February 18, 2026

LIST of Articles for DWF NEWS 2/18/26

Subject line: A Democratic Future for the USA?

Finding the answer with the Earth Constitution

A Democratic Future for the USA?

Glen T. Martin       Transcend Media Service

Is the U.S. government an international criminal cabal?

Suffocating an Island: What the U.S. Blockade Is Doing to Cuba

Medea Benjamin Transcend Media Service

Israel & US governments are brazenly criminal on world stage, mocking the UN and world community

AU calls for end to 'extermination' of Palestinians, decries African wars

By Al Jazeera Staff & News Agencies

The DISAPPEARED: US weapons used by Israel incinerate children and adults into ashes

Israel used weapons in Gaza that made thousands of Palestinians evaporate

Mohammad Mansour     Al Jazeera

More brazen international crime by the US-Israel cabal

The US Keeps Openly Admitting It Deliberately Caused The Iran Protests

Caitlin Johnstone

Were these four women an operational part of the molestation of children? If so, they remain free -- WHY?

The Women Who Kept Epstein's Empire Running: The Epstein Files

Matt Cullen          The Intel Drop

WORLD PUBLIC INTEREST JOURNALISM

Editor - Worth repeating from two weeks ago: "Since the US under President Trump has withdrawn critical funding to the UN, it would be timely for China and India to step in and make sure that the UN is adequately funded, and also to assume a leadership role at the UN by replacing the criminally-inclined U.S. government."

It would also be timely for China and India to appoint representatives to begin working with the Earth Constitution's Provisional World Parliament, the beginnings of forming a House of Nations -- giving for the first time to the UN General Assembly real voting rights under the EC.

The world needs a World Parliament to replace the undemocratic UN Security Council P-5 veto powers which is a proven failure as it is unable to end war or eliminate nuclear weapons.

The dreadful UNSC P-5 are above the Law. This fatal flaw in the UN Charter is a complete disaster, and has meant anarchy and endless wars. Millions of people in Cuba, Venezuela and Iran suffer and many die as a result of the blockades.

The Earth Constitution not only brings democracy to a "new UN," it also brings Law, so that no nation or individual is above the Law. Those leaders responsible for the illegal blockades of nations would be under arrest, prosecuted in a Court of Law, and if convicted sent to prison. ~ R. Kotila, PhD

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Finding the answer with the Earth Constitution

A Democratic Future for the USA?

Glen T. Martin       Transcend Media Service

EXCERPTS

 The tide may be turning in the fight against a Trump-led dictatorship replacing the US Constitution and whatever remnants of democracy were in place before Trump took office. A return to Constitutional government will require nothing less than putting Donald Trump in prison for his crimes. The constant refrain that we need to show that “no one is above the law” must be demonstrated through similar prison time for most of the enablers and sycophants in the Trump Administration. Nevertheless, it will substantially require more than this.

Not only are the voices of the majority silenced, but as the Jeffrey Epstein saga shows, there really is a two-tier system of justice in which the super-wealthy get away with endless crimes while the poor in the ghettos and minority neighborhoods of the nation are held to strict account ...

Are the real criminals going to continue to run the show after the Trump tyranny is deposed? In all likelihood, yes, unless some truly visionary leaders arise who understand what real democracy looks like. ... The mainstream media, largely owned and run by the super-wealthy, has not abandoned their propaganda against “socialism” or “communism,” or, as Trump puts it, “those radical left Democrats who want to destroy America.”  German Protestant theologian Jürgen Moltmann, in his 2012 book Ethics of Hope, writes the following:

The world already has a brilliantly written template for a world-system premised on human dignity which is the text of the Constitution for the Federation of Earth [aka Earth Constitution]. This was written by hundreds of world citizens working together and finalized at the “Fourth Constituent Assembly,” in Troia, Portugal, in 1991. There have been 16 sessions of the “Provisional World Parliament” that have met under its authority, the last of which was in December 2025 in Pondicherry, India. The Parliament has a Permanent Secretariat promoting its ratification and promoting another Constituent Assembly in which the nations and people of Earth can update the Constitution to the present year of 2026.

The Constitution never mentions the words “capitalism” or “socialism.” It simply develops a tricameral World Parliament so that all peoples are represented, including all the nations of the world in the House of Nations. It includes two Bills of Rights, making it clear that human dignity is the real foundation of democratic world government. ...

The pending defeat of Donald Trump in the United States will mean that much repair of the devastation he has caused will have to be done. ... First and foremost Congress should pass a 28^th amendment to the US Constitution that reads: “The government of the United States of America shall be open by law to the development of a supranational democratic world parliament such as the one envisioned by the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. In its foreign policy, the US government will pursue all possible peaceful, honest, and just means to promote such an Earth Federation that is premised on the common welfare of all the people on Earth and the common good of the whole of humanity.” READ MORE

https://www.transcend.org/tms/2026/02/a-democratic-future-for-the-usa/

Is the US government an international criminal cabal?

Suffocating an Island: What the [illegal] U.S. Blockade Is Doing to Cuba

Medea Benjamin    Transcend Media Service

EXCERPTS

“You can’t imagine how it touches every part of our lives,” she sobbed. “It’s a vicious, all-encompassing spiral downward. With no gasoline, buses don’t run, so we can’t get to work. We have electricity only three to six hours a day. There’s no gas for cooking, so we’re burning wood and charcoal in our apartments. It’s like going back 100 years. The blockade is suffocating us—especially single mothers,” she said crying into her hands “and no one is stopping these demons: Trump and Marco Rubio.”

We came to Holguín to deliver 2,500 pounds of lentils, thanks to fundraising by CODEPINK and the Cuban-American group Puentes de Amor. On our last trip, we brought 50-pound bags of powdered milk to the children’s hospital. With Trump now imposing a brutal, medieval siege on the island, this humanitarian aid is more critical than ever. But lentils and milk cannot power a country. What Cubans really need is oil.

Cubans don’t pay rent or have mortgages; they own their homes. And while healthcare has deteriorated badly in recent years because of shortages of medicines and equipment, it remains free–a system gasping but not abandoned. When my partner Tighe had an asthma attack, we went to the clinic and within minutes, he was breathing in albuterol mist from a nebulizer. No insurance forms. No bill. Just care — delivered with competence and a smile. That’s what health care looks like when it’s treated as a human right.

“This government is terrible,” said a thin man who changes money on the street—an illegal but tolerated activity. But when I showed him a photo of Marco Rubio, he didn’t hesitate. “That man is the devil. A self-serving, slimy politician who doesn’t give a damn about the Cuban people.”

Others put the blame squarely on the United States. They point to the dramatic improvement in their lives after Presidents Obama and Raúl Castro reached an agreement and Washington eased many sanctions in 2014–2016. “It was the same Cuban government we have now,” one man told me. “But when the U.S. loosened the rope around our necks, we could breathe. If they just left us alone, we could find our own solutions.” READ MORE

https://www.transcend.org/tms/2026/02/suffocating-an-island-what-the-u-s-blockade-is-doing-to-cuba/

Israel & US governments are brazenly criminal on the world stage, mocking the UN and world community 

AU calls for end to 'extermination' of Palestinians, decries African wars

By Al Jazeera Staff & News Agencies

African heads of state gather in Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa for the 39th African Union Summit.

EXCERPTS

The “extermination” of the Palestinian people must end, the chairman of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, has said, as dozens of heads of state gather for the regional body’s 39th summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

“In the Middle East, Palestine and the suffering of its people also challenge our consciences. The extermination of this people must stop,” said Youssouf, who was elected to head the institution a year ago, declared on Saturday.

“From Sudan to the Sahel, to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in Somalia and elsewhere, our people continue to pay the heavy price of instability,” Youssouf said.

The summit brings together heads of state from the 55 member states of the African Union over two days.

In his speech at the summit, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised the AU as a “flagship for multilateralism” at a time of global “division and mistrust”.

Guterres also called for a permanent African seat in the UN Security Council, saying its absence is “indefensible”.

In Africa, water cuts across interstate disputes, like Egypt and Ethiopia’s fight over the Nile, deadly tensions between farmers and herders in Nigeria over access to the same arable land, antigovernment protests over failed service delivery in Madagascar, and the outbreak of health epidemics in the wake of major floods and droughts.

She also added the ongoing deadly war in the DRC, which is causing mass displacement and famine, as well as the brutal, nearly three-year war in Sudan are also high on the summit agenda, as well as the reignited conflict in neighbouring South Sudan.

The African continent makes up about a fifth of the global population, with an estimated 1.4 billion people, about 400 million of whom are 15 to 35 years old.

But it is also home to several of the world’s oldest and longest-serving leaders, many criticised as out-of-touch – a paradox that has contributed to an upsurge in military takeovers and other undemocratic means, notably in West African nations, such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger, and Guinea-Bissau.

Some observers say the AU Summit will provide an opportunity to align continental priorities with international partners, especially at a time of discussions around a “new world order” stirred by US President Donald Trump, with foreign leaders signaling shifting global alliances and many looking towards China.   READ MORE

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/14/au-calls-for-end-to-extermination-of-palestinians-decries-african-wars

The DISAPPEARED: US weapons used by Israel incinerate children and adults into ashes  

Israel used weapons in Gaza that made thousands of Palestinians evaporate

Mohammad Mansour     Al Jazeera

EXCERPTS

Al Jazeera investigation reveals how US-supplied thermal and thermobaric munitions burning at 3,500C have left no trace of nearly 3,000 Palestinians.

At dawn on August 10, 2024, Yasmin Mahani walked through the smoking ruins of al-Tabin school in Gaza City, searching for her son, Saad. She found her husband screaming, but of Saad, there was no trace.

“I went into the mosque and found myself stepping on flesh and blood,” Mahani told Al Jazeera Arabic for an investigation that aired on Monday. She searched hospitals and morgues for days. “We found nothing of Saad. Not even a body to bury. That was the hardest part.”

According to the Al Jazeera Arabic investigation, The Rest of the Story, Civil Defence teams in Gaza have documented 2,842 Palestinians who have “evaporated” since the war began in October 2023, leaving behind no remains other than blood spray or small fragments of flesh.

Experts and witnesses attributed this phenomenon to Israel’s systematic use of internationally prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons, often referred to as vacuum or aerosol bombs, capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius [6,332 degrees Fahrenheit].

The chemistry of erasure

The investigation detailed how specific chemical compositions in Israeli munitions turn human bodies into ash in seconds.

Vasily Fatigarov, a Russian military expert, explained that thermobaric weapons do not just kill; they obliterate matter. Unlike conventional explosives, these weapons disperse a cloud of fuel that ignites to create an enormous fireball and a vacuum effect.

“To prolong the burning time, powders of aluminium, magnesium and titanium are added to the chemical mixture,” Fatigarov said. “This raises the temperature of the explosion to between 2,500 and 3,000 degrees Celsius [4,532F to 5,432F].”

“The boiling point of water is 100 degrees Celsius [212F],” al-Bursh said. “When a body is exposed to energy exceeding 3,000 degrees combined with massive pressure and oxidation, the fluids boil instantly. The tissues vaporise and turn to ash. It is chemically inevitable.”

Anatomy of the bombs

The investigation identified specific US-manufactured munitions used in Gaza that are linked to these disappearances:

• MK-84 ‘Hammer’: This 900kg [2,000lb] unguided bomb packed with tritonal generates heat up to 3,500C [6,332F].
• BLU-109 bunker buster: Used in an attack on al-Mawasi, an area Israel had declared a “safe zone” for forcibly displaced Palestinians in September 2024, this bomb evaporated 22 people. It has a steel casing and a delayed fuse, burying itself before detonating a PBXN-109 explosive mix. This creates a large fireball inside enclosed spaces, incinerating everything within reach.
• GBU-39: This precision glide bomb was used in the al-Tabin school attack. It uses the AFX-757 explosive. “The GBU-39 is designed to keep the building structure relatively intact while destroying everything inside,” Fatigarov noted. “It kills via a pressure wave that ruptures lungs and a thermal wave that incinerates soft tissue.”

Speaking at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, Buttu argued that the supply chain is evidence of complicity. “We see a continuous flow of these weapons from the United States and Europe. They know these weapons do not distinguish between a fighter and a child, yet they continue to send them.”

Buttu emphasised that under international law, the use of weapons that cannot distinguish between combatants and noncombatants constitutes a war crime.

“The world knows Israel possesses and uses these prohibited weapons,” Buttu said. “The question is why are they allowed to remain outside the system of accountability.”  READ MORE

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/2/10/israel-used-weapons-in-gaza-that-made-thousands-of-palestinians-evaporate?utm_source=copilot.com

More brazen international crime by the US-Israel cabal

The US Keeps Openly Admitting It Deliberately Caused The Iran Protests

Caitlin Johnstone

EXCERPTS

Speaking before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explicitly stated that the US deliberately caused a financial crisis in Iran with the goal of fomenting civil unrest in the country.

Following these remarks, Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Farres wrote the following for Common Dreams:

“What Secretary Bessent describes is of course not ‘economic statecraft’ in a traditional sense. It is war conducted by economic means, all designed to produce an economic crisis and social unrest leading to a fall of the government. This is proudly hailed as ‘economic statecraft.’

“The human suffering caused by outright war and crushing economic sanctions is not so different as one might think. Economic collapse produces shortages of food, medicine, and fuel, while also destroying savings, pensions, wages, and public services. Deliberate economic collapse drives people into poverty, malnutrition, and premature death, just as outright war does.”

The US has been orchestrating plans to foment unrest in Iran by causing economic strife for years. In 2019 Trump’s previous secretary of state Mike Pompeo openly acknowledged that the goal of Washington’s economic warfare against Iran was to make the population so miserable that they “change the government”, cheerfully citing the “economic distress” the nation had been placed under by US sanctions.

As unrest tore through Iran last month, Trump egged protesters on and encouraged them to escalate, saying “To all Iranian patriots, keep protesting, take over your institutions, if possible, and save the name of the killers and the abusers that are abusing you,” adding, “all I say to them is help is on its way.”

Deliberately trying to ignite a civil war in a country by immiserating its population so severely that they start attacking their own government out of sheer desperation is one of the most evil things you can possibly imagine. But under the western empire it’s just another day. READ MORE

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/02/06/the-us-keeps-openly-admitting-it-deliberately-caused-the-iran-protests/

WATCH ON YOUTUBE

Were these four women an operational part of the molestation of children? If so, they remain free-- WHY?

The Women Who Kept Epstein's Empire Running: The Epstein Files

Matt Cullen          The Intel Drop

Jeffrey Epstein did not operate alone. Behind the private jets, the Manhattan townhouse, and the island were women who worked inside his organization for years… managing schedules, coordinating travel, and appearing in court filings connected to his abuse network.

In this video, we break down the documented roles of Lesley Groff, Sarah Kellen, Nadia Marcinkova, and Adriana Ross, women who have been described in lawsuits and depositions as part of Epstein’s operational structure. None of them were criminally convicted. So how did the system function for so long? And why did accountability stop where it did? WATCH YOUTUBE

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2026/02/16/the-women-who-kept-epsteins-empire-running-the-epstein-files/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=monday-newsletter-the-intel-drop-744