February 26 2025

1. House Speaker Mike Johnson Navigates GOP Divide to Pass Trump’s Budget Plan
2. Harvard-Harris Poll Shows Rising Optimism, Shifting Political Winds
3. Ukraine to Sign Minerals Deal to Bolster US Ties
4. Trump Pitches $5M Gold Cards for Rich Immigrants
5. NASA Declares Asteroid 2024 YR4 No Longer a Threat
February 26, 1974: Nike receives patent for waffle‑soled trainers—invented in a waffle iron

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1. House Speaker Mike Johnson Navigates GOP Divide to Pass Trump’s Budget Plan

A. House Speaker Mike Johnson performed an unenviable tightrope walk on Tuesday night balancing Donald Trump's agenda and unruly GOP dissident's demands.  The House was set to vote on a resolution to advance a budget that will guide how Congress spends trillions of dollars to advance the president's deportation plans, enact tax cuts on tips, overtime and more. The bill will facilitate around $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, according to Republicans. But on Tuesday Republican Reps. Tim Burchett, Victoria Spartz, Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson signaled they were against the GOP-led effort. Massie noted the package over 10 years 'will add $20 trillion to U.S. debt,' while Spartz also noted Tuesday on X the plan will 'make deficit even worse.' The vote eventually passed 217 - 215 after Davidson, Spartz and Burchett came out for the resolution. Massie held strong and voted against the entire GOP conference.   'The president's talked to a number of members,' Johnson said. 'He's made his intentions well known and he wants them to vote for this and move it along so we can start this process.'  All Democrats have vowed to vote against the bill, saying it could cut things like Medicare and spending for veterans.  

B. House Republicans narrowly approved a framework Tuesday for President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda, setting off a sprint with the Senate to reshape the tax code, implement strict new immigration policy, drill for new energy resources and spend billions on national defense. The bill, which passed 217-215, would allow Congress’s GOP majorities to bypass a Democratic Senate filibuster through what’s known as the budget reconciliation process, but Republicans still face significant challenges before they can pass what Trump has taken to calling his “big, beautiful bill.” The House and Senate must agree on competing approaches, even though both chambers have now passed their own versions of the legislation. Some tensions within the GOP were on display Tuesday. Conservative hard-liners and moderates alike threatened to buck Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and sink the budget. Moderates fear its $2 trillion in spending cuts will force the GOP to slash Medicaid benefits, a political third rail in toss-up districts, but hard-liners say budget cuts don’t go far enough. The Senate had already passed its own budget resolution under the assumption that House Republicans would falter.

Article Source: Daily Mail, WaPo

2. Harvard-Harris Poll Shows Rising Optimism, Shifting Political Winds

A February 2025 Harvard-Harris poll reveals significant shifts in national sentiment, with 42% of Americans now believing the country is on the right track, a marked increase from 27% in the previous survey. Economic outlook has also improved, with a 10-point rise in the percentage of respondents who feel the economy is heading in a positive direction. While Republican approval ratings remain stable at 51%, Democratic approval numbers have declined to 36%. The poll indicates a potential realignment in public confidence following recent political and economic developments, though underlying partisan divisions persist in how Americans assess national progress. Analysts (Greg) caution that these numbers may partially reflect the traditional "honeymoon phase" typically enjoyed by new administrations in their first months in office.

Article Source: citizen journal

3. Ukraine to Sign Minerals Deal to Bolster US Ties

Kyiv has agreed terms with Washington on a minerals deal that Ukrainian officials hope will improve relations with the Trump administration and pave the way for a long-term US security commitment. Ukrainian officials said Kyiv was ready to sign the agreement on jointly developing its mineral resources, including oil and gas, after the US dropped demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue from the deal. The Ukrainian government is set to give its formal approval to the deal on Wednesday. Although the text lacks explicit security guarantees, the officials argued they had negotiated far more favourable terms and depicted the deal as a way of broadening the relationship with the US to shore up Ukraine’s prospects after three years of war.

Article Source: FT

4. Trump Pitches $5M Gold Cards for Rich Immigrants

Donald Trump has said the US will sell “gold cards” costing $5mn each in exchange for permanent residency to attract wealthy foreigners to America. The US president made the announcement while speaking to reporters in the White House on Tuesday afternoon, saying the scheme would grant “green card privileges plus” and a “route to citizenship” for those who bought the card. “Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people,” Trump said. Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, who flanked Trump in the Oval Office as he spoke, said the “gold card” programme would replace the EB-5 scheme, which offers visas to foreign investors.

Article Source: FT

5. NASA Declares Asteroid 2024 YR4 No Longer a Threat

Astronomers have been carefully watching 2024 YR4, a space rock with a heightened chance of hitting Earth in 2032. But fear not: NASA announced on Monday that it posed a threat no longer — the odds that the asteroid would smash into our planet have dropped to nearly zero. Days after skywatchers reported their observations of 2024 YR4 on Dec. 27, 2024, scientists calculated that it had more than a 1 percent chance of striking Earth — the only large asteroid known to have an impact probability so big. As scientists studied more data on the object, the odds of impact continued to rise through January and February, from 1.2 percent to a peak of 3.1 percent on Tuesday last week. That may sound small, but the probability was higher than any ever recorded by NASA for an object of this size or bigger. Somewhere between 130 and 300 feet wide, 2024 YR4 is big enough to potentially wipe out a city. Early estimates of the asteroid’s trajectory showed it could possibly slam into or explode in the air over large metropolitan areas, including Mumbai, India, and Lagos, Nigeria. But the day after the 3.1 percent forecast, the odds that 2024 YR4 would slam into Earth began to drop, to 1.5 percent on Feb. 19, and then to 0.3 percent the day after. On Monday afternoon, NASA shared the “all clear” in a post on X, noting that the probability had further diminished to 0.004 percent, or a one in 25,000 chance.

Article Source: NYT

February 26, 1974: Nike receives patent for waffle‑soled trainers—invented in a waffle iron

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Sources

1. A https://mol.im/a/14435895
B https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/25/johnson-reconciliation-trump/

2. https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/HHP_Feb2025_vFinal.pdf

3. https://www.ft.com/content/1890d104-1395-4393-a71d-d299aed448e6

4. https://www.ft.com/content/d93a408e-b598-4e37-aad7-21f07d353c34

5. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/science/asteroid-2024-yr4.html?campaign_id=7&emc=edit_mbae_20250225&instance_id=148435&nl=morning-briefing:-asia-pacific-edition&regi_id=61468173&segment_id=191909&user_id=02b32d846497687a8f0c061d7ffd16b1