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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump will address a joint session of Congress in a few hours. NPR's Elena Moore reports this is his first State of the Union address since returning to the White House just over a year ago.
The State of the Union is a formality, but there are potential political stakes for Trump. His speech comes at the start of an election year where Republicans are on the defensive.
Chapter 2: What are the political stakes for President Trump's State of the Union address?
They're trying to keep control of Congress, but Trump is battling low approval numbers. In the latest NPR-PBS News Marist poll, a majority of Americans say Trump is moving the country in the wrong direction. Low poll numbers are often a warning sign.
Since World War II, the party controlling the White House historically loses an average of 27 seats in the House and four in the Senate in midterm elections. Elena Moore, NPR News.
President Trump invited a number of guests. They include Erica Kirk, widow of the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Members of the U.S. men's hockey team who recently won gold in Milan are also expected to be there. Women's team, which also won gold at the Olympics, will not be. They declined, citing a scheduling conflict.
House Democrats have invited Jeffrey Epstein survivors to Trump's State of the Union speech tonight. Among them, Amanda Roberts. Her sister-in-law was a late Virginia Giuffre.
I stand here for my sister, for my survivor sisters, and for every survivor around the world who has been forced into silence. Today is monumental. Today we say to this administration and to the nation that survivors deserve to be seen.
Roberts' sister-in-law was among the most prominent women to accuse Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and the former Prince Andrew of sexual abuse when she was a minor. Maxwell was imprisoned for sex trafficking, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is under investigation over sensitive government information he may have shared with Epstein, who died in jail in 2019.
The Trump administration says it'll terminate Anthropic's $200 million contract by Friday unless the company loosens its safety guardrails. NPR's Bobby Allen reports a threat came during a meeting today between company executives and top Trump officials.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Anthropic CEO Dario Amadei that it would drop the AI company as a contractor unless it agreed to new terms. Anthropic's popular chatbot Claude has been cleared for classified systems, but Amadei says the company has two red lines, that its products not be used for AI-controlled weapons or mass domestic surveillance.
According to a person familiar with the meeting, Trump officials told Anthropic they intend to consider the company a supply chain risk unless it decides to change course.
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Chapter 3: Who are the notable guests invited to Trump's State of the Union?
While more teens are positive about AI's impact on them personally, they are more mixed about the impact on society at large. Ritu Chatterjee, NPR News. It's NPR.