February 20, 2026
Arrest and Statement
Good morning, everyone!
As we close the week, I wanted to reiterate our mission statement as I feel it is of the utmost importance. Here, with Everything Briefing, I strive to capture the most comprehensive snapshot of the world as humanely possible each day, encompassing both its past and present. In doing so, I seek to equip you with everything you need to know for the day to be informed.
And as I have said before, I do this work on my own. My words are not written by artificial intelligence tools.
I read the news and subsequently write each publication on my own terms, using my own judgment, and that will always be the case. As the reader, I know you expect me to use my judgment in assessing and curating the information that I publish. I take this responsibility very seriously and I cherish your trust in me.
History is human-made, and therefore, I believe it should be written by humans.
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Today, we will look at U.S. politics, developments across Asia and Europe, and a series of historical entries.
Let’s get to it.
United States
-President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of disclosing classified information in a podcast interview he gave last week.
In the interview, Obama said that aliens are “real,” but later clarified that he saw “no evidence” of extraterrestrial life during his time in office after the comment caused widespread speculation online.
View the full interview here:
Following his remark, Trump announced that he had directed the release of “files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”
-The House Oversight Committee released the full deposition video of Les Wexner, the billionaire retail mogul who was a longtime financial backer of Jeffrey Epstein.
View it here:
-A Virginia court blocked Democrats’ planned April referendum vote to redraw the state’s congressional map.
-Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic response to Trump’s State of the Union address next week.
-A large banner of Trump was displayed on the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington yesterday.
-The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, made up of Trump appointees, approved his plans for a large ballroom at the White House yesterday.
-The U.S. Air Force confirmed that new Air Force One aircraft will feature a red, white, dark blue, and gold paint scheme, Trump’s preferred colors.
-A group of Vietnam War veterans sued the administration over Trump’s plan to build a 250-foot triumphal arch across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.
-Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said yesterday that he would not decide on a bid for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination until after his term as governor ends next year.
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom, another prospective presidential candidate, will visit New Hampshire next month to promote his new book.
-On this day in 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.
President John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, and members of Congress watched the live television coverage of the event from the White House.
Addressing reporters afterward, Kennedy said that space was “the new ocean,” and that the United States “must sail on it and be in a position second to none.”
Other Links:
Khanna, Massie plan to force war powers vote on Iran - The Hill
Federal judge accuses Trump administration of ‘terror’ against immigrants in scathing ruling - AP
Hassett says Fed staff should be ‘disciplined’ for reporting the US pays tariff costs - Politico
CDC vaccine advisory committee meeting canceled for next week - CNN
Labor Secretary’s Husband Barred From the Department After Sexual Assault Reports - The New York Times
Texas Congressman’s Aide Told Co-Worker of Affair Before Killing Herself - The New York Times
He drew a line with Trump. Now Oklahoma’s governor is facing the president’s ire again - CNN
Trump family business files for trademark rights on any airports using the president’s name - AP
Democrats say citizenship question could derail census test and deter immigrants from participating - AP
Hunt files police report against Cornyn campaign over release of family personal information - The Hill
Many Democrats are still down on the Democratic Party, a new AP-NORC poll finds - AP
US manufacturing output posts biggest gain in 11 months in January - Reuters
Africa
-Investigators backed by the United Nations said that Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have carried out a campaign in the city of el-Fasher in the country’s Darfur region that shows the “hallmarks of genocide” against non-Arab residents.
-A Kenyan intelligence report says that some 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine under false pretenses.
-A Tunisian lawmaker was jailed for eight months in prison for mocking authoritarian President Kais Saied.
-The son of former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was arrested in South Africa in connection to a shooting of a man at a house in Johannesburg.
Mugabe led Zimbabwe with an iron fist from 1980 until he was ousted in a coup in 2017. He died two years later.
-Officials in Sierra Leone facilitated the illegal building of mansions in the country’s Western Area Peninsula National Park, according to the Associated Press.
The government in Freetown has proposed for the park to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
-On this day in 2008, President George W. Bush visited school children in Ghana as part of a five-day Africa tour.
The West African country was a major beneficiary of Bush’s signature PEPFAR program, which invested over $120 billion to combat HIV/AIDS globally.
The initiative, launched in 2003, is the largest global health program devoted to a single disease in history and it has saved an estimated 26 million lives.
Other Links:
Islamist militants show ‘unprecedented coordination’ in Burkina Faso attacks - Reuters
Islamist militants accused of killing 34 in raids on Nigerian villages - BBC
Ghana and Kenya investigate presumed Russian national for secretly recording sexual encounters - AP
Nigeria’s Tinubu, Germany’s Merz talk security, power deal in phone call - Reuters
Rwanda hikes policy rate after inflation rises past target band - Reuters
Venture capital funding for African startups is ‘stabilizing’ - Semafor
Americas and the Caribbean
-Lawmakers in Peru elected José Balcázar to serve as the country’s interim president, making him the eighth president to lead the Andean nation since 2016.
Balcázar’s selection comes just days after the legislature voted to oust José Jerí over undisclosed meetings he held with Chinese business executives.
The country is slated to hold a general election in April.
-Labor unions in Argentina launched a nationwide strike as lawmakers in Congress advanced a labor reform package backed by populist President Javier Milei.
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.
-The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday that Venezuela’s economic and humanitarian situation is “quite fragile.”
-On this day in 1963, President Kennedy and Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt participated in a parade through downtown Washington, D.C.
The event was part of a two-day state visit by Betancourt as Kennedy praised Venezuela as a symbol of democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
The visit also highlighted Kennedy’s signature Alliance for Progress. The initiative, launched two years earlier, was a 10-year aid program designed to foster economic cooperation and promote democratic reform across the Americas as Washington sought to counter Soviet influence.
Betancourt, known as the “The Father of Venezuelan Democracy,” served as the country’s first democratically elected president and the first to successfully complete his full term in office.
Other Links:
Venezuela Passes Amnesty Bill Denounced by Some as ‘Unjust’ - The New York Times
Cuban families receive ‘Made in Mexico’ essentials as crisis worsens - AP
Most Canadians say US not a reliable ally: Polling - The Hill
After nearly 7 weeks and many rumors, Bolivia’s ex-leader reappears in his stronghold - AP
Mexico and El Salvador make big cocaine seizures at sea as US continues lethal strikes - AP
Brazil races to China beef cap as 55% tariff risks price collapse - South China Morning Post
Asia/Indo-Pacific
-Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday after a court found him guilty of unlawfully issuing a martial declaration during his time in office.
Last month, Yoon was sentenced to a five-year prison term in a separate case related to the order.
Yoon issued the order on December 3, 2024, accusing the opposition controlled National Assembly of paralyzing the government. Lawmakers quickly rescinded the declaration and voted to impeach him. The country’s high court unanimously upheld the lawmakers’ impeachment in April of the following year, and he was subsequently removed from office.
-North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party meeting opened in Pyongyang, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un telling party leaders that the secluded nation had overcome recession and achieved its economic goals.
Last week, Kim designated his 13-year-old daughter as his successor, according to South Korea’s spy agency.
The assessment came just ahead of the annual meeting of party leaders 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.
-At the conclusion of an artificial intelligence summit in India, OpenAI chief Sam Altman and Anthropic chief Dario Amodei noticeably avoided holding hands as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top industry leaders posed for a photo.
Amodei was a senior researcher at OpenAI until his abrupt departure in 2021 amid disagreements over the company’s direction, specifically regarding AI safety.
He subsequently founded Anthropic, with its chatbot Claude now serving as a primary competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Separately, Altman predicted that the world was just years away from reaching superintelligence, a form of artificial intelligence that would outstrip the capabilities of human beings.
In October, over 850 public figures signed onto a letter calling for a pause in the development of superintelligence.
In the letter, the leaders—which include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Geoff Hinton, widely referred to as the “godfather” of AI—warn that its development could cause “human economic obsolescence and disempowerment, losses of freedom, civil liberties, dignity, and control, to national security risks and even potential human extinction.”
Before leading OpenAI, Altman warned that superintelligence is “probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity.”
Read the statement here.
-A U.S. arms sale to Taiwan is in limbo as senior administration officials worry that greenlighting it could derail President Trump’s planned trip to China in April, according to The Wall Street Journal.
-The United States and Indonesia agreed to a trade deal yesterday.
-Laos will hold legislative elections on Sunday.
-On this day in 1972, President Richard Nixon was aboard Air Force One en route to China for his historic visit to the country.
In 1976, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) held its final military exercise in the Philippines.
The bloc, often called the “Asian NATO,” was founded in 1954 to counter communist expansion in the region. It was disbanded in 1977 due to its perceived ineffectiveness.
Unlike NATO, the eight-member organization lacked an explicit commitment for mutual defense and did not have a unified military command.
In 1964, the United States and Australia cited their obligations under the bloc’s treaty to deploy troops to defend South Vietnam against “communist aggression.”
Other Links:
Dueling Protests at South Korean Ex-Leader’s Sentencing Highlight Political Rift - The New York Times
Radio Free Asia says it resumes broadcasts to China - NBC
Afghanistan faces catastrophic hunger crisis as aid cuts force the WFP to turn away 3 in 4 children - AP
Australian police probe threatening letter to country’s largest mosque ahead of Ramadan - Reuters
Japan’s core inflation slows to 2-year low, complicates BOJ rate-hike timing - Reuters
Asia-Pacific markets mostly fall, tracking Wall Street losses, as U.S.-Iran tensions take hold - CNBC
Europe
-Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York, was arrested at his Sandringham residence yesterday on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to allegations he shared confidential information with Jeffrey Epstein.
He was released “under investigation” after 11 hours in custody.
Following the arrest, King Charles said “the law must take its course.”
His arrest marks the first time in nearly 400 years that a senior British royal has been arrested.
When asked about the situation aboard Air Force One, President Trump said, “I think it’s a shame. I think it’s very sad.”
-French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni broke out into a war of words over the recent killing of a French far-right activist who was beaten by left-wing activists during a protest in Lyon.
-Macron invited Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to attend a leaders’ meeting of the Group of 7 (G7) advanced democracies in Paris in June.
-On this day in 1985, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress where she emphasized the “special relationship” between Washington and London.
Other Links:
Virginia Giuffre’s family comment after former Prince Andrew arrested on suspicion of misconduct - AP
Russia ‘not ready for peace’ with ‘no tangible signs’ of serious engagement, EU says - The Guardian
Musk cuts Starlink access for Russian forces - giving Ukraine an edge at the front - BBC
Ukraine protests as Russian, Belarusian Paralympic athletes cleared to compete under their nation’s flags - CBS
Hungary will suspend diesel shipments to Ukraine over interruption to Russian oil supply - AP
Germany news: Far-right AfD polls 37% ahead of state vote - DW
Germany plans to give spies vast new powers in rollback of postwar restraints - Politico
France says Commission lacks ‘mandate’ to join Board of Peace meeting - Euronews
Middle East
-President Trump hosted the first meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington, D.C., yesterday.
Addressing the gathering of leaders, Trump said that its members had committed to $7 billion for reconstruction of the besieged Gaza Strip, while pledging $10 billion from Washington.
At the inaugural meeting, 26 countries participated, with others acting as observers.
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.
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.
View the full event here:
-Trump warned yesterday that if Iran does not agree to a deal to limit its nuclear program then “really bad things” will happen, adding that he would set a deadline of 10 to 15 days for the country to do so.
The comment comes amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
On Wednesday, CNN reported that Washington was prepared to strike Iran as early as this weekend.
In recent weeks, Trump has deployed two aircraft carriers to the region, saying Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “should be very worried” while China and Russia joined Iranian warships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz for joint exercises.
-Global oil prices have risen to a six-month high amid tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Other Links:
Iranians grieve defiantly for thousands killed in last month’s crackdown - AP
Iranian mourning ceremonies prompt new crackdowns in echo of 1979 revolution - Reuters
British Couple Held in Iran Is Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison, Family Says - The New York Times
Five countries commit troops to Gaza international security force, commander says - Reuters
Israeli settlers kill 19-year-old Palestinian-American, officials and witnesses say - AP
Gaza deaths in war’s first 15 months higher than reported, study says - Reuters
That’s all for today. See you next week.
Jason, I am in awe of what must be your staggering intellect in curating chaos so reasonably.
Thank you again, I’m almost caught up with the world thanks to you. Long road trips really disconnect me.