank has previously denied that public pressure influenced the decisions made by its portfolio managers. Scotiabank did not respond to an emailed request for comment from The Maple for this story. … Full article
MEMO | February 20, 2026
Israel tightened restrictions Friday on Palestinian worshippers seeking to enter occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first Friday of Ramadan, enforcing strict measures and requiring prior security approval for entry.
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered early in the morning at military checkpoints surrounding Jerusalem in an attempt to reach the mosque, but Israeli forces barred many from entering despite some holding previously issued permits, an Anadolu correspondent reported.
The Israeli army deployed large numbers of troops at checkpoints leading into the city, with senior military officers present and a heavy security presence in place.
“Thousands of West Bank residents are crowded at the Qalandiya checkpoint, and the occupation authorities are refusing to allow them to enter on the grounds that the permitted number for Friday, set at 10,000 people, has been reached,” the Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate said.
Israel raised its security alert level in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with the start of Ramadan on Wednesday.
In recent weeks, Israeli authorities have stepped up arrests and issued expulsion orders in East Jerusalem ahead of Ramadan, a Palestinian rights organization said. … Full article
IMEMC | February 20, 2026
Israeli forces shot and abducted a Palestinian young man on Thursday, while he was in the vicinity of the Apartheid wall in the town of Ar-Ram, north of occupied Jerusalem.
Media sources reported that occupation forces shot an unidentified young man near the Apartheid wall in Ar-Ram town, before abducting him; his condition was not known at the time of this report. … Full article
Palestinian Information Center – February 20, 2026
JENIN – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Friday converted several Palestinian homes into military outposts in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, forcing residents to evacuate, according to local sources.
Witnesses said Israeli troops entered the town in the early morning hours, took over multiple houses and turned them into military barracks after expelling the families inside. Soldiers also raided and searched additional homes, detained several residents and conducted on-the-spot interrogations.
The incursion began the previous night, with Israeli forces deploying across several neighborhoods in Qabatiya and sending infantry units into the streets.
In a separate development, hundreds of settlers, under Israeli military protection, stormed open areas in the northern Jordan Valley on Friday, local sources said.
Settler attacks in the northern Jordan Valley have intensified in recent weeks, leading to the complete displacement of the al-Maita and al-Burj communities.
On Thursday night, dozens of settlers reportedly attacked residents in Hammamat al-Maleh, injuring one person, damaging two vehicles and setting fire to uninhabited tents in the area.
MEMO | February 20, 2026
A security officer in the Rad’a Force, the field wing of the Resistance Security in the Gaza Strip, said on Thursday that specialised units had, over the past week, neutralised a number of members of what he described as collaborator gangs.
The officer said investigations with those detained had revealed that individuals with extremist “takfiri” views had joined the groups as part of a plan aimed at destabilising the internal front and serving hostile agendas.
He stressed the need for coordinated official and public efforts to confront what he termed the phenomenon of collaboration. … Full article
Al Mayadeen | February 20, 2026
Israeli forces launched an attack on Lebanon on Friday, targeting the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in the southern city of Saida.
The airstrike on the Hittin neighborhood of the camp resulted in at least two confirmed martyrs and several others injured, according to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent.
Following the airstrike, Israeli drones continued to patrol the skies over Ain al-Hilweh, and the surrounding areas.
This attack echoes a previous massacre on November 18, 2025, when Israeli forces struck the camp with three rockets targeting an open-air car garage in the camp’s Lower Street, killing 14 people and wounding many others. … Full article
RT | February 20, 2026
Israel’s military is preparing to launch large-scale pre-emptive strikes on Iran-backed armed groups across the Middle East in order to prevent them from lending support to Tehran in any potential regional conflict, the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Friday.
Israeli military sources told the newspaper that West Jerusalem has engaged mediators to warn Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and armed factions in Iraq that any attack against Israel would be met with a “massive and unprecedented response.”
The sources said that Israeli defense officials believe Tehran is pushing its regional allies to take part in any potential escalation after concluding that their limited involvement in the 12-day Israel-Iran war was a strategic mistake. … continue
Al Mayadeen | February 20, 2026
As the United States continues to amass unprecedented military firepower in West Asia, the largest such build-up since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a senior analyst at the Atlantic Council is warning that Washington has yet to answer fundamental questions about what a military campaign against Iran would actually achieve, or what catastrophic consequences it might unleash.
In a piece published this week, Nate Swanson, director of the Atlantic Council’s Iran Strategy Project and senior advisor on Iran policy to successive US administrations, outlined six critical questions that US policymakers appear unable, or unwilling, to answer before potentially launching a “massive, weeks-long” aggression against Iran.
The analysis, while emerging from a Washington policy establishment that has long driven the logic of “maximum pressure” against Tehran, nonetheless lays bare the incoherence and recklessness of the current US posture. … continue
Election interference?
Remix News | February 20, 2026
The energy supply dispute has reached a new level in Central Europe after Zagreb made it clear that it will not allow Russian crude oil to be transported via the JANAF pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced this week that Hungary would stop the transport of diesel fuel to Ukraine, after Ukraine halted the transit of Russian oil to Hungary via the Friendship pipeline on Jan. 27 and has not resumed it since. Shortly afterwards, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also announced that the Slovnaft oil refinery would stop exporting diesel to Ukraine.
Szijjártó made it clear that Hungary expects Croatia to comply with EU law and step in to fill the shortage created for Hungary and Slovakia due to Kyiv’s refusal to reopen the Druzhba pipeline.
Economy Minister Ante Susnjar has indicated that Croatia is ready to help the two countries with oil from non-Russian sources, in accordance with European Union legislation and OFAC rules, but Hungary has countered that this is not in compliance with EU rules, which Szijjártó has pointed out state that if land transit of Russian crude oil is impossible, Budapest and Bratislava can also purchase from Russia by sea. … continue
Germany already has laws that let politicians prosecute citizens for insulting them online
By Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net | February 19, 2026
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants to end online anonymity.
Speaking Wednesday evening at an event held by his conservative Christian Democrats in Trier, he called for mandatory real names across social media and floated a potential ban on platforms for users under 16.
“I want to see real names on the internet. I want to know who is speaking,” Merz said.
The framing is the same as usual; protect democracy, protect children. What Merz left out is worth examining closely.
Section 188 covers the same offenses when directed at politicians. The penalties are steeper across the board: three years maximum for insults, mandatory prison time with a five-year ceiling for malicious gossip (minimum three months), mandatory prison time with a six-month floor and five-year ceiling for defamation. No fine option.
Politicians use these laws. Merz uses these laws. He has filed hundreds of complaints himself. CDU politicians and others flag thousands of posts to prosecutors annually, and German police conduct hundreds of raids each year for insults and alleged “hate speech.” The infrastructure for going after ordinary citizens who criticize their representatives already exists and is already in active use.
What a real name mandate does is remove the last barrier between a critical post and a knock on the door. Right now, authorities have to work to identify anonymous speakers. With real names required by platform policy, that step disappears. … continue
IMEMC | February 19, 2026
Israeli illegal paramilitary colonizers attacked the Church of the Visitation on Thursday in the depopulated Palestinian village of Ein Karem in occupied Jerusalem, vandalizing the site and defacing nearby property.
The Jerusalem Governorate reported that a group of colonizers invaded the church grounds, wrote racist slogans on its exterior walls, and sprayed similar graffiti on vehicles parked near the site.
The attack is part of a growing pattern of repeated violations by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers targeting religious and historical sites in occupied Jerusalem.
Al Mayadeen | February 19, 2026
Palestinian journalists detained by “Israel” since October 2023 have described beatings, starvation, sexual violence, and medical neglect in what a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists characterises as a “clear pattern” of abuse.
The report, titled “We returned from hell”: Palestinian journalists recount torture in Israeli prisons, is based on interviews with 59 journalists and one media worker released from Israeli custody between October 2023 and January 2026. Of the 59 journalists interviewed, all but one said they had experienced torture, abuse, or other forms of violence while detained.
CPJ said it reviewed supporting material, including photographs, medical reports, and legal documents provided by the former detainees. The organization described the scale and consistency of the testimonies as indicative of systemic mistreatment rather than isolated incidents.
“Dozens of journalists independently describing physical and psychological abuse point to something far beyond individual misconduct,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s chief executive. She urged the international community to press for accountability, noting that international humanitarian law sets clear standards for the treatment of detainees.
According to CPJ, at least 94 Palestinian journalists and one media worker were detained during the period covered by the report: 32 journalists and one media worker from Gaza, 60 from the West Bank and two within “Israel”. As of February 17, 2026, 30 remained in custody.
More than 80% of those interviewed, 48 out of 58 for whom data were available, were held under “Israel’s” administrative detention system, which allows detention without formal charge and can be renewed repeatedly. Many reported being denied access to lawyers, with at least 17 saying they were not permitted to speak to legal counsel at all.
In their testimonies, journalists described severe beatings resulting in fractures and other injuries, prolonged stress positions, threats, and psychological pressure. Fifty-five of the 59 interviewees reported extreme hunger or malnutrition. CPJ calculated an average weight loss of 23.5kg (54lb) by comparing reported pre- and post-detention weights, and said photographs showed visible signs of severe weight loss.
The report also documented 27 accounts of medical neglect, including untreated fractures, wounds stitched without anaesthesia, and denial of medication for pre-existing conditions. In several cases, detainees alleged that health workers were complicit in abuse.
Two journalists told CPJ they were raped in detention, and multiple testimonies referenced other forms of sexual violence. At least 14 journalists said they were subjected to prolonged exposure to high-volume sound, particularly at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility, resulting in sleep deprivation and disorientation.
“These are not isolated incidents,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director. “Across dozens of cases, we documented a recurring set of abuses directed at journalists because of their work.” … Full article
The Cradle | February 19, 2026
A new study by The Lancet medical journal has revealed that the death toll from Israel’s genocide in Gaza was a third higher than official figures said, with the number of “violent deaths” exceeding 75,000 in the first 16 months.
Four percent of the population had been killed by the start of last year, the report finds.
While the Gaza Health Ministry said in January 2025 that the death toll was just over 49,000, in reality it was about 35 percent higher – close to 75,200, The Lancet said. The Gaza Mortality Survey conducted by the journal does not cover Israel’s attacks after January 2025.
Over 600 Palestinians have been killed since the October 2025 ceasefire deal came into effect.
The journal also states that the number of women, children, and elderly killed by Israel in the strip was reported accurately by Gaza health authorities, which Tel Aviv accuses of lying and inflating numbers. “The combined evidence suggests that, as of 5 January, 2025, 3–4 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip had been killed violently and there have been a substantial number of nonviolent deaths caused indirectly by the conflict,” The Lancet wrote.
“This first independent population survey of mortality in the Gaza Strip shows that violent deaths have substantially exceeded official figures whereas the demographic composition of casualties aligns with Ministry of Health reporting.”
While the ministry accurately reported the casualty rates of women, children, and elderly Palestinians, severe limitations caused by the genocide and collapse of the health system resulted in numerous deaths going unreported.
The official death toll currently stands at over 72,000. … Full article
Press TV – February 18, 2026
President Emmanuel Macron has insisted that French citizens fighting for Israel cannot be labeled “genociders,” as French judges pursue legal action against nationals also holding Israeli passports who are accused of aiding Israel’s aggression on Gaza.
Speaking to Radio J, Macron said that the French who also hold Israeli passports are “children of France” who must never be accused of genocide.
“We cannot accept, we must never accept that any of our children, that any French person, be accused of being genocidal,” he stressed, adding, “That is impossible, and it represents a reversal of values to which we must not yield.” … continue
Al Mayadeen | February 19, 2026
The United States is advancing plans to establish a new Gaza security force, potentially staffed by members of armed clans with documented links to organized crime, according to multiple Western officials who spoke with The Telegraph.
The proposal, promoted by the Trump administration, envisions forming a Gaza police force drawn in part from existing anti-Resistance militias operating in the Strip. The initiative is understood to have the backing of “Israel”, which has armed and supported some of these groups since the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023.
The proposal has triggered “pushback” from senior American commanders, who have raised concerns over the reliability of such security partners. … continue
Al Mayadeen | February 19, 2026
The Trump administration is preparing plans to construct a military base in Gaza capable of housing 5,000 personnel and covering more than 350 acres, according to “Board of Peace” contracting documents reviewed by The Guardian.
The proposed installation is designed to serve as an operational headquarters for a future “International Stabilization Force” (ISF), envisioned as a multinational military contingent made up of pledged troops. The ISF falls under the authority of the newly established “Board of Peace,” which is intended to govern Gaza. The Board is chaired by US President Donald Trump and partially led by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Documents reviewed by The Guardian outline a phased construction process for a fortified compound measuring approximately 1,400 meters by 1,100 meters. The base would include 26 trailer-mounted armored watchtowers, a small-arms firing range, protective bunkers, and a warehouse for operational equipment. Barbed wire fencing would surround the entire facility. … continue
The Dissident | February 19, 2026
Barak Ravid in Axios reports that , “The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon” in reference to Iran.
According to a source in the Trump administration, “it would likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that’s much broader in scope — and more existential for the regime — than the Israeli-led 12-day war last June.”
The report adds, “Trump’s armada has grown to include two aircraft carriers, a dozen warships, hundreds of fighter jets and multiple air defense systems. Some of that firepower is still on its way” adding, “The Israeli government — which is pushing for a maximalist scenario targeting regime change as well as Iran’s nuclear and missile programs — is preparing for a scenario of war within days, according to two Israeli officials.”
If this report is accurate, and the Trump administration actually is about to carry out a regime change war in Iran, there is only one driving motive behind it: the Zionist lobby’s control over Trump and broader U.S. foreign policy. … continue
Israel was humiliated in the 12 day war with Iran and is seeking a similar humiliation for its rival, retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former Pentagon analyst, tells Sputnik.
“Israeli demands for no nuclear capability, no enrichment, and no ballistic missiles for Iran is overtly ludicrous, but has been cultivated by numerous visits by Netanyahu to the White House to push for a big and damaging war,” Kwiatkowski says.
The Israeli leadership believes Iran is at its weakest point now — an opportunity that may not come again — and is pressing the US to act.
“Reports of excessive and invasive IDF and Mossad presence inside the Pentagon and Joint Staff planning arenas have made mainstream news, and that is likely due to leaks from inside the Pentagon, by Americans who are concerned about what the US stands to lose by fighting this final war for Israel,” the pundit points out.
How might the US-led operation unfold?
- This time, unlike before, the US and Israel are likely to strike together, combining major electronic and cyber attacks to blind Iran and simultaneous military action
- Experienced Pentagon planners know the risks, so if war comes, they’ll strike hard early hoping to limit Iranian missile retaliation and losses from Persian-controlled sea, land and air
- US forces are likely to play a more overt role in the early phase, partly because there’s limited loitering time for the USS Gerald Ford and Abraham Lincoln
- Throughout, US and Israeli forces will be coordinated by US Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)
However, they have to bear in mind that “Iranian forces and leadership are well aware of US and Israeli tendencies and styles in offensive warfare,” Kwiatkowski stresses.
By Freddie Ponton | 21st Century Wire | February 19, 2026
… The true weapon … is not the torpedo or the missile. It is the mathematics of asymmetric warfare, and the political theatre that makes such warfare inevitable. Tehran reportedly understands something fundamental that Washington’s war planners seem determined to ignore. You do not need to sink a carrier to defeat a carrier strike group; you only need to make the cost of operating in its presence unpredictable and potentially catastrophic.
The Islamic Republic cannot compete symmetrically. It cannot build aircraft carriers or nuclear submarines, or networked battle fleets. However, it can reportedly build enough small, cheap, nearly undetectable submarines to ensure that any conflict begins with the understanding that American sailors will die in the first hours, serving, according to critics of the current policy, as human shields for Israeli airstrikes that Tel Aviv wants but Washington would pay for in blood. … Read full article
Sputnik – 19.02.2026
A Brazilian mercenary was beaten to death at a base of the foreign legion of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) in Kiev, Kyiv Independent reported.
A Kyiv Independent investigation revealed that a 28-year-old recruit from Brazil died after being subjected to brutal punishment in a unit that regularly used discipline practices described as “torture” by those who both witnessed and suffered them. … Full article
RT | February 19, 2026
A teenager from the central Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog has been sent to an orphanage after his father was mobilized for military service, UNIAN news agency reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, the 43-year-old man went to a military enlistment office to update his records. Recruitment officers reportedly confiscated his phone and locked him in a basement before processing him for the army.
When his 14-year-old son was unable to reach him, he contacted police in an effort to locate his father. Instead of being reunited, the teenager was placed in a state-run orphanage “pending clarification of the situation,” UNIAN said.
The boy’s mother moved to another country and is not involved in his upbringing but has not been stripped of her parental rights, the agency said. The report added that a court hearing to recognize the man as a single father was canceled after representatives of the guardianship authorities failed to appear. … Full article
By Thomas Brooke | Remix News | February 19, 2026
The Czech government has begun active work on a long-promised nationwide referendum law, launching a working group under the Ministry of Justice to prepare a draft constitutional bill.
The initiative was pledged before the elections by both the hard-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party and the populist ANO movement. The working group will operate under Justice Minister Jeroným Tejc, with one representative from each coalition party.
According to the ministry, the draft legislative work plan sets December 2026 as the latest possible deadline for submission, but officials say the goal is to present the proposal significantly earlier, potentially within this year.
However, the law will not include the option of voting on withdrawal from the European Union or NATO. … Full article
Remix News | February 18, 2026
An unprecedented level of interference is expected in the April 12 elections from the Kyiv-Brussels-Berlin axis, said Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó in Püspökladány on Tuesday, adding that these forces are ready to do everything in their power to change the government in Hungary.
Speaking to local activists, Szijjártó highlighted that “Kyiv, Brussels, Berlin. This is the axis that is doing everything it can to bring about a change of government in Hungary,” as quoted by Magyar Nemzet.
“Why? Because Hungary, the current Hungarian government, is the obstacle to Brussels, Berlin and Kyiv implementing the decisions they themselves consider most important: All of Europe should go to war, European money should be given to Ukraine, and Ukrainians should be brought into the European Union,” he warned his audience.
“This is what Brussels wants, this is what Berlin wants, this is what Kyiv wants. And they know exactly that there is one obstacle to this: the sovereign national government in Hungary,” the Hungarian FM added.
Szijjártó also underlined that Brussels has bought Péter Magyar, leader of the opposition Tisza party, by giving him immunity for various alleged crimes in Brussels. And he will therefore fall in line with their agenda, were he to be voted into power.
“There are no legal proceedings against the chairman of the Tisza Party in Hungary today because he was protected by his immunity in the European Parliament. (…) Such a man obviously cannot say no to his saviors, who are holding him in check,” he said.
One of the things Brussels, Berlin and Kyiv will want is more war in Ukraine, and Tisza “will not say no to them. Neither to dragging Hungarians into the war, nor to taking the money of Hungarians to Ukraine, nor to bringing Ukrainians into the European Union,” he said. … Full article
RT | February 19, 2026
Ukraine’s decision to block the delivery of Russian oil to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline is “blatant political blackmail,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.
The transit of oil via the pipeline has remained on hold since late January, with Kiev blaming Russia and accusing it of damaging the infrastructure. Moscow has denied the claims.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Orban suggested that Ukraine is able to resume supplies, but is not doing so in order “to pressure us to support their EU membership and hand over funds belonging to Hungarian families.”
Budapest has consistently opposed Kiev’s bid to join the EU, arguing that it would drag the bloc into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“Thankfully, Hungary has a government that doesn’t bow to blackmail,” Orban said, announcing that Budapest “has decided to stop diesel fuel deliveries to Ukraine” in response to Kiev’s actions.
A similar move was made on Wednesday by another EU member-state, Slovakia, which also relies on Russian oil from the Druzhba pipeline. Bratislava has also mulled cutting electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil flows don’t resume. … Full article
The Dissident | February 18, 2026
Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent appearence at the Munich Security Conference, which was billed as her showcasing her foreign policy chops gearing up for a possible presidential run, has faced widespread criticism and backlash, not only for her embarrassing mistakes (saying Venezuela was located below the equator, being unable to answer a question about Taiwan and saying the “Trans-Pacific Partnership” when meaning to say the Trans Atlantic Partnership) but for her weak criticism of U.S. foreign policy and repeating of pro-war narratives.
This, however, can be easily explained by the fact that she is being coached by Matt Duss, a longtime foreign policy advisor and a liberal Zionist and staunch supporter of the NATO proxy war in Ukraine. … continue
By Andre Damon | WSWS | February 17, 2026
The US military killed 11 people Monday in strikes on three boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea in the deadliest single day so far this year of the Trump administration’s killing spree off the Latin American coast.
US Southern Command announced that four men were killed on one boat in the eastern Pacific, four on another in the eastern Pacific, and three on a boat in the Caribbean. It was the first time the military bombed targets on both sides of the Panama Canal in the same day. The military posted a 39-second video showing the three boats being destroyed—one on the move, two sitting motionless in the water. No evidence was provided that the vessels were carrying drugs or that those killed had any connection to drug trafficking.
The strikes are murders under international law. The men on these boats posed no imminent threat to anyone. They were not armed combatants. They were not engaged in hostilities. Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Charter, and the Pentagon’s own Law of War Manual, killing them is a crime. UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) Article 98 establishes a duty to rescue persons in distress at sea.
The US media treated the strikes as entirely routine. ABC News ran a write-up of approximately 130 words. The Washington Post filed its report under “national security,” not the front page. The killings did not receive even token condemnation from the Democratic Party. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said nothing in response to the strikes.
The strikes bring the total death toll to at least 145 people killed in 42 known strikes since early September 2025. Another 11 survivors of earlier strikes are presumed dead after the military left them to drown. Families of two Trinidadian fishermen killed in an October 14 strike have sued the US government, calling the campaign “lawless killings in cold blood; killings for sport and killings for theatre.”
In October, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called the strikes “unacceptable,” stating that “none of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others.” In November, former ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo concluded that the strikes “likely constitute crimes against humanity.”
Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, who viewed the classified video in December, described the scene: the men were “basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water—until the missiles come and kill them.” Killing survivors is a direct violation of the Hague Regulations’ prohibition on denying quarter—one of the oldest rules of warfare.
An investigation by the Intercept published Monday revealed that when eight men jumped overboard during a December 30 triple strike, the Coast Guard took 45 hours to dispatch a rescue plane—into nine-foot seas and 40-knot winds where survival was measured in minutes. No survivors were found. “SOUTHCOM doesn’t want these people alive,” a government official told the Intercept. … Full article
Israel has found new golems to exploit on the Dark Continent
José Niño Unfiltered | February 18, 2026
In October 2025, hundreds of Kenyans marched through Nairobi’s Central Business District carrying banners reading “Israel Belongs to God”. Bishop Paul Karanja declared to the crowd, “We are here to declare that Israel is not alone. We will continue to stand with them.” The demonstration commemorated the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, but it represented something far more significant than a single day of solidarity. It revealed a geopolitical quirk that has left analysts scrambling for explanations.
According to a June 2025 Pew Research Center survey covering 24 countries, Kenya showed 50% favorable views toward Israel with 42% unfavorable. Nigeria registered 59% favorable and 32% unfavorable. These were the only two nations with majority positive sentiment toward Israel. In 20 of the 24 countries surveyed, majorities held negative views. Kenya and Nigeria, in addition to India, stand virtually alone in their enthusiasm for the Jewish state at precisely the moment when global opinion has turned sharply against it. … continue
Press TV – February 19, 2026
Recently released emails from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reveal that Israeli officials set up security systems and regulated entry to a New York apartment owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, where former prime minister Ehud Barak stayed on multiple occasions. … continue
MEMO | February 18, 2026
A new report by the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) has documented 964 verified incidents of anti-Palestinian repression across Britain between January 2019 and August 2025, identifying what it describes as a cross-sector pattern of institutional crackdowns on Palestine solidarity.
The findings form part of Britain’s Index of Repression, a searchable national database developed in collaboration with Forensic Architecture and launched today at the Frontline Club in London.
Documented incidents listed in the database include arrests, workplace dismissals, suspensions and event cancellations. The Index, originally launched in Germany in 2025, is now publicly available for Britain and is described as the first accessible database of its kind in the country. … continue
The Cradle | February 18, 2026
The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped aggravated burglary charges against 18 of the Filton 24 activists on 18 February, citing a “reconsideration of the sufficiency of the evidence” after earlier acquittals in the same case at Woolwich Crown Court.
At a case management hearing in south London, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told the court, “The prosecution has reconsidered the sufficiency of the evidence … In light of those verdicts and in respect of all the remaining defendants the prosecution offers no evidence on count one, aggravated burglary.”
The aggravated burglary charge linked to the Elbit factory raid carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The decision came two weeks after six co-defendants – Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, Fatema Rajwani, Zoe Rogers, and Jordan Devlin — were acquitted of aggravated burglary on 4 February 2026. Jurors had deliberated for more than 36 hours before returning not guilty verdicts on that count.
Heer confirmed the CPS will seek a retrial on other allegations where no verdict was reached. … continue
Al Mayadeen | February 18, 2026
A wide coalition of human rights groups, anti-war campaigners, and Christian denominations is urging Washington to scrap a planned $210 million purchase of next-generation cluster munitions from an Israeli manufacturer, warning of the “severe, foreseeable dangers” such weapons pose to civilians, Responsible Statecraft reported.
In an open letter shared with RS, the groups argue that cluster munitions “disperse submunitions across broad areas, making it exceedingly difficult to confine their impact to lawful military targets.” Expanding US stockpiles, they contend, places Washington “dramatically out of step with civilian protection practices.”
“These weapons’ humanitarian impacts vastly outweigh any possible tactical benefit that they provide,” said Ursala Knudsen-Latta of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, one of the signatories.
“Unfortunately, it is really sowing seeds of terror for generations to come anywhere they are used,” she added.
The purchase, first reported by The Intercept, signals what critics describe as the weakening of a global consensus against the use and stockpiling of cluster munitions. Years of campaigning, bolstered by research documenting the lasting dangers posed by unexploded bomblets, led to the widespread adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2010. … Full article
Press TV – February 18, 2026
Eric Trump is investing in an Israeli drone manufacturer whose weapons are being used in Gaza in a move critics say sits uneasily alongside his father’s claims that he wants to “bring peace” and eventually help reconstruct the devastated territory.
The investment is tied to a $1.5 billion merger between Israeli drone maker XTEND and Florida-based JFB Construction Holdings, a relatively small real estate developer.
The deal is designed to take XTEND public in the United States later this year, giving it broader access to American capital and manufacturing capacity.
XTEND’s drones are already notorious for genocide. The company says its systems have been used extensively by Israeli forces inside Gaza, flying into tunnels, breaking through windows, scouting buildings and, in some cases, carrying small explosives capable of blowing doors open before dropping grenades.
The company has promoted its products as offering a “low cost per kill,” language that has helped attract attention from the Pentagon.
The Pentagon has awarded XTEND multiple contracts, including a multimillion-dollar agreement confirmed in November 2024 and another worth $8.8 million in December.
This month, the company was selected for the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program, an initiative aimed at rapidly scaling up the production of low-cost attack drones. … Full article
IMEMC | February 19, 2026
A Palestinian young man succumbed to injuries he sustained during a settler attack in the village of Mikhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem earlier Wednesday. Occupation forces shot three young men on Wednesday night in the town of Arraba, southwest of Jenin, in addition to shooting a child in the Al-Fawwar refugee camp, south of Hebron in the evening.
The Palestinian Health Ministry announced late Wednesday that 19-year-old Nasrallah Muhammad Jamal Abu Siam died of injuries he sustained during an Israeli settler incursion into the village of Mikhmas.
Earlier Wednesday a group of illegal colonizers with the support of occupation forces stormed the village and opened fire with live rounds towards citizens who attempted to confront the attacking settlers.
As a result, three young men sustained gunshot injuries, including one seriously, while a fourth young man suffered injuries after being assaulted by occupation soldiers.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces shot three Palestinian young men with live rounds on Wednesday night, after storming the town of Arraba, southwest of Jenin in the northern West Bank. … Full article
Palestinian Information Center – February 18, 2026
GAZA – Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday in Khan Yunis, as violations of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip continued through air, land, and sea attacks across various areas, coinciding with the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.
Nasser Medical Complex announced that one person was killed by Israeli gunfire in areas where Israeli forces are deployed east of Khan Yunis.
Earlier, the hospital reported that two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire near military positions in the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.
A local source identified one of the victims as 20-year-old Mohannad Jamal Mohammad Al-Najjar, who was shot near the Bani Suheila roundabout east of the city.
Israeli artillery shelled eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City, alongside new demolitions of residential buildings in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.
In the south, a series of Israeli airstrikes targeted areas in Khan Yunis and Rafah, accompanied by low-flying warplanes. Artillery also struck eastern Khan Yunis, while Israeli tanks reportedly opened heavy fire toward eastern parts of the city. … Full article
Al-Manar | February 18, 2026
Israeli occupation forces continued their incursion inside Syrian territory on Monday, entering villages in the southern countryside of Quneitra province, raiding homes, and setting up checkpoints in what Syrian officials describe as ongoing daily violations.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that Zionist troops entered the village of Ain Zivan, searched houses, questioned residents, and established a checkpoint on the outskirts of the village, restricting civilian movement. The forces also entered the village of Sayda Al-Golan and detained a young man, though no details were provided on the timing of the arrest. … Full article
The Cradle | February 18, 2026
An unidentified drone was downed in the early hours of 17 February after entering the airspace above Hamat Air Base in northern Lebanon, a Lebanese security source revealed exclusively to The Cradle.
The incident unfolded when security at the base, which also hosts US forces, intercepted the aircraft, causing it to crash into nearby woodland.
According to the source, patrols from Hamat municipal police and units of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) headed to the area to examine the wreckage.
US personnel at the scene intervened to stop the inspection of the downed aircraft. According to The Cradle’s source, US troops drew their weapons and prevented Lebanese officials, including the local mayor, from approaching the crash site, asserting that the drone might have been booby-trapped with explosives.
Lebanese authorities did not take possession of the aircraft, the source said, and US officials later revealed that the drone was no longer at the location initially identified as the crash site. … continue
By Larry C. Johnson | SONAR21 | February 18, 2026
As part of the US campaign to engineer a regime change in Iran, the US military and intelligence community are using Operational Preparation of the Environmnet aka OPE. OPE is defined in joint publications (e.g., JP 3-05 Special Operations) as non-intelligence activities conducted prior to or in preparation for potential military operations to set conditions for success. It encompasses shaping the operational environment through intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, information operations, civil affairs, psychological operations, and other preparatory actions—often in denied or politically sensitive areas.
I believe that one of the major OPE efforts is to convince the US public that the overwhelming majority of Iranians despise the Islamic Republic and want it overthrown. In my opinion, a major player in this OPE is a polling outfit known as GAMAAN. GAMAAN (Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran) collaborates with Psiphon VPN, which is widely used across Iran. GAMAAN findings have been consistent in painting a picture of massive opposition to the Iranian regime… continue
Washington is following the Jewish State’s demands on Iran and the Middle East as a whole, Hasan Unal has told RT
RT | February 18, 2026
Israel is effectively dictating US foreign policy, particularly on Iran and the wider Middle East, in a way that is historically unprecedented for a global superpower, a Turkish international relations professor has told RT.
Hasan Unal, who teaches at Baskent University in Ankara, spoke to RT’s Rick Sanchez this week about what he described as a highly unusual power imbalance between Israel and the US.
”We are living in a world now where a small country like Israel is dictating terms to a superpower like the United States on anything and everything, particularly anything pertaining to Israel and to the Middle East,” he said, calling the situation “totally unacceptable.”
Unal added that some analysts have even described it as an “occupation” of US policymaking by Israel, a characterization he said was “almost true.”
He went on to say that pro-Israel lobby influence and the personal involvement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were shaping American positions, recalling episodes when Netanyahu “gets on his plane immediately” and flies to Washington “to simply dictate what [US President Donald] Trump should say and should negotiate in the negotiations with the Iranians.”
Unal claimed such a pattern has left Washington “dogging behind the Israeli demands all the time” and cautioned that it risks further destabilizing the Middle East. … continue
Ankara is telling the world that a selective and force-driven approach to the Iranian nuclear issue could ignite a chain reaction
By Murad Sadygzade | RT | February 18, 2026
In Ankara, the idea of Türkiye one day seeking a nuclear weapons option has never been entirely absent from strategic conversation. Yet in recent days it has acquired a sharper edge, as the region around Türkiye is sliding toward a logic in which raw deterrence begins to look like the only dependable language left.
Türkiye’s foreign policy has expanded far beyond the cautious, status-quo posture that once defined it. It has positioned itself as a mediator on Ukraine and Gaza, pursued hard security aims through sustained operations and influence in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, and inserted itself into competitive theaters from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Horn of Africa. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long framed this activism as a corrective to an international order he portrays as structurally unfair. His slogan that the world is bigger than five – referring to the UN Security Council – is a statement of grievance against a system in which a narrow group of powers retains permanent privileges, including an exclusive claim to ultimate military capability.
Within that narrative, nuclear inequality occupies a special place. Erdogan has repeatedly pointed to the double standards of the global nuclear order, arguing that some states are punished for ambiguity while others are insulated from scrutiny. His references to Israel are central here, because Israel’s assumed but undeclared nuclear status is widely treated as an open secret that does not trigger the same enforcement instincts as suspected proliferation elsewhere. That asymmetry has long irritated Ankara, but it became more politically potent after the war in Gaza that began in 2023, when Erdogan openly highlighted Israel’s arsenal and questioned why international inspection mechanisms do not apply in practice to all regional actors. … continue
China carried out an underground “nuclear explosive test” in June 2020, a senior US State Department official has claimed, citing “fresh intelligence” on the matter. Beijing has repeatedly dismissed such allegations as “entirely unfounded,” while independent observers say the evidence is inconclusive.
The US assistant secretary for arms control and nonproliferation, Christopher Yeaw, made the latest claims on Tuesday during an event hosted by the conservative Hudson Institute think tank in Washington.
He cited seismic data “quite consistent with what you would expect from a nuclear explosive test.”
“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 stated.
The minor 2.75 magnitude seismic event was registered by a remote station in Kazakhstan. Its epicenter was located some 725km away at the Lop Nur nuclear testing grounds in China, prompting the US to claim that it was caused by an underground blast.
China has repeatedly dismissed the American allegations as “entirely unfounded” and used only as a pretext to justify Washington’s own intent to resume nuclear testing. Yeaw’s remarks invoked a similar reaction, with a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington telling Reuters the latest claims were “political manipulation aimed at pursuing nuclear hegemony and evading its own nuclear disarmament responsibilities.”
Moscow has backed Beijing, repeatedly stating no evidence to support Washington’s claims exists. “Neither Russia nor China has conducted any nuclear tests. And we also know that these claims were firmly denied by representatives of China,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Preskov told reporters on Wednesday.
Independent observers have said there is too little evidence to positively establish the nature of the June 2020 incident. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, for instance, said that the monitoring station in Kazakhstan merely picked up “two very small seismic events, 12 seconds apart,” and it was not possible “with this data alone” to assess “the cause of these events with confidence.”
By Junaid S Ahmad | Counter Currents | February 18, 2026
When a regime starts rationing a prisoner’s light, it is no longer governing — it is unraveling.
If credible reports are accurate that Imran Khan’s eyesight has catastrophically deteriorated in custody, this is not bureaucratic failure, nor medical misfortune. It is escalation. It is the continuation — by more brutal means — of a four-year campaign of relentless state persecution against the most popular, electrifying, and historically singular political figure Pakistan has produced in its 78-year existence. The dimming of his vision is not incidental. It is terror by design.
Custody is sovereign monopoly distilled. The state controls light, air, medicine, sleep, contact — the total architecture of human survival. Under such conditions, physical deterioration is not “neglect.” It is the exercise of power. When a regime commands every variable of a prisoner’s existence and that prisoner’s body breaks down, the state owns the outcome.
Field Marshal Asim Munir and the high command over which he presides do not operate as reluctant custodians. They operate as proprietors. Elections are pre-engineered, judges are corralled, media is disciplined, civilian governments are rearranged with barracks precision. “Stability” is invoked as a doctrine of supervision — a euphemism for perpetual military arbitration of politics. The generals present themselves as indispensable guardians of order.
Yet this supposedly omnipotent machinery has chosen to brutalize the body of its most formidable rival.
This is not incompetence. It is calculated persecution.
If the top brass can choreograph parliamentary arithmetic and manipulate electoral outcomes with surgical accuracy, they can ensure medical integrity. The targeting of Khan’s physical and mental health must therefore be understood as an extension of the same war that has filled prisons with tens of thousands of his supporters. The message is unmistakable: no sanctuary, no mercy, no limit.
And here lies the regime’s profound miscalculation. Imran Khan is no longer merely a political competitor. He has become a historical force. For tens of millions, he embodies rupture in a system long monopolized by dynastic patronage and praetorian oversight. His defiance has transformed him from politician into symbol; his incarceration has elevated him from symbol into legend. Each arrest, each humiliation, each confinement has fused biography into myth.
Pakistan’s rulers have manufactured the singular icon they sought to extinguish. … continue
By Dan Frieth | Reclaim The Net | February 18, 2026
Three US senators want federal funding to help Iranians bypass censorship and access VPNs. The same three senators have spent years supporting the surveillance systems that track Americans online.
Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), James Lankford (R-OK), and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) are backing funding for anti-censorship technology and virtual private networks abroad.
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), whose privacy record is largely clean, is also supporting the effort. The bipartisan coalition wants to help people circumvent government internet controls. Just not the American government’s internet controls.
Graham’s voting record reads like a blueprint for the surveillance state he claims to oppose overseas. He voted for the Patriot Act in 2001 and has supported every major expansion since. When Section 702 of FISA came up for reauthorization, Graham backed it. When Congress considered making Section 702 permanent in 2017 with no sunset clauses and no congressional review, Graham backed that too.
His encryption stance is just as consistent. Graham co-sponsored the EARN IT Act in 2020, which would pressure platforms to weaken encryption to avoid liability.
He also backed the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data (LAED) Act, a bill that would require companies to build backdoors into their security systems. VPNs work because of encryption. Graham has spent years trying to break it. … continue
RT | February 18, 2026
Slovakia has declared a state of emergency following Ukraine’s decision to block vital Russian oil supplies to the country, TASR news agency has reported.
The state of emergency will be in effect from Thursday until September 30 at the latest, it added, citing Kiev’s refusal to transit Russian oil to the country and the ongoing blockade of the Druzhba pipeline network.
The Slovak government will release strategic oil reserves to ensure one month of operation for the country’s only refinery, in Bratislava, the agency wrote on Wednesday.
Slovakia will also import oil via Croatia’s Adria pipeline, an alternative route bypassing Druzhba, although that supply could take up to 30 days to reach the facility.
Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said the Czech government was also examining possibilities for supplying oil to Bratislava.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced after a government meeting on Wednesday that oil company Slovnaft was stopping the export of diesel to Ukraine, with all products now destined for the domestic market. … continue
By Lucas Leiroz | Strategic Culture Foundation | February 18, 2026
In recent days, videos of Europe’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, have gone viral on social media, showing her making statements marked by disconnected reasoning, weak associations, and conclusions that do not logically follow from the premises presented. At the same time, she delivered yet another of her “unusual” speeches, declaring that Europe would demand a reduction in the size of the Russian Army – an assertion made without any reference to legal, logistical, or strategic foundations to support such a measure, making the inconsistency of her position evident.
This statement highlights not only the European diplomacy’s disconnect from geopolitical reality, but also the symbolic function of certain figures who maintain positions of international visibility. Kallas, whose political trajectory was consolidated in Estonia with a strongly anti-Russian discourse, has become a piece of ideological rhetoric: she plays the role of a “watchdog” of European Russophobia and does not seem to mind being seen as “foolish” for her irrational public statements.
Beyond this aspect, there is also a practical function in this dynamic. Domestically, Kallas faced considerable political wear in Estonia: her family circle maintained commercial ties with Russia, and nationalist sectors criticized her for economic policies that allegedly weakened the country’s economic stability. In this sense, her promotion to the head of European diplomacy served as a convenient solution – removing a worn-out figure from the domestic scene while at the same time making use of her “angry” stance toward Moscow to sustain the anti-Russian narrative at the continental level. … continue
RT | February 18, 2026
Authorities in the German state of Lower Saxony have designated the local chapter of the right-wing AfD party a surveillance priority, citing what they called “extremist” tendencies.
Founded in 2013, Alternative for Germany (AfD) espouses a tough stance on migration and opposes Berlin’s support for Ukraine. In the federal elections last February, the AfD came in second… continue
Al Mayadeen | February 18, 2026
French International Criminal Court judge Nicolas Guillou says US sanctions imposed on him have severely disrupted his personal and professional life, highlighting Europe’s reliance on American financial and digital infrastructure.
On August 20, 2025, Guillou was placed under US sanctions by President Donald Trump after authorizing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Security Minister Yoav Gallant over their roles in the devastation of the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Guillou says he has effectively been cut off from many everyday services, despite remaining in Europe. While he and his family are barred from entering US territory, the consequences extend far beyond travel restrictions.
Financial and digital isolation
Because Visa and Mastercard dominate global payment systems, Guillou says he is unable to use most credit cards. Access to numerous digital services has also been restricted, and even routine online purchases can be blocked if a US-linked intermediary, such as the shipping company UPS, is involved.
“What is at the heart of the sanctions is the prohibition on any US individual or legal entity from providing services to, or receiving services from, a sanctioned person,” Guillou told journalists on Tuesday.
He added that some banks engage in what he described as “over-compliance”, automatically refusing transactions involving sanctioned individuals.
“This has happened to some of my colleagues, whose transfers or purchases were refused because the bank on the other side of the transaction declined the transfer from a sanctioned person,” he stressed.
“The most problematic situation is when it affects services for which there is actually no European alternative,” he added.
Guillou described booking a hotel in France through the US-based travel platform Expedia, only to have the reservation canceled hours later due to his sanctioned status.
At present, 11 judges at the International Criminal Court face similar restrictions. … Full article
HB 2236 and SB 2151 make the governor the “sole judge” of an emergency, allow sweeping powers based on a perceived threat alone.
By Jon Fleetwood | February 18, 2026
The Hawaii Legislature is advancing companion legislation that would formally codify sweeping emergency powers for the governor and county officials—including authority to quarantine individuals, enter private property without consent, suspend laws, and seize control of infrastructure—under the justification of preparing for future disasters and disease outbreaks. … continue
How Brussels’ Digital Services Act has been used to pressure platforms and electoral control in member states
RT | February 18, 2026
Romania’s 2024 presidential election was already one of the most controversial political episodes in the European Union in recent years. A candidate who won the first round was prevented from contesting the second. The vote was annulled. Claims of Russian interference were advanced without public evidence.
At the time, the affair raised urgent questions about democratic standards inside the EU. Newly disclosed documents reviewed by RT Investigations go further. They indicate that the annulment of the Romanian election was accompanied by sustained efforts to pressure social media platforms into suppressing political speech – efforts coordinated through mechanisms established under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
What appeared to be a national political crisis now looks increasingly like a test case for how far EU institutions are willing to go in intervening in the political processes of member states. … continue
Delegated powers mean the specific rules (what gets scanned, what gets flagged) get written by a minister, not Parliament.
By Ken Macon | Reclaim The Net | February 18, 2026
The UK government wants to scan people’s photos before they send them. Not just children’s photos. Everyone’s.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall spelled it out on BBC Breakfast, floating a proposal to “block photographs being sent that are potentially nude photographs by anybody or block children from sending those.” That second clause is the tell. Blocking “anybody” from sending potentially nude images requires scanning everybody’s messages. There’s no technical path to that outcome that doesn’t involve reading content the sender assumed was private.
Kendall said the government is conducting a consultation on “whether we should have age limits on things like live streaming” and whether there should be “age limits on what’s called stranger pairing, for example, on games online.” The consultation, she said, will look at all of these. That list now covers messaging apps, photo sharing, gaming, and live streaming. Any feature that lets you share an image with another person potentially falls inside it.
This is how the mandate grows. The government announced a push for new delegated powers on February 16, framing them around age verification for social media and VPNs.
What Kendall described in broadcast interviews goes well beyond that framing. The official press release mentioned consulting on how companies might “safeguard children from sending or receiving” nude images. Kendall’s BBC comments dropped the qualifier about children entirely, proposing to block “potentially nude” images sent by anyone.
The mechanism matters here. … continue
RT | February 18, 2026
Abuses carried out by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein could meet the definition of crimes against humanity, the UN has claimed, while demanding accountability for the suspected perpetrators.
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) released a statement in response to the millions of files released by the US government related to criminal investigations into the late financier.
The files reveal instances of “sexual slavery, reproductive violence, enforced disappearance, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and femicide,” reads the document penned by a group of independent experts and published on Monday.
“So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities… that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity,” it states. … continue
MSM grudgingly admits Pizzagaters were on to something
By Kevin Barrett | February 18, 2026
On January 30, the US Department of Justice released what it called “3.5 million responsive pages” in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act spearheaded by Rep. Thomas Massie. Though more than a month late, redacted in bizarrely non-compliant ways, and representing only about half of the Epstein files (the other half are still being illegally withheld) the DOJ document dump provided abundant, irrefutable evidence that the “antisemitic conspiracy theorists” have been right all along: The United States of America is occupied by a Jewish supremacist crime ring based in Israel.
The documents show that when then-United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Alex Acosta gave convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein a sweetheart plea deal in 2008 because Epstein “belonged to intelligence,” he was referring to Israeli intelligence. According to FBI files, Acosta’s source was Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s lawyer, who himself represented Israeli intelligence.
Epstein should have gone to prison for years or decades, as would any other criminal convicted of the same charges. But the notorious sex trafficker got a work-release wrist slap. Since when can a foreign intelligence agency tell a US Attorney not to do his job? … continue
By Freddie Ponton | 21st Century Wire | February 18, 2026
The resignation of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington in February 2026 revealed more than a scandal—it exposed the architecture of a parallel governance system operating through deniable channels. The Epstein files, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) censorship apparatus, and the Mandelson intelligence pipeline are not separate stories. They are component parts of a transatlantic mechanism that converts private access into public control, with enforcement mechanisms that now reach across sovereign borders to silence American citizens.
Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender with deep ties to political and financial elites on both sides of the Atlantic. Peter Mandelson is a former UK power‑broker and ambassador to Washington, now under investigation for secretly sharing government information with Epstein. This article shows how their relationship connects to a wider system of online censorship and private global‑health finance.
The Intelligence Pipeline: Real-Time Treasury Briefings to a Convicted Sex Offender
The Mandelson-Epstein correspondence reveals something far more systematic than indiscreet friendship. It documents a private intelligence channel operating at the highest levels of UK and US financial policy. … continue
- Germany is turning into ‘Little Israel’: Lies, smear campaigns, and Zionist propaganda
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- Israeli Forces Kill a Palestinian Young Man in Qalqilia
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- Zionist-controlled companies to surveil British citizens
- THE CHILDREN GAMBIT
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- Ukrainian Attacks Killed 21 Russian Civilians Over One Week
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- The Washington Post Smears Commentators For Reporting On Jeffery Epstein’s Israel Ties
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- Postpone The Celebrations
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- German courts could issue ‘speaking ban’ against major AfD politician in latest blow to free speech
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- Including A Child, Army Kills Seven Palestinians In Gaza
- The Empire of Lies: How the Western Colonial Project Turned Palestine into a Laboratory of Cruelty
- IOF arrests three young men during incursion in southern Syria
- Israeli pesticide spraying damages 80 dunams of wheat in Quneitra, officials say
- Iran advises US to act independently of ‘destructive’ Israeli influence amid nuclear talks in Oman
- Is Nixing Aid to Israel a Poison Chalice?
- Moscow, Paris resume technical levels talks as Macron urges ‘re-engagement’ with Russia
- Anchorage was the Receipt: Europe is Paying the Price… and Knows it
- Japan to Sign Up For NATO’s Ukraine Arms Pipeline
- Türkiye-NATO: Strategic Security Or Strategic Revision?
- The Kosovo war trial looks like damage control: How far can accountability go without reaching NATO?
- EU Pressured Social Media Giants to Censor Americans’ Speech
- FBI chief vows to ‘hunt down’ those who kill American citizens – except Israel
- Thousands mobilize to protest Israeli president visit to Australia
- Colonizer Attack Injures Several in Masafer Yatta
- Israeli forces kill 9 Palestinians in Gaza in new ceasefire violation
- Three-Year-Old Child Among Four Martyrs as Israeli Enemy Strikes Car in Southern Lebanon
- Made-for-Israel Wars: America’s Dangerous Habit of Forgetting
- IAEA to Inspect Several Iranian Nuclear Facilities in Next Few Days – Iran Vice President
- Decades of broken promises, aggression, Israeli pressure leave Iran no reason to trust US: Analyst
- Iran Willing to Dilute Enriched Uranium If US Lifts All Sanctions
- Iraqis volunteer en masse to fight in support of Iran
- Why didn’t China protect Venezuela from the US?
- US Boards Oil Tanker that Departed Venezuela
- Ukrainians ‘fed up with fighting’ – Budapest
- Orbán calls Ukraine an ‘enemy’ of Hungary
- No Grounds for Talks About New Negotiations With US on New START – Russian Deputy FM
- UK proposes North Sea drone fleet to target tankers – Sunday Times
- Russia vows ‘all possible assistance’ to Cuba as Washington moves to starve island
- South American countries’ pragmatic reassessment of ties with China amid US hegemonism, protectionism
- Epstein’s Ukrainian nexus: modeling agencies, trafficking, and elite connections
- Epstein case reveals ‘satanism’ of Western elites – Lavrov
- Trump Finances the Next Pandemic with $5.5 Billion Tax Dollars, Signs HR 7148 Into Law
- Swiss academics call for end to research treaty with Israel over Gaza genocide
- LAPD under fire over untracked police training trips to ‘Israel’
- Several Palestinians wounded in coordinated settler attacks across West Bank
- Hamas leader rejects disarmament, foreign rule in Gaza
- Palestinian child killed in Gaza amid ceasefire violations
- The Toxic Border: How Israel’s Chemical Spraying is Reshaping Life in South Lebanon
- Somalia president warns against Israeli interference, vows to prevent any military base in Somaliland
- Iranian FM says uranium enrichment to continue ‘even at cost of war’
- Zelensky tried to kill the chance for Russia-Ukraine peace, again
- Ukrainian press gang beats recruit to death – police
- No, Al-Jazeera, Climate Change Hasn’t Altered African Flood and Drought Patterns
- Bad Science, Big Consequences
- New Study Rebuts The Assumption That Anthropogenic CO2 Molecules Have ‘Special’ Properties
- The Testosterone Cover-Up
- Study finds 3,625 high-containment biolabs worldwide — 73% don’t disclose their locations or pathogen activities
- Most People Already Have Immune Defenses Against H5N1 Bird Flu: Journal ‘Immunity’
- Racketeering Scheme?: Vaccine Makers Profit Twice by Selling Drugs to Treat Vaccine Injuries
- When Threats Replace Evidence
- Gab Refuses to Pay Germany’s Fine, Challenges Cross-Border Online Censorship
- The Guardian Wants Substack To Start Censoring Creators
- How Noam Chomsky Became the Establishment’s Favorite Radical
- Iran riots and info war: When the ‘dead’ came back to debunk their own death stories
- Trump Authorizes up to 25% Tariffs on Countries Trading With Iran — Executive Order
- Mediterranean dockworkers stage coordinated strike in solidarity with Gaza
- Ten elected West Bank lawmakers held in Israeli prisons
- Occupation Forces Critically Injure a Child Near Jerusalem
- Israeli army kills Palestinian man east of Gaza City in violation of ceasefire
- The Gaza Ceasefire Has No Phase Two, Only a Permanent Limbo
- ‘US-supplied bombs still used to murder Palestinians’: US lawmaker
- DOJ records show Jeffrey Epstein donated thousands to Israeli army, Jewish National Fund
- Is Canada Really Warming?
- Climate Scientist Who Predicted End Of “Heavy Frost And Snow” Now Refuses Media Inquiries
- Dutch climate skeptics vindicated: KNMI reinstates seven pre-1950 heatwaves after long battle
- ‘Fact-checking’ as a disinformation scheme: The Brazilian case of Agência Lupa
- The reality of Trump’s cartoonish $1.5 trillion DOD budget proposal
- NATO’s ‘Agent Rutte’ in blatant sabotage of Ukraine peace negotiations
02.13.2026 
Aletho News 