Voices, The Peoples News
February 18, 2026
Published by Jedi Selman Since March 2000 to Inform and Educate
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This daily Voices, The Peoples News is posted through the blog function of www.MPEN-Ohio.net
# Border / Immigration / ICE / Migrants / Gangs
A two-month-old baby imprisoned in Trump’s gulag was just HOSPITALIZED because there’s no doctor to treat him!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/two-month-old-baby-ice-183310500.html
Sick 2-month-old baby deported after falling ill in south Texas ICE concentration camp. The US government has deported a critically ill, two-month-old baby after releasing him from the hospital and returning him to a south Texas Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) concentration camp.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/02/18/mjpa-f18.html
ICE arrests two men outside New Jersey church, raising concerns: Community members say the detained individuals were active members of the church for years, while ICE has denied targeting a place of worship.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jersey-community-concerned-2-men-213243413.html
Expert aghast at Trump admin’s scheme to turn legal immigration system into a ‘trap’
https://www.rawstory.com/msn/trump/
Kidnappings. Police brutality. Authoritarianism. Suppression of speech and human rights. Since December, ICE has been targeting and detaining Minnesotans, regardless of their legal status, including several clients of the Center for Victims of Torture who were receiving mental health treatment for the torture they experienced in their home countries.
https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression/united-states
Woman says partner died following missed cancer treatments due to immigration enforcement fears
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/woman-says-her-partner-passed-042611652.html
Memo Reveals Plan to Speed Up Deportations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On-LxqnO80A
ICE reveals $38B plan for immigrant mega-jails. Expanding immigration detention is a major part of the deportation pipeline and will fuel President Trump’s pledge to deport millions of people. But the plans are facing local pushback.
https://www.axios.com/2026/02/13/ice-immigrant-detention-warehouses-spending
# Economy / Finance / Trade / Banking / Taxes / IRS / Cryptocurrencies
$56 trillion national debt leading to a spiraling crisis: Budget watchdog warns the U.S. is walking a crumbling path. The current trajectory of borrowing, which is running at double the 50-year historical average, is simply mathematically unsustainable.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/56-trillion-national-debt-leading-172438102.html
# Education / Schools / Children / Youth
Schools across Texas cancel picture days after Epstein connection found with photography company
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/schools-across-texas-cancel-picture-days-after-epstein-connection-found-with-photography-company/ar-AA1WrWqo
Trump DOJ official looking into why a Turning Point USA chapter was reported to child protective services
https://thenewamerican.com/us/doj-looking-into-maryland-woman-who-reported-kids-to-child-protective-services-for-attending-tpusa-event/
TPUSA: Turning Point USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning_Point_USA
# Employment / Labor / Unions
Unions oppose a Trump labor nominee over lack of experience, hostility toward bargaining. Conservative lawyer Charlton Allen has no prior experience in labor-management relations, but said he opposed collective bargaining rights for state workers in North Carolina as a political candidate in 2012.
https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2026/02/unions-oppose-trump-labor-nominee-over-lack-experience-hostility-toward-bargaining/411477/
# Energy / Pipelines / Mining / Oil / Power Plants
Trump announces LNG and critical minerals projects under US-Japan trade deal. First investments under $550bn pact come one month before US President hosts Japanese PM in Washington
https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/us/2026/02/17/trump-announces-lng-and-critical-minerals-projects-under-us-japan-trade-deal/
Trump says Japan to invest in energy, industrial projects in Ohio, Texas and Georgia, including an oil export facility in Texas, an industrial diamonds plant in Georgia and a natural gas power plant in Ohio.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-announces-energy-critical-mineral-204549246.html
# General News / Boat Strikes
US Forces Strike 3 Drug Boats, Killing 11: Pentagon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-TyGhu-DFE
# General News / Epstein / Maxwell
‘The Epstein administration’: The DoJ just declared it won’t release the rest of the Epstein files. Despite there supposedly still being 3 million unreleased documents the DoJ wants us to believe it has released everything it has.
https://wegotthiscovered.com/politics/the-epstein-administration-the-doj-just-declared-it-wont-release-the-rest-of-the-epstein-files/
Epstein file redactions reveal victims as young as nine and implicate a high-level government official, lawmakers say. Representatives Jamie Raskin, Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna raise questions about why some of the contents of the files was redacted after visiting the Department of Justice to review the uncensored material
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/epstein-files-doj-raskin-massie-khanna-b2917255.html
# Gov / Politics
Donald Trump says he will FORCE voter ID “whether approved by Congress or not,”: This is a five-alarm warning for democracy.
https://www.aol.com/articles/stephen-smith-democrats-playing-trump-211304822.html
Voter ID Push: Speaking aboard Air Force One and via Truth Social in mid-February 2026, President Trump stated that voter identification requirements would be in place for the midterms, and if Congress did not pass the SAVE Act, he would issue an executive order to mandate them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlp1WGTw7JA
Trump family business files for trademark rights on any airports using the president’s name. The Trump family company has filed to trademark the use of the president’s name on airports but says it doesn’t plan on charging a fee — at least for a proposed renaming of one near his Florida home.
https://www.news4jax.com/business/2026/02/17/trump-family-business-files-for-trademark-rights-on-any-airports-using-the-presidents-name/
Using Human Rights to Anticipate and Prevent Conflict
https://geneva-academy.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Using-Human-Rights-to-Anticipate-and-Prevent-Conflict.pdf
War Is the Ultimate Tool in the Authoritarian Toolbox
https://kettering.org/war-is-the-ultimate-tool-in-the-authoritarian-toolbox/
“We Will Find You”: A Global Look at How Governments Repress Nationals Abroad
https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/02/22/we-will-find-you/global-look-how-governments-repress-nationals-abroad
Speech Repression and Threat Narratives in Politics: Social Goals and Cognitive Foundations. Speech repression phenomena include public shaming on social media, the “deplatforming” and “canceling” of controversial speakers, and the intimidation of dissidents.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12645269/
The Grim Reaper: Extrajudicial Violence and Autocratic Rule: Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is a new approach to the conceptualization and measurement of democracy. The VDem project is one of the largest-ever data collection programs on democracy
https://www.v-dem.net/media/publications/uwp_38_final.pdf
Trump’s America: Rethinking 1984 and Brave New World
https://monthlyreview.org/articles/trumps-america/
Trump’s favorite form of oppression is as old as America — but much more dangerous now:
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/trump-s-favorite-form-of-oppression-is-as-old-as-america-but-it-s-much-more-dangerous-now/
“Our Country Is Being Auctioned Off Before Our Eyes and All Republicans Can Seem to Do Is Go on Fox News and Make Jokes About Kamala Harris and Barack Obama,” Candidate for Governor James Fishback Criticizes His Own Party for Being Unserious, Saying They Should Be “Fighting for the Heritage and Birthright of Our Nation”
https://www.newsbreak.com/altitude-post-361905032/4496551334759-our-country-is-being-auctioned-off-before-our-eyes-and-all-republicans-can-seem-to-do-is-go-on-fox-news-and-make-jokes-about-kamala-harris-and-barack-obama-candidate-for-governor-james-fishback-criticizes-his-own-party-for-being-unserious-saying-they-s
Far Right Streamer Nick Fuentes Says Women Should Be Put in “Breeding Gulags”: Fuentes is the “more energetic and undiluted voice of the American right,” writer Shane Burley says.The remarks were made during a livestream where Fuentes expressed extreme views on gender roles, suggesting that women should not have careers or agency, but rather be restricted to domestic roles and reproduction
https://truthout.org/articles/far-right-streamer-nick-fuentes-says-women-should-be-put-in-breeding-gulags/
‘Wake Up Before It’s Too Late,’ Says AOC as Rubio Embraces Autocrat Orbán. “It’s time to take the gloves off and fight for our future,” the democratic socialist congresswoman asserted.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/rubio-orban
President Trump Is an Apocalypse. A literal Mad Hatter is in charge of the most powerful nation on Earth. With Donald Trump’s actions in Greenland, Minneapolis, and Venezuela, a foreign enemy could not invent a better chain of events to wreck the standing of the United States.
https://www.wired.com/story/donald-trump-has-fully-set-fire-to-what-made-america-great/
# Gov / Politics / Global
Mark Carney just rallied 40 nations to counter US tariff madness – a humiliating middle finger to Trump. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has moved decisively, organizing negotiations between the 27-nation European Union and a 12-country Indo-Pacific bloc in what could become one of the largest economic alliances in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPPTqpK78iI
Carney responds to Trump’s 100% tariff threat, says China deal consistent with CUSMA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrrn3h4ghEg
Trump vs Carney ESCALATES: Canada Rejects U.S. ‘Control’ | PM Calls American Power a Global Threat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFLL8afwZhk
# Law / Law Enforcement / Prisons / FBI / CIA / ATF / DEA
The Development of Police in the U.S.: Suppressing and Stoking Racial and Class Conflicts (11/5/25)
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/wiener/programs/criminaljustice/news-events/authoritarian-control-development-of-police
FBI will not share evidence in Alex Pretti’s death with state investigators, Minnesota says. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension announced the FBI’s decision Monday and said it would continue to pursue legal avenues to access the evidence.
https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/immigration/fbi-will-not-share-evidence-in-alex-prettis-death-with-state-investigators-minnesota-says
# Legal / DOJ / ICJ / International Criminal Court [ICC] / Supreme Court
‘Aberrational’: Former judge stunned at DOJ’s ‘unprecedented’ string of grand jury defeats. In the modern American legal system, grand juries are a special sort of jury convened to either approve or deny a prosecutor’s request to bring significant criminal charges against certain parties.
https://www.alternet.org/trump-federal-judge-2675272966/
# LGBTQ / Transgender
States Are Expanding Trans Bathroom Ban Bills to Encompass Private Businesses. New legislation in several states moves the scope of bathroom bans beyond schools and government buildings.
https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/nondiscrimination/bathroom_bans
# Media / Press / Mail / Radio / TV
CBS Didn’t Want Colbert to Talk to This Democratic Candidate. He Did It Anyway. “This is the party that ran against cancel culture,” Texas state Rep. James Talarico said about the Trump administration.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/cbs-didnt-want-colbert-to-talk-to-this-democratic-candidate-he-did-it-anyway/
The Web Is Not Enough — Why These Left Media Workers Are Opening Physical Spaces
Corporations control the internet, so grassroots media workers are creating in-person spaces to build collective power.
https://truthout.org/articles/the-web-is-not-enough-why-these-left-media-workers-are-opening-physical-spaces/
Why the US Media Is in Crisis and How to Rescue It. What we’re witnessing isn’t a singular breakdown, but discrete and cascading layers of “media capture” by capitalists, oligarchs, and authoritarians that produce censorship, exclusion, and democratic failure. A report co-authored by Annenberg School for Communication professor Victor Pickard traces the erosion of the free press in the United States over the past two decades.
https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-asc-new-report-unpacks-crises-facing-american-journalism-and-offers-solutions
# Medical / Science / Research / Nursing / Biologicals / Pharmaceuticals
‘New Storm’ Looms Over AIDS Drug Program: Inside Florida’s Decision to Gut Its AIDS Drug Assistance Program. By ending state-paid insurance support, the DeSantis administration risks cutting off lifesaving medication for as many as 12,000 residents.
https://www.governing.com/policy/inside-floridas-decision-to-gut-its-aids-drug-assistance-program
# Military / Department of Defense [DOD]
Final Pieces Moving Into Place For Potential Attack On Iran. The latest flurry of U.S. assets heading to the Middle East includes many of the missing capabilities needed for a sustained air campaign. The latest flurry of U.S. assets heading to the Middle East includes many of the missing capabilities needed for a sustained air campaign.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/final-pieces-moving-into-place-for-potential-attack-on-iran
Pete Hegseth Ordered Sudden Firing of Top Army Officer — Adding to Climate of ‘Fear’ Among Military Brass
https://www.alternet.org/trump-military-firings/
Kristi Noem’s Coast Guard directives spark internal strain, and search-and-rescue is no longer top priority
https://san.com/media-miss/noems-use-of-coast-guard-resources-strains-her-relationship-with-the-branch-report/
# Military / Global
Nuclear Sites Fortified, Missiles Deployed: Iran’s Final Signal Before Launching War On US Army? Iran is ramping up fortifications at its key nuclear facilities as tensions with the United States simmer. Fresh satellite imagery reveals tunnel entrances at the Isfahan site buried under soil and new structures built over parts of Isfahan and Natanz, signalling heightened defensive readiness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W7a3z-Zifk
# Science / Science Engineers / Chemistry / Research
Scientists have discovered that ‘superworms,’ the larvae of the darkling beetle (Zophobas morio)—can consume and digest polystyrene, a common plastic, thanks to specific, plastic-degrading enzymes in their gut. This discovery has led to research into creating artificial “worm guts” to break down plastic waste on a large scale
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/superworms-plastic-eating-beetles-larvae/
# Security / DHS / Surveillance / Cybersecurity / Spyware / Secret Service
‘If this is civilization, I’ll take the jungle’: People fume over US Department of Homeland Security’s social media policing concerns. Based on multiple reports from several reputed publications, the United States Department of Homeland Security is taking measures to exercise greater control over social media usage, especially in terms of activity centred around their criticism of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
https://www.themarysue.com/if-this-is-civilization-ill-take-the-jungle-people-fume-over-us-department-of-homeland-securitys-social-media-policing-concerns/
US Department of Homeland Security has reportedly demanded personal information about ICE’s critics from Discord, Reddit, Google, and Meta—and at least 3 of those platforms have complied
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2026/02/17/dhs-collecting-big-tech-users-personal-data-issuing-subpoenas-ice-related-criticism.html
# Social / Communities
Twin Cities Unions Planning ‘Largest US Rent Strike in 100+ Years’ as ICE Occupation Drives Eviction Crisis. “Tenants in Minnesota are in a crisis,” said Minneapolis City Council Member Aisha Chughtai. “The federal invasion forced many of our neighbors to stay home and devastated our local economy.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/minnesota-rent-strike-ice
# Technology / AI / Robotics / Social Media Platforms
Big Tech Faces More Probes Over AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material. The Spanish government has ordered prosecutors to investigate social media platforms X, Meta and TikTok for allegedly spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse material, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday. Ciara Lee reports.
https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/idRW611217022026RP1/
# Water / Lakes / Oceans / Rivers
How a Water War Is Brewing Over a Drying Lake in Nevada. Walker Lake has receded well beyond the sign on U.S. Route 95, in Mineral County, Nev., in January 2026. Decades ago, anglers could shorecast for fish that can no longer survive in the shrinking lake.
https://prescottenews.com/2026/02/17/how-a-water-war-is-brewing-over-a-drying-lake-in-nevada-the-epoch-times/
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