Six to Three

Days 46–52 — February 15–21, 2026

The Gate

The Supreme Court struck down the president's tariffs.

On the twentieth of February, six justices ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the imposition of tariffs. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion. The power to tax imports, the Court held, belongs to Congress. It always had.

The tariffs had raised more than one hundred sixty billion dollars. The Court said they were unlawful.

Trump said, "That's a disgrace." Within hours, he signed a proclamation under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974—a temporary import surcharge of ten percent on all goods, for one hundred fifty days. The next day he raised it to fifteen percent, the maximum the statute allows.

The Court took one law away. The president found another.

The War

The third round of trilateral talks in Geneva lasted six hours on the seventeenth and less than two on the eighteenth.

The American mediators—Steve Witkoff and, for the first time, Jared Kushner—did not attend the second day. Russia's lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, called the discussions "difficult but businesslike." Ukraine's Rustem Umerov called the military talks on ceasefire monitoring constructive. The political negotiations, he said, were not. Russia continued to demand the Donbas. Ukraine would not yield it.

On the night of the twentieth, Ukraine struck the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant—which produces Iskander tactical missiles, Oreshnik intermediate-range systems, and intercontinental ballistic missiles—with domestically produced FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles that flew approximately fourteen hundred kilometers. A second missile hit a gas processing plant in Samara Oblast. It was the first confirmed strike on a core Russian missile production facility.

On the eighteenth, the United States announced it would withdraw all remaining troops from Syria, ending an eleven-year military presence. On the night of the twenty-first, Pakistan struck along the Afghan border in Nangarhar, Paktika, and Khost provinces. UNAMA confirmed thirteen civilians killed, including women and children.

In the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, American forces struck three boats on the sixteenth under Operation Southern Spear, killing eleven. The campaign had killed at least one hundred fifty-one since September. No evidence was provided that the vessels carried drugs.

The Silence

Iran marked the fortieth day.

On the seventeenth, memorial ceremonies in at least fifty-six cities became protests. Thousands gathered at cemeteries chanting "Death to Khamenei" and "For every one killed, a thousand stand behind them." Security forces responded with gunfire and arrests. Student organizations in twenty-eight universities called a general strike. On the eighteenth, schools closed across the country in honor of the at least two hundred thirty children killed in the January crackdown. The confirmed death toll exceeded seven thousand. Internal government estimates suggested thirty thousand to thirty-six thousand.

The mourning became defiance. The defiance continued.

In the Persian Gulf, the United States deployed a second carrier strike group.

The Verdict

A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison.

Yoon had imposed martial law in December 2024 and deployed troops to the National Assembly. He had already received five years for obstruction in January. On the nineteenth of February, the court found him guilty of insurrection. Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun received thirty years.

The Human Cost

Israel struck across Lebanon on the twentieth. Twelve dead in the Bekaa Valley and the south. Three children among the wounded. The military said it struck a Hamas command center in Ain Al Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, in response to ceasefire violations.

In Gaza, at least eleven were killed in Jabalia and Khan Yunis on the fifteenth. On the nineteenth, Trump hosted the inaugural Board of Peace in Washington. Fourteen nations pledged seventeen billion dollars for reconstruction and twenty thousand troops for stabilization. Palestinians met the announcement with skepticism; the United Nations estimated reconstruction would cost seventy billion. Trump declared the war over.

In Sudan, a drone strike—attributed by the United Nations to the Sudanese Armed Forces—hit a crowded market in North Kordofan on the sixteenth, killing at least twenty-eight. Across four states, at least fifty-seven died in drone attacks over two days. Famine was confirmed in El Fasher and Kadugli. The World Food Programme said its stocks would be exhausted by March.

In Somalia, the World Food Programme warned its aid could halt by April. Recipients had been cut from two million to six hundred thousand. In South Sudan, the fighting that had displaced two hundred eighty thousand continued. Three humanitarian workers killed. Cholera spread. In Nigeria, a gas explosion at a lead mine in Plateau State killed thirty-eight.

The Border

The Department of Homeland Security shutdown entered its second week. Congressional Democrats refused to fund the department without reforms to immigration enforcement—body cameras, judicial warrants for private property arrests. Republicans refused. More than two hundred sixty thousand employees worked without pay. DHS halted non-disaster FEMA operations and suspended Global Entry. No resolution came.

The Succession

Peru's Congress censured President José Jerí by seventy-five votes to twenty-four. He had served four months. He was accused of secret meetings with a Chinese businessman who held state concessions—a scandal called Chifa-gate. Former Supreme Court judge José María Balcázar became interim president. It was Peru's eighth change of leader in less than a decade.

The Crown

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on the nineteenth—his sixty-sixth birthday—on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The allegation: that he shared confidential government reports with Jeffrey Epstein during his time as a British trade envoy. King Charles III had stripped his titles in October. He was released under investigation. The offense carries a maximum sentence of life.

The Machines

Eighty-eight countries adopted the New Delhi Declaration on artificial intelligence at India's AI Impact Summit—the first in the series hosted by a Global South nation. Reliance and Adani pledged a combined two hundred ten billion dollars in AI and data infrastructure.

The Games

The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics closed on the twenty-second. Norway set a record with forty-one medals. The United States won twelve golds—its most at a Winter Games.

The Passing

Reverend Jesse Jackson died on the seventeenth at eighty-four. A protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., he had twice run for president, founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and reshaped the landscape of American politics.

Robert Duvall died at his home in Virginia on the fifteenth at ninety-five. He had won the Academy Award for Tender Mercies and defined American cinema across six decades—The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Great Santini.

Willie Colón, the trombonist who built Nuyorican salsa, died in New York on the twenty-first at seventy-five. He recorded his first album with Héctor Lavoe at sixteen. Siembra, with Rubén Blades, endures.

The Ledger

Six justices said the tariffs were unlawful. The president found another statute before sundown. In Geneva, the mediators did not return for day two. A Ukrainian missile flew fourteen hundred kilometers to the factory that builds the missiles aimed at Ukrainian cities. Iran mourned its dead and the mourning became defiance. A drone hit a Sudanese market; the United Nations blamed the army. A former president received life for sending soldiers to parliament. A former prince was arrested on his birthday. Seventeen billion pledged to rebuild what was still being destroyed. Peru lost another president. In Barcelona, a cross topped the Sagrada Família; one hundred forty-four years of building reached their designed height. Jackson marched with King. Duvall played the consigliere. Colón picked up the trombone at sixteen. The chronicle records.

Here continues the account of the year 2026.