10 Things Global News - 18th February 2026
Succinct, unbiased news from around the world
Trilateral Talks Stall Over Territory Sequencing
Iran And US Reach Guiding Principles
US Strikes Kill 11 On Alleged Drug Boats
UN Experts Cite Crimes Against Humanity In Epstein Case
US Details Alleged 2020 China Nuclear Test
Russia’s Food Inflation Hits Daily Staples
Peru Ousts President After China Scandal
France Releases Suspected Shadow Fleet Tanker
Spain Seeks Probe Into Social Media Giants
Bayer Proposes $7.25bn Roundup Settlement
Ukrainian, Russian and American officials reconvened in Geneva for a second day of trilateral talks aimed at securing a peace to the nearly four-year-old war. After the first day, negotiators offered no public sign of progress, with discussions expected to focus on the fate of Ukrainian-held territory in the east that Moscow wants under its control as the price for ending the war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signalled openness to compromise, suggesting a demilitarised zone in Donetsk and calling for positions to be frozen at the current front lines. However, he has insisted that any territorial compromise would follow firm Western security guarantees. He also said U.S. President Donald Trump was exerting undue pressure by publicly calling on Ukraine to make concessions first.
Analysts say the sequencing matters, warning that resolving territory before security could determine which side gains the upper hand.
Sources: New York Times, Reuters
Iran said agreement was reached on general guiding principles after a more constructive round of indirect talks with the United States in Geneva over its disputed nuclear program. The three-and-a-half-hour meeting, held through Omani intermediaries, was designed to discuss terms for Tehran constraining its nuclear programme under the supervision of the UN nuclear weapons inspectorate.
The talks unfolded as Iran temporarily closed parts of the Strait of Hormuz for live fire military drills, firing missiles toward the waterway and announcing it would be shut for several hours for safety and maritime concerns. The key international route carries 20% of the world’s oil.
Iran’s foreign minister said good progress had been made compared with the first meeting, but added that positions would take time to get closer. Discussions are expected to continue in about a fortnight to address remaining gaps.
Sources: The Guardian, The Independent
The US military struck three alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean late on Monday night, killing all 11 people on board, according to US Southern Command. Officials said four men died on the first vessel in the eastern Pacific, four on a second vessel also in the eastern Pacific and three on a third vessel in the Caribbean. No US military personnel were injured.
The administration has carried out more than 40 lethal strikes on alleged drug boats since September, bringing the death toll to more than 130 people. The White House has said the killings are lawful and that crews of drug-running boats are combatants in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels.
Legal experts and some members of Congress have questioned whether the strikes violate international law by targeting civilians without due process.
Sources: CNN, BBC
Independent experts appointed by the United Nations human rights council said millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a global criminal enterprise whose acts may meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity. They described the scale, systematic character and transnational reach of atrocities against women and girls as so grave that some may reasonably meet that threshold.
The disclosure follows the Epstein Files Transparency Act, under which the United States Department of Justice released more than three million pages, 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. The experts said the alleged conduct could amount to sexual slavery, torture, enforced disappearance and other grave crimes under international law.
They called for independent, thorough and impartial investigation, warning that resignations alone are not an adequate substitute for criminal accountability and that no one is too wealthy or too powerful to be above the law.
Sources: The Guardian, UN
A senior US official revealed new details of what he said was an underground nuclear test blast that China allegedly conducted on June 22, 2020, at the Lop Nor test grounds in western China. He said a remote seismic station in Kazakhstan measured an explosion of magnitude 2.75 located about 450 miles away, describing it as a singular explosion consistent with a nuclear explosive test and not consistent with mining blasts or an earthquake.
The allegation comes after the New START treaty expired on February 5, ending the last binding US-Russia strategic nuclear arms limitation agreement. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization said there was insufficient data to confirm the allegation with confidence and that two very small seismic events were far below the level at which it can assess the cause with certainty.
China has denied conducting a nuclear test and called the allegation entirely unfounded.
Sources: South China Morning Post, Reuters
The war in Ukraine and associated sanctions are having a marked impact on food prices for consumers in Russia - Official statistics show cucumbers have doubled in price since December to an average of just over 300 roubles per kilogram, with social media images showing them sometimes being sold for more than twice or triple that. Under pressure from politicians, the anti-monopoly regulator has written to producers and retailers asking them to explain the price hikes.
The squeeze is broader. Supermarket prices jumped by a sharp 2.3% in less than a month at the start of 2026, and overall prices were up 2.1% since the start of the year, in part as a result of an increase in value-added tax. VAT rose from 20% to 22% since 1 January.
One Moscow consumer said his monthly food budget rose by more than 22% in a month, from 35,000 roubles to 43,000, as prices for essentials including eggs and chicken fillets increased.
Sources: Straits Times, BBC
Peru’s Congress on Tuesday ousted President José Jerí just four months into his term over undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman, extending a cycle of political upheaval that has gripped the country for much of the past decade. Lawmakers voted 75 in favour, 24 against and three abstained.
Jerí is the third consecutive president to be removed from office and the fourth to be ousted since 2018. Legislators will now elect a new head of Congress who will assume the presidency and serve the remainder of the term through July, ahead of scheduled elections in April.
Despite the rapid turnover, markets showed little reaction. Stocks and sovereign bonds did not respond to the removal, and inflation stands at 1.7%, among the lowest rates in emerging markets. Peru’s mining-heavy economy grew 3.4% in 2025.
Sources: Bloomberg, NBC News
France has released an oil tanker suspected of being part of Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet” after its owner paid a penalty of several million euros. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the vessel, Grinch, was leaving French waters after three weeks of immobilisation.
The tanker was intercepted by French forces in the Mediterranean last month and diverted to Fos-sur-Mer as part of an investigation into a charge of failure to fly a valid flag. As part of a guilty plea procedure, the company that owns the vessel was sentenced by the Marseille judicial court to a financial penalty of confiscation.
Moscow’s shadow fleet is believed to be used to evade sanctions on Russian oil exports. France and other countries have vowed to crack down on such vessels, arguing that circumventing European sanctions comes at a price.
Sources: BBC, Associated Press
Spain’s government has asked prosecutors to investigate X, Meta and TikTok over their alleged role in producing and spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse material. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the platforms may be committing crimes through the creation and dissemination of child pornography by means of their AI.
The move intensifies a growing dispute between European governments and American tech companies over regulating online content. Sánchez accused the platforms of undermining the mental health, dignity and rights of children and said the impunity of the giants must end.
Spain has also announced plans to ban social media for children under 16, though the proposal still requires parliamentary approval. Other European regulators have launched probes into X over AI-generated sexualised content, and the European Union fined X roughly 120 million euros last month under its Digital Services Act.
Sources: New York Times, Time
Bayer and attorneys for cancer patients announced a proposed $7.25 billion settlement to resolve thousands of U.S. lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn that Roundup could cause cancer.
About 200,000 Roundup-related claims have been made against Bayer, according to settlement documents. The deal would make annual payments into a special fund for up to 21 years, with payouts varying by how Roundup was used, age at diagnosis and the severity of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It still needs approval from the St. Louis Circuit Court in Missouri, and Bayer says it can cancel the deal if too many plaintiffs opt out.
The proposal comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to hear arguments in April on Bayer’s claim that federal approval of Roundup without a cancer warning should invalidate state failure-to-warn suits, a case not affected by the settlement. Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018 and disputes that glyphosate causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Sources: Associated Press, DW
On this day ….
On this day in 1954, the first large-scale field trials of the Salk polio vaccine began in the United States, marking a pivotal step in the fight against a disease that had paralysed thousands of children each year.
The trials involved more than a million participants and represented one of the largest public health experiments in history. Within a year, the vaccine’s success was confirmed, paving the way for widespread immunisation campaigns.
Scientific innovation, organised at scale, had altered the trajectory of a global epidemic.
This week is full of news, specially with the announcement of the tariffs being blocked by the US Supreme Court just now