The briefing for Friday, February 27.

Paramount is positioned to acquire Warner Bros Discovery in a deal worth approximately $110 billion after Netflix declined to raise its competing offer. Warner Bros declared Thursday that Paramount's latest bid was "superior" to Netflix's December agreement, which had valued the transaction at roughly $82 billion including debt. Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said the deal "is no longer financially attractive" at Paramount's higher price, calling it a "nice to have" rather than a "must have."

The acquisition would combine two of Hollywood's five remaining legacy studios and unite major media properties including HBO Max, DC Studios, CNN, CBS, MTV, and Nickelodeon. Paramount's offer, backed by tech billionaire Larry Ellison and led by his son David, includes concessions such as a $7 billion regulatory termination fee and accelerated "ticking fees" if the deal extends past September. The merger raises significant antitrust concerns, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta opening an investigation and warning the deal "is not a done deal."

The future of CNN has drawn particular scrutiny given President Trump's close ties to Larry Ellison, a major Republican donor, and Trump's repeated attacks on the network. Trump previously stated CNN should be sold as part of any Warner Bros deal and called its leadership "corrupt or incompetent." CNN head Mark Thompson told employees not to "jump to conclusions about the future until we know more." The deal requires approval from the U.S. Department of Justice and European regulators, with critics warning the consolidation could result in job losses, reduced diversity in filmmaking, and higher streaming costs for consumers.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled Thursday that the IRS violated federal privacy law approximately 42,695 times by disclosing confidential taxpayer address information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The finding stems from a declaration by IRS Chief Risk and Control Officer Dottie Romo, which revealed the agency provided ICE with information on 47,000 of the 1.28 million people requested, and in most cases gave additional address data in violation of IRS Code 6103, one of the strictest confidentiality statutes in federal law.

The violations occurred under a controversial data-sharing agreement signed in April by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The agreement allows ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants in the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records. Judge Kollar-Kotelly wrote that "the IRS not only failed to ensure that ICE's request for confidential taxpayer address information met the statutory requirements, but this failure led the IRS to disclose confidential taxpayer addresses to ICE in situations where ICE's request for that information was patently deficient."

Nina Olson, founder of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, said the ruling "confirms what we've been saying all along: that the IRS has an unlawful policy that violates the Internal Revenue Code's protections." The government is appealing the case, though two separate court orders currently block the agencies from massive transfers of taxpayer information and prevent ICE from acting on any IRS data in its possession. Earlier this week, a federal appeals court declined to issue a preliminary injunction in a related case, with Judge Harry T. Edwards writing that immigrant rights groups challenging the agreement "are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claim."

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei declared Thursday his company "cannot in good conscience accede" to Pentagon demands to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology, deepening an unusually public confrontation with the Trump administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic until Friday to remove ethical restrictions preventing its Claude chatbot from being used for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons, or face contract termination. Military officials also threatened to designate the company as a supply chain risk or invoke the Defense Production Act to force compliance.

Amodei said new contract language from the Defense Department "made virtually no progress" on preventing prohibited uses, while the Pentagon's Sean Parnell responded that the military "has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement." Parnell stated the Pentagon wants to "use Anthropic's model for all lawful purposes" and warned "we will not let ANY company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions." Defense Undersecretary Emil Michael later accused Amodei of having a "God-complex" and being "ok putting our nation's safety at risk."

The standoff has drawn support for Anthropic from across Silicon Valley, with tech workers from rivals OpenAI and Google voicing backing for Amodei's position in an open letter. Retired Air Force Gen. Jack Shanahan, who led Project Maven during the first Trump administration, said he's "sympathetic to Anthropic's position" and called the company's red lines "reasonable." Republican Sen. Thom Tillis questioned why the dispute is playing out publicly, asking "why in the hell are we having this discussion in public?" while Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said he was "deeply disturbed" by reports the Pentagon is working to "bully a leading U.S. company." Legal experts say using the Defense Production Act to force a company to produce a product it deems unsafe would be unprecedented in the law's 75-year history.

Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared early Friday that his country considers itself in "open war" with Afghanistan after both nations launched major cross-border strikes. According to Pakistani officials and Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul, Kandahar, and Paktia province in retaliation for what Islamabad described as Afghan attacks. Asif said Pakistan's "patience has now run out," alleging the Taliban had turned Afghanistan "into a colony of India," gathered militants from around the world, and begun "exporting terrorism."

The two governments have issued sharply conflicting casualty claims that could not be independently verified. Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said overnight that 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and "several others were captured alive," while reporting eight Afghan soldiers killed and 11 wounded. The ministry claimed to have destroyed 19 Pakistani army posts and two bases. Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar reported two Pakistani soldiers killed and three wounded, while a spokesperson for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said at least 133 Afghan fighters were killed and more than 200 wounded, with 27 Afghan posts destroyed and nine fighters captured.

The escalation comes months after Qatar and Turkey mediated a ceasefire between the two sides. Pakistani security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Afghan forces at some border posts had raised white flags, typically interpreted as a request to halt firing. The fighting lasted approximately four hours and ended around midnight Thursday. Pakistan has frequently accused neighboring India of backing militant groups including the Baloch Liberation Army and Pakistani Taliban, allegations New Delhi denies. Authorities in Pakistan moved dozens of Afghan refugees waiting to return home from the Torkham border crossing to safer locations following the outbreak of hostilities.

The FBI terminated roughly 10 additional staff members Wednesday, all of whom participated in the investigation into Donald Trump's handling of classified documents after his first term, according to CBS News. The firings were announced shortly after FBI Director Kash Patel told Reuters that federal agents subpoenaed his phone records when he was a private citizen during the probe. Susie Wiles, now White House chief of staff, also had her phone records subpoenaed as a private citizen as part of the investigation. Patel did not provide evidence of wrongdoing by the fired staffers.

The terminated employees all participated in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into classified documents Trump brought to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and his alleged efforts to obstruct the Justice Department from retrieving them. Trump and two associates were indicted in 2023 following the investigation, but a federal judge in Florida dropped the case against Trump in 2024, finding that Smith was unlawfully appointed. This year, a federal appeals court in Georgia dropped the case against the remaining defendants at the Justice Department's request.

The FBI Agents Association condemned the terminations, stating "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." Since Trump returned to the White House in November, the Justice Department and FBI have fired multiple employees who participated in the dual federal investigations against him. The Justice Department also attempted to pursue charges against former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired during his first term in 2017, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump.