Donald Trump is back in the White House and making a lot of moves very quickly.

Keep track of everything going on in Washington with the NPR Politics Podcast.

Every day we break down the latest news and explain why it matters to you.

The NPR Politics Podcast, listen every day.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. As President Trump thaws U.S. diplomatic relations with Russia, he is trading blows with Ukraine. Nearly three years after his country was invaded by Russian forces, President Volodomir Zelensky, criticized Trump for falsely blaming the hostilities on Ukraine.

Covering the Kremlin, NPR's Charles Mainz reports the Russian government says Moscow and

Washington are on their way toward normalizing relations.

Russian foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov, briefing Russian lawmakers on the Saudi talks,

praised President Trump as the first Western leader to publicly acknowledge

the prospect of NATO expansion into Ukraine as a major cause of the war.

Lavrov said there was now a shared desire not only to end that conflict, but possibly work

with the U.S. to develop new trade and geopolitical partnerships.

To do that, Lavrov said both sides first had to, quote, clean up Biden administration

efforts to undermine relations. The Biden White House sought to isolate Russia over its invasion of its

neighbor. In contrast, President Trump said he wants to work with Russia to end the war, unnerving Ukraine

and traditional U.S. allies in Europe. Charles Mainz, NPR News. The U.S. Department of Agriculture

says it's trying to reverse the dismissals of employees who are part of the government's response

to the nationwide bird flu outbreak. The USDA is among multiple agencies that have public health

responsibilities and are facing mass layoffs involving tens of thousands of

workers across the federal government. President Trump is putting his thumb on the scale as Congress

debates how to implement his top legislative priorities. NPR's Barbara Sprunt reports there has been

tension between the House and Senate for months as they offer competing visions for how to pass new funding

...