🇺🇸 🪖 Marine declared dead after falling off USS Iwo Jima in Caribbean Sea

Lance Cpl. Chukwuemeka E. Oforah, 21, of Florida, was declared dead on Tuesday following a 72-hour search and rescue operation, according to a II Marine Expeditionary Force news release Thursday.

Oforah was a rifleman assigned to Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, and deployed with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable).

He was reported falling overboard Saturday evening, according to the release.

The search and rescue involved the Iwo Jima’s 7-meter small boat and surface rescue swimmer teams; two U.S. Navy MH-60 Sierra and two MH-60 Romeo helicopters; a Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper helicopter and a UH-1Y Venom helicopter; a Navy P-8 Poseidon; two Air Force HC-130J Combat King IIs; and an MQ-9 Reaper drone, according to the release.

https://www.stripes.com/branches/marine_corps/2026-02-12/marine-overboard-death-caribbean-sea-20711827.html

🇫🇷🇩🇪⚡️- Politico, citing an official, claims the Franco-German next-gen FCAS fighter program has collapsed after months of tensions and internal disagreements, despite Macron's recent renewed efforts.

The project, launched in 2017, aimed at producing Europe's own 6th gen fighters by 2035.

🗳 🇺🇸 👮‍♂️ The US Senate voted 52–47 against a bill intended to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

📎 AF Post

This isn't because Biden was any good; Biden was a historically awful president. Trump has actually managed to exceed him in awfulness by being a complete tool of the Jews and the super-rich.

A big part of why Biden lost was his deeply unpopular, irrationally fanatical support for Israel. Trump lets Netanyahu come to the White House whenever he pleases and he is even more servile to Netanyahu than Biden. This suggests the US System is not a democracy at all, it's as controlled as any Gulf monarchy.

📢 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 Trump: "Bibi's been a great wartime prime minister, and I've been the best friend to Israel I think that they've ever had, a lot of people say beyond presidents that they've ever had."

📎 Disclosetv

🇲🇽 🇨🇺 🇺🇸 2 Mexican Navy ships laden with humanitarian aid dock in Cuba as US blockade sparks energy crisis

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that as soon as the ships return, “we will send more support of different kinds.” Her administration noted that it still plans to send 1,500 tons of beans and powdered milk.

Sheinbaum has previously said the humanitarian aid would be sent while diplomatic maneuvering to resume oil supplies is underway. She says Mexico has told the United States it seeks to promote peaceful dialogue and ensure Cuba “can receive oil and its derivatives for its daily operations.”

Cuba has also reduced bank hours and suspended cultural events, while fuel distribution companies have said that sales only will be made in dollars and limited to 20 liters (5.28 gallons) per user.

In addition to severe blackouts, Cuban officials say that U.S. sanctions, which increased under Trump’s second term, cost the country more than $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025.

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-cuba-humanitarian-aid-havana-us-sanctions-52c44db94c9423511d67366662e78ac4

📢 🇺🇸 🌎 Hegseth Calls for Military Unity Across Western Hemisphere at Inaugural Defense Chiefs Gathering

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth today called on defense chiefs and other senior military leaders from 34 Western Hemisphere countries to unite in deterrence against bad actors who may already be operating in, or working to encroach upon, the region.

Convened by Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and held in downtown Washington, the daylong, first-of-its-kind Western Hemisphere Chiefs of Defense Conference focused on regional security cooperation against narco-terrorism and other criminal enterprises throughout the hemisphere, while also analyzing common security priorities between allies and partner nations.

"The United States is asserting, reestablishing and enforcing the Trump corollary of the Monroe Doctrine," Hegseth explained.

"Yes, policing is important [and] enforcing is important, but military power is [also] important," Hegseth said, adding that the countries represented during the day's conference must work together to combat and dismantle narco-terrorism and drug trafficking cartels in the Western Hemisphere.

"We need to build those bonds of partnership to defeat the challenges to our security and our sovereignty," he added. "So, as you might say, we can make the Americas great again."

https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4404743/hegseth-calls-for-military-unity-across-western-hemisphere-at-inaugural-defense/

⚓️ 🇺🇸 ⚠️ Sal Mercogliano on X:

We have a video showing USS Truxtun (DDG-103) colliding with USNS Supply (T-AOE 6) in the Caribbean during an underway replenishment/refueling operation.

Supply had the USS Gettysburg (CG-64) alongside to starboard, so Supply could not maneuver.

This video shows the moment that Truxtun loses control and maneuvers into the starboard amidships of Supply.

📎 Sal Mercoglianos

🛢 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 American officials are considering sending fuel to the island of Cuba to stave off a humanitarian crisis

Marco Rubio "could easily end up as the public face of an induced humanitarian crisis, along with another wave of Cuban 'boat people' crossing the 140km (90 miles) of water to the coast of Florida."

Mr. Rubio is one of the most powerful members of Mr Trump’s cabinet. He serves as both secretary of state and acting national security adviser. The only other person to hold both roles simultaneously was Henry Kissinger. While he appeared to be sidelined by some of the Trump administration’s special envoys on big foreign-policy projects in the Middle East and Ukraine, the Caracas raid has put him back in the spotlight. He is one of the architects of the president’s so-called Donroe doctrine, which prescribes dominance of the western hemisphere for the United States. “For Marco Rubio there is no better moment,” says Ricardo Herrero of the Cuba Study Group, which advocates for change in Cuba through dialogue and reconciliation.

Peaceful change would be far from simple to pull off. Unlike Mr Herrero, many of the 2.5m Cuban-Americans are hardliners. That includes south Florida’s three Cuban-American members of Congress. They want the Trump administration to impose even harsher measures on the regime, including a ban on family remittances to Cuba and a halt on all flights to the island by airlines based in the United States.

The White House doesn’t seem willing to go that far. It hopes instead that the fuel shortage will force the Cuban government to the table. Cuban officials have been pushing back, saying that discussions so far are preliminary, and that while they are open to dialogue, they will not change their one-party communist system.

The parallels between Venezuela and Cuba are limited. The Cuban regime is ideological and homogenous, where the Venezuelan one under Mr Maduro was split into factions and purely self-interested. Cuba’s security forces are also “more indoctrinated” than Venezuela’s, says Chris Sabatini of Chatham House, a think-tank based in London. Venezuela has abundant mineral wealth of the kind that allures Mr Trump. Cuba has little.

Given that, Mr Rubio is probably wise to string Cuba along. “Cuba is no longer self-sustaining,” says Mr Herrero. “Its only lifeline is the United States.” That may soon be more than a metaphor. Several sources tell The Economist that the United States is considering sending small quantities of fuel to the island: gas for cooking and diesel to keep water infrastructure running. Mr Rubio would gain even greater sway over his parents’ homeland.

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2026/02/12/cubas-fate-may-be-in-marco-rubios-hands

📎 The Economist

📢 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 Carrie Prejean Boller on X:

"Forcing people to affirm Zionism on a “Religious Liberty” Commission is the opposite of religious freedom."

"I will not resign, and I will not be bullied for following my Catholic conscience."

📎 Carrie Prejean Boller

📢 🇺🇸 🌐 Marco Rubio: "The world is changing very fast right in front of us. The old world is gone ... We live in a new era in geopolitics, and it's going to require all of us to sort of re-examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be."

📎 State Department

🇺🇸⚡️- BREAKING: Jeffrey Epstein invited Bill Gates to his island and told him that people from the first Trump administration would be visiting the island.

⚓️ 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 With Nimitz decommissioning, the U.S. carrier fleet is effectively down to 10 and stretched thin. Half are in current or upcoming maintenance. Two are deployed, one is forward-deployed, and two are preparing to deploy over the coming weeks and months. Not much room for error.

As I and others have reported for months: USS George H.W. Bush is deploying next from the east coast. According to WSJ, the crew was told to prepare to deploy to the Middle East on a potentially expedited timeline. Surging - at the expense of training - has always been an option.

📎 Ian Ellis