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Best of the Web: Pope Leo rejects Trump invitation to join Gaza 'Board of Peace'

Jeff Wright
Mondoweiss
Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00 UTC
Pope Leo XIV
© WikimediaPope Leo XIV during an audience with the media, on May 12, 2025
The Vatican flatly rejected a U.S. invitation to join the Trump-led "Board of Peace" for Gaza.

Pope Leo XIV, the U.S.-born Pontiff, has formally declined U.S. President Trump's invitation for the Vatican to join his so-called Peace Board for Gaza. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem previously described the project as "a colonialist operation focused on others deciding for the Palestinians."

According to Trump, the board — which he will head — will oversee Gaza's governance and reconstruction. Trump has said that the board may later address other global conflicts under his leadership.

But in delivering the Pope's firm "no," Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, insisted that "at the international level it should above all be the U.N. that manages these crisis situations," not a U.S.-led board.
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AK47

Best of the Web: Is British intelligence radicalising children in Syrian ISIS prisons for the long war against Iran?

Vanessa Beeley
thewallwillfall.org
Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00 UTC
ISIS black flag
12 years later, Angloids are still deploying 'Jihad Inc.' around the ME chessboard
British Intelligence is never too far from the wars and chaos in the so-called Middle East region. In Syria MI6 has taken centre stage for the last 75 years in the intelligence operations to overthrow successive Syrian governments and now the aim is the final war against Iran with Syria as the staging post.

In September 2025, the Express was issuing dire warnings that "tens of thousands of ISIS extremists could be unleashed on Britain and the West if the camps holding them in Syria are taken over by a new regime", meaning the Al Jolani/Al Qaeda regime brought to power by London, Washington, Ankara, and Tel Aviv. At the same time, CENTCOM was urging countries to repatriate their ISIS citizens to reduce the pressure on the overcrowded and sordid camps overflowing with unrepentant fighters and their families.

Fast-forward to February 2026, and that is exactly what has been allowed to happen. The 'New Syria' forces, comprising ISIS, Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood factions, some Syrian, the majority foreigners, have seized the ISIS holding camps in north-east Syria from the former caretakers — the US/Israeli-backed Kurdish Separatists.

Suddenly, Washington's support for the Kurdish autonomous region appeared to collapse in favour of an HTS/Al Qaeda centralised regime. The former promises of Kurdish independence and privilege within Syrian borders seemed to dissipate rapidly as Al Jolani's murderous militias released their own relatives and former ISIS comrades from some of the biggest prison camps in this oil-rich corner of Syrian territory.
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Best of the Web: Europe's mounting avalanche death toll: 86 so far this winter with record downfalls burying ski resorts

Eliana Silver
Daily Mail
Wed, 18 Feb 2026 13:26 UTC
An avalanche on Tuesday in the Zermatt region of Switzerland
An avalanche on Tuesday in the Zermatt region of Switzerland
Europe's avalanche crisis is escalating, with 86 people including at least four Brits killed this season as severe snowfall and unstable mountain conditions wreak havoc across the Alps and beyond.

France has recorded the highest toll so far with 25 deaths, followed by Italy with 21 and Austria with 14, while Switzerland has lost nine and Spain eight.

Slovakia reported four deaths and Slovenia three, with a single death in Andorra.

The vast majority of victims were caught in wind slab avalanches or collapses linked to persistent weak layers buried deep within the snow, often triggered after fresh downfalls.

Most were skiing off piste or travelling in backcountry terrain, with others killed while mountaineering, climbing or hiking.

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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Romania's stolen elections were only the start: Inside the EU's war on democracy

RT Investigations
RT
Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:25 UTC
Romania European union rig elections war on democracy
© RT
How Brussels' Digital Services Act has been used to pressure platforms and electoral control in member states

Romania's 2024 presidential election was already one of the most controversial political episodes in the European Union in recent years. A candidate who won the first round was prevented from contesting the second. The vote was annulled. Claims of Russian interference were advanced without public evidence.

At the time, the affair raised urgent questions about democratic standards inside the EU. A congressional investigation reviewed by RT raises even more question. They indicate that the annulment of the Romanian election was accompanied by sustained efforts to pressure social media platforms into suppressing political speech - efforts coordinated through mechanisms established under the EU's Digital Services Act.

What appeared to be a national political crisis now looks increasingly like a test case for how far EU institutions are willing to go in intervening in the political processes of member states.

Comment:

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Cult

Best of the Web: The Epstein Egregore

Mark E. Jeftovic
The Bombthrower Blog
Mon, 16 Feb 2026 22:19 UTC
epstein egregor chuthulu graphic collage
© The Bombthrower Blog
The Politics Of Institutionalized Predation.
"I become stronger as you become weaker, I absorb strength as yours flows into me. I become capable of this because I do not experience your pain, I don't care about your loss, and I feel no regret about using, abusing, and devouring you."

— Page 63, An Age For Lucifer
Consider the following:
"This book explores a strange new spirituality about to enter into competition with other established religions. My purpose here is to convince you that its emergence is probable, if not inevitable. I begin this exploration with an unproven assumption based on Darwinian evolutionary principles: a new predator will appear on our planet, an evolutionary prototype designed to prey on humans. Another assumption then follows: this predator will evolve gradually and incrementally from humanity, just as we apparently evolved from lower forms to prey on them. A further assumption suggests that these predators have already appeared as evolutionary prototypes, as new humans with advanced methods of survival and new forms of spiritual expression and religious organization designed to support and advance their predation."

— Robert C Tucker, An Age For Lucifer: Predatory Spirituality & The Quest for Godhood
The book in question was Robert C Tucker's An Age For Lucifer: Predatory Spirituality and the Quest For Godhood. I first wrote about it in a Bombthrower piece: "The WEF Isn't a Cabal, It's A Cult", and I can't remember how I came into possession of it in the first place. I remember owning it for years and never reading it, because frankly, it scared me.
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Cloud Precipitation

Best of the Web: Record flooding across France as winter storms fall on saturated ground


rfi.fr
Mon, 16 Feb 2026 20:44 UTC
Storms have left large parts of France underwater, with record levels of flooding after heavy rain fell on already saturated soil. In Paris, the Seine is four metres above its normal level, forcing the closure of the riverside motorway and some commuter rail stations.
Tonneins
© AFPTonneins, southwest France

Authorities are warning of a "widespread flood event" across France, according to the national flood monitoring service Vigicrues.

Soil moisture levels are at unprecedented levels, and the ground can no longer absorb additional water.

The Garonne River burst its banks in several parts of south-western France, following several extreme weather events, including the violent Storm Nils that tore through France and Spain on Thursday.

Flood levels peaked on Saturday and Sunday in the Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne departments, though Vigicrues warned that the river could continue to flood in the coming hours and could rise again this week with more bad weather.

Comment: It's a similar situation in most of western Europe, from the Iberian Peninsula to the British Isles: endless rain and waterlogged land.

And there's more to come:



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Star of David

Best of the Web: Our unelected overlord: How Jared Kushner turned the White House into Israel's backroom deal den

Freddie Ponton
21st Century Wire
Mon, 02 Feb 2026 19:43 UTC
kushner netanyahu trojan horse white house graphic
© 21st Century Wire
"Trump did not walk into the White House alone. He stormed in with a promise to "drain the swamp," but trailing in his shadow was Jared Kushner, carrying a tangled web of private financial networks, offshore holdings, and foreign capital so deeply embedded it functioned like a quiet engine at the heart of the presidency. Years later, FBI documents released alongside the Epstein files crystallised the danger, with a Confidential Human Source (CHS) alleging that Trump had been compromised by Israel, and that Kushner was the true centre of gravity, orchestrating both the Trump Organisation and the White House from within.

This is not theatre. Intelligence reporting rarely accuses outright; it maps vulnerability, flags leverage, and exposes the invisible pathways through which foreign influence can seep into the corridors of American power, remaining unnoticed, unchallenged, and structurally unstoppable.
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Star of David

Best of the Web: Howard Lutnick: The Island Email That Won't Go Away

Freddie Ponton
21st Century Wire
Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:43 UTC
epstein lutnik
© 21st Century WireJeffrey Epstein and Howard Lutnik with a view of Epstein's mansion on Little St. James island
Howard Lutnick is a man the world has been sold as a survivor, a Wall Street titan who rebuilt Cantor Fitzgerald investment bank from the ashes of September 11, a billionaire philanthropist, and, most recently, joined at the hip with President Donald Trump, as his Commerce Secretary. His public biography reads like a meticulously crafted narrative of resilience, morality, and calculated success. But a deeper look into the released Epstein files and FBI documents tells a far more troubling story, one that cannot be contained in the usual heavily curated press releases or tidy interviews.

For years, Lutnick has insisted he 'severed all ties' with notorious sex trafficker and Israel-linked intelligence operative Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 - we're told after a brief, disturbing acquaintance, where he portrayed the disgraced financier as a "gross" figure he never wanted to see again. And yet, recently released emails tell a totally different story. Uncovered in the latest Department of Justice's release show how Lutnick was planning a family visit to Epstein's private pleasure island, Little Saint James in 2012, seven years after he claimed to have cut ties. His wife Allison's messages confirm the trip, detailing the ages of their children and expressing excitement about the gathering. Epstein's reply — "Nice to see you" — suggests the meeting went forward as planned (EFTA01050718). This troubling discrepancy will likely cast more doubts over other statements and claims made by what many call "Trump's handler" in the White House.
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Sherlock

Best of the Web: Kincora: British intelligence-run sex abuse brothel?

Kit Klarenburg
The Grayzone
Fri, 06 Feb 2026 21:42 UTC
kincora
© The Grayzone
Half a century after the public learned that boys at a Belfast group home were sexually assaulted by senior staff, a key question remains unanswered: was British intelligence implicated in the abuse conspiracy, and did Kincora serve as a 'honeypot' to entrap and blackmail powerful figures?

A vast trove of declassified files on Jeffrey Epstein's sexual, political, and intelligence escapades released by the US Department of Justice has once again thrust disgraced former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor into the spotlight. With British police reportedly reviewing Andrew's past sexual activities and links to Epstein, questions are growing about whether Britain's spy agencies were aware of Andrew's alleged escapades with minors.

If the darkest rumors turn out to be true, it will not be the first time a British royal had been embroiled in a child rape conspiracy with spy agency involvement. Back in 1980, a scandal erupted when the Kincora Boys' Home in occupied Ireland was exposed as a secret brothel run by powerful pedophiles. Chief among the alleged perpetrators was Lord Mountbatten — Andrew's great-uncle.

From the very beginning, hints began to appear that MI5/MI6 knew of the child abuse taking place Kincora, and could have even been running the group home as part of a dastardly intelligence plot. With Britain's domestic and foreign spies engaged in a savage dirty war in Ireland, and both services running operatives in Republican and Unionist paramilitaries, Kincora would have provided an ideal means of recruiting and compromising potential assets. Official investigations have strongly insinuated British intelligence chiefs had a close bond with many individuals who ran the Boys' Home.
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Skull

Best of the Web: Another trans shooter: 8 killed in Canada school shooting, including members of alleged suspect's family

Aleem Agha, Ellie Kaufman, and Nadine El-Bawab
ABC News
Wed, 11 Feb 2026 21:25 UTC

Comment: Asylums, we need to reopen asylums. Not ENCOURAGE free liberal expression of mental illness...


tumbler ridge shooting
© Jordon Kosik/APThis grab from video shows students exiting the Tumbler Ridge school after deadly shootings, in British Columbia, Canada, Feb. 10, 2026
A total of eight people were killed -- most of them at a school -- and more than two dozen were wounded, after a shooter opened fire on Tuesday in a small community in Canada's British Columbia. Officials had earlier said nine people were killed before revising the death toll.

The suspected shooter -- identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar -- is dead from what is believed to be a self-inflicted injury, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The suspect did not currently have any firearms registered to her, according to the RCMP.

There was a documented history of police visits to the family residence over several years, with the most recent visit to the home in the spring of 2025. That visit was related to "concerns regarding mental health" and "self-harm" with respect to the suspect, British Columbia Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said, during a press briefing on Wednesday.
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