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Canada to impose sanctions against those suppressing Georgia protests

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Canada to impose sanctions against those suppressing Georgia protests

Georgia sees its fifth night of consecutive protests against the government’s decision to suspend negotiations to join the European Union.

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At a press conference with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Jolie expressed Canada’s solidarity with the Georgian people, and said they “are very concerned about what Russia is trying to do in Georgia.”

On Sunday, the three Baltic states announced they would impose national sanctions against those “who participate in the suppression of legitimate protests in Georgia.”

Jolie said Canada would follow suit and “will sanction key individuals and also businesses, entities that are involved in either human rights violations or corruption,” based on their own sanctions regime.

It comes as protesters returned to the steps of Georgia’s parliament in Tbilisi on Monday for a fifth night of demonstrations after the government, who were denounced by its critics for allegedly rigging its victory results, decided to halt progress towards European Union (EU) membership.

Protesters, who held posters denouncing Russia and carried EU and Georgian flags, threw rocks at the police, to which officers responded with water cannons.

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On Monday, Georgia’s Interior Ministry said 224 protesters were detained on administrative charges and three arrested on criminal charges. 113 police officers needed medical treatment while three others were hospitalized after clashes with protesters, who hurled fireworks at police.

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili, who has been vocal about her support of the protests, said many of the arrested protesters had injuries to their heads and faces, including broken bones and eye sockets. She added that some people were subject to systematic beatings between arrest and transportation to detention facilities.

On social media platform X, the pro-EU head of state said “this is an attack on freedom of expression and the right to protest – basic rights violated, not to mention the way people are arrested and treated once detained.”

The protests have gradually been spreading beyond the capital, with crowds taking to streets of regional towns and cities, such as Batumi, Kutaisi, and Rustavi. Schools and universities across the country also held strikes and walkouts.

At a briefing at the Government House on Monday, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that the European integration process has not been postponed, but instead “will continue with maximum intensity.”

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The Prime Minister said diplomats received “clear instructions that Georgia’s European integration process must continue with maximum intensity,” during a meeting at the foreign ministry. “This is reality. Everything else is simply falsehood deliberately spread by the radical opposition and its associated media.”

Kobakhidze added that the Head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Pascal Alizard, wrote to Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili about future cooperation following the first session of the new parliament.

He said the letter also emphasized that the elections were held under competitive conditions as they “offered citizens a broad choice, were well-administered, and candidates had the freedom to conduct campaigns.”

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Video: How Bangladesh Went From Revolution to Elections

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Video: How Bangladesh Went From Revolution to Elections

new video loaded: How Bangladesh Went From Revolution to Elections

Bangladesh held the first national elections since a student revolution in the summer of 2024. Standing outside the Dhaka university, the epicenter of the student movement, New York Times correspondent Anupreeta Das explains what the recent elections mean for the country’s future.

By Anupreeta Das, Katrin Bennhold, Leila Medina, James Surdam, Parin Behrooz and Lam Yik Fei

February 13, 2026

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Ukraine strikes major Russian ammo depot with ‘Flamingo’ missile as Trump urges Zelenskyy to move on deal

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Ukraine strikes major Russian ammo depot with ‘Flamingo’ missile as Trump urges Zelenskyy to move on deal

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Video released this week shows Ukraine launching domestically produced FP-5 “Flamingo” cruise missiles, as Kyiv pushes deeper strikes on Russian military infrastructure nearly four years into the war.

Ukraine’s military said the missiles were used in an overnight attack on February 11 to 12 targeting a missile, ammunition and an explosives arsenal near the settlement of Kotluban in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast, describing the facility as belonging to Russia’s Main Missile and Artillery Directorate, known as GRAU, and said it was among the largest ammunition storage hubs used by Russian forces. 

Ukrainian officials said powerful explosions and secondary detonations were recorded at the site, while the extent of damage was still being assessed.

RUSSIAN ATTACK ON KHARKIV WIPES OUT YOUNG FAMILY, LEAVING PREGNANT MOTHER AS SOLE SURVIVOR

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Ukraine launches domestically produced long-range FP-5 “Flamingo” cruise missiles toward targets in Russia. (East2West)

Russian regional authorities acknowledged an incident at a Defense Ministry facility in the same area. Volgograd Governor Andrey Bocharov said air defenses repelled a missile attack and that falling debris triggered a fire at a military facility near Kotluban. He said an evacuation of nearby residents was ordered during firefighting because of the threat of detonation. Anadolu Agency reported that buses were prepared to move residents to temporary accommodation centers.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has also publicly referenced the Flamingo system. In a daily update carried by Russian state media, the ministry said its air defenses shot down five Flamingo long-range cruise missiles over the previous 24 hours. The ministry did not provide evidence in the statement, and Kyiv has not confirmed how many missiles were intercepted.

BATTERED IN UKRAINE, RUSSIA RACES TO REARM — BUT QUESTIONS LINGER OVER ITS MILITARY STRENGTH

Footage shows the launch of Ukraine’s homegrown long-range “Flamingo” cruise missiles during a strike on Russian military infrastructure. (East2West)

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Ukraine has increasingly highlighted indigenous long-range capabilities, including the FP-5. An East-to-West News agency video report previously cited Ukrainian officials describing the missile’s range as 3,000 kilometers, or about 1,864 miles, and said officials claim accuracy within about 14 meters, though battlefield performance is difficult to independently verify.

In response to a reporter’s question on Friday on the talks between the sides, President Donald Trump put the onus back on President Zelenskyy to make a deal. 

“Well, Zelenskyy is going to have to get moving. Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelenskyy is going to have to get moving otherwise, he’s going to miss a great opportunity. He has to move,” he said.

A new round of U.S.-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine is expected in Geneva next week, even as fighting persists along the more than 1,200-kilometer front line.

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Ukraine fires six FP-5 Flamingo missiles in a night strike on Russia’s 117th GRAU arsenal in Kotluban, Volgograd region. Feb. 11, 2025. (East2West)

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Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks across Ukraine continue, saying on Friday that a Russian drone assault on port infrastructure near Odesa killed one person and injured six others, while a separate strike near the eastern front line killed three brothers, including an eight-year-old and wounded their mother and grandmother.

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Macron says Europe must redesign security, cites nuclear deterrence

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Macron says Europe must redesign security, cites nuclear deterrence

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Emmanuel Macron told the Munich Security Conference on Friday that Europe will have to redesign its security architecture on its own terms as it faces an aggressive Russia.

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The French president said the current security framework won’t hold in the future and Europeans must set out new parameters in their own terms. Macron said that it may include a more “holistic” approach to nuclear deterrence among European allies.

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Macron said plans for “a day after” implying a future coexistence with Russia must be drafted by Europeans independently due to their geographical reality and a “bloated” Russian army on what the French leader described as a belligerent “sugar high.”

“We have to be the ones to negotiate this new architecture of security for Europe for the day after because our geography will not change,” he said.

“We will live with Russia in the same place, and the Europeans at the same place, and I don’t want this negotiation to be organised by someone else,” he said in an apparent reference to the United States and their direct talks with Moscow.

Macron told the gathering in Munich, which focuses on security and brings together world leaders, future parameters of security may include a new, more holistic nuclear deterrence among European allies. Until now, deterrence has been a strictly national domain and a highly delicate issue because of its implications on sovereignty.

The French leader teased a “new strategic dialogue” on nuclear arms.

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“We have engaged a strategic dialogue with Chancelor Merz and (other) European leaders in order to see how we can articulate our national doctrine” with special cooperation and common security interests in some key countries, he said.

“This dialogue is important because it’s a way to articulate nuclear deterrence in a holistic approach of defence and security. This is a way to create convergence in our strategic approach between Germany and France,” he added.

Earlier, Merz had told the conference he had engaged in “confidential talks” on European nuclear deterrence.

“We Germans are adhering to our legal obligations. We consider this strictly within the context of our nuclear sharing within NATO and we will not allow zones of differing security to emerge in Europe,” Merz said.

The comments are significant as it shows Europeans are beginning to think of a future security that relies on their own capabilities, becoming less dependent on the US umbrella for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

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The French president said he would deliver more details in the coming weeks.

‘Europe is vilified, but it should be proud’

Macron sought to rally support for a stronger and proud Europe, which often lacks self-confidence despite its many strengths, according to the French President, who suggested Europeans are being vilified through false claims amplified on social media.

“We need a much more positive mindset. There has been a tendency in this place and beyond to overlook Europe and sometimes to criticise it outright,” Macron said.

“Caricatures have been made, Europe has been vilified as an aging, slow, fragmented construct sidelined by history. As an overregulated economy that shuts innovation, as a society preyed by migration that would corruption its precious traditions.

“And most curiously yet, in some quarters, as a repressive continent,” he added.

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In his remarks, Macron appeared to push back at the US administration which urged Europe to reverse course or face “civilisational erasure” citing excessive regulation, illegal migration and repressive social media policies curtailing free speech.

“Everyone should take a cue from us, instead of trying to divide us,” he said.

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