Daily Tech & GNSS News Digest - February 20, 2026

A landmark Supreme Court ruling dominated headlines as the justices struck down President Trump’s sweeping tariffs, sending markets rallying and forcing a major policy pivot. In tech, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos defended the $83 billion Warner Bros. acquisition before Congress while Apple faced a first-of-its-kind state lawsuit over child safety. Meanwhile, the GNSS industry continued adapting to GPS vulnerability concerns as Topcon announced new partnerships for visual-aided positioning.

Tech News

Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump Tariffs in Historic Ruling

The Supreme Court delivered a stunning blow to President Trump’s economic agenda, ruling 6-3 that he exceeded his authority when imposing sweeping tariffs using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, joined by Justices Gorsuch, Barrett, and the three liberal justices, declaring that IEEPA “does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”

Roberts wrote that Trump’s reliance on two words—“regulate” and “importation”—separated by sixteen others could not bear the constitutional weight of unilateral tariff authority. The ruling invoked the “major questions” doctrine, stating that if Congress wants to delegate decisions of “vast economic or political significance,” it must do so clearly. Since December, the government had collected more than $130 billion in tariff revenue now potentially subject to refund.

Markets rallied on the news despite Trump’s fiery response from the White House, where he called the decision “a disgrace to our nation” and announced plans to implement a 10% global tariff using alternative legal authorities. Justice Kavanaugh’s dissent warned the ruling has “opened up a can of worms” regarding refunds to importers who paid the now-invalidated duties.

Netflix CEO Defends Warner Bros. Deal Before Congress

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos faced over two hours of questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, defending the streaming giant’s $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. In the hearing titled “Examining the Competitive Impact of the Proposed Netflix-Warner Brothers Transaction,” Sarandos argued the merger will benefit consumers and actually put more films in theaters.

The deal, announced in December, would give Netflix control of Warner Bros. studios, HBO Max, and HBO in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at $27.75 per WBD share. Sarandos expressed “high confidence” the merger will close, noting Netflix has granted WBD a seven-day waiver ending February 23 to continue parallel discussions with Paramount Skydance’s hostile takeover bid.

To address theatrical concerns, Sarandos committed to a 45-day theatrical window for Warner Bros. films if the deal closes—a significant concession from Netflix’s historically direct-to-streaming model. The transaction is expected to finalize after WBD’s separation of Discovery Global into a standalone public company, projected for Q3 2026.

West Virginia Sues Apple in First State Action Over Child Safety

West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey filed a first-of-its-kind state lawsuit against Apple, alleging the tech giant knowingly allowed iCloud to become a distribution hub for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The complaint, filed in Mason County Circuit Court, reveals that Apple internally described itself as “the greatest platform for distributing child porn” yet took no meaningful action.

The lawsuit highlights a stark enforcement gap: while Google filed 1.47 million CSAM reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2023, Apple filed only 267. The disparity stems from Apple’s 2021 decision to abandon its NeuralHash detection system following privacy backlash, opting instead for device-side Communication Safety features that don’t report to authorities.

McCuskey’s office seeks statutory and punitive damages plus injunctive relief requiring Apple to implement effective CSAM detection. Apple responded that “protecting the safety and privacy of our users, especially children, is central to what we do,” citing its Communication Safety feature that “automatically intervenes on kids’ devices when nudity is detected” across Messages, Photos, AirDrop, and FaceTime.

Additional Headlines

Microsoft Achieves 100% Renewable Energy Match: Microsoft announced it has matched 100% of its 2025 global electricity consumption with renewable energy, having contracted 40 gigawatts of new supply across 26 countries through over 400 agreements including the landmark 10.5 GW Brookfield partnership.
DeepMind CEO Warns of AI Risks at India Summit: Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis called for urgent international cooperation on AI safety at the India AI Impact Summit, identifying threats from both bad actors repurposing beneficial technologies and technical risks in increasingly autonomous systems.
China’s Seedance 2.0 Rattles Hollywood: ByteDance’s AI video generation model Seedance 2.0 was hailed as the most sophisticated of its kind, capable of generating short scenes with polished characters and motion editing control at lower cost than Western competitors.
Google I/O 2026 Set for May 19-20: Google confirmed its annual developer conference will return to Shoreline Amphitheatre featuring major updates to Gemini, Android, Chrome, Cloud, and new AI agent capabilities.

GNSS News

Topcon and Fixposition Partner on Visual-Aided GNSS Solutions

Topcon Positioning Systems and Fixposition announced a collaboration agreement at Geo Week 2026 in Denver to develop integrated visual-aided positioning technology for next-generation GNSS solutions. The partnership combines Topcon’s high-precision satellite positioning with Fixposition’s Visual RTK technology to address growing demand for reliable positioning in GPS-challenged environments.

“Customers are increasingly working in environments where satellite connection can be challenging, such as dense urban environments, and need consistent, reliable positioning to maintain productivity,” explained Ron Oberlander, head of the Topcon Geomatics Platform. Fixposition has integrated Topcon’s RTK corrections service network into its Vision-RTK sensors since 2023.

Topcon also introduced the CR-S1 handheld scanning system at the event, combining LiDAR, panoramic cameras, visual SLAM cameras, and a GNSS antenna in a single device. The CR-S1 features increased point-cloud density, extended scanning range, and connectivity to Topnet Live RTK corrections for enhanced positioning accuracy.

Space Force R-GPS Cancellation Sparks Congressional Pushback

The US Space Force’s January cancellation of the $1 billion Resilient GPS (R-GPS) program has drawn congressional resistance, with lawmakers including funding to continue resilient PNT development in draft FY26 legislation. R-GPS would have added roughly 20 small satellites costing $50-80 million each to augment the core GPS constellation with harder-to-disrupt signals.

Space Systems Command omitted R-GPS from the FY26 budget request citing “higher Department of the Air Force priorities.” Dana Goward of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation noted the program would have provided only “marginal improvement” when what’s needed is a “quantum capability leap.” The draft congressional bill provides $15 million each for resilient GPS space systems development and commercial PNT service demonstrations.

The Space Force maintains GPS will remain “the backbone of our global navigation service” but acknowledges the need for diversification, citing LEO-based PNT startups like TrustPoint and Xona Space. Meanwhile, SpaceX has detailed Starlink’s positioning capabilities to the FCC, claiming nanosecond-level timing accuracy and meter-level positioning—though experts note the Ku-band timing remains “so irregular that accurate pseudorange-based PNT is not possible” at present.

Key Takeaways

Constitutional Limits on Executive Power: The Supreme Court’s tariff ruling reestablishes that even emergency powers have boundaries, forcing trade policy back to Congress while creating uncertainty over $130+ billion in collected duties.
Streaming Industry Consolidation Continues: Netflix’s Warner Bros. deal and theatrical window commitments signal that the streaming wars may end not with competition but with mega-consolidation as companies seek sustainable business models.
GNSS Resilience Shifts to Commercial Sector: With Space Force deprioritizing R-GPS, the push for GPS alternatives is increasingly led by commercial partnerships like Topcon-Fixposition and LEO constellations like Xona and Starlink.