Welcome to Friday, February 20, 2026, and National Muffin Day. Muffins are getting very large and calorific these days. Here’s the future from ChatGPT:
It’s also National Cherry Pie Day (along with pecan, it’s America’s best pie), Friday Fish Fry Day (especially in the Midwest), Love Your Pet Day, National Tartar Sauce Day, and World Day of Social Justice. If you’re the first person to see this and send me a picture of your cat (with a few words), I’ll put it below.
There’s a Google Doodle today about ice hockey. Click the link to see where it goes.
The U.S. took two gold medals yesterday. One went to Alysa Liu for women’s figure skating, the first gold for an American woman since 2002 and the first medal of any type since 2006. And the U.S. women’s hockey team also nabbed gold, winning over Canada in overtime 2-1.
Here’s the big U.S. win in women’s hockey; click on “watch on YouTube: to see it.
. . . and Alysa Liu’s gold-medal performance in the woman’s long program:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 20 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The British police have arrested Prince Andrew for possible misconduct in office, including sharing confidential information with Jeffrey Epstein.
The British police on Thursday arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, intensifying a long-running crisis for the monarchy over his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The authorities arrested the former prince on suspicions of misconduct in public office after accusations that he shared confidential information with Mr. Epstein while serving as a British trade envoy.
The arrest underscored a striking contrast in the official responses to the Epstein files. The British authorities have moved aggressively to investigate the possibility of crimes emerging from the three million pages of correspondence with Mr. Epstein, while the police in the United States have not.
Buckingham Palace has been clouded by scandal for years over separate allegations that the former prince sexually abused a young woman. In an effort to stem the fallout for the monarchy, King Charles III last year stripped his brother of his royal titles and evicted him from the Royal Lodge, his sprawling residence in Windsor.
In a remarkable written statement, King Charles confirmed his brother’s arrest. A spokesman said that Buckingham Palace had not been informed of the arrest before it took place Thursday morning.
The police were seen on Thursday morning at the Sandringham Estate, the privately owned 20,000-acre country retreat of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Norfolk, England, where Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor is living.
Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied wrongdoing. His representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
. . . The British police have not released details on the specifics of the investigation, but a number of documents released by the U.S. Justice Department last month suggest they may be investigating whether he improperly shared confidential government documents with Jeffrey Epstein. In one email, he appears to forward to Mr. Epstein official reports about visits he made as envoy to South Asia in 2010 that were sent to him by his assistant. The New York Times could not independently confirm that the email and others in the files were sent by Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor himself.
Remember that the late Virginia Giuffre said she was ordered to have sex with Andrew, and they settled that accusation out of court. This is a first for me: I haven’t heard of anybody in the Royal Family being arrested for anything in the modern era. (I asked Matthew, who replied, “Last time someone so close to the throne (once he was second in line) has been arrested was in 1647 when Charles I was seized in the Civil War. It did not end well for him.”) It’s also embarrassing to the U.S., which has a de facto king, is dragging its heels at criminally investigating anyone. I still wonder if anybody will be charged based on material contained in the Epstein files. As for Andrew Formerly Known as Prince, I doubt that he’ll go to jail even if he’s convicted.
*The U.S. military is now in position to strike Iran, and has the forces to do so:
The rapid buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East has progressed to the point that President Trump has the option to take military action against Iran as soon as this weekend, administration and Pentagon officials said, leaving the White House with high-stakes choices about pursuing diplomacy or war.
Mr. Trump has given no indication that he has made a decision about how to proceed. But the drive to assemble a military force capable of striking Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missiles and accompanying launch sites has continued this week despite indirect talks between the two nations on Tuesday, with Iran seeking two weeks to come back with fleshed out proposals for a diplomatic resolution.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly demanded that Iran give up its nuclear program, including agreeing not to enrich any more uranium. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, whose country would potentially take part in an attack, has been pushing for action to weaken Iran’s ability to launch missiles at Israel.
Israeli forces, which have been on heightened alert for weeks, have been making more preparations for a possible war, and a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet was moved to Sunday from Thursday, according to two Israeli defense officials.
Many administration officials have expressed skepticism about the prospects of reaching a diplomatic deal with Tehran. The indirect talks on Tuesday in Geneva ended with what Iran’s foreign minister said was agreement on a “set of guiding principles.” U.S. officials said the two sides made progress but added that big gaps remain.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened that Iran must meet his terms or face severe consequences. But another attack, eight months after a 12-day war in which Israel and the United States assaulted military and nuclear sites across Iran, would potentially carry substantial risks, including that Iran would respond with a ferocious barrage of missile strikes on Israel and on U.S. forces in the region.
There is no “deal” to be made so long as Trump demands that Iran give up its nuclear program, for, as I emphasize often, only a fool would say that. That’s like making a lion promise to eat grass and roots! The only question for Trump is whether to let Iran off the hook completely and not attack without a halt to their nuclear program, or to attack regardless of their promises, which have always been worthless. I go back and forth on this, but when I think of Iran using its proxies to attack Israel and other countries, I don’t see this as completely interfering in another country’s internal affairs. Like Maduro’s drug doings, Iran’s nuclear affairs are not internal at all. And of course Iran keeps killing its own people. I’m betting that we’ll attack the country.
*Trump’s poorly designed “Board of Peace,” designed to run Gaza, met yesterday. There is no report about what happened:
“We’re going to have all world leaders,” Trump told reporters Monday.
But it remains unclear which leaders, or how many, will show up for the meeting to be held at the recently renamed Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace.
Of the 60 or so invitations he sent to heads of state to serve on the board, about two dozen countries have agreed to join. They include some who are far removed from events in the Middle East but in Trump’s good graces, such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Belarus’s dictator, Alexandr Lukashenko, accepted the invitation but said he would send his foreign minister. More than half the countries that have joined, including Belarus, are on the administration’s recently released list of 75 nations barred from U.S. visas pending a State Department review.
Pakistan’s prime minister is coming, but many in the Middle East are sending lower-ranking officials; some, particularly in Europe, have said they will attend only as “observers.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to attend and will be represented by Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
Under the board charter, which Trump signed last month onstage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, temporary membership is free for three years, while the price of a permanent seat is a $1 billion “in cash funds … within the first year.” It is not clear which attendees have paid.
. . .According to the U.N. Security Council resolution that blessed Trump’s 20-point plan, troop contributions from board member states will make up the ISF. Its mission, mandated by the U.N. until the end of 2027, is to help secure border areas and ensure Gaza is demilitarized, “including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of the military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups,” and to “protect civilians … train and provide support to the vetted Palestinian police forces … [and] secure humanitarian corridors.”
So far, only Indonesia has publicly agreed to send forces to the ISF, saying it will initially contribute about 2,000, arriving no sooner than April.
I wouldn’t call that wholehearted support of the plan, even though it was endorsed by the U.S. The problem is twofold: countries don’t seem to care much about reconstructing Gaza, and where is the money coming from? I feel sorry for the displaced Gazans, who are looking at a very uncertain future. Reconstruction will take forever.
*The Wall Street Journal reports on the skyrocketing fees for top lawyers: some of them exceed $3000 per hour!
When Christopher Clark, a litigator at a boutique law firm, raised his hourly rate to the once-unthinkable level of $3,000, he said he didn’t receive pushback from clients. But he did get one notable comment.
“Congratulations,” the client said. “That is the highest rate we’ve seen.”
Just over a year ago, the going rate for a top lawyer was in the $2,500 an hour range. Now that looks downright quaint, as premium partners are raking in as much as Clark—and far more in some cases.
Legal fees have risen much faster than inflation for years now and corporations are trying to rein in spending by pressuring law firms to use artificial intelligence for routine tasks and keep associate fees in check. The same isn’t true at the top end, where star trial lawyers, rainmaking corporate dealmakers, and veterans of Supreme Court oral arguments are driving more aggressively on pay than ever and meeting little resistance.
“The question is always, are they worth it? You know, some of these guys are worth it,” said Kerry McLean, Intuit’s general counsel, who in her role hires law firms to do the company’s outside legal work. “They understand the industry, they’re connected, and have a lot of experience.”
Clark has pushed his own fees by about 30% since he left his position at a large firm four years ago. As the lawyer for clients including Hunter Biden, Mark Cuban and Elon Musk, he still views his rate as a bargain. “There is a small world of lawyers who can hop on the phone and solve a crisis,” he said.
Some senior partners now charge as much as $3,400 an hour at the country’s largest law firms, according to data from Persuit, a software company that in-house lawyers use to analyze their legal bills. Among the top 50 largest firms, rates for partners increased by 16% on average last year.
In bankruptcy court filings, Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis—two of the largest firms in the world—report some partners’ hourly rates will rise to more than $3,000 an hour this year.
Well, it’s capitalism, Jake, and I suppose the clients who use these lawyers can afford the fees. But I’m betting that private criminal defense attorneys can also cost nearly that much (AI says they can), and when you compare that fee to what public defenders make (again, AI says $70,000-$200,000 per year), combined with their huge caseload, you realize why all aren’t really equal under the law. The more dosh you have, the better lawyer you get—and the better chance you have of of being found “not guilty”. That’s one sad thing I learned in my time of serving as an expert witness for the defense.
*According to UCLA’s student newspaper The Daily Bruin, a scheduled talk by Bari Weiss at the school has been canceled after there was considerable pushback.
Bari Weiss will no longer come to campus Feb. 27 to deliver the annual Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture, the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations announced Wednesday.
Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News, was scheduled to speak at Schoenberg Hall on Feb. 27. While the campus lecture is off, Weiss is still hoping to conduct the lecture over Zoom, said Margaret Peters, the associate director of the Burkle Center, in a texted statement.
A final decision has not yet been made on whether Weiss – who was slated to speak about the future of journalism – will conduct the lecture virtually, Peters added in the statement.
The annual lecture, organized by the Burkle Center, has previously hosted journalists and international relations scholars including Jake Tapper, Bob Woodward, Condoleezza Rice and Anderson Cooper.
As we know, Weiss is now editor-in-chief of CBS News which, along with the Free Press, is owned by Paramount. She’s been criticized for holding up broadcast of a “60 Minutes” segment because there was no video response from the government about sending detained immigrants to Venezuelan prisons, but that’s no reason to cancel somebody. Any invited speaker who agrees to speak should be allowed to speak, and UCLA should behave accordingly. Margaret Peters, however, is defending this censorship:
A petition demanding that the Burkle Center cancel the event received nearly 11,000 signatures. The petition cited Weiss’ alleged alignment with the Trump administration – including through her choice to pull the 60 Minutes segment – as reasoning for why she should not give the speech and accused her of making xenophobic comments.
Peters, who is also the Department of Political Science’s vice chair for graduate studies, said she plans to resign as associate director of the Burkle Center if it follows through with the event in any capacity. She added that she believes Weiss has used the guise of free speech to attack people on the left whose opinions she does not agree with – and having her speak at a signatory lecture would legitimize these actions.
“To invite somebody who is working against that mission in highly powerful places just seems like anathema in the university mission,” Peters said.
Let’s be clear here. Despite what many people say, hosting a speaker is NOT an endorsement of their views. Promulgating free speech and discussion IS the “university’s mission,” Peters doesn’t seem to realize that, and I say “let her resign” if she doesn’t come to her senses. But it’s too late now: Weiss (of whom I’m not a big fan) should be allowed to speak at UCLA, and not virtually, either.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is becoming a hardass:
Hili: We finally need to show some firmness.
Andrzej: And what?
Hili: And knock something down to the floor with a paw.
Hili: Musimy wreszcie okazać stanowczość.
Ja: I co?
Hili: I strącić łapką coś na ziemię.
*******************
From reader Doug; more AI stuff, but with a twist. As he said, “I thought this just another cute AI-generated video, but then Darwin appeared. Enjoy!”
Historical Figures as Regular People pic.twitter.com/5tzra30UKM
— Sasquatch Unfiltered (@sasquatchvlogtv) February 17, 2026
From Cats That Have Had Enough of Your Shit:
From Things With Faces:
From Masih, a lively 16-year-old was killed by the Iranian cops, and there’s more ridiculous news from the UN:
Nastaran Panahi was just 16 years old when she was shot in Nasimshahr, Tehran. The same Islamic Republic that killed her is now appointed by the United Nations to a human-rights advisory position on the UN Human Rights Council. Yes, you heard me correct.
This is not “… https://t.co/CmVn3dpce6 pic.twitter.com/hEvl3uLtAZ— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 19, 2026
From Colin Wright via Luana: “biological sex” is certainly a scientific term (“biological has been added to show that), and, save Anne Fausto-Sterling (who has propagated a lot of misinformation), I’ve never heard of any of the 38 “experts” who signed the letter.
🚨NEWS: 38 biologists, doctors, and other experts have penned a letter titled “Biology is not binary” to Bridget Phillipson, the UK’s Minister for Women and Equalities, urging her to “take action to restore the rights of trans & non-binary individuals to access public spaces.”… pic.twitter.com/KvObL4sNDL
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) February 18, 2026
From Science girl via Malcolm; big cats:
big cats showing their soft and funny side
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) January 3, 2026
Emma also has phrases she doesn’t like:
Let’s be clear:
The verb “to pop” has two conditions:
1. A sudden emission of air
2. That causes a momentary sound.Corn can pop. Bubbles can pop. Farts can be pops.
People don’t pop anywhere.
— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) February 19, 2026
One from my feed—skillful rebinding of a book. What a process!
Les mains d’or
pic.twitter.com/NhqxYlYvn4— Nathalie Chalard bis (@BisChalard57545) February 19, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Czech Jewish boy was gassed to death as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz. He was six years old, and would be ninety today had he lived. https://t.co/VmFwajTtqp
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) February 20, 2026
Two from Dr. Cobb. First, the saddest tweet I’ve seen in months:
2026 basically
— Richard Kadrey (@richardkadrey.bsky.social) 2026-02-18T16:23:55.418Z
. . and a great curling shot:
youtube.com/shorts/IhJ5D…
A BIRTHDAY THOUGHT:
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. -Ansel Adams, photographer (20 Feb 1902-1984)
It took a while before I looked up the artist of Evening Star. (I didn’t know at the time that it was just one of a series.) Then I learnt of her friendship with Adams. A WEIT reader had encountered O’Keeffe in New Mexico. My recollection is that the encounter had not been particularly pleasant.
The Times of Israel covers Trump’s Board of Peace activities with a couple of articles. A section of one article has the sub-headline: “Trump Rally: Board of Peace Edition”. A good intro is at url
https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-announces-17-billion-in-pledges-for-gaza-at-board-of-peaces-inaugural-confab/
FWIW I do think Andrew will go to jail if he’s convicted of an offence serious enough to warrant it. We’re not averse to jailing establishment figures here in the UK (peers of the realm etc). For us, what is completely bizarre is that criminals serving time in the US can be freed by the President just as a personal favour. What’s that all about?
It’s the same everywhere; wealth and power ensures that there will be little or no consequences for any criminal act. Justice here is aspirational at best.
But doesn’t the UK have something similar to presidential pardons? I think it’s called the “Royal Perogative” or something. Here in the US it is rarely used to correct a legal mistake or even more rarely, out of mercy. It is almost always done to gain or pay a political favor. Justice isn’t the goal of our legal system.
Alysa Liu skated with unrestrained joy and exuberance and with nothing to prove. Amber Glenn skated with everything to prove.
I really enjoyed Alysas’ performance. The jumps were good, but the real special parts was what happened between them. It was magical.
That point about the earnings of different echelons of defense attorneys is why I think that all criminal defense should be socialized–no one should be able to hire private criminal defense attorney, because then people with more money get different legal representation and better outcomes (regardless of their criminality) than those with less. I have personal experience with this, as someone who could not afford my own attorney, and was forced to accept a plea bargain despite being innocent; it’s an extortionate game of accepting a short time up the road versus the potential for a much longer time if one’s attorneys aren’t good enough or don’t have resources enough (and one isn’t personable enough, ahem) to convince a jury of one’s innocence.
The lawyers, of course, would not like this, and it would probably slow down the courts, but the alternative is wild injustice.
Criminal defense attys in “my day” didn’t make that kind of money. My clients were always poor – one step above public defender clients (who were better lawyers than I) but massive fees at the top end make sense. It is hard to find a good or service where money doesn’t define the quality of that good or service: law is no exception.
D.A.
NYC
ps- WEIT wildlife advisor friends like Lou and Ed and others: I brought the puppy back to NYC yesterday and the uber driver told me his mother had a teacup sized dog eaten by a hawk in CT, and another pet eaten “probably by a dog”. I kid you not! I was happy to be coming home. 🙂
Sigh. I hate to add to your fears, but your Uber driver was probably telling the truth. Ordinary domestic dogs can be a danger to pets, too – whether they are off-the-leash or have escaped from their homes. What’s worse is that domestic dogs that have been ‘released’ by their owners sometimes form packs that can terrorize not only rural areas, but even suburbs. I live in a dense suburb, and a few years back my whole neighborhood was in an uproar about a pack of wild dogs that was menacing backyard pets, children on their way to school, and even adults. Animal control eventually tracked them down, but it took a distressingly long time.
But take heart! Terrible things happen, but rarely, and reasonable precautions can prevent them. Enjoy your pet.
Thanks again Brooke. I fully intend to and am enjoying as only a puppy owner can, 🙂 – but mainly in Manhattan where I know and can counter the dangers: rapacious dinosaurs swooping down from the sky aren’t one of them. Nor off the leash Cujos!
best,
D.A.
NYC
Love the historical figures as regular people video!
Both the Iranian regime and the Trump administration are stalling for time. Iran is stalling in the hope that its smokescreen “diplomacy” will enable it to hang on until Trump is out of office. The Trump administration is stalling until all of our military assets are in place, and until Trump’s team figures out how to achieve meaningful results and still get out quickly to avoid a protracted war. If the Iranians fail to fool Trump, it will be just be a matter of time until the U.S. attacks.
Decades of neglect and naïveté got us here. Over the past 40 years, Iran has grown to become a global menace, driving toward obtaining a nuclear weapon and delivery system, exporting terrorism, threatening its neighbors, cozying up to Russia and China, endangering global shipping and world oil distribution, and even launching an anti-western propaganda war in the Spanish speaking western hemisphere.* It is in the U.S. vital interest to do something about Iran.
*
https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/massive-iranian-regime-news-operation-spreading-antisemitic-propaganda
Any attack by the US on Iran is justified on a military basis alone.
Iran has deliberately fired on US soldiers and military bases since 2023, killing three and wounding dozens in a drone attack on the US base in Jordan. Its proxy militias have carried out 150-200 attacks on US soldiers in Syria and Iraq.
It was found responsible in multiple US courts of the 1983 Beirut Military Barracks bombing that killed 241 American soldiers and injured 120 more.
It really would be the height of incivility to deny them what they ask for so repeatedly.
Yep. And I mentioned that Iran is stalling. Here’s the latest: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/artc-iran-fm-u-s-didn-t-demand-zero-enrichment-and-iran-not-contemplating-this-option
The Iranian Foreign Minister is now claiming that the U.S. never demanded zero enrichment. That, of course, is a lie. Now the U.S. side will have to come back to Araghchi and tell him that, yes, we really did make that demand. This is classic Iranian stalling. It’ll take a day or two to rectify. Then the Iranians will emit another puff of deceptive smoke for ths U.S. to have to set straight. I don’t think that Trump will put up with this bullsh*t for much longer.
Yes Roger, I’d forgotten about the recent outrages. I remember the Marines in Beirut and a decade of (further) American hostages in Lebanon AFTER the Embassy seizure. Hijacks of (various) planes and the Achille Lauro ship (Iran’s Lebanese proxies).
It is a very long charge sheet.
best,
D.A.
NYC
I just “popped in” to leave a comment and say hello!
Hi! Got any cat pics?
Another Edward – a name which means “wealthy protector” in Old English. Boy did my parents get THAT wrong.
That statement by Margaret Peters of UCLA is absolutely mind-boggling:
” She added that she believes Weiss has used the guise of free speech to attack people on the left whose opinions she does not agree with – and having her speak at a signatory lecture would legitimize these actions.
“To invite somebody who is working against that mission in highly powerful places just seems like anathema in the university mission,” Peters said. ”
The “guise of free speech” ?!? Those of us in the real world have a phrase for that: we call it “free speech”.
If Peters thinks that criticism of the Left is anathema to her or any University mission – assuming this article has got it right – she should be fired on the spot.
I stopped my annual donation to UCLA years ago when it went full-on DEI. Now it is losing the thread on critical thinking and free speech. Where is the leadership, not visionary leadership, just plain ol’ leadership that understands its mission and might keep my alma mater relevant to molding curious people with an ability (and desire) to apply critical thinking to contentious topics rather than simply put their hands over their ears and yell “Baa baa baa” like a five year old?
RE no ice cream, I don’t believe I’ve seen this one posted here. I love this kid:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/beM3mTk54XQ
Book binding: All cool! But especially – so that’s how those almost psychedelic patterns are created.