“Florida has executed a 64-year-old man for the 1989 murder of a traveling salesman, the state’s first execution and the nation’s second of the year. Ronald Heath was administered a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke on Tuesday evening and was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. EST, the state’s Department of Corrections said in a statement. Though Heath is Florida’s first execution of 2026, his death follows a record-setting 2025 in which the Sunshine State put 19 death row inmates to death, accounting for 40% of the 47 executions carried out nationwide that year.” (02/11/26)
“Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez has said that the country will not hold presidential elections in the immediate future, emphasising that the government’s current focus is on national stability. His comments came late on Monday in an interview published with the conservative outlet Newsmax in the United States. Presidential terms run for six years in Venezuela, and the last election was [stolen by the regime] in 2024. Newsmax host Rob Schmitt asked if that meant another election would not happen for another five years. ‘The only thing I could say is that there will not be an election in this immediate period of time where the stabilisation has to be achieved,’ Rodriguez replied.” (02/10/26)
“The San Francisco cryptocurrency startup Archblock just filed for bankruptcy, throwing millions of dollars into question and continuing a slog of legal woes. Archblock has been plagued with legal trouble over the past few years, facing fraud allegations from the Securities and Exchange Commission and in a civil lawsuit from another crypto company. On Friday, Archblock and its subsidiaries filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which lets a company reorganize its debts. The company’s filing makes its financials look dire: It estimates that its assets are worth between $1 million to $10 million, against liabilities between $100 million to $500 million. But one subsidiary, TrustToken, claims in its own filing to have $100 million to $500 million in assets against just $10 million to $50 million in debt. The other subsidiaries tack on millions more for each column — it’s as yet unclear how the overall company will aim to reorganize in this bankruptcy process.” (02/11/25)
“US singer Britney Spears has become the latest musician to sell the rights to her catalog that includes hits like ‘… Baby One More Time’ and ‘Oops! … I Did It Again,’ US media reported Tuesday. The deal is believed to be worth around $200 million, according to sources cited by celebrity site TMZ, though it said the exact amount is not detailed in legal documents. That sum would be comparable to the sale of Canadian singer Justin Bieber’s catalog in 2023. Spears, 44, joins a growing list of artists who have sold their music rights in recent years including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, as well as Shakira and KISS.” (02/10/26)
“A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from the Department of Justice that sought to obtain Michigan’s voter rolls, marking the latest judicial rejection in President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging attempts to gain access to voter data from states. The Justice Department has sued at least 23 states and the District of Columbia in its effort to obtain detailed voter information. In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou, a Trump nominee, said the laws cited by the Justice Department in its complaint, including the Civil Rights Act of 1960, do not require the disclosure of the records it sought.” (02/10/26)
“A grand jury on Tuesday refused to indict a coalition of Democratic lawmakers over their participation in a controversial ‘illegal orders’ video last fall. The failed federal indictment was pursued by the office of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, as first reported by The New York Times. The lawmakers urged military servicemembers and intelligence community personnel to defy illegal orders in a joint video statement released in November. The video followed the Trump administration’s decision to carry out deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean. … The Times reported that federal prosecutors were seeking to indict lawmakers for breaching a law forbidding interfering with the U.S. military’s loyalty, morale or discipline.” (02/10/26)
“Russian authorities have begun restricting access to Telegram, one of the country’s most popular social media apps, as the government continues to push everyday Russians toward its own tightly controlled alternatives to foreign tech platforms. On Tuesday, the government said it was restricting access to Telegram for the ‘protection of Russian citizens,’ accusing the app of refusing to block content authorities consider ‘criminal and terrorist.’ Russia’s telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor said in a statement that it would continue to restrict the operation of the Telegram messenger ‘until violations of Russian law are eliminated.'” (02/10/26)
“The Indian Coast Guard seized three tankers that it said were involved in oil smuggling, the first sign of the country getting tough on the so-called dark fleet. The three ships were taken in the waters off Mumbai on Friday by the coast guard, which said in a post on X that it had ‘busted an international oil-smuggling racket’ and that the vessels had been known to ‘frequently change identity.’ It’s the first time New Delhi has taken such action, according to people familiar with the Indian shipping industry, and comes as the US and Europe lead an effort to get tougher on vessels moving sanctioned oil.” (02/10/26)
“An immigration court blocked the deportation of a Turkish Tufts University graduate student who was detained by immigration officials near her Massachusetts home, her attorneys said in court documents filed Monday. Rümeysa Öztürk’s attorneys said the immigration court found on Jan. 29 that the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t proved that Öztürk should be removed from the U.S. The immigration court also terminated Öztürk’s removal proceedings, the attorneys said in a letter to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has been reviewing her case.” (02/10/26)
“Consumer activity slowed sharply for the December holiday shopping season amid a spate of rough weather, tariff impact and persistently higher inflation, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Retail sales were flat on the month following a 0.6% increase in November, according to numbers adjusted for seasonality but not inflation. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected an increase of 0.4%. Excluding autos, sales also were unchanged, against the estimate for a 0.3% increase. On an annual basis, sales rose 2.4%, a considerable step down from the 3.3% pace in November. … The shopping pace failed to keep up with inflation, as the consumer price index for December posted a 2.7% increase.” (02/10/26)
