Thursday morning news: February 26, 2026

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Ukraine latest » Officials from Ukraine and the United States are expected to meet today, ahead of high-stakes peace talks with Russia in Geneva early next month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that Ukrainian land currently occupied by Russia remains a major sticking point.

ZELENSKYY: We understand that Americans want to stop this war as quick as possible...The problem is with the political will to stop this war and the question of territories...this question I repeat again and again, this question I think to my mind has to go to the level of leaders.

In today's meeting, Zelenskyy says U.S. and Ukrainian officials plan to discuss possible postwar recovery plans for Ukraine.

Iran update » Iran is pushing back defiantly in response to President Trump’s remarks in his Tuesday night speech.

Ahead of critical talks in Geneva over Tehran’s nuclear program, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman dismissed Trump's remarks as “big lies.”

Meantime, Iran's parliament speaker said on Wednesday that the U.S. could either engage in diplomacy or face the wrath of Iran if the U.S. attacks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he believes there is widespread support for Trump’s stand.

THUNE: I mean, we cannot abide, we cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran. He made that clear in his speech last night. I think that's something, I hope at least that uh, big majority of Americans agree with.

The U.S. has assembled its biggest deployment of aircraft and warships into the Middle East in decades.

Trump’s message to Tehran is clear: Strike a deal to voluntarily curb your nuclear program... or else.

Congress Midterms » With an eye on this year’s midterms, Republicans in Congress are working on President Trump’s legislative priorities laid out in his State of the Union Address.

WORLD’s Harrison Watters has more now from Washington.

HARRISON WATTERS: Top of the list for lawmakers is passing the SAVE Act, a bill aimed at verifying voter eligibility ahead of federal elections.

Alabama Congressman Barry Moore:

MOORE: We've done our job in the house. We've passed it. We need to pass it in the Senate.

WATTERS: Majority Leader John Thune has promised to put the bill on the floor for a vote once the partial government shutdown is resolved.

GOP lawmakers are also working on President Trump’s proposal last month to restructure healthcare with a focus on health savings accounts. 

Florida Congressman Byron Donalds:

DONALDS: Stop sending subsidies to health insurance companies so their stock prices go up, their profits go up, as opposed to giving that money to the American people and giving them more purchasing power in health care.

WATTERS: Other priorities include bills to stop insider trading in Congress and making a ban on investor home purchases permanent.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters, in Washington.

War on fraud » Also on Tuesday night, President Trump announced that Vice President JD Vance would be leading what Trump calls his administration’s—quote—“war on fraud.”

And the next day, Vance, speaking alongside Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz had this announcement:

VANCE:  We have decided to temporarily, temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligation seriously to be good stewards of the American people's tax money.

That will affect almost $260 million dollars in Medicaid payments.

That follows scandals in Minnesota, with allegations of some behind education and daycare centers fraudulently enrolling students to funnel money to themselves.

Mehmet Oz told reporters:

OZ:  We believe—listen carefully—we are spending $300 billion a year in healthcare in this country for fraudulent, abusive, or wasteful purposes.

The vice president says the generosity of American taxpayers is being taken advantage of.

More snow falls in Northeast » More snow and cold weather.

Parts of the Northeast got another 1 to 3 inches of snow on Wednesday, even as cities were still digging out from a massive snow storm.

Bob Orevec with the National Weather Service says there was no major accumulation, but it added insult to injury on the heels of the earlier historic winter blast. And now:

ORAVEC:  There is a pretty cold air mass that's gonna sink, southward, uh, across the northern part of the country this weekend. And that'll be, uh, pushing eastward into the east coast by late in the weekend. 

And he said that sets the stage for another potential storm into early next week … from the Midwest, to the Mid-Atlantic, to the Northeast.

Warner Bros. / Paramount » The bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery is heating up once again. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Warner Bros. says Paramount has raised the price of its takeover offer to $31 per share, potentially reopening a bidding war with Netflix over the future of the Hollywood giant.

The company previously had offered $30 per share when it first went directly to Warner stakeholders with its all-cash, hostile bid in December—just days after Warner struck a deal to sell its studio and streaming business to Netflix for just under $28 per share.

Unlike Netflix, Paramount wants to acquire Warner Bros. in its entirety—including legacy cable networks like CNN and Discovery.

Beyond upping its proposed purchase price, Warner said Paramount had increased its regulatory termination fee to $7 billion.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

And I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Tenants and landlords struggle to make rent restrictions work in New York City. Plus, a teacher says “no” to reading LGBT books to kids.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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