The Automatic Earth

Piet Mondriaan Composition No. 10 1939-42

JAKE TAPPER: "He said, 'these people are crazy I'm telling you, they're crazy.' That's not something we ever heard from Obama or Biden from that that stage."

SEAN DUFFY: "We've never had a Speaker rip up a speech either"

This is why Trump likes TV guys in his cabinet. pic.twitter.com/4c2NrUvHGu

— Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern) February 25, 2026

NEW: CNN is calling the Democratic Party a “total clown car … a total mess” after AOC and Gavin Newsom embarrassed themselves on the world stage in Munich.

“This is just a downright clown car at this point on the Democratic side.”

"It's been a long time since we've had a… pic.twitter.com/XemzErslfA

— George (@BehizyTweets) February 24, 2026

.@POTUS: "I believe the tariffs, paid for by foreign countries, will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love." ❤️ pic.twitter.com/6v143TcJHO

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) February 25, 2026

Are the Cubans especially jittery for some reason?

• Cuban Regime Kills Four in Shootout With Florida Vessel (Sarah Anderson)

The Cuban regime may have just sealed its fate. Cuba’s Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday that four men on a Florida-registered vessel, possibly a speedboat, were shot and killed by its Border Guard after entering Cuban waters near Santa Clara Province. Six other people aboard the boat were wounded. The regime claims that the people on board the vessel shot at the Border Guards first. It’s not yet clear if the people on board were United States citizens, though many are assuming so since the boat was registered in the U.S. The Interior Ministry’s full statement reads:

“On the morning of February 25, 2026, a violating speedboat was detected within Cuban territorial waters. The vessel, registered in Florida, United States, with registration number FL7726SH, approached up to 1 nautical mile northeast of the El Pino channel, in Cayo Falcones, Corralillo municipality, Villa Clara province.” When a surface unit of the Border Guard Troops of the Ministry of the Interior, carrying five service members, approached the vessel for identification, the crew of the violating speedboat opened fire on the Cuban personnel, resulting in the injury of the commander of the Cuban vessel.

Note from the Ministry of the Interior:

On the morning of February 25, 2026, a violating speedboat was detected within Cuban territorial waters. The vessel, registered in Florida, United States, with registration number FL7726SH, approached up to 1 nautical mile northeast of the… pic.twitter.com/AEmwtAZ4lO

— Cuban Embassy in US (@EmbaCubaUS) February 25, 2026

As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six were injured. The injured individuals were evacuated and received medical assistance. In the face of current challenges, Cuba reaffirms its determination to protect its territorial waters, based on the principle that national defense is a fundamental pillar of the Cuban State in safeguarding its sovereignty and ensuring stability in the region.

Approximate location of the recent incident between a vessel originating in the U.S. and the Cuban Border Guard that saw 7 injured, including a Cuban commander, and 4 killed. pic.twitter.com/LnvaDMV90Q

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) February 25, 2026

Investigations by the competent authorities continue in order to fully clarify the events. There’s been no word from President Donald Trump or Secretary of State Marco Rubio yet — Rubio is currently in Saint Kitts and Nevis for a CARICOM meeting, where the situation in Cuba has been a hot topic. Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Fla.) has issued a statement, calling for an immediate investigation into the “massacre.” Gimenez, who was born in Cuba, also suggested that “his regime must be relegated to the dust bin of history!”

“Let that line marinate: two-thirds positive .. “

• CNN’s Instant Poll of the State of the Union Will Trigger the Left (Margolis)

After Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address, CNN political director David Chalian broke down the network’s instant poll — and it didn’t exactly produce the outrage or “failing Trump” narrative that the left likes to see. It was the kind of segment that left-wing pundits will be scrambling to spin before breakfast. You could tell the numbers would be bad for the left when Chalian immediately began qualifying the findings. “I just want to take a moment here to explain. This is a poll of speech watchers,” he began. “So it is not a poll that is reflective of the population overall.” Yeah, that’s kind of how polls of speeches work. Thanks for reminding us. But seriously, the fact that he made sure to emphasize that point twice, you just knew. It was like he was really about to say, “Hey, don’t get too happy, MAGA world.”

Oh yeah, and there was another caveat before he began. “What we know about people who tune in to State of the Union addresses,” Chalian added, “they tend to be fans of the president, whichever president is giving the speech.” He explained that the “polling universe here is about 13 points more Republican than the overall population usually is.” You ready? “So just keep all that in mind as we go to the results,” Chalian continued, doing damage control in real time. “Get this reaction from those that watch the speech tonight. 38% said they had a very positive reaction to the speech, 25% somewhat positive, 36% negative.” He paused just long enough for the math to sink in. “So roughly two-thirds in the positive territory, one-third negative among speech watchers.”

Let that line marinate: two-thirds positive ..

On CNN.

For Donald Trump.

https://twitter.com/WarMachineRR/status/2026530396821758073?s=20 Chalian also noted that among speech watchers, 64% “say his policies will move the U.S. in the right direction.” But here’s a metric I think is really important: the change from pre-speech to post-speech. According to the poll, before the speech, 54% of speech watchers said Trump’s policies would move the United States in the right direction — a 10-point jump. “So Donald Trump made some progress with people watching the speech from their pre-speech expectations to what they saw in the speech itself,” Chalian observed. “And that 64% number, that’s pretty much in range across all of his State of the Union addresses, in his first term, last year, the joint session, that’s about what we’ve seen is roughly two-thirds have walked away from his speeches thinking he’s going to move it in the right direction.”

https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2026531073459355793?s=20

Since this is CNN, Chalian still tried to cast the moment as a low point, even though most people who tuned in clearly liked what they heard, and even he had to admit that it was a good night for Republicans running in this year’s midterm elections. “If you’re a Republican on the ballot in 2026, I think you leave this speech being as happy as you could possibly be that he sort of stuck to the script on the economy,” Chalian said. “He gave red meat to the base on immigration, and they can leave the hall tonight and sort of take that out on the campaign trail.”

“Trump addressed exactly one person: the American watching at home.”

• A Masterclass in Giving a Speech Without Giving a Speech (Stephen Green)

Let’s set aside “the optics,” what the polls might show in a few days, who got “destroyed,” how many “truth bombs” Trump dropped, the “What it All Means” chin-scratcher pieces — ugh, I give up. I went MEGO again just mentioning those things, so that’s the last of them you’ll see in this column, and also, you’re welcome. But President Donald Trump’s whirlwind, time-defying performance left me (and maybe you, too) with a nagging question/realization that I’ll try to explain today: How do you give a speech — particularly a speech of two hours — without giving a speech? It was the longest State of the Union in history, but it was no slog.

“I wasn’t even planning to watch the whole thing and I just kept watching,” blogfaddah Glenn Reynolds posted to Instapundit last night, and my friend and partner in thoughtcrime Stephen Kruiser added in today’s Morning Briefing, “It may seem weird to say it about a speech of that length, but there was an economy to it that made it effective.” Plenty of the non-speech speech was scripted, of course, primarily penned by Ross Worthington. The wrap was particularly effective, and delivered with a grace that Trump throws aside whenever he likes. But not this time: “The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended. It still continues, because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot. And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder, and more glorious than ever before.”

Good stuff. But what people will and ought to remember are the moments when Trump at least appeared to go off-script. One instant classic example was when he called on Congress to outlaw insider trading — by Congresscritters. The ad-lib — and you can watch Trump wait for the perfect moment to sink the barb — comes at the 0:29 mark. “They stood up for that, I can’t believe it.”But then Trump pauses and waits again, the audience primed for a segue into the next topic, when he sinks the second barb, this one more direct: “Did Nancy Pelosi stand up, if she’s here? Doubt it.”

If. She’s. Here. A joke inside the joke that followed the joke. There were many such seemingly unscripted moments, particularly when Trump addressed his guests in attendance, or presented TWO Congressional Medals of Honor.While the congresscritters in attendance all played their party-mandated roles, Trump wasn’t speaking to them. He was speaking to us. More than that, I think he was speaking for us. That’s how a billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV star manages to maintain what we used to call “the common touch.” Bill Clinton — who grew up without any of Trump’s privileges — had to whack audiences over the head with how common he was. “I feel your pain,” indeed. Trump, on the other hand, does it more subtly.

Did I really just write “subtly” about Trump? Indeed, I did. Not quite a speech, Trump’s SOTU, I noted on Instapundit today, was more like a conversation — with the American people, with heroes in attendance, and even at times with surly Dems — that made the two hours fly. But the real secret is that Trump wasn’t speaking to the pundits with their mostly pre-written chin-scratchers based on the text of Trump’s talk. Trump addressed exactly one person: the American watching at home.

” Just as Democrats have made it clear that they represent illegal aliens and not American citizens, Republicans have made it clear that they represent Israel and not American citizens”

• Which Party Represents Americans? (Paul Craig Roberts)

For sometime I have made the point that America’ s enemies are at home, not in Iran, Russia, and China. Last night at Trump s State of the Union speech, the Democrats proved me to be correct. Trump asked the members of the US Congress to stand up if they agreed with his statement: the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Many Democrats did not stand, which proves my point that if Democrats represent Americans at all, Democrats represent Americans as second-class citizens whose interests are sacrificed to illegal immigrant-invaders.

This is not an endorsement of Republicans. Unlike Democrats, Republicans do not hate white Americans. But Republicans, along with many Democrats, do sacrifice America’s interest to Israel’s. The US fights Israel s wars at the expense of American blood, money, and reputation. Federal state and local governments censor and punish Americans for criticizing Israel. Criticism of Israel is gradually being turned into an antisemitic hate crime, which means among other things that Americans cannot criticize the genocide and destruction of Palestine. In some American states, a person who is a critic of Israel cannot hold a state job or provide goods and services under contract to the state.

Currently in Texas the Israel lobby has brought a vote before the Texas legislature that incorporates Israeli propaganda as a mandatory part of statewide education in Texas. Is a bought and paid for Texas legislature going to permit Israel to shape the outlook of the rising American generation? If so, will it be an American generation or an Israeli one? Just as Democrats have made it clear that they represent illegal aliens and not American citizens, Republicans have made it clear that they represent Israel and not American citizens. The representation of Israel is manifest in the chant you can’t be an American if you don’t love Israel. Allegedly, America is a democracy, but neither political party represents Americans who are forced to support Israel and illegal aliens.

Dems want, no, need, to see Trump not as The Other Party, but as The Enemy. i wonder why that is.

• Sen. Chris Murphy Joins Pledge to Throw Trump Figures in Jail (Turley)

Before the State of the Union, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) joined other leaders in promising Americans that the Democrats will unleash a revenge tour after taking power in November, pledging to start throwing Trump people in jail when they retake Congress. Murphy went on MS NOW to feed the rage addiction that has taken over his party.We recently discussed how Susan Rice joined the mob in stating that “When it comes to the elites, you know, the corporate interests, the law firms, the universities, the media … it’s not going to end well for them.”mShe followed other Democrats, assuring voters that, if they returned Democrats to power, they would crack down on their political opponents.

Republicans and law enforcement are now regularly called “Nazis” and “fascists” by Democratic leaders. Some are promising arrests from the President to individual police officers. Last week, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner promised to “hunt down” ICE officers like “Nazis.” Democratic strategist James Carville previously threatened that “collaborators” may be treated in the same way as they were after World War II. Gov. Tim Walz, who has called ICE officers “Gestapo,” said that this may be our “Fort Sumter” moment, a triggering event for a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Democratic members have been warned that they have to join the mob or be devoured by it. Bravo star and liberal podcast host Jennifer Welch praised footage of a “No Kings” protester celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk. After playing the clip, Welch laughed with joy and declared, “So listen up, Democratic establishment. You can either jump on board with this s—, or we’re coming after you in the same way that we come after MAGA. Period.” Murphy clearly got the message and added his voice in declaring that “they’re going to get their clocks cleaned this November, and a bunch of people are probably gonna end up going to jail.” It is a curious pledge, since the Democrats could retake the House and Senate in November. That would not give them the ability to throw people into jail even if they had actual crimes to charge.

What is clear is that the Democratic Party has now decided to try to ride the rage wave to power, leading the mob with such reckless rhetoric. In “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution,” I explore the rise of what I call the “new Jacobins,” establishment figures who are calling for radical changes to our constitutional system and for retaliation against political opponents. It is a book about revolutions and how they can consume those who start them.These Democratic politicians will learn this lesson from history that they are likely to be devoured by the very mobocracy that they are unleashing through rage politics.

Europe depends on it. A dark curtain is about to be drawn.

• Trump Admin to Launch New Free Speech Site to Combat Censorship Abroad (ET)

In response to what the Trump administration says is a rising tide of censorship in Europe, the State Department is launching a new app that will give users worldwide access to content that has been censored in other countries. This includes not only Europe but also China and Iran. The platform, called Freedom.gov, will go live over the next several weeks, according to the State Department, and will be operable on iOS and Android devices.“Freedom.gov is the latest in a long line of efforts by the State Department to protect and promote fundamental freedoms, both online and offline,” the State Department stated in an email to The Epoch Times. “The project will be global in its scope, but distinctly American in its mission: commemorating our commitment to free expression as we approach our 250th birthday.”

Lauding the move, Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a civil rights legal group that has been critical of recent EU speech laws, stated on X that “for 250 years, this is what America does,” citing examples such as Radio Free Europe, which broadcast into communist countries during the Cold War. “If Europe’s bureaucrats don’t want you to see it, that tells you everything,” Tedesco stated. “Because even if your government fears freedom—ours doesn’t.” The First Amendment, which prohibits the U.S. government from “abridging the freedom of speech,” has provided a legal restraint against government censorship that most other countries lack.

Recent European speech laws, most notably the Digital Services Act (DSA), were ostensibly written to combat what lawmakers deemed “hate speech,” “harmful speech,” and “misinformation,” as well as pornography and abusive AI deep fakes. But critics of European speech codes say they are becoming increasingly draconian. In 2025, Virginie Joron, a French member of the European Parliament, called the DSA a “Trojan horse for s urveillance and control.” In Finland, Paivi Rasanen, a member of parliament, was charged for quoting Bible verses online in 2019, criticizing her church’s participation in a gay pride event. “I never imagined that quoting the Bible in a Twitter post would lead to years of criminal charges, yet this is now the reality in Europe,” she told The Epoch Times.

In Germany, illegal online speech could include insulting government officials. German police conducted early morning raids in June 2025 as part of Germany’s 12th annual “day of action against hate-posts,” and arrested 140 residents in the process. In the UK, people praying silently in the vicinity of abortion clinics were arrested in 2023 and 2025. Left-wing ruling parties in Canada are likewise working to remove religious exemptions from their “hate speech” laws. Increasingly, U.S. companies are facing extensive fines for allowing online posts that are illegal in Europe. In December, social media company X was fined $140 million for violating EU speech laws.

Such fines on U.S. tech companies, both for speech code violations and for what the EU deems to be anti-competitive behavior, could become a trade issue for the Trump administration. In January, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the “EU makes more from fines on US tech, than tax from ALL of public European tech,” noting that in 2024, the EU fined American tech companies a total of 3.8 billion euros. In addition, legal experts have warned that Europe’s online censorship laws could also silence Americans if U.S. tech companies are forced, on a global basis, to take down content that violates EU speech codes.

A House of Representatives report released on Feb. 3 and titled “The Foreign Censorship Threat” stated that “The European Commission, in a comprehensive decade-long effort, has successfully pressured social media platforms to change their global content moderation rules, thereby directly infringing on Americans’ online speech in the United States.” According to the Digital Services Act, illegal online speech could include anything that is prohibited in any EU member country. And in one of the more explicit efforts to regulate speech globally, European Commissioner Thierry Breton warned X owner Elon Musk during the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign that his company could face penalties for posting an interview with Trump.

In a 2025 interview with The Epoch Times, Andrew Puzder, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, stated: “When a company like Facebook or Twitter or X has to change its algorithm, and that algorithm might impact the free speech rights of Americans, that’s something that we really can’t tolerate. I know President Trump is not going to allow a foreign government to restrict the free speech rights of American citizens in ways that even our own government couldn’t restrict them.”

“The future of the region is being written east of Brussels – and Marco Rubio’s tour confirmed exactly what Brussels fears most ..”

• A Continental Revolution Is Brewing In Europe (Zemánek)

When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left the polite but brittle atmosphere of the Munich Security Conference and headed for Bratislava and Budapest, the contrast could not have been sharper. In Munich, the old guard of transatlantic liberalism clung to its vocabulary of ‘rules-based order’ and ‘shared values’, even as its political base erodes across the continent. In Central Europe, Rubio encountered something different: Governments confident in their mandates, unapologetic about sovereignty, and aligned with Donald Trump’s insistence that nations – not supranational bureaucracies – are the primary actors of history.

Last week’s visit was a statement of intent. Washington under Trump has made a deliberate choice: If Europe is to be a partner rather than a liability, it must be rebuilt from its healthiest political core. And that core lies not in Brussels, but along the Danube. In Bratislava, Rubio met with Prime Minister Robert Fico and President Peter Pellegrini. The agenda – regional security, nuclear cooperation, military modernization – was substantive. But the subtext was unmistakable. “Under President Trump, this administration is going to make not just Slovakia but Central Europe a key component of how we engage the continent and the world,” Rubio said. It was a diplomatic sentence with revolutionary implications.

For years, Central Europe was treated by Brussels as a problem to be managed: Too conservative, too attached to national identity, too resistant to cultural engineering. Now it is being treated by Washington as an asset to be cultivated. Fico’s remarks revealed why this shift matters. When he visited Moscow and Beijing last year in pursuit of Slovakia’s national interests, the reaction from EU institutions was furious – accusations, insinuations, moral lectures. Genuine diplomacy, in Brussels’ view, is acceptable only when it aligns with the prevailing orthodoxy. Yet from the White House, Fico encountered no hysteria – only what he described as “common-sense pragmatism.” The contrast speaks volumes.

Central European leaders have grown weary of an EU that polices internal politics more aggressively than it secures external borders. They have watched as energy supplies became instruments of political pressure and as ideological conformity became a condition of financial solidarity. Slovakia and Hungary have both experienced the weaponization of gas and oil transit routes by Kiev and Brussels – an illustration of how geopolitics, under Brussels’ watch, too often morphs into leverage against dissenting member states. Trump’s America reads the situation differently. Stability requires diversification, not dogma. Slovakia’s negotiations with Westinghouse Electric Company to build a new nuclear power plant by 2040, along with plans to expand its fleet of F-16 fighter jets, represent more than procurement decisions.

They symbolize a rebalancing: Energy sovereignty anchored in American partnership rather than EU dependency. Slovakia’s upcoming presidency of the Visegrad Group offers an even broader horizon. A potential V4-US summit would institutionalize what is already happening politically: The consolidation of a Central European bloc that sees Washington – not Brussels – as its most reliable strategic interlocutor. The Visegrad countries are not seeking rupture with the EU necessarily. They are seeking a radical reform within it. And they are finding in Trump’s America an ally that understands the difference.

‘Unfortunately, our agricultural system depends heavily on these chemicals,’ Kennedy said.

Poison or hunger.

• RFK Jr. Defends Trump’s Glyphosate Order (ET)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Feb. 22 said that glyphosate is poisonous but necessary as he backed President Donald Trump’s recent order designating the production of the herbicide as critical to national security. In a lengthy post on social media, Kennedy said pesticides and herbicides are toxic. “When we apply them across millions of acres and allow them into our food system, we put Americans at risk,” he wrote. “Chemical manufacturers have paid tens of billions of dollars to settle cancer claims linked to their products, and many agricultural communities report elevated cancer rates and chronic disease. Unfortunately, our agricultural system depends heavily on these chemicals.”

If the United States were to stop using the products, then “crop yields would fall, food prices would surge, and America would experience a massive loss of farms even beyond what [it is] witnessing today,” Kennedy said. He described Trump’s order as protecting national defense and the nation’s food supply, stating that Trump inherited the current agricultural system and that his administration is shifting from it without destabilizing the food supply. “We are accelerating the transition to regenerative agriculture by expanding farming systems that rebuild soil, increase biodiversity, improve water retention, and reduce reliance on synthetic chemicals, including pre-harvest desiccation,” Kennedy wrote.

“We are also driving the rapid adoption of next-generation technologies, including laser-guided weed control, electrothermal and electrical systems, robotics, precision mechanical cultivation, and biological controls that replace blanket spraying with precision intervention. “These solutions are not theoretical. Farmers are already putting them to work. Markets are scaling them. Now the federal government will act with urgency to expand their reach and accelerate adoption nationwide.” Kennedy said later: “The Make America Healthy Again agenda forces us to challenge long-standing assumptions about how we grow food, structure markets, and measure success in this country. Reform at this scale will test entrenched interests, and it will not move in a straight line.”

In his Feb. 18 order, Trump said herbicides with glyphosate are widely used in the United States and enable farmers to achieve high yields and low production costs. “There is no direct one-for-one chemical alternative to glyphosate-based herbicides,” the president wrote. “Lack of access to glyphosate-based herbicides would critically jeopardize agricultural productivity, adding pressure to the domestic food system, and may result in a transition of cropland to other uses due to low productivity.“Given the profit margins growers currently face, any major restrictions in access to glyphosate-based herbicides would result in economic losses for growers and make it untenable for them to meet growing food and feed demands.”

He designated production of glyphosate as a critical national security and directed Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to ensure that there is an adequate supply of the herbicides and elemental phosphorus, one of the ingredients in the products. Some people supportive of the Make America Healthy Again movement criticized the designation. Kelly Ryerson, coexecutive director of American Regeneration, told The Epoch Times that it “doubles down” on a system that is making the U.S. population sick and killing the soil. “We already have a limited number of harvests left,” she said.

Bayer, which produces glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, just proposed a $7 billion settlement to resolve thousands of lawsuits that allege that Roundup caused cancer. Bayer maintains that Roundup is not carcinogenic and can be used safely. That stance is shared by the Environmental Protection Agency, although the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists glyphosate as probably carcinogenic.

Kennedy, while running for president in 2024, said in a post on X that glyphosate was “one of the likely culprits in America’s chronic disease epidemic” and that the Department of Agriculture would, if he won the election, ban its use as a desiccant on wheat. His Make America Healthy Again Commission in 2025 also said that glyphosate studies “have noted a range of possible health effects, ranging from reproductive and developmental disorders as well as cancers, liver inflammation and metabolic disturbances.”

Kennedy said in a previous statement to The Epoch Times, after Trump signed the new glyphosate order: “When hostile actors control critical inputs, they weaken our security. By expanding domestic production, we close that gap and protect American families.” Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America, said in response to Kennedy’s post on X that she understands aspects of his position but that after about a year of the Trump administration being in power, officials have not worked to limit people’s exposure to pesticides. “We love you Bobby but this administration needs to keep their word,” she said in a Feb. 23 post on X. “We were promised specifically clean air, clean water, and addressing of the pesticides [in] our foods.”

If the EU wins, everybody loses.

• EU To Start Permanent Ban on Russian Oil 3 Days After Hungarian Election (CTH)

I guess we can put this in the open admission file surrounding the all-out effort by the European Union to defeat Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban According to a leaked document received by Reuters, the European Union is scheduled to permanently ban all EU nations from importing Russian oil. They have scheduled the ban to trigger on April 15th, three days after the Hungarian election.

BRUSSELS, Feb 24 (Reuters) – “The European Commission will submit a legal proposal to permanently ban Russian oil imports on April 15, three days after Hungary’s parliamentary election, according to EU officials and a document seen by Reuters. Two EU officials told Reuters the timing was designed to prevent the oil ban becoming a major factor in Hungary’s election campaign. Hungary and Slovakia, still reliant on Russian oil imports, are strongly opposed to any ban.In the April 12 election, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his nationalist Fidesz party are facing the biggest challenge to their hold on power in 16 years.

The EU has already imposed sanctions on imports of seaborne Russian oil. But it wants to enshrine a full phase-out of Russian oil in legislation that would remain in place, even if a peace deal in the Ukraine war led to the EU lifting sanctions. nThe Commission plans to propose the Russian oil ban on April 15, according to a draft agenda seen by Reuters. Asked about the matter, a Commission spokesperson told Reuters the EU executive’s agendas were provisional and that it did not have a confirmed timeline for submitting the proposal.” (read more)

“To UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the true goal of Tuesday’s get-together seemed to be ensuring that Ukraine keeps winning in the imagination of the Western public.”

• Solidarity Simulacra: Zelensky’s Four-Year Reality Check (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky brought some of his most ardent fans to Kiev to mark the fourth anniversary of his wartime leadership, but the supporting actors in the Ukraine Cinematic Universe had little to offer him.mA look at the guests who showed up suggests Ukraine’s backers are divided into those who have to and those who don’t. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council chief Antonio Costa arrived in Kiev on Tuesday morning, along with the leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Norway, and Sweden. Von der Leyen declared “that Europe stands unwaveringly with Ukraine, financially, militarily, and through this harsh winter,” and promised to help Zelensky achieve “Peace on Ukraine’s terms.”

“In Kyiv for the tenth time since the start of the war.To reaffirm that Europe stands unwaveringly with Ukraine, financially, militarily, and through this harsh winter.To underscore our enduring commitment to Ukraine’s just fight.And to send a clear message to the Ukrainian”… pic.twitter.com/iULkEQji16 — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 24, 2026

In reality, von der Leyen’s plan to keep Ukraine afloat until 2028 with a €90 billion ($106 billion) debt-funded loan package has been vetoed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Von der Leyen arrived in Kiev empty handed, and in a video address to the European Parliament later on Tuesday, Zelensky held out the begging bowl once more, asking for the loan, for fast-tracked EU membership, and for more sanctions on Russia – which Orban has also vowed to veto. The European leaders who accompanied von der Leyen are in no place to help Zelensky either. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have long ago emptied their arms stockpiles, with former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis admitting in 2023 that he could only provide “political arguments” for arming the Ukrainian military, as Lithuania does not have its own “significant stockpile of weapons.”

All of the European leaders who visited Zelensky on Tuesday have authorized weapons purchases from the US for Ukraine under NATO’s PURL initiative. However, NATO’s European members have spent just over $4 billion on American weapons in the five months since August. When the US was arming Ukraine directly, it spent $10 billion every five months.

Where are the Americans?
The US, despite still indirectly arming Ukraine through PURL and providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data to its forces, remains the only Western power capable of forcing Zelensky to make the necessary concessions to resolve the conflict. Whereas the US has participated in three rounds of trilateral talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials, the Kremlin sees no point in talks with the Europeans. In the words of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, “the current generation of European leaders…have entrenched themselves too deeply in a posture of hatred towards Russia” to be taken seriously.

Not a single US official made the trip to Kiev on Tuesday. Their absence was conspicuous, after a year of Zelensky lobbying US President Donald Trump to visit the Ukrainian capital, and after a BBC interview on Monday in which the Ukrainian leader begged Trump to “stay on our side.” The British, French, Germans, and Italians also skipped the junket, choosing to send their messages of solidarity remotely during a meeting of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ later in the afternoon. If Zelensky hoped for something more concrete from the coalition, his hope was misplaced.

During the meeting of the 34-nation group, Ukraine received the promise of “full and sustained support,” according to a statement published by the UK, which co-chaired the virtual gathering. In reality, the coalition’s members could only echo Zelensky’s calls for more money and weapons, without actually offering any of either. Talk by coalition members France and the UK of sending troops to Ukraine remains a post-conflict hypothetical, and a red line for Russia. To UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the true goal of Tuesday’s get-together seemed to be ensuring that Ukraine keeps winning in the imagination of the Western public.

”We’ve got to shift the narrative,” Starmer said. “Whatever Putin tells himself and his people, Russia is not winning, and we must shift the narrative into that place with greater force and determination.” Starmer’s statement sums up the current state of play for Zelensky and his Western backers. Narrative management is the best they can offer. Think more ‘Ghost of Kiev’ myths instead of actual deliveries of fighter jets. More pomp and circumstance, troop reviews, and deal memos.

The danger exists that once Ukraine’s most committed European backers come to terms with the fact that they’ve poured all their money and political capital into a hopeless cause, drastic solutions could become more appealing. In that light, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) on Tuesday accused Britain and France of plotting the “covert transfer of relevant European-made components, equipment, and technologies” for the production of nuclear weapons to Ukraine. Both nations are also reportedly considering handing over a French TN 75 warhead to Kiev, or encouraging the Ukrainians to build a dirty bomb.

While London and Paris have both denied any plot to supply Ukraine with nukes, one line in the statement stands out – that the leaders of Britain and France have “lost touch with reality.” When reality does catch up with Zelensky and his ‘Avengers’, the results will be messy.On February 24, four years to the day since the constant killing in Donbass escalated into open conflict, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky trudged through the snow outside his offices in Kiev to a Soviet-era air raid bunker with a camera crew in tow. In a concrete tunnel once built to ensure continuation of government in the event of a Western attack, Zelensky opened his fourth anniversary video address with a now-famous anecdote:

”Here I spoke with [US] President [Joe] Biden, and it was right here that I heard: ‘Vladimir, there is a threat, you need to leave Ukraine urgently’. And here I replied that I need ammunition, not a ride.” The quote was entirely fake – fabricated by US intelligence agents for Western consumption. But four years into a conflict that could have been easily settled in 2022, with tens of millions of Ukrainians dead, injured, or emigrated, and with his country sentenced to lifetimes of unpayable debt, Hollywood one-liners and Marvel-comic optics are all Zelensky has left.

France and the UK are considering covertly handing nuclear capabilities or a ‘dirty bomb’ to Kiev, Russian intel has claimed..

• Moscow Will Respond If NATO Gives Nukes To Nazi Regime In Kiev – Medvedev (RT)

Russia would launch a nuclear response if NATO countries supplied atomic weapons to Ukraine, former President Dmitry Medvedev has warned. Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, was commenting to RT on Tuesday on claims by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) that London and Paris are considering ways to provide nuclear weaponry or related components to Kiev.m“I will be blunt and state the obvious,” Medvedev said, adding that the reported intention by the UK and France to hand over nuclear capabilities to the “Nazi regime in Kiev” would change the situation entirely. “This is a direct transfer of nuclear weapons to a country at war,” he stated.

According to the SVR, British and French officials are weighing the “covert transfer of relevant European-made components, equipment, and technologies to Ukraine,” and preparing an information campaign to portray any resulting capability as domestically developed. “There should be no doubt whatsoever that in such a scenario Russia would be forced to use any means at its disposal, including non-strategic nuclear weapons, against targets in Ukraine that threaten our country,” Medvedev stated. “And if necessary, against the supplier nations now implicated in a nuclear conflict with Russia. This is the kind of symmetrical response that the Russian Federation would be entitled to,” he added.

The SVR also alleged that another option under discussion was the provision of a complete French TN 75 nuclear warhead used on submarine launched ballistic missiles, or assistance in building a radioactive “dirty bomb” using conventional explosives and nuclear materials. Kiev could seek “more advantageous terms” in any negotiations if it possessed such weapons, the SVR suggested, adding that Germany had “prudently refused” to participate. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the reported plans as “potentially very dangerous,” saying they would threaten the global non-proliferation regime. Ukraine has argued that it gave up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees that later proved worthless. While a significant portion of Soviet nuclear forces were stationed in Ukraine, Kiev never controlled the missiles.

The 1994 Budapest Memorandums provided assurances – but not legally binding guarantees – to Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan that their territorial integrity would be respected after transferring Soviet nuclear weapons to Russia. At the 2022 Munich Security Conference, shortly before the Ukraine conflict escalated, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky suggested Kiev could reconsider its non-nuclear status.Moscow maintains that after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, Ukraine’s new authorities breached the neutrality pledge underpinning its post-Soviet independence by making NATO membership a key foreign policy goal.

“.. if approved, the EU loan would end up being stolen by corrupt Ukrainian officials..”

• Zelensky Demands €90 Billion EU Loan (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has demanded that the EU approve a €90 billion ($106 billion) loan backed by the bloc’s taxpayers that has been vetoed by Hungary. Provisionally agreed upon last December, the plan envisages an interest-free loan to Ukraine for 2026-2027, with €60 billion earmarked for military needs and €30 billion for “general budget support.” It would be covered through joint EU borrowing and only repaid if Ukraine receives war reparations from Russia. Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic opted out of contributing to the loan, which is estimated to result in up to €5.6 billion in annual interest payments for member states. The scheme was approved after the bloc failed to agree to use Russia’s frozen central-bank assets to finance Ukraine due to opposition from several member states over the legal hurdles and risks.

Addressing the European Parliament via video link on Tuesday, Zelensky said that “right now there is an important decision… on the table – €90 billion in support for Ukraine over two years.”“This is a real financial guarantee of our security and our resilience, and it must be implemented,” the Ukrainian leader insisted. On Monday, Hungary vetoed the EU’s proposed emergency loan for Ukraine, as well as the latest package of sanctions against Russia. Budapest accused Kiev of jeopardizing the “security of Hungary’s energy supply” by deliberately blocking use of the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline for political reasons. The transit of Russian oil to EU consumers via the conduit has been on hold since late January, with Kiev blaming Moscow for damaging it. Russia has denied the allegations.

Ukraine expects its Western backers to cover a budget deficit of around $50 billion this year. El Pais reported in October that the Ukrainian government could run out of money by April. Speaking last month, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that if approved, the EU loan would end up being stolen by corrupt Ukrainian officials.

It’s about money.

• Bill Gates Begins Apology Tour Over His Epstein Ties (ZH)

A week after Bill Gates abruptly pulled out as a keynote speaker at a high-profile global AI summit in India, the left-wing billionaire finally mustered enough nerve to “take responsibility for his actions” over his ties to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a town hall meeting with Gates Foundation employees.The Wall Street Journal reports that Gates told employees at a town hall event for the foundation on Tuesday that he never spent time with Epstein’s victims, and never visited Epstein’s island. He revealed that Epstein later learned about two affairs he had with Russian women, but said those relationships did not involve Epstein’s victims. Gates said photos in the Epstein files show him with redacted women were taken by Epstein’s assistants after meetings. Did Gates fall into a Russian honeypot?

“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates emphasized, according to a recording reviewed by WSJ journalists. Gates continued, “To be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him.” “It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein” and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender, Gates said, adding, “I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made.” Last week, the $86 billion philanthropic body’s last-minute decision to yank Gates was a major embarrassment and came as the Epstein fallout worsened, with many high-profile people under fire.

“Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it’s clear there was ongoing bad behavior,” Gates said. He gave credit to his ex-wife, who “was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing.” Gates told staff he began meeting Epstein in 2011, despite the financier’s 2008 guilty plea for soliciting a minor for prostitution. He said he was aware of the “18-month thing” that had restricted Epstein’s travel, yet continued the relationship, even after his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, raised serious concerns in 2013. He said the relationship continued through 2014 and that he flew on a private jet with Epstein and spent time with him in Germany, France, New York, and Washington. “I never stayed overnight,” he said, or visited Epstein’s island.

He said Epstein “talked about the kind of intimate relationship he had with a lot of billionaires, particularly Wall Street billionaires,” and that he could help raise money for global health nonprofits. “It definitely is the opposite of the values of the Foundation and the goals of the Foundation,” he said. “And our work is very reputation-sensitive. I mean, people can choose to work with us or not work with us.” No matter what, the Gates Foundation has a dark cloud hanging over it because of Gates’ involvement amid the deepening Epstein fallout.

Gates is worth billions, so why would he need Epstein to raise money for global health nonprofits? Something doesn’t pass the sniff test in this damage-control town hall he held for his foundation’s employees.

“Joe Biden waived Trump’s executive privilege ..”

• Fani Willis Plotted Trump Case Closely With Biden DOJ, J6 Democrats (JTN)

Just the News and America First Legal win access to 8,000 pages of documents after extensive open records litigation. The memos include revelations on how Joe Biden waived Trump’s executive privilege specifically to aid Georgia prosecutors. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis coordinated extensively with the Biden Justice Department and White House as well as Democrats on the House Jan. 6 investigative committee as she built a failed criminal case against President Donald Trump and his allies related to their challenge to Georgia’s 2020 election results, according to a trove of internal communications obtained by Just the News.

The memos show that President Joe Biden’s top White House lawyer personally opened the door for Willis’ prosecutors to interview Trump administration officials by waiving claims of executive privilege, that federal prosecutors waived certain rights to allow the interviews to proceed before a state grand jury and that Willis’s team spoke glowingly of the congressional efforts to expose Trump’s involvement in the disputed election. “Our initial review of the report confirms you all have accomplished amazing things in the past year,” F. Donald Wakeford, a top deputy to Willis, wrote in a December 2022 email to Tim Heaphy, chief investigative counsel for the Democrat-run Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Just the News, alongside the nonprofit public interest law firm America First Legal (AFL), sued Willis for the records, under Georgia’s Open Records Law. Willis, a longtime Trump nemesis, sought to hide many of the records with claims of legal privilege during a prolonged legal fight. In a reaction to the lawsuit, Willis’ office this week dropped all privilege claims and released all the documents without any redactions, providing to Just the News — and the public — more information than it did to congressional Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.

“These documents reveal that the Biden Administration and the January 6 Committee were much more involved in District Attorney Fani Willis’s prosecution of President Trump than was previously believed. AFL was happy to represent Just the News to get Americans this new information,” said Will Scolinos, an attorney at America First Legal. The documents show a cozy relationship between the Biden administration and Willis’ staff, one that included a meeting between her outside special prosecutor Nathan Wade and the Biden White House.Wade, who admitted to a “personal relationship” with Willis outside the office, billed Fulton County $2,000 for an “interview with DC/White House” on Nov. 18, 2022, just as Willis’ probe was accelerating, according to the new records Willis was forced to disclose.

There is no further explanation in the documents for that interaction, and Fulton County told Just the News and its lawyers at AFL that Wade did not keep any records of what happened at that meeting. Calls to Willis for comment were not returned by publication time.= The new memos show that the Biden White House counsel’s office gave Willis’ prosecution team a major gift, waiving Trump’s ability to claim executive privilege and to block former administration officials from testifying.

Executive privilege is the implied authority of the U.S. president to withhold information that the executive branch possesses from Congress or the Judiciary on the grounds that a president is entitled to confidential advice before making decisions. It is a long-standing American tradition and the secrecy of presidential communications was first referenced by Chief Justice John Marshall in the landmark case Marbury v. Madison.

Ironically, President Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder asserted the same privilege during investigations of the botched “Fast and Furious” gunrunning scheme. The Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press noted that “When a president invokes executive privilege, it may be among the most difficult walls to penetrate because the number of potential leakers with access to White House documents is limited and closely monitored.” In some instances, reporting has simply been prevented from reporting on an important issue because the blockade worked.

Biden, however, believed that the “extraordinary events” surrounding the “insurrection” on Jan. 6 in the U.S. Capitol, warranted waiving this historical understanding of the privacy of presidential communications, the new memos show.

“He’s not a puppeteer. He’s simply a pervert.”

Oh no Scott Pinsker, he was the master puppeteer.

• Comey’s Leaker Claims The Epstein Files Shouldn’t Have Been Released (Pinsker)

But the common thread of leveraging sex to monetize relationships is 100% applicable. It happens a lot. And that’s the biggest blessing of the Epstein Files: It took the repulsive practice of peddling flesh for financial favors out of the shadows. Today, the whole world knows the truth. Sunlight really is the best disinfectant. Which is also why the PR pushback of the Deep State is so fascinating: On Feb. 23, the New York Times ran a remarkable op-ed: “The Epstein Files Should Never Have Been Released.” A few excerpts: [W]e should recognize the release of millions of pages of the Epstein files as both a sign of institutional failure and a cause for concern. If our justice system were working properly, the public would never have such access.

[…]The release of the files is also cause for concern because so much of the raw investigative material in them — untold layers of hearsay, unverified accusations and vague circumstantial connections — ought not be released for the public to pick over. […] When materials collected in a criminal investigation get released in bulk for public consumption, the justification for the coercive and privacy-invading tools we give investigators gets a lot weaker. Institutions claiming to protect user or customer privacy might be more likely to resist valid uses of these tools. Witnesses who would otherwise speak to investigators about sensitive matters might start to rethink whether they want to provide grist for internet searches.

What’s especially fascinating is the author of the New York Times’ piece: Daniel Richman, whom the Times described as a “former federal prosecutor.” But that’s not why Richman is famous. Daniel Richman is the Columbia Law School professor who leaked anti-Trump news stories on behalf of disgraced FBI Director James Comey to trigger a special counsel investigation. From ABC News (June 13, 2017): Who Is James Comey’s Friend and Leaker Daniel Richman? “Daniel Richman is the Columbia Law School professor through whom former FBI Director James Comey shared details of his contemporaneous memos about meetings with President Donald Trump to the New York Times.

Speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, Comey said he wanted to get a record of his meetings with President Donald Trump “out into the public square” so he decided to ask a friend to share the content of his memo with a reporter. “Didn’t do it myself, for a variety of reasons. But I asked him to, because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. And so I asked a close friend of mine to do it,” Comey told Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Collins asked who that was, and he responded, without providing a name, “A good friend of mine who’s a professor at Columbia Law School.” [emphasis added] Those “variety of reasons” began and ended with a list of one: It would’ve exposed Comey to criminal prosecution for leaking classified information.

PJ Media colleague and friend, Dave Manney, explored Richman’s twisted logic and elitist double-standard on secrecy: Daniel Richman wants the public to regret the files even as they read them, calling the dump a spectacle that highlights the Justice Department’s lack of confidence. I hate to tell him, but confidence died because the department slow-walked leads and cut sweetheart deals for decades. Americans didn’t ruin the system by demanding the truth. The people who protected Epstein and his ilk ruined it. He’s right — but the bigger story isn’t just Richman’s pretzel-shaped logic. It’s the intent behind it. Because Richman has proven himself to be a willing mouthpiece for the Deep State.

That’s how we all know his name. The New York Times might’ve described him as a “former federal prosecutor,” but that’s not why he’s famous. It’s his relationship with Comey that put him in the limelight. Based on precedent, it’s reasonable to assume he’s still speaking for James Comey. So why would the ex-FBI director — and hardline Trump critic — come out swinging AGAINST the release of the Epstein Files? After all, despite the hype and hoopla, none of the conspiracy theories about blackmail schemes, international espionage, and foreign governments were substantiated. If anything, the millions of Epstein documents and/or 300-plus gigabytes of data vindicated the government’s approach: It was less an elaborate cover-up and more a rich guy gaming the legal system on his own.[..]

Chuck Schumer is asked what kind of “immigration deal” he’d like to pursue in the Senate.

The main feature:

“A path to citizenship for 11 million people who are here."

Once in a while, he says it out loud. pic.twitter.com/uUKUWfObUS

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) February 25, 2026

No ragrets!

Chuck Schumer DEFENDS the Democrats' choice to remain seated, disagreeing with Trump's thesis that the government has a greater duty to its citizens than to opportunistic economic migrants

“It was legitimate and right not to stand." pic.twitter.com/PEbi8WxCMU

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 25, 2026

A medical miracle is unfolding in pulmonary restoration clinics where patients on oxygen tanks are running marathons 12 weeks later.

The treatment uses stem cell-derived alveolar progenitor cells delivered via aerosol inhaler directly into damaged lung tissue.

New alveoli… pic.twitter.com/eYaeP9prle

— GP Q (@argosaki) February 24, 2026