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SpaceX launches space station crew on 8-month mission

2026-02-13T05:19:00-0500 / CBS News

With NASA’s delayed Artemis II moon mission on hold, SpaceX pressed ahead with a Friday the 13th launch of four fresh crew members to the International Space Station in a mission to replace four fliers who came home early last month because of a medical issue one was having.

Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, pilot Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket, blasted off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:15 a.m. EST.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Dragon spacecraft on top launches from Space Launch Complex 40 for the Crew-12 mission at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Feb. 13, 2026. Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images

Lighting up the pre-dawn sky, the Falcon 9 streaked away on a northeasterly trajectory aligned with the space station’s orbit, on course for docking Saturday around 3:15 p.m. to boost the lab’s crew from three back to a full complement of seven.

“It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,” SpaceX Launch Control radioed once the crew reached orbit.

“That was quite a ride,” Meir responded.

Crew 12 originally expected to take off after four other astronauts ventured to the moon and back in NASA’s Artemis II mission. But the moonshot was delayed to early March because of hydrogen fuel leaks in that crew’s huge Space Launch System rocket. That, in turn, cleared the way for NASA to move up Crew 12’s launch to Feb. 11.

But high winds off shore in the Atlantic Ocean, where the Crew 12 fliers would have to splash down in an ascent emergency, then prompted NASA to stand down until Friday, when calmer seas and lower winds were predicted.

While Crew 12 made final preparations to fly, engineers ran another test at nearby pad 39B Thursday to check the effectiveness of new seals in an umbilical connecting fuel lines to the SLS moon rocket. The seals are intended to prevent the sort of hydrogen leakage seen during a “wet-dress rehearsal” countdown Feb. 2.

NASA did not publicize the test, but the agency said later it did not go as planned because of what sources described as a frozen filter in ground equipment.

The trouble will have to be addressed before engineers can attempt a re-test of the new seals, followed by another full-up dress rehearsal fueling test to clear the way for launch as early as March 3.

Replacement crew sets sights on space station, boosting staff back to seven

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In the near-term, Crew 12 has its sights set on joining space station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, fellow cosmonaut Sergey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who were launched to the lab last November aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry ship. They will help the new crew get up to speed on the intricacies of station operations.

Meir and Fedyaev won’t need much help because both are station veterans. Their crewmates are making their first trip to orbit, but Hathaway and Adenot bring a wide variety of operational experience to the table.

Crew 12 during training at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, CA, rocket manufacturing facility. Left to right: Andrey Fedyaev, Jack Hathaway, Jessica Meir and Sophie Adenot. SpaceX

Hathaway is a veteran F/A-18E fighter pilot with more than 500 aircraft carrier landings to his credit while Adenot is a French air force helicopter test pilot with more than 3,000 hours flying time under her belt. She’s also an experienced sky and SCUBA diver and a certified yoga instructor.

Meir holds a Ph.D. in marine biology and participated in three all-female spacewalks during her first station stay in 2019-20. She and Fedyaev are looking forward to helping their rookie crewmates quickly get up to speed when they get to the ISS.

“Both of us are really excited to bring our past experiences and expertise to the very first flight for (Hathaway and Adenot),” she said. “We love this kind of balance that we have, of two veterans and two rookies, to hit the ground running when we get aboard the International Space Station.”

Fedyaev, who flew to the space station aboard a Crew Dragon in 2023, was added to Crew 12 in December after veteran cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was removed. reportedly for violating security restrictions during training at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said only that Artemyev was reassigned to other work.

Fedyaev’s prior experience and training with SpaceX and NASA enabled him to join Crew 12 with little impact on launch preparations.

Early return of one station crew prompts accelerated launch of replacements

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Crew 12 is replacing Crew 11 commander Zena Cardman, co-pilot Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Crew 11 originally was expected to return to Earth around Feb. 20, after a “handover” with their Crew 12 replacements.

But NASA ordered Cardman and company back to Earth on Jan. 15 after one of the Crew 11 fliers experienced an undisclosed medical issue. Crew 11 came down safely and all four crew members appeared healthy and in good spirits at a post-flight news conference.

But their departure left the station with a single NASA astronaut aboard — Williams — to operate systems in the U.S. segment of the complex. It also brought NASA research to a virtual standstill.

“What it means is, really, there’s just fewer hands on board to do some of the work,” said space station Program Manager Dina Contella.

“On the U.S. operating segment, if we were to have a major failure, then we would like to have a second USOS crew member to be able to go out and perform a complex spacewalk.”

At present, she said, there are no major problems aboard the space station. Even so, NASA asked SpaceX to move the Crew 12 launch up by a few days to get the station crew back to full strength as soon as possible.

Before the Artemis II launch was delayed, NASA was planning a ship-to-ship call between the moon-bound astronauts and the space station crew. That should still be possible despite the moon mission delay.

Crew members face busy schedule in orbit

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Meir certainly hopes so, because her partner during those all-female spacewalks was Artemis II crew member Christina Koch. And her astronaut class included Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, and she said she’s close friends with commander Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

“I would be really excited to be able to talk to Christina, and also my classmate Victor Glover and kind of my astronaut uncles, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen,” she said before the moon mission slipped to March. “We’re all very excited to be all in space at the same time.”

Jessia Meir poses in the space station’s multi-window cupola during her first stay aboard the outpost in 2019-20. NASA

But mostly, Meir is looking forward to the science her crew will conduct during a roughly eight-month stay aboard the space station.

“We will do experiments ranging from bone and muscle health, (studying) our blood flow, what’s going on in all of these systems during the changes that we experience in microgravity,” she said.

“There’s an experiment that’s looking at the small muscles in our necks and how they can support us in different gravitational phases. There will be images of our brains taken pre- and post-flight to look at any changes to the brain that happened during microgravity and space missions.”

The astronauts will continue ongoing studies of how microgravity affects the vision of some long-duration fliers, apparently by changing the shape of the eye over time. Interestingly, those changes are not always for the worst.

Meir said she needed glasses before her first flight, but her vision improved to 20-15 over the course of her stay in space.

“Pretty interesting for me, it actually turned out to be quite advantageous,” she said. “But of course, we’re studying this really thoroughly, because we want to make sure that we don’t have any long-term damage to astronauts’ vision, or to the eyes themselves.

“The good thing is, we haven’t seen any deficits long-term that exist beyond the missions, but we need to collect more data.”

The crew will also test a new exercise machine developed by the European Space Agency that’s designed to help astronauts stay fit during future flights to the moon and Mars. And they will work with landing simulator software to learn more about how microgravity might affect astronauts setting down on the moon or Mars.

Jessica Meir encourages her three-year-old daughter to launch a “stomp rocket” on the beach at Cape Canaveral during a break in preparations for launch to the International Space Station. Jessica Meir

“We even have a new experiment called Relax Pro that Sophie and I will be participating in that’s looking at meditation and mindfulness and how that can benefit astronauts on space missions,” Meir said.

But it won’t be all work. Meir is bringing a piccolo with her and Fedyaev plans to play a harmonica he brought aboard on his first flight.

Along with the harmonica, “there were three guitars during our previous mission on board, Fedyaev said. “We used to sing together, and it was like karaoke.

“We sang different languages, or I would play the guitar, and everybody would sing the words from the song they looked up online. So we will probably meet and play our musical instruments and maybe actually give a concert!”

Adenot will be the second French woman to fly in space. Physician Claudie Haigneré, one of seven French astronauts chosen in 1985, spent 16 days aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1996. Adenot said Haigneré has acted as a sort of mentor for her and planned to attend the Crew 12 launch.

“I remember very well the first launch of Claudie Haigneré,” Adenot said. “I was 14 years old, and that day it kind of clicked in my mind. She was the first French woman astronaut flying to space and before, only men.

“And you know, when you’re a teenager, you’re just looking for inspiration, and if someone has done it already, then it clicks in your mind: say, if a woman has done it already, then why not me?”

Meir also dreamed of spaceflight when she was a child and said she can’t wait to get back aboard the space station.

“When I flew last time, I did not have a husband and a child, and now I have both,” she said. “At the end of my seven months, last time, I actually wanted to stay longer, I wasn’t ready to come home. And this time, perhaps will feel a little bit different since I’ll be leaving my three-year-old back here.

“But everything that we’re doing on board the space station is so exciting, it keeps us going, keeps us invigorated, and it’s easy to not miss things back at home.

“I hope that what we’re doing will be exciting enough and important enough, noteworthy enough, that one day when she’s old enough, she’ll appreciate that time away.”

Nobody asked: Trump’s DOJ steps up uninvited recommendations at Supreme Court

Published Feb 13, 2026, 4:00 AM ET / Source: CNN

By

[John Fritze]

4 hr ago

Supreme Court Federal agencies Donald Trump Religion

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The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

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President Donald Trump’s administration is stepping into high-profile appeals at the Supreme Court without invitation at an unprecedented pace, supporting conservative groups in cases dealing with guns, religion and climate change.

The court regularly invites the Justice Department to offer its view on whether to hear appeals, and recommendations from the solicitor general, the administration’s top appellate attorney, have long carried a special weight at the Supreme Court.

But Solicitor General D. John Sauer’s office is using the relationship more aggressively than in the past, urging the Supreme Court to take on culture war cases that align with the president’s agenda — even when the court has not asked for the Justice Department’s input. The administration has butt into at least five cases without invitation, most recently a potentially significant appeal involving religious preschools.

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“It’s using the solicitor general’s unique position as a way to push not just the policy and political agenda of the current president, but the broader ideological agenda of the Republican Party,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

The solicitor general’s office has largely avoided the political turmoil churning through the rest of the Justice Department during Trump’s second term. Like everyone else in the department, Sauer works at Trump’s pleasure — but his position, often referred to as the “10th justice” — has also long been viewed as having a responsibility to the Supreme Court, not just the administration.

And so far, Sauer has managed to successfully balance those sometimes-competing demands. The 6-3 conservative court repeatedly sided with Trump last year, backing the administration 80% of the time on its emergency docket. It is a record that Attorney General Pam Bondi was quick to tout ahead of a fiery confrontation with House Democrats earlier this week.

“We’ve obtained 24 favorable rulings at the US Supreme Court,” Bondi told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday before tacking on a promise. “Even more to come.”

But that dual responsibility can mean added scrutiny if it appears the solicitor general is veering from past practice into more political territory.

When an appeal lands at the Supreme Court, the parties spend weeks submitting written arguments trying to get the vote of the four justices needed to grant an appeal. While third-party groups often submit friend-of-the-court briefs attempting to influence that decision, it is especially notable when the solicitor general does so – in part because of how infrequently it happens.

The five uninvited briefs filed by the Trump administration represented more intervention than previous administrations exercised.

The Biden administration, for instance, did not file any similar briefs in merits cases over four years, though it did submit an unsolicited recommendation in an emergency appeal in 2021 in a death penalty case from Oklahoma. The Clinton administration filed five briefs over eight years in office, according to a review by SCOTUSblog. Only two were filed during Trump’s first, four-year term.

Sauer’s office did not respond to a series of questions from CNN about how the decision is made to intervene and the process that it uses.

[Related article President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 2. Carlos Barria/Reuters Where is the Supreme Court’s decision on Trump’s tariffs? 6 min read]

But a source familiar with the Justice Department’s approach noted that it appeared to be working: The court has so far agreed with recommendations from the solicitor general’s office in three out of five cases. (Two other appeals are pending.) That source stressed that the practice of filing uninvited briefs still remains exceedingly rare.

“Only infrequently does the solicitor general file unsolicited amicus briefs at the certiorari stage,” Patricia Millett, a former assistant to the solicitor general who is now a federal appeals court judge, wrote in an academic journal in 2009. “After all, if the court believes that the government’s views would be helpful to its decision, it will ask for them.”

The department’s credibility, Millett wrote then, “depends, in large part, on consistently applying extremely selective and exacting criteria before asking the court to exercise its jurisdiction.”

Backing religious preschools

In its most recent uninvited brief, the Justice Department in late January urged the Supreme Court to take up an appeal involving a Colorado law that requires preschools to enroll children regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and other factors.

The Archdiocese of Denver is challenging that law. The church, represented by the religious public interest firm Becket, wants to receive public funding for its Catholic preschools but decline to admit students from families who don’t “see eye to eye” on the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage and those who identify as transgender.

In the filing, Sauer warned that the lower court opinions supporting the Colorado law could “stymie religious exercise in major portions of the country.” The conservative Supreme Court has repeatedly sided with religious groups in recent years in similar cases, finding that such laws effectively discriminate against religion and violate the First Amendment.

To justify the administration’s intervention, Sauer told the court that the United States had, in part, a “substantial interest in the preservation of the free exercise of religion.”

For Becket, which has successfully argued many religious cases at the high court, the brief from the Trump administration was huge – an affirmation of its argument that the justices should grant their appeal.

“Looking back at some of the past cases they’ve filed in, I think the vast majority of them end up going to the court,” Nick Reaves, a senior counsel with Becket, said of the Justice Department’s decision to enter into an appeal, known as a petition for a writ certiorari in legal speak.

“The solicitor general knows what makes a good petition and knows when it’s important for the court to weigh in on an issue,” Reaves said.

The court will decide whether to hear the case later this year.

Sauer also submitted an uninvited brief in a significant Second Amendment case involving a Hawaii law that bars people from carrying guns onto private property without the explicit approval of the property owner. The Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to take up the case and rule against Hawaii, claiming that the state’s law “functionally eliminates” the general Second Amendment right to carry firearms in public.

After the Supreme Court agreed with that recommendation, Bondi touted the administration’s involvement in a social media post.

“As I said soon after taking office, the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” she wrote on X. “My Justice Department will continue to be the most pro-Second Amendment Justice Department in history.”

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in January and a majority of justices signaled they were prepared to strike down the law. A decision is expected by the end of June.

Benefits of being picky

Some of the cases the administration has entered on its own are far less controversial. One involved an early-stage prisoner lawsuit against federal prison officials that almost certainly would have drawn in the Justice Department if allowed to continue. Another involved an Alabama prisoner who has been sentenced to death, a case that could have direct implications for the federal government’s ability to execute prisoners on federal death row.

But other cases deal with issues of national significance.

In September, the administration weighed in on a major environmental appeal dealing with whether local governments may sue fossil fuel producers for damages from climate change. The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to take up that case and overturn a decision from Colorado’s highest court that allowed the litigation against Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil to move forward.

In its brief to the Supreme Court, DOJ warned that without intervention, “every locality in the country could sue essentially anyone in the world for contributing to global climate change.”

The Supreme Court could announce whether it will hear that appeal within weeks.

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John Elwood, a veteran appellate attorney, counted seven such briefs filed by the Trump administration, including two that came in emergency cases.

“In absolute terms, the numbers remain small,” Elwood wrote on SCOTUSblog this week. “But relative to historical practice, the increase is meaningful. A mechanism once used sparingly is now being deployed with some regularity.”

But William Jay, a veteran appellate attorney who served in the solicitor general’s office and clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, said that there may be a more practical reason why the Biden administration was less likely to file uninvited briefs than Trump: the Democratic administration probably reasoned it had to be more selective about the cases it urged the conservative court to hear.

Biden’s DOJ may have filed less “not because it was reluctant to file amicus briefs,” Jay said, “but because it didn’t want those cases decided by the current Supreme Court.”

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Industry leaders say the rare earth stockpile could become a Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the 21st century — and blunt both Beijing’s leverage and terror-linked supply chains abroad

By Charles Creitz
Fox News

Published February 13, 2026 6:00am EST

EXCLUSIVE: Industry experts warn the United States is “one crisis away” from losing access to the rare earth elements that power everything from fighter jets to electric vehicles — a vulnerability President Donald Trump’s new $12 billion “Project Vault” aims to address.

The initiative, backed by $1.67 billion in private seed money and a $10 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank, would create a federally supported stockpile of rare earth elements and other critical minerals. The U.S. currently imports much of those materials from China.

Executives from Graphite One, one of the country’s largest critical mineral developers, told Fox News Digital the effort could mark a turning point in the battle over China’s dominance of global supply chains.

“The Chinese are willing to weaponize access to … semiconductor materials like gallium and uranium,” Graphite One advisor Dan McGroarty said. “Then they turn off the tap and sort things out, give us a one-year reprieve, you know, it’s a leash, and they can yank that leash anytime they want.”

TRUMP SAYS ‘YOU’LL SEE’ WHEN ASKED HOW FAR HE’LL GO ON GREENLAND TAKEOVER

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CEO Anthony Huston compared the concept to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, established after the 1970s oil crisis to safeguard U.S. energy security, arguing that critical minerals now play a similarly vital role in powering modern defense systems, advanced electronics and electric vehicles.

“For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions… Project Vault [will] ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,” Trump said in his announcement last month.

Graphite One recently made news with its “truly generational” Graphite Creek site in Alaska, which is the U.S.’ largest asset of that particular critical mineral, in Huston’s words.

As of 2024, the U.S. was at least 93% import-dependent on rare earth elements and graphite, according to the International Energy Agency, and remains heavily reliant on foreign suppliers for dozens of other critical minerals.

TRUMP KNOWS GOOD REAL ESTATE — AND HE KNOWS GREENLAND’S VALUE TO NATIONAL SECURITY

“The United States really relies on China and Africa for graphite. China, as we understand, is our adversary,” Huston said.

A buried lede in the Project Vault news, he added, is a little-reported counter-terror aspect.

Huston said some African mineral deposits, including in parts of Mozambique, are located in areas where ISIS-linked groups have operated. By onshoring development of critical minerals, the U.S. will not only work to unseat Chinese dominance but also deal a blow to operations in areas run by people who want to kill us, he argued.

McGroarty added that Project Vault reminds him of the idea of “dual-use technologies” during the Cold War, where computers of the time had technology that could not be exported – but could be used for both manufacturing and nuclear weapons design, for instance.

“On another level, we’re going to have to balance it across 20, 30, 40 different metals, minerals, compounds, and composites, not just oil,” he said.

TRUMP CHALLENGES CARNEY AT DAVOS, ASSERTS CANADA SHOULD BE ‘GRATEFUL’ FOR GOLDEN DOME MISSILE DEFENSE

President Donald Trump, left, and President Xi Jinping, right.(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images)

McGroarty said the U.S. is “one crisis away” from having REEs “cut-off” by adversaries like China.

Huston also spoke of why Project Vault fits the 2020s more than any other time.

In the prior century, there were no cell phones, no EVs and graphite and the like were being used in analog tools like pencils and primitive computers.

The Graphite Creek site supplied materials for World War II-era steel production, a far cry from its potential role in today’s high-tech economy. Huston reiterated that the U.S. needs its own “strategic petroleum reserve” of critical minerals rather than relying on adversarial nations.

“As they say when you’re flying, put the oxygen mask on yourself first before turning to help those around,” he said.

TRUMP SAYS GREENLAND’S DEFENSE IS ‘TWO DOG SLEDS’ AS HE PUSHES FOR US ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY

Asked about any nexus between Project Vault, the Senate’s renewed focus on Arctic national security amid foreign incursions and Trump’s overtures toward Greenland, McGroarty suggested there may be one — but it’s not yet clear.

He quipped that sometimes it’s better to look at the globe from the top rather than the side, which places North America in the center of everything.

“See what nations have a presence in the Arctic, you’ll see the importance of Greenland; you’ll also see that the U.S. is an Arctic nation only because of Alaska,” he said.

Of the 60 critical minerals on the U.S. government’s official list, Alaska has known resources of at least 58, he added.

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“It’s the same sort of thing with Greenland. In the case of Greenland, I think there’s a phrase that I use from time to time: resource denial — That is to say, you might try not to be interested in Greenland’s resource potential in critical minerals. If you wake up one day, and the Chinese and the Russians are engaging in economic relationships in Greenland and directing those metals and minerals into their supply chains, you will have to be concerned about what goes on.”

China-based experts, on the other hand, were dismissive of Project Vault, with rare-earths analyst Wu Chenhui telling the state-owned Global Times that while Trump’s move is novel, it “functions more as a short-term buffer than a fundamental solution,” and other officials in the Communist nation were similarly bearish on the news.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.

葡萄牙通过法案 限制青少年使用社交媒体

发布/2026年2月13日 17:18

葡萄牙将限制青少年使用社交媒体，由家长使用名为“数码移动密钥”的公共系统来授予孩子访问权限。 （路透社）

葡萄牙议会通过法案，限制16岁以下儿童和青少年访问在线平台和社交媒体。

来自葡萄牙执政党社会民主党（PSD）的法案起草人指出，这项措施旨在保护儿童免受网络欺凌、有害内容以及不法分子的侵害。

路透社报道，法案星期四（2月12日）以148票赞成、69票反对、13票弃权获得通过。

家长将使用名为“数码移动密钥”（DMK）的公共系统来授予孩子访问权限，该系统也有助于执行现有的禁令，禁止13岁以下儿童访问数码社交媒体、视频和图片分享平台或在线博彩网站。技术提供商也必须落实与DMK兼容的年龄验证系统。

违反该法案的罚款金额根据企业规模而定，从2万欧元到200万欧元（3万至300万新元）不等；个人违规的罚款金额则从1万欧元到25万欧元不等。

中国新闻社引述《晨邮报》称，尽管各党派一致认同社交媒体对儿童构成风险，但在解决方案上存在分歧。目前，该法案仍需提交专门委员会进行详细讨论。

近期，包括西班牙、希腊、英国和法国在内的一些国家，出于对社交媒体可能对儿童产生负面影响的担忧，正酝酿采取更严格的监管力度。此前，澳大利亚于去年12月成为首个禁止16岁以下未成年人访问此类平台的国家。

泰国首相：为泰党将加入泰自豪党领导的联合政府

2026年2月13日 18:00 联合早报

2月12日，泰国看守首相、泰自豪党领袖兼首相候选人阿努廷在泰自豪党总部与党员会面。 （路透社）

泰国首相阿努廷说，在星期天大选中以较大优势获胜的泰自豪党将与排名第三的为泰党组成联合政府。

法新社引述阿努廷星期五（2月13日）宣布的消息说：“我们很荣幸今天为泰党的高层领导能够莅临。虽然选举结果尚未正式确认，但我们已达成共识，为泰党将按计划支持我们领导联合政府。”

根据路透社基于选举委员会数据的计算，阿努廷领导的泰自豪党在星期天的大选中意外获胜，在500个议席的众议院中赢得193席，紧随其后的是获得118席的改革派人民党和获得74席的民粹主义政党为泰党。

目前身陷囹圄的亿万富翁前首相达信支持的为泰党，将使阿努廷在议会中获得绝对多数席位，这可能为组建稳定的联合政府铺平道路。

阿努廷在与为泰党领导人会谈后告诉记者：“我们将共同组建政府，治理国家，为国家谋福祉。”

泰自豪党曾是为泰党领导的执政联盟成员，联盟在2023年大选后上台执政。但去年6月，在时任首相佩通坦与柬埔寨前领导人洪森的通话泄露后，泰自豪党退出联盟。

佩通坦随后被法院下令解职，为阿努廷出任首相铺平了道路。

阿努廷说：“请大家消除过去的误会。我们希望携手合作，共同治理国家。”

Do these companies help veterans— or are they cheating them?

2026-02-13T10:00:46.862Z / CNN

An Army combat veteran now living in the Midwest was dealing with multiple injuries by the time he finished his military service. He’d suffered a traumatic brain injury after his vehicle struck an IED during his deployment to Afghanistan in the late 2000s.

But when the veteran, who CNN is identifying as Adam, filed his disability compensation claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs, he felt he was failed on two fronts.

First, the VA process was confusing, he said, and it took the department four months to get back to him – to say he didn’t qualify for any benefits. Then he sought help from a company that promised to guide him through the process for a fee, only to still end up with no benefits and a bill for thousands of dollars.

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“They pretty much did jack sh*t for me,” said Adam, referring to the outside company. He asked to be identified by a pseudonym to protect his privacy.

Adam’s story is one that has played out with veterans for decades.

Veterans are supposed to be able to get these payments by filing for their benefits directly through the VA, and to get help filling out the paperwork for free from non-profit and government-affiliated groups called veterans service organizations (VSOs), which are accredited by the government to aid them.

Instead, frustrated by cumbersome paperwork and VSOs that are often too inundated with work for timely help, many veterans instead turn to private companies that charge a fee.

Critics call these consultants “claims sharks” – for-profit consultancies that say they help veterans get higher compensation while also taking a cut for themselves. These consultancies operate without accreditation from the VA, a process that includes taking assessments and passing a background check, which is meant to ensure a level of oversight into the process.

At the same time, some for-profit consultancies have been accused of using dishonest tactics to obtain higher fees, whether by overcharging veterans directly, or misrepresenting their clients to the VA to get a bigger cut from higher compensations that are paid out.

The for-profit consultants contend they help veterans get more benefits – which some veterans agree with – and that most veterans come to them because they didn’t get the compensation they believe they were owed from the VA. These companies contend that they are not preparing paperwork for veterans, but simply helping them navigate a complex system, and therefore are not in breach of federal requirements.

Bill Taylor, the co-founder of claims consultant Veterans Guardian, argues that companies like his should be allowed to operate within a legal framework, which would also bring more regulation to the industry and cut down on what he described as “predatory practices” from some “bad actors.”

“Not only do we want to protect a veteran’s right to choose, but we can do that while also providing protections,” Taylor said.

Some states have sought to regulate the industry. Last year, Louisiana became the first state to pass a law to regulate unaccredited claims consultants by capping their fees and requiring certain disclosures from them. The bill was modeled after a version that stalled in Congress.

Some for profit consultancies have welcomed these state laws, but VSOs have not.

But last week, a federal court struck down the Louisiana law as unconstitutional. John Wells, a lawyer and director of a veterans’ group that sued the state over the law, argued states shouldn’t be allowed to interfere in the regulation of federal benefits.

“If other states try to institute laws like this, we will take action,” Wells said.

For its part, the “VA continues to examine this issue, and in the meantime, we are working to make it easier for Veterans to access the VA benefits and services they have earned,” spokesman Peter Kasperowicz told CNN.

“When VA sees signs of fraud or suspicious behavior, it works with the appropriate law enforcement authorities to protect Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors,” he said. “But we also want to make sure Veterans have choices, particularly if they aren’t happy with whatever options might be available to them for free.”

He added that the VA has put in efforts to make access to claims easier for veterans, including through faster, more direct communications and quicker ways to retrieve their medical records.

The number of claims consultants has skyrocketed since 2006 when Congress removed criminal penalties against those charging fees to assist veterans with VA claims in an effort to get veterans help in navigating the sometimes-byzantine process.

Two decades later, veterans and lawmakers alike are divided over whether these companies provide a legitimate service to fill an unmet need – or take advantage of vulnerable veterans.

Billions of dollars are at stake, with some 6.7 million veterans receiving benefits from the VA in the 2024 fiscal year.

Claiming veterans benefits through the government “can be a complicated process, depending on the type of claim you’re making,” according to Michael Missal, who served as VA inspector general from 2016 until January 2025.

While he does not endorse the for-profit firms, “I was familiar with veterans getting frustrated with the complicated process at VA to get benefits,” he said. “And what some unaccredited agents would do is say, ‘We can cut through the red tape. We can make this go quicker.’”

But the industry that has sprung up to do this is rife with problems, opponents say.

“When you have a business whose business model is predicated on a veteran getting a higher disability claim, that just leads to nefarious things,” said Jeremy Villanueva of the veteran’s advocacy group Paralyzed Veterans of America when testifying at a congressional roundtable last month.

It’s hard to even estimate how many such companies currently operate in the US, according to Missal, because of their unregulated nature, but the largest ones operate in multiple states, bringing millions of dollars in claims.

In the past, the VA has questioned the work of some private claims companies. Previous VA administrations have sent cease-and-desist letters to some claims consultants, warning that they were likely breaching federal laws for working with veterans to fill out claims forms and charging them fees.

But these letters were often ineffective and not followed up upon by the VA, limiting their effect, according to Missal.

VSOs, which maintain their accreditations and relationships with the VA in part by showing that they are providing these services, object to the for-profit consultancy companies.

“We find it morally reprehensible that these companies are going around and taking money from veterans that they have no right to take money from,” said Andrew Tangen, president of the VSO National Association of County Veterans Service Officers.

A pending whistleblower lawsuit has accused Veterans Guardian, one of the largest claims consultancies in the country, of manipulating medical assessments, coaching veterans to present symptoms in specific ways, and steering applicants toward diagnoses that could yield higher benefits compensation – allegations Veterans Guardian has denied.

In a statement to CNN, Veterans Guardian said the “complaint was filed by a former employee who was terminated for toxic behavior and has since been accused of harassment and cyberstalking other Veterans Guardian employees. We will continue to defend ourselves against these inaccurate claims.”

In December, a judge ruled that a separate lawsuit against the company brought by veterans who said they were charged illegal fees could move forward after Veterans Guardian tried to have the case dismissed.

“We categorically deny the allegations and will vigorously defend our company against these meritless claims while continuing our important work for our veteran clients,” the company said in a statement.

A veteran himself, Taylor said his own experience with VSOs led him to establish his company in 2017. When he was getting out of the military, he had a hard time finding someone who could help him for free at Fort Bragg in North Carolina – one of the largest bases in the country.

“There was only one VSO available,” Taylor said. “Good luck getting an appointment.”

Taylor said Veterans Guardian often hires other veterans and military spouses – people who can relate to other veterans. He said that he uses “specialists at every step of the process,” including those who can meet with veterans about PTSD or those who can advise about responding to correspondence from the VA. He said the company has also developed an AI system to streamline some steps and get veterans faster results.

Taylor said that the North Carolina-based Veterans Guardian helped 45,000 veterans last year and claimed close to a 90% “success rate” in getting veterans more benefits. He added that more than 70% of Veterans Guardian clients came to the company after already trying free alternatives.

“So the question is, why are we doing so well?” Taylor said. “Why are people referring folks to us? And why are so many veterans coming to us after having utilized one of the free services?”

For-profit consulting companies often advertise that they can get veterans a higher “disability rating” – the VA’s rating system on a scale of 0 to 100 percent based on the combined severity of the veteran’s injuries and illnesses. The higher the rating, the more compensation.

Samuel Shade, a Navy veteran from Michigan, told CNN he tried for years to upgrade his VA disability rating and apply for better benefits for his heart problems. Shade said he first tried to work with the VA on his own, then solicited the help of a local VSO.

“They didn’t get anywhere,” Shade said.

The VSO would take information from him and would check on his claim every 3-4 months, he said. But then it would take the VA at least six months to respond.

“You couldn’t get the VA in Detroit to even answer” when you called, Shade said, adding that it took about a year for the VA to even acknowledge that he’d requested an increase in his benefits.

After eight years of trying to use the VSO and VA, he finally went to a private company for help in 2023. “They tell you straight out, ‘If we don’t get anything, you’re not paying’, and they don’t over-charge either,” he said, describing the consultancy as “a very good company to deal with.”

Through them, Shade was able to improve his benefits rating, he said.

Adam’s experience turned out to be almost completely opposite from Shade’s. After his poor experience with the for-profit company he had dealt with, Adam says, he went to a local VSO. With the VSO’s help, he says, he correctly submitted his claims and received his benefits within six months – all at no charge.

Louisiana and beyond

---

In addition to Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee and South Dakota have passed legislation to regulate these companies, while other states, such as Maine, New Jersey and New York, have passed laws banning unaccredited companies.

Last week, Louisiana’s law was struck down after a district court judge found that it interfered with the purview of the federal law – a decision applauded by the VFW, but which the Louisiana attorney general intends to appeal.

And this week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a measure that would empower the state attorney general to prosecute unaccredited consultants who charge veterans excessive fees for claims assistance.

Taylor, the co-founder of Veterans Guardian, said regulation could address the main criticisms the VSOs have had about consulting firms.

“There were complaints that veterans don’t know their options, so require us to notify the veteran in writing,” Taylor said. “I mean, shoot, some of the bills even dictate it has to be done in a certain type of font.”

In 2025, Veterans Guardian spent more than $2.6 million on lobbying, including for state legislation to allow the industry to operate, according to data compiled by the nonprofit OpenSecrets. Taylor said he expects up to 20 more states to eventually enact legislation his group has lobbied in support of.

Taylor said that every veteran who contacts Veterans Guardian is told that there are free services available to them through the VA and VSOs, and many go that route first.

“And we wish them well, and we hope we never see them again,” he continued. “Because frankly, we’re barely scratching the surface of the demand for assistance out there.”

Journalist Don Lemon to enter plea in Minnesota ICE protest case

February 13, 2026 11:08 AM UTC / Reuters

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon (L) appears in a hearing following his arrest for involvement in a protest at a church in Minnesota, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 30, 2026, in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Mona Edwards MANDATORY CREDIT MONA EDWARDS [Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab]

• Summary

• Lemon charged with conspiring to deprive others of civil rights
• Lemon’s lawyer claims his First Amendment rights under attack
• Trump praises charges, calls church disruption a ‘horrible thing’

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is due in federal court in Minnesota on Friday to enter a plea in a criminal case stemming from his coverage of a protest at a church against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Lemon, now an independent journalist, livestreamed a protest against Trump’s deployment of thousands of armed immigration agents into Democratic-governed Minnesota’s biggest cities. The protest disrupted a January 18 service at Cities Church in St. Paul.

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He was charged with conspiring to deprive others of their civil rights and violating a law that has been used to crack down on demonstrations at abortion clinics but also forbids obstructing access to houses of worship.

He is set to appear in federal court in St. Paul at 1:00 p.m. (1900 GMT).

Lemon’s lawyer has called the case an attack on First Amendment free speech rights.

Trump has frequently lashed out at the media, stripping journalists of access-granting credentials and suing some news outlets over their coverage of him. The president praised the Justice Department for bringing the charges against Lemon, calling the disruption of the church service a

节点运行失败

因安全事件停运 德国科隆－波恩机场恢复运营

2026年2月13日 18:20 / 联合早报

德国西部科隆－波恩机场（Cologne Bonn Airport）因安全事件暂停运营数小时，数千名旅客受到影响。

路透社引述德国公共广播公司WDR称，星期五（2月13日）上午的机场停运导致两个航站楼的安检区域人员疏散，原因是新安装的安检设备出现故障。

据航班追踪网站Flightradar24显示，上午9时刚过（新加坡时间下午4时），飞机开始恢复起飞。

新华社引述媒体的报道说，科隆警方发言人说，由于一台行李扫描仪出现故障，许多乘客不得不再次接受安全检查。但警方未透露细节。

科隆－波恩机场是德国客运量第六大的机场，也是联合包裹服务公司（UPS）的区域枢纽。

特朗普下周公布加沙重建计划和国际稳定部队方案 | 联合早报

发布/2026年2月13日 18:22

特朗普下周公布加沙重建计划和国际稳定部队方案

虽然以色列和哈马斯在去年10月达成加沙停火协议，但以色列仍不时轰炸加沙。图为2月10日，加沙地带南部汗尤尼斯的以色列控制“黄线”区域内发生爆炸。 （路透社）

（华盛顿综合电）美国总统特朗普将于下周“和平委员会”首次正式会议上宣布一项数十亿美元的加沙重建计划，并详细阐述联合国授权的国际稳定部队部署计划。

美国高级官员星期四（2月12日）向路透社透露，预计至少20个国家将派代表团出席会议，其中包括多国领导人。会议定于下星期四（19日）在华盛顿召开，特朗普将主持会议。

官员称，会议将聚焦加沙局势，核心内容是特朗普宣布设立一项数十亿美元的加沙重建基金，资金来源将包括和平委员会董事会成员的捐款。

一名官员形容各方出资意愿“慷慨”，并称美国未明确要求捐款，“是人们主动提出支持”。特朗普将在会议上宣布已筹集资金数额。

此外，特朗普将宣布多国计划派出数千名士兵加入国际稳定部队，预计这支部队将在未来数月内部署至加沙。

部署国际稳定部队是特朗普去年9月公布的加沙和平计划第二阶段的关键内容。在第一阶段，以色列和哈马斯于去年10月10日开始停火，哈马斯释放所有人质，以色列则释放被扣押的巴勒斯坦人。

第二阶段计划也包括解除哈马斯武装，但哈马斯高级官员马尔达维周四说，只要以色列继续发动袭击，哈马斯就不会交出武器。

据加沙卫生部门星期三（11日）发布的数据，自加沙停火第一阶段协议生效以来，以军在加沙的行动已造成591人死亡、1578人受伤。

Trump administration deported some migrants at a cost of $1 million each, Democratic report says

Updated Feb 13, 2026, 7:46 AM ET | Published Feb 13, 2026, 6:00 AM ET | CNN Politics

By [Jennifer Hansler], [Kylie Atwood], [Priscilla Alvarez]

[Image 4]

A US deportation flight takes off from Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas in January 2025.

Christian Chavez/AP

The Trump administration has spent more than $30 million to send migrants to far-flung countries that are not their own, including, in a few instances, paying over $1 million a person, a new report from the Democratic chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says.

In other cases, the report alleges, the administration paid to deport the migrants to a third country, only to pay again to return them to their home country.

The report, released Friday, says that the administration has inked the high-cost deals for the return of “relatively small numbers of third country nationals.”

The report, led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, offers one of the most comprehensive looks at the administration’s third-country deportation agreements, following criticism the government has been vague about the details of those deals.

The Trump administration has pursued the deals as part of its aggressive deportation agenda, arguing that the immigrants deported to third countries would not have been accepted by their home countries. Frosty diplomatic relations have historically made it difficult for the US to return certain nationals to their countries of origin.

Under the agreements, countries agree – often for money, political favor, or both – to accept immigrants from the US who are not citizens of those countries. Many of the efforts to deport these third country nationals have been met with legal challenges.

According to the report, the administration has an agreement with or has sent third country nationals to more than 20 countries and is pursuing deals with dozens more.

The minority report was also signed by Sens. Chris Coons, Tim Kaine, Tammy Duckworth, Jacky Rosen, and Chris Van Hollen. It notes that the “the total costs of the Trump Administration’s third country deportations through January 2026 are unknown but are likely upward of $40 million.”

Deals with five governments – Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini, and Palau – have cost more than $32 million, with much of that funding being provided “as lump sum payments, often before any third country nationals arrived,” according to the report.

The five countries that received the million-dollar payments have collectively only received about 300 third country nationals from the US.

The report notes that the administration often uses high-cost military aircraft to deport migrants, even for flights with only a small number of people.

“The Trump Administration spent an estimated more than $7.2 million on third country deportation flights as of January 2026 to at least ten countries, with actual costs likely far higher,” the report states.

The report says it is based “on a review of agreements through January 2026, staff travel to relevant countries and meetings and communication with U.S. officials, foreign government officials, human rights organizations, deportees and attorneys.”

A Democratic committee aide said they raised a number of questions to the administration in limited engagements. Although the administration provided information in some cases, they have not briefed the committee on the agreements writ large, the aide said.

CNN has reached out to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

‘The point is to scare people’

And “as of January 2026, more than eighty percent of the migrants sent to third countries the U.S. paid to take them in have already returned to their country of origin, or are in the process of doing so,” the report alleges.

Of the five countries that received the million-dollar payments of third-country nationals, El Salvador received the most deported people. Around 250 were sent to that country, which received a $4.76 million grant to imprison the deportees, who the administration alleged had ties to criminal organization Tren de Aragua. The alleged ties have been refuted by family members and in litigation. CNN reported last April that the grant was “to provide funds to be used by Salvadoran law enforcement and corrections agencies for its law enforcement needs, which include costs of detaining the 238 TDA members recently deported to El Salvador,” according to an internal document.

[Image 5]

Salvadoran police officers escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua recently deported by the US government to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center prison, as part of an agreement with the Salvadoran government, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in this handout image obtained March 16, 2025.

El Salvador’s Presidency Press Office/Reuters

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to begin implementing his requirement that it give Venezuelans unlawfully deported to El Salvador last year under the Alien Enemies Act a chance to challenge their removal, including by bringing at least some of them back to the US for court proceedings.

However, only 51 people were sent to the other four countries as of January 2026, according to the report. Rwanda, which allegedly received $7.5 million from the US government, only took seven third country nationals, meaning each deported national cost more than $1 million in US taxpayer money, according to the report.

Palau has not received any third country nationals, although the report says they received a payment of $7.5 million from the administration. Efforts to pressure the Palau government to take the third country nationals met heavy pushback from locals.

When it comes to the distant countries of Palau and Eswatini, a US official reportedly told the committee that “the point is that the Administration can threaten people that they will literally be dropped in the middle of nowhere.”

“The point is to scare people,” the official said.

According to the report, a US official privately told committee staff that the administration “is sometimes paying the country to take people, flying them there and then paying to take them to their home country.”

In one such instance, a Mexican national was deported from the US to South Sudan, only to be flown back to Mexico, the report says.

In another instance, a Jamaican who had court orders to return to their home country was sent to Eswatini – which the report says came at an estimated cost of more than $181,000 – only to then be flown back to Jamacia weeks later.

The report makes the case that the administration is carrying out these deportations at great cost to US taxpayers while “expending political capital in its bilateral relationships that could instead be used to advance pressing U.S. national security interests.”

Lawmakers and human rights groups have raised concerns about the countries with which the administration has deals. Many of those countries have an extensive history of human rights violations.

The Democratic report alleges that the administration has relied on blanket assurances that the deportees will be treated in accordance with international human rights law.

However, the report states that “Trump Administration officials have acknowledged that countries are not upholding the assurances they provided the United States and that the Administration is not taking steps to address these violations.”

“The Administration has provided no evidence of systematic monitoring, follow-up or enforcement, raising serious concerns that these assurances exist on paper only,” the report states.

Staff from the committee heard from US officials in one country that received third country nationals that the administration had instructed them not to follow-up on the treatment of the deportees, the report says.

A November report by Human Rights Watch and Central American rights group Cristosal alleged that dozens of Venezuelans deported from the US to a Salvadoran prison earlier this year were subjected to torture and other serious abuses including sexual violence.

The story headline has been updated.