Author: PolitCens

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that the United States is working toward a “fair” and “sustainable” solution to end Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine, but that both Moscow and Kyiv would have to make concessions to achieve peace.

Rubio offered his assessment after he and other key U.S. officials met for several hours in Saudi Arabia with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his aides in a first effort toward ending the war and improving the contentious Washington-Moscow relationship.

“The goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that’s fair, enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved,” Rubio told reporters, although no Ukrainian or European officials were at the table for the talks.

Rubio said he was “convinced” that Moscow was willing to engage in a “serious process” to end the war, which Russia started with a full-scale invasion of its neighbor three years ago next week.

Tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, along with Ukrainian civilians, have been killed in the fighting, Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.

The U.S. and Russia agreed to “appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. Bruce characterized the meeting as “an important step forward” toward peace.

Rubio said Ukraine and European nations would have to be involved in talks on ending the war. He said that if the war is halted, the U.S. would have “extraordinary opportunities … to partner” with Russia on trade and other global issues.

“The key to unlock that is the end to this conflict,” he said.

National security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff joined Rubio for the talks.

Waltz told reporters that negotiations to end the fighting will focus on territory and security guarantees for both Ukraine and Russia.  

“This needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary end, as we’ve seen in the past,” Waltz said.

Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukraine’s internationally recognized 2014 territory. Moscow controls the Crimean Peninsula that it unilaterally annexed in 2014, along with a large portion of eastern Ukraine pro-Russian separatists captured in subsequent fighting and lands the Russian military have taken over since the 2022 invasion.

As the invasion started, Moscow hoped for a quick takeover of all of Ukraine. But with stiff Ukrainian resistance, the war instead evolved into a grinding ground conflict and daily aerial bombardments by each side.  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long demanded that his country’s 2014 boundaries be restored, but U.S. officials have said that is unrealistic, as was Kyiv’s long-sought goal of joining NATO, the West’s main military alliance, as part of a negotiated peace settlement.

Zelenskyy has said it will not agree to a U.S.-Russian dictated settlement of the war.

He postponed a trip to Saudi Arabia that had been scheduled for this week, citing the fact that officials from his country were not invited to Tuesday’s U.S.-Russia talks. The Ukrainian leader suggested that he wanted to avoid his visit being linked to the talks and rescheduled the trip for March 10.

Zelenskyy is due to host the U.S. envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, for talks on Wednesday.

Bruce said the Rubio-Lavrov talks, the first extensive discussions between the two countries in more than three years, also laid the groundwork for more talks aside from the negotiations to end the war.

She said the two sides would “establish a consultation mechanism to address irritants to our bilateral relationship with the objective of taking steps necessary to normalize the operation of our respective diplomatic missions.”  

Bruce said the U.S. and Russia would “lay the groundwork for future cooperation on matters of mutual geopolitical interest and historic economic and investment opportunities” once the war is ended.  

The U.S.-Russia engagement sparked concern among European leaders who in recent days have highlighted the need for Ukraine to be involved in discussions about its future, and for European nations to play a role in what they also see as a key development for their own security.  

French President Emmanuel Macron convened a group of European leaders for a Monday session in Paris, where they discussed boosting defense spending and potential security guarantees for Ukraine.  

There was division on the idea of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine as part of a potential end to the war, with governments such as Britain and Sweden expressing openness to the idea while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that discussion was premature.  

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.  
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Washington — The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests to access Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Acting Commissioner Michelle King’s departure from the agency over the weekend — after more than 30 years of service — was initiated after King refused to provide DOGE staffers at the SSA with access to sensitive information, the people said Monday.

The White House has replaced her as acting commissioner with Leland Dudek, who currently works at the SSA, the people said.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields released a statement Monday night saying: “President Trump has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner.”

Fields added, “President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long.”

King’s exit from the administration is one of several departures of high-ranking officials concerned about DOGE staffers’ potential unlawful access to private taxpayer information.

DOGE has accessed Treasury payment systems and is attempting to access Internal Revenue Service databases.

Since Republican President Donald Trump has retaken the White House, his billionaire adviser Elon Musk has rapidly burrowed deep into federal agencies while avoiding public scrutiny of his work through the DOGE group.

Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the preservation of Social Security benefits, said of DOGE’s efforts that “there is no way to overstate how serious a breach this is. And my understanding is that it has already occurred.”

“The information collected and securely held by the Social Security Administration is highly sensitive,” she said. “SSA has data on everyone who has a Social Security number, which is virtually all Americans, everyone who has Medicare, and every low-income American who has applied for Social Security’s means-tested companion program, Supplemental Security Income.”

“If there is an evil intent to punish perceived enemies, someone could erase your earnings record, making it impossible to collect the Social Security and Medicare benefits you have earned.”

The future of Social Security has become a top political issue and was a major point of contention in the 2024 election. About 72.5 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children, receive Social Security benefits.
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Top U.S. and Russian diplomats began meetings Tuesday in Saudi Arabia about relations between their countries and a potential end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

Both sides have tempered expectations, describing the talks as an initial step that could lay the framework for direct talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the U.S. delegation, which also includes national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Wikoff.

Russia’s side includes Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and senior Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Ukrainian leaders said they were not invited to participate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to host U.S. envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg for talks on Wednesday.

The U.S.-Russia engagement sparked concern among European leaders who in recent days have highlighted the need for Ukraine to be involved in discussions about its own future, and for European nations to play a role in what they also see as a key development in their own security.

French President Emmanuel Macron convened a group of European leaders for a Monday session in Paris where they discussed boosting defense spending and potential security guarantees for Ukraine.

There was division on the idea of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine as part of a potential end to the war, with governments such as Britain and Sweden expressing openness to the idea while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that discussion was premature.

“We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine. To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians,” Macron said on X.

The French leader said he had spoken with Trump and Zelenskyy after the Paris talks, and that it is important for Europeans, Americans and Ukrainians to work together.

Zelenskyy expressed a need for “robust and reliable” security guarantees, saying that otherwise Russia will just start another war with Ukraine or other nations in Europe.
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A Russian drone hit an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dolynska, officials said Tuesday, injuring at least three people.

Andriy Raikovych, governor of the Kirovohrad region where the attack took place, said on Telegram that authorities evacuated dozens of people from the building and that those injured included a mother and two children.

The attack was part of a widespread Russian aerial assault overnight, which the Ukrainian military said included 176 drones.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 103 of the drones, with intercepts taking place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, the military said Tuesday.

Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram that debris from a destroyed drone damaged four houses in his region.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it destroyed five Ukrainian drones, including four over the Voronezh region and one over Belgorod.

Both regions are located along the Russia-Ukraine border and are frequent targets of Ukrainian drone attacks.

Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram there were no reports of casualties or damage.

Some information for this story was provided by Reuters
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NEW YORK — Four top deputies to New York City Mayor Eric Adams are resigning in the latest fallout from the Justice Department’s push to end a corruption case against Adams and ensure his cooperation in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown — a bargain that has raised questions about the mayor’s political independence and ability to lead the city.

In a statement Monday, Adams confirmed the departures of First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker.

“I am disappointed to see them go, but given the current challenges, I understand their decision and wish them nothing but success in the future,” said Adams, who faces several challengers in June’s Democratic primary. “But let me be crystal clear: New York City will keep moving forward, just as it does every day.”

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams became the latest Democrat to call on the mayor to resign, saying that with the deputy mayor resignations it’s clear he “has now lost the confidence and trust of his own staff, his colleagues in government and New Yorkers.”

Speaker Adams is not related to the mayor.

Torres-Springer, Joshi and Williams-Isom told agency heads and staff in a memo that they were exiting because of “the extraordinary events of the last few weeks.”

They did not give a date for their departures, but Adams said they and Parker will remain “for the time being to ensure a seamless transition.”

Adams has faced increasing scrutiny since the Justice Department’s second-in-command ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan last week to drop the mayor’s corruption case. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove wrote that the case had “unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime.”

That directive touched off firestorms within the Justice Department and New York political circles, with seven federal prosecutors quitting in protest — including the interim U.S. attorney for Manhattan — and fellow Democrats calling on Adams to resign.

On Friday, after a week of recriminations and resignations, Bove and a pair of Justice Department officials from Washington stepped in and filed paperwork asking Manhattan federal Judge Dale E. Ho to dismiss the case. Ho has yet to take action on the request.

Adams, a former police captain, pleaded not guilty last September to charges that he accepted more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks from foreign nationals looking to buy his influence while he was Brooklyn borough president campaigning to be mayor.

The Justice Department said in its filing Friday that it was seeking to dismiss Adams’ charges with the option of refiling them later, which critics see as a carrot to ensure his compliance on the Republican president’s objectives. In his memo ordering prosecutors to ditch the case, Bove said the new, permanent U.S. attorney would review the matter after the November election.

“It certainly sounds like President Trump is holding the mayor hostage,” Reverend Al Sharpton, an Adams ally, said Tuesday. “I have supported the mayor, but he has been put in an unfair position — even for him — of essentially political blackmail.”

Political leaders, including Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Nydia Velázquez, and Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado have called on Adams to step down. But Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul has said she’s taking a more deliberative approach.

“The allegations are extremely concerning and serious, but I cannot as the governor of this state have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of other people are saying right now,” she told MSNBC on Thursday. “I’ve got to do it smart, what’s right, and I’m consulting with other leaders in government right now.”

The drama over Adams’ legal case played out as the mayor met with Trump’s border czar in New York on Thursday and announced increased cooperation on the Trump administration’s efforts to remove immigrants, including reestablishing an office for immigration authorities at the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail.

In their memo to staff announcing their exits, Torres-Springer, Joshi and Williams-Isom wrote, “Due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families, we have come to the difficult decision to step down from our roles.”
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San Jose, Costa Rica — Costa Rica announced Monday it would receive migrants from other countries who were deported by the United States, following in the footsteps of Panama and Guatemala.

“The Government of Costa Rica agreed to collaborate with the United States in the repatriation of 200 illegal immigrants to their country,” the Costa Rican president’s office said in a statement, adding that “these are people originating from … Central Asia and India.”

Costa Rica is the third country in Central America to collaborate on repatriating deported migrants from the United States since President Donald Trump assumed office in Washington on Jan. 20. 

The first set of deportees will arrive in Costa Rica on Wednesday aboard a commercial flight, according to the statement, whereupon they will be transported to a Temporary Migrant Care Center near the border with Panama. 

The statement specified that “the process will be completely financed” by the U.S. government under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration. 

Panama and Guatemala had previously agreed to a similar arrangement when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited on a recent tour of Latin America. 

Panama received its first repatriation flight with 119 migrants aboard last week, originating from China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to Panamanian officials. None have arrived yet in Guatemala.

Latin America is the original home of most of the United States’ estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.

Many had made dangerous journeys, braving treacherous terrain, wild animals and criminal gangs for a chance at a better life.

Trump, however, took a hard line against undocumented migrants during last year’s U.S. election campaign, describing some as “monsters” and “animals.”

On his first day in office last month, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern U.S. border and vowed to deport “millions and millions” of migrants.

 
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Lawmakers in the U.S. state of Oklahoma are looking at a plan to start collecting information on the immigration status of students and parents in public schools. It’s a proposed rule that some local school officials are already saying they will refuse to enforce. Scott Stearns narrates this story from Daria Vershylenko in Oklahoma.
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Washington — The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Probationary workers were targeted in late night emails Friday notifying them they had been fired, David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said in a statement.

The affected workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told the Associated Press. The air traffic controller was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a brief statement Monday it was “analyzing the effect of the reported federal employee terminations on aviation safety, the national airspace system and our members.”

Other FAA employees who were fired were working on an urgent and classified early warning radar system the Air Force had announced in 2023 for Hawaii to detect incoming cruise missiles, through a program that was in part funded by the Department of Defense. It’s one of several programs that the FAA’s National Defense Program manages that involve radars providing longer-range detection around the country’s borders.

Due to the nature of their work, staff in that office typically provide an extensive knowledge transfer before retiring to make sure no institutional knowledge is lost, said Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, one of the employees in that branch who was terminated.

The Hawaii radar and the FAA National Defense Program office working on it “is about protecting national security,” Spitzer-Stadtlander said. “I don’t think they even knew what NDP does, they just thought, ‘oh no big deal, he just works for the FAA.’”

Spero said messages began arriving after 7 p.m. on Friday and continued late into the night. More might be notified over the long weekend or barred from entering FAA buildings on Tuesday, he said.

The firings hit the FAA when it faces a shortfall in controllers. Federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at U.S. airports. Among the reasons they have cited for staffing shortages are uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training and mandatory retirements.

In the Jan. 29 fatal crash between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines passenger jet, which is still under investigation, one controller was handing both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at the busy airport.

Just days before the collision, President Donald Trump had already fired all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, a panel mandated by Congress after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The committee is charged with examining safety issues at airlines and airports.

Spitzer-Stadtlander said he was supposed to be exempted from the probationary firings because the FAA office he worked in focused on national security threats such as attacks on the national airspace by drones.

The Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The firings were first reported by CNN.
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Russia has freed a U.S. citizen arrested earlier this month on drug smuggling charges, according to Russian media reports and a U.S. official. 

The move appears to be an effort to ease tensions between Moscow and Washington ahead of talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. 

Kalob Byers, 28, was detained on Feb. 7 at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after customs officials allegedly found cannabis-laced marmalade in his baggage. According to media reports, Byers had traveled from Istanbul with his Russian fiancee, who was also detained. The authorities said he had attempted to smuggle a “significant amount” of drugs into the country and put him in custody on the charges of drug smuggling, punishable by a prison term of up to 10 years. 

Byers has been released from custody and is in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow where he is awaiting a flight home, Russian independent news outlet Meduza reported Monday, citing a Facebook post by his parents. A U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press that Byers was released to the embassy late Sunday evening. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive matters. 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday in response to a question about Byers that Moscow expects “to discuss restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations” at the talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, “so certain events can be viewed in this context.” 

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Byers’ fiancee was also released. Russian media reports identified her as Naida Mambetova and said she was placed in pre-trial detention on the same charges. 

Arrests of American nationals in Russia have become increasingly common in recent years, with relations between Moscow and Washington sinking to Cold War lows over the war in Ukraine. Some have been released in prisoner exchanges. The most recent one included Marc Fogel, a teacher from Pennsylvania imprisoned in Russia on charges similar to those Byers had faced. 

Fogel was detained in 2021 when traveling to Russia to work at a school and handed a 14-year sentence for having what his family and supporters said was medically prescribed marijuana. He was released and brought back to the U.S. earlier this month in a swap that saw Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert who faced Bitcoin fraud charges in the U.S., returned to Russia. 

The release of Fogel and Byers come as tensions between Russia and the U.S. appear to ease. 

President Donald Trump on Wednesday upended three years of U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia, saying he and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the conflict following a lengthy direct phone call.
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In central California, it is harvesting season for strawberries and citrus fruits. But some farm workers who aren’t legal U.S. residents are staying away from work, following migrant roundups that are part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Genia Dulot has our story.
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Saudi Arabia on Monday as part of a tour of the region that includes a focus on the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Rubio was expected to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid objections from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations about U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza.

Trump has suggested the Palestinians would go to neighboring countries, with the United States taking over Gaza and redeveloping the territory.

Such a plan would seemingly eliminate Trump’s hopes of getting Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel, a move Saudi officials have said will not happen unless there is a pathway for a Palestinian state.

The United States fully endorsed Israel’s war aims in Gaza on Sunday, with Rubio saying that Hamas “must be eradicated” and “cannot continue as a military or government force.”

With the first phase of the ceasefire set to expire in two weeks, Rubio told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a stop in Jerusalem that “as long as [Hamas] stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible.”

Echoing Trump, the Israeli leader said “the gates of hell would be open” if Hamas does not release dozens of remaining hostages abducted in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.

Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, freed three hostages Saturday in exchange for nearly 400 Palestinians who had been jailed in Israel. But the militants continue to hold dozens of hostages they captured in the terror attack that killed 1,200 people.

Israel’s counteroffensive during 15 months of fighting in Gaza has killed more than 48,200 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants.

The tentative second phase of the ceasefire plan calls for Hamas to release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, drafting of a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces. But the detailed terms of the deal have yet to be negotiated.

During his tour of the region, Rubio was not scheduled to meet with any Palestinian officials.

Egypt says it is hosting an Arab summit on February 27, and is working with other countries on a counterproposal that would allow for Gaza to be rebuilt without removing its population. Human rights groups say the expulsion of Palestinians would likely violate international law.

Arab nations have long called for creation of an independent Palestinian state to exist alongside Israel, which the U.S. has also supported. But Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and U.S. ownership of Gaza also would likely end the possibility of a Palestinian state encompassing Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Egypt has warned that any mass influx of Palestinians from Gaza would undermine its nearly half-century-old peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of American influence in the region.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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“Saturday Night Live” has been a staple of American television comedy for 50 years, launching stars and shaping culture. On Sunday night, fans and famous alumni gathered in New York City to celebrate this milestone. Aron Ranen reports from the Big Apple.
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BEIJING/TAIPEI — China on Monday urged the United States to “correct its mistakes” after the U.S. State Department removed previous wording on its website about not supporting Taiwan independence, which it said was part of a routine update.

The fact sheet on Taiwan, updated last week, retains Washington’s opposition to unilateral change from either Taiwan or from China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own.

But as well as dropping the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence,” the page added a reference to Taiwan’s cooperation with a Pentagon technology and semiconductor development project and says the U.S. will support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations “where applicable.”

Beijing regularly denounces any international recognition of Taiwan or contact between Taiwanese and foreign officials, viewing it as encouraging Taiwan’s separate status from China.

The update to the website came roughly three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term in the White House.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the revisions for Taiwan on the U.S. State Department’s website were a big step backwards and “sends a seriously wrong message to Taiwan independence separatist forces.”

“This is yet another example of the United States’ stubborn adherence to the erroneous policy of ‘using Taiwan to suppress China’. We urge the United States side to immediately rectify its mistakes,” Guo said.

The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its strongest international backer, bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

“As is routine, the fact sheet was updated to inform the general public about our unofficial relationship with Taiwan,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email sent late Sunday Taiwan time responding to questions on the updated website wording.

“The United States remains committed to its one China policy,” the spokesperson said, referring to Washington officially taking no position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and only acknowledging China’s position on the subject.

“The United States is committed to preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesperson said.

“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We support cross-Strait dialog, and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to people on both sides of the Strait.”

On Sunday, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung expressed his appreciation for what he called the “support and positive stance on U.S.-Taiwan relations.”

Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying that only the island’s people can decide their future.

Taiwan says it is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name. The Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists, who set up the People’s Republic of China.
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NEW YORK — Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter opened the 50th anniversary special celebrating “Saturday Night Live” with a duet of his song “Homeward Bound.”

The 83-year-old Simon has been a constant on “SNL” since its earliest episodes in 1975 and performed on the first show after the 9/11 attack. He was joined by the 25-year-old pop sensation of the moment, Carpenter.

“I sang this song with George Harrison on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1976,” Simon said.

“I was not born then,” Carpenter said, getting a laugh. “And neither were my parents,” she added, getting a bigger laugh.

Fifty seasons of “Saturday Night Live” sketches, songs and special guests are being celebrated for the special’s landmark anniversary in a Sunday night special.

The pop culture juggernaut has launched the careers of generations of comedians, from Bill Murray to Eddie Murphy and Tina Fey to Kristen Wiig.

Many of those stars were on hand for “SNL50: The Anniversary Celebration,” airing live from New York, of course.

“I grew up with the show, you know, and I was born in 1971, and it’s lived with me my whole life,” Amy Poehler, who was a cast member from 2001 to 2008,” said on Sunday ahead of the show’s start. “We have a show to do in just under two hours, and being back is an amazing privilege.”

The three-hour extravaganza comes after months of celebrations of “Saturday Night Live,” which premiered Oct. 11, 1975, with an original cast that included John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner.

“After the original cast, we were just going, Those guys just did it all for us,” Adam Sandler, a cast member from 1990-1995, said before the show. “They crushed it. We watched them at home. They made their movies. We worshiped their movies. And that’s all. What we wanted to do is just kind of continue that sort of stuff.”

It’s become appointment television over the years as the show has skewered presidents, politics and pop culture and been a platform for the biggest musical stars of the moment. As streaming has altered television viewing, “SNL” sketches, host monologues and short comedy films remain popular on social media and routinely rack up millions of views on YouTube.

While NBC has revealed some of the stars expected to appear, many of the special’s moments, cameos and music performances remain a surprise.

On Sunday, NBC announced more guest appearances including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Leslie Jones, Billy Crystal, Cher, Mike Myers and Alec Baldwin, who holds the title of the person who’s hosted “SNL” the most times.

 
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President Donald Trump’s administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in its bid to fire the head of an independent U.S. agency that protects government whistleblowers, bringing its first legal battle involving Trump’s actions to the nation’s highest judicial body since he took office in January.

The Justice Department asked the court to immediately lift a federal judge’s Feb. 12 order that temporarily blocked Trump’s removal of Hampton Dellinger as the head of the Office of Special Counsel while litigation continues in the dispute, according to a copy of the filing reviewed by Reuters. The case has not yet been docketed by the court.

The federal judge’s action blocking the termination is an “unprecedented assault on the separation of powers,” Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said in the filing.

“This court should not allow lower courts to seize executive power by dictating to the President how long he must continue employing an agency head against his will,” Harris wrote.

Appointed by former President Joe Biden, Dellinger’s five-year term was set to expire in 2029. He sued after receiving an email on Feb. 7 informing him that Trump had fired him from the watchdog role, “effective immediately.”

Dellinger’s lawsuit said Trump exceeded his power in purporting to fire him, given that federal law permits removal only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”

The Special Counsel’s “ability to protect the civil service and investigate alleged misconduct is needed now more than ever,” Dellinger’s lawsuit said. “Over the preceding three weeks, an unprecedented number of federal employees with civil service protections have been terminated without cause.”

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C. issued a temporary restraining order on Feb. 12, restoring Dellinger to his position pending a further, preliminary order.

Jackson said Dellinger was likely to prevail in the suit given that the effort to fire him without identifying any cause “plainly contravenes” the Special Counsel’s job protections under federal law.

“This language expresses Congress’s clear intent to ensure the independence of the Special Counsel and insulate his work from being buffeted by the winds of political change,” Jackson wrote in the order.

The District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the administration’s appeal in a 2-1 decision on Saturday, saying it was premature, given that Jackson’s order was only temporary.

The Special Counsel Office allows whistleblowers to make disclosures about alleged misconduct within federal agencies and investigates complaints of retaliation. It also enforces a U.S. law known as the Hatch Act that limits political participation by federal employees.

The move to fire Dellinger was the latest by the Trump administration to expel officials who investigate wrongdoing within the federal government. Trump last month fired 17 inspectors general who serve as independent watchdogs within their agencies, without providing a reason.
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Top U.S. officials headed Sunday to Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian diplomats in the coming days on ending Moscow’s three-year war on Ukraine, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed prospects for an immediate breakthrough.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed during an hour-long call last week to the immediate start of peace negotiations, but Rubio told CBS’s “Face the Nation” in an interview aired Sunday, “A process towards peace is not a one- meeting thing.”

“We’ll see in the coming days and weeks if Vladimir Putin is interested in negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine in a way that is sustainable and fair,” Rubio said.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz said they were headed to Riyadh for the talks, while a Ukrainian minister says that an official delegation has arrived there in preparation for a possible visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The shape of the talks remained uncertain.

Rubio said he wasn’t even sure who Moscow was sending. “Nothing’s been finalized yet,” he said, adding that the hope was for an opening for a broad conversation that “would include Ukraine and would involve the end of the war.”

Trump’s call with Putin blindsided NATO allies as well as Kyiv, with Zelenskyy later saying that there should be “no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

Whatever occurs this week in Saudi Arabia, Rubio said that once “real negotiations” begin, then Ukraine “will have to be involved.”

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Zelenskyy said, “I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine. Never. The war in Ukraine is against us, and it is our human losses.”

Zelenskyy said he told Trump in a call they had last week that Putin is only pretending to want peace.

“I said that he is a liar. And [Trump] said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’ And I said to him, ‘No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.’”

The United States has been Ukraine’s biggest arms supplier during the conflict, but Trump has wavered on continued support and declined during a political debate last year to say that he wants Ukraine to win.

Zelenskyy said that without continued U.S. military support, “Probably it will be very, very, very difficult” to defeat Russia. “And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance — low chance to survive without support of the United States.”

Russia now controls about 20% of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, including the Crimean Peninsula it unilaterally annexed in 2014 and the eastern portion of Ukraine pro-Moscow separatists captured after that and since the full-scale February 2022 Russian invasion.
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Norfolk, Virginia — Like the other Founding Fathers, George Washington was uneasy about the idea of publicly celebrating his life. He was the first leader of a new republic, not a king.

And yet the United States will once again commemorate its first president Monday, 293 years after he was born.

The meaning of Presidents Day has changed dramatically, from being mostly unremarkable and filled with work for Washington in the 1700s to the bonanza of consumerism it has become today. For some historians, the holiday has lost all discernible meaning.

Historian Alexis Coe, author of “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington,” has said she thinks about Presidents Day in much the same way as the towering monument in D.C. bearing his name.

“It’s supposed to be about Washington, but can you really point to anything that looks or sounds like him?” she remarked in an interview with The Associated Press in 2024. “Jefferson and Lincoln are presented as people with limbs and noses and words associated with their memorials. And he’s just a giant, granite point. He has been sanded down to have absolutely no identifiable features.”

Here is a look at how things have evolved:

Washington’s birthdays were celebrated, sometimes

Washington was born Feb. 22, 1732, on Popes Creek Plantation near the Potomac River in Virginia.

Technically, though, he was born Feb. 11 under the ancient Julian calendar, which was still in use for the first 20 years of his life. The Gregorian calendar, intended to more accurately mark the solar year, was adopted in 1752, adding 11 days.

Either way, Washington paid little attention to his birthday, according to Mountvernon.org, the website of the organization that manages his estate. Surviving records make no mention of observances at Mount Vernon, while his diary shows he was often hard at work.

“If he had it his way, he would be at home with his family,” Coe said. “Maybe some beloved nieces and nephews (and friend) Marquis de Lafayette would be ideal. And Martha’s recipe for an indulgent cake. But that’s about it.”

Washington’s birthday was celebrated by his peers in government when he was president, mostly.

Congress voted during his first two terms to take a short commemorative break each year, with one exception, his last birthday in office, Coe said. By then, Washington was less popular, partisanship was rampant, and many members of his original Cabinet were gone, including Thomas Jefferson.

“One way to show their disdain for his Federalist policies was to keep working through his birthday,” Coe said.

The Library of Congress does note a French military officer, the Comte de Rochambeau, threw a ball celebrating Washington’s 50th birthday in 1782.

After his death, a market for memorabilia is born

Washington was very aware of his inaugural role as president and its distinction from the British crown. He didn’t want to be honored like a king, Seth Bruggeman, a history professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, told the AP last year.

Still, he said, a market for Washington memorabilia sprang up almost immediately after his death in 1799 at age 67, with people snapping up pottery and reproductions of etchings portraying him as a divine figure going off into heaven.

“Even in that early moment, Americans kind of conflated consumerism with patriotic memory,” said Bruggeman, whose books include “Here, George Washington Was Born: Memory, Material Culture, and the Public History of a National Monument.”

Making it official with parades and festivals

It wasn’t until 1832, the centennial of his birth, that Congress established a committee to arrange national “parades, orations and festivals,” according to the Congressional Research Service.

Only in 1879 was his birthday formally made into a legal holiday for federal employees in the District of Columbia.

The official designation for the holiday is Washington’s Birthday, although it has come to be known informally as Presidents Day. Arguments have been made to honor President Lincoln as well because his birth date falls nearby, on Feb. 12.

A small number of states, including Illinois, observe Lincoln’s birthday as a public holiday, according to the Library of Congress. And some commemorate both Lincoln and Washington on Presidents Day.

But on the federal level, the day is still officially Washington’s Birthday.

A shift to consumerism

By the late 1960s, Washington’s Birthday was one of nine federal holidays that fell on specific dates on different days of the week, according to a 2004 article in the National Archives’ Prologue magazine.

Congress voted to move some of those to Mondays, following concerns that were in part about absenteeism among government workers when a holiday fell midweek. But lawmakers also noted clear benefits to the economy, including boosts in retail sales and travel on three-day weekends.

The Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect in 1971, moving Presidents Day to the third Monday in February. Sales campaigns soared, historian C. L. Arbelbide wrote in Prologue.

Bruggeman said Washington and the other Founding Fathers “would have been deeply worried” by how the holiday became taken over by commercial and private interests.

“They were very nervous about corporations,” Bruggeman said. “It wasn’t that they forbade them. But they saw corporations as like little republics that potentially threatened the power of The Republic.”

Coe, who is also a fellow at the Washington think tank New America, said by now the day is devoid of recognizable traditions.

“There’s no moment of reflection,” Coe said. Given today’s widespread cynicism toward the office, she added, that sort of reflection “would probably be a good idea.”
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