TYB
Ukrainian forces strike Russian drone command post and communications hub
Mon, February 16, 2026 - 14:31
Units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to strike key Russian military targets, reducing their offensive potential, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Areas of troop concentration hit
On the night of February 16, Ukrainian troops hit an area of Russian forces concentration in the Kalynivka area in the temporarily occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukrainian defenders also struck a concentration of Russian troops in the Berezove area in the temporarily occupied territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Communication hub and drone control center destroyed
On February 15, in the Novopavlivka area in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces struck the Russian communication hub.
In addition, a Russian drone control center was destroyed in the area of the village of Zatyshok.
The losses of Russian troops and the extent of the damage are currently being clarified.
Other strikes on Russian military facilities
In January, the Ukrainian Defense Forces launched a series of strikes on the Kapustin Yar training ground in the Astrakhan region of Russia, from where Russian troops launched Oreshnik missiles at Ukraine.
In addition, the Ukrainian military attacked a Russian drone control center, an oil depot, and several areas of Russian troop concentration.
On the night of February 1, Ukrainian Armed Forces units also struck a repair base, drone command posts, and many other Russian military facilities.
Earlier, Ukrainian special forces carried out a series of successful strikes on Russian airfields, destroying and damaging 15 aircraft.
Estimates suggest that Russia's losses exceeded $1 billion and significantly reduced the intensity of its air strikes on Ukraine.
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/edwards-mvp-lebron-no-chance-suprising-nba-1771244154.html
https://english.nv.ua/nation/ukraine-hits-russian-troop-sites-drone-command-post-in-occupied-areas-50584352.html
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/70156
other Russia and Ukraine
https://hromadske.ua/en/war/259497-u-byelhorodi-zaiavyly-pro-seryozni-poshkodzennia-enerhosystemy-chastkovo-znestrumlenyy-i-briansk
https://united24media.com/latest-news/fpv-strike-turns-russian-t-72-into-flames-in-precision-ukrainian-drone-hunt-video-15933
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4091824-ukrainian-border-guards-take-out-russian-motorcycle-unit-with-drones-in-kharkiv-region.html
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4091825-russians-scattering-petal-mines-by-drone-in-occupied-kherson-region.html
https://mezha.net/eng/bukvy/ukrainian-drone-forces-destroy-north-korean-koksan-artillery-in-luhansk/
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/02/16/russian-wholesale-gasoline-prices-jump-on-refinery-drone-strikes-a91961
https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/ukrainian-drone-strike-damages-facilities-at-russian-black-sea-port-ahead-of-peace-talks/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-netanyahu-aide-hamas-will-have-60-days-to-disarm-or-idf-will-complete-mission/
other Israel
https://nypost.com/2026/02/16/world-news/hamas-used-emojis-as-code-for-launching-oct-7-assault-idf-claims/
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/IDF:-Nasser-hospital-used-as-Hamas-headquarters/65671567
https://thekenyatimes.com/latest-kenya-times-news/world-news/israel-eliminates-9-people-during-underground-tunnel-strike/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-it-struck-hezbollah-operative-in-southern-lebanon-5/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-launches-west-bank-operation-ahead-of-ramadan-to-ensure-security-and-stability/
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-886831
https://www.jns.org/palestinians-infiltrate-israel-border-as-idf-responds/
https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/houthi-invasion-drills-israel
https://www.ifcj.org/news/stand-for-israel-blog/idf-strikes-hamas-and-hezbollah-over-weekend
https://www.jns.org/iaf-strikes-terrorists-across-gaza-in-response-to-truce-violations/
https://www.military.com/daily-news/investigations-and-features/2026/02/13/israeli-forces-bulldozed-wwi-and-wwii-allied-war-graves-gaza.html
Top Netanyahu aide: Hamas will have 60 days to disarm or IDF will ‘complete’ mission
February 16, 2026 5:38 pm
Israel plans to afford Hamas a 60-day period to disarm, and if it does not, the Israeli military will go back to war in the Gaza Strip, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs made the statement a day after the premier asserted that the terror group must give up its small arms as part of the disarmament process, including its AK-47 rifles — after some reports that the terror group might be allowed to hold onto its rifles for now.
Speaking in Jerusalem to the Besheva Group conference, Fuchs said that the Trump Administration had asked for a 60-day period, and “we are respecting that.”
Fuchs clarified that he is unsure when the 60-day period starts, but it may begin with Thursday’s Board of Peace conference.
During that time, Hamas “will have to give up all of its weapons,” including rifles, he said, asserting that the terror group’s AK-47s “will be taken from them entirely.”
“We will evaluate it,” he said. “If it works, great. If not, then the IDF will have to complete the mission.”
He added that it was a “reasonable estimate” that before Israel’s next election — which is currently set for October but could be moved up to June — either Hamas will have given up its weapons or the IDF will be in the midst of an intensive new military campaign in Gaza.
Fuchs said there were many Gaza tunnels that also needed to be destroyed as part of the process.
“Today, whoever plows the fields in Be’eri sees the sea,” he says of the Gaza border kibbutz invaded and brutalized by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
“There is barely a building left standing in the Gaza Strip, but the work is not yet completed.”
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A day earlier, Netanyahu said that disarmament means Hamas “must give up its weapons, not [just] its main weapons,” asserting that “the one that does the most damage is called an AK-47.”
“That’s what they used in the massacre of October 7,” the prime minister said, adding that the group still holds some 60,000 rifles in Gaza.
A report in The New York Times last week said Hamas would be allowed to keep “some small arms,” at least initially, while surrendering all weapons that are “capable of striking Israel,” according to a draft plan drawn up by officials involved in the US-led Board of Peace.
According to the report, a team including US envoys Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy, plans on sharing the document in question with Hamas in the coming weeks.
IDF: Troops kill 6 terrorists from Rafah tunnels
Meanwhile, inside Gaza, the IDF on Sunday said it had killed six more Hamas terror operatives who have been holed up for months in a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah, on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line.
Dozens of Hamas operatives trapped on the Israeli side of the so-called “Yellow Line” diving Gaza in accordance with the October 2025 ceasefire agreement were believed by the military to have been there since the collapse of a previous truce in the Strip in early 2025.
The IDF has reported killing or capturing some 50 of them in recent months.
According to the military, troops of the 7th Armored Brigade carried out several “significant actions” in the tunnels in the eastern Rafah area in the past week, “in order to eliminate additional terrorists residing there.”
A week ago, the IDF said troops exchanged fire with several gunmen who emerged from a tunnel in the area.
In an update, the military said that on Sunday, during scans of the area, it was confirmed that three gunmen were killed in that exchange of fire, and the bodies of six more were located after they were “eliminated as part of the operations carried out along the tunnel route.”
The IDF said it is continuing to operate in the area “to eliminate the terrorists in the tunnel routes.”
Elsewhere in the Strip, the IDF said late Sunday night that it struck terror operatives who engaged in “suspicious activity on the ground” and approached troops in the northern Gaza Strip earlier in the day.
According to the IDF, troops of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade identified the operatives on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line.
The army said that in addition to “carrying out suspicious activity on the ground,” the operatives approached the soldiers “in a manner that posed an immediate threat.”
After they were identified, the Israeli Air Force struck and “eliminated two of the terrorists to remove the threat,” the IDF said. It did not specify what happened to the others.
Since the start of the ceasefire in October, the IDF has said it has killed dozens of terror operatives and other “suspects” who have crossed the Yellow Line and approached troops. Such incidents have taken place on a near-daily basis.
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INFOWARS
@infowars
This film changed everything. 'Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove' captured elite power players and secret rituals on camera for the first time.
-Alex Jones, 2000
Quote
Alex Jones
@RealAlexJones
Discover the horror of the secret rituals and strange perversions engaged in at Bohemian Grove.
Last edited 2:47 PM · Feb 14, 2026
https://x.com/infowars/status/2022804948900073820
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teZljU7pT98
https://www.iranintl.com/en/liveblog/202602154712
other Iran
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202602164460
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/irans-revolutionary-guards-corps-begin-military-drills-in-strait-of-hormuz-11012512
https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6389384357112
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1d64p3q2d0o
https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6389384357112
https://www.trtworld.com/article/fc95219040c2
CENTCOM posts show of force, Tehran strikes defiant tone ahead of talks
February 16, 2026
Summary
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Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities are non-negotiable, senior Iranian MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi said, adding Tehran is engaging in talks so it is not accused of refusing negotiations.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday it would be hard to make a deal with Iran, speaking alongside Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban a day before a second round of talks between Tehran and Washington.
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IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi said he held in-depth technical discussions with Iran’s foreign minister in Geneva on Monday to prepare for key negotiations scheduled the next day.
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Iran signaled limited openness in nuclear talks, saying it is ready to discuss steps on its highly enriched uranium stockpile in exchange for sanctions relief, but ruled out zero enrichment. Indirect talks with the United States are set to continue this week in Geneva.
57 minutes ago
Iran executes 17 on alleged murder, drug charges - rights group
Seventeen prisoners were executed in prisons across Iran over two days on alleged murder and drug-related charges, US-based rights group Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on Monday.
59 minutes ago
Prominent Iranian activist Alinejad denounces US-Iran talks in Geneva
Prominent activist Masih Alinejad condemned renewed US-Iran talks in Geneva scheduled for Tuesday.
“They shoot protesters. They torture for confessions … then they board a plane, put on suits, and sit in meeting rooms and speak the language of diplomacy,” she wrote on X.
1 hour ago
Exiled prince Pahlavi praises Iran chants, diaspora rallies
Iran’s exiled prince Reza Pahlavi praised protesters who chanted ant-government slogans from their homes in Iran and members of the Iranian diaspora who attended rallies abroad over the weekend.
“Your resounding cries within Iran on the nights of February 14th and 15th, and your remarkable presence in the rallies of the February 14th Global Day of Action were a clear manifestation of our national unity,” he said in a post on X.
“Our struggle to overthrow the Islamic Republic and establish a national and democratic government is irreversible… We will continue this struggle with strength until the overthrow of this criminal regime and the expulsion of the occupiers from our beloved Iran,” he added.
2 hours ago
Araghchi meets Omani counterpart in Geneva ahead of Iran-US talks
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Omani counterpart, Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, in Geneva ahead of a second round of Iran-US talks scheduled for Tuesday, Iranian media reported.
2 hours ago
Rights group says security forces killed at least 24 children in Iran protests
At least 24 children, including a three-year-old, were killed by direct fire from security forces during Iran’s nationwide protests, the HANA Human Rights Organization said on Monday.
The group said it had confirmed the identities of the children through on-the-ground research and cross-checking of multiple sources.
The group added the shooting of children was not an isolated incident but a systematic and ongoing pattern, with gunfire in many cases directed at vital parts of the body.
4 hours ago
Tehran says it gains nothing from drawn-out talks
Iran gains no benefit from prolonged negotiations, Foreign Ministry spokesman Baghaei said, adding Tehran has entered the latest round of talks with Washington with a full political, legal, economic and technical team.
4 hours ago
Senior Iran MP says nuclear, missile capabilities non-negotiable
Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities are non-negotiable, senior Iranian MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi said, adding Tehran is engaging in talks so it is not accused of refusing negotiations.
“But if the United States attacks Iran, we will certainly attack US bases,” Boroujerdi, a member of Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said.
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5 hours ago
CENTCOM shares images of aircraft preparing for launch off USS Lincoln
The US Central Command released images showing EA-18G Growlers from Electronic Attack Squadron 133 and F-35C Lightning II aircraft from Marine Fighter Squadron 314 preparing for launch aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East.
CENTCOM said in a post on X that the aircraft carrier was operating in international waters and conducting around-the-clock flight operations in support of regional security.
6 hours ago
Iran MPs urge opposition to Abraham Accords
Fifty-one Iranian lawmakers urged the foreign minister to state Iran’s opposition to the Abraham Accords, a US-brokered normalization agreement launched under President Donald Trump, and to adopt what state media described as a “revolutionary stance” against the plan.
In a written warning read out during a parliamentary session on Monday, the lawmakers called on Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to state Iran’s position transparently and explain the dimensions of the proposal in relation to Islamic countries.
The Abraham Accords were US-brokered agreements launched in 2020 under Trump that led several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, to normalize relations with Israel. Iran has strongly opposed the accords.
6 hours ago
Iran teachers’ union urge nationwide school strike to mourn slain students
An Iranian teachers’ union called on Monday for a nationwide school shutdown on Feb. 18 as a day of mourning and protest over the killing of school students during the unrest.
The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations urged teachers to stay away from classrooms and education offices and asked parents not to send their children to school that day.
In a statement, the umbrella group, which links teachers’ trade associations across several provinces, said more than 230 children and teenagers had been killed by government forces during the protests.
The union also encouraged teachers and the public to attend 40th-day memorial ceremonies for those killed, saying empty classroom seats should not become routine and that schools should serve as a place to demand the right to life.
7 hours ago
Iran lawmaker urges action against Germany, European states over Munich rally
An Iranian lawmaker on Monday called on the Foreign Ministry to expel Germany’s ambassador in Tehran over a large rally by Iranians in Munich, and urged action against other European countries that allowed similar gatherings.
“Expel the German ambassador and charge d’affaires so they do not repeat such mistakes next time,” Javad Hosseinikia said during a parliamentary session. He also pointed to European countries more broadly over rallies by Iranians abroad.
Hundreds of thousands gathered in Munich to protest against Iran’s government as nationwide unrest continued inside the country. The rally coincided with a global security conference attended by world leaders in the southern German city.
7 hours ago
EXCLUSIVE
Iran court issues death sentences to 14 protesters in online proceedings
A court in Iran has issued death sentences to 14 protesters who took part in the recent unrest, holding the proceedings online, sources familiar with the matter told Iran International.
The virtual sessions were convened by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, head of Branch 15 of Iran’s Revolutionary Court, the sources said.
They said Salavati heard cases in groups of 14 defendants at the same time.
7 hours ago
Reaching a deal with Iran will be difficult, says US secretary of state
It will be hard to make a deal with Iran, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, a day before a second round of talks between Tehran and Washington.
“Look, doing a deal with Iran is not easy,” Rubio told reporters at a press conference with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“We have to understand that Iran ultimately is governed, and its decisions are governed by Shia clerics - radical Shia clerics,” he said. “These people make policy decisions on the basis of pure theology. That’s how they make their decisions, so it’s hard to do a deal with Iran.”
He said US negotiators were on their way to the talks and that he would not prejudge the outcome.
“I’m certainly not going to negotiate with Iran here in front of the press,” Rubio said. “We’ll see what happens. We’re hopeful there’s a deal.”
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Two days of drone strikes leave 60+ dead across Sudan’s Darfur and Kordofan regions
16/02/2026 17:55
More than 60 people have been killed in a series of drone attacks across Sudan’s Darfur, Kordofan, and Sennar states over a 48-hour period, according to witnesses, lawyers’ groups and medical networks.
West Kordofan displacement shelter hit
In West Kordofan, at least 26 people — including nine women and 12 children — were killed on Monday when a drone struck a building housing displaced civilians in the town of El Sunut.
Witnesses and relatives of victims told Radio Dabanga the aircraft, believed to belong to the Sudanese army, targeted a veterinary facility being used as a shelter shortly after midnight.
The Sudan Founding Alliance, the National Umma Party and other political groups condemned the strike in separate statements, denouncing the targeting of a civilian accommodation centre and other populated areas.
Market attack in North Kordofan
Separately, the Emergency Lawyers group said a drone strike hit El Safiya market, north-east of Sodari in North Kordofan, on Sunday evening.
At least 28 people were killed and dozens injured in what the group described as a preliminary toll likely to rise. The attack occurred during peak trading hours, when the market was crowded with civilians, including women, children and elderly people.
The lawyers condemned the strike “in the strongest terms”, saying the bombing of a purely civilian facility constituted a grave violation of international humanitarian law and undermined the principle of civilian protection during conflict.
They called on both sides of the war to halt drone attacks, cease targeting civilian infrastructure under any pretext, and commit to de-escalation measures to protect non-combatants.
Disputed strike near hospital in Sennar
The Sudan Doctors Network reported three people were killed and seven wounded after shelling it attributed to the Rapid Support Forces struck El Mazmum hospital in Sennar state on Sunday.
Other sources denied the hospital itself was directly hit, saying drones targeted army positions roughly 500 metres to the north, including the headquarters of Brigade 66 and nearby military posts.
An officer, six soldiers and a child inside a neighbouring house were reportedly injured and transferred to Singa hospital for treatment.
Investigation committees formed
In West Darfur, civil administration head Tijani Karshoum condemned a drone strike on the border area of Adikonq near El Geneina, describing it as a dangerous escalation and a breach of international humanitarian law.
He said a committee had been formed to document casualties and damage after reports that dozens were killed.
Local authorities in the affected area also announced a separate committee to assess losses caused by the bombardment.
Military claims and counter-claims
The Sudanese Armed Forces said they carried out a ‘precision operation’ on Sunday in Abu Zabad, West Kordofan, destroying an air-defence system belonging to the Rapid Support Forces and inflicting heavy losses.
Meanwhile, the Rapid Support Forces reportedly launched drone attacks on multiple sites in El Obeid, North Kordofan. Sources also said RSF fighters shot down an army drone over Abu Zabad on Monday.
The incidents underline the increasing use of drones in Sudan’s war, which has intensified civilian casualties and raised renewed concerns over compliance with the laws of armed conflict.
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/two-days-of-drone-strikes-leave-60-dead-across-sudans-darfur-and-kordofan-regions
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/3807235-escalating-crisis-drone-strikes-and-civilian-casualties-in-sudan
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2026/02/15/analysis-el-paso-airspace-shutdown-indicates-growing-pains-in-trump-admins-attention-to-long-ignored-cartel-drone-menace/
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2026/02/15/cbp-cartels-flew-42000-drones-near-u-s-border-in-fy25/
https://www.ufonews.co/post/congress-the-public-got-2-different-el-paso-stories-was-it-a-ufo
ANALYSIS: El Paso Airspace Shutdown Indicates Growing Pains in Trump Admin’s Attention to Long-Ignored Cartel Drone Menace
15 Feb 2026
The threat of cartel drone incursions along the U.S.-Mexico border, estimated at 40,000 to 60,000 incidents per year, was largely ignored under the Biden Administration.
The February 10 airspace shutdown over El Paso underscores the serious challenges the Trump administration now faces as it finally gives the drone threats to the homeland the urgent attention they deserve.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, on February 10, the incursion of a drug cartel drone spawned the issuance of a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) that restricted aircraft operations for El Paso and parts of eastern New Mexico, effectively closing all air traffic into or out of the border city.
The unprecedented move, which initially called for a complete ground stop for all aircraft entering and leaving the El Paso International Airport, raised the ire of local, state, and federal officials, who bemoaned the lack of communication beforehand.
The NOTAM was terminated less than eight hours later, punctuated by a social media post on X by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributing the closure to a cartel drone incursion offering followers a brief description of the conclusion to the air stoppage caused by the cartel drone incursion saying, “The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”
The brief explanation by Secretary Duffy did not address the enormous efforts underway by the Trump administration to finally counter the drone threat that the Mexican cartels have posed for several years.
The effort to focus on the largely ignored drone threat went into high gear after President Trump signed an executive order in June 2025 titled “Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty”.
In the order, Trump cited the dangers posed by criminals, terrorists, and hostile foreign actors who have weaponized the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) against the United States.
The President highlighted the threat in the order, saying, “Drug cartels use UAS to smuggle fentanyl across our borders, deliver contraband into prisons, surveil law enforcement, and otherwise endanger the public.
Mass gatherings are vulnerable to disruptions and threats from unauthorized UAS flights. Critical infrastructure, including military bases, is subject to frequent — and often unidentified — UAS incursions.
Immediate action is needed to ensure American sovereignty over its skies and that its airspace remains safe and secure.”
The order compels administration officials, among other things, to increase counter-UAS capability and cements ongoing efforts at the southwest border as part of the President’s efforts to secure the border after his inauguration.
Part of the President’s initiatives to that end included sending military units to the southwest border to help U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detect UAS threats and any to identify any ground targets associated with UAS incursions.
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The 10th Mountain Division radar unit was specifically deployed to the southwest border to provide a capability previously unheard of in a homeland defense environment.
Specifically, the platoon deployed the AN/TPQ-53 Quick Reaction Capability Radar, which can identify the origin and impact location of weapons such as rockets and mortars, and the AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar system, which tracks low-flying aircraft and UAS threats across wide areas.
The highly sophisticated equipment, historically used only on the battlefield under previous administrations, has now been adapted for homeland defense.
The efforts to detect drone incursions serve as the starting point for what has been exposed by the El Paso airspace shutdown as an extremely challenging quandary: how to take down a suspect drone without threatening legitimate air traffic near border airports and military installations.
In April, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Homeland Defense and Americas Security Affairs Mark Roosevelt Ditlevson testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, addressing the challenges of conducting counter-drone operations in civilian airspace.
In his testimony, Ditlevson remarked on the challenges telling committee members, “The systems that have proven effective at countering UAS in the Middle East are not appropriate for the homeland given the intelligence collection required to enable these mitigation operations and the potential for collateral damage.”
Ditlevson told committee members that the Department of War’s understanding of the threat and unique mitigation dynamics related to the UAS threat against the homeland has improved greatly, and recommended continued shared government efforts to combat and resolve these threats.
The Cartel-specific UAS threats range from counter-surveillance activity against U.S. law enforcement, incursions to deliver illicit narcotics by air, and ominously include the ability to deploy weaponized drones that have recently been used in Mexico to attack the military and law enforcement, as reported by Breitbart Texas.
One way the Trump administration’s Department of War is hoping to solve the challenge of addressing the UAS threat at the border and beyond is through the Drone Dominance Program, an initiative to improve UAS and counter UAS capabilities.
In a July 2025 memorandum to senior leaders at the Pentagon, U.S. Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth referred to drones as the “biggest battlefield innovation in a generation, accounting for most of this year’s casualties in Ukraine.”
As part of the program, the U.S. Department of War announced an invitation to 25 vendors to compete in phase one of the Drone Dominance Program (DDP), an acquisition reform effort to rapidly procure low-cost, unmanned attack drones.
The Department of War will also use the program to quickly acquire innovative counter-UAS solutions that may serve to reduce or eliminate the threat of UAS incursions at the southwest border, attacks abroad, and within the homeland.
Although miscommunication may have marred the short-lived closure of El Paso airspace to address a cartel drone incursion, the episode underscores how the Trump administration is finally building real momentum in confronting a cartel drone threat the previous administration largely ignored for years.
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https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2026/02/16/obama-says-aliens-are-real-here-are-nevadas-ufo-close-encounters/88703264007/
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2026/02/16/early-ufo-sighting-claimed-saucer-crashed-on-hillside-near-sparks-s/88704882007/
Obama says aliens are 'real.' Here are Nevada's UFO close encounters
Feb. 16, 2026, 11:31 a.m. PT
Former President Barack Obama caused a stir over the weekend when he said that aliens were "real."
Obama spoke with Brian Tyler Cohen in an interview posted on Saturday, and suggested that extraterrestrials existed, though he hadn't seen them personally. He also insisted that they're not being kept in the secretive U.S. Air Force Base known as Area 51, located in southern Nevada.
Cohen: So I want to do a little bit of a lightning round here, because it’s not often I’ll get access to the president of the United States. So a couple questions here. Are aliens real?
Obama: They're real, but I haven't seen them, and they're not being kept in, what is it —
Cohen: Area 51?
Obama: — Area 51. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the president of the United States.
Cohen: What was the first question you wanted answered when you became president?
Obama: Where are the aliens?
Cohen: Where are the aliens. (Laughter.)
Nevada's ties with UFOs and aliens dates back nearly eight decades. But why? Perhaps there's a good reason Nevadans see lights in the sky and immediately think of extraterrestrials. Consider:
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Rural southern Nevada has leaned in hard to UFO culture, designating a lonely stretch of State Route 375 the "Extraterrestrial Highway" due to its proximity to Area 51.
Tiny Rachel, Nevada, to the north of Area 51 is home to the Little A'Le'Inn, an alien-themed motel, bar and restaurant. And in Amargosa Valley to the southwest, there's the Area 51 Alien Center with an alien museum and gift shop. (Behind the gift shop is the extraterrestrial-themed Alien Cathouse Brothel.)
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The secretive military base commonly known as Area 51 has been used by the Air Force since World War II, and has been the base of operations for testing aircraft.
It's also rumored to be where alien aircraft are stored, including the remains of the flying saucer that allegedly crashed at Roswell, New Mexico.
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John Lear, a onetime Nevada State Senate candidate, claimed in 1987 that the U.S. had made contact with space aliens and was promoting films like "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" to prepare the public for the introduction of aliens.
He later claimed that the government had forged a treaty with the Gray aliens, a specific subset of extraterrestrials.
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"Coast to Coast AM," a Pahrump-based syndicated radio broadcast focusing on the paranormal — including, yes, UFOs and aliens — debuted in 1988, with host Art Bell credulously interviewing "experts" and callers about their encounters.
In May 1989, a man named Bob Lazar appeared on Las Vegas TV station KLAS to report that he had been hired to work at Area 51 to reverse-engineer a captured alien spacecraft. (George Knapp, the reporter who first interviewed Lazar, is currently one of the rotating guest hosts for "Coast to Coast AM.")
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The state once had a registered lobbyist — David Venus Solomon, aka Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II — who claimed to represent the interests of space aliens at the Nevada Legislature in the late 1990s.
Longtime Nevada Sen. Harry Reid used his position as U.S. Senate majority leader to push for the public release of Pentagon files on UFOs, telling the New York Times in 2017, “I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this going.”
How many UFO sightings have there been in Nevada?
More than 1,800 UFO sightings have been reported throughout Nevada, according to the National UFO Reporting Center website, nuforc.org. That puts Nevada among the top 30% of states reporting UFOs.
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Among those reported since the beginning of 2025:
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Sparks, Jan. 4, 2025: "About 3 to 7 lights varying in brightness and order. There was about 3 to 7 lights that were visible at varying brightness. They would move close and apart, getting brighter and dimmer, but always hovering in the same general area."
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Las Vegas, Feb. 12, 2025: "The past few days around the same time 6:30 PM we have seen multiple UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena). These have had interesting characteristics like flying lower than planes lower than clouds, creating synchronized flashing patterns in the sky, and yesterday there was one that got really close. When they’re not in a synchronized pattern, they are scattered in the sky flying in strange patterns. They seem to be aware of our presence watching them, as they will fly right above us and one came really close last night."
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Reno, March 7: "Sphere heading north at steady pace and trajectory. I looked up when I heard a small plane (Cessna size) flying by and saw sphere at a faster pace above the plane. I pointed it out to my mom and we watched it continue until it disappeared behind clouds. No noise was heard. It was very steady with speed and direction."
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Reno, June 8: "I was able to connect to the UAP telepathically and where soon after all different color lights began bursting out of it! First it started looking like a star/ flying saucer, then morphed into almost triangular shape where it began portraying colors of the rainbow. If you focus your telepathy skills on the entity, the rainbow stripes l sticking out become what look like limbs on the object l (2 arms, 2 legs) I wasn’t able to keep filming because I felt unsafe in my cul-de-sac hearing cars racing through the neighborhood and gunshots from afar."
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Reno, Sept. 9: "An orb entered my home. There was nothing physically there, just energy. It was investigating. It was feeling all the surfaces, and then it went through my body, and then it left."
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Coyote Springs: "As I was driving down the Jeep trail I came upon two domes that had bright red lights on them. One dome looked bigger than the other one … In the morning I always go for a jog so I ran out there and there was no trace of anyone being out there. There is only one way into this desert area; the road dead ends near the mountains. So if they packed up and left in the middle of the night they would have driven right next to me as they passed through to get to the highway – I would have heard them leaving."
Some of the recent sightings listed on the site align with rocket launches and Starlink satellite formations.
But despite congressional testimony and pop-culture references to UFOs, people are still tentative about reporting their own close encounters.
The National UFO Reporting Center (nuforc.org), one of the internet's largest databases of UFO sightings, assures those who file a report that their contact information "will not be published and will be kept strictly confidential." Among the 1,800 anonymous reports from Nevada:
Someone who said they were stationed at NAS Fallon in the 1960s said another man in his squadron reported a saucer-shaped craft with a white light.
He entered the report into the night watch log. "The witness took a lot of flack over the sighting," reads the report, "and the next day in the log someone wrote, '2100: no saucers sighted.'"
Another report, this one from the mid-1980s, said "a giant silver ball-shaped object" was spinning in place over McCarran Boulevard near Idlewild Park, but it disappeared after it was approached by two jet fighters.
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On May 17, 2023, a NUFORC user said they saw "flashing red and blue emergency lights" along Highway 160 near Pahrump.
"As the lights got closer I realize that there were no headlights or other forward facing white lights of any kind but what appeared to be a total of 8 red and blue flashing lights in the shape of a cross … it appeared to be hovering just above the road surface."
And sometimes, the reports go beyond lights in the sky.
In 2023, Las Vegas police officers investigated reports of two unknown entities falling from the sky on the same night that a family reported something "not human" in their backyard.
One officer drove to a home on the night of April 30 and interviewed the family who called 911 after making the sighting, according to body camera footage obtained by USA TODAY. One of the family members told the officer they saw “a big creature” that was “long, 10 feet tall.”
“I’m not going to BS you guys. One of my partners said they saw something fall out of the sky, too, so that’s why I’m kind of curious,” the officer said. “It’s weird just the fact that our partner saw something at the exact time."
Las Vegas Metro investigated the property for days following the alleged paranormal incident before closing the case, Las Vegas TV station 8 News Now reported.
Now that UFO sightings are being discussed in serious settings and a significant portion of the world population is walking around with smartphone cameras at all times, are we any closer to resolving things one way or another?
Not likely. Many of the recent sightings filed with NUFORC are accompanied with photos, none of which show anything clear and definitive.
Still, those who claim to have seen something otherworldly may not feel quite so alone now. One NUFORC user in the late 1990s logged an encounter from the mid-1970s, and ended the post with a plea.
"If anyone else saw it too," they wrote, "Please email me. It has haunted me for all these years.
"I just wish I could make anyone believe how important it was. No one will know what it's like until it happens to them."
3/3
This is the best we got - welcome to earth
https://www.iflscience.com/clonaid-and-baby-eve-a-story-of-aliens-cults-hoaxes-and-the-first-ever-human-clone-82550
https://www.rael.org/
https://www.rael.org/extraterrestrials-created-all-life-on-earth/
https://www.rael.org/honorary-guides/
https://x.com/raelian
https://www.clonaid.com/
https://www.clonaid.com/page.php?12
https://www.clonaid.com/page.php?9
Clonaid And Baby Eve: A Story Of Aliens, Cults, Hoaxes, And The First Ever Human Clone
February 14, 2026
At 11.55 am, on December 26, 2002, a baby was born like no other before her. Known as Eve – no official first or surname was ever given – she was, according to the internationally-publicized press conference the next day, the first ever cloned human being.
“I'm very, very pleased to note that the first baby clone is born,” announced Brigitte Boisselier, Scientific Director of Clonaid, the company that undertook the project.
“We have been celebrating with the scientists this week, and it was a very special Christmas […] I know that they are looking at me, and I want to thank them, especially right now, because I believe that they deserved the recognition – and they will get it, once they are ready to go public.”
Just five years post-Dolly the Sheep, the process to create Eve was, Boisselier said, “very close” to that used for her ovine predecessor – just “adapted to human cells.”
Specifically, she was the result of her mother’s skin cells, forced to divide via what Boisselier described as “an electrical impulse”.
“Some people will say it's luck” that was to thank for the success, she said. “But I would say it's hard work.”
And the good news didn’t end there.
Eve may have been the first, but she wasn’t alone: four other babies, all genetic clones of their mothers, were gestating in various countries – “the next one is from Europe,” Boisselier said; “two are from Asia. And the [last] one is from North America.”
The technique could bring hope to infertile couples, like Eve’s parents, or lesbian couples, like the European baby.
It could even be used to cheat death itself when it came too soon: there were, Boisselier said, “two cases […] with dead children” where the parents had “preserve[d] the cell before the death of the child.”
So, here’s a question: why, nearly a quarter century later, do we hear basically nothing about human reproductive cloning? Where even are these babies?
The bizarre origins of Clonaid
There is nowhere in the world where human cloning for explicitly reproductive purposes is permitted – and if that situation was different in 2002, it was only because the technology was so far from realistic that legislation was unnecessary. So how was it that Clonaid, an organization with no street address and no incorporated status, which nevertheless promised loudly to do exactly that, was able to secure funding for this highest of high-tech projects?
Well, luckily, Boisselier was pretty forthcoming about that. “Clonaid was funded in 1997, thanks to Raël,” she noted in the press conference announcing the birth of Eve. “You may have heard of him. He's my spiritual leader.”
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Who was this mysterious Raël? A priest, perhaps? A guru? A mystic, a la Rasputin?
No: he was – and still is, in fact – the founder and leader of an apocalyptic cult, an ex-pop star turned racing driver turned journalist, and, if you take his word for it, the half-alien half-brother of Jesus, Mohammed, and Buddha.
“The International Raëlian Movement (IRM), founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon (who later became known as Raël), is arguably the largest ‘flying saucer cult’ in the world, claiming over 60,000 members in 52 countries,” wrote sociologists Susan J. Palmer and Bryan Sentes back in 2012 – although they cautioned that “this figure is probably inflated.”
Born out of wedlock in Vichy, France, in 1946, Claude was raised staunchly atheist – even if he did briefly attend a Catholic boarding school, allegedly causing a minor outcry among the clergy when he took communion despite not being baptized.
So far, so mid-century Europe – but the story really starts when he decided, aged 15, to run away from home. Almost immediately, things become fantastical: he “hitch-hik[ed] to Paris with a race car driver who introduced him to the pleasures of prostitutes and the race track,” Palmer and Sentes report; he “sang […] in Paris cafés to support himself” until “he was discovered by an agent who set him up as a teen pop star named Claude Cellier, and he enjoyed a brief success on France's hit parade.”
But just as soon as he had zigged, life zagged. “Suddenly the agent committed suicide, and Claude's singing career ended abruptly,” Palmer and Sentes write, so Claude “founded a race car magazine called Auto Pop in 1973 and […] established a career as a test driver.
This career was abruptly curtailed in November 1973 by a new French law that banned speeding on the highway and suspended car races.”
“His career as a prophet or UFO contactee commenced soon thereafter,” they add. Because of course.
In fact, “soon” is almost underselling it. Vorilhon first claimed to have met aliens on December 13, 1973: they spoke French, he said, which was lucky, since they immediately brought him on board the ship and started explaining the true meaning of the stories in the Bible.
Now, not everything Vorilhon claimed to have been taught was all that kooky. Raëlism, right from the start, was a sex-positive, feminist, LGBTQ-friendly, anti-war, and pro-science movement – which, considering it began in the 70s, is fairly impressive. But once you get into the actual details, things get stranger.
Case in point: the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, the aliens apparently said, was a misinterpretation of the truth – that Earth was once barren, and life was seeded by this race of “Elohim” aliens. The first humans, of course, were clones of the Elohim’s own DNA.
There is so, so much more to talk about with Raëlism – like the fact that the apocalypse is apparently scheduled for 2035, or the “Raël’s Angels” band of extra-sexy women specially trained to “please the Elohim” since “male Elohim are extremely gentle, delicate, and sensitive, and therefore have special requirements,” per Palmer and Sentes.
But it’s really this emphasis on the holiness, for want of a better word in an atheist UFO-based belief system, of cloning that’s most important right now.
According to Raëlism and the Elohim, cloning is how we achieve eternal life; it can bring people back from the dead; it’s quite literally why we exist at all.
It’s no wonder they funded it – international outcry be damned. Its success was nothing less than the first step towards a new era of enlightenment.
Except… was it a success?
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The twist: Did Eve even exist?
To hear Boisselier and the Raëlists tell it, the births of Eve and her four cloned comrades were a success story like no other.
For many politicians and religious leaders, it was the opposite: a morally questionable example of science going too far, too fast. But for many scientists, the truth was likely much simpler: Boisselier was bluffing.
“[Clonaid’s claims are] totally ridiculous,” MIT biologist and pioneer of transgenic science Rudolf Jaenisch told New Scientist back in 2003. “In the absence of any scientific evidence, I have to believe that it's not true […] They are extreme nuts.”
Why? Well, a bunch of reasons, to be honest. Some said Clonaid couldn’t possibly have the necessary expertise to clone humans; others pointed out how much more successful the company claimed to be with cloning than current technology was doing with bog-standard IVF.
“I believe Ms Boisselier has claimed five miscarriages, which [with five successful implantations] gives a 100 per cent implantation rate,” pointed out Harry Griffin, head of the UK Roslin Institute and part of the team who cloned Dolly the sheep in 1997, at the time to New Scientist.
“This is biologically possible,” he said, “but IVF clinics only manage an implantation rate of about 20 per cent and that's with healthy embryos and implanting two embryos per woman.”
But most damning of all was Clonaid’s reluctance to provide… well, literally any evidence at all for their claims. “Clonaid have no track record but claim to have cloned hundreds of embryos,” Griffin said. “It just doesn't ring true.”
“Nearly everything they have said in the past has never been confirmed by scientific investigation,” agreed Alan Trounson, an embryologist and stem cell scientist from Monash University, speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, per New Scientist.
And Eve and her fellow clones were no exception: despite big claims about having the babies’ genetic identity independently confirmed, Clonaid never gave Michael Guillen, the science journalist they chose to oversee the testing, any evidence to be examined.
“I'm tearing my hair out in frustration. I stuck my neck out and they knew it,” Guillen later told USA Today. “All I want are some samples [from the baby] so we can find the truth.”
It’s now been more than two decades since Clonaid’s bombastic announcement, and since then neither genetic evidence nor cloned baby has ever been presented – although a website offering clone babies for six-figure sums was launched without delay.
The whole thing was, Guillen believed, “an elaborate hoax.” In that, he is apparently joined even by some Raëlists. “Internal Raëlian opinions range from agreeing it was a hoax to claiming there are clandestine cloned babies who will step forth some day,” Palmer and Sentes wrote.
“Another theory is that the purpose of the ‘Baby Eve announcement’ was to ‘raise the public's awareness so they will be ready for human cloning when it happens in the future.’”
But if that’s the case, the stunt might have been misjudged. In the wake of their announcement, anti-human cloning advocates were spurred into action:
the prospect of Baby Eve “gave [cloning] more of a sense of a clear and present danger,” Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, who in 2003 introduced a bill to Congress aiming to outlaw all human cloning, told Time that year.
For proponents of human cloning, therefore – those who believed in the technique’s potential for medical innovation and therapeutic breakthroughs, rather than eternal life through carbon copying and accelerated growth – the supposed birth of Baby Eve was not good news.
It was, Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, told Time, simply a “preposterous announcement by kooks” – and one that he “knew […] would have a very damaging impact on the cloning debate.”
It “would just plain scare people,” he said. “The Raelians are not the picture you want in people's minds when they write their Congressman about cloning.”
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The Derp with Kurp and Jon Stewart
Feb 12, 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ME6-ip_kk
https://x.com/kurtmetzger
https://x.com/JonStewartIL
Brainstorming on the what-ifs of this goes in some really crazy directions.
Manufactured humans?
Full customization?
Weird Science anyone?
If you needed x amount of people for whatever project or ordeal, whatever that might be, you can just craft them.
Obama Backtracks On Alien' Claims: 'No Evidence Of Human Contact With Extraterrestrials'Hours after his clip went viral, Obama took to Instagram to clarify that it did not capture his actual assessment on whether aliens exist.
Feb 16, 2026 22:26 pm IST
After his remarks about extraterrestrial life went viral, former United States President Barack Obama has backtracked on his comments, clarifying that there has been no evidence of contact between aliens and humans.
What happened?
Obama said, “They are real, but I haven't seen them,” while he was on a podcast with left-leaning political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen.
The podcast was released on Saturday, and Obama, in a rapid-fire question-and-answer segment, was asked whether he believes extraterrestrials are real.
Obama told Cohen that the aliens were not being kept at Area 51. “There is no underground facility unless there's this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the President of the United States.”
The clip went viral, and global media outlets picked up his comments, an apparent admission regarding the existence of aliens.
The claims added further fuel to a long-standing conspiracy theory that aliens were being held at a highly classified Air Force site in Nevada, popularly known as Area 51.
Obama walked back
Hours after the podcast was released, the 44th President of the United States took to Instagram to clarify that the viral clip did not capture his actual assessment of whether aliens exist, due to the speed of the questions posed to him.
“Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there's life out there,” he wrote in the Instagram post, “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we've been visited by aliens are low.
And I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Belief not new
Given the long-standing conspiracy theory, there was an attempt to storm Area-51 in 2019, with 1.5 million people signing up to ambush the facility.
However, only about 150 social media influencers reached the site, and the event ended in a few arrests and a music festival.
https://www.ndtvprofit.com/world/obama-backtracks-on-alien-claims-no-evidence-of-human-contact-with-extraterrestrials-11011870
https://www.instagram.com/barackobama/
https://thedebrief.org/theyre-real-but-i-havent-seen-them-former-president-obama-issues-statement-after-alien-remarks-go-viral/
https://www.ufonews.co/post/obama-said-aliens-are-real-then-walked-it-back-24-hours-later
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/obama-ufo-clarification-no-alien-evidence-1779429
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/obama-alien-remarks-whistleblower-claims-1779287
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkOM3rkWTJA (Red Panda Koala: President Obama says aliens are real collage)