The U.S. and Israel began "major combat operations" in Iran overnight with the aim of destroying the country's military capabilities and fostering regime change, President Trump announced in an overnight video statement.

• Israel's Air Force conducted strikes against Iranian senior commanders and political leaders, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in an effort to destabilize the regime, Axios' Barak Ravid and Dave Lawler report.
• Iranian media reported strikes nationwide. Smoke could be seen rising in Tehran, the capital.

In a video statement on Truth Social at 2:30 a.m. ET, Trump accused Iran of conducting "mass terror" ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and declared: "We're not going to put up with it any longer."

• "We're going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. ... We're going to annihilate their navy, we're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces," Trump said. "And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon."

Trump, who arrived at Mar-a-Lago last night, is expected to address the nation later today.

• Operation Epic Fury, as the Pentagon dubbed the attack, started exactly as Trump's 10-day deadline to Iran expired. Israel's name for the joint operation is Lion's Roar.

Retaliation was swift. U.S. bases in the region — in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE and Jordan — were attacked by Iranian missiles. Iranian state TV confirmed Iran was attacking U.S. bases.

• A senior U.S. official said that as of 7:10 a.m. ET, there were no casualties.

🏛️ Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who's hawkish on Iran and close to Trump, said on X after the attack: "The end of the largest state sponsor of terrorism is upon us. ... This operation is necessary and long justified."

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President Trump, wearing a white "USA" cap and standing at a presidential podium in Florida, acknowledged the risk of significant American casualties if Iran retaliates.

• "My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region," he said in his video announcement.

Trump encouraged the people of Iran to remain in their homes during the bombing and "when we are finished, take over your government, it will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations."

📺 Richard Haass, CFR president emeritus, said on a special breaking edition of MS NOW's "Morning Joe" that the attack is a "massive roll of the dice" for Trump:

• "This is a war of choice ... This was not a war we had to fight now. It wasn't as though Iran had broken through some new threshold and posed imminent danger ... This is a preventive attack ... This is not a war of necessity."

With Anthropic and the Pentagon deadlocked over military use of Claude, President Trump called Anthropic a "Radical Left AI company." He wrote on Truth Social that he's "directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology."

• Just after the Pentagon's 5 p.m. ET deadline for a deal, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X that Anthropic will be designated a "Supply-Chain Risk to National Security," preventing any company doing business with the U.S. military from also having a commercial relationship with Anthropic.

🥊 The big winner could be OpenAI, Anthropic's fierce rival. Just before 10 p.m. ET, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on X that his company had reached an agreement with the Pentagon to use its AI models, after the Defense Department agreed to safety red lines similar to Anthropic's.

• Earlier in the day, OpenAI announced $110 billion in new funding from Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank.

Anthropic vowed to "challenge any supply chain risk designation in court," and said no "intimidation or punishment from the Department of War" would cause it to cave on its principles.

• The dispute, touched off by Claude's use in January's attack on Venezuela, revolves around the use of AI for mass surveillance of Americans, which the Pentagon says is already illegal, and the development of weapons that fire without human involvement.

👀 Between the lines: Axios is told that OpenAI's agreement acknowledged that mass surveillance is illegal and that DoD would comply with that law. Similar language covered autonomous weapons and humans remaining in control of decisions.

Behind the scenes: Anthropic and the Pentagon were still talking last evening. Officials still think Claude is the superior AI option for defense purposes right now, Axios' Dave Lawler and Maria Curi report.

The bottom line: A week ago, the U.S. had the world's friendliest regulatory regime for AI. Now the entire industry, and its investors, are less sure.

• Claude problem: Federal agencies working with Anthropic.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's plan to use border funds for an almost $300 million luxury jet fleet has horrified top Trump officials, Axios' Brittany Gibson has learned.

• Why it matters: Until last year, DHS owned zero luxury jets. Soon it could have three.

"This is the world's worst deal to buy an aircraft," a senior administration official told Axios when granted anonymity to discuss internal matters.

• "This is an abuse," the official said, calling it a misuse of federal money.

Russ Vought, who runs the Office of Management and Budget, raised concerns about the luxury jet spending to the White House, sources told Axios. (OMB declined to comment.)

💸 Zoom in: Noem purchased two Gulfstream G700 luxury jets in October. A third plane, a Boeing 737 nicknamed the Big Beautiful Jet, is being leased with plans to buy it for about $70 million.

• The funding comes from the One Big Beautiful Bill's cash infusion to DHS.

A DHS spokesperson told Axios: "Anyone who runs a business in the real world will tell you that owning a work vehicle is less expensive than dealing with long-term rental costs."

• Keep reading.

The AI trade is getting investors used to a cycle of panic-driven selling, followed by overly euphoric rallies, followed by more panic, Axios' Madison Mills writes.

• 💭 At first, AI made Wall Street's dreams come true, driving the S&P 500 higher by double digits three years in a row.

Keep reading ... Get Axios AI+.

Vaccine politics is emerging as a trip wire in the administration's push to remake America's public health system before the midterm elections, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.

• Polling — including from President Trump's own campaign pollster — consistently shows vaccines remain popular.

Why it matters: Parts of the Trump administration's 2026 health agenda are frustrating some MAHA faithful. Vaccine critics with close ties to the administration see plenty of unfinished business.

⚠️ Growing flashpoints:

1. Multiple vaccine skeptics have exited HHS, while drug-pricing negotiator Chris Klomp was elevated.
2. HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has focused publicly during campaign trail appearances on food dyes and dietary guidelines, not shrinking the childhood vaccine schedule.
3. Trump's State of the Union emphasized health costs and drug prices — not vaccines or other MAHA priorities.
4. The FDA reversed its decision, declining to review Moderna's application for a new mRNA flu shot.
5. Trump's new executive order boosting the herbicide glyphosate sparked such MAGA backlash that Kennedy issued a long defense of the decision on X, arguing that reform "will not move in a straight line."

Keep reading.

President Trump said during his State of the Union, to raucous Republican applause: "We ended DEI in America."

• But a year into Trump's crusade to eradicate "anti-white racism," some of the administration's most ambitious diversity, equity and inclusion rollbacks are stalled in court, Axios' Josephine Walker reports.

🚩 With Congress aligned with the White House, the judiciary has become the primary check for civil rights advocates who argue the administration is distorting long-standing equity laws.

• In courtrooms across the country, judges are weighing in on cases related to education, the environment and employment.

Read on for major cases.

Grab your corded headphones: Apple's retired MP3 players are back in vogue, with buyers trading smartphones for nostalgia, Axios' Sami Sparber reports.

• eBay searches rose 25% for the iPod Classic and 20% for iPod Nano — which were retired in 2022 — from January to October 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, per internal data shared with Axios.

🏫 Some students are even using iPods to get around phone bans at school, the N.Y. Times reports.

🧽 "The act of playing my music, with the sole purpose of listening to music — no ads, no apps, no distractions — makes my brain feel brand-new again," says Gen Zer Shaughnessy Barker.

• Barker started using an iPod Classic over the holidays after scouring eBay and Facebook Marketplace.

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