NASA Crew, Airstrikes, and Shifting Vaccine Rules

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Multiple International Events Mark a Busy Day in Global Affairs

WASHINGTON - February 14, 2026 - A series of significant events unfolded on Saturday, February 14, 2026, spanning international relations, space exploration, and public health. The U.S. military conducted airstrikes in Syria, a NASA mission reached the International Space Station, and political developments occurred in Bangladesh and Europe.

The U.S. military reported a series of strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria, according to The Associated Press. These strikes, conducted between February 3 and Thursday, were in retaliation for a December ambush that killed two U.S. soldiers and one American civilian interpreter. U.S. Central Command stated that American aircraft conducted 10 strikes against more than 30 IS targets, hitting weapons storage facilities and other infrastructure.

Meanwhile, four members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 mission docked at the International Space Station on Saturday afternoon, as reported by NPR News. The crew, including two NASA astronauts, Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian astronaut Andrei Fedyaev, launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Friday morning.

In the realm of international politics, Bangladesh held its first fair vote in years, facing a daunting to-do list, according to NPR Politics. The winners now face pressure to tackle corruption and a struggling economy. Additionally, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a keynote speech at the annual Munich Security Conference, with his words reassuring European stakeholders, though tensions remain, as reported by NPR Politics.

In other news, Jim O'Neill, the U.S. deputy health secretary, who oversaw a department with a budget of over a trillion dollars and signed the decision memorandum on the U.S.'s new vaccine schedule, discussed his plans to increase human healthspan through longevity-focused research supported by ARPA-H, a federal agency dedicated to biomedical research, according to MIT Technology Review. However, following the publication of the story, Politico reported that O'Neill would be leaving his current roles within the Department of Health and Human Services.