Top Russian diplomats met with U.S. officials Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country won’t accept any outcome from this week’s talks if Kyiv doesn’t take part. European allies have also expressed concerns they are being sidelined.
Here's the latest:
The Trump administration wants the justices to let Trump fire the head of a government whistleblower office. But before there’s any kind of decision, the court wants to hear from lawyers for Hampton Dellinger, the head of the Office of Special Counsel. The justices set a deadline of 2 p.m. Wednesday for their response in the case.
The quick turnaround is not unusual in emergency appeals to the justices.
The Trump administration wants the court to overturn, or at least put on hold, a court order that temporarily reinstated Dellinger to the office. It guards the federal workforce from illegal personnel actions.
The Trump administration’s downsizing and disbanding of federal agencies has hit efforts that improve election security and monitor foreign influence. That could create gaps for America’s enemies to exploit the next time the country holds a major election.
Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded an FBI task force focused on investigating foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections. She also limited the scope of enforcement actions on people who do not disclose lobbying on behalf of foreign governments. She wrote that the changes would “free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion.”
The Trump administration also has made sweeping cuts at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees the nation’s critical infrastructure, including election systems.
A DHS official on Saturday said CISA was also pausing all election security activities pending a review of their funding, activities and personnel. The agency was ending its involvement in a voluntary program that shared information about cyber defenses with state and local election officials.
The actions send a message that securing U.S. elections against interference from countries such as Russia, China and Iran is no longer a federal government priority, said Larry Norden, an election expert with the Brennan Center for Justice.
▶Read more about the dismantling of federal efforts to monitor election interference
A federal judge on Monday questioned the authority of billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency but was skeptical of a request to block DOGE from accessing sensitive data and firing employees at half a dozen federal agencies.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan held a hearing on a request from 14 states for a temporary restraining order seeking to curtail Musk’s power in President Donald Trump’s quest to downsize the federal government. Chutkan said she would rule within 24 hours.
The requests came from Democratic attorneys general, who had filed a lawsuit challenging what they called Musk’s “unchecked power.” The states are seeking to block DOGE from firing employees and accessing data at the federal Office of Personnel Management along with six federal agencies that oversee health and human services, education, energy, transportation, labor, and commerce.
▶ Read more about the upcoming ruling on Musk’s DOGE
The Trump administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that DOGE’s blind cost-cutting will put communities at risk.
Three U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were abruptly laid off late Thursday, with some losing access to email before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning to find they were locked out. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
But by late Friday night, the agency’s acting director, Teresa Robbins, issued a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 of those hundreds of fired staff members.
The accounts from the three officials contradict an official statement from the Department of Energy, which said fewer than 50 National Nuclear Security Administration staffers were let go, calling them “probationary employees” who “held primarily administrative and clerical roles.”
▶ Read more about the layoff reversal in NNSA
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that officials at U.S.-Russia talks agreed to restore embassy staffing and create a high-level team to negotiate peace in Ukraine peace and promote economic cooperation.
Rubio said that actions over the last several years have reduced both countries’ diplomatic missions’ abilities to operate.
He said: “We’re going to need to have vibrant diplomatic missions that are able to function normally in order to be able to continue these conduits.”
▶ Read more about Rubio’s talks with Russian officials
For the second time in two weeks, Protesters against President Donald Trump and his policies organized demonstrations in all 50 states. Monday’s demonstrations were dubbed “No Kings on Presidents Day” by the 50501 Movement.
The Trump administration’s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce reached the FDA this weekend, including jobs reviewing the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and tobacco products like electronic cigarettes.
The holiday weekend didn’t stop the Trump administration from keeping busy.
From more federal workers layoffs to DOGE’s blind cost cutting, here’s some of the big news you might have missed over the weekend:
1. As the Trump administration reforms the EPA, cleanups of America’s most toxic sites are uncertain
2. Trump Media says it lost more than $400 million last year
3. Defiant Canadians mark their flag’s anniversary as Trump hopes to make their country a state
4. Trump tours Boeing plane to highlight aircraft maker’s delay in delivering a new Air Force One
5. Dismantling of federal efforts to monitor election interference creates opening for foreign meddling
6. Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to let the firing of whistleblower agency head proceed
7. Trump attends the Daytona 500 and says the spirit of NASCAR will ‘fuel America’s Golden Age’
8. Trump administration tries to bring back fired nuclear weapons workers in DOGE reversal
9. ‘No kings on Presidents Day’ rings out from protests against Trump and Musk
