International News Briefs for Monday, February 16, 2026
HAVANA TIMES – We bring you some of the top international news stories compiled by Democracy Now on Monday, February 16, 2026.
Reuters: U.S. Military Preparing for Possible Strikes on Iran If Trump Orders Attack
Feb 16, 2026
The U.S. military is planning for possible strikes on Iran that could last for weeks, if President Trump orders the attack. That’s according to two U.S. officials speaking to Reuters. It comes amid a CBS News report that President Trump informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in December that the U.S. would back Israeli strikes against Iran’s ballistic missile program if the U.S. couldn’t reach a deal with Iran. Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said that his country is willing to make compromises to reach a nuclear deal with the U.S. in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. On Saturday, 250,000 people rallied in Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, protesting against Iran’s government following a call from Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. At the conference, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called for regime change in Iran.
Sen. Lindsey Graham: “If we back out now, it’ll be the biggest mistake we’ve made, far worse than the Syrian red line, far worse than Afghanistan. You can’t say, ‘Keep protesting. We got your back. Help’s on the way,’ and nothing happened. That’s why I’m confident that President Trump will get an outcome consistent with those three statements through diplomacy or military force.”
Israel Kills at Least 11 Palestinians in Gaza Over the Past 24 Hours
Feb 16, 2026
Israeli forces have killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza over the past 24 hours. Since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire last October, Israel has killed over 600 Palestinians and wounded over 1,600, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. This is Alyan Al-Bayouk, whose son was killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Alyan Al-Bayouk: “Do you believe there is a Board of Peace? Do you believe that Trump will come to help us or defend us? The one who’s supplying Israel with all sorts of deadly weapons, supplying it with money, with political support, with protection and with an international umbrella? Do you believe that there is peace that Trump or someone else would provide for us?”
On Sunday, President Trump announced that members of his so-called Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion toward rebuilding Gaza. Indonesia’s military said that it was committing up to 8,000 troops to be deployed in Gaza by the end of June. Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, has halted some of its nonessential medical operations at Nasser Hospital in Gaza after staff and patients reported seeing armed men inside the facility. Since the October 10 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the organization says, ”MSF teams have reported a pattern of unacceptable acts, including the presence of armed men, intimidation, arbitrary arrests of patients, and a recent situation of suspicion of movement of weapons.” Last month, Israel ordered MSF and 30 other international organizations to cease operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank if they did not agree to new rules that include sharing information about staff. MSF says it did not submit a list of its staffers in Gaza since Israel could not guarantee their safety.
Oscar-Winning Palestinian Director of “No Other Land” Says His Family Has Been Attacked by Israeli Settlers
Feb 16, 2026
Image Credit: DPA/Picture Alliance
In the occupied West Bank, the Oscar-winning Palestinian director of “No Other Land” says his family has been attacked again by Israeli settlers, leaving his brother hospitalized and four members of his family arrested by the Israeli army. Hamdan Ballal says the violence began on Sunday when Israeli settlers began attacking his family’s home in the village of Susya. Ballal says the settlers’ raid was led by the same man who previously attacked him last March, injuring his head and stomach, after Ballal’s film made global headlines for winning an Academy Award. Ballal says his brother called police, only to have soldiers from the Israeli army raid the home, attacking everyone inside.
The violence came hours after Israel’s government approved a plan to allow land registration in the West Bank for the first time since 1967, paving the way for Israel to annex Palestinian lands. Israeli human rights groups warn the land registration process will facilitate the dispossession and displacement of Palestinians, in violation of international law.
U.S. Military Strikes Boat in the Caribbean, Killing Three People
Feb 16, 2026
Image Credit: X/@Southcom
A U.S. military strike killed three people and blew up a boat in the Caribbean on Friday, according to the U.S. Southern Command. The U.S. military said the boat was allegedly following “drug trafficking routes,” without providing any evidence. Since September, the Pentagon has conducted 39 strikes against boats allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 133 people. On Sunday, the Pentagon announced that U.S. forces raided a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel in the Caribbean in an effort to target oil shipped from Venezuela. The Trump administration has been seizing tankers in order to take control of Venezuela’s oil.
It comes as The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon used Anthropic’s artificial intelligence tool Claude in its operation to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Pentagon was able to use Claude through Anthropic’s partnership with the data company Palantir. A spokesperson for Anthropic told The Wall Street Journal that the company is “committed to using frontier AI in support of U.S. national security.”
Ukraine Launches Drone Strike on Russian Black Sea Port Ahead of Peace Talks with the U.S.
Feb 16, 2026
In southwestern Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike set off fires at the Black Sea port of Taman on Sunday in an attack that wounded two people and damaged an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals. Elsewhere, debris from Russian drones damaged infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, disrupting water and electricity supplies to civilians. The violence comes ahead of a new round of U.S.-brokered talks involving Russian and Ukrainian envoys who will meet in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a report by U.K. and European nations issued Saturday finds Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in a Siberian penal colony in 2024 was likely due to a deadly toxin found in the skin of Ecuadorian poison dart frogs. The toxin was reportedly found in “smuggled” samples taken from Navalny’s body.
AOC and Secretary of State Rubio Offer Competing Visions of U.S. Foreign Policy at Munich Security Conference
Feb 16, 2026
Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered contrasting visions of America’s role in the world at the Munich Security Conference in Germany over the weekend. Congressmember Ocasio-Cortez sharply criticized U.S. foreign policy and tied rising income inequality to authoritarianism around the world.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “They are looking to withdraw the United States from the entire world so that we can turn into an age of authoritarianisms — of authoritarians that can carve out the world where Donald Trump can command the Western Hemisphere and Latin America as his personal sandbox, where Putin can saber-rattle around Europe and — and try to bully around our own allies there, and for, essentially, authoritarians to have their own geographic domains.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio cast immigration as an existential threat to both Europe and the U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “In the pursuit of a world without borders, we opened our doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture and the future of our people. We made these mistakes together. And now, together, we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward to rebuild.”
Trump Admin Planning to Spend Over $38 Billion to Buy Warehouses and Convert Them into ICE Jails
Feb 16, 2026
The Trump administration is planning to spend more than $38 billion to acquire warehouses across the U.S. in order to retrofit them into new ICE jails with capacity for tens of thousands of prisoners. Sixteen large buildings would be converted into regional processing centers, jailing more than 1,000 immigrants at a time, with a further eight large detention centers capable of holding 7,000 to 10,000 prisoners for an average of two months. That’s according to documents first revealed by The Washington Post. This comes as a Reuters review found hundreds of judges around the U.S. have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that President Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully. Yet the administration has continued jailing people indefinitely, even after courts ruled the policy was illegal.
Two ICE Agents Face Criminal Probe over Lying to a Jury After Shooting a Venezuelan Immigrant in Minnesota
Feb 16, 2026
In Minnesota, two lCE agents have been suspended and face a criminal investigation into whether they lied to a jury about the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant last month. The officers claimed Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis and his cousin Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna attacked them with a snow shovel and a broom after a traffic stop on January 14, and said one of the officers fired in self-defense. Shortly after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described it as “an attempted murder of federal law enforcement.” But video evidence directly contradicts claims the men attacked federal agents. Sosa-Celis says he had retreated into his home and was shot in the leg while in the process of closing and locking the door. On Thursday, a federal judge dismissed felony assault charges against the cousins, after the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis said newly discovered evidence had contradicted the officers’ testimony and after ICE admitted the federal agents made false statements under oath.
DHS Enters Partial Shutdown After Senate Democrats Refuse to Support Funding Bill
Feb 16, 2026
The Department of Homeland Security entered a partial shutdown early Saturday morning after Senate Democrats refused to support a DHS funding bill. They’re pressuring Republicans to agree to tighter controls on immigration enforcement, including requiring federal agents to wear identification, to get judicial warrants to enter private property, and to stop wearing masks. About 90% of the more than 260,000 employees at DHS are deemed “essential workers,” meaning they’ll be required to work, though they could miss paychecks if the shutdown lasts for weeks. That includes nearly 60,000 airport security workers with the TSA and nearly 20,000 staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA.
Federal Judge Orders Return of Deported Babson College Student Any Lucia López Belloza Back to the U.S.
Feb 16, 2026
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return Babson College student Any Lucia López Belloza to the United States after she was wrongfully deported to Honduras in November. At the time, López Belloza was trying to fly from Boston to her home in Houston, Texas, to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was told there was an issue with her boarding pass before she was detained by federal immigration officials. She was taken to Texas and deported to Honduras two days later despite a court order blocking her removal while her case was pending. Judge Richard Stearns has given the Trump administration two weeks to facilitate López Belloza’s return to the U.S. His order comes after a federal prosecutor admitted in January that ICE had mistakenly deported her.
RFK Jr. Says He “Used to Snort Cocaine Off of Toilet Seats”
Feb 16, 2026
Healthcare advocates are calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign, after he downplayed the risks of COVID-19 by saying that he “used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats.” RFK Jr. made the remark in an interview with podcaster Theo Von.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “I’m not scared of a germ. You know, I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats.”
Protect Our Care said in response, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to lay bare why he is the most dangerous, in over his head, ill-suited person ever to lead such an important federal agency that has life-and-death power.” This comes after the Food and Drug Administration last week blocked review of a flu vaccine developed by Moderna using the same mRNA technology that led to the rapid development of vaccines against COVID. The review was blocked by Vinay Prasad, a vaccine skeptic hand-picked by RFK Jr. last May to lead the division of the FDA that oversees vaccine regulation.
Barack Obama Blasts “Clown Show” After Trump Posts Racist Video Depicting Obamas as Apes
Feb 16, 2026
Former President Barack Obama has responded publicly to a racist video shared on social media by President Trump, which depicts the Obamas as apes. In a podcast hosted by Brian Tyler Cohen and published on Saturday, Barack Obama refused to directly address the video, but said many people “find this behavior deeply troubling.”
Barack Obama: “There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television. And what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this.”
Although the White House took down the video after about 12 hours, President Trump refused to apologize for sharing it. The Senate’s only Black Republican, Tim Scott, said, “It’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
Russell Vought Uses $15M From Foreign Aid Agency He Gutted to Pay for Security Detail
Feb 16, 2026
Reuters is reporting that the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, is using $15 million of what remains of USAID’s operating expenses to fund his security detail. A source tells Reuters that Vought’s detail includes more than one dozen U.S. Marshals. Russ Vought is the chief architect of Project 2025, which outlined the Trump administration’s plans to downsize federal agencies and fire thousands of federal workers. Last year, the Trump administration dismantled USAID, canceled most of its aid programs and fired about 10,000 employees. The Trump administration’s decision to shut down USAID resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition around the world.
San Francisco Educators End Strike with Tentative Deal to Fully Fund Family Healthcare
Feb 16, 2026
Image Credit: United Educators of San Francisco
In California, thousands of San Francisco public school workers ended their strike Friday after four days on the picket line. United Educators of San Francisco announced a tentative agreement with the school district that included fully funded healthcare starting in 2027 and higher wages. The union represents some 6,000 teachers, librarians, social workers and nurses from more than 100 schools across San Francisco. It was the city’s first teachers’ strike in nearly half a century.