The former Duke of York is eighth in line to the throne meaning he remains eligible to be King. Continue Reading »

The problems facing the monarchy over Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is also a family problem between brothers. Continue Reading »

Nasa sets the launch date following a successful "wet dress rehearsal" of the Artemis II mission. Continue Reading »

Cherish Bean, 15, and Ethan Slater, 17, died at Little Eden Holiday Park on Wednesday, police say. Continue Reading »

Family face a nine month battle with insurance giant Zurich which has now apologised. Continue Reading »

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• Fox-Dominion trial delay 'is not unusual,' judge says • Fox News' defamation battle isn't stopping Trump's election lies Continue Reading »

The judge just announced in court that a settlement has been reached in the historic defamation case between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems. Continue Reading »

A settlement has been reached in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation case against Fox News, the judge for the case announced. The network will pay more than $787 million to Dominion, a lawyer for the company said. Continue Reading »

President Donald Trump spoke hours after the Supreme Court ruled against his global tariffs that he imposed without Congress. Continue Reading »

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in his dissent, warned that "the refund process" for tariffs "is likely to be a 'mess,'" citing oral arguments Continue Reading »

The core PCE price index was expected to increase 3% from a year ago in December. GDP was projected to rise at a 2.5% pace in Q4. Continue Reading »

Trump has revealed economic data before its official release on multiple occasions, raising questions about possible policy violations Continue Reading »

The oil market's biggest fear is that a conflict between the U.S. and Iran could lead to a prolonged disruption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Continue Reading »

Par AFP © 2026 AFP Deux jeunes de 16 ans ont été interpellés mardi dans le Nord, l'un d'entre eux, fasciné par le jihadisme, reconnaissant un projet d'"action violente" qui "aurait pu" viser "un centre commercial ou une salle de concert", a indiqué vendredi le parquet national antiterroriste (Pnat).Le meneur présumé de ce duo envisageait de "dérober" une "arme à feu" et a "également admis avoir acquis des produits chimiques en vue de réaliser, à son domicile, des tests de combustion", précise encore le Pnat, confirmant le journal Le Parisien.Les deux mineurs ont été placés en garde à vue. Le Pnat a ouvert vendredi une information judiciaire, ce qui permet à un juge d'instruction d'enquêter. Le Pnat a requis une mise en examen de ces mineurs pour "association de malfaiteurs en vue de la préparation de crimes d'atteintes aux personnes". Il a demandé le placement en détention provisoire de l'un, le meneur présumé, et le placement sous contrôle judiciaire de l'autre.Le second mineur, le suiveur présumé, "informé" des "projets" de son comparse, est soupçonné d'avoir contribué à renforcer ses convictions radicales violentes", expose encore le Pnat.Les interpellations ont eu lieu dans le cadre d'une enquête préliminaire ouverte par ... Continue Reading »

Par AFP © 2026 AFP Quatre personnes sont mortes, dont trois dans des avalanches, vendredi en Autriche, touchée par d'importantes chutes de neige qui ont provoqué coupures d'électricité et perturbations dans les transports, avec la fermeture de tronçons autoroutiers et l'interruption temporaire du trafic à l'aéroport de Vienne.Trois skieurs ont trouvé la mort dans le Tyrol en raison d'avalanches provoquées par les fortes chutes de neige des derniers jours et un "homme de 53 ans a été écrasé" par une déneigeuse tombée dans les escaliers "d'un complexe résidentiel" à Linz (nord), a indiqué la police autrichienne.A Nauders dans le Tyrol, un skieur allemand, emporté par une avalanche, a perdu la vie et son fils de 16 ans a été grièvement blessé. Dans la station de St. Anton, deux personnes ont perdu la vie après une coulée de neige "gigantesque", selon le centre de coordination du Tyrol.Les autorités du Tyrol et le service de prévision des avalanches ont appelé les pratiquants de sports d'hiver à renoncer aux sorties et descentes hors-piste. Depuis le début de la saison hivernale, 18 personnes ont déjà trouvé la mort en raison d'avalanches dans ce pays majoritairement alpin."Le danger d'avalanches reste à surveiller ... Continue Reading »

Par TV5MONDE ESTELLE MARTIN TV5 JWPlayer Field Les crues exceptionnelles qui touchent la France, l'Espagne ou le Portugal vont-elles devenir la norme ? On en débat avec le rédacteur en chef de TVMonaco, Frederic Cauderlier, Ana Navaro Pedro, correspondante à Paris pour la presse portugaise, Sébastien Thomas, journaliste météo climat à France Télévisions et Florian Ringuedé, rédacteur en chef de France 3 Aquitaine en direct de Bordeaux. Continue Reading »

Par Pascale Bourgaux TV5 JWPlayer Field 47 pays étaient présents, 19 en qualité d'observateurs. Le président américain a annoncé une contribution américaine de 10 milliards de dollars. Continue Reading »

Par Christina Molleova TV5 JWPlayer Field Les Jeux Paralympiques d'hiver de 2026 se dérouleront à Milan et à Cortina, en Italie, du 6 au 15 mars 2026, avec six disciplines sportives principales. L'Ukraine boycotte la cérémonie d'ouverture, les tchèques aussi. Continue Reading »

The US has paid $160 million in outstanding dues towards more than $4 billion it owes the UN, Reuters has reported Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

US President Donald Trump is targeting Cuba with economic warfare and a possible new invasion Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

Hungary has blocked a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine, accusing Kiev of halting oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

EU members have failed to approve a 20th sanctions package against Russia, with Greece, Malta, Hungary, and Slovakia objecting Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

Finally admitting the obvious – that the CIA knew of the attack in advance – is a step towards normalizing it Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

Главный тренер петербургской команды пропустит матч с московским ЦСКА Continue Reading »

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Он считает, что американская сторона сильнее давит на Украину, чем на Россию из-за более трудного положения Киева Continue Reading »

Только в автомобильной промышленности увольнения затронут 54% предприятий, сообщил глава регионального отделения организации Хорст Отт Continue Reading »

Об этом сообщается в приложении МЧС Continue Reading »

ROBES REBUKE THE DON (Main headline, 1st story, link) Related stories:HIS TARIFFS ARE ILLEGAL!PRESIDENT RAGES: 'THESE F*CKING COURTS'PROMISES TO KEEP TRYING'I CAN DESTROY THE COUNTRY'**LIVE UPDATES**$175 BILLION REFUNDED TO NATIONS? Continue Reading »

HIS TARIFFS ARE ILLEGAL! (Main headline, 2nd story, link) Related stories:ROBES REBUKE THE DONPRESIDENT RAGES: 'THESE F*CKING COURTS'PROMISES TO KEEP TRYING'I CAN DESTROY THE COUNTRY'**LIVE UPDATES**$175 BILLION REFUNDED TO NATIONS? Continue Reading »

PRESIDENT RAGES: 'THESE F*CKING COURTS' (Main headline, 3rd story, link) Related stories:ROBES REBUKE THE DONHIS TARIFFS ARE ILLEGAL!PROMISES TO KEEP TRYING'I CAN DESTROY THE COUNTRY'**LIVE UPDATES**$175 BILLION REFUNDED TO NATIONS? Continue Reading »

PROMISES TO KEEP TRYING (Main headline, 4th story, link) Related stories:ROBES REBUKE THE DONHIS TARIFFS ARE ILLEGAL!PRESIDENT RAGES: 'THESE F*CKING COURTS''I CAN DESTROY THE COUNTRY'**LIVE UPDATES**$175 BILLION REFUNDED TO NATIONS? Continue Reading »

'I CAN DESTROY THE COUNTRY' (Main headline, 5th story, link) Related stories:ROBES REBUKE THE DONHIS TARIFFS ARE ILLEGAL!PRESIDENT RAGES: 'THESE F*CKING COURTS'PROMISES TO KEEP TRYING**LIVE UPDATES**$175 BILLION REFUNDED TO NATIONS? Continue Reading »

At least 1,000 companies have already sued the administration of United States President Donald Trump. Continue Reading »

Supreme Court blocks Trump's emergency tariffs, but he plans to invoke other laws to maintain and raise tariffs. Continue Reading »

Devastating floods have left entire villages isolated in western France after a record-breaking 37 days of rain. Continue Reading »

Lebanon's official news agency NNA says 'Israeli drone' targeted the Hittin neighbourhood of the Ein el-Hilweh camp. Continue Reading »

Can wildlife tourism balance conservation, land rights and profit? Continue Reading »

The former Duke of York is eighth in line to the throne meaning he remains eligible to be King. Continue Reading »

The problems facing the monarchy over Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is also a family problem between brothers. Continue Reading »

Nasa sets the launch date following a successful "wet dress rehearsal" of the Artemis II mission. Continue Reading »

Cherish Bean, 15, and Ethan Slater, 17, died at Little Eden Holiday Park on Wednesday, police say. Continue Reading »

Family face a nine month battle with insurance giant Zurich which has now apologised. Continue Reading »

The court’s rejection of President Trump’s tariffs program is the latest in a series of clashes between him and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Continue Reading »

“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” the president said. Continue Reading »

Within days of the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last year, all sides agreed to a cease-fire. This time could be different. Continue Reading »

The comments by Iran’s foreign minister on Friday contradicted the Trump administration’s position. Continue Reading »

An analysis of ship movements shows that the Trump administration is isolating the island at one of its most vulnerable moments. Continue Reading »

The Chinese upstart says it has trained high-performing AI models cheaply, without using the most advanced chips. Continue Reading »

DeepSeek, SoFi and more in the latest Market Talks covering Technology, Media and Telecom. Continue Reading »

DeepSeek is called “amazing and impressive” despite working with less-advanced chips. Continue Reading »

The LinkedIn co-founder is starting Manas AI with “The Emperor of All Maladies” author Siddhartha Mukherjee. Continue Reading »

Apps can add flexibility and freshness to your routine. Just try not to get injured. Continue Reading »

Israel allowed displaced Gazans to begin crossing a military zone that bisects the enclave after a deadlock over hostage releases was broken. Continue Reading »

Troubles at Vanke raise questions about the continued spread of the property crisis and whether the Chinese state will step in. Continue Reading »

Some of the women were held alone for extended periods and spent eight months in tunnels, an Israeli medical official said. Continue Reading »

The alliance mounted its first coordinated response to a suspected sabotage campaign against critical infrastructure after another cable was severed in the Baltic Sea. Continue Reading »

Residents of Goma reported gunfire and shelling after rebels overran Congolese troops. U.N. officials estimated that more than one million displaced people were now inside the city. Continue Reading »

President Donald Trump slammed the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision that ruled he does not have the authority to levy sweeping tariffs under a specific emergency powers law, noting he will pursue "alternatives" to tariffs under emergency law. "Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected," Trump said during a White House press briefing Friday afternoon. "We have alternatives. Great alternatives. Could be more money. We'll take in more money, and we'll be a lot stronger for it. We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. We'll continue to do so." The president also announced he is imposing a 10% "global tariff" following the court's decision. Continue Reading »

The Supreme Court cast aside the bulk of President Trump's sweeping tariffs Friday, obliterating a canon of his economic strategy in ruling that his use of an emergency statute to remake global trade was unlawful. The decision invalidates what the Trump administration called the president's most significant economic and foreign policy initiative of his second term, a result Trump has warned could foist financial ruin upon the United States. The justices rejected Trump's expanded use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in imposing tariffs on nearly every country. The 1970s-era law allows the president to "regulate" imports when necessary to respond to national emergencies that pose an "unusual and extraordinary" threat. Continue Reading »

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law when he unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs across the globe, a striking loss for the White House on an issue that has been central to the president's foreign policy and economic agenda. The decision is arguably the most important loss the second Trump administration has sustained at the conservative Supreme Court, which last year repeatedly sided with the president in a series of emergency rulings on immigration, the firing of the leaders of independent agencies and deep cuts to government spending. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion and the court agreed 6-3 that the tariffs exceeded the law. The court, however, did not say what should happen to the more than $130 billion in tariffs that has already been collected. Continue Reading »

The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's far-reaching global tariffs on Friday, handing him a stinging loss on an issue crucial to his economic agenda. Furious about the defeat, Trump said he will impose a global 10% tariff as an alternative while pressing his trade policies by other means. The new tariffs would come under a law that restricts them to 150 days. He made that announcement after lashing out at the Supreme Court for striking down much of his sweeping tariff infrastructure as an illegal use of emergency power. Trump said he was "absolutely ashamed" of justices who voted to strike down his tariffs and called the ruling "deeply disappointing." Continue Reading »

Candidates for Congress are not required to live within the congressional district they seek to represent. The U.S. Constitution only requires candidates for congressional office to live in the state where they run for office, although there is no minimum required length of residency. States cannot enact additional, district-specific residency requirements for congressional candidates, following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a landmark 1995 election case.  AllSides highlights content from Gigafact, a network of newsrooms that respond to online claims. View the full fact brief on The Nevada Independent. Continue Reading »

Studies show hardly any non-citizens successfully vote in state and national elections. Byron Donalds, a Republican running for Florida governor, said on a Feb. 9 podcast that requiring proof of citizenship for newly-registered voters would cause problems for blue states, suggesting Democrats rely on illegal voting to win elections. However, studies have proven the number of non-citizens who do cast votes doesn't impact election outcomes –– let alone make a ripple.AllSides highlights content from Gigafact, a network of newsrooms that respond to online claims. View the full fact brief on Suncoast Searchlight. Continue Reading »

Presidential polling from Gallup is coming to an end after nearly nine decades, in a major shift in how one of the country's most well-known survey firms measures public opinion. For years, Gallup has been considered the gold standard for tracking how Americans feel about the president. While the organization says it will pivot toward issue-based polling instead of presidential job approval, other firms are continuing to track the numbers — offering a detailed look at how President Donald Trump is performing across the country. Continue Reading »

A newly created advisory group from President Donald Trump is stepping into discussions about Gaza's future, as international officials warn the cost of rebuilding the war-torn territory could reach tens of billions of dollars, and humanitarian needs remain urgent. The president's "Board of Peace" met in Washington on Thursday to discuss reconstruction efforts in Gaza. President Trump pledged $10 billion from the U.S. and members of the Board of Peace reportedly pledged $7 billion, according to NBC News. Continue Reading »

CLAIM: A YouTube video authentically shows conservative columnist George Will reporting that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney walked out of the White House after U.S. President Donald Trump triggered a North American economic crisis. RATING: FAKE In February 2026, a rumor circulated online that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney "walked out" of the White House after U.S. President Donald Trump allegedly triggered a North American economic crisis. The allegation spread largely through a YouTube video (archived) titled "1 Minute Ago: Carney Walks Out Did Trump Just Trigger a North American Economic Crisis | George Will." The clip presented itself as a breaking news report and implied viewers were hearing authentic commentary from conservative columnist George Will. Continue Reading »

A key inflation gauge accelerated in December to the fastest pace in nearly a year, showing how prices are still rising more quickly than most Americans would prefer — and faster than the Federal Reserve's target of 2% a year. Prices rose 0.4% in December from the previous month, up from 0.2% in November, the Commerce Department said Friday in a report that was delayed by the six-week government shutdown last fall. The monthly increase was the highest since last February. Compared with a year ago, inflation rose 2.9% in December, up from 2.8% in November. That is the largest yearly increase since March 2024. Continue Reading »

After the U.S. Department of Justice released millions of documents related to the case of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Jan. 30, 2026, rumors about the emails included in the so-called "Epstein Library" multiplied. The emails revealed details about Epstein's purported ties to powerful people, including President Donald Trump, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Harry Potter author JK Rowling. This, in turn, fueled speculation that the disgraced financier was at the heart of a massive conspiracy. As the public, journalists and authorities around the world examined the cache of documents, Snopes shed light on several claims, true and false: Continue Reading »

The U.S. economy slowed at the end of 2025, capping a volatile year in which growth ultimately held firm, as resilient consumers and an A.I. investment boom helped keep growth on track despite tariffs, uncertainty and the longest government shutdown in history. Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the final three months of the year, the Commerce Department said on Friday. That was down sharply from a 4.4 percent rate in the third quarter, partly because of the prolonged shutdown. For 2025 as a whole, measured from the end of 2024, G.D.P. increased 2.2 percent, compared with 2.3 percent the previous year. The numbers are preliminary and will be revised at least twice in the coming months. Continue Reading »

The U.S. economy grew more slowly the fourth quarter of last year, weighed down by last fall's record-long government shutdown and slower consumer spending. U.S. gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced across the economy—rose at a 1.4% seasonally and inflation adjusted annual rate in the final quarter of last year, the Commerce Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected a 2.5% reading. The quarterly reading was a sharp slowdown from the summer's blistering 4.4% rate. Federal government spending declined at a 16.6% rate in the fourth quarter. In 2025, the economy grew 2.2%, measured from the fourth quarter of the prior year. That was slower than 2.4% growth in 2024 and the weakest since 2022. Economists surveyed by the Journal last month expected growth of 2.3% for 2025. Continue Reading »

Talk about bad timing. On Wednesday, President Trump boasted on social media that the U.S. trade deficit had been reduced by 78 percent thanks to his comprehensive tariff regime, a claim apparently based on his cherry-picking of data between October and January. Less than twelve hours later, the Census Bureau published its annual trade report. It reveals that the U.S. trade deficit declined by just 0.2 percent in 2025 — a far cry from Trump's figure — from $903.5 billion in 2024 to $901.5 billion last year. Continue Reading »

President Donald Trump says he's directing the government to release classified files about UFOs and extraterrestrial life in response to a spike in interest in the subject caused by one of his predecessors in the White House. Trump announced on social media Thursday that he would direct the Department of Defense and other agencies to release the material days after former President Barack Obama suggested in an interview that aliens are "real" though he hadn't seen any. "Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters," Trump said in the social media post. Continue Reading »

In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has made a series of claims about the economy, a topic that should feature prominently in his State of the Union address to Congress on Feb. 24. "We have the hottest country anywhere in the world," Trump said at a White House press briefing on Jan. 20, adding later that "America is booming." He made similar comments the following day, asserting that "we were a dead country" a year ago. But his economic boasts include false or misleading claims, and he sometimes pushes an incorrect narrative of an abrupt change in some economic indicators since he came back to the White House. Continue Reading »

Remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Wednesday signal that national Democrats are pursuing sweeping changes that extend far beyond abolishing ICE, Breitbart reported. During a town hall, Omar said Democrats are not only discussing eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but are also engaged in conversations about dismantling the Department of Homeland Security altogether. "What I will say is that there is an easier conversation happening today than six, seven years ago when I got to Congress, about what we need to do with ICE, which is to abolish it," Omar told attendees in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Continue Reading »

You don't have to seek God's will for your career anymore. I'm mostly joking, but not entirely. We must always seek God's will. But what we meant by this for most of our lives is about to change dramatically. It's not God or his will that's changing but the world as we've known it—and with it, the outmoded way we've thought about "career." Continue Reading »

Wednesday, February 18th, 2026, is Ash Wednesday, the first day of this year's Lent season. During Lent, many Christians observe spiritual practices like fasting, prayers, and other means to draw closer to God. Millions of Christians observe Ash Wednesday by wearing ashes on their forehead in the shape of a cross. Regent University's Dean of The School of Divinity, Corné J. Bekker, D.Litt. et Phil., told CBN News the significance of ashes in scripture. "In the Bible, ashes represent two things. It represents repentance and our own mortality. And so when you look back in scripture, when Jonah preached to Nineveh, the king repented in sackcloth, and in ash," he said, adding, "Jesus references this even. He said to these two cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida, he says, 'If you'd seen the miracles that I have prepared, you would've repented in ashes.' Putting it on our forehead is a countercultural declaration that we are in need of God's grace and power." Continue Reading »

Amid the Trump administration's increasingly aggressive deportation push, the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly misrepresented or lied about multiple recent events, only to be contradicted by later evidence. Right-wing media, meanwhile, continue to carry water for the agency's propaganda. In reporting following two separate incidents in which U.S. citizens were killed at the hands of immigration officials in Minnesota, Fox News, for instance, cited DHS statements that later proved to be false before further information was available. Continue Reading »

Steve Cohen Tops Hedge Fund Rich List With $3.4 Billion Haul Steve Cohen spent last fall doing something few billionaire owners enjoy: apologizing. As the New York Mets staggered through a bruising 2025 campaign, he took to social media to tell fans he was sorry for the disappointment at Citi Field. Yet even as the baseball season fizzled, Cohen was clinching a very different kind of pennant, according to Bloomberg. The founder of Point72 Asset Management finished the year as the highest-paid hedge fund manager on Bloomberg’s annual ranking, pocketing an estimated $3.4 billion. That works out to more than $9 million every day — a staggering haul even by Wall Street standards. For the first time since the list began, Cohen sat alone at the top. The contrast is striking. Cohen, 69, bought the Mets in 2020 for a record $2.4 billion and pledged to deliver a championship within three to five years. He backed up that promise with one of the sport’s largest payrolls. But while October glory in Queens remains elusive, his investment firm in Stamford, Connecticut, has flourished. Point72’s ascent is particularly notable given its history. Cohen’s former ... Continue Reading »

Ford Carrier Group Enters Mediterranean To Join Biggest US Build-Up Since 2003 Iraq War Open source monitors as well as US and Middle East media have confirmed that the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, has entered the Mediterranean Sea, having sailed passed the Strait of Gibraltar on Friday. This is the second carrier strike group expected to soon operate directly in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, amid the massive military build-up and pressure campaign against Iran. It was sent from the Caribbean earlier this month, extending its planned deployment. USS Ford entering the Mediterranean. Via @dparody The USS Mahan Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, which is accompanying the USS Gerald R. Ford, is also now crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, maritime tracking analysis shows. The aircraft carrier will likely take several more days to reach the Middle East and be poised to operate against Iran - so it looks to be in place by start of next week. According to Bloomberg and other outlets, the US has now amassed the biggest force in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. There is administration talk of "limited strikes" - but clearly Washington is ... Continue Reading »

Judge Temporarily Blocks Democrat-Backed Referendum To Redraw Virginia's Congressional Map Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, A county judge in Virginia issued an emergency restraining order on Feb. 19, pausing a referendum backed by Democrats that aims to redraw the state’s congressional maps. Tazewell County Circuit Judge Jack Hurley issued the order following a Feb. 18 motion by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) that sought to challenge House Bill 1384. HB1384 schedules a referendum for April 21 on a proposed constitutional amendment to allow the General Assembly to redraw the state’s congressional districts. Virginia’s redistricting plan was projected to give Democrats four more U.S. House seats. The Republican request for a restraining order argued that Democrats were ramming redistricting-related bills through the Legislature despite legal hurdles that prevent such a rushed process. In its Feb. 18 filing, NRCC argued that HB1384 violates the Constitution by calling a referendum less than 90 days after it cleared the Legislature for the second time. The Constitution requires at least 90 days between the final passage and submission to the voters, according to the filing. In his ruling, Hurley found that temporary relief was warranted in this case ... Continue Reading »

Oakland Mayor, Who Supported 'Defund The Police' Has Her Car Stolen Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA, An alleged thief stole Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s city-owned vehicle after breaking into her office just two days earlier, according to the California edition of the New York Post.  The Oakland Police Department recovered the vehicle within hours, two days after somebody tampered with her office’s door.  “The Oakland Police Department is investigating the theft of a city-owned vehicle. On February 17, 2026, OPD was notified that the vehicle was stolen from Oakland City Hall,” the OPD said through a spokesperson. “The vehicle was recovered within hours. OPD is following up on potential leads.”  Lee took office in May 2025 after serving more than two decades in Congress. She previously expressed support for efforts to “restructure” and “overhaul” policing during the 2020 protests, language widely associated with the “defund the police” movement.  In 2020, she told Politico she was “really proud” of the Minneapolis City Council’s pledge to defund the local police.  In December 2020, she also said, “We have to restructure our funding priorities in terms of how we make our communities safe.”  “We have seen video after video over the last few weeks of peaceful protestors being met with extreme violence from police,” Lee said ... Continue Reading »

"We Saw It. We Passed": Blue Owl Fails To Secure Third Party Funding For $4 Billion Data Center As we discussed extensively yesterday, Blue Owl already has huge headaches with its software exposure, being forced to dump a substantial amount of its SaaS-linked loans (to related parties among others) as it gates retail investors in its private credit fund amid a tsunami of redemption requests. We now learn that the massive private credit asset manager is also facing major hardware challenges too.  According to Insider, Blue Owl - which is also a leading investor in the data center boom funding countless projects with private loans - was unable to arrange financing for a $4 billion data center it is co-developing in Pennsylvania after pitching lenders to help bankroll the project in recent months. The facility, located in Lancaster county 80 miles west of Philadelphia, will be occupied by CoreWeave, a junk-rated provider of cloud computing services that has become a closely watched name in the AI race for its rapid expansion due to the massive debt load it took on to fund that expansion which has sent its credit default swaps ... Continue Reading »

Goldman's Meeting With Top Memory Supplier Points To Higher Prices As Crunch Worsens The high-bandwidth memory (HBM) shortage is already pressuring the margins of consumer electronics companies, disrupting product launches, and pushing up the prices of TVs and computers. The latest development is Valve's handheld gaming PC, which is reportedly out of stock in select regions as the memory crunch now filters into retail availability. We have been leaning on institutional channel checks across the semis and hardware coverage universe to gain an insider's perspective on what's happening across the memory space and what to potentially expect in the quarters ahead. The latest read comes from Goldman analysts led by Giuni Lee, following a discussion with SK Hynix, a critical supplier of HBM chips, on the implications of a very tight memory market. Lee offered clients five key takeaways from her conversation with SK Hynix: Memory pricing is likely to growth throughout this year driven by real demand and tight supply, Healthy inventory levels and strengthening supplier leverage are leading to increased discussions around longer term contracts, The current tight conventional DRAM S/D could lead to more favorable terms for HBM business in 2027, The ... Continue Reading »

Meta's AI Would Like To Keep You Posting After You're Dead Ever since social media became a fixture of daily life, an uncomfortable question has lingered: what should happen to someone’s account after they die? Leave it frozen in time? Hand it to family members as a memorial? Or quietly let it fade into the algorithm? A few years ago, Meta Platforms explored a far more ambitious possibility, according to Futurism. In 2023, the company received a patent describing how a large language model could be trained on a user’s past posts to simulate their voice and behavior — keeping an account active if the person were “absent,” including in the event of death. The filing, led by CTO Andrew Bosworth, outlined how such a system could generate posts, comments, likes, and even private messages in the user’s style. The idea was striking, and for many, unsettling. Meta has since said it has no plans to move forward with that example. But the patent offers a snapshot of a moment when tech companies were aggressively testing the limits of what generative AI might do — including extending a person’s digital presence beyond ... Continue Reading »

Inflation Fears Plummet As UMich's Democratic Bias Is Exposed After rebounding strongly in preliminary February data (as Democrats came to their senses over the fearmongered Trump tariff-flation), the final UMich sentiment survey print slipped lower with the headline lowered from 57.3 to 56.6. Both Current Conditions and Expectations were lower than the flash print with the latter falling to 2 month lows and the former holding at 4-month highs... Does anyone else think its weird that all the numbers were exactly the same at 56.6 Source: Bloomberg Democrats and Republicans led the decrease in inflation expectations... Source: Bloomberg UMich Survey Director Joanna Hsu noted that "all index components posted insignificant movements this month; overall, consumers do not perceive any material differences in the economy from last month." Democrats confidence is at its highest since July 2025... Year-ahead inflation expectations fell from 4.0% last month to 3.4% this month, the lowest reading since January 2025. Hsu concludes that "A sizable month-to-month increase in sentiment for the largest stockholders was fully offset by a decline among consumers without stock holdings. Similar divergences were seen across income and education, where higher-income or college educated consumers exhibited increases in sentiment while ... Continue Reading »

London Mayor Khan Under Fire As BBC Exposes Scale Of Grooming Gangs Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is facing renewed criticism after a major BBC investigation found that vulnerable girls as young as 14 are being lured into forced sex by gangs operating across the capital. The investigation, based on weeks of reporting and interviews with dozens of people, including five survivors of gang-based violence, concluded that exploitation by organised groups is rife in parts of London. Some victims told the BBC they were raped by multiple men as “payment” for unpaid drug debts run up by gangs that controlled them. Others said they had been groomed solely for sex. The investigation also found that girls were often drawn into criminal activity such as drug dealing, weapons trading, and phone theft before being sexually exploited. One Metropolitan Police officer described young girls and women as the “lowest rung” within gang hierarchies, saying they were groomed and exploited “for everything.” Public debate over grooming gangs in the U.K. has often focused on northern towns such as Rotherham and Rochdale. A government-commissioned report last year found that in Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, ... Continue Reading »

Watch: School Kids Chant "F**k ICE" In Disturbing Classroom Presentation Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, A disturbing video has surfaced showing middle school students delivering a classroom presentation that openly attacks U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and promotes unchecked immigration. Dressed in black hoodies, the boys stand before their peers, chanting profanities and gesturing defiantly against the agents protecting America’s borders. The footage captures the students declaring “F*ck ICE” while raising their middle fingers to federal immigration enforcement. Students give a presentation to their class about being pro-immigration and against police officers and ICE They say “F*ck ICE” and all give the middle finger to federal immigration enforcement This is absolutely unacceptable. Our kids are being indoctrinated to support a… pic.twitter.com/ojhDF61pLR — Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) February 19, 2026 The presentation pushes a pro-immigration stance while demonizing police and ICE, framing border security as oppression. Such displays reveal how leftist agendas have infiltrated classrooms, turning education into a breeding ground for open-borders extremism that undermines national sovereignty. Details behind the TikTok clip have not emerged, but this incident aligns with a wave of anti-ICE activism sweeping schools nationwide. Just weeks ago, students at North Central High School in Indianapolis ... Continue Reading »

2025 New Home Sales Highest Since 2021 US New Home Sales dipped 1.7% MoM in December (after a 15.5% MoM surge in November)... ...but ended the year at 745k - the highest SAAR since 2021... "New" home sales have notably decoupled from "used" home sales in the last few years as homebuilders incentivize buyers (reducing margins) and lower prices (reducing revenues)... Lower mortgage rates support modest further improvements in sales... Will this be Trump's lead on housing affordability? Tyler Durden Fri, 02/20/2026 - 10:24 Continue Reading »

Matt Taibbi: Epstein Files Are "Uniquely Destructive" To Both Political Parties Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance This week I interviewed Matt Taibbi at a moment when, as he put it, “this is a pretty weird time.” He had just learned that his outlet, Racket News, had been investigated by the British government using what he described as “human intelligence sources and all kinds of crazy stuff.” “It’s been pretty weird,” he told me. What struck him most was how normalized this kind of pressure has become. Governments, he said, now routinely “hire out private intelligence firms and private PR firms to devise strategies to undermine negative press.” If you’re doing adversarial reporting, he added, “you’ll get swept up in this. So you probably have been, you just don’t know it.” From there, we moved into the Epstein story, which has become a political third rail. I asked him whether bipartisan silence around certain issues should worry people. Taibbi said most of what happens in Washington is already bipartisan; the public just doesn’t see it. “The thing that we call the news,” he said, is “a sliver of disagreement” between parties. The rest—“98% ... Continue Reading »

Weather & Weak Demand Drive US PMIs Down To 10-Month Lows In February, But... While 'hard' data has been fading modestly in recent weeks, 'soft' survey data has bounced back but today we get a first glimpse at February's PMIs from S&P Global to see if that survey-based confidence is continuing. It is not as both Manufacturing and Services PMIs dropped notably., Flash US Services PMI Business Activity Index: 52.3 (January: 52.7). 10-month low. Flash US Manufacturing PMI: 51.2 (January: 52.4). 7-month low.    Source: Bloomberg Overall that dragged the US Composite PMI down to its lowest since April 2025 (and weaker than UK and Japan)... "A combination of weakened demand, high prices, and adverse weather colluded to dampened business activity in February," said Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, "resulting in the slowest expansion of output for ten months." Customer demand growth has softened, with orders even falling in factories, curbing jobs growth to a crawl across both manufacturing and services. The PMI data so far this year are indicative of GDP rising at an annualized rate of just 1.5%, signaling a marked cooling of the economy in the first quarter ... Continue Reading »

Nvidia Favors $30 Billion OpenAI Investment, Retreating From Prior $100 Billion Commitment Update (Friday):  Bloomberg reported earlier this week that OpenAI is nearing completion of a new funding round that could raise more than $100 billion. Separately, the Financial Times reported on Thursday that Nvidia is close to finalizing an investment of about $30 billion in OpenAI, a significantly smaller amount than the $100 billion commitment agreed upon last year. FT cited people familiar with the funding round who said the "final stages" have begun and that Nvidia's $30 billion equity investment in OpenAI could be completed as early as this weekend. The downsized investment from Nvidia tears up the $100 billion commitment the companies unveiled last September, described as a "letter of intent" but never moved from an MOU to a formal agreement. Nvidia's investment is part of a larger funding round that is set to raise $100 billion for OpenAI and value it at around $730 billion. Bloomberg stated earlier this week that, besides Nvidia, other investors, including SoftBank Group, Amazon, and Microsoft, were participating in the deal. OpenAI is expected to recycle much of the fresh capital into Nvidia chips, ... Continue Reading »

With Shaky Reasoning, Trump Weighs Limited Initial Strike On Iran To Force A Deal Having amassed the heaviest US air power in the Middle East since the disastrous 2003 Iraq invasion, President Trump is now considering an initial, limited strike on Iran to force it to bow to the maximalist demands of Israel and the United States. The idea is based on two deeply questionable premises: that air strikes alone will compel Iran to give up its defensive ballistic missile capabilities, and halt all nuclear enrichment  that Iran won't retaliate for an American "limited strike" in a way that sends the United States, Israel, Iran and perhaps even Russia and China racing up an escalation ladder  Reported by the Wall Street Journal, the single-strike scenario is an alternative to the idea of a sustained, weeks-long military campaign that would not only target nuclear sites, but also state and security facilities. The Pentagon has been actively planning for such an onslaught, and one official told Reuters that the administration fully expects such a campaign would trigger Iranian retaliation and a series of strikes and reprisals that last far longer than last summer's 12-day war that was ... Continue Reading »

US & Chinese Fighter Jets In Rare Brief Face-Off Near Korea US and Chinese fighter jets engaged in a brief aerial standoff over waters near the Korean Peninsula this week, according to South Korean media, in a rare and dangerous incident that underscores ongoing simmering tensions between Washington and Beijing. Yonhap, citing military sources, reported that China scrambled aircraft on Wednesday after roughly 10 US jets took off from an American airbase in South Korea for planned drills. The US had reportedly filed its flight plan in advance. F-16 fighters assigned to US Forces Korea (USFK) launched from Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, about 60 kilometers south of Seoul, and flew near the overlapping air defense identification zones (ADIZ) of South Korea and China. The US aircraft did not enter China’s ADIZ, according to the report, but alarm bells still went off for the Chinese PLA military. Chosun Daily: The South Korean and U.S. Air Forces conduct a joint formation flight, escorting a US Air Force B-1B 'Lancer' strategic bomber with fighter jets, following North Korea's ICBM provocation in February 2023.  In response, "The Chinese People's Liberation Army organized naval and air forces to ... Continue Reading »

Agentic AI Isn't Eating Software – It's Feeding Market Volatility Authored by David Parsons via BondVigilantes.com, The sharp sell‑off across software names in recent weeks has prompted questions from investors, many centred on whether the rapid rise of agentic artificial intelligence marks the beginning of a deeper structural shift in enterprise technology. The catalyst was the latest demonstration from Anthropic’s Claude platform, whose new “Cowork” and “Code” capabilities promise to automate tasks that were once firmly in human hands, from drafting documents and synthesising research to generating production‑ready code. Equity markets were quick to draw conclusions, punishing enterprise software companies without drawing any distinctions, based on the assumption that their software tools and embedded long term relationships were significantly devalued. Discussions among technology specialists, both within M&G and across the broader industry, agree that the market move has been overdone. Rather than reflecting the pace or scale of disruption in the software environment, prices have been driven lower by perceived risk rather than evidence that software company valuations have been impaired by the AI revolution. The degree of weakness bears little resemblance to what is actually happening inside real enterprise businesses. Instead ... Continue Reading »

Q4 GDP Unexpectedly Grows At 1.4%, Half Expected Pace, As Government Shutdown Slams Growth There was a big surprise at 8:30am ET when the BEA reported the (delayed) GDP print for the last quarter of 2025: With consensus expecting a 2.8% print  (and the Atlanta Fed GDPNow model even higher) which would already be a big drop from the 4.4% in Q3, the BEA instead reported that the US economy grew at just 1.4% in the fourth quarter, the slowest growth since the tariff shock of Q1 2025. According to the BEA, the contributors to the increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter were increases in consumer spending and investment. These movements were partly offset by decreases in government spending and exports. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.  Overall, the economy expanded 2.2% last year, data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed. Specifically, the Q4 breakdown was as follows: Personal consumption slowed notably, from 2.34% of the bottom line GDP to just 1.58% or more than 100% of the final 1.42% GDP print Fixed Investment contributed to 0.45% of bottom line GDP, up from 0.15% in Q3 Change in private ... Continue Reading »

FBI Director Kash Patel Says Bureau Uncovered Antifa Funding Sources Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), FBI Director Kash Patel said on Feb. 18 that the law enforcement agency uncovered what he said are funding sources tied to antifa organizations, suggesting that more enforcement actions could come against the left-wing movement. FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on Dec. 4, 2025. Daniel Heuer/AFP via Getty Images “Whether it’s antifa or any other violent criminal organization—we know their operations don’t exist alone; they operate with heavy funding streams,” he wrote in a post on X, along with a clip from an interview with former deputy director Dan Bongino, on his show. Patel said that the FBI is “finding them and those who fund their criminal activity.” The FBI chief did not provide more information about the organizations, the source of the funding, or specific donors who may be involved. However, he said the FBI is looking into any financial backers linked to violence committed by alleged antifa operators. Agents are looking at whether funding was sent through U.S.-based nonprofit groups and whether ... Continue Reading »

Savings Rate Tumbles To 4 Year Lows As Fed's Favorite Inflation Indicator Comes In Hot The Fed's favorite inflation indicator - Core PCE (a measure of price changes in consumer goods and services that excludes volatile food and energy costs) - rose 0.4% in December (the latest data released today), slightly hotter than expected (+0.3% MoM). That lifted YoY inflation up 3.0% (above the prior month and hotter than expected) - the highest since April 2025... Source: Bloomberg The headline PCE rose 0.4% MoM (more than expected too) driving prices up 2.9% YoY (the highest since March 2024) Source: Bloomberg The much watched SuperCore PCE rose 0.3% MoM (the last MoM decline was April 2020). But the SuperCore PCE YoY printed +3.3% - very much unmoved in the last year... Services prices continue to dominate the price gains but Goods costs also accelerated in December... Many were fearful of the recent surge in oil prices impacting inflation, but as the chart below shows, the government's measure of energy costs has recently (oddly) decoupled from actual energy costs... Higher prices were accompanied by higher incomes and higher spending... But Spending continues to outpace incomes (even though the former ... Continue Reading »