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Lead: As the United States approaches the 2026 midterm elections, scholars and civic observers are increasingly warning that democratic norms are under strain. In February 2026, analysts from research institutes and universities described steps by the federal government and related political actors that, they say, fit patterns of “electoral autocracy” or competitive authoritarianism. Specific incidents … Read more

At least eight people were killed and two others suffered minor burns after a large explosion tore through a fireworks shop in a village in Donghai County, Jiangsu province, on Sunday afternoon. Local authorities said the blast followed a resident igniting pyrotechnics too close to the store, and emergency, fire and health teams were dispatched … Read more

Lead: On Monday, a rare Pikachu Illustrator trading card owned by Logan Paul sold at Goldin Auctions for $16.492 million, with a diamond-encrusted necklace included and a promise of hand delivery to the buyer. The 42-day auction closed after 97 bids and hours of extended bidding; a Guinness World Records official subsequently confirmed it as … Read more

Lead In “Dear Henry,” the sixth episode of Industry season 4, characters act on impulses that reshape their paths: Eric Tao (Ken Leung) walks away, Harper Stern (Myha’la) escalates a public campaign against Tender, and Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) races to staunch a corporate hemorrhage. The episode stages a series of confrontations—from a high-stakes conference … Read more

UN investigators say more than 6,000 people were killed during a late-October offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on el-Fasher in North Darfur. The U.N. Human Rights Office reported that the RSF and allied Arab militias overran the city after an 18‑month siege and carried out mass killings, sexual violence and abductions over a … Read more

Five European countries and the UK say traces of epibatidine, a rare neurotoxin associated with South American poison dart frogs, were detected in samples from Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and were highly likely to have caused his death in a Siberian penal colony two years ago. The UK Foreign Office and allied governments said … Read more

In 2002 James Van Der Beek took a sharp, deliberate detour from his Dawson’s Creek persona by playing Sean Bateman in The Rules of Attraction, a chaotic adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel. The film opened to mixed reviews and underperformed commercially, yet it offered Van Der Beek a rare chance to subvert his image … Read more

North Korea announced the completion of a new housing district in Pyongyang on 16 February 2026 intended for the families of North Korean soldiers killed while fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. State media published images of leader Kim Jong-un walking the new Saeppyol Street in the Hawasong district and visiting several of the homes … Read more

Lead At the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas urged Europe to take a lead role in its own defense while continuing to rely on NATO’s trans‑Atlantic framework. She warned that Russia presents a strategic threat beyond the Donbas, citing cyberattacks, satellite disruption, undersea‑cable sabotage, energy coercion and a nuclear … Read more

Lead: XRP has fallen roughly 25% so far in 2026, raising fresh questions about whether the token can recover to previous levels or will slide further. The decline has coincided with a broader rotation of capital into AI-related assets and away from high-volatility crypto plays. Ripple’s payments integrations give XRP real-world use cases, but macro … Read more

Lead On 16 February 2026 a short-lived Pentagon posting that briefly listed some of China’s largest technology firms as aiding the military prompted an immediate market reaction in Hong Kong, with Alibaba shares falling more than 3%. The update appeared on the U.S. Federal Register and included Alibaba, BYD and Baidu, and two memory-chip makers, … Read more

Lead: On Feb. 15, 2026, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argued that a 67-year-old regulatory exemption known as GRAS has allowed food companies to introduce thousands of minimally reviewed ingredients into the U.S. food supply, contributing to a diet in which ultraprocessed items make up roughly half of what Americans eat … Read more

Lead On 15 February 2026 at the Munich Security Conference, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas rejected US assertions that Europe faces ‘civilisational erasure’, calling such lines of argument ‘fashionable euro-bashing’. Her remarks came amid tense transatlantic exchanges at the three-day gathering, where Ukraine, NATO burden-sharing and migration loomed large. Kallas also warned the US … Read more

Philadelphia health officials on Monday alerted travelers after a confirmed measles case passed through Terminal E at Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday, February 12, 2026, between 1:35 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health asked anyone who was in the area during that window to check their vaccination status and monitor for … Read more

Feb 16, 2026 Lead: Episode 5 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, titled “In the Name of the Mother,” aired on Feb 16, 2026 and centers on a brutal Trial of Seven that reshapes the season’s stakes. The installment intercuts present combat with a substantive flashback that reveals Dunk’s formative losses and moral code. … Read more