Reuters World News - State of the Union, tariffs, Guthrie and AI

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address describes a “golden age of America" in a speech aimed at building support ahead of November's midterms. But there’s confusion over his new tariff policy. The Guthrie family offers up to $1 million as a reward for information that leads to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie. Plus, OpenAI representatives are questioned by Canadian officials following the Tumble Ridge mass shooting. Listen to the Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠⁠here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. Find the Recommended Read ⁠here. Visit the ⁠Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement⁠ for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠ to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Wednesday, February 25th. Today, Donald Trump gives his State of the Union address, heralding his wins and handing out awards in showman style. Officials play catch-up on tariffs and companies demand refunds after the Supreme Court ruling. And OpenAI promises to do more as Canada demands action after the Tumblr Ridge mass shooting. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week.

Our nation is back. Bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before. President Donald Trump using his State of the Union speech to tout his economic record, his crackdown on immigration, and foreign policy moves. And America's armed forces overwhelmed. all defenses are not only defeated a enemy, good fighters, to end the reign of outlawed dictator Nicholas Maduro and bring him to face American justice. During the course of his one-hour 47-minute speech,

the longest in recent history, Trump also brought out the men's Olympic hockey team, fresh from their gold medal win in Italy. Here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire. nation proud. Announcing he plans to award the presidential medal of freedom to golly Conner Hellebuk.

As Trump spoke, Republicans gave standing ovations regularly, while Democrats, for the most part, sat stony-faced, listening as they were blamed for a number of issues facing the country. So what should we take away from the address? White House correspondent Bo Erickson in Washington, D.C. has more. Trump really mixed patriotism and politics in the state of the union address. The first part was actually quite apolitical, but then the speech turned into almost a campaign rally in both length and tenor. This year is an election year in the United States with the midterm elections,

which will decide who controls Congress in November. And the strongest rebuke he was having for Democrats is really on the issue of immigration. In the last few weeks, President Trump and his administration has really tried to get that message back on track after the lethal shootings of Americans, citizens by U.S. federal agents, specifically in Minnesota. So the president was really using gory images trying to make the point that there are undocumented people in the country that are murdering Americans. And he was trying to put some pressure on Democrats, basically alleging that they do not care about these people and so therefore they should support his policies.

It was all delivered, Bose says, in Trump's signature style. Trump has long been credited with being a showman in life. And at times in his speech, he was almost like a ringmaster. He was bringing people out doing these reveals through the doors of the U.S. House chamber, whether that be the U.S. men's hockey team who came out to applause or bringing out people to receive military awards. There is this production value that we haven't quite seen from presidents before him. Several Democrats opted to skip Trump's speech

and instead went to an event dubbed the People's State of the Union. Others went to a different counter-event called the State of the Swamp, where actor Robert De Niro addressed the crowd, including activists dressed as frogs. Before beginning his speech, Trump made a symbolic gesture by stopping to shake the hands of four Supreme Court just days earlier struck down his sweeping tariff program. In the speech itself, he called the court's decision unfortunate,

but said it won't impact much. For some countries, however, confusion reigns. Last Friday, Trump said he'd impose new tariffs of 10%, then said it would be 15. But when they went into effect on Tuesday, it was back at the original 10% rate. Economics reporter David Lauder in Washington says that's probably only short term.

On Tuesday, we called the White House and asked them about this. Did the president have a change of heart? Or does he intend to ultimately raise the tariffs to 15%? And the answer is basically yes, that they're working on changing it to 15%. So it seems to be a case where the legal apparatus and the president's staff is catching up to what the president had to say.

While companies and countries are catching up to these new tariffs, they're also eyeing possible refunds of the previous duties now deemed illegal. The French cosmetics company L'Orielle, the British vacuum company Dyson, and the American Tiremaker Goodyear all filed seat on Tuesday to preserve their right to a refund. So there's like about 1,400 companies. There's another twist in the bidding war for Warner Brothers,

which is reaching fever pitch. They've opened the door to Paramount Skydarts after the rival bidder raised its offer to $31 per share, with the board signaling that Netflix, may lose its place as the preferred suitor. Iran is close to buying advanced anti-ship cruise missiles from China, according to sources familiar with the talks. They are supersonic, fly low, and are designed to evade ship defenses,

significantly strengthening Iran's ability to target warships in the region. It comes as the United States moves major naval forces closer to Iran's coast amid warnings of possible military action. You can read more on this exclusive story at Reuters.com or the Reuters app. The family of Nancy Guthrie is now offering up to a million dollars for information leading to her recovery. In a tearful video posted Tuesday, NBC host Savannah Guthrie for the first time acknowledged that her mother may already be dead, but says she needs to know where she is. Someone out there knows something that can bring her home.

A new report which presents a dystopian near future shaped by AI has gone viral and the fear has landed with investors too, spooking markets. The report by Citrini Research presents the scenario that by 2028, AI could replace large amounts of white-collar work, pushing unemployment above 10% as companies automate software, and delivery tasks. Over to markets now with more AI news. Here's Mike Dolan from our sister podcast MorningBid on the Anthropic latest.

So we got a bit of a bounce in the software sector yesterday, the beaten down software sector. And interestingly, for the reasons that they were beaten down in the first place. So Anthropic, this AI lab has released a whole series of new plugins. But this time the market viewed it differently. He saw it more of a partnership than a replacement from Mention. the companies in that area. So a change of mood for sure. And the balance has possibly helped as we wait in video's results later today. Thanks, Mike. You can get morning bid wherever you get your

podcasts. And in one more bit of AI news, Canadian officials have questioned leaders from Open AI about the company's safety protocols following one of the country's worst ever school shootings earlier this month. After the shooting, it was revealed that OpenAI had banned and the ChatGPT account of the suspected shooter, but did not tell police. Reporter Ryan Patrick Jones says the case raises the question of just what tech companies are obliged or required to report. OpenAI says it banned Jesse Van Routzilar's account on its chatbot chat GPT eight months before the shooting for violations of its safety policies. The company didn't exactly say what she did, only that its automated systems flagged her account for possible misuse of its models, quote, in furtherance of violent activities.

OpenAI says it considered whether to alert police at the time, but decided that the activity didn't quite meet its threshold of posing an imminent and credible risk of serious harm. They say they didn't identify any concrete or immediate planning. So the company says it kind of had to balance whether to report to police with the importance of user privacy and the risk of over-enforcing and potentially causing unintended harm. Now, after the shooting, OpenAI did contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and shared information on Van Routselaer's past use of Chatchip-T, and they say they are continuing to assist investigators.

In a statement after the meeting, OpenAI said it has taken steps to strengthen safeguards and has made changes to law enforcement referral protocols for cases involving violent activities. And for today's recommended read, meet the rapper turned politician, who's in poll position to become Nepal's next Prime Minister after an historic youth-led uprising last year. There is a link to that story in the show notes.

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