BJP to launch ‘Parivartan Yatra’ in West Bengal ahead assembly polls
Ahead of the upcoming assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is preparing to build momentum against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal through a statewide outreach campaign titled “Parivartan Yatras”.
University of Texas regents approve limits on teaching “unnecessarily controversial subjects”
Opponents warned the policy’s vagueness could push professors to self-censor and leave students less prepared for the workplace.
Virginia Republicans charge ‘power grab’ as Democrat who backed redistricting runs for Congress
Virginia Republicans are taking aim at a Democratic state lawmaker who played a key role in pushing through congressional redistricting in the state and is now running for newly drawn U.S. House seat. After Virginia Delegate Dan Helmer launched a congressional campaign, some Republican leaders took aim at him for what they call a “power grab.” “I think it does look bad,” House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore told Fox News Digital, as he pointed to Helmer’s plan to run for Congress. “The whole process looks terrible, because all it is a power grab. We feel the optics are bad.” And the Virginia GOP, in a social media post, argued, “Democrats are so corrupt that they’re anointing nominees from the very people who drew the maps.” THE REDISTRICTING BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE RUNS THROUGH THIS STATE A 44-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Helmer on Wednesday launched a campaign for the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s newly drawn 7th Congressional District — one of four new left-leaning seats that would favor the Democrats if voters pass an April referendum to approve a constitutional amendment greenlighting mid-decade redistricting. VIRGINIA DEMOCRAT GIVES PROFANITY-LACED RESPONSE TO CRUZ’S CRITICISM OF THE STATE’S REDISTRICTING PUSH Helmer, who has served in Virginia’s House of Delegates since 2020 and is the House Democratic Caucus campaign chair, was one of the architects behind the push last autumn in the state legislature to draw the new map. Virginia is the latest battleground in the ongoing crucial battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats to alter congressional maps ahead of November’s elections. Republicans are defending their razor-thin House majority in the midterms, and Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win back control of the chamber. That means the redistricting efforts in Virginia and other states may very well decide which party controls the House next year. Virginia Republicans had challenged the validity of the upcoming referendum, arguing that Democrats had erred procedurally when the legislature approved amendments to the state Constitution. And last month, a lower court ruled in the GOP’s favor. But a ruling late last week by the state Supreme Court OK’d the holding of the ballot measure, which asks voters to give the legislature, rather than Virginia’s current non-partisan commission, redistricting power through the 2030 election. Early voting on the referendum is scheduled to start on March 6. But last week’s ruling on the referendum doesn’t mean the legal challenges are over. Democrats are still defending their ability to redraw the maps, and the state Supreme Court may schedule arguments in that case. And separately, this week, the Republican National Committee led a new lawsuit to try and block the April referendum. Helmer, in a campaign launch video, touted his “successful efforts to take on and win against Donald Trump.” And he dismisses criticism from Republicans that his congressional bid is bad optics, noting that after redistricting passed through the legislature, he then recused himself from the process of redrawing the maps. But the Virginia GOP, pointing to Helmer’s two previous unsuccessful bids for Congress, argued the state lawmaker “is a career loser who had to rig the game to have any hope of winning a congressional seat after he lost TWO primaries in 2018 and 2024.” And Virginia Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle told Fox News Digital that the optics of “trying to gerrymander Virginia” are “not good.”
Trump says US contributing $10B to Board of Peace, Iran must reach nuclear deal or ‘bad things happen’
The U.S. is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to the Board of Peace. President Donald Trump announced during the inaugural meeting of the board, that the U.S. was committing to contribute $10 billion to the board. “The Board of Peace is showing how a better future can be built, starting right here in this room,” Trump said on Thursday. “I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace… and we’ve had great support for that number.” The president said that the contribution “sounds like a lot, but it’s a very small number” when compared to the cost of war. Trump estimated that the $10 billion commitment was equivalent to the cost of two weeks of fighting. “Together, we can achieve the dream of bringing lasting harmony to a region tortured by centuries of war, suffering and carnage,” Trump added, saying that he hoped it could serve as inspiration for other nations entangled in conflicts that seem unending. IRAN’S PRESIDENT STRIKES SOFTER TONE ON NUCLEAR TALKS AFTER TRUMP’S WARNING THAT ‘BAD THINGS WOULD HAPPEN’ The Board of Peace was set up as part of the Trump administration’s plans to end the Israel-Hamas war and to rebuild Gaza. Several countries have committed to joining the board, including Argentina, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Egypt, El Salvador, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Morocco, Mongolia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. While touting the significance of the board, Trump also encouraged more nations to join not just the initiative, but in a greater effort towards peace, singling out Iran in particular. “And now is the time for Iran to join us on a path that will complete what we’re doing. And if they join us, that’ll be great. If they don’t join us, that’ll be great too, but it will be a very different path,” Trump said. “They cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region, and they must make a deal.” TRUMP MEETS NETANYAHU, SAYS HE WANTS IRAN DEAL BUT REMINDS TEHRAN OF ‘MIDNIGHT HAMMER’ OPERATION The president warned that “bad things” would happen if Iran did not make a deal. “Iran is a hot spot right now. And they’re meeting and they have a good relationship with the representatives of Iran,” Trump said. “And, you know, good talks are being had. It’s proven to be over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with them. And we have to make a meaningful deal. Otherwise, bad things happen. But we have to make a meaningful deal.” Representatives of the U.S. and Iran recently participated in indirect nuclear talks in Oman, with both sides meeting with Omani foreign minister Badr al-Busaidi. Following the indirect talks, which he said were “very good,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Iran wanted to make “a deal very badly.” “They know the consequences if they don’t make a deal. The consequences are very steep,” Trump told reporters earlier this month. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi also expressed optimism after the indirect talks, which he said were “a good start.” “After a long period without dialogue, our viewpoints were conveyed, and our concerns were expressed. Our interests, the rights of the Iranian people, and all matters that needed to be stated were presented in a very positive atmosphere, and the other side’s views were also heard,” Araghchi said at the time. “It was a good start, but its continuation depends on consultations in our respective capitals and deciding on how to proceed,” he added. A top Iranian official was spotted in Oman just days after the indirect talks, though it was not immediately clear if he was there to discuss next steps in the negotiations. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump White House ballroom proposal gets approval by Commission of Fine Arts
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has officially fast-tracked the estimated $400 million proposal to build President Donald Trump‘s new White House East Wing ballroom Thursday. While Thursday’s session was originally intended only for design discussion, Chairman Rodney Mims Cook Jr. moved for an immediate final approval. “Our sitting president has actually designed a very beautiful structure,” Cook said before the vote. “The United States just should not be entertaining the world in tents.” Trump celebrated the vote in a Truth Social post later in the day. TRUMP UNVEILS NEW RENDERING OF SPRAWLING WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM PROJECT “The Commission of Fine Arts just approved, unanimously, 6 to 0, with one recusal because he had a conflict in that he worked professionally on the job, the White House Ballroom,” Trump said. “Great accolades were paid to the building’s beauty and scale. Thank you to the members of the Commission!” The project involves building the ballroom on the site where the East Wing once stood, following its October demolition. Six of the seven commissioners voted in favor. Commissioner James McCrery abstained, having served as the project’s architect. “This is an important thing to the president. It’s an important thing to the nation,” Fine Arts chairman Rodney Mims Cook Jr. said in the panel’s first public hearing on Trump’s proposal earlier this month. Administrations long before Trump’s complained about having to host State Dinners and major events in temporary structures. The old East Wing dining room had just a 200-seat capacity, according to the White House, making this expansion more than triple the seats and nearly double the square footage of the main White House structure. TRUMP SAYS IT ‘IS TOO LATE’ TO STOP THE WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM CONSTRUCTION AMID LAWSUIT The estimated $400 million project has faced criticism from Democrats, but Trump has vowed the funding to be private and the benefits to be immense. The National Trust for Historic Preservation had filed a federal lawsuit to halt construction. “We’re donating a $400 million ballroom, and we got sued not to build it – for 150 years they’ve wanted a ballroom,” Trump said in December. “And we’re giving them, myself and donors are giving them free of charge for nothing. We’re donating a building that’s approximately $400 million. “I think I’ll do it for less, but it’s 400. I should do it for less. I will do it for less, but just in case they say 400; otherwise, if I go $3 over, the press will say it costs more.” Despite Thursday’s approval, the project faces further review March 5 by the National Capital Planning Commission, led by a top White House aide. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Critics warned Trump’s deportations would spark bloodshed — progressive group reports police killings fell
One year after critics warned President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push would spark bloodshed in America’s largest sanctuary cities, new data from a leading progressive police-reform group shows police-involved killings actually declined — the first drop in five years. Lawmakers and activists from Los Angeles to New York predicted that Trump’s surge into largely sanctuary-city communities would lead to more violence against innocent residents, which recently reached a fever pitch with the shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. However, data from progressive advocacy project Mapping Police Violence, a subsidiary of the Harlem-based Campaign Zero police reform group, found that police-involved killings actually went down in that timespan. In its police violence report for 2025, the 1,314 police-involved killings marked a decline for the first time in five years. NOEM DIGS AT AGITATORS, SANCTUARY POLITICIANS IN TOUTING ICE MISSION CONTINUES 1 YEAR INTO TRUMP’S SECOND TERM In 2024, that figure was 1,382, reportedly a record high, and in 2023, 1,362 people died at the hands of police, whether justified or otherwise. “If they are so violent, why did police kill 68 fewer people in 2025 than 2024? Certainly, that’s not what I expected to happen,” wrote columnist David Mastio in the Kansas City Star. “These facts complicate the political narrative that Trump has unleashed ‘violent and sometimes deadly tactics … by federal immigration officers in communities across the country’.” Mastio also pointed out that recent complaints from the left about an uptick in police-involved violence since George Floyd’s death in the Twin Cities left out the detail that any increase would have occurred under a Democratic administration in Washington. During the immigration enforcement surge in Los Angeles, Sen. Alex Padilla told PBS that the situation is a “crisis of Trump’s own making” and voiced concern over the repercussions of any violence. Padilla, D-Calif., famously appeared to try to accost Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when he barged into a press conference during the surge — a claim the senator denied after he was briefly detained by security. FEDERAL IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS PRIVATELY FUME OVER DHS CLAIMS AFTER DEADLY MINNESOTA SHOOTING Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement during the height of the Minneapolis surge that people were being “racially profiled, harassed, terrorized, and assaulted. Schools have gone into lockdown.” “Minneapolis didn’t ask for this operation, but we’re paying the price,” claimed Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her expressed concerns that violence indeed would increase against innocent people as DHS honed in on his metro region. “Our residents are scared, and as local officials, we have a responsibility to act. Today we’re standing side by side with Minneapolis and the attorney general to fight back,” Her said. In his column, Mastio noted that the latest figures come from an “unimpeachable ‘defund-the-police’ source” that would not “gift” credible data to its ideological opponents. Meanwhile, DHS has routinely highlighted data showing that it is violence against law enforcement that is up. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently told Fox News Digital of a four-figure percentage increase in threats against ICE and federal immigration officers. “Our ICE law enforcement officers are now facing an 8,000% increase in death threats against them and a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them while they risk their lives every single day to remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from American neighborhoods,” McLaughlin said. “Make no mistake, threatening rhetoric and this unprecedented violence against our law enforcement is incited by sanctuary politicians through their repeated vilification and demonization of law enforcement.”
Trump praises ‘magnificent’ B-2 bombers that struck Iran in 2025
NewsFeed Speaking at the inaugural “Board of Peace” meeting, Donald Trump praised the “magnificent” B-2 bombers that “totally decimated the nuclear potential” of Iran last summer, saying they helped bring peace to the Middle East for the first time in 3,000 years. Published On 19 Feb 202619 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Trump suggests Iran has 10 days to reach agreement with US
US president says at inaugural Board of Peace summit that Washington and Tehran should make a ‘meaningful deal’. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 2 mins info Donald Trump has renewed his threats against Iran, suggesting that Tehran has about 10 days to reach a deal with Washington or face further military strikes. Speaking at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting in Washington, DC, on Thursday, the United States president reiterated his argument that the joint Israeli-US strikes against Iran in June of last year paved the way to the “ceasefire” in Gaza. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Trump argued that without the US attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the “threat” of Iran would have prevented countries in the region from agreeing to “peace in the Middle East”. “So now we may have to take it a step further, or we may not,” Trump said. “Maybe we’re going to make a deal. You’re going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.” Trump’s comments come days after the US and Iran held a second round of indirect talks. On Wednesday, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said the two sides made “good progress in the negotiations” in Geneva and “were able to reach broad agreement on a set of guiding principles” for an agreement. But the US has continued to amass military assets in the Gulf region, including two aircraft carriers and dozens of fighter jets. Iran, which denies seeking a nuclear weapon, has said it would agree to curbing its uranium enrichment and placing it under rigorous international inspection. But the Trump administration has said that it would oppose any Iranian enrichment. Washington has also sought to place limits on Tehran’s missile arsenal, but Iranian officials have ruled out any concessions over the issue, which they say is a non-negotiable defence principle. Advertisement On Thursday, Trump said his diplomatic aides Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have had “very good meetings” with Iran’s representatives. “We have to make a meaningful deal. Otherwise, bad things happen,” he said. Last week, Trump said the US and Iran should come to an agreement “over the next month”, warning Tehran with “very traumatic” consequences. But Iranian officials have expressed defiance against the US president’s threats. “The Americans constantly say that they’ve sent a warship toward Iran. Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei wrote on X on Thursday. “However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea.” Tensions between the Washington and Tehran have been escalating since late 2025, when Trump – while hosting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December – vowed to strike Iran again if attempts to rebuild its nuclear or missile programmes. Days later, antigovernment protests broke out in Iran. Trump encouraged the demonstrators to take over state institutions, promising them that “help is on the way”. Trump appeared to step back from the brink of attacking Iran last month, saying that the country agreed to halt the execution of dissidents under US pressure. The two countries later renewed negotiations with the first round of talks since the June war taking place in Oman on February 6. But threats and hostile rhetoric between Washington and Tehran have persisted despite the ongoing diplomacy. In 2018, during his first term Trump nixed the multilateral nuclear deal that saw Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting international sanctions against its economy. Adblock test (Why?)
Can Europe reduce its dependence on the US and at what cost?
Trump’s tariffs, Greenland and defence spending are testing US-Europe alliance. United States President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on European goods, made a bid to take over Greenland and demanded Europe foot the bill for its own defence. European leaders now fear the era of US-led security protections may be over. They’re accelerating efforts to reduce their military and economic dependence on the US. At the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted his nation is not walking away from its allies. But few in the room were convinced. Instead, leader after leader took to the podium with the same message: Europe must stand on its own. Published On 19 Feb 202619 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Pune Stampede: 20 injured as devotees slip at stares in Shivneri Fort
According to police reports, the stampede took place between 3:00 and 3:30 A.M. on Thursday, as a group carrying Shiv Jyot and saffron flags was making its way down from the fort.