作者： root

FAA plans to reduce flights at Chicago O’Hare, cites boost in schedules

February 27, 2026 9:24 PM UTC / Reuters / By David Shepardson

Passengers walk through Chicago O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Vincent Alban/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration plans to reduce flights at Chicago O’Hare airport this summer, saying major airlines have overscheduled flights, the agency said on Friday.

The FAA will convene a schedule reduction meeting with major airlines on March 3 after United Airlines UAL.O said it plans to add about 200 flights per day and American Airlines AAL.O announced a smaller increase in flights. The FAA plans to reduce flights for the summer flight season, which starts March 29 and runs through October 25.

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The current schedules would make 2026 the busiest summer ever at O’Hare.

The FAA said airlines have published schedules that show more than 3,080 daily operations – takeoffs and landings – on peak days this summer, compared with 2,680 daily operations last summer. The FAA said the “increase is significant and would stress the runway, terminal, and air traffic control systems.”

The FAA said O’Hare is currently handling about 100 hourly departures and arrivals each, resulting in about 2,800 total daily operations. The agency said that is manageable “given the current infrastructure and staffing resources.”

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AGENCY PROPOSES LIMIT

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The agency is proposing to adopt a 2,800 per day limit throughout the season “to prevent large-scale operational disruption while also allowing air carriers to operate within the airport’s demonstrated manageable capacity.”

United plans to operate 780 flights a day from Chicago O’Hare this month, up from the 541 flights on average it operated per day last year. The carrier said it is increasing its mainline departures from O’Hare by 20% over last summer.

American Airlines said in December it would add 100 additional daily departures to more than 75 destinations from O’Hare in time for spring-break travel, which is a 30% increase in spring departures compared to 2025. Daily departures will rise from 484 last summer to 526 this summer.

American praised the FAA and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy “for taking proactive action to ensure the operational integrity of the airfield and airspace in Chicago. The FAA now has the opportunity to achieve an improved customer experience for passengers traveling from, to, and through Chicago this summer.”

United praised the FAA and Duffy for convening the meeting. “We share their commitment to running a safe and reliable operation out of O’Hare and look forward to a collaborative discussion,” the airline said.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told airlines in a closed-door meeting the agency was concerned about the ability of O’Hare to function this summer with the additional flights and noted the agency last summer convened a schedule reduction meeting and cut flights at Newark to address congestion woes.

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Deepa Babington, Rod Nickel

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Two more Trump allies say Biden FBI secretly seized their data amid ‘weaponization’ controversy

Corey Lewandowski says he received same notice as Dan Scavino about Google account demands from bureau

By Ashley Oliver
Fox News
Published February 27, 2026 3:16pm EST

At least two more allies of President Donald Trump have said the Biden-era FBI secretly sought their records, in addition to the records of FBI Director Kash Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

Republican operative Corey Lewandowski, who currently serves as a Department of Homeland Security aide, said Thursday he received the same type of notice that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino disclosed last year regarding records seizures. Both men said they were notified in 2024 that Google had complied with FBI legal demands for information tied to their accounts, underscoring how broadly the bureau’s investigation into Trump extended and fueling Republicans’ claims that President Joe Biden “weaponized” law enforcement to target his political opponents.

“Funny – I received the same notice,” Lewandowski wrote on X. “Where is the media outcry. Right, they don’t care when it happens to Trump people.”

Lewandowski and Scavino both said the notices they received indicated that Google had been under a court-authorized gag order and could not notify them sooner about the demands for their records. Prosecutors commonly obtain such gag orders as part of their investigations.

President Donald Trump is joined by longtime ally Corey Lewandowski, at a rally at Total Sports Park in Washington, Michigan, on April 28, 2018.(Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Patel, meanwhile, confirmed the existence of the subpoenas for his and Wiles’ phone records in a statement to Fox News this week and said the subpoenas were difficult to access because the files for them had added layers of protection.

“It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records — along with those of now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight,” Patel said.

Fox News was told that the subpoenas sought Patel’s and Wiles’ toll records, which include dates and times and phone numbers related to messages and calls but do not include the contents of them. The subpoenas themselves have not been made public, so the details about what they sought remain unconfirmed.

GOP LAWMAKER ACCUSES JACK SMITH OF ‘SPYING’ ON CONGRESS AT TENSE HOUSE HEARING OVER TRUMP PROBE

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles sits in the Oval Office, as President Donald Trump signs an executive order recommending loosening the federal regulations on marijuana, at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 18, 2025.(Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Two FBI officials told Fox News that in 2023, agents also recorded a phone call between Wiles and her lawyer. The officials said the lawyer was aware the call was being recorded and consented, but Wiles was not.

The claim about the lawyer has however been disputed. An unnamed lawyer representing Wiles at the time of the phone call in question denied to Axios that he knew of the FBI recording a phone call between him and his client.

“If I ever pulled a stunt like that I wouldn’t — and shouldn’t — have a license to practice law. I’m as shocked as Susie,” the lawyer told the outlet.

While it is unclear exactly what the FBI was investigating, the timing and targets signal the subpoenas could be related to the bureau’s probe into President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents. Patel and Wiles, both private citizens during the Biden administration, were known witnesses in the classified documents case, in which special counsel Jack Smith alleged Trump violated the Espionage Act by hoarding national security-related documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.

It has previously been widely reported that Patel was summoned to give grand jury testimony in exchange for immunity in 2022 as part of the same probe.

FBI Director Kash Patel is seen during a news conference following the shooting of WV National Guardsmen in Washington.(Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)

The FBI investigated Trump over both his alleged retention of classified documents and his alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 election. Documents released by Congress show that the FBI — and later Smith, after he became special counsel — issued hundreds of subpoenas targeting Republican entities and figures, including the phone records of several GOP lawmakers. Republican targets have characterized Smith’s actions as an egregious abuse of power and hyper-politicized, while Smith has repeatedly defended his work as by-the-book and apolitical.

In line with his claims of a weaponized FBI, Patel fired at least 10 bureau employees around the same time he revealed the subpoenas. The move drew condemnation from the FBI Agents Association, which represents thousands of employees and has maintained that agents’ actions are typically the result of following orders within the chain of command.

“The FBIAA condemns today’s unlawful termination of FBI Special Agents, which—like other firings by Director Patel—violates the due process rights of those who risk their lives to protect our country,” the FBIAA said. “These actions weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the Bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals—ultimately putting the nation at greater risk.”

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Former U.S. Attorney John Fishwick of Virginia told Fox News the firings could keep Patel “in good stead with President Trump,” saying Patel did not “look like a prototypical G-man” during his viral and widely reported on celebration at the Olympics in the Team USA men’s ice hockey team’s locker room.

The White House referred Fox News to the FBI when asked for comment. The FBI gave no additional comment. A representative for Smith had no comment.

Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report.

Related Article

JONATHAN TURLEY: Jack Smith’s secret surveillance of Patel and Wiles should alarm us all

Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.

Trump says he’s thinking of putting Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Supreme Court

February 27, 2026 10:36 PM UTC / Reuters

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Item 1 of 2 U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) attends a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on broadcast media ownership rules, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 10, 2026. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon/File Photo

[1/2]U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) attends a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on broadcast media ownership rules, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 10, 2026. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon/File Photo

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, Feb 27 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday said he was considering nominating Republican Senator Ted Cruz for a future seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, although Cruz last month said he was not interested.

Trump, introducing Cruz at a rally in Corpus Christi, called the Texas Republican “an amazing guy,” joking that he would easily win confirmation from Democrats and Republicans in Congress alike because they wanted to get him out of the Senate.

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“He’s the only guy I know, he’ll get 100% of the Democrat vote, 100% of the Republican vote. They want to get him out of there. He is such a pain in the ass, but he’s so good and so talented.”

Reporting by Bo Erickson, writing by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Bhargav Acharya

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Bill Clinton says he didn’t know woman in infamous jacuzzi photo during closed-door Epstein testimony

Rep Anna Paulina Luna suggested after the deposition ended that Jeffrey Epstein ran a ‘honeypot operation’

By Elizabeth Elkind
Fox News

Published February 27, 2026 11:55am EST | Updated February 27, 2026 6:27pm EST

Former President Bill Clinton broke his silence on the now-infamous photo of himself in a hot tub that was among the millions of pages in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Jeffrey Epstein files release.

Clinton was asked about the photo, which appears to show him and a woman whose identity has been redacted, during his closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee on Friday.

He said in response to questioning that he did not know who the woman was and that he did not have sex with her, multiple people who were granted anonymity to speak freely confirmed to Fox News Digital.

One of the sources said Clinton intimated that the photo depicted a public hotel pool and that no one pushed back or questioned it.

Former President Bill Clinton was pictured in a hot tub in the newly released Epstein files.(Department of Justice)

The deposition concluded after roughly six hours, with Republicans praising the former president for being forthcoming with his answers.

Clinton was in the hot seat for the committee’s bipartisan investigation into the late financier and sex trafficker for what is expected to be an all-day session of questions into his relationship with Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

Republican Oversight Committee member Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., said Clinton had been “quite candid, probably more candid than his attorneys were comfortable with” and lauded the bipartisan approach lawmakers took to the sitdown.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., meanwhile, floated that she believed Epstein was an intelligence asset running an operation targeting both Clintons.

“I do believe, and I’m sure some people on this committee also believe, that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset and running some form of a honeypot operation,” Luna said. “I do believe that President Clinton, as well as the Secretary, were potentially targets of that operation, and we will leave it at that.”

In his opening statement this morning, Clinton told lawmakers that he had “no idea” of Epstein’s crimes.

“Now, let me say what you’re going to hear from me. First, I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing. No matter how many photos you show me, I have two things that, at the end of the day, matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos,” Clinton said, according to his prepared opening remarks.

“I know what I saw and more importantly, what I didn’t see. I know what I did and more importantly, what I didn’t do. I saw nothing and I did nothing wrong.”

Clinton also warned lawmakers, “You’ll often hear me say that I don’t recall,” but said he would not speculate when asked questions.

“That might be unsatisfying, but I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of. This was all a long time ago, and I’m bound by my oath not to speculate or to guess. This is not merely for my benefit, but because it doesn’t help you for me to play detective 24 years later,” Clinton said.

Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., suggested he had an abundance of questions for the former president ahead of the deposition.

Former President Bill Clinton speaks onstage in New York City on Sept. 18, 2023.(Noam Galai/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative)

“I think everyone’s seen that there are a lot of photos that have been released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as well as the Epstein estate. There are a lot of email correspondence that included President Clinton,” Comer said when asked what he needed to hear.

“Secretary Clinton confirmed this yesterday: Jeffrey Epstein was in the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was president. We know that Bill Clinton flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane at least 27 times. So those are questions that we’re going to ask.”

But Clinton said in his opening remarks that he would not have ridden on the plane if he knew the illicit things that took place there.

“As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I have not flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing — I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,” Clinton said.

“But even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause. We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long, and by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.”

Comer also said questions would pertain to Epstein and to Clinton’s relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, the late financier’s accomplice who is serving out a prison term in Texas after being convicted on federal sex trafficking charges.

Comer told reporters that his list of questions for Clinton had “increased” in the wake of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s own deposition before the committee on Thursday.

“Mrs. Clinton deferred a lot of questions to her husband today. There were at least a dozen times when she said, ‘You’ll have to ask my husband that. I can’t answer that,’” the chairman said.

Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky and chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, center, joined by Republican members of the House Oversight Committee, speaks to members of the media while arriving for a closed-door deposition with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Feb. 26, 2026.(Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

He said that many of those deferrals had to do with the Clintons’ nonprofit work.

“There are so many examples in the evidence the Department of Justice released, in correspondence where Epstein bragged about how involved he was initially in setting up the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation,” he said.

“We asked those questions to Secretary Clinton yesterday, and she kept saying she was in the Senate at that time. She wasn’t focused on it. ‘You’ll have to ask my husband.’ So a lot of the Clinton Global Initiative questions yesterday went unanswered because Mrs. Clinton deferred to her husband.”

The former president defended his wife during his opening statement as well, telling lawmakers that “before we start, I have to get personal.”

“You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. She has no memory of even meeting him,” Clinton said. “She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties. Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her, was simply not right.”

President Donald Trump was also asked about Clinton’s testimony on Friday and told reporters, “I don’t like seeing him deposed.”

Clinton’s deposition began a few minutes after 11 a.m. on Friday, a person familiar with planning told Fox News Digital.

Comer said at the meeting’s conclusion that it was a “very productive deposition” and said Clinton “answered every question, or attempted to answer every question.”

“We asked both Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton where we should go from here as a committee, because we’re sincere about trying to get the truth to the American people and hold some bad actors accountable,” Comer said.

Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State, speaks to members of the media outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Chappaqua, N.Y., Feb. 26, 2026.(Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Neither of the Clintons has been accused of anything related to Epstein’s crimes. But the former president’s name appears multiple times in documents released by the DOJ and the House Oversight Committee pertaining to the investigation into Epstein.

Like his wife’s testimony, Clinton will speak to the committee behind closed doors and under oath.

The interview will be transcribed, with a video likely to be released within a week of its conclusion.

Related Article

Clintons cave: Comer says Bill and Hillary to testify in Epstein probe

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

黎康：美国FIRE点燃中国青年

发布/2026年2月28日 05:00

中国青年“三三”在存到100万元人民币存款后，在30岁选择裸辞提前退休，今年是他退休第三年。 （视频截图）

打工人刚开始新一年的忙碌，30岁就过上退休生活的中国青年“三三”，晒出了去年的账单。

过去一年，他的基本生活开销3万出头（人民币，下同，5500新元），被动收入接近3万5000元，收入完全覆盖支出。三年前凭100万存款裸辞退休的他，不仅没有坐吃山空，如今储蓄还增至107万元，真正过上了FIRE生活。

FIRE（Financial Independence, Retire Early）是十多年前在美国理财社群中兴起的理念，倡导通过高储蓄、理性消费和投资，在30岁左右实现“财务独立、提前退休”。不过，调查显示，在美国富裕的中老年群体中，听过这一概念的仅占11%；真正实现退休的更是少数，在40岁人群中仅占1%，50岁也不过6%。

中国外交部吁在伊朗公民加强防范尽快撤离 | 联合早报

发布/2026年2月28日 07:22

伊朗安全局势高度紧张，中国外交部提醒中国公民暂勿前往伊朗，在当地公民加强防范，尽快撤离。

“领事直通车”微信公众号星期五（2月27日）发文称，鉴于伊朗当前安全形势，中国外交部和中国驻伊朗使领馆提醒中国公民暂勿前往伊朗，在当地中国公民加强安全防范，尽快撤离。中国驻伊朗及其周边国家使领馆将为中国公民通过商业航班或陆路转移提供必要协助。

美国近期在中东地区大规模集结兵力。美国总统特朗普2月20日说，他正在考虑对伊朗实施“有限度军事打击”，以迫使伊朗签署新的核协议。

中国外交部发言人毛宁星期四（26日）在例行记者会上回答相关提问时说，中国正密切关注伊朗局势发展。中方一贯主张通过政治外交途径解决问题，反对在国际关系中使用或威胁使用武力。

她并说，中方支持伊朗政府和人民维护国家稳定和正当权益，“希望各方珍惜和平，保持克制，通过对话解决分歧”。中方愿为此继续发挥负责任大国作用。

由于伊朗安全局势高度紧张，德国、瑞典、加拿大等多国已呼吁本国公民避免前往伊朗，并敦促在伊公民尽快离开。

美国与伊朗的第三轮间接谈判星期四在瑞士日内瓦举行。斡旋方阿曼说，美伊第三轮间接谈判虽然取得良好进展，但没有任何突破，下一轮谈判预计一周内举行。

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White House submits ‘serious’ offer to end DHS shutdown; talks show signs of thaw | Fox News

Department of Homeland Security has been without funding for 2 weeks as negotiations restart

By Alex Miller
Fox News

Published February 27, 2026 5:16pm EST

Frigid negotiations between the White House and Senate Democrats appear to be thawing, with the Trump administration submitting what it calls a “serious” offer to reopen the government.

“Yesterday, the White House made another serious counteroffer,” a White House official told Fox News Digital. “Democrats need to make a move to end the shutdown before more Americans are harmed by a lack of funding for critical services like disaster relief.”

It’s the second offer from the White House in an ongoing back-and-forth that has left the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without funding for two weeks.

With lawmakers away from Washington, D.C., for the weekend, the shutdown will stretch into a third week.

The White House sent its latest counteroffer to Senate Democrats in the ongoing shutdown, saying it’s “serious.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus have remained dug into their position for DHS reforms.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

The latest development comes after a week of stalled negotiations between Senate Democrats and the administration, along with concerns that an off-ramp from the shutdown remained out of reach.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., both acknowledged receiving the offer in a joint statement Friday.

“We have received the White House’s counteroffer and are reviewing it closely. Democrats remain committed to keep fighting for real reforms to rein in ICE and stop the violence,” they said.

[SCHUMER, DEMS AGAIN BLOCK DHS FUNDING, FORCE STATE OF THE UNION SHOWDOWN]

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., hoped that the White House would be able to find the “sweet spot” in ongoing negotiations with Senate Democrats to reopen the government.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Congressional Democrats have spent much of the week accusing the White House of not taking the negotiations seriously, while Republicans contend their counterparts are asking for too much.

Schumer and Senate Democrats earlier this week blocked another attempt by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Republicans to fund DHS using the original compromise funding bill.

[DEMOCRATS DEMANDING ICE REFORMS LOSE AIRPORT ESCORTS IN SHUTDOWN THEY TRIGGERED]

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., walks toward the House chamber on Capitol Hill on Dec. 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“It seems like the Democrats concluded this is maybe good politics for them. It’s not for the people whose lives are affected on a daily basis,” Thune said earlier this week. “So, we’ll keep pressing to try and get folks to the table. But I think the White House — you know — they continue to exchange paper and trade paper and all that, and hopefully they’ll find a sweet spot.”

Democrats want stringent reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including requiring agents to obtain judicial warrants and identify themselves during enforcement actions, changes Republicans and the administration say are red lines.

[CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP]

Democrats argue the White House has not shown the urgency they would have expected, given that an agency central to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda has been shuttered for nearly three weeks.

“They haven’t indicated that they’re concerned about the closure of DHS,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told Fox News Digital. “They’ve been slow to come back on the proposals that the Democrats have made.

“And no one has ever explained why there should be only one police force in the entire country that should not have to follow the same kind of rules as everyone else.”

Related Article

[Agency that nabbed ‘El Chapo,’ ‘Diddy’ threatened as Democrats’ DHS shutdown drags on]

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

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Trump directs US agencies to toss Anthropic’s AI as Pentagon calls startup a supply risk

February 27, 2026 8:56 PM UTC / Reuters

By Andrea Shalal, Jeffrey Dastin and Ryan Patrick Jones

U.S. President Donald Trump walks to depart from the White House, ahead of his trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 27, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

• Summary
• Companies

• Pentagon labels Anthropic a supply-chain risk, affecting defense contractors
• Trump threatens further action if Anthropic is not helpful
• President’s post orders six-month phaseout of Anthropic technology across government

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he is directing every federal agency to stop work with artificial intelligence lab Anthropic while the Pentagon declared it a supply-chain risk, capping a weeks-long fight over technology guardrails in an apparent blow to the startup’s business.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, “I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!”

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He added there would be a six-month phaseout for the Defense Department and other agencies that use the company’s products.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s supply-chain risk designation, typically reserved for companies in adversary nations, means that defense contractors could be barred from deploying Anthropic’s AI as part of work for the Pentagon. The defense industrial base includes tens of thousands of contractors, including major public companies.

The actions were pegged to a Friday deadline that the Pentagon set to resolve an escalating feud with San Francisco-based Anthropic, over concerns about how the military could use AI at war.

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Spokespeople for Anthropic, which won a $200 million ceiling Pentagon contract last year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s announcement stopped short of the Pentagon’s threat that it could invoke the Defense Production Act to require Anthropic’s compliance. But the U.S. president vowed further action if Anthropic did not cooperate going forward.

Trump warned he would use “the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow” if Anthropic did not help with the phaseout of its technology.

WEAPONS, SURVEILLANCE CONCERNS

The setback comes as AI leader Anthropic raced to win a fierce competition selling novel technology to businesses and government, particularly for national security, ahead of its widely expected initial public offering. The company has said it has not finalized an IPO decision.

At the same time, the battle over technological guardrails had raised concerns that the Department of Defense would follow U.S. law but little other constraint when deploying AI for national-security missions, regardless of safety or ethics service terms embraced by the technology’s developers.

Anthropic had sought guarantees that its AI would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or for mass domestic surveillance – applications in which the Pentagon has said it had no interest.

Anthropic was the first frontier AI lab to put its models on classified networks via cloud provider Amazon.com and the first to build customized models for national security customers, the startup has said.

Its product Claude is in use across the intelligence community and armed services.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat and vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, criticized the action taken by Trump, a Republican.

“The president’s directive to halt the use of a leading American AI company across the federal government, combined with inflammatory rhetoric attacking that company, raises serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations.”

The conflict is the latest eruption in a saga that dates back at least to 2018. That year, employees at Alphabet’s Google protested the Pentagon’s use of the company’s AI to analyze drone footage, straining relations between Silicon Valley and Washington. A rapprochement ensued, with companies including Amazon and Microsoft jousting for defense business, and still more CEOs pledging cooperation last year with the Trump administration.

But theoretical “killer robots” have remained a concern held by human-rights and technology activists. At the same time, Ukraine and Gaza have become theaters for increasingly automated systems on the battlefield.

Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco, Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto, Andrea Shalal in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

By Elizabeth ElkindFox News

Published February 27, 2026 3:22pm EST

Former President Bill Clinton suggested he could not recall President Donald Trump ever implicating himself in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, one of the Republicans deposing him said Friday.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., briefly updated reporters during Clinton’s deposition in the panel’s Epstein probe. The deposition began a little after 11 a.m. and is expected to continue into early Friday evening.

“I know there’s a lot of obsession about President Trump from the media, a lot of curiosity about President Trump from media. I want to make a statement because they’ll probably not mention this when they come out here,” Comer said, referring to Democrats on the committee.

He said the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., asked Clinton if Trump should be called before the committee like he was.

“That’s for you to decide,” Clinton said, according to Comer.

“The president went on to say that the president, Trump, ‘has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved,’ and he meant with Epstein,” Comer said. “I thought that was an interesting thing that President Clinton said.”

His deposition, and that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before him, are taking place in the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Westchester County, N.Y.

The Clintons have claimed the New York City suburb as their permanent residence since leaving the White House in early 2000.

Democrats who emerged from the performing arts center minutes later to update reporters signaled they did not agree with Comer’s account but would not go into details on their own.

Garcia suggested there was an agreement between all parties not to discuss details of the deposition as it was happening.

NANCY MACE SAYS ‘UNHINGED’ HILLARY CLINTON ERUPTED DURING CLOSED-DOOR EPSTEIN DEPOSITION

“I think the best response with that is for you to view the complete record what actually he said, which, look, we’re not going to disclose what was said because that’s not in the rules. But Republicans keep breaking the rules,” the California Democrat told reporters.

“President Clinton did bring up some additional information about discussions with President Trump. I think that the way Chairman Comer described it, I don’t think it’s a complete, accurate description of what actually was said.

“So, let’s release the full transcript, and you can all get a full record of what actually was said, which brings up some very important new questions about comments that President Trump has actually said in the past.”

Trump has been a main topic in the increasingly partisan divide in the House Oversight Committee’s probe.

Democrats have accused the GOP side of covering up for Trump at the expense of Epstein’s victims, while Republicans have accused Democrats of using the pedophile and his heinous crimes as a tool for attacking the commander in chief.

Trump told reporters Friday when asked about Clinton, “I don’t like seeing him deposed.”

The deposition is ongoing behind closed doors, but the committee is expected to release a video and transcript of the entire sit-down within days of its conclusion. The same is true for Hillary Clinton’s deposition, the video for which could be released as early as this weekend.

The only portion of Clinton’s testimony that is public so far is his opening statement in which he denied knowing anything about Epstein’s crimes.

“Now, let me say what you’re going to hear from me. First, I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing. No matter how many photos you show me, I have two things that, at the end of the day, matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos,” Clinton said, according to his prepared opening remarks.

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“I know what I saw and, more importantly, what I didn’t see. I know what I did and, more importantly, what I didn’t do. I saw nothing and I did nothing wrong.”

Neither Trump nor Clinton have been implicated in any wrongdoing associated with Epstein or his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Federal judge releases multiple detainees from Operation Country Roads, sparking pushback from Republicans and White House

By Charles Creitz
Fox News

Published February 27, 2026 3:43pm EST

A Bill Clinton-appointed federal judge is among several drawing criticism for continuing to order the release of some of the 650 illegal immigrants arrested by ICE in Operation Country Roads.

In one case that drew public attention, Judge Joseph Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia granted the release of Salvadoran national Anderson Jesus Urquilla-Ramos, a decision the man’s attorney told Bloomberg Law “reinforces that immigration enforcement must operate within constitutional limits.”

In his order, Goodwin lashed out at ICE agents’ masks and warrant-free arrests, saying “antiseptic judicial rhetoric cannot do justice to what is happening.”

Goodwin characterized DHS’ behavior as an “assault on the constitutional order [and] what the Fourth Amendment was written to prevent,” according to WVMetroNews, and he permitted habeas corpus, a detained defendant’s ability to challenge his confinement.

ICE and DHS agents make an arrest.(Mostafa Bassim/Getty Images)

In Goodwin’s order releasing Yuri Aroca and Arley Valenzuela, he lambasted their detention after a traffic stop along the West Virginia Turnpike near Pax, West Virginia.

“I am not blind to the practical demands of immigration enforcement, including cooperation between state and federal authorities, but the Constitution presupposed restraint as the default of lawful authority,” he wrote in his ruling.

Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.V., who represents the southern half of the state, did not hold back in her response to the situation.

“If Judge Goodwin experienced even 1% of the threats and harassment that ICE officers receive, he might have had the courage to make a ruling based on the law and not his personal political agenda,” Miller said.

“Thankfully, he, his family and his home are free from the fear of doxxing and danger coming from the radical leftists — our ICE agents are not as fortunate.”

Miller said masking protects ICE agents from those who want to harm them and keeps their families out of the “crosshairs of the mobs that continue to terrorize our cities.”

FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN LARGE PARTS OF TRUMP MASS DETENTION POLICIES FOR MIGRANTS

Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.V. (Bill Clark)

Operation Country Roads netted hundreds of illegal immigrants from Charles Town in the north to Beckley in the south, and many of the cases fall within the Charleston-based Southern District of West Virginia.

Moore Capito, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, defended the state’s partnership with federal law enforcement in comments to Fox News Digital.

“We in the Southern District of West Virginia have the most committed and cooperative law enforcement partners that you will find,” Capito said.

“Day after day, they are on the front lines working to keep our communities safe. Our officers take precautions to protect themselves and their families from retaliation, the same way members of the judiciary rely on institutional protections every day.”

Capito said his office will continue to support law enforcement while responding to several petitions, adding that the cases involving the now-released individuals are ripe for appeal.

In one of his orders, Goodwin wrote that “no specific danger has been identified that required these agents to be masked for this arrest,” a statement the White House took particular exception to.

“ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them because of dangerous, untrue smears from elected Democrats,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital.

“ICE officers wear masks to protect themselves and their families from being doxxed. ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism. Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.”

An Obama-appointed judge, Irene Berger, who also recently blunted a key tenet of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “MAHA” agenda, ordered the similarly reasoned release of a noncitizen big rig driver detained at the Ghent Toll Plaza on the turnpike.

Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.V., who represents the northern half of the state, including Jefferson County, where local law enforcement collaborated with ICE to quickly remove suspects from the streets, agreed with Miller that judges should understand the dangers faced by agents.

“ICE agents are being doxxed, and their families are being attacked by radical leftists just for doing their jobs,” Moore told Fox News Digital.

“We’ve seen time and again what violent leftists are capable of, and our ICE agents should never be subjected to this terrible treatment.”

FEDERAL JUDGE RELEASES FOUR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CONVICTED OF MURDER, SEX CRIMES FROM ICE CUSTODY

Moore called Goodwin’s ruling “shameful” and said it puts ideology above protecting American families.

“I am grateful to the brave ICE agents who are doing their duty to defend America,” he said. Gov. Patrick Morrisey shared the sentiment.

“We stand with President Trump, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and we are confident that as these cases move through the justice system, the court will find that the protection and safety of federal agents is constitutional,” Morrisey told Fox News Digital.

“We also stand firmly with ICE. The safety of law enforcement officers is paramount.”

Morrisey said that threats of doxxing, targeted harassment and violence are “very real.”

“There is a clear need to protect those who serve,” he said, disagreeing with the tact from the bench.

“These men and women put themselves in harm’s way to enforce the law, and we will always stand alongside our fellow officers.”

Some released individuals named President Donald Trump as a defendant, signaling the federal government would be the party to appeal. Others listed West Virginia corrections official Christopher Mason, ICE Director Todd Lyons and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Asked about the cases and what next steps might be, a Justice Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that concerns over agents’ tactics and masking have been “reaffirmed” through a recent California court case.

“Laws banning federal agents from wearing protective masks are unconstitutional,” the spokesperson said.

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“This Department of Justice is focused on law and order, public safety, and will not tolerate any violence directed toward law enforcement officials working tirelessly to keep Americans safe, despite the best efforts of activist judges who’d rather see violent illegal criminals walk free.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the rest of West Virginia’s delegation — Sens. Jim Justice II and Shelley Moore Capito — for comment.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.