by Brad Reed | Feb 17, 2026 | AI, Article, Climate Crisis, Economy and Inequality, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Water
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 16, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
An artificial intelligence data center development venture has signed a multimillion-dollar deal that will allow it to consume over 40% of a Pennsylvania town’s excess water supply.
PennLive reported on Monday that Carlisle Development Partners, a joint venture created by developers Pennsylvania Data Center Partners and PowerHouse Data Centers, had signed a $14.1 million agreement that will let it tap into the public water and sewer systems of Middlesex Township, Pennsylvania.
According to PennLive, the deal will formalize the 18-building data center’s right to access up to 400,000 gallons of water per day, which the publication notes is “equal to the consumption of 2,367 dwelling units.”
Middlesex Township Supervisor Phil Neiderer said during a recent planning commission meeting that the big influx of revenue to the local government would more than make up for the massive amounts of water being consumed by the data center.
“What that’s going to do is it’s going to fund a lot of projects that have already been in the books that are completely unrelated to the data center,” Neiderer said, according to PennLive.
In recent months, residents of Middlesex Township and Cumberland County have raised concerns about not only water use but also pollution and utility rates tied to the project.
AI data centers have become a major controversy throughout the US in recent months, as their massive energy needs have pushed up utility bills and put a strain on communities’ water supplies.
A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability last year found that data centers could soon consume as much water as 10 million Americans and emit as much carbon dioxide as 10 million cars, or roughly the
by Chris Walker | Feb 12, 2026 | Article, Climate, Climate Crisis, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump
This story was originally published on Truthout on Feb. 12, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump ordered two executive branch departments to take actions that would increase the use of coal in the United States, despite fossil fuels becoming an obsolete form of energy production that is devastating to the health of the planet.
Under his plan, intended to bolster the dwindling U.S. coal industry, the Department of Defense would purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy will be doling out $175 million in upgrades for six coal plants in coal-rich states, including Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Trump announced his plans while hosting an event at the White House, where he also received an “Undisputed Champion of Coal” award from a coal-based special interest group.
“Sir, to show our appreciation, the trophy says ‘the undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal'” pic.twitter.com/D16HNy2CKQ— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2026
“I will sign an executive order that directs the Department of War [sic] to work directly with coal plants on the new power purchasing agreements, ensuring that we have more reliable power and stronger and more resilient grid power, and we’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” Trump said during the event.
The president’s executive order, which cites a so-called “national emergency” on energy he signed at the start of his second term, also described increasing the use of coal as “a matter of national security, strategic deterrence, and American energy dominance.”
Experts have decried Trump’s claims that there is an energy emergency.
“We’re the world’s number one exporter
by Jake Johnson | Feb 12, 2026 | Article, elections, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 12, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Doing President Donald Trump’s bidding, the Republican-controlled US House on Wednesday approved legislation that would potentially prevent millions of Americans from participating in federal elections by instituting draconian voter ID requirements, mandating documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, and requiring states to share voter information with the Department of Homeland Security.
The White House-backed legislation, an updated version of the so-called SAVE Act that the House approved in 2024, passed with the support of every Republican who took part in the vote and one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas—notably the recipient of a pardon from the president.
Election experts and watchdog groups said the bill represents a massive assault on the right to vote, with many of its provisions directly in line with what Trump has demanded ahead of the 2026 midterms.
“Congressional Republicans are attempting to commandeer the midterm election cycle and increase voting margins in President Trump’s favor by putting a finger on the scale of our elections and pushing nonsensical, anti-democratic laws to stop voters from casting a ballot,” said Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert. “This overreaching, un-American bill tacks on unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles to vote, all of which would harm voters across the political spectrum.”
The bill is likely dead on arrival in the narrowly divided Senate, with every Democrat and at least one Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, expected to oppose it.
But its passage through the House with unanimous support from the Republican caucus—whose members claim to be driven by a desire to prevent noncitizens from voting, which is already unlawful, and combat voter fraud,
by Qassam Muaddi | Feb 11, 2026 | Article, Israel, Palestine, Politics and Movements: International, Reprint, west bank
This story originally appeared in Mondoweiss on Feb. 11, 2026. It is shared here with permission.
Israel just erased Palestinian existence from the West Bank by law, and it’s not an overstatement.
It has so far been commonplace to say that Israel’s annexation of the West Bank exists in all but name, since a state of de facto annexation was being established on the ground even though the West Bank was still regarded as legally separate. That changed on Sunday.
While Israel did not announce a de jure annexation of the West Bank, it has laid the legal groundwork for it. The Israeli government’s security cabinet made a series of decisions on Sunday that changed the legal status quo in the West Bank, dramatically shrinking the already limited authority of the self-governing body known as the Palestinian Authority (PA). This signals the practical beginning of a formal annexation of the West Bank — starting with specific areas.
The Israeli security cabinet made a series of decisions on Sunday that changed the legal status quo in the West Bank. This signals the practical beginning of an annexation of the West Bank.
The bill conferring these authorities to Israel was approved by the cabinet in its final draft, and is to be voted on by the Israeli Knesset. When it passes, Israel will have the authority to impose Israeli law in areas of the West Bank that had been under PA control, especially laws regulating building permits. The bill, originally introduced in 2023 and known as “the Antiquities Bill,” concerns dozens of Palestinian historical sites in the West Bank. In addition, the Israeli cabinet decided on Sunday to allow Israelis to purchase real estate
by Nora Loreto | Feb 10, 2026 | Article, Canada, Oil, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump
This story was originally published on Truthout on Feb. 09, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
A separation movement in the Canadian province of Alberta claims to be gaining steam, and its leaders say they now have a meeting booked with U.S. Treasury Department officials. They will be asking for a line of credit worth $500 billion in U.S. currency to help transition Alberta from a Canadian province into a U.S. state.
Led by businessman Mitch Sylvestre, the Alberta Prosperity Project has launched a petition through a campaign called Stay Free Alberta to build support for a referendum to separate from Canada. The group has no official support from any of the elected parties in Alberta.
Behind its rallying cry of faith, family, and freedom, the Alberta Prosperity Project wants a new constitution for Albertans — one “that recognizes the Supremacy of God as foundational to Civil Society and the Rule of Law.”
Unlike in the province of Quebec, where separatist leaders hold elected office, Alberta’s separatist movement has no formal foothold in its province’s politics. Quebec, an overwhelmingly French-speaking province, is the only jurisdiction in Canada with a sizable sovereignty movement. That province had referenda in 1980 and 1995 that asked whether or not Quebecers wanted to separate from Canada, the latter narrowly failing. The separatist political party, Parti Québécois, is expected to form the next provincial government, and has promised a referendum in its first mandate.
Officially, the governing United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) is not advocating for sovereignty. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she wants Alberta to remain in Canada. However, the idea of sovereignty has been used by the
by Julia Conley | Feb 10, 2026 | Article, cuba, Gaza, Israel, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 10, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
As the Cuban government announced Monday that the Trump administration’s oil blockade on the country would soon leave airlines without jet fuel, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that the international community has become far too accepting of acts of economic warfare that collectively punish an entire population, not just government officials.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told Drop Site News reporter Julian Andreone that the stage for the worsened suffering of Cuban people was set in Gaza, where both Republican and Democratic US officials have backed Israel’s starvation policy and military assault since October 2023.
“This is what we’ve seen with Gaza, right, this is a new kind of era of depravity opened up, where there used to be—or there was this stated commitment on human rights—that innocent civilians were almost exempt from the rules of war, from blockades,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
🎥 WATCH | Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) reacted to Drop Site News reporting on internal divisions in the Trump administration’s Cuba policy by pointing to Gaza as evidence of a broader collapse in Western human rights norms.She said the “entire Western world” is looking… pic.twitter.com/SnI4niD8JH— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) February 10, 2026
Cuban people have long been victimized by the US government’s decadeslong, illegal trade embargo. But Trump’s decision to cut off Cuba’s oil supply from Venezuela, which was its largest energy supplier, and threaten to slap tariffs on any country that provides oil to the island nation, has left families facing lengthy blackouts and the threat that Cuba’s healthcare system could soon grind to a halt without fuel to keep hospitals running.
Trump has claimed he aims to punish the Cuban government, which he said last month constitutes
