The United States and Russia agreed on Tuesday to address “irritants” to the US-Russia relationship and begin working on a path to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, the State Department said, making clear the effort was in its early stages.

“One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said after meetings in Saudi Arabia.

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev told Reuters of the talks: “I think it is too early to talk about compromises, we can say that the sides started communicating with each other, started listening to each other, started the dialogue.”

He said Russian and US officials had a separate discussion on future economic cooperation, including global energy prices.

The talks between Russian and US officials in Saudi Arabia have wrapped up, a senior Kremlin official told Russian state TV on Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, who attended the talks in Riyadh alongside Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, told Russia’s Channel one that no date has been set yet for a meeting between Putin and Trump, the Associated Press reports.

He said the meeting was “unlikely” to take place next week.

“The delegations of the two countries need to work closely together. We are ready for this, but it is still difficult to talk about a specific date for the meeting of the two leaders,” Ushakov said

Michelle King, the top official at the Social Security Administration, left her position on Sunday after refusing a request from Elon Musk’s Doge to access sensitive government records at the agency, The Washington Post reports.

King had spent several decades at the agency and was made acting commissioner last month.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields confirmed King’s departure in a statement.

“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,” Fields said.

“In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner. 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.”

Donald Trump appointed Leland Dudek, a manager in charge of Social Security’s anti-fraud office as acting commissioner while Bisignano is vetted by the Senate.

DNC chair outlines pro-worker, union focus in first memo in fight against Trump

Lois Beckett

The newly elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, has warned his party that the Republicans are now seen as the party of the working class and vowed to win back the trust of American workers as the Democrats seek to rebuild after their losses in the 2024 presidential election.

In his first memo in the role, seen by the Guardian, Martin said, after the election, “for the first time in modern history, Americans now see the Republicans as the party of the working class and Democrats as the party of the elites”.

The memo, titled “Democrats Will Fight Against Trump’s War on Working People”, comes as Martin is set to meet with United Steel Workers members in Pittsburgh today.

“By joining together in a union, working people have secured better wages, workplace protections, healthcare and the weekend. Because here’s the thing: unions expand opportunities for all workers – not just those who are members,” Martin wrote.

Read the full report here:

Trump nominates January 6 activist to serve as top DC prosecutor

Lois Beckett

A conservative activist who has consistently defended the January 6 storming of the Capitol has been nominated by Donald Trump to serve as the permanent top federal prosecutor in the city where it happened.

Trump named Ed Martin for US attorney for the District of Columbia, the top prosecutor for all serious local crimes by adults in the district. His appointment must be confirmed by the US Senate.

Martin has echoed Trump’s baseless and incorrect claims that the 2020 election was stolen, including speaking at a “Stop the Steal” rally in DC on 5 January, and consistently defended the actions of the insurrectionists.

He has said he was part of the crowds of Trump supporters who gathered near the White House in Washington DC on 6 January to hear Trump urge them to march on the US Capitol, where many engaged in a attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election and keep Trump in power.

Read the full report here:

Four deputies to New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, resigned on Monday as the growing chaos following a justice department request to drop corruption charges against him, widely seen as a reward for his help with Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, engulfs his three-year-old administration.

According to reports, four of Adams’ deputies – 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 – said they were stepping down.

“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,” Adams said in a statement.

Torres-Springer, Williams-Isom and Joshi issued a joint statement, citing “the extraordinary events of the last few weeks” and “oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families” as what led them to the “difficult decision” to leave.