Portal:Current events/2026 February 13
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February 13, 2026 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Operation Southern Spear
- United States strikes on alleged drug traffickers during Operation Southern Spear
- The United States Armed Forces says it has conducted an airstrike on a boat suspected of transporting illegal narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, killing three people. (Reuters)
- United States strikes on alleged drug traffickers during Operation Southern Spear
- Russo-Ukrainian war
- Attacks in Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war
- Two electricians are killed and five other people are injured in a Ukrainian missile strike on energy infrastructure and a residential area in Belgorod, Russia. (Reuters)
- Attacks in Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war
Business and economy
- Epstein files
- UAE-based DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem resigns and leaves the company with immediate effect amid controversy over his connection to convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whom he exchanged hundreds of emails with over a decade. (BBC News)
Disasters and accidents
- Seven people are killed in a multiple-vehicle collision in Hoskote, Karnataka, India. (The Hindu)
- Six people are trampled to death by wild elephants near Hazaribagh district, Jharkand, India. (The Hindu)
- Five people are killed after a police vehicle, carrying provincial police and government personnel that was securing the organizers of a national pageant, falls off a cliff in Don Victoriano, Misamis Occidental, Philippines. (GMA News)
- Four people are killed after an Epic E1000 aircraft crashes at Steamboat Springs Airport in Colorado, United States. (Aviation Safety Network)
- Three people are killed and 22 others are injured in a fire at a residential building in Budakeszi, Hungary. (AP)
- Three people, including two British tourists, are killed in an avalanche near Val-d'Isère, France. (BBC News)
Law and crime
- 2022 Raleigh shootings
- Eighteen-year-old Austin Thompson, the perpetrator of a mass shooting that killed five people in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., in 2022, is sentenced to life imprisonment without parole after pleading guilty to five counts of first-degree murder last month. (WRAL-TV)
- 2025–2026 Iranian protests
- Iran releases on bail three reformist political figures, including former legislator Ebrahim Asgharzadeh and Union of Islamic Iran People Party secretary-general Azar Mansouri, who were arrested during a recent crackdown on dissent. (Reuters)
- United Kingdom and the Gaza war
- The High Court of Justice rules that the British government's decision to designate the pro-Palestinian activist group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization is unlawful and disproportionate, while allowing the ban to remain in force pending appeal. The judgment prompts police to suspend further arrests linked to support for the group. (CNN)
Politics and elections
- 2026 Bangladeshi general election
- The Bangladesh Nationalist Party wins a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections, winning 209 seats in the first election since the July Revolution that toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. (Reuters)
- 2026 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill
- Angus Taylor replaces Sussan Ley as Leader of the Opposition following a leadership spill in the Liberal Party. Ley subsequently resigns from politics, triggering a by-election in her Farrer seat. (The Guardian)
- 2027 Salvadoran legislative election
- Milagro Navas, the mayor of La Libertad Este and El Salvador's only opposition-aligned mayor, announces that she will run for re-election in 2027. (El Mundo)
Science and technology
- OpenAI removes GPT-4o from ChatGPT. This causes new backlash from users that had grown attached to its personality and felt its creative writing abilities and understanding of nuance were irreplaceable. (Business Insider) (Gizmodo)