Today's Top Stories from NBC News

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2026

In today's newsletter: The United States and Israel strike Iran. Federal agencies will stop using Anthropic's services after a disagreement over military use of its artificial intelligence systems. And the law is struggling to keep up with AI child exploitation.

Here's what to know today.

▼ The Lead

U.S. and Israel strike Iran, Trump tells Iranians to 'take over your government'

American forces have begun "major combat operations" in Iran, President Donald Trump said in a video message, as Israeli and U.S. forces launched strikes early this morning.

Trump vowed "certain death" if the regime doesn't surrender, telling Iranians "when we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take." He also said the U.S. won't allow Iran to have a nuclear program.

The administration was taking "every possible step" to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel, Trump added, but he warned that the lives of "courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties."

Iran is retaliating against multiple U.S. military facilities across the Middle East, a U.S. official said. The Israeli military said it is tracking missiles from Iran, with the country under a state of emergency.

Two U.S. officials told NBC News that the military operation was launched from air and sea. One official said a large array of fighter jets was involved in the operation. The other official said the U.S. is targeting military and security targets.

Follow live updates on our blog.

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Lawmakers say Clinton deposition advanced their Epstein probe

House Oversight Committee members pressed the Clintons for hours over the last two days. Ryan Nobles discusses who might be next in line for questions.

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▼ Top Stories

OpenAI strikes deal with Pentagon after Trump orders government to stop using Anthropic

Trump said he was banning federal agencies from using Anthropic's services, after months of heated rhetoric between the AI company and the Pentagon.

Hours later, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company had struck a deal with the Defense Department to deploy its models on the department's classified networks.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he would further direct the agency to label Anthropic a "Supply-Chain Risk to National Security" — a move usually reserved for foreign adversaries that bars any military contractor or supplier from doing business with the company.

Anthropic threatened to sue over the designation, calling the move "legally unsound" and a "dangerous precedent."

The company had denied the Pentagon unrestricted access to its AI systems, fueling mounting tensions ahead of Hegseth's announcement.

Read about the partnership's breakdown here.

More on politics news:

Ads funded by the AI industry are flooding the 2026 midterms. They're about everything except AI. Reporter Ben Kamisar has more on the super PACs pouring money into key primaries, as highlighted in our From the Politics Desk newsletter.

Former president Bill Clinton told lawmakers in yesterday's closed-door testimony that he "saw nothing" and "did nothing wrong" related to Jeffrey Epstein.

Exclusive: Trump told FBI Director Kash Patel he didn't like his viral Olympics partying and use of a government jet to fly to Italy.

Transgender Kansas residents are suing over a new state law that invalidated their driver's licenses.

The AI child exploitation crisis is here

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has made it easier than ever for bad actors to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — leaving prosecutors and lawmakers struggling to keep up.

Offenders consistently exploit system loopholes, open-source AI models and ready-made sexual exploitation platforms to generate imagery of both identifiable and nonexistent children.

The material is becoming more realistic and harder to differentiate from real images, posing new issues for prosecutors and law enforcement.

Between January and September 2025, the U.S.'s official online sexual exploitation tip line received over a million reports related to generative AI.

Dr. Casey Means softens her social media persona in surgeon general bid

Dr. Casey Means is a wellness influencer who rose to prominence by lambasting traditional medicine and accusing pharmaceutical companies of corruption. But she bore little resemblance to her online persona Wednesday when she appeared before the Senate to discuss her nomination for surgeon general.

Means sidestepped questions on vaccines, birth control and pesticides — subjects she has often depicted as dangerous to human health — at times visibly frustrating lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

If confirmed, she would become the nation's top doctor, with the power to issue health advisories for the entire country. Despite having a medical degree, she did not complete a surgical residency program and her medical license lapsed in January 2024.

Like Means, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also softened his rhetoric when appearing before the Senate for confirmation.

Renee Good's family says neither investigators nor Trump have been in touch since her death

It's been nearly two months since Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. Neither Trump nor any member of his administration has been in touch with Good's family since, they told NBC News.

"There's a reason that we hired our own investigators — to make sure that the truth is transparent and available," her brother said.

Good's family said it has been nearly impossible to avoid the images on social media or in the news. Still, they have intentionally decided not to watch videos of the moment she was killed, instead focusing on who she was — a loving mother who cared for others.

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▼ Quiz Time

Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton testified in front of the House Oversight committee this week. Who was the last U.S. president to testify before Congress?

Donald Trump
Gerald Ford
Richard Nixon
Harry Truman

Find out the answer and test your knowledge of this week's most-read stories. (The answer to the question is also at the bottom of this newsletter.)

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▼ Read All About It

Neil Sedaka, one of pop's most enduring songwriters, died at 86.

Warner Bros. Discovery signed a merger agreement with Paramount Skydance a day after Netflix abruptly pulled out of a bidding war.

"Shaken" CNN staffers say they fear what a Paramount takeover would mean for their newsroom.

After recent CDC vaccine policy changes, states are pushing to keep childhood shots free and accessible.

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Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown. Today's newsletter was curated for you by Marissa Martinez, Kayla Hayempour and Mark Hodge. The answer to the quiz question above is B) Gerald Ford.

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