February 13, 2026
Development and Holiday
Good morning, everyone!
A programming note: Everything Briefing will be out on Monday in observance of the federal holiday and will return on Tuesday.
Check out my latest Note:
Today, we will look at U.S. politics, succession in North Korea, and a series of historical snapshots.
Let’s get to it.
United States
-The Trump administration on Thursday revoked an Obama-era finding that states carbon dioxide endangers human health. The scientific finding has served as the legal basis for federal regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
In remarks at the White House, President Donald Trump said the move was the “single largest deregulatory action in American history.”
See his remarks here:
Responding to the action, former President Barack Obama said the country would be “less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change.”
-Tom Homan, the administration’s top immigration official in Minneapolis, said yesterday that the immigration crackdown in the state was ending.
In a press conference following the announcement, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said the “federal government needs to pay for what they broke here.”
View his remarks here:
-Senate Democrats blocked a procedural measure to advance a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yesterday. Absent congressional action, the department, which houses the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, will shutter at midnight tonight.
Earlier this month, Trump and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer agreed to a compromise bill to fund all agencies except for DHS through September as they negotiated changes to immigration enforcement tactics. Yesterday, congressional Democrats called the White House’s counterproposals insufficient.
-Missouri Senator Josh Hawley and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison got into a contentious back-and-forth yesterday on Capitol Hill.
View their full exchange here:
-The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts the national debt to reach $64 trillion over the next ten years.
-West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner said he would not voluntarily turn over personal voter information to the Department of Justice.
-The CEO of Microsoft AI Mustafa Suleyman said in an interview with the Financial Times that most tasks now performed by accountants, lawyers, and other professionals will be fully automated by artificial intelligence within the next year to year and a half.
Separately, Anthropic’s UK policy chief called Claude AI’s tendency for blackmail when faced with being shut off during testing “massively concerning.”
-On this day in 2008, President George W. Bush signed the Economic Stimulus Act into law in a bid to boost consumer demand.
The $152 billion package included tax rebates to approximately 130 million American households and tax incentives for business investment.
Among those present at the signing ceremony at the White House were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then-Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader John Boehner.
In 2016, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at the age of 79.
The death of the conservative icon set off a bitter standoff between President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Obama nominated federal judge Merrick Garland to the high court, with McConnell refusing to hold confirmation hearings, saying the seat should be decided by that year’s presidential election.
The seat would remain vacant through the election, and would be filled by Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch following his election victory.
Other Links:
Mike Johnson chides DOJ for tracking lawmakers’ perusal of unredacted Epstein files - Politico
Congress erupts over Trump admin “spying” on Epstein file searches - Axios
Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler to resign after emails show close ties to Jeffrey Epstein - AP
U.S. Attorney Chosen to Replace Trump Pick Is Quickly Fired by White House - The New York Times
White House Pushes Shake-Up at HHS Ahead of Midterms - The Wall Street Journal
Trump nominates White House lawyer to court hearing tariff cases - Reuters
Puerto Rico governor signs law to recognize fetus as human being as critics warn of consequences - AP
A tech group is launching a new effort to keep Democrats from falling behind on AI - Politico
Search for Nancy Guthrie now seeks nearby security videos from the month before she vanished - AP
Africa
-South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday that he would deploy the military to work with police in a bid to rein in organized crime, calling it “the most immediate threat” to the country’s democracy.
Ramaphosa made the announcement in his annual State of the Nation address in Cape Town yesterday.
-Leaders from the African Union will meet for the 55-member bloc’s annual summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this weekend.
The grouping was founded in 2002, succeeding the Organization of African Unity, and seeks to foster economic and political cooperation.
Together, the continental bloc represents over 1.5 billion people, equaling about 18% of the world’s population, and was admitted to the Group of 20 (G20) large economies in 2023.
An effort by the bloc to secure a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council has garnered broad international support, including by the United States during President Joe Biden’s tenure.
Currently, the influential Security Council has five permanent members, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia, with no African representation.
-Ghana’s gold output reached a record high last year.
The West African country is Africa’s largest gold producer.
-On this day in 1961, President John F. Kennedy was photographed with his hand to his face as he learned by phone of the assassination of former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
Lumumba was the first democratically elected prime minister of the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). He had been assassinated one month earlier, but news of his death was publicly disclosed only weeks later.
Other Links:
Sudan RSF drone strike on school kills two children - Africa News
Sudan RSF drone strike on school kills two children - AP
Egypt appoints new defence minister, statement says - Reuters
France in contact with Chad after one of its citizens disappeared - Reuters
Port city in ruins as storm rips through Madagascar and on towards Mozambique - BBC
Americas and the Caribbean
-Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez spoke with NBC’s Kristen Welker in Caracas yesterday, the first interview she has given with an American journalist since assuming office.
View it here:
In the interview, she said that she was in charge of the country but sought cooperation with the Trump administration.
Rodríguez took office as the country’s interim leader in January after President Trump ordered an operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The interview comes just as U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright arrived in the country to assess its oil infrastructure, making him the most senior official to visit the country since Maduro’s ouster.
-The Argentine Senate passed a sweeping labor reform bill, marking a major victory for populist President Javier Milei.
The measure will now face approval in the lower Chamber of Deputies, where it is expected to pass.
The legislation weakens decades-old labor protections, which have caused trade unions to threaten widespread strikes.
Milei has called the reform package a “liberation of the workforce,” saying it will remove the “straitjacket” of worker protections impeding economic growth and investment.
-Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley secured a historic third term in parliamentary elections held on Wednesday, with her ruling Barbados Labour Party sweeping all seats of the island nation’s House of Assembly.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Mottley following the vote, saying Washington sought closer cooperation with the Caribbean nation on efforts to counter crime and drug trafficking in the region.
In recent months, the U.S. military has expanded its presence in the region, routinely docking warships in the nearby Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago.
The democracy-monitoring organization Freedom House classifies Barbados as ‘free,’ awarding the country a score of 94 out of 100 for its protection of political rights and civil liberties.
-On this day in 2017, Trump hosted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House, marking their first meeting after Trump assumed office the month before.
The meeting would be the beginning of a long and contentious relationship between the two leaders.
Other Links:
2 Mexican Navy ships laden with humanitarian aid dock in Cuba as US blockade sparks energy crisis - AP
Venezuela’s lawmakers postpone final debate on amnesty bill to address sticking points - AP
Schumer dials up oversight pressure on Trump’s Venezuela oil fund - Politico
Mexico May Be on Brink of Losing Its Measles-Free Status - The New York Times
Judge orders jailed Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora returned to house arrest - AP
Asia/Indo-Pacific
-North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has designated his 13-year-old daughter as his successor, according to South Korea’s spy agency.
The assessment comes just ahead of the annual ruling Workers’ Party conference in Pyongyang, where Kim is expected to announce major policy goals for the next five years.
The spy agency, which presented its report to lawmakers in Seoul, said it will be monitoring whether Kim’s daughter, believed to be named Kim Ju Ae, appears alongside her father at the conference.
Kim, believed to be 42 years old, took power following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011, who had taken power after his own father died in 1994. Altogether, the Kim family has ruled the Northeast Asian nation with an iron fist since 1948.
-The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is the projected winner of the country’s landmark parliamentary elections held yesterday.
The vote was the first since the ouster of authoritarian Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024.
Hasina resigned her post following massive student-led protests against a job quota system. After a harsh crackdown by her government, protesters marched on her official residence, forcing her to flee to India.
The South Asian nation has been ruled by a transitional government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus since Hasina’s ouster.
For decades, the BNP acted as the primary opposition to Hasina’s ruling Awami League, facing persistent targeting by the government.
-Vietnamese Communist Party chief Tô Lâm is expected to attend the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-backed Board of Peace in Washington, D.C., next week.
The visit to the United States will be his first since the ruling party extended his mandate in January.
Under the country’s “four pillars” political system, the General Secretary of the Communist Party acts as the most powerful political figure, followed by the president and prime minister.
-The United States and Taiwan finalized a trade deal yesterday.
Other Links:
Japan says it seized Chinese vessel amid tensions with Beijing - BBC
CIA releases new video aiming to recruit Chinese military officers - CBS
Protests dog Israeli president’s last day in Australia - Reuters
Indonesia prepares to send up to 8,000 troops to Gaza as part of Trump plan - The Guardian
US establishes new army foothold in Southeast Asia to ‘contain China’: analyst - South China Morning Post
Asia stock markets track losses on Wall Street as AI fears hit sentiment - CNBC
Europe
-Russian strikes on Ukraine knocked out power and heating for thousands of residents in the capital Kyiv and the cities of Dnipro and Odesa.
The persistent nighttime bombing by Moscow has plunged parts of the country into darkness amid freezing temperatures, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the campaign jeopardizes peace efforts.
The two countries are expected to meet for U.S.-backed talks next week, although a location has not been agreed upon.
Last week, Zelenskyy said that President Trump would like an end to the nearly four-year-long conflict by June.
-Leaders from the European Union agreed on measures to accelerate the 27-member bloc’s single market as it faces growing economic rivalry from the United States and China.
-Several NATO nations pledged hundreds of millions of dollars of support for Ukraine yesterday as defense ministers gathered in Brussels, Belgium, for talks.
-Former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland has been charged with “gross corruption” over his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
-Lawmakers in Kosovo approved a new cabinet yesterday after more than a year of political squabbling.
-Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany today, with Rubio expected to meet with Zelenskyy.
-On this day in 1960, France detonated its first nuclear bomb, becoming the fourth country to gain the capability.
The test, Gerboise Bleue (“Blue Gerbil”), took place in Algeria. The device used plutonium and had a notably high 60–70-kiloton yield, the most powerful bomb detonated by a nuclear country as its first test.
Today, France maintains the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal.
In 1984, Konstantin Chernenko became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, succeeding Yuri Andropov four days after his death.
Andropov had only served in the post for 15 months. Like his predecessor, Chernenko would serve in the post for just over a year before his death. He was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev, who would go on to oversee massive reforms and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1991.
Other Links:
Zelenskyy planning elections in Ukraine and vote on peace deal - Financial Times
Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych out of Winter Olympics because of banned helmet honoring war dead - AP
Pentagon policy chief tells European Nato members to step up combat capabilities - The Guardian
France, Germany signal unity at EU’s Belgium castle retreat - DW
Russia orders block on WhatsApp in messaging app crackdown - BBC
Portugal approves restrictions on social media access for children - Reuters
Middle East
-President Trump plans to announce a multi-billion dollar reconstruction plan for the besieged Gaza Strip next week to inaugurate the U.S.-backed Board of Peace, according to Reuters.
The international body, which was backed by the United Nations Security Council in November of last year, was initially established to oversee post-war Gaza, with some 20 countries joining.
However, several countries, including France and Canada, have opted not to join the organization, saying they fear it seeks to supplant the United Nations. Although it was initially established for purposes of overseeing Gaza, its charter document does not include any specific mention of the coastal enclave, instead stating it seeks to “secure enduring peace” in any area threatened by conflict.
-Trump said yesterday that Israeli President Isaac Herzog should be “ashamed of himself” for not granting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a pardon, adding that he is “disgraceful” for not doing so.
The remark came just one day after Trump hosted Netanyahu at the White House for talks, marking their seventh meeting since Trump returned to office last year.
Netanyahu was first indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in 2019, with the trial ongoing.
In October, Trump went so far as to call on Herzog to grant the pardon during remarks to the Israeli parliament. The address was part of a trip to the region to solidify a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
-The United States is deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East amid tensions with Iran.
The move follows an initial round of nuclear talks in Oman last week, with Trump warning of military action if a deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program is not reached.
-The death toll from Iranian government’s crackdown on widespread protests that swept the country last month has reached at least 7,005, according to activists.
Other Links:
Israel’s Netanyahu says Trump may be creating conditions for Iran deal - Reuters
Netanyahu seeks to strip Palestinian citizens convicted of violent crimes of Israeli nationality - AP
Israeli Army Reservists Are Suspected of Using Inside Knowledge to Bet - The New York Times
Iran fortifies nuclear site in fear of imminent US strike - Jerusalem Post
Syria says its forces have taken over al-Tanf base after a handover from the US - AP
That’s all for today. See you next week.
TGIF Jacob, have a great weekend and will reStack ASAP 💯👍
Enjoy a well-earned day off after difficult news during the week, good man. 🫱🏻🫲🏽
Though not the most significant story, the most galling event for me was the exclusion of the Ukrainian competitor for his helmet memorializing athletes murdered by Putin's four year atrocity. 😠
As if this fact cited in the A.P. article did not imply allowance of a political statement: "About a dozen Russian athletes are being allowed to compete at the Olympics as neutral individuals along with seven Belarusians; they are not allowed to compete under their national flag or anthem."😯
The Russian and Belarusian athletes should compete under the conditions cited above; so should the Ukrainian bobsledder remembering murdered country(wo)men.⚖️