Indian author Arundhati Roy has announced that she is withdrawing from the Berlin International Film Festival after what she described as “unconscionable statements” by its jury members about Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Writing in India’s The Wire newspaper, Roy said she found recent remarks from members of the Berlinale jury, including its chair, acclaimed director Wim Wenders, that “art should not be political” to be “jaw-dropping”.

“It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time,” wrote Roy, the author of novels and nonfiction, including The God of Small Things.

“I am shocked and disgusted,” Roy wrote, adding that she believed “artists, writers and filmmakers should be doing everything in their power to stop” the war in Gaza.

“Let me say this clearly: what has happened in Gaza, what continues to happen, is a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel,” she wrote.

A fire broke out at a key fuel processing plant in the Cuban capital Havana, threatening to exacerbate an energy crisis as the country struggles under an oil blockade imposed by the United States.

A large plume of smoke was seen rising above Havana Bay from the Nico Lopez refinery on Friday, drawing the attention of the capital’s residents before fading as fire crews fought to bring the situation under control.

Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said the fire, which erupted in a warehouse at the refinery, was eventually extinguished and that “the cause is under investigation”. There were no injuries and the fire did not spread to nearby areas, the ministry said in a post on social media.

The location of the fire was close to where two oil tankers were moored in Havana’s harbour.

Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office is investigating whether a Canadian mining company holds any responsibility in the suspected cartel kidnapping of 10 of its workers, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday.

Sheinbaum said the federal body, led by Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos, will investigate the motive behind the Jan. 23 kidnappings.

“We have to … look into exactly what the labour conditions were for these miners and see if there is or isn’t responsibility," on the part of Vizsla Silver Corp. employees, she said during a morning news conference in Mexico City.

Sheinbaum said the office is also examining whether extortion or threats played a role in the kidnapping.

• Trump says it has been difficult to make a deal with Iran
• US fully expects Iran to retaliate, official says
• A sustained campaign carries more risk to US forces, broader Middle East

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries.

The disclosure by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the planning, raises the stakes for the diplomacy underway between the United States and Iran.

U.S. and Iranian diplomats held talks in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy over Tehran's nuclear program, after Trump amassed military forces in the region, raising fears of new military action.

U.S. officials said on Friday the Pentagon was sending an additional aircraft carrier to the Middle East, adding thousands more troops along with fighter aircraft, guided-missile destroyers and other firepower capable of waging attacks and defending against them.

Trump, speaking to U.S. troops on Friday at a base in North Carolina, said it had "been difficult to make a deal" with Iran.

"Sometimes you have to have fear. That's the only thing that really will get the situation taken care of," Trump said.

According to data cited by the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), the percentage of Filipino girls aged 15 to 19 who had begun childbearing declined from 8.6% in 2017 to 5.4% in 2022.

However, live births among girls aged 10 to 14 rose from 2,411 in 2019 to 3,343 in 2023, based on Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) civil registration data referenced by the CPD.

The 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey reported that approximately 10.9% of girls aged 15–19 in the region have begun childbearing. It's the highest rate among all regions in the country.

Three women from a dynastic South Korean family lost an inheritance lawsuit on Feb 12 that challenged the male-dominated practices governing family succession at one of the country’s largest and most powerful conglomerates.

Underscoring the increased pace of foreign interest, the average deal size this year has already reached $1.3 billion as of this week, up 76% from 2025 levels and about six times the average in 2021, Pharmcube data showed.

Nikhil Gupta faces up to 40 years over alleged India-backed attempt to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun

The Indian man who US prosecutors accused of plotting to kill a prominent US-based activist after being recruited by an agent of the Indian government has pleaded guilty to three criminal charges, according to a spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Nikhil Gupta faces a maximum 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money-laundering charges in connection to the failed attempt to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US resident who is an advocate for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India.

“Nikhil Gupta plotted to assassinate a US citizen in New York City,” said US attorney Jay Clayton. “He thought that from outside this country he could kill someone in it without consequence, simply for exercising their American right to free speech. But he was wrong, and he will face justice. Our message to all nefarious foreign actors should be clear: steer clear of the United States and our people.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz confirms discussions underway on a European nuclear deterrent, at speech in Munich.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that U.S. leadership can no longer be taken for granted and Europe must prepare to stand more firmly on its own, in a stark warning to world leaders in Munich.

“The leadership claim of the U.S. is being challenged, perhaps already lost,” Merz said during the opening of the Munich Security Conference, laying out the starkest assessment yet from Berlin of a world increasingly defined by great-power rivalry. “In the era of great powers, our freedom is no longer simply guaranteed. It is under threat.”

He argued the global system itself may already have collapsed. “The international order based on rights and rules … no longer exists in the way it once did,” he said.

Merz also drew a lesson from Germany’s own history. “We Germans know a world in which might makes right would be a dark place,” he said. “Our country has gone down this path in the 20th century until the bitter and dreadful end.”

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As the United States renews its diplomatic push to end Russia's war against Ukraine, Moscow is making something clear: its position has not changed.

While U.S., Ukrainian, and Russian officials met for trilateral talks in January and again in early February — with another round expected next week — the Kremlin has used the same period to restate its position.

As Washington speaks of momentum and narrowing gaps, Russia's most senior officials have publicly dismissed key elements of the proposed framework.

For three consecutive days, from Feb. 9 to Feb. 11, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov publicly undercut suggestions that negotiations were advancing.

His message was consistent and direct: Russia's territorial and political demands remain intact, and any serious discussion must revolve around Ukraine accepting them.

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When the public turns hostile: Political violence against parliamentarians

European leaders divided over how far to accommodate Trump’s ‘wrecking ball’ politics and foreign policy

US Democrats will use a security summit this weekend to urge European leaders to stand up to Donald Trump, with the continent divided over how to keep the unpredictable US president on side.

Democrats at the annual Munich Security Conference will include some of Trump’s most outspoken critics, such as the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Arizona senator Ruben Gallego and the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

Newsom has already urged Europeans to realise that “grovelling to Trump’s needs” makes them “look pathetic on the world stage”, telling reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month he “should have brought a bunch of knee pads”.

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Air Transat is cancelling its last two flights into Florida as of this spring, suspending all of its business into the United States.

Kulyk legally entered the U.S. in late 2023 along with his wife, 38, and daughter, who’s now 5. The family was sponsored by U.S. citizens as part of the Uniting 4 Ukraine program, a humanitarian program set up in April 2022 to allow Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war to live and work in the U.S. on “parole.”

Once the initial two-year parole period expires, entrants can file for re-parole to remain in the country longer. That’s exactly what Kulyk says he did. His wife and daughter’s applications were approved. But his remained pending.

He said he was putting groceries in his car on Jan. 1 when he was approached by three ICE agents.

“I explained to the ICE officers that the war was killing people, that my wife had a disability, that it was violence, terrorism which we had escaped from but one of them began to laugh,” Kulyk told The Daily Beast. “I asked why he was laughing and I was told that he was pro-Russian, wanted Russia to win the war.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43119723

Feb. 12, 2026
[from weekly newsletter about Cuba from the Belly Of The Beast news/video collective. Their videos can be found at: https://peertube.world/c/cuba_botb_videos/videos]

Donald Trump said on February 1: "We're talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens. I think we’re going to make a deal." But according to Drop Site News, no such talks are taking place.

Meanwhile, in Cuba, the U.S.’ de facto oil blockade has already led to a shutdown of some essential services. Belly of the Beast spoke with Cubans about the fuel crisis and their concerns for the future.

Also:

• Interview With Cuban Jazz Legend Arturo O'Farrill
• With Jet Fuel Scarce, Canada and Russia Cancel Flights
• Mexico Sends Food — But Not Oil
• US Offers Cuba “Aid” While Crushing its Economy
• Guatemala Sends Cuban Medical Mission Packing
• UN Warns of Humanitarian Collapse

“We have a master plan … There is no Plan B,” remarked Jared Kushner last month, during a Board of Peace (BoP) presentation about Gaza reconstruction at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos. What has become apparent is that no coherent Plan A exists either.

Although Kushner’s father-in-law, US President Donald Trump, was granted the legitimacy to build what he calls the BoP on the back of pledges to implement his “20-point peace plan” and Gaza ceasefire, the BoP’s charter is notably absent of any reference to Gaza...

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/25749999

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s High Court ruled Friday that the government’s decision to outlaw the protest group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization was unlawful, but it kept the ban in place pending an appeal.