February 18, 2026
|
News Digest February 18, 2026 |
||
| Your top stories from the past 24 hours: | |
Connecting the world through thriving online communitiesA message from our Executive Director about Mastodon's vision and mission. |
 |
||||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
| more info | |||||||||||
Currenthttps://indieweb.social/@tgAn RSS reader that doesn't count. What happens when you stop treating your feeds like an inbox and start treating them like a river. |
|
||||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
| more info | |||||||||||
Africans are being confined and beaten in scam camps in Myanmar351 King Street East, Suite 1600, Toronto, ON Canada, M5A 0N1Migrants toil for long hours on social-media platforms, targeting people with crypto and romance scams |
 |
||||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
| more info | |||||||||||
European Parliament bars lawmakers from AI tools: Who knows where that helpful email summary is being generated? |
 |
||||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
| more info | |||||||||||
Jesse Jackson LGBTQ Legacy: The Obituaries Are Missing the Best Part. He Fought for Us. | WEHOonlineBrian HoltThe Jesse Jackson LGBTQ legacy most outlets aren’t covering includes co-leading the 1987 gay rights march partially organized at West Hollywood City Hall and championing queer equality when no other politician would. He died Tuesday at 84.| WEHOonline. |
 |
||||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
| more info | |||||||||||
Cryptographic Issues in Matrix’s Rust Library Vodozemac - Dhole MomentsView Archive →Two years ago, I glanced at Matrix's Olm library and immediately found several side-channel vulnerabilities. After dragging their feet for 90 days, they ended up not bothering to fix any of it. The Matrix.org security team also failed to notify many of the alternative clients about the impending disclosure--a fact that became more annoying when… |
 |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
| more info | ||||||||||
xAI built an illegal power plant to power its data centerJust south of the Tennessee-Mississippi state line sits dozens of unpermitted gas turbines that power xAI’s Colossus 2 data center while releasing smog-forming pollution, soot, and hazardous chemicals like formaldehyde. The tech company set up the de facto power plant with no permits, no public input, and no notice to nearby communities that will have to deal […] |
 |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
| more info | ||||||||||
Eurovision 2026: Electronic artist Look Mum No Computer to represent UK in Vienna@BBCNewsThe synth artist and Eurovision fan says he finds it "completely bonkers" to be representing the UK. |
 |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
| more info | ||||||||||
ICE reliance on Microsoft technology surged amid immigration crackdown, documents showHarry DaviesExclusive: ICE more than tripled the amount of data stored in Microsoft’s cloud at the same time that its arsenal of surveillance technology ballooned |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
1994: Cool Site of the Day and the rise of curated web designAlthough the Web is technically limited in 1994, it is a fast-growing network and so curation quickly becomes a design problem. Enter Glenn Davis and his website, Cool Site of the Day. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Plasma 6.6Plasma 6.6 is all about making your life as easy as possible without sacrificing any of the flexibility |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Claims that AI can help fix climate dismissed as greenwashingAjit NiranjanIndustry using ‘diversionary’ tactics, says analyst, as energy-hungry complex functions such as video generation and deep research proliferate |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Password managers' promise that they can't see your vaults isn't always trueContrary to what password managers say, a server compromise can mean game over. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
How the Kakistocracy Became a QuackistocracyPaul KrugmanCorruption is a germ’s best friend |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
United Nations - Futility ClosetGreg RossI don’t know who first observed this — the design of Norway’s flag contains those of six other countries: The similarities are apparently accidental — designer Fredrik Meltzer had chosen the Nordic cross to reflect his nation’s ties with Denmark and Sweden and the tricolor to evoke the liberal ideals of France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. (Thanks, Nic.) |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
'Students Are Being Treated Like Guinea Pigs:' Inside an AI-Powered Private School@emanuelmaibergLeaked documents reveal the inner workings of Alpha School, which both the press and the Trump administration have applauded. The documents show Alpha School's AI is generating faulty lessons that sometimes do "more harm than good." |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Europeans are dangerously reliant on US tech. Now is a good time to build our own | Johnny RyanJohnny RyanBy trusting the US, we handed Trump a kill switch. Yet Europe’s digital sovereignty is an achievable goal, says civil liberties campaigner, Johnny Ryan |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
The case for gatekeeping, or: why medieval guilds had it figured outEvery open source maintainer I've talked to in the last six months has the same complaint: the absolute flood of mass-produced, AI-generated, mass-submitted slop requests have turned their repositories into a slush pile. The contributions look like contributions, they have commit messages, they reference issues and they follow templates etc. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
EFF to Wisconsin Legislature: VPN Bans Are Still a Terrible IdeaRindala AlajajiWisconsin’s S.B. 130 / A.B. 105 is a spectacularly bad idea. It’s an age-verification bill that effectively bans VPN access to certain websites for Wisconsinites and censors lawful speech. We wrote about it last November in our blog “Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're... |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Open Rights Group (@openrightsgroup@social.openrightsgroup.org)#Roblox, #Reddit and #Discord users must use biometric #ageverification tool backed by Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel @JamesBaker says: “People are worried, and angry, about having to hand over biometric scans of their face to overseas companies just to access online platforms. This includes children. “Users deserve to know who is behind these systems, how their data is being used, and to have a real choice about who verifies their identity online.” https://www.openrightsgroup.org/pre... |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Illinois Made It Illegal to Boycott Israel@qasimrashidHow you can help Illinois rectify a Constitutionally indefensible error committed by 39 states, and repeal its anti-BDS legislation Imagine this: Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans pass a law making it illegal to criticize the United States government. Or worse, they pass a law making it illegal to criticize or |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Mastodon (@Mastodon@mastodon.social)Today we're sharing the first in a series of three posts from our leadership team, starting with @mellifluousbox discussing our mission, and priorities for 2026. Stay tuned this week for more. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/02/connecting-the-world-through-thriving-online-communities/ |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Building trust in the openHow Protocols for Publishers points to the future of journalism – and the web |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Cold and expensive v hot, cheap and eco-friendly: the contrasting histories of home heating in the UK and SwedenAimee Ambrose- 20260216Two professors of energy studies – one British, the other Swedish – explore the very different histories of home heating in their countries. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Stephen Colbert Defies CBS, Says Network Banned Him From Interviewing James Talarico On ‘The Late Show’Tom TappThe Late Night host explained FCC Chair Brendan Carr's new guidance on the "equal time" rule, which alters how some programs schedule interviews. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Revigator (ca. 1924-1926)The Revigator was intended to add radioactivity (radon) to drinking water. Water without redioactivity was "devoid of its life element." Water without radioactivity was like air without oxygen. |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Deadly Aegean Sea Collision Raises Questions About Greek Coast Guard Operations - UNICORN RIOTBy Unicorn RiotAn alleged collision between a Greek Coast Guard vessel and an inflatable boat carrying three dozen migrants left 15 migrants dead. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Preserving The Web Is Not The Problem. Losing It Is.Mark GrahamRecent reporting by Nieman Lab describes how some major news organizations—including The Guardian, The New York Times, and Reddit—are limiting or blocking access to their content in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. As stated in the article, these organizations are blocking access largely out of concern that generative AI companies are using the Wayback Machine… |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Seventh Immigrant Dies in ICE Custody This YearAustin KocherLorth Sim, a Cambodian national, died in ICE custody on Monday according to an announcement sent to Congress today, marking the seventh detained death of 2026 and nearly the 40th since Trump took office. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Meta’s face turn@CaseyNewtonIn the company’s latest policy reversal under Trump 2.0, the facial recognition system it blew up in 2021 may be poised for a return |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Nathan Kalman-Lamb (@nkalamb.bsky.social)“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.” - 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas. Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children. https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-dilley-children-letters |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Growing the open social webA position statement for FediForum's unworkshop |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
"Selling Safety": A Journalist's Guide to Covering Police Technologyselling_safety.pdf |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Can Trump’s Plan for Warehouse Immigrant Detention Camps Be Stopped?Natasha LennardICE has the money it needs to turn warehouses into prisons for immigrants. But local pressure stopped one project in its tracks. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Connecting the world through thriving online communitiesA message from our Executive Director about Mastodon's vision and mission. |
|
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Southern California air board rejected pollution rules after AI-generated flood of comments@whereishayleySoCal’s pollution authority scrapped a plan to phase out gas-powered appliances after receiving more than 20,000 emails sent by an AI-powered platform called CiviClick. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
GrapheneOS - break free from Google and Apple [ENG 🇬🇧]Tomasz Dunia🇬🇧->🇵🇱 Przejdź do polskiej wersji tego wpisu / Go to polish version of this post |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Ukraine makes fastest battlefield gain in 2.5 years@France24_enUkraine recaptured 201 square kilometres of territory from Russia in five days last week – its biggest gain in 2.5 years – according to AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War. Experts… |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Key signing in the pandemic eraThe pandemic has changed many things in our communities, even though distance has always played [...] |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
dansup (@dansup@mastodon.social)Jack Dorsey skipped ActivityPub, built AtProto, lost Twitter, funded Bluesky, watched it become a company with VCs and a board, said it was "repeating all the mistakes," left, and now funds Nostr. The fediverse is the only one in this story that never needed a billionaire to survive. And it never will. 🔥 |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Congreso anuncia listas: Acuña, Alva, Reymundo y Balcázar son los candidatos a la presidencia del Parlamento@noticias_tvperuTras la censura de José Jerí, las bancadas de Acción Popular, Honor y Democracia, Bloque Democrático Popular y Perú Libre presentaron a sus candidatos para la presidencia del Congreso, que completará el período 2025-2026. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
AI Delusions Are Leading to Domestic Abuse, Harassment, and StalkingMaggie Harrison DupréChatGPT and other AI chatbots are reinforcing users' delusions about other people — fueling fixations linked to stalking and abuse. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Eric A. Meyer (@Meyerweb@mastodon.social)I saw yet another “CSS is a massively bloated mess” whine and I’m like. My dude. My brother in Chromium. It is trying as hard as it can to express the totality of visual presentation and layout design and typography and animation and digital interactivity and a few other things in a human-readable text format. It’s not bloated, it’s fantastically ambitious. Its reach is greater than most of us can hope to grasp. Put some *respect* on its *name*. |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Intellexa's Predator spyware used to hack iPhone of journalist in Angola, research says | TechCrunchLorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiAmnesty International says it found evidence that a government customer of Intellexa, a sanctioned surveillance vendor, used its Predator spyware against a prominent journalist in Angola. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
AI screws us over again: memory shortages, Crucial shutting downDavid GerardMicron, which makes about a quarter of all the computer memory and flash in the world, is shutting down Crucial, its retail store. Crucial is closing in February next year — the AI hyperscalers are… |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
The Quintessential Epstein Files Email - The American ProspectDavid DayenThere is in fact an Epstein class, which not only believes in their own personal impunity, but seeks to protect their fellow travelers as well. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Mail-Order Abortion Pill Ban Passes Mississippi HouseHeather HarrisonA mail-order abortion pill ban passed the Mississippi House, defining it as felony drug trafficking that would carry one to 10 year prison sentences for providers. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
OSNews (@osnews@mstdn.social)A deep dive into Apple’s .car file format Every modern iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS application uses Asset Catalogs to manage images, colors, icons, and other resources. When you build an app with Xcode, your .xcassets folders are compiled into binary .car files that ship with your application. Despite being a fundamental part of every Apple app, there is little to none official documentation ab https://www.osnews.com/story/144416/a-deep-dive-into-apples-car-file-format/ #Apple |
|||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
Start planning for catastrophic global warming, top advisers tell EUEurope is heading for extreme levels of warming and the EU must make detailed plans to adapt, official report warns. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
100 Tens Celebrate a Decade of Letterform ArchiveLetterform ArchiveA nonprofit center for inspiration, education, and community in the graphic arts. |
 |
||||||||
| Shared by. . . | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| more info | |||||||||
| View latest in Browser |  |
|||
| Riverbank Ventures LLC 57 Westchester Ave, P.O. Box 474, Pound Ridge, NY 10576 | ||
