🇬🇧⚡️- Rupert Lowe has launched his new Restore Britain political party to compete with Reform UK and the Tories.

Previously polling showed a hypothetical Lowe led party would garner 10% of the national vote.

🇨🇺⚡- Fire at Cuba's largest refinery, the Nico Lopez, in Havana.

🇸🇦🇦🇪⚡- "The Saudi and Emirati fight has escalated into a social media battle in which Saudis have attacked the UAE as 'Israel’s Trojan horse' and denounced the Abraham Accords, joined by the UAE in 2020, as 'a political military alliance dressed in the garb of religion.'

Emirati officials believe the Saudis are waging a deliberate incitement campaign centered on the UAE’s relationship with Israel. After Saudi Arabia bombed the UAE’s partner forces in Yemen on Dec. 30, Saudi posts criticizing Israel spiked dramatically, with 77 percent of the comments attacking the UAE as 'Israel’s proxy executing Zionist plans to divide Arab states.'

The Trump administration is said to have offered to mediate, but both sides have balked. Because of the intense personal feelings, one US official said, 'This is not something you mediate,'" - The Washington Post.

🇺🇸🇻🇪⚡️- “Anthropic’s artificial-intelligence tool Claude was used in the U.S. military’s operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro,” - WSJ.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- “The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack.” - Reuters.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- The next round of scheduled talks between the United States and Iran is set for Tuesday, February 17 and will be held in Geneva, Switzerland.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- “Experts say the risks to U.S. forces would be far greater in such an operation against Iran, which boasts a formidable arsenal of missiles. Retaliatory Iranian strikes also increase the risk of a regional conflict.

The same official said the United States fully expects Iran to retaliate, leading to back-and-forth strikes and reprisals over a period of time.” - Reuters.

🇺🇸🌎⚡️- “On Feb. 13, at the direction of SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Three narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed.”

🇸🇦⚡- "The global system is no longer functioning as it should," - Saudi's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

🇪🇹⚡- Following the mobilization of the TPLF-D led Tigray separatists, Ethiopia's military has begun reinforcing positions in the Tigray region.

🇪🇹🇪🇷⚡- Ethiopian media reports a build-up of Eritrean troops along the Eritrea-Ethiopia border.

🇪🇹🇸🇩⚡- Drone strikes on Qisan and Bakuri, Sennar direction, eastern Sudan. Drones were launched from Asosa Airport, southern Ethiopia.

Conflicting reports, with claims that the drones belonged to the Rapid Support Forces, striking Sudanese military positions. Others believe the drones belonged to the Ethiopian Air Force, considering their launches from Asosa, and struck TPLF-70 positions (a Sudan-backed Tigray separatist group).

🇪🇹⚡- Fano separatists have withdrawn from the regional capital of Debre Tobor, Amhara region, amid large-scale drone attacks by the Ethiopian military.

🇪🇹⚡- After withdrawing from areas of Amhara, Ethiopia's military, ENDF, has begun withdrawing from Oromia too, leaving the region to the Addis Ababa-backed Oromia Special Forces.

ENDF continues redeploying north, beyond Mekele and towards the Adigrat area of the Tigray region – right on the border of Eritrea.

The 39th African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, ends tomorrow.

🇷🇺⚡️- BREAKING : A conjoined statement by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands claims that the Russian State used a deadly toxin to kill Alexei Navalny in February 2024.