Happy Wednesday! The owner of KFC recently announced plans to move the popular fast food chain’s headquarters from Louisville, Kentucky, to Plano, Texas. We’re all for low corporate taxes, but “TFC” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated Tuesday that the United States and Russia had agreed to restaff their respective embassies. His announcement followed the first day of high-level talks between Russian and American officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, aimed at ending the war in Ukraine and improving U.S.-Russia cooperation. The State Department laid out plans to pursue “historic economic and investment opportunities” with Russia after the fighting has ceased and alluded to the possibility of lifting sanctions on the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, reportedly postponed a planned trip to Saudi Arabia to avoid giving the negotiations—to which he said he initially hadn’t been invited—“legitimacy.”
• A Hamas negotiator on Tuesday announced plans to return the bodies of four murdered hostages to Israel on Thursday, including Shiri Bibas and her two young boys, Ariel and Kfir. Terrorists abducted the mother and children from their Nir Oz home on October 7, 2023, along with Shiri’s husband Yarden, who was separated from his family during the attack and released this month as part of the ongoing U.S.-brokered, three-phase ceasefire deal. Israel has yet to confirm the remaining family members’ deaths, but expressed “grave concerns” about their status last month. Kfir was the youngest abductee at just 9 months old at the time of his kidnapping. Hamas also said Tuesday that it would free the six remaining living hostages slated for release in the first stage of the deal on Saturday.
• Multiple outlets reported Tuesday that Michelle King, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, has stepped down over the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to access sensitive government records. Elon Musk’s commission has in recent weeks accessed the Treasury Department’s payment system and is now attempting to obtain sensitive taxpayer data at the Internal Revenue Service as part of DOGE’s ostensible push to audit the federal government. With King’s departure, the White House reportedly appointed SSA employee Leland Dudek to take over as acting commissioner of the independent agency.
• Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced plans on Tuesday to resign from his position atop the U.S. Postal Service, though he didn’t specify the date of his departure. DeJoy’s announcement followed reports that the Trump administration was looking into candidates to replace him, though the postmaster general is typically chosen by an independent governing board. President Donald Trump had also floated the possibility of privatizing the federal agency, which lost $9.5 billion in the 2024 fiscal year. 
• Jim Jones, the head of the Food and Drug Administration’s food division, resigned from his post on Monday in response to the Trump administration’s sweeping layoffs. Of the 2,000 employees in his division, 89 people—including new staffers hired to investigate the risk of chemicals in the food industry—were affected by cuts that Jones described as “indiscriminate” in a resignation letter. “The secretary’s comments impugning the integrity of the food staff, asserting they are corrupt based on falsities, is a disservice to everyone,” he added of newly confirmed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s past attacks on the FDA.
• The Senate voted 51-45 along party lines on Tuesday to confirm Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary. The former CEO of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick will be tasked with managing 50,000 employees as he seeks to implement President Trump’s protectionist trade priorities. As a nominee, the billionaire signaled his support for tariffs and limited regulations on artificial intelligence development. 
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported Tuesday that immigration authorities apprehended some 29,000 people trying to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border in January—the lowest level since May 2020. The agency also noted that illegal crossings between January 21 and January 31 had dropped 85 percent year-over-year. The largest number of monthly migrant apprehensions to date came in December 2023, at 230,000 arrests, and has steadily decreased since.