The next day… The House Oversight Committee has released the full 5-hour deposition with Wexner, where he made a ton of hilarious faces and couldn’t recall lots of things. 

🚨 BREAKING: The House Oversight Committee is releasing the FULL deposition video of Les Wexner from our Epstein investigation.

No spin. The American people deserve to see the testimony for themselves—transparency matters.

Link to full deposition below 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/TeJ50JAFnl

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) February 19, 2026

Check back for highlights…

Les Wexner tells low IQ Jasmine Crockett that Epstein island was just a pile of rocks. pic.twitter.com/KSFOO3etoK

— 🇺🇲Salty Texan (@texan_maga) February 19, 2026

Watch:

*  *  *

After what must have been quite the prep session with lawyers, billionaire Les Wexner – who gave Jeffrey Epstein “about a billion dollars” in cash and assets – testified to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday that he was “conned” by Epstein, and denied any wrongdoing.

In a prepared statement, the 88-year-old former L Brands (which owned Victoria’s Secret) CEO said: 

Let me state from the start: I was naïve, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein. He was a con man. And while I was conned, I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide. I completely and irrevocably cut ties with Epstein nearly twenty years ago when I learned that he was an abuser, a crook, and a liar.

…

And, let me be crystal clear: I never witnessed nor had any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity. I was never a participant nor coconspirator in any of Epstein’s illegal activities. To my enormous embarrassment and regret, like many others, I was duped by a world-class con man. I cannot undo that part of my personal history even as I regret ever having met him.

350 attorneys charging $2000/hour drafted this. https://t.co/eT6TSa4PID

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 18, 2026

Yet many aren’t buying it – including the FBI in 2019, which listed Wexner as a potential co-conspirator. 

Meanwhile Epstein wrote to Wexner in a draft email: “You and I had ‘gang stuff’ for over 15 years,” adding “I owe a great debt to you, as frankly you owe to me” and that he had “no intention of divulging any confidence of ours.”

Also strange:

Epstein’s note: “never ever did anything without informing Les [Wexner]”, “would never give him up”. Dershowitz: “don’t take deal”. Made around the time of victims’ discovery requests. Recall that Wexner began funding Epstein in ‘91, same year he founded pro-Israel “Mega Group”. https://t.co/ESzEQbck81 pic.twitter.com/wDF1Eit3Cl

— Good Pyre (@GoodPyre) February 6, 2026

After launching a business relationship in the 1980s, Wexner and Epstein formed ‘a financial and personal bond that baffled longtime associates,’ according to the New York Times. 

“I think we both possess the skill of seeing patterns,” Wexner told Vanity Fair in 2003. “But Jeffrey sees patterns in politics and financial markets, and I see patterns in lifestyle and fashion trends.” 

Wexner would go on to open doors for Epstein – who managed “many aspects of his financial life.” 

By 1995, Epstein was a director of the Wexner Foundation and Wexner Heritage Foundation and president of Wexner’s N.A. Property Inc., which developed the Ohio town of New Albany, where Wexner lives. Epstein also was involved in Wexner’s superyacht, “Limitless,” attending meetings at the London studios of the firm that designed the vessel. –Bloomberg

Meanwhile, Epstein allegedly ran a ‘casting couch’ operation for aspiring Victoria’s Secret models out of his Manhattan townhome whereby he would promise young girls jobs with the fashion company. 

Epstein “relied on …[the] modeling business to source underage girls for sex,” according to investigative reporter Conchita Sarnoff’s new book “Trafficking.” 

According to an account by Italian model Elisabetta Tai, Epstein tried to take advantage of the 21-year-old aspiring Victoria’s Secret model in 2004 after she was promised that a meeting with a ‘very important’ man could land her a gig with the apparel company. 

Accuser Holds Wexner Responsible

In late 2019, a woman who says Jeffrey Epstein and his ‘madam’ Gislaine Maxwell sexually assaulted her holds Victoria’s Secret billionaire Leslie Wexner “responsible for what happened to me,” because she was staying on a property monitored by Wexner and his wife, and guarded by their security team, according to the Washington Post. 

Maria Farmer, now in her mid-50s, spoke with the Post in a series of interviews, telling the paper that she never met Leslie, and only spoke with Abigail via phone while at the property in New Albany, Ohio. 

In the summer of 1996, Farmer stayed at the country house that Wexner had deeded to Epstein four years earlier. While staying staying there, she was discouraged from going outside by Wexner’s security, and that she was forced to jog inside the 10,600 square-foot house. 

“Where I stayed that summer, in that house and working in that garage, all of it was within view of the Wexner house,” said Farmer. 

The house, although owned by Epstein at the time, was “effectively the guesthouse” for the main Wexner estate, and it was guarded only by Wexner personnel, according to a security officer involved with Wexner family security at the time, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to discuss clients publicly. The two homes are a half-mile apart. The grounds were monitored closely by guard dogs and their armed minders, this officer said. It was surrounded by Wexner’s land, according to property records.

“Anybody that was going to be coming on property had to be announced and allowed in by the Wexners,” added the officer. “Nobody had carte blanche to go in and off the property.”

…

Farmer, then 26, had just been invited to create two large-scale paintings for the upcoming film “As Good As It Gets,” starring Jack Nicholson. Epstein offered Farmer an unexpected location to do the work in the summer of 1996: an expansive country home in New Albany, Ohio, located amid 336 acres of land owned by Wexner and guarded in part by sheriff’s deputies employed by the longtime chief executive of Victoria’s Secret and The Limited.

It was there, Farmer said in an affidavit she submitted as part of an Epstein-related lawsuit, that she was molested by Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. –Washington Post

“They asked me to come into a bedroom with them and then proceeded to sexually assault me against my will,” said Farmer in her affidavit. 

In the affidavit, she says she “pleaded with” the security staff but was held against her wishes for 12 hours while waiting for her father to arrive. In the interview, she elaborated.

The morning of the day after the alleged assault, she said, Farmer spoke with Maxwell and Epstein. She told them she wanted to leave and hung up. Soon after, a Wexner security guard appeared at the house. “He said, ‘You aren’t leaving,’ ” Farmer recalled, “ ‘You’re not going anywhere.’ ” –Washington Post

Farmer’s mother, father, sister and a friend have all separately stated that they recall a similar account from Maria in 1996. 

As the Post notes, “While Farmer’s allegations against Epstein have been widely documented, her experience in New Albany and the questions it raises about the Wexner family’s relationship with Epstein have been little explored.” 

Stay tuned for updates…

Authored by Ciaran Lyons via CoinTelegraph.com,

The Ethereum Foundation has announced it is targeting faster transactions, smarter wallets, better cross-chain interoperability, and quantum-resistant security as its “protocol priorities” in 2026.

In a statement published on Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation outlined several goals, including continuing to scale the gas limit — the maximum amount of computational work a block can handle — “toward and beyond” 100 million, a major topic of discussion among the Ethereum community in 2025. 

Source: Ethereum Foundation

Some members of the Ethereum community anticipate that the gas limit will increase significantly this year. In November, Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano said that the goal of significantly increasing Ethereum’s gas limit to 180 million in 2026 is a baseline, not a best-case scenario. 

“Post-quantum readiness” is a focus for Ethereum

The foundation highlighted the Glamsterdam network upgrade, scheduled for the first half of 2026, as a major priority. It also emphasized long-term post-quantum readiness as part of its broader security initiative.

On Jan. 24, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake said in an X post that the foundation had “formed a new Post-Quantum (PQ) team.” 

“Today marks an inflection in the Ethereum Foundation’s long-term quantum strategy,” Drake said.

The Ethereum Foundation said it will also focus on improving user experience in 2026, with an emphasis on enhancing smart wallets through native account abstraction and enabling smoother interactions between blockchains via interoperability.

“The goal remains seamless, trust-minimized cross-L2 interactions, and we’re getting closer day by day. Continued progress on faster L1 confirmations and shorter L2 settlement times directly supports this.”

The foundation said that 2025 was one of the “most productive years,” citing two major network upgrades, Pectra and Fusaka, and the community raising the gas limit from 30 million to 60 million between the upgrades, for the first time since 2021.

Buterin’s big plans for Ethereum and AI

Ethereum Foundation’s Mario Havel said in an X post on Wednesday: “It took us a while to push out the announcement because we were preparing the biggest curriculum so far.” 

It comes just days after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his latest vision for Ethereum’s intersection with artificial intelligence on Feb. 10. Buterin explained that he sees the two working together to improve markets, financial safety and human agency.  

Buterin said his broader vision for the future of AI is to empower humans rather than replace them, though he said the short term involves much more “ordinary” ideas.

Documentary filmmaker Dan Farah appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast in November to promote his new documentary, The Age of Disclosure, and predicted that his film might force Trump to become the first world leader to confirm the existence of extraterrestrial life publicly.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens soon after the film comes out — the sitting president has to step to the microphone and say: humanity is not alone in the universe,” Farah told Rogan. “We have recovered technology of non-human origin. So have other nations. There is a high-stakes, secret cold war race to reverse engineer this technology. We need to win this race.” 

“I think Trump might be the only guy that’s willing to do something that crazy,” Rogan replied.

Well, now Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, let it slip during an appearance on the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast that Trump has a speech prepared confirming extraterrestrial life exists.

“Do you think that he’s about to make an announcement about UFOs?” host Miranda Devine asked.

“Because President Obama was just on a podcast talking about how he believes in UFOs and hinting that he saw something when he was president.”

“Well, I said this in my podcast, too,” Lara Trump began.

“What’s funny is we’ve kind of asked my father-in-law about this, ’cause we’re like, ‘Well, what do you know?’ ‘Cause, Miranda, we all wanna know about the UFOs, or we all wanna know what’s going on and he played a little coy with us. And so that, of course, led us to believe, Eric and I, were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, if he won’t even, like, fully tell us, maybe there’s more to it.’ And then I have just heard kind of around that… I think he’s actually said it, I think my father-in-law has actually said it, that there is some speech that he has that, I guess, at, at the right time, and I don’t know when the right time is, he’s gonna break out and, and talk about, and it has to do with maybe some sort of extraterrestrial life, so to speak.”

Lara Trump suggests that President Trump is ready to make an announcement to the world about the existence of aliens, with his script already prepared for the “right time.”

“He’s going to talk about maybe some sort of extraterrestrial life.”

“I don’t know when the right time… pic.twitter.com/D3Cp4zTjFV

— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) February 18, 2026

The White House offered exactly the kind of answer you’d expect. 

“I’ll have to check in with our speech writing team,” White House Press Secretary Karoline said.

”That would be of great interest to me personally, and I’m sure all of you in this room and apparently former President Obama, too.”

A clip from Obama’s recent appearance on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast went viral over the weekend after he was asked point-blank whether aliens exist.

“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in … Area 51 … There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States,” Obama said. 

Barack Obama on aliens: “They’re real”

“But I haven’t seen them. They’re not being kept at Area 51. There’s no underground facility — unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the President of the United States.” pic.twitter.com/c6t0DYxewU

— UAP James (@UAPJames) February 14, 2026

By Sunday, Obama was on Instagram trying to walk it back.

“Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances aliens have visited us is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!” Obama wrote.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Barack Obama (@barackobama)

Washington’s relationship with UFOs — or, in the preferred bureaucratic phrasing, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) — has shifted considerably in recent years. A House hearing in July 2023 featured testimony from former military intelligence officer David Grusch, who told lawmakers under oath that he “was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program to which I was denied access.” Grusch further alleged the government had retrieved what he called “non-human biologics” from recovered craft, citing accounts from dozens of witnesses he interviewed over four years.

The Pentagon, of course, pushed back. A March 2024 report rejected the core claims — no reverse-engineered alien spacecraft, no hidden extraterrestrial biological material, no off-world technology stashed in some classified warehouse. The agency stood by its denials even as lawmakers held classified briefings.

Lara Trump’s comment adds new intrigue to the discussion. Whether Trump eventually delivers that address — or whether this is one more piece of carefully managed intrigue from a president who has never met a story he didn’t know how to control — is a question that, for now, has no answer. But Trump sure does seem like the president who would do so.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Feb. 17 that the state plans to take legal action against the Trump administration over the recent modifications to the childhood vaccine schedule.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Jan. 5, with backing from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., narrowed the number of vaccines routinely recommended by the childhood schedule.

Bonta told Reuters in an interview that he has mobilized his team to identify the necessary details for a possible complaint against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including jurisdictional and legal grounds for pursuing the lawsuit.

“I like the facts. I like science. I don’t want to give any airtime to his—I mean, just conspiracy [expletive],” Bonta told the news agency, referring to Kennedy’s stance on vaccines.

Bonta did not specify when the state might file or whether it would be a multistate filing. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who also spoke to Reuters, indicated that his state may join California in the filing.

The Epoch Times reached out to HHS for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

The CDC in January issued a revised childhood vaccine schedule that ended broad recommendations for vaccines against rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B.

The agency said in a Jan. 5 memo that decisions for those vaccinations should instead be made through “shared clinical decision-making,” which involves discussion between parents and health care providers.

The changes were made after President Donald Trump directed the HHS and CDC to review U.S. vaccine schedules and compare them with those of peer countries. The president named three countries—Denmark, Japan, and Germany—that recommend fewer vaccines and fewer vaccine doses.

At the time, the White House said in a fact sheet that if the HHS and CDC determine that those practices from developed countries are better than U.S. recommendations, they are directed to update the U.S. core childhood vaccine schedule to align with such scientific evidence and best practices, while preserving access to existing vaccines for Americans.

“Practices like the hepatitis B vaccination at birth are standard in the United States, but uncommon in most developed countries, where it is typically only recommended for newborns of mothers who test positive for the infection,” the White House stated in December.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups filed a lawsuit on Jan. 19 seeking to challenge the revised childhood vaccine schedule.

They argued that officials failed to adequately review relevant data or provide satisfactory explanations for the changes. A federal judge heard arguments on Feb. 13 and is considering whether to block the schedule update.

In January, HHS responded after executives of top vaccine companies took aim at the Trump administration in the wake of a series of actions on vaccines.

“Vaccine recommendations are based on the best available gold-standard scientific evidence and public health considerations, not corporate interests,” an HHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email on Jan. 28.

“Under this administration, HHS is not beholden to the pharmaceutical industry. Decisions are made through transparent processes with the sole aim of protecting the health of the American people. Protecting public health and restoring trust will continue to drive HHS’ vaccine policy.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

Whole Foods Market is shutting down its palm-scan payment system nationwide, removing the devices from more than 500 stores by June 3 after shoppers largely ignored them. The chain, owned by Amazon, had pitched the feature as a frictionless way to pay. Instead, it became an experiment few customers embraced, according to The Daily Mail.

The program, called Amazon One, allowed shoppers to link their Amazon accounts to a scan of their palm and check out with a wave of the hand. Amazon says it processes more than a million biometric authentications each month across locations where the service operates, but a spokesperson said weak adoption at Whole Foods drove the decision to discontinue it there.

In interviews at a Union Square store in Manhattan, none of the dozen customers surveyed had used the scanners. Several said they had never seen anyone else try. “I haven’t [used palm payment], and I haven’t seen anyone use it before,” said Priscilla Flete. After learning how the system worked, she added, “It’s a bit invasive.”

The Daily Mail writes that privacy worries were a common refrain. “I don’t want to give my biometric data to nobody,” said Santiago Tieguec, who questioned the need for the service given that “Nowadays we have our cards in our phones.” Nusrat Abdullah, who hadn’t heard of the feature before, said, “It might be convenient, but I think your information is sensitive… I don’t think paying with your hands is very safe.”

Others expressed outright distrust. Gavin McGinn said, “I wouldn’t trust them to have that kind of information about people, because who would they sell it to?” Brayden Stephenson, who once tested the scanner out of curiosity, was skeptical that data would truly disappear: “A lot of the time, ‘delete’ is just archive and sell off to somebody else.”

Amazon disputes those fears, saying biometric data is encrypted, stored securely in the cloud and not shared with third parties. The company added that once the rollout ends, all associated customer information—including palm data—will be permanently deleted.

Retail analysts say the technology’s retreat underscores a basic reality: contactless cards and mobile wallets are already fast and easy. Without a clear benefit, many shoppers saw little reason to trade more personal data for the same checkout experience. As Stephenson put it, “I already have a card. I’m not getting anything out of that.”

Last Thursday, The Atlantic published a heart-wrenching story about an 11-month-old child who died of measles. Written in the second person from the perspective of a mother whose two unvaccinated children fell ill with the disease, the story is rich with personal detail;

“You plant her on the couch with a blanket and put Bluey on the TV while she drifts in and out of sleep…” 

“While the kids are napping, you tap a list of your daughter’s symptoms into Google and find a slew of diseases that more or less match up…”

“Her cough wracks her whole body, rounding her delicate bird shoulders. She does not sleep well. And as you lift up her pajama top to check her rash one morning, you see that her breathing is labored, shadows pooling between her ribs when she sucks in air.” 

Turns out, NONE OF THAT HAPPENED. The Atlantic‘s Elizabeth Bruenig simply made it up, leading to mass confusion.

As Laura Hazard Owen of NiemanLab – who initially busted Bruenig – writes:

When I initially read Bruenig’s story, I was stunned: An Atlantic staff writer’s unvaccinated child had died of measles in the 2020s, and now she was writing about it? At the end of Bruenig’s piece, though, there’s an editor’s note: “This story is based on extensive reporting and interviews with physicians, including those who have cared directly for patients with measles.” That was the point when I sent a gift link to my mom group: “as far as I can tell this piece is fiction. What do we think about this choice? I am very conflicted!!!” My conflict stemmed from my concern that, though the piece was heavily researched, it was not a true story. I wondered if the key people whose minds might be changed by it — people who don’t vaccinate their kids — would brush it off as fiction, or fake.

Following the publication, two journalists reached out to Owen to let her know that they were similarly confused, as there “was not an editor’s note/disclaimer on the piece at all.” 

What’s more, The Atlantic’s own spokesperson told one of the journalists: “This is based on a mother’s real account,” – after which the outlet added a disclaimer. 

To +1 @laurahazardowen

I’ve also seen PDF of Atlantic piece on measles as first posted.

a/ Originally it had no editor’s note

b/ PR rep initially told reporter (in note I’ve seen) “this is based on a mother’s real account.”

If Atlantic was confused, why wouldn’t readers be? https://t.co/oWFlaktBWe

— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) February 19, 2026

The comments section at The Atlantic is full of similarly confused readers: 

To clarify – The Atlantic published a story about a child dying of measles.

Without notifying its readers the story was largely a work of fiction.

The only added an editor’s note after other journalists started asking them about it. https://t.co/cgWdlt0KjS

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 19, 2026

Of course, some Harvard douche who doesn’t disclose that his own work was mentioned in The Atlantic ‘immediately recognized the article as hypothetical.’ Great job Stuart! 

I don’t understand how anyone would have not immediately recognized the article as hypothetical — it’s in the second person! Obviously none of this has happened to me as the reader, so obviously it’s a way of storytelling.

— Stuart Buck (@stuartbuck1) February 19, 2026

Authored by Larry Sand via American Greatness,

Employees of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been busy lately, working to fulfill their mandate to remove undocumented immigrants.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of ICE’s activities is its alleged presence in public schools across the nation.

But is ICE actually going into schools?

Absolutely not.

While there are a few reports of parents being detained at bus stops near schools and images of ICE agents tackling people on school grounds, they are not actually entering the schools.

Tricia McLaughlin, the Homeland Security Department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, explains that agents’ actions in and around schools are intended to protect children.

“ICE is not going to schools to arrest children—we are protecting children. Criminals are no longer able to hide in America’s schools to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

McLaughlin adds, “An arrest might be made at school if a dangerous illegal alien felon were to flee into a school or a child sex offender is working as an employee. But this has not happened.”

Nonetheless, teachers are organizing their students to battle ICE.

As reported by Erika Sanzi, director of communications at Defending Education, teachers in Minnesota have been coordinating student protests on social media.

“There is nothing organic about these events, and despite claims to the contrary, they are almost never spontaneous expressions of student speech. They are basically field trips without the parent permission slip,” Sanzi said.

In Oregon, a video shows kindergarten students participating in a protest, and numerous schools nationwide have preemptively canceled classes so students could protest.

The teachers’ unions have also seized on ICE’s alleged misdeeds to indoctrinate students.

According to materials obtained by Defending Education, the United Teachers Los Angeles gave a presentation last year titled “Preparing for ICE at Your School” that urged its members to engage in political activism and suggested using school resources to thwart ICE operations.

The UTLA documents guide educators on how to resist the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and urge parents and teachers to collaborate on resistance efforts. It is part of the union’s broader efforts to “build a comprehensive response to immigration enforcement.”

One slide shared with educators reads, “The fight is far from over. We need to keep fighting together!” Another slide titled “What can you do?” instructs educators on how to respond to ICE operations.

Ron Gochez, a teacher at Dr. Maya Angelou Community High School in Los Angeles, a winner of the California Teachers Association “Human Rights Award,” and a spokesman for Unión del Barrio, a Chicano Marxist revolutionary political organization, is at the forefront of the anti-ICE movement in L.A.

During a recent ICE protest in Los Angeles, Gochez told his compadres, “Don’t forget where you’re standing. This is South Central Los Angeles. They (ICE) are not the only ones with guns in this city. Don’t forget that. And I don’t say that because I’m calling for violence; I’m saying that because the people have every right to defend themselves against masked, unidentified gunmen. The people have every right to defend themselves.”

Revolutionary activities are hardly new to Gochez. In August 2024, a UTLA meeting focused on “How to be a teacher & an organizer… and NOT get fired,” during which Gochez outlined stealth methods for indoctrinating his students. He described transporting busloads of students to an anti-Israel rally during the school day without arousing suspicion.

“A lot of us that have been to those (protest) actions have brought our students. Now, I don’t take the students in my personal car,” Gochez said. Then, referring to the Los Angeles Unified School District, he explained, “I have members of our organization who are not LAUSD employees. They take those students, and I just happen to be at the same place and the same time with them.”

Not surprisingly, the National Education Association aligns with various revolutionary groups, including the Sunrise Movement, which is funded by several left-wing billionaires, including George Soros. The group began with a focus on environmental issues but is now dedicated to virtually every radical proposition imaginable, with a particular emphasis on brainwashing students and organizing within schools.

In January, the NEA, under the guise of protecting children, blasted out an anti-ICE message across various social media platforms, saying, “As thousands of ICE agents carry out aggressive enforcement in Minnesota, hundreds of teachers, counselors, parents, school staff, activists, and union leaders are organizing and showing up in powerful ways—from delivering groceries and schoolwork to organizing solidarity actions and mass protests calling for ICE to leave schools and neighborhoods.”

Pushback against the blatant propaganda is mounting, however.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared that protests should be considered unlawful. The state education agency has warned that it could impose sanctions and investigate schools that facilitate “inappropriate political activism.”

“Schools and staff who allow this behavior should be treated as co-conspirators and should not be immune for criminal behavior,” Abbott told reporters.

In Florida, the state’s Education Commissioner, Anastasios Kamoutsas, said schools have a responsibility to ensure that protests do not disrupt school operations and suggested that discipline would be warranted for staff who facilitate or encourage protests during classroom hours.

“We will not tolerate educators encouraging school protests and pushing their political views onto students, especially ones that disparage law enforcement,” Kamoutsas said on social media.

Some Indiana school leaders are also calling for discipline after hundreds of students walked out of class to protest, a move that Republican Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith criticized as unacceptable.

Many parents are unhappy with the protests. One outraged Washington mother, seen in a video, has informed school officials that she is withdrawing her daughter from the district after teachers encouraged students to walk out to protest ICE activities.

When children go off to school each day, teachers act in loco parentis. Unfortunately, these days, “loco” has a whole different meaning.

Oil prices pushed higher Thursday on worries that nuclear talks between US and Iran might not avert a new conflict that could threaten supplies.

“Oil is extending its gains, with Brent crude back above $70 a barrel… as fears of a military confrontation between the US and Iran rattled energy markets,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Nuclear talks between the two sides appear to be going nowhere fast, and the geopolitical premium is clearly back in play,” he added.

On top of that, API reported an across the board draw in energy inventories.

“The failure to resolve core areas of contention continues to tip the scales in favor of another military confrontation,” RBC Capital Markets analysts including Helima Croft said in a note.

“The massive buildup of US military assets in the region as well as the recent Iranian naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz seem to suggest that the launch sequence for a second military conflict has commenced.”

Will the official data confirm API’s draws and build (pun intended) on the geopolitical risk premia in crude prices…

API

• Crude -609k

• Cushing -1.4mm

• Gasoline -312k

• Distillates -1.6mm

DOE

• Crude -9.014mm – biggest draw since Sept 2025

• Cushing -1.095mm – biggest draw since Jun 2025

• Gasoline -3.21mm – biggest draw since Oct 2025

• Distillates -4.566mm

The official data confirmed API with inventory draws across the board. Crude saw its biggest destocking since September and Gasoline stocks fell for the first time since Nov7th…

Source: Bloomberg

US crude production extended its rebound from the storm slowdown…

Source: Bloomberg

WTI is trading near $67 after the official inventory data, extending gains…

Source: Bloomberg

“Geopolitical issues, above all Iran, are the key bullish factor in the oil market at the moment,” University of Texas-Austin energy analyst Ben Cahill tells Axios via email.

“Otherwise there’s not a whole lot of price support toward $70 [per barrel]. The slack in this market could embolden the White House,” he said.

Iran exports about 1.5 million barrels per day, mostly to China. But the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea passage next to Iran, is a choke point that handles a whopping one-fourth or so of the world’s maritime oil trade.

“For oil markets, the concern is clearly what action would mean not only for Iranian oil supply, but also broader Persian Gulf oil flows, given the risk of disruption to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz,” ING analysts said in a note on Wednesday.

Daan Struyven, Goldman Sachs co-head of global commodities research, told CNBC that he thinks the market sees tensions escalating further between the US and Iran, a likely catalyst for price hikes and longer-term volatility.

“Both prediction markets and oil markets are pricing some near-term moderate escalation as the base case,” he said.

Specifically, if tensions in the Strait were to curtail flows by 1 million barrels per day for an entire year, Struyven predicted that would justify an $8 per barrel price increase, a roughly 11% jump from Thursday’s price for Brent crude around $71.50. However, he also noted that fear among traders could push prices even higher, adding to the volatility in the market.

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Crew of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Cutter Seneca seized more than $133.5 million worth of cocaine and offloaded the drugs at Port Everglades, Florida, the agency said in a Feb. 13 statement.

“80 percent of interdictions of U.S.-bound drugs occur at sea. This underscores the importance of maritime interdiction in combatting the flow of illegal narcotics and protecting American communities from this deadly threat,” USCG said.

In total, 17,700 pounds of cocaine were seized through the interdiction of four drug-transporting vessels in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

One of the drug vessels was boarded by Seneca’s crew on Jan. 25, seizing 4,410 pounds of cocaine. On Jan. 31, crew members boarded three vessels, taking custody of 13,340 pounds of cocaine, the statement said.

The detection and monitoring of illegal drug transit by air and sea are conducted by the U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force-South, based in Key West. Once it is determined that the vessel must be interdicted, the USCG takes control of the operation, boards the vessel, and apprehends it.

“I am extremely proud of the crew’s incredible performance and adaptability during this deployment,” said Capt. Lee Jones, commanding officer of Coast Guard Cutter Seneca.

“This deployment demonstrates our enhanced posture and continued success in the fight against narco-terrorism and transnational criminal organizations.

“The Coast Guard, in conjunction with our inter-agency and international partners, continues to patrol areas commonly associated with drug trafficking in the Eastern Pacific, denying smugglers access to maritime routes by which they move illicit drugs to our U.S. land and sea borders.”

According to the agency, the Coast Guard is accelerating its crackdown on drug trafficking in the Eastern Pacific Ocean in support of Operation Pacific Viper, aiming to protect the United States from the flow of illicit narcotics from South America.

Operation Pacific Viper, launched in early August last year, directs U.S. forces to the Eastern Pacific region to counter cartel and criminal groups, seeking to cut off drug and human smuggling before they hit U.S. shores.

In early December 2025, USCG said in a statement that it had seized more than 150,000 pounds of cocaine from the Eastern Pacific Ocean, which it said was enough to create more than “57 million potentially lethal doses.”

In a Feb. 14 statement, USCG announced the seizure of two vessels containing $5.6 million in illicit narcotics off Port Everglades. Authorities seized roughly 745 pounds of cocaine by interdicting two suspected drug trafficking vessels.

“The Coast Guard is in the business of saving lives, and every kilogram of these drugs kept off our streets represents lives saved,” said Lt. Justin Dadlani, commanding officer of Station Fort Lauderdale.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the professionalism of the crew and our continued partnerships with our partners with Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations.”

On Feb. 15, the agency announced that its Cutter Forrest Rednour had interdicted 14 suspected illegal immigrants aboard a vessel 18 miles from San Diego, with all of them claiming to be Mexican nationals.

Earlier on Jan. 27, the Coast Guard said they had interdicted three suspected illegal immigrants from Mexico in two vessels, seven miles off Imperial Beach, California.

On Jan. 21, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the Coast Guard notified the agency of a suspicious vessel traveling toward Puerto Rico. Upon investigation, CBP agents found 12 migrants from Russia and Uzbekistan aboard. The interception took place on Jan. 13.

“This successful outcome highlights the strong partnerships between the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and all federal and local law enforcement partners in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” said Capt. Robert E. Stiles, Sector San Juan deputy.

“Our daily unified coordination, shared capabilities, and synchronized response efforts are instrumental to safeguarding our nation’s Caribbean maritime borders against illicit smuggling activities.”

Jeffrey Epstein was connected with several notable scientists – funding leading research centers, including Harvard, where he donated $9 million, and MIT’s Media Lab, which he gave at least $7.5 million (and funneled another $1.2 million to investments under the control of the lab’s former director, Joi Ito). He was connected to Stephen Hawking, Marvin Minsky, Steven Pinker and a host of other names. 

Now we learn that Epstein provided funding to a lab at UC San Diego after lifestyle guru Deepak Chopra introduced the financier to lab director Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran – a neuroscientist who was studying an “autistic savant who displays telepathy,“ according to the latest DOJ Epstein file dump. 

Chopra, a former UCSD family medicine and public health clinical professor, said in late October that he was just helping Epstein with insomnia by teaching him to meditate. “At my suggestion, he also visited Dr. V.S. Ramachandran’s lab at [the University of California San Diego] to learn about ongoing brain research,” he told CBS News in December. 

Ramachandran was conducting a study on an “autistic savant who displays telepathy,” according to UCSD’s The Guardian, citing a Sept. 25, 2017 email with the subject “Cost to study the autistic savant who displays telepathy,” in which he tells Chopra, “i don’t have a problem with my lab being funded by epstein … so long as theres no UC connection.” 

Ramanchandran further wrote that if Chopra’s “pal [Epstein] is serious about setting in motion a lab for the study of extraordinary brain potential … something like 500,000 to 3 million would get the administrators excited.”

A subsequent email from Epstein to his accountant, Richard Kahn, instructed Kahn to send $25,000 from Epstein’s private foundation, Gratitude America Ltd., to the University of California Board of Regents to fund Ramachandran’s research on savant syndrome. He asked it to be mailed to former psychology department director and current chief administrative officer, Peter Hinkley. 

Chopra later emailed Epstein on October 5, 2017 to provide an update on spending the day with Ramachandran to discuss the “pilot study of autistic savants.”

The 2017 emails weren’t the first Epstein-Ramachandran mention. On April 17, 2009, Epstein emailed someone whose name was redacted, replying to a list of “smart” and “out of the box” people to have over to his Florida home sometime in the future. Epstein included Ramachandran in this list, along with others who he described as “good friends of mine for years.” 

While there’s nothing we could find on the telepathic kid (maybe they sensed danger), Ramachandran did write an article in December 2006 where he says telepathy is “legitimately ignored, except by crackpots” because it’s difficult to replicate. He’s also mentioned a few times in this piece on life after death, ESP, and other phenomenon.