Feb. 17, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day: in 1919, The Ukrainian People's Republic asks the Entente and the United States for help fighting the Bolsheviks.
QOTD: ""We are continuing the revolution of settlement and strengthening our hold across all parts of our land," said [Israeli] far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
IRAN/US/SWITZERLAND - Iran’s Two-Pronged Approach to Trump: Concessions and Saber Rattling
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-pitches-new-ideas-in-nuclear-talksbut-not-the-one-that-matters-to-trump-6e297cf0
While Iranian officials are signaling a willingness to compromise around the edges of their nuclear program in a new round of nuclear talks Tuesday, the regime is also talking tough with military exercises in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Both gambits are aimed at heading off a possible U.S. strike. The question is whether either will move President Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants a deal that ensures Iran won’t get a nuclear weapon and is assembling a massive force just off the country’s coast in case an agreement can’t be reached.
“I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” Trump told reporters late Monday, saying he will remain indirectly involved in Tuesday’s talks. “They want to make a deal.”
Iranian diplomats have floated a willingness to pause enrichment of uranium, move some of their stockpiles offshore to a third party such as Russia and cut business deals with the U.S., diplomats from Iran, the U.S. and around the region said. The slate of proposals gets closer to core issues but doesn’t deliver the definitive halt to enrichment that Trump has demanded.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out exercises at the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits. News agencies affiliated with the country’s security agencies showed footage of cruise missiles being launched from trucks and boats, as a tanker could be seen sailing in the background.
“More dangerous than the American warship is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned in a speech broadcast on his personal website Tuesday as the talks in Geneva were ongoing. The U.S. “may be struck so hard that it cannot get back up,” he said.
IRAN/US/SWITZERLAND - Iran foreign minister says progress made in nuclear talks with US in Geneva
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-iran-set-high-stakes-nuclear-talks-geneva-threat-war-looms-2026-02-17/
Iran and the United States reached an understanding on the main "guiding principles" in a second round of indirect talks over their nuclear dispute on Tuesday, but that does not mean a deal is imminent, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said.
"Different ideas have been presented, these ideas have been seriously discussed, ultimately we've been able to reach a general agreement on some guiding principles, from now on we will move based on those principles and enter the text of a potential agreement," Araqchi told Iranian media after the talks concluded in Geneva.
After the exchange of documents the two sides will decide on a date for a third round of negotiations, he said.
US BUILDS MILITARY PRESENCE IN MIDDLE EAST
The U.S. has sent a battle force to the Middle East to press Tehran to make concessions in the decades-long nuclear dispute and President Donald Trump has said "regime change" in Tehran may be the best thing that can happen.
Iranian state media reported earlier that Iran would temporarily shut part of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil supply route, as it held talks over its nuclear programme while Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Tuesday that any U.S. attempts to depose his government would fail.
MORE/DRAMATIC HEADLINE - Iran temporarily closed the Strait of Hormuz as it held latest round of indirect talks with US
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-nuclear-talks-iaea-dbed41b78ce2ddabc8a04349e72abeba
Iran announced the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday for live fire military drills in a rare show of force as its negotiators held another round of indirect talks with the United States in Geneva over its disputed nuclear program.
It was the first time Iran has announced the closure of the key international waterway, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes, since the U.S. began threatening Iran and rushing military assets to the region. It marks a further escalation in a weekslong standoff that could ignite another war in the Middle East.
As the talks began, Iran’s state media announced that it had fired live missiles toward the Strait and would close it for several hours for “safety and maritime concerns.”
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said missiles launched inside Iran and along its coast had struck their targets in the Strait.
BANGLADESH/POL/WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? - Tarique Rahman sworn in as new Bangladesh prime minister
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/17/incoming-bangladesh-pm-tarique-rahman-lawmakers-sworn-into-parliament
Tarique Rahman has been sworn in as the new prime minister, days after his party swept the first vote since the 2024 student-led uprising that expelled the then-leader, Sheikh Hasina.
“I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of prime minister of the government in accordance with the law,” he said on Tuesday, sworn in by President Mohammed Shahabuddin, in a televised ceremony held outside the parliament building in the capital, Dhaka.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secured more than a two-thirds majority in last week’s elections.
Earlier, inside the parliament’s oath room, lawmakers pledged loyalty to Bangladesh as they were sworn in by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin.
Foreign dignitaries, including the Pakistani foreign minister and the speaker of the Indian Parliament, were in attendance.
SPAIN/TECH/POL - Spain to probe X, Meta, TikTok over AI-generated child sexual abuse material
https://www.reuters.com/technology/spain-probe-x-meta-tiktok-over-ai-generated-child-sexual-abuse-material-2026-02-17/
Spain has ordered prosecutors to investigate social media platforms X, Meta and TikTok for allegedly spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse material, as European regulators intensify scrutiny of big tech over harmful and illegal content.
The announcement by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez comes amid a wider crackdown on online platforms, with regulators accusing them of practices ranging from anti-competitive behaviour in digital advertising to deliberate design of addictive features.
The three companies named by Sanchez did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
The move - the first from a package of social-media regulations Sanchez unveiled at a government summit in Dubai earlier this month - was based on a technical report from three ministries, his office later said in a statement.
Government spokesperson Elma Saiz told reporters authorities "cannot allow algorithms to amplify or shelter" such crimes, adding that children's safety, privacy and dignity were at risk.
Separately on Tuesday, Ireland's Data Protection Commission said it had opened a formal investigation into X's xAI chatbot Grok over the processing of personal data and its potential to generate harmful sexualised images and video, including of children.
GIFT LINK: INDIA/IRAN/US/OIL - India Seizes Sanctioned Shadow Fleet Tankers Amid Trade Thaw With U.S.
https://www.wsj.com/world/india/india-seizes-sanctioned-shadow-fleet-tankers-amid-trade-thaw-with-u-s-af2b87e2?st=zEcf38&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
India’s Coast Guard has seized three tankers sanctioned by the U.S. that it says were involved in illicit ship-to-ship transfers off its western coast, a move that analysts said marks New Delhi’s first direct support of U.S. efforts to crack down on the so-called dark fleet.
The vessels were intercepted on Feb. 6 about 100 nautical miles northwest of Mumbai and were part of an “international oil-smuggling racket,” the Coast Guard said in an Instagram post. The tankers are now anchored off Mumbai and under investigation, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Analysts said the seizures reflect a recent thaw in relations with Washington after a standoff over India’s large-scale purchases of Russian crude following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The timing is quite significant just on the back of the India-U.S. trade deal,” said Dinakar Peri, a fellow in the security studies program at Carnegie India, a think tank based in New Delhi.
Last year, Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to 50% in an effort to pressure New Delhi to cease its purchases of Russian oil. Early this month, Trump said that India had agreed to halt purchase of Russian oil as part of a trade deal that lowered U.S. tariffs to 18%.
ISRAEL/WEST BANK - Israeli cabinet approves West Bank land registration, Palestinians condemn 'de-facto annexation'
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-cabinet-approves-west-bank-land-registration-palestinians-condemn-de-2026-02-15/
Israel's cabinet on Sunday approved further measures to tighten Israel's control over the occupied West Bank and make it easier for settlers to buy land, a move Palestinians called a "de-facto annexation".
The West Bank is among the territories that Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Much of it is under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas run by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing an election later this year, deems the establishment of any Palestinian state a security threat.
His ruling coalition, which has a large voter base in the settlements, includes many members who want Israel to annex the West Bank, land captured in the 1967 Middle East war to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.
Ministers voted in favour of beginning a process of land registration for the first time since 1967, a week after approving another series of measures in the West Bank that drew international condemnation.
EU/POL/MANUFACTURING - EU Will Pitch Green Steel as Key Pillar of Industrial Revival
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-16/eu-will-pitch-green-steel-as-key-pillar-of-industrial-revival
The European Union will put so-called green steel at the center of its pitch to revive the continent’s industrial fortunes as it comes under pressure to stay competitive with the US and China.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, will look to spur uptake of low-carbon steel by introducing voluntary certification programs and creating fresh sources of demand via public procurement and the automotive sector under its Industrial Accelerator Act due next week, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg.
Under the draft proposals, steel will be classified according to the emissions generated during its manufacture, with the exact thresholds to be laid out a later date. Governments will be required to ensure that 25% of steel used under public procurement and subsidy programs is low-carbon. The use of scrap steel and electric arc furnaces, or green hydrogen are seen as key decarbonization technologies for the sector.
COLOMBIA/POL/SEC - Colombian Candidates Retreat as Violence Shakes 2026 Election
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-02-17/colombia-election-2026-violence-is-surging-as-candidates-face-gang-threats?srnd=phx-politics
One of Latin America’s oldest democracies is under siege from powerful criminal gangs, and a manhunt for three warlords wanted by Donald Trump threatens to unleash even more chaos before Colombians vote this year.
Already, candidates are largely staying off the campaign trail amid a wave of attacks that saw a senator’s bodyguards slaughtered with machine guns, another senator kidnapped, and the first murder of a Colombian presidential contender in more than three decades. The militias blamed for the bloodshed are the strongest they’ve been in years in the aftermath of failed peace talks and the biggest cocaine boom in history.
Parts of the countryside are now no-go zones for politicians.
PERU/POL - Peru's congress begins debating removal of President Jeri
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/perus-congress-begins-debating-removal-president-jeri-2026-02-17/
Peru's Congress on Tuesday began a debate in which they will discuss whether to remove President Jose Jeri after just four months in office, following a scandal over undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman.
If a simple majority approves Jeri's removal, this would continue a revolving door of leaders in the South American nation, which despite years of political turbulence counts one of the region's most stable economies.
If removed, Jeri's successor would become the Andean nation's eighth president in as many years, making Jeri the third consecutive president to be removed from office.
The motions being debated are to censure President Jose Jeri, a measure that would remove him from the presidency by stripping him of his title as President of Congress.
Unlike impeachment, which requires a supermajority of 87 votes in the 130-member legislature, censure requires a simple majority of 66 or less if fewer legislators are in attendance.
The president and his allies have argued that he should face an impeachment trial and not censure, but Jeri has said he would respect the outcome of the censure vote.