Joint Communiqué of the 13 "Vertical Corridor" Countries - What they agreed on

efsyn.gr

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY
24.02.26 21:45
"The Participants commit to mobilizing public and private sector funding [...] to achieve the national and regional energy goal of ensuring a secure and affordable natural gas supply throughout Central and Eastern Europe," they note, among other things.

A blog post just wiped $30 billion off IBM in a single afternoon

By Shanaka Anslem Perera
SUBSTACK

Not a product launch. Not an earnings miss. Not a competitor undercutting on price. A five-minute blog post explaining that Claude can read COBOL. IBM dropped 13%. Worst single-day loss since October 2000. Twenty-five years of stock resilience ended with one AI company publishing a capability update.

Here’s what happened:

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump

February 24, 2026, 5:00 AM ET
Stephen Fowler

An NPR investigation finds the Justice Department has removed or withheld Epstein files related to President Trump

The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.

Newly unearthed DEA document from Epstein files raises question: Did Epstein facilitate drug trafficking?

By Daniel Ruetenik, Pat Milton, Cara Tabachnick

February 23, 2026 / 6:20 PM EST / CBS News

Jeffrey Epstein was the subject of a previously undisclosed U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency investigation — a five-year-plus probe targeting him and 14 other individuals for suspicious money transfers possibly linked to illegal narcotics, a newly uncovered document in the Department of Justice's Epstein files reveals.

Suspect in Nancy Guthrie case had been to the house before the night of her disappearance, source says

By Jennifer Jacobs, Pat Milton, Jonathan Vigliotti, Anna Schecter 

Updated on: February 23, 2026 / 10:37 PM EST / CBS News

The masked man seen in the doorbell camera video, who is suspected of abducting Nancy Guthrie, appears to have been at her front door earlier than Feb. 1, the night police believe she was kidnapped, a law enforcement source confirmed to CBS News. The information was first reported by ABC News.

Why tariffs aren’t shrinking the US trade deficit

Story by Tom Fairless, Gavin Bade • 

16 hours • 5 min read

STUTTGART, Germany—President Trump is doubling down on his tariffs, even though they have so far failed to achieve one of their key stated goals: rebalancing lopsided global trade. On the contrary, recent data show the tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down on Friday and that Trump has vowed to reimpose under a different statute are cementing these imbalances.

'Unprepared For Tsunami': Bernie Sanders Fiery Speech On AI Ahead Of Trump SOTU Address | US News

 

The Greek Courier 

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders delivered a fiery speech that the United States is 'unprepared for the tsunami' of artificial intelligence, raising alarms about mass job losses. 

Stocks sell off as traders wake up to the realization that Trump has ‘highly punitive’ options for new trade tariffs

Jim Edwards
Mon, February 23, 2026 at 3:13 AM PST 

3 min read

Peter Mandelson arrested amid Epstein fallout

Huge figure in Labour politics arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office

February 23, 2026

By Matt Honeycombe-Foster

LONDON —Former U.K. ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson was arrested Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, amid scrutiny of his association with Jeffrey Epstein.

Who was El Mencho, Mexico's most wanted man? (BBC NEWS UPDATE)

Will Grant

BBC Central America and Cuba correspondent
There are only a handful of names that have had a lasting impact in the history of Mexican organised crime.

3 hours ago

Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes – more commonly known as 'El Mencho' – is one of them. Hailing from humble rural roots in the western state of Michoacán, his rise to the top of one of the most feared and dangerous cartels in modern Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was meteoric. And it was achieved through aggression, ambition, brutality and ruthlessness.

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: ICE moves to the Minneapolis suburbs

by Chitown Kev

Community 

(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff before publication.)

Sunday, February 22, 2026

We begin today with Jonathan V. Last of The Bulwark reporting that DHS and ICE has not pulled out of Minnesota but has primarily moved from Minneapolis/St. Paul to the suburbs.

Live: Hungary will block new EU sanctions on Russia over Ukraine oil dispute

EUROPE 

Issued on: 22/02/2026 

 07:46 Modified: 22/02/2026 - 16:45

Hungary will block ⁠the European Union's ​next package of sanctions against Russia, its foreign minister said on Sunday, until Ukraine resumes shipments of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia ​via the Druzhba ‌pipeline, which has been cut off since January 27 after being damaged by a Russian drone, according to Kyiv. 

After a deadly raid, an AI power struggle erupts at the Pentagon

The Defense Department’s rush to embed artificial intelligence across combat operations has exposed tensions with Anthropic’s corporate principals, risking the firm’s $200 million contract.

February 22, 2026 

By Ian Duncan and Tara Copp

One of the nation’s leading artificial intelligence firms is negotiating whether it can continue to work with the military, according to people familiar with the discussions, after Pentagon officials called their once-close relationship into question in the wake of January’s raid to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Once believed impossible, scientists manage to transform lead into gold

 02-22-2026

By Eric Ralls

Earth.com staff writer

The 17-mile Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located beneath the French-Swiss border, regularly slams heavy ions together at near light speed. But on July 30, 2025, researchers reported something many thought belonged to folklore: lead ions momentarily changed into gold before decaying back into more ordinary matter.

Chaos erupts at Mexican airports after death of drug lord 'El Mencho'

Alyssa Goldberg, Will Carless

USA TODAY

Updated Feb. 22, 2026, 6:26 p.m. ET

Flights to Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara airports have been disrupted after Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, commonly known as "El Mencho," was killed in a military raid

Danish Navy evacuates U.S. submariner off Greenland to prevent Trump from landing penguins in the Arctic

The Greek Courier

February 22, 2026

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — In a plot twist unworthy of a Hollywood script, Denmark's military just pulled off a daring sea rescue by evacuating a crew member from a U.S. submarine off the coast of Greenland for some urgent medical treatment. Talk about a cold call for help, especially considering the alternative that was too hot to handle, meaning Trump sending a rescue mission just to prove that Greenland is guarded by penguins, which, by the way, live only in the Southern Hemisphere. 

DHS abruptly reverses suspension of TSA PreCheck

Published Sun, Feb 22 2026

Updated 54 Min Ago
Leslie Josephs@lesliejosephs

Key Points

• The Transportation Security Administration said PreCheck airport security lanes are operating normally.
• The agency’s statement came hours after the Department of Homeland Security said the service is suspended.
• DHS has not issued a statement on the suspension of Global Entry.

So, what happens if Iran sinks a carrier? Anybody thought of that?

The Greek Courier

As the rhetoric intensifies between the United States and Iran, recent reports indicate that President Donald Trump has been privately contemplating the possibility of regime change in Iran, emboldened by what he perceives as successes in foreign policy in Venezuela. However, this path toward military action carries grave consequences—not just for geopolitical stability, but for the lives of countless service members and their families.