2026-02-19 03:00 UTC | ⛏️ 937332

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Based on verified reporting, here are the top stories right now:

1. Bitcoin plummets 47% from peak highs
-- Bitcoin fell from $120,000 in October 2025 to $78,000-$80,000 range as of early February, with crypto market cap dropping from $4 trillion to below $3 trillion, driven by hawkish Fed signals and macro uncertainty.
-- A 47% drawdown approaches historically extreme territory not seen in 10 years, signaling potential capitulation or major deleveraging in digital assets.

2. New START nuclear treaty expires; no binding deal
-- The U.S.-Russia New START arms control treaty expired February 5, with no legally binding successor in place, though both sides agreed to act in good faith for negotiations.
-- This marks the first time in 50+ years without a bilateral nuclear arms limit treaty, eliminating verification mechanisms on deployed warheads.

3. Japan's LDP wins historic landslide victory
-- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's party won 316 seats (two-thirds supermajority), the largest single-party victory in postwar Japanese history.
-- Takaichi becomes Japan's first female Prime Minister with unprecedented power to pass constitutional amendments without upper house approval.

4. Enterprise AI deployments accelerate sharply
-- Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4.6 with one-million token context window; OpenAI launched Frontier enterprise agent platform; Snowflake-OpenAI $200M partnership announced.
-- Corporate AI spending is accelerating according to CFO surveys, with major cloud/AI providers competing for enterprise infrastructure contracts.

5. Ukraine risks losing NATO support amid shifts
-- Russia advancing militarily with Trump administration signaling interest in bilateral deals over collective defense, leaving Ukraine needing $100B+ in annual support.
-- U.S. weakness on security guarantees combined with European rearmament but fragmentation raises prospect of Russian territorial gains without negotiated settlement.