cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/Epsteinfiles/p/884895/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-arrested-on-suspicion-of-misconduct-in-public-office-live

• > Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office by police investigating the former prince’s dealings with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. >
• Photographs of unmarked police cars and plainclothes officers at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate just after 8am were published on Thursday. >
• A statement from Thames Valley police said: “We have today (19/2) arrested a man in his 60s from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk. The man remains in police custody at this time.” >
• The arrest came as Mountbatten-Windsor celebrated his 66th birthday at home. >
• Police had been assessing allegations that Mountbatten-Windsor – formerly known as Prince Andrew – shared sensitive information with the billionaire child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when he was a UK trade envoy. >
• Oliver Wright, Thames Valley Police’s assistant chief constable, said: “Following a thorough assessment, we have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office.” >

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is “extremely concerned” about the worsening situation in Cuba as fuel shortages continue to impact daily life across the island.

According to Secretary-General Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, Guterres has been following developments in Cuba “extremely closely” and is warning that unmet oil needs are deepening the crisis.

The spokesperson pointed out that the UN General Assembly has long called for an end to the blockade. Guterres is urging all parties to pursue dialogue, to respect international law and to avoid further escalation.

Dujarric said UN teams remain on the ground in Cuba, working alongside the island’s authorities to support humanitarian relief efforts.

Feb. 18, 2026

Barak Ravid reported for Axios on Wednesday that, with a deal between the US and Iran appearing increasingly out of sight, “the Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize” and “It could begin very soon.”

Sources told the outlet that “A US military operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign that would look more like full-fledged war than last month’s pinpoint operation in Venezuela.”

The Trump administration is planning to build a 5,000-person military base in Gaza, sprawling more than 350 acres, according to Board of Peace contracting records reviewed by the Guardian.

The site is envisioned as a military operating base for a future International Stabilization Force (ISF), planned as a multinational military force composed of pledged troops. The ISF is part of the newly created Board of Peace which is meant to govern Gaza. The Board of Peace is chaired by Donald Trump and led in part by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The plans reviewed by the Guardian call for the phased construction of a military outpost that will eventually have a footprint of 1,400 metres by 1,100 metres, ringed by 26 trailer-mounted armored watch towers, a small arms range, bunkers, and a warehouse for military equipment for operations. The entire base will be encircled with barbed wire.

A South Korean court on Thursday sentenced the former president Yoon Suk Yeol to life imprisonment with labour over his failed martial law declaration in December 2024, finding him guilty of leading an insurrection and making him the first elected head of state in the country’s democratic era to receive the maximum custodial sentence.

Under South Korean law, the charge of leading an insurrection carries three possible sentences: death, life imprisonment with labour, or life imprisonment without labour.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, arguing that Yoon committed “a grave destruction of constitutional order” by mobilising troops to surround parliament and attempting to arrest political opponents during the six-hour crisis.

A former senior U.S. intelligence official who is an informal advisor to the Trump administration on Middle East policy told Drop Site that, based on his discussions with current officials, he assesses an 80-90% likelihood of U.S. strikes within weeks.

The extraordinary and expensive U.S. military buildup would be sufficient for a large-scale campaign against Tehran that goes far beyond the limited strikes that have taken place in the past. “It harkens back to what I saw ahead of the 2003 Iraq war,” said retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a senior fellow and military expert at Defense Priorities, in an interview with Drop Site News. “You don’t assemble this kind of power to send a message. In my view, this is what you do when you’re preparing to use it. What I see on the diplomatic front is just to try to keep things rolling until it’s time to actually launch the military operation. I think that everybody on both sides knows where this is heading.”

The former senior U.S. intelligence official told Drop Site that Trump was intent on striking Iran in January, but was not satisfied with the options presented by the military based on the existing assets in the region.

“Everything was set up” to strike in January, Davis said, “And then all of a sudden it didn’t happen.” Netanyahu was concerned that more defensive capabilities were needed to respond to Iranian retaliation, he said, and these concerns were echoed by Pentagon war planners. “And I think that that delayed it,” Davis added. “And then of course, right after that, you saw this big surge of air defense missiles going in all over the place.”

17 Feb 2026

The alarm in the Hashemite Kingdom reached a fever pitch on Sunday, following the Israeli cabinet’s approval of measures to register vast swaths of the occupied West Bank as “state land” under the Israeli Ministry of Justice. The move, described by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as a “settlement revolution”, effectively bypasses the military administration that has governed the occupied territory since 1967, treating it instead as sovereign Israeli soil.

For Jordan, this bureaucratic annexation is the final signal that the status quo is dead. With the Israeli military’s “Iron Wall” operation crushing refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem, Jordan’s political and military establishment is no longer asking if a forced transfer is coming, but how to stop it.

Fixed the title. Article contents intact:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has unveiled dozens of nuclear-capable rocket launchers ahead of a key congress of the governing Workers’ Party, according to state media.

Kim hailed the 600mm-calibre rocket launchers as “wonderful” and “attractive” during the ceremony on Wednesday, adding that new military and construction goals will be set during the upcoming congress.

Fifty such ⁠launchers were presented by North Korean munitions workers, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday.

“When this weapon is used, actually, no force would be able to expect God’s protection,” Kim said, according to the KCNA

“It is really a wonderful and attractive weapon,” Kim said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

He described the launchers as the “world’s most advantageous weapon for concentrated super-powerful attack”, according Yonhap.

Photos released by state media showed dozens of launch vehicles parked in neat rows on the plaza of Pyongyang’s House of Culture, which will host the congress.

The weapon was “appropriate for a special attack, that is, for accomplishing a strategic mission”, Kim said, using a common euphemism for nuclear weapons.

He said the weapons incorporate “AI technology and compound guidance systems” and would deter unnamed enemies.

^Kim\ Jong\ Un\ inspects\ a\ multiple\ rocket\ launcher\ during\ a\ presentation\ ceremony\ of\ the\ launchers\ to\ the\ Ninth\ Congress\ of\ the\ Workers’\ Party\ of\ Korea\ in\ Pyongyang,\ North\ Korea,\ on\ February\ 18,\ 2026^

Kim has been touting the progress of various projects in advance of this month’s 9th Congress of the Workers’ Party, which is widely viewed as North Korea’s most important political event.

Kim said on Wednesday that the 9th Congress “will declare the next phase of the self-reliant defence initiative” and accelerate the “project of constantly renewing our military capabilities” in order to “subdue any threats ⁠and challenges from outside forces”.

The political gathering is expected to lay out North Korea’s foreign policy, war planning and nuclear ambitions for the next five years.

State media have in recent days carried reports of delegates arriving for the gathering, fuelling speculation it could start any day.

‘Four to five rounds could devastate an entire airbase’

The South Korean military is closely watching North Korea’s activities to develop weapons, a spokesperson for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Thursday.

Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told the AFP news agency that the launch system could fire rockets with an estimated range of 400 kilometres (250 miles), covering all of South Korea.

“Its primary purpose is to neutralise the combined air power of South Korea and the United States,” he said.

“If equipped with tactical nuclear warheads, a single battery firing four to five rounds could devastate an entire airbase.”

South Korea’s capital Seoul is less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the North Korean border at its nearest point.

North Korea has suspended nearly all talks and cooperation with South Korea since 2019, when Kim’s nuclear diplomacy with United States President Donald Trump derailed over US-led sanctions.

Relations worsened in recent years as Kim discarded North Korea’s longstanding goal of peaceful reunification and declared a hostile “two-state” system on the Korean Peninsula.

In a separate KCNA report on Thursday, the North Korean leader’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, acknowledged a South Korean minister’s apology regarding alleged civilian drone incursions, but said Pyongyang is bolstering border security against the “enemy”.

North Korea had said the incidents occurred in September of last year and again in January.

The South Korean government has denied operating any drones during the times specified by North Korea, but law enforcement authorities are investigating three civilians suspected of flying drones into the North from border areas.

Kim Yo Jong said ⁠it would be to South Korea’s benefit to prevent the recurrence of such severe infringement of North Korea’s sovereignty.

“The border with the enemy should be solid,” Kim Yo Jong said, according to KCNA.

Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain
Feb 18, 2026

A former senior U.S. intelligence official who is an informal advisor to the Trump administration on Middle East policy told Drop Site that, based on his discussions with current officials, he assesses an 80-90% likelihood of U.S. strikes within weeks.

Iran realizes that it is facing an unprecedented threat from the U.S. if a deal that conforms with Trump’s terms is not reached, former Pentagon official Jasmine El-Gamal told Drop Site. “This is not a dress rehearsal,” she said. “This is it. This is not the negotiations of last year or the year before or the year before that. They’re backed into a corner. There’s no off ramp.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43376491

The water woes seem to be a never ending nerve for Pakistan even during summer. As the harsh summer approaches, the declaration regarding India to cut the flow of Ravi River to Pakistan after the completion of Shahpur Kandi barrage by March 31.

Pakistan is already whinning over the recent cancellation of Indus Water treaty by India, calling it one sided and oppressive. Excess of water used to reach from Ravi to Pakistan due to inadequate storage facilities in India, but this is now going to change after april.

The announcement was made by J&K minister Javed Ahmed Rana on Monday, who said the move was aimed at providing irrigation to the drought-prone Kathua and Samba districts. "Excess water to Pakistan will be stopped. It has to be stopped," Rana told reporters.

When a reporter asked how it would affect Pakistan, he shot back saying "Why are you bothered about Pakistan? They are a marginal presence. Let them stew in the problems of their own making."

India is actually not breaking any rules here because even according to Indus Water Treaty, Idia was granted unilateral control over Eastern Rivers including Ravi, but still, a lot farmers in Pakistan depend on it, which will hurt them badly.

I think its a good move by GOI, I really think we need to worry about our own people and leave others be. What do you think?

To all Indians and people who like our content, Join "BharatReforms". We really need your support.

Jai Hind

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism and questions from advocates for homeless New Yorkers after abruptly reversing his policy pledge to end homeless encampment sweeps.
City Hall officials said outreach workers with the Department of Homeless Services would begin notifying street homeless New Yorkers this week of plans to clear them out of public spaces. During a sweep, city sanitation workers often trash tents, makeshift encampments and other belongings if people refuse to pack up and go to a shelter or another location.
Mamdani had called the encampment sweeps done by his predecessors Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio a “failure” because they rarely led to people being placed in permanent housing. He billed the new plan as a kinder, gentler approach to addressing street homelessness, saying the city would conduct daily outreach in the seven days before police and sanitation workers arrived to disperse encampments or makeshift shelters.
But advocates for homeless New Yorkers say Mamdani’s plan is more of the same, and will displace people while moving only a fraction of them into shelters or permanent housing.
“It’s a huge step backwards,” said Josh Goldfein, a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society. “It seems like what’s happening now is the administration is caving to political pressure to say they have to push people out with force rather than approaching them with resources that they need and will accept.”
Mamdani has faced pressure to resume sweeps from business leaders, elected officials and media outlets since he halted the policy days after taking office. Those calls intensified after at least 19 people died outdoors during a recent stretch of cold weather — though it was unclear how many of the people were living in encampments. At least five had permanent housing.

crosspost from https://hexbear.net/post/7702840

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43373993

As Ramadan begins, Israeli attacks continue across Gaza and Israel imposes restrictions on access to Al-Aqsa mosque. Mexico and the Vatican decline Trump peace board invitation; UN humanitarian official may not attend the first meeting on Thursday. Settler attacks, military raids and arrests across the West Bank. Palestinian child killed by unexploded Israeli ordnance in Jordan Valley. Chief Israeli ministers push for “emigration” and continued occupation in discussions of the West Bank, Gaza, and Lebanon. U.S. military kills 11 in triple vessel strike in Eastern Pacific and Caribbean. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani poised to have control over pivotal rent authority. U.S. sells over $1 billion in Venezuelan oil and projects expanded production. Palantir relocates headquarters to Miami. ICE facility in Texas accused of destroying children’s letters. Immigration judge ends removal case against Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi. House Democrats weigh censure vote against Rep. Randy Fine over anti-Muslim remarks. Justice Department antitrust chief ousted. DHS workers say Noem-ordered demolitions are exposing them to asbestos. Massive U.S. military buildup continues near Iran. RSF drone strike kills three civilians in North Kordofan. Israeli drone strike kills Lebanese man after threatening phone call. Taliban releases Pakistani soldiers after Saudi mediation. Niger and Algeria signal thaw with gas pipeline plans. U.S.-mediated Ukraine-Russia talks end their first day with no breakthrough. Peruvian Congress ousts interim President José Jerí after four months in office. Colombia resumes peace talks with Gulf Clan. U.S. official alleges China carried out covert nuclear test in 2020. Deadly militant attacks hit northwest Pakistan. Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania refuses to accept a prize in Berlin for “The Voice of Hind Rajab.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43365406

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Despite the U.S. oil blockade to Cuba, Cuban authorities say they will remain resolute in protecting the national security of both Cuba and the United States, arguing that the two countries share common threats: drug trafficking, smuggling and terrorism.

“They need to understand that destabilizing a country just 90 miles from the United States would ultimately create a problem for them. But it seems to me that the ones most concerned about what happens in Cuba are officials in the U.S. government.,” said Chief of Cuba's Border Guard.

For decades, Cuba has cooperated with the United States on counternarcotics and counterterrorism efforts. In fact, the State Department’s 2024 annual counter-narcotics report recognized Cuba as an effective regional partner in fighting drug trafficking.

But last year, the chapter on Cuba was removed from the latest U.S. report without public explanation, a move Cuban officials describe as politically motivated.

The Israeli government installed security equipment and controlled access to a Manhattan apartment building managed by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a set of emails recently released by the Department of Justice. The equipment was installed starting in early 2016 at 301 E. 66th Street—the residence where former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak frequently stayed for stretches at a time.

Rafi Shlomo, then-director of protective service at the Israeli mission to the United Nations in New York and head of Barak’s security, corresponded with Epstein employees to arrange meetings to discuss security and coordinate installation of specialized surveillance equipment at the 66th Street residence. Shlomo personally controlled access to the apartment for guests and even conducted background checks on cleaners and Epstein’s employees.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7693062

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/29132

The Yaaku Indigenous People of Mukogodo Forest, a 30,000-hectare national forest reserve, are facing a major crisis. In late January 2026, a wave of coordinated armed attacks, livestock theft, killings, and forced displacement tore through Yaaku settlements in and around Mukogodo Forest.

A pattern of violence

Between January 21 and 29, 2026, the Yaaku community experienced repeated and escalating attacks by armed groups operating with organization, mobility, and heavy weaponry. On January 21, attackers raided the National Police Reserve camp at Wakumbé, reportedly stealing over 1,200 livestock, a clear indication of how heavily armed they are.

On January 27, a widely reported raid resulted in the murder of two Yaaku community members and the theft of approximately 1,500 livestock. The violence intensified the following day when attackers returned, killing eight people and stealing dozens more animals. On January 29, further livestock theft from four families triggered a retaliatory recovery attempt by Yaaku community members, after which one young Yaaku man was killed by the armed attackers.

These events, condemned by the East Africa Indigenous Women Led Assembly (EAIWA), reveal a sustained campaign of terror rather than just sporadic criminal activity. But official narratives and media reporting have consistently reduced the perpetrators to “bandits”, which is obscuring the reality of what appears to be organized, well-resourced paramilitary formations operating with impunity.

State failure and the criminalization community

Despite credible warnings and escalating attacks, Kenyan security forces failed to provide meaningful protection to the Yaaku community. The state did not act decisively when threats were known, yet moved swiftly after the violence to issue eviction ultimatums against people already traumatized by murder, displacement, and dispossession.

On February 3, 2026, the Ministry of Interior and National Administration issued a 48-hour ultimatum ordering all people “living in the forest” to vacate. On the same day, as per the East Africa Indigenous Women Led Assembly (EAIWA) statement, inflammatory public remarks by political elites framed Mukogodo as a criminal zone, effectively casting Indigenous residents as threats rather than rights-holders.

This response represents a dangerous inversion of state responsibility. Instead of protecting an endangered community, the state has chosen to discipline, displace, and delegitimize it. Such actions echo a familiar historical pattern in Kenya, where Indigenous and pastoralist communities are routinely framed as obstacles to security, conservation, or development, only to be forcibly removed in favor of more powerful political and economic interests.

Displacement and land

The violence in Mukogodo cannot be separated from long-standing land disputes. Mukogodo Forest, ancestral Yaaku land, is a site of competing claims involving conservation, private interests, and elite accumulation. In this context, armed attacks, forced displacement, and eviction threats take on a more sinister character.

As the EAIWA warned, the organization, scale, and targeting of the violence, combined with state threats of eviction, raise serious concerns that the attacks may be strategic and displacement driven. Under international law, such patterns may amount to ethnic cleansing, particularly where violence is used to forcibly remove a distinct community from its ancestral lands.

The Yaaku have historically protected Mukogodo Forest through Indigenous ecological knowledge and sustainable land use. Their removal would not only violate their rights but also undermine long-term environmental stewardship, exposing the hypocrisy of conservation policies that erase the very communities that have preserved these ecosystems for generations.

Solidarity from the social justice movement

In response to the unfolding crisis, the Social Justice Centers Nairobi Chapter issued a solidarity statement on February 9, 2026, fully endorsing the EAIWA’s concerns and demands. The movement condemned the state’s failure to act on early warnings, rejected narratives that criminalize Indigenous communities, and warned against the normalization of violence as a tool of land dispossession.

The statement situates Mukogodo within a broader national crisis of policing, land governance, and elite impunity, where insecurity is selectively addressed and often instrumentalized against the poor. As the movement affirmed, there can be no security without justice, and no justice without land rights.

Speaking to Peoples Dispatch, Gerald Kamau from the Social Justice Movement said:

“We can no longer afford to fight separately. The urban movement against IMF-backed bills is the same fight as the Indigenous struggle for land. The fight for public spaces is the same fight against forest evictions. The demand for clean rivers and an end to pollution is inseparable from the demand for Indigenous sovereignty over ancestral lands.

When they steal land in the countryside, they steal our food sovereignty. When they poison rivers in the city, they poison the water that flows to rural communities. When they slash healthcare budgets, they kill our elders, the memory keepers of our resistance. When they grab public spaces, they erase our ability to gather, to organize, to rise.”

Demands for justice and protection

Civil society and EAIWA voices have articulated clear and reasonable demands, including:

• An immediate shift from eviction and militarization to community protection
• An independent inquiry into the size, financing, and political protection of armed groups operating in Mukogodo
• The safe return of all forcibly displaced Yaaku families
• Independent human rights monitoring of any security operations in the region
• Full recognition of Yaaku ancestral lands under the Community Land Act (2016)

These are constitutional obligations. The Yaaku Indigenous People have survived centuries of marginalization, erasure, and dispossession. What is at stake in Mukogodo is their future.

The post An Indigenous community in Kenya’s Mukogodo Forest faces violence, forced displacement appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

From Peoples Dispatch via This RSS Feed.

Eighteen defendants allegedly involved in a Palestine Action raid on an Israeli-owned arms factory in the UK will no longer face charges of aggarvated burglary, after six others were acquitted of the same charges.

At Woolwich Crown Court in London on Wednesday, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said the Crown Prosecution Service had "reconsidered the sufficiency of the evidence" and would offer no evidence on that charge. The 18 will continue to face other charges in connection with the alleged raid.

The move follows the acquittal of six other defendants on charges of aggravated burglary in connection with the same break-in at an Elbit Systems plant near Bristol in August 2024. Heer confirmed on Wednesday that those six defendants face a retrial at a date yet to be fixed on all charges which had not ended in verdicts, including criminal damage and violent disorder.

They were held for around 18 months on remand - in excess of standard UK pre-trial custody time limits of six months.

US Senator Lindsey Graham said this week, following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the prime minister told him Tel Aviv is highly satisfied with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ), who has “done everything asked of him” and more.

Graham’s comments came before he was due to visit the UAE on 17 February, following a trip to Tel Aviv.

Speaking in Israel ahead of his departure to the UAE, Graham said, “This trip is a special trip to me. It’s putting a fine point on something I have been working on for over two years. I leave from here to go to the UAE. Bibi wanted me to tell the press that he’s ‘amazed’ by the level of cooperation and the significance of the partnership between the UAE and Israel.”

“MbZ has done everything asked of him, and then some,” Graham added, relaying Netanyahu’s message.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43329859

[a video about Cuba from the news collective Belly Of The Beast]

Marta Hurtado, spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, questions how Cuba can overcome its current crisis while facing some of the most severe sanctions in the world.

According to Hurtado, decades-long sanctions, recent U.S. measures restricting oil shipments, and extreme weather events are converging into a nationwide emergency.

Fuel shortages are disrupting hospitals, intensive care units, vaccine storage, water-pumping systems and food distribution. More than 80% of Cuba’s water infrastructure depends on electricity, and rolling blackouts are undermining access to clean water, sanitation and basic healthcare.

Hurtado’s remarks highlight a growing concern inside UN institutions about the humanitarian impact of sanctions and the limits they impose on a country’s ability to respond to economic and social emergencies.