Top 5 US news stories
February 25 2026
Trump Unveils AI Energy Pledge, Retirement Match, and Fraud Crackdown in Joint Address
Trump Awards First-Ever State of the Union Medals of Honor in Record-Length Address
Trump Stages Midterm Preview at Joint Address, Casting Democrats as Obstacle to Public Safety
Anthropic Scales Back AI Safety Commitments Amid Competitive Pressure and Pentagon Ultimatum
Ukraine Reclaims Territory and Inflicts Mounting Losses as Russia's War Enters Fifth Year
Trump Unveils AI Energy Pledge, Retirement Match, and Fraud Crackdown in Joint Address
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump used his sixth address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night to announce a series of domestic initiatives, including a "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" that would require technology companies building artificial intelligence data centers to construct their own power plants, a federally matched retirement savings plan for the roughly 50 percent of private-sector workers who lack employer-sponsored accounts, and an anti-fraud campaign to be led by Vice President JD Vance. The energy proposal comes as the International Energy Agency projects data center electricity demand will double by 2028, raising concerns that AI expansion could increase consumer utility bills; Trump told lawmakers the pledge would ensure electricity prices do not rise and in many cases would fall. The retirement plan would offer workers without employer matching contributions access to a program modeled on the federal Thrift Savings Program, with the government matching up to $1,000 per year — a proposal aimed at the roughly 40.6 million full-time workers the Bureau of Labor Statistics says currently lack access to any employer-sponsored plan. Trump also formally launched what he called a "war on fraud," citing government benefit fraud in Minnesota at a scale that he said significantly exceeds documented cases and official estimates.
Greg Loving
Trump Awards First-Ever State of the Union Medals of Honor in Record-Length Address
WASHINGTON — In an unprecedented display during his joint address to Congress, President Trump presented seven military and civilian awards, including two Congressional Medals of Honor — the first ever bestowed during a State of the Union speech. Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover, visibly injured and assisted to his feet with a walker, received one for a January raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, while retired Navy Capt. Royce Williams, 100, received his for a classified 1952 Korean War dogfight. Trump also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Olympic hockey goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, a Legion of Merit to Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Ruskin for saving 165 people during a July 4, 2025, Texas flood, and Purple Hearts to two West Virginia National Guard members shot near the White House by an Afghan national — Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, who was killed, and Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, who survived and was present in the gallery. In total, Trump recognized 27 individuals and groups by name, roughly double the typical number, in a speech that ran one hour and 47 minutes — the longest State of the Union on record.
Greg Loving
Trump Stages Midterm Preview at Joint Address, Casting Democrats as Obstacle to Public Safety
WASHINGTON — With midterm elections less than nine months away, President Trump repeatedly framed congressional Democrats as an obstacle to public safety during his address to a joint session of Congress, staging a series of stand-or-sit confrontations designed to produce visual contrasts for the 2026 campaign. Trump asked lawmakers to rise if they agreed that the government's first duty is to protect American citizens over undocumented immigrants, then narrated Democrats' refusal to stand, telling the chamber, "You should be ashamed of yourself"; he repeated the tactic on banning gender transitions for minors without parental consent, and called on Congress to pass the "Save America Act" requiring voter identification and ending most mail-in voting, asserting Democrats oppose such measures "because they want to cheat." Five of the 27 gallery guests were victims of crimes Trump attributed to Democratic immigration or criminal justice policies, including a five-year-old girl struck by a truck driven by an undocumented immigrant and a Ukrainian refugee killed on a Charlotte, North Carolina, train by a repeat offender released under a no-cash-bail program. The speech unfolded against the backdrop of a partial government shutdown, with Trump accusing Democrats of cutting all funding for the Department of Homeland Security, In the Democratic response, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger sought to redirect the debate from immigration to the economy, asking voters, "Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?"
Greg Loving
Anthropic Scales Back AI Safety Commitments Amid Competitive Pressure and Pentagon Ultimatum
WASHINGTON — Anthropic, the artificial-intelligence company long regarded as one of the industry's most safety-conscious players, said Tuesday it is softening its core safety policy to stay competitive with rivals such as OpenAI, Elon Musk's xAI, and Google, announcing it will no longer pause development on models classified as dangerous if a comparable or superior model has already been released by a competitor. The shift, which Anthropic described as an update reflecting the speed of AI development and the absence of federal AI regulations, marks a dramatic reversal from the guardrails the company published two and a half years ago. The move comes as Anthropic faces a Friday deadline from the Pentagon to relax its usage policies or risk losing its defense contract — or face other consequences — after the company told the Defense Department its Claude tools could not be used for domestic surveillance or autonomous lethal activities. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered the ultimatum directly to Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei on Tuesday, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the policy change.
WSJ
Ukraine Reclaims Territory and Inflicts Mounting Losses as Russia's War Enters Fifth Year
KHARKIV, Ukraine — As the war in Ukraine enters its fifth year and peace negotiations backed by President Trump remain stalled, Ukrainian forces are chipping away at Russian advances in the country's southeast and northeast, demonstrating that Kyiv retains significant fighting capacity even as Moscow seeks to portray its victory as inevitable. Ukraine has largely cleared the northeastern city of Kupyansk of Russian forces and retaken several villages in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, embarrassing Russian generals' claims of significant gains, while long-range strikes, Western sanctions, and ship seizures are pushing down prices for the Russian oil Moscow needs to sustain its military effort. Russian military casualties now total some 1.2 million, with as many as 325,000 killed — more than double Ukraine's losses — according to the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Ukraine's top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, said last week that Russia was unable to replace its battlefield losses in 2025. Seth Jones, president of the defense and security department at CSIS, said the mounting toll explains why Russian President Vladimir Putin is dangling economic deals before Trump — to tempt him to cut off support for Ukraine or pressure Kyiv into ceding territory his army has not conquered, calling it "the big breakthrough in a war that his military is unable to win."
WSJ
February 25 1940: NHL game televised in US for first time
The first telecast of a National Hockey League game is transmitted over New York's W2XBS—the National Broadcasting Company's experimental station used to test TV technology. A viewing audience estimated at 300 subscribers watches the New York Rangers defeat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-2, at Madison Square Garden.
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Sources
- WSJ (Article 4 — Anthropic): https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-dials-back-ai-safety-commitments-38257540
- WSJ (Article 5 — Ukraine): https://www.wsj.com/world/as-war-enters-fifth-year-ukraine-shows-russian-victory-is-anything-but-inevitable-7898d921
