Trump’s State of the Union; US threatens Anthropic

Happy Thursday and welcome to your morning wrap of the latest political and business headlines from around the world.

First up, most major news outlets are leading with recaps of US President Donald Trump’s marathon State of the Union address yesterday afternoon.

His one-hour-and-47-minute address to Congress was a chance for him to go through his administration’s achievements, where the US economy and affordability were key themes. He emphasised the decline in inflation since he came to power, as well as the improvement in the jobless rate.

A focus of much of the news coverage this morning is fact-checking some of his claims.

For instance, Trump claimed that the price of gasoline is US$2.30 per gallon in most states and in some places $1.99. But as the BBC found, the national average price for a gallon of fuel, according to the Automobile Association, is $2.95. The only state where petrol was near $2.30 was Oklahoma, where there was an average price of $2.37.

Similarly, Trump claimed to have ended eight wars. Deutsche Welle reported that while the US has helped broker peace agreements between countries, others are still ongoing despite US involvement, such as the war in Gaza and the conflict between Congo and Rwanda.

The war in Gaza was one of the conflicts Donald Trump claimed to have ended.

Staying in the United States, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox Business Network that tariffs would increase to 15% for some countries after a blanket 10% levy came into effect yesterday, The Guardian reported.

“Right now, we have the 10% tariff. It’ll go up to 15[%] for some, and then it may go higher for others, and I think it will be in line with the types of tariffs we’ve been seeing,” Greer said in an interview on Fox. However, Greer did not name any specific trading partners or other details in the interview.

Speaking later on Bloomberg TV, Greer said the White House would "accommodate" countries that had trade deals but did not provide details.

In business news, the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has threatened to cut Anthropic from his department’s supply chain unless it agrees to sign off on its technology being used in lawful military applications, the Financial Times reported.

The threat is the latest in a feud between the artificial intelligence company and the department, which was triggered by Anthropic’s refusal to give unfettered access to its models for classified military use, including surveillance and deadly missions without human control.

Hegseth reportedly summoned Anthropic boss Dario Amodei to Washington for a meeting this week where, during tense talks, he threatened to cut the company out of the supply chain or invoke Cold War-era measures that allow the President to control domestic industry.

Anthropic had until Friday (local time) “to get on board or not” with Hesgeth’s terms, according to a senior Pentagon official.

Dario Amodei.

Now, to the latest in the battle to own Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). It was reported by CNBC late yesterday that Paramount Skydance (PSKY) has raised its takeover price for the company to US$31 per share from US$30.

Paramount also sweetened its proposal by promising a $7 billion termination fee in the event the transaction does not close due to regulatory matters, as well as a $2.8b break-up fee that WBD would owe rival suitor Netflix if it did not go ahead with its offer to pay $27.75 per share for just WBD’s studio and streaming assets.

“The board has not made a determination as to whether the revised PSKY proposal is superior to the merger with Netflix,” it said in a statement.

If WBD deems Paramount’s offer superior, Netflix will have four days to lift its bid.

WBD’s board will likely have to pay very close attention to the regulatory implications of a mega-merger with Netflix, however, as the political drums have started beating.

Overnight, Republican attorneys general from 11 US states have urged the US Department of Justice to conduct a thorough review of Netflix’s bid, saying the deal threatens competition, Reuters reported.

Nebraska and Montana led the group of states that wrote to the DOJ to scrutinise how the deal would affect customers of streaming services, as well as the market for theatrical movie releases.

They said the deal will likely result in “undue market concentration that stifles competition and therefore creates higher prices, lower reliability, and less innovation for one of America’s major industries – all to the detriment of American consumers”.

Bill Gates.

Finally, this morning, Bill Gates has apologised to the staff of his foundation for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and admitted to two affairs but said he did not participate in any of the late sex offender’s crimes, according to the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian.

At a town hall meeting, the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist said it was a “huge mistake to spend time with Epstein” and to bring Gates Foundation executives to meetings with Epstein.

“I apologise to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” Gates said, according to a recording reviewed by the Journal.

Gates’ relationship with Epstein has received increased scrutiny due to the recent release of files that included emails Epstein wrote to himself in which he claimed Gates had contracted a sexually transmitted infection and requested antibiotics to surreptitiously give to his then-wife, Melinda, although Gates denied this.

There were also images of Gates with women whose faces were redacted.