DAILY NEWS Stream – February 14, 2026

The United States and Armenia sign a civil nuclear cooperation deal that opens the door to major US reactor and fuel exports as Washington DC deepens ties with Armenia following a US-brokered agreement that brought Armenia and Azerbaijan onto a path toward normalizing relations after nearly 40 years of conflict (Reuters)

The UK widens its visa pathway for people from Hong Kong, allowing thousands more to move to Britain with their families as ministers reaffirm the UK’s long-standing commitment to provide a safe and legal route for those who choose to resettle (Gov.uk)

The European Union welcomes the formation of Yemen’s new government, calling it a positive step toward stability and better public services, and urging the new cabinet to focus on humanitarian needs, inclusive governance, and long-term peace (Yemen Online)

A French startup is testing lightweight electric vans that can switch between road and rail to run on the country’s thousands of abandoned railway lines, aiming to give rural areas a low-carbon, on-demand public transport option without rebuilding full train infrastructure (Euronews)

The UK launches a new campaign to help parents talk to their children about harmful online content, offering practical guidance on safety settings and difficult conversations as part of a wider effort to improve children’s digital well-being (Gov.uk)

Long Island [US] residents are protesting a plan to build a 6,000-chicken-person egg farm next to their homes, arguing the smell, noise, and pests would overwhelm the neighborhood (New York Post)

Health experts warn that smoking causes about 100,000 deaths a year in Türkiye — nearly 300 every day — as the Turkish Green Crescent Society’s Scientific Board urges stronger prevention, youth-focused education and support for quitting amid rising use of e-cigarettes and ongoing risks from second-hand and third-hand smoke (Türkiye Today)

Kenya is seeing a sharp surge in visceral leishmaniasis, also known as kala-azar or “black fever”— a deadly parasitic disease spread by sandflies that is almost always fatal without treatment — as cases more than double and spread into new regions amid climate change, drought and limited access to proper diagnosis and care (Citizen Digital)

A large UK–Finland analysis finds that obesity sharply increases the risk of severe infectious disease, with people who have obesity facing about a 70% higher chance of hospitalization or death and accounting for an estimated one in ten infection-related deaths worldwide, while weight loss appears to reduce that risk (Nutrition Insight)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology [US] researchers reveal sleep deprivation triggers emergency brain “cleanups” while awake. The brain stalls for 12 second intervals to flush waste, slowing heart rates and constricting pupils. These involuntary lapses prove sleep is irreplaceable, posing extreme danger for anyone driving or operating heavy machinery (Báo Người Lao Động)

US dietitians reveal that potato color signals specific health benefits. Purple and red varieties pack antioxidants for heart and brain health, whereas sweet potatoes offer vitamin A. White, russet and yellow potatoes offer potassium, fiber and energy. Experts recommend boiling, baking or air-frying with skins on. Cooling cooked potatoes before reheating them creates resistant starch, which helps minimize blood sugar spikes (Fox News)

Beta-sitosterol from aloe vera emerges as a powerful weapon against Alzheimer’s. Advanced simulations show this natural compound inhibits enzymes that destroy memory-linked neurotransmitters, helping preserve cognitive function. Non-toxic and easily absorbed, the compound offers a promising pathway for stable, natural treatments to manage neurodegenerative decline safely. Scientists believe this discovery marks a breakthrough in plant-based dementia therapy (Tuổi Trẻ)

A severe storm batters Hawaii [US] with up to 117-kilometer-per-hour winds and torrential rain, causing widespread power outages, downed trees, landslides and floods, prompting a state of emergency that remains in effect (The Watchers)

South Florida [US] water managers issue a shortage warning for six counties as a severe drought driven by La Niña depletes aquifers, prompting urgent calls for voluntary conservation (Miami Herald)

Portsmouth [UK] unveils a new clean air strategy as a council report links pollution to 5.2% of local premature deaths in 2023, a reduction from 6.9% in 2020, aiming to further reduce nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter levels (Southern Daily Echo)

More than 150 countries have approved a new global Business and Biodiversity Assessment at a UK-hosted summit in Manchester [UK], creating a scientific blueprint to help companies understand and manage their impact on nature as governments frame it as a key step toward this year’s biodiversity negotiations (Gov.uk)

Experts urge US and Canadian regulators to end mandatory rat-people testing requirements for the food industry to measure protein digestibility for food labeling of protein content. They argue these unethical rules should be updated to allow animal-free lab-based methods (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

Based in the Hudson Valley [New York, US], BjornQorn crafts vegan, solar-powered popcorn using local corn. The brand combines GMO [genetically modified organism]-free ingredients with renewable energy to prove that sustainable, allergen-friendly snacking is possible (Blue Dot Living)

US-based Pink Mouse Cosmetics launches a comprehensive line of vegan, natural, and cruelty-free beauty products. The range features botanical-driven cosmetics, hair care, and men’s grooming designed for ethical, high-performance consumption (OpenPR)

Police in Kentucky [US] credit an unidentified dog-person with leading officers to a missing three-year-old boy, guiding them from a neighbor’s porch to a backyard automobile where the terrified child was found safe, in what officers describe as a real-life “Lassie” rescue — with one officer calling the dog-individual “a blessing from God” (New York Post)

In Dahiyeh [Beirut, Lebanon], Diana Abadi has sheltered abandoned cat-people for about a dozen years, currently caring for 50-70 despite soaring rent, while donors and social media help fund treatment and adoptions (AP)

Pakistan launches Woofy, its first dedicated animal-person rescue app, in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The platform enables citizens to report injured or abused animal-folk via real-time dashboards. Connecting rescuers with clinics, the app aims to strengthen nationwide animal-people protection efforts (BloomPakistan)

Phùng Xuân Hùng and another man in Âu Lạc (Vietnam) dive into the freezing Nhuệ River to save an elderly motorcycle crash victim. The pair quickly pulls the man to shore before he is hospitalized for brain surgery due to a head injury. Their heroic actions receive widespread public praise (Dân Trí)

Uplifting quote of the day: “Even when bad things happen, you have to try to use those bad things in a positive manner and really just take the positive out of it.” – Natalie du Toit South African Swimmer and Gold Medal-winning Paralympian (BrainyQuote)

When I died at the age of 33, I died with a lifetime of secrets and shame that went with me, things that I had never told anybody, especially the abuse that I endured as a child from the ages of 3 to 12. I fell straight to my knees and then [He] went straight to my face and I cried because He touched me knowing who I was and who I had been. And He wrapped this Love around me. And I put my hands up, and I said, “Why?” In Part 1 of 2 of Crystal McVea’s near-death experience, the American school teacher shares how she died at age 33 and met God, Who answered her lifelong question about why He allowed her childhood abuse.

Crystal grew up in a small town in southwest Oklahoma, USA, where church attendance was a given. At eight years old, she responded to an altar call, ready to be saved. What no one knew was that Crystal had been suffering abuse since age three, and it was still continuing. She was baptized that night, hoping Lord Jesus would save her from the abuse. When it didn’t stop, she was baptized again and again— four times in three different denominations by age 12. Finally, Crystal concluded that either God wasn’t real, or He was real and simply didn’t love her.

By age 12, after repeated baptisms she hoped would somehow stop the abuse, Crystal felt worthless. Pregnant at 17, she carried shame into adulthood— until she came to believe that if God was real, He would never love someone like her. She married and divorced young, and by 23 had two children and a failing belief in God. When pastors spoke of God as a loving Father, it didn’t compute— her own father was absent, and her stepfather struggled with drug and alcohol abuse.

At 28, Crystal married Virgil, the first Christian man she had ever dated, and her relationship with God began to shift. Five years later, they welcomed twins, Willow and Micah, born four months premature. Crystal wrestled with God throughout their hospital stay, not knowing if her babies would survive. She tested God repeatedly, asking for specific signs— twins, a boy and a girl, and even different eye colors. Every prayer was answered, yet Crystal still allowed herself to believe it was coincidental.

Six months after bringing the twins home, Crystal went in for a routine endoscopy to check for breathing issues. The procedure went wrong, and she developed acute pancreatitis. Two days into her hospital stay, she called her mother, saying she was dying. Hours later, Crystal went into respiratory arrest. Her heart stopped beating, her breathing stopped, and a Code Blue — the hospital’s emergency call for cardiac or respiratory arrest — was issued as doctors rushed to resuscitate her.

I remember opening my eyes and seeing my mom sit at the foot of my bed, and her back was towards me, and she was reading a magazine. And I remember instantly knowing that my heart had just stopped, and I remember knowing I wasn’t breathing. And I have been terrified of death my entire life. And instantly this peace overwhelmed me, comforted me, and there was no fear. And with the last little breath I had in my lungs, I said, “I love you” to my mom. And then I closed my eyes and instantly opened them and was standing in Heaven.

For me, everything happened simultaneously, but on Earth, we have to tell things in a sequence. All knowledge was downloaded instantly. I knew where I was. I knew who I was, which I say I was still Crystal. I was still the same Crystal that had just died in that hospital room that the doctors and nurses were performing CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] on to bring back. And yet, I was the most perfect version of myself standing in this Light. No negativity whatsoever was attached to me.

I remember all of the knowledge being flooded. I remember knowing that I was the same “me” that had existed. I say, I was the same “me” that existed for all of eternity. And when I came across the [Bible] verse that said, “For I’ve known you before I knitted you in your mother’s womb.” That is the “me” that was standing there, the “me” that He had created before I became the human form of myself. My spirit was what was standing in front of Him.

Crystal experienced time differently— there was no rush, as if time didn’t exist. She had access to all knowledge instantly and knew everything she needed to know. She was in a tunnel made entirely of gorgeous light— not darkness, but a light that communicated and could be felt. Two angels stood in front of her to the left. They appeared humanlike in silhouette, but light radiated off them like a light bulb you can’t see into because of the brightness.

This Light source that was running through me and around me and radiating off of the floors of this tunnel and radiating off of the angels was His source. It was God Himself. I knew that I had known them not in this life, not on this Earth. I knew that I had known them for as long as I had been in existence. They were excited that I could finally see them and hear them. And I just remember loving them so much. They have to be my very best friends to love me and know me better than anybody on this Earth does.

Crystal communicated with the angels not through words, but through feelings and thoughts. She described having a hundred senses instead of the five we experience on Earth. Then she became aware of a presence to her right, which had been there all along.

I turned to face this presence, and immediately my spirit recognized Him. I say like I didn’t meet God, I recognized Him. I was standing in front of the Entity that created me. Can you imagine? I saw Him, and I fell straight to my knees, and I remember this is pivotal to me because I raised my hands. Now I had been raised mostly Baptist and Methodist, and we didn’t raise our hands in church. I’d never praised like that. And I remember falling to my knees and putting my hands up, and then I couldn’t even stay on my knees. I went straight down to my face, and it was out of a reverence. It was out of a love. And instantly, as I went down in front of Him, I remember I just started crying. And He wrapped me in this tangible Light, this tangible Love that I could feel.

Crystal had gone her whole life planning to ask God why He allowed her abuse. But when she opened her mouth in his presence, something unexpected came out. As I raised my hands and I opened my mouth, I said, “Why didn’t I do more for You?” And I’m so glad that God allowed me to remember that, because in that moment, with all that knowledge flooded into my spirit, the only question I had for Him was one of regret. Why didn’t I do more for You?

God wrapped her in Love like a cocoon, and she reached out trying to get closer, even though He was all around her. I said, “I could worship You for all of eternity.” Now that is not something that Crystal would have ever said because four [worship] songs in church and I was kind of done — and here I was saying, “I could lay and worship You for all of eternity.”

But Crystal’s encounter was far from over. God would soon reveal something she had never understood about her entire life. “He said, ‘I have tried to tell you this your entire life. I have tried to show you your entire life.’” Join us tomorrow for Part 2 of 2 of Crystal McVea’s near-death experience. (Imagine Heaven Podcast with John Burke)