Brandon Spring 🇺🇦 🇮🇪 🇩🇰 🇹🇼

Desire for these small rocks on the ocean floor is triggering a 'deep sea gold rush' A new study finds that deep-sea mining waste in the ocean’s twilight zone could disrupt food webs and starve midwater ecosystems of nutrients.

...Until regulators and operators can demonstrate that waste discharges will not starve the twilight zone of the nutrition it depends on, caution is the only credible position. www.earth.com/news/deep-se...

The promise of deep-sea minerals for a low-carbon economy does not erase the ocean’s need for intact food webs...

Hungary blocks EU's 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine, demanding Russian oil ahead of war anniversary "We are blocking the €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine until oil transit to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline resumes," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Feb. 20.

...Transit through the Druzhba pipeline has been halted since late January following Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, according to Ukrainian officials. kyivindependent.com/hungary-bloc...

The Druzhba pipeline, one of the world's largest oil networks with a capacity of about two million barrels per day, remains a critical supply route for Hungary and Slovakia — the only EU countries still importing Russian crude through the system...

Russian general shares photos of severed ears, discusses executing Ukrainian POWs online, investigation shows Russian Major General Roman Demurchiyev shared photographs depicting severed human ears and discussed the abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in private chats, according to a Feb. 19 investigat...

"Demurchiyev regularly shared an image of cut-off human ears with other soldiers and his wife. In some messages to his wife, he bragged about making a garland from human ears, and she likened them to "pig ears served with beer." kyivindependent.com/russian-gene...

Speaker Mike Johnson denies request for the Rev. Jesse Jackson to lie in honor in Capitol The speaker looked to precedent where lying in state or honor in the Capitol has been reserved for former presidents, military leaders and other top officials, a GOP source said.

This is why the Republican Party exists... www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

Ordering flags be flown at half staff for Charlie Kirk but not for Jessie Jackson kinda says it all.

Q - “The WH has a new strategy to send their cabinet members out to competitive districts.
Jeffries: They should start with Bondi, RFK and Kristi Noem. I’ll have a list of districts for them to go to. We may even be willing to pay the cost.”

Trump raises global tariff to 15% shortly after implementing reworked 10% levy On Friday, most of Trump's tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision.

"Under this law, the tariffs can last for up to 150 days, after which Congress may have to take action to extend them. The law is also not clear on whether the administration could restart the tariffs immediately after the 150 days with another executive order." www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...

😕

Bible's Ten Commandments are to be displayed in some Louisiana classrooms, appeals court rules The court said it's too early for the judges to decide if having the Ten Commandments posted in every classroom in Louisiana would violate the Constitution.

"This law transforms the public school classroom, a place that should be safe and inclusive, into a government-sanctioned house of worship," said ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director Alanah Odoms www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

In tariff case, Supreme Court justices bicker over treating Trump and Biden differently Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, was unusually direct in suggesting some of his colleagues were treating presidents of opposing parties differently.

“There were plenty of folks who didn’t think that would happen in cases involving the Trump administration.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...

Trump throws a temper tantrum after tariff loss The battle over the tariffs began on day one of the president's second term when he signed an executive order that let him impose a wide range of tariffs on virtually every U.S. trading partner.

"Trump called the three conservatives "disloyal, unpatriotic," and at one point he launched into a rant about how the court should have invalidated the election results in 2020, which Trump lost to Joe Biden." www.npr.org/2026/02/21/g...

WATCH: “Johnny, you blatantly lied.”

Rep. Johnny Garrett, running for Congress, RUNS 🏃🏻 from us + Tennessean reporter Vivian Jones to 🦆 Duck Q’s about his lie that undocumented immigrants commit 50% of crimes in TN

(Per the AG it’s 2%, 90% of those non-violent/traffic. Also we’d love details.)

Estonia announced tenders for the construction of 600 underground military bunkers along the Russian border, in the latest bid to safeguard NATO’s eastern flank from future threats.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Mike Huckabee Thinks Israel has the Right to 'Take' the Whole Middle-East... because God said they could. American Christian Zionism is putting the Middle-East and the entire world at risk.

kennorphan.substack.com/p/mike-hucka...

Turns Out There Was Voter Fraud in Georgia—by Elon Musk The state board of elections found Musk’s PAC sent prefilled ballot applications.

It should come as no surprise that the only evidence of meddling with people’s votes came from Trump’s own camp—the same thing happened in the 2020 election too. newrepublic.com/post/206857/...

South Carolina Hospitals Aren’t Required to Disclose Measles-Related Admissions. That Leaves Doctors in the Dark. Physicians across South Carolina, home to the largest measles outbreak in decades, are advising patients without the benefit of real-time data on hospitalizations due to measles-related pneumonia, bra...

This is what occurs when the GOP controls literally every government office throughout South Carolina with very few exceptions. www.propublica.org/article/sout...

The cover-up just never ends. Rest in peace, Ruben Ray Martinez.

‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics Plastic production has doubled over the last 20 years – and will likely double again. For author Beth Gardiner, metal water bottles and canvas tote bags are not the solution. So what is?

“[People in the plastics industry] are very happy for us to look at ourselves and at each other, and not look at them,” says @bethgardiner.bsky.social, author of "Plastic Inc: Big Oil, Big Money and the Plan to Trash our Future."

They locked up a Colombian child coming to go to Disney World with her family.

What the hell are we doing? And why in the world would anyone come here for the World Cup/Olympics? www.miaminewtimes.com/news/immigra...

Turns out there’s an economic cost to everyone hating us.

Vietnam War veterans sue to block construction of Trump’s triumphal arch The veterans argued the project would encroach on the nearby Arlington National Cemetery.

Yes, because that Republicans & Trump have eliminated the deficit; so now that we're in "The Golden Age" why not construct "The Arch-de-Trump" to erect an eyesore to celebrate them! www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

‘I’ve won affordability’: Trump previews SOTU in Georgia rally The president stopped in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s old district to defend his economic record.

Don't trust your lying eyes or pocketbook... “You notice, what word have you not heard over the last two weeks? Affordability. Because I’ve won. I’ve won affordability. I had to go out and talk about it.” — Trump and the GOP www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

MAHA unleashes on White House after Trump backs pesticide MAHA advocates promptly denounced the move and said it would threaten Republicans’ chances in the midterms.

...alleging its product causes cancer. And in December, a key study that regulators leaned on to demonstrate glyphosate’s safety was retracted. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

The executive order also comes at a moment of crisis for Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto, which makes the glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup. On Tuesday, the company announced a proposed $7.25 billion settlement of thousands of lawsuits...

Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s tariffs It’s a rare loss for the president from a conservative-led court and a major rebuke of his economic program.

The 6-3 decision is a rare instance of the conservative-led court reining in Trump’s expansive use of executive power. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch joined the court’s three liberals in the majority. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Trump Bored to Sleep During Board of Peace Launch The president couldn’t keep his eyes open in front of several international leaders.

This is clearly a pattern of behavior that wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the average 79-year-old man, but this is the president. Questions of cognitive decline and fitness for office are valid, and should be raised as midterms approach. newrepublic.com/post/206784/...

Investigation: Brazilian recruit’s death in Ukraine points to abuse, torture in foreign fighter unit A 28-year-old Brazilian recruit died after a brutal punishment handed out in a unit that regularly used discipline practices described as "torture" by those who both witnessed and suffered them, a Kyi...

"The unit in question is a Brazilian-led formation called Advanced Company, led by the Brazilian Leanderson Paulino who is accused by several of those serving under him of overseeing — and in some cases taking part in — the abuse of his subordinates." kyivindependent.com/investigatio...