Politics

LONDON — U.S.-Russian dual citizen Ksenia Karelina was released from Russian prison in an overnight prisoner exchange, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday.

The exchange took place overnight in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Karelina’s lawyer Mikhail Mushailov confirmed to ABC News that she had been released.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the exchange in a tweet, writing, “American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States. She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release.”

A U.S. official told ABC News that American and Russian intelligence agencies took the lead in negotiating the prisoner swap.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement, “Today, President Trump brought home another wrongfully detained American from Russia. I’m proud of the CIA officers who worked tirelessly to support this effort and we appreciate the government of UAE for enabling the exchange.”

A CIA spokesperson told ABC News that “much of the swap was negotiated by the U.S. government, with CIA playing a key role engaging with Russian intelligence.”

“Through these engagements, CIA negotiated with Russia and worked closely with domestic and foreign partners, including the UAE, to carry out the exchange,” the spokesperson said. “We also collaborated closely with counterparts at agencies across the [U.S. government] to facilitate this exchange.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service also confirmed Karelina’s release, saying she had been pardoned via a decree from President Vladimir Putin. The FSB said the exchange was made at Abu Dhabi airport with the mediation of the UAE.

German-Russian citizen Artur Petrov — who was detained in Cyprus in 2023 at the request of the U.S. and later extradited — was exchanged for Karelina, the service said.

A Justice Department notice of his arrest said Petrov was accused of involvement in a scheme to procure U.S.-sourced microelectronics subject to export controls on behalf of a Russia-based supplier. The components were intended for manufacturers supplying weaponry and other equipment to the Russian military, the notice said.

A 2024 statement related to Petrov’s extradition to the U.S. said he was part of a network that secretly supplied Russia’s military industrial complex with “critical U.S. technology, including the same types of microelectronics recovered from Russian weapons on Ukrainian battlefields.”

Karelina — a ballet dancer — was serving a 12-year prison sentence in a penal colony, having been convicted of treason in August 2024. She was accused of organizing fundraisers for Ukraine’s military, attending pro-Ukraine rallies and posting social media messages against Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Her boyfriend, Chris Van Heerden, spoke to ABC News Live hours after her sentencing, saying she did nothing wrong. He said all she did was donate $50 to a Ukrainian charity.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Cindy Smith, Tanya Stukalova and Shannon K. Kingston contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans are exhausting all legislative tools to prevent future votes on repealing President Donald Trump’s tariffs — doubling down on their support for the administration’s policies.

GOP leaders on Wednesday inserted language into the “rule” for the budget blueprint that would prohibit the House, until at least September, from forcing a vote on legislation to rescind Trump’s national emergencies authority.

“The rule provides that each day during the period from April 9, 2025, through September 30, 2025, shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622) with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on April 2, 2025,” the rule states.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended the move, telling reporters, “I’ve made it very clear I think the president has executive authority. It’s an appropriate level of authority to deal with the unfair trade practices. That’s part of the role of the president is to negotiate with other countries.”

Johnson said Trump told him Tuesday night that “there are almost 70 countries that are [in] some stage in negotiation of more fair-trade agreement agreements with the United States. I think that is in the interest of the American people. I think that is an ‘America First’ policy that will be effective, and so we have to give them the space to do it.”

House Democrats, led by Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., moved to force a vote on Tuesday on terminating the national emergency authority and blocking Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Now, that vote is unlikely to occur.

This is the second time Johnson has moved to stop the legislative calendar to prevent votes on Trump’s authority on tariffs. Under House rules, these votes would typically come up within 15 calendar days but now will not if the “rule” passes during the vote series Wednesday afternoon.

“I think you’ve got to give him the space,” Johnson argued on Trump’s tariffs. “It is having the desired effect right now. You see a number of nations going forward and proposing much more free trade agreements with the United States. The American people deserve that.”
 

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security will begin screening visa applicants’ social media content for “antisemitic activity,” it announced on Wednesday.

“There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said. “Secretary [Kristi] Noem has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism — think again. You are not welcome here.”

The directive from the department allows for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to begin “considering” any antisemitic activity “immediately” when screening those applying for lawful permanent resident status, as well as foreign students and those affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity.

USCIS will consider “social media content that indicates an alien endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests,” according to a release from the agency.

Similar guidance was issued by the State Department in March.

A cable sent to consulates around the world called for a review of social media for foreign students and student exchange visitors and has directed visa denials if their applications for visas are inconsistent with their visa classifications.

“If the social media review uncovers potentially derogatory information indicating that the applicant may not be eligible for a visa, Fraud Prevention Units are required take screenshots of social media findings to the extent it is relevant to visa eligibility, to preserve the record against the applicants later alteration of the information,” per the cable, which was obtained by ABC News last month.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 28 that more than 300 visas had already been revoked under the criteria.

The cable also encouraged revocations based on perceived “hostile attitudes” toward U.S. culture or values and raised questions about whether this blurs the line between national security vetting and viewpoint discrimination.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice and the U.S. Coast Guard busted 45,000 pounds of cocaine with a value of over $500 million, according to top DOJ officials on Wednesday.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel were at Port Everglades in Florida on Wednesday and said the seizures of the drugs saved lives and protected the public.

“We have saved thousands and thousands of lives as a result of this incredible cooperation,” Bondi said. “We believe two cartels, CJNG and Sinaloa, were heavily tied to these shipments.”

She added that the Coast Guard used “drones, aircraft and ships to interdict the traffickers.”

Patel had a message for the cartels: There is new leadership throughout the DOJ.

“We are going to dismantle the ‘next-man-up’ theory that has been breeding in these Mexican cartels for generations,” Patel said of the Mexican drug cartels. “No more.”

The Coast Guard said the operation took 11 days for the crew of the Cutter James and that finding drug traffickers in their patrol area is like “finding a needle in a haystack.”

Bondi noted that 11 people were arrested in connection with the operation.

Patel said it was an interagency effort with Coast Guard, Department of Defense and DOJ assets at play.

U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Nathan Moore told reporters that since February, the Coast Guard has seized over 59 metric tons of narcotics.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans are plowing ahead with a vote on the Senate-approved GOP budget blueprint on Wednesday despite opposition from rank-and-file lawmakers.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., with the help of President Donald Trump, will need to work to persuade nearly a dozen GOP holdouts to advance the legislation.

GOP leaders don’t have the votes right now. The speaker can only afford to lose three defections if all members are voting and present, and several GOP hard-liners from the House Freedom Caucus are likely to vote against the bill due to what they have said are concerns about how the plan would reduce the deficit.

If Johnson can pull off passing the legislation through the House in the face of likely drama on the House floor, he will deliver Trump a major win.

Trump posted Wednesday morning on his social media platform Truth Social that “it is more important now, than ever, that we pass THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL. The USA will Soar like never before!!!”

The House will hold a vote at 3:30 p.m. on a “rule,” a procedure to advance legislation, which includes the budget blueprint. This will be a key test vote for Republicans.

If the rule vote passes, the House will vote on final passage of the budget blueprint at 5:30 p.m., requiring a simple majority.

Trump met with Johnson and several GOP hard-liners who have said they have concerns about the bill Tuesday afternoon in the Oval Office, though Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., two likely no votes, said they were not invited.

Trump posted afterward that it was “a very good meeting.”

“I let them know that, I AM FOR MAJOR SPENDING CUTS! WE ARE GOING TO DO REDUCTIONS, hopefully in excess of $1 Trillion Dollars, all of which will go into ‘The One, Big, Beautiful Bill,'” he posted Tuesday night. “I, along with House Members and Senators, will be pushing very hard to get these large scale Spending Cuts done, but we must get the Bill approved NOW.”

Johnson, too, said he believed the meeting went well and that the president convinced the Republican holdouts to support the bill.

“A great meeting. The President was very helpful and engaged,” he said. “We have a lot of members’ whose questions were answered. We are making great progress right now.”

Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Lloyd Smucker, R-Penn., Eric Burlison, R-Mo., Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Keith Self, R-Texas, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., were unlikely to support the bill, though it is unclear if they were convinced by the president to change their positions.

However, Roy said Tuesday that he still had concerns with the budget blueprint and will likely vote against the bill, telling reporters that the resolution has “enough” GOP objections to tank it.

“I’m not here for aspirations,” he posted on X. “The Senate’s bill does not add up – it’s all tax cuts with no spending cuts which = deficits.”

Trump made a final pitch to House Republicans while speaking at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s black-tie dinner Tuesday night.

“Just in case there are a couple of Republicans out there, you just got to get there,” Trump said. “Close your eyes and get there. It’s a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding. Just stop grandstanding.”

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(WASHIGTON) — The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service is planning to resign following the agency’s data sharing agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to support the Trump administration’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, three sources familiar with her plans told ABC News.

Melanie Krause is the third leader of the agency to resign this year; Senate-confirmed Commissioner Danny Werfel resigned from his role on Inauguration Day, less than two years into his five-year term.

One month later, acting commissioner Doug O’Donnell, who spent nearly four decades at the IRS, retired amid concerns about the Trump administration’s management of the agency.

A Treasury Department spokesperson also confirmed Krause’s plans to leave the agency in a statement to ABC News.

“Melanie Krause has been leading the IRS through a time of extraordinary change. As we focus on IT modernization and re-organize the agency to better serve the taxpayer, we are also in the midst of breaking down data silos that for too long have stood in the way of identifying waste, fraud, and abuse and bringing criminals to justice. We believe these goals are critical to a more efficient government and safer country. We wish Melanie well on her next endeavor,” the spokesperson said.

Krause did not respond to a request to comment from ABC News.

Other senior agency officials are considering leaving the agency following the new data sharing agreement and are concerned about its legality.

Some found out about its finalization, after weeks of negotiations, only after it was reported by Fox News Tuesday morning, sources told ABC News.

“People at the IRS have a strong sense of pride in tax administration and protecting taxpayer rights, and everything happening isn’t aligned [with that],” one source told ABC News.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed the agreement with DHS on behalf of the IRS, according to the redacted copy of the deal included in a court filing.

Section 6103 of the federal tax code requires the IRS keep individual taxpayer information confidential with certain limited exceptions, including with law enforcement agencies “for investigation and prosecution of non-tax criminal laws” with approval from a court, according to the agency’s website.

Current and former agency officials also worry the new policy could impact tax collections and discourage undocumented immigrant workers who do pay taxes for a variety of reasons.

The agency has said it will continue to protect the privacy of taxpayer data under the new agreement.

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(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of expected talks between the United States and Iran over the weekend, the State Department pushed back on the idea that the discussion would be a negotiation over Tehran’s nuclear program.

“This is a meeting that’s happening, right? On Saturday, there’s a meeting. There’s no negotiations,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday.

“This is a dynamic where the president has made very clear and certainly the secretary has made very clear that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” she said. “It’s touching base, yes. Again, it’s not a negotiation. It’s a meeting.”

However, Bruce and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt both emphasized that President Donald Trump is seeking to cut a deal with Tehran.

“When it comes to Iran, the president has reimposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian regime, and he’s made it very clear to Iran they have a choice to make: You can strike a deal with the president, you can negotiate, or there will be hell to pay,” Leavitt said.

Bruce confirmed that Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East, will represent the Trump administration during the session. But beyond that, both the White House and the State Department have been tight-lipped concerning details about the planned talks, which Trump announced during an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

Trump also asserted that the U.S. was already conducting direct diplomacy with Iran for the first time since 2018, when he exited an Obama-era nuclear deal with the country.

“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later posted on X that the meeting Trump referenced would take place in Oman and that talks would be “indirect high-level talks.”

“It is as much an opportunity as it is a test,” Araghchi said.

On Tuesday, the White House and the State Department stood by the president’s initial description of the forthcoming conversations and rejected Iran’s characterization of the talks as indirect.

“That’s nice for the Iranians,” Bruce said of Araghchi’s comments. “I would refer back to the president of the United States, President Donald John Trump.”

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(AUSTIN, TX) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced in a proclamation Monday afternoon that the special election to fill the seat vacated following the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Texas, for the rest of his term will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4, concurrent with Election Day.

But Democrats are arguing he is trying to keep the seat open as long as possible because of Republicans’ slim majority in the House.

Republicans have 220 seats to Democrats’ 213, and the special election would most likely install a new Democrat in the seat, given the district’s Democratic lean, cutting back on the GOP majority.

In a statement, Abbott blamed Harris County, where the district is located, for election administration issues, saying that is why he had to schedule the election for November.

“Forcing Harris County to rush this special election on weeks’ notice would harm the interests of voters. The appropriate time to hold this election is November, which will give Harris County sufficient time to prepare for such an important election,” Abbott wrote.

Abbott gave that reasoning in a recent local interview as well, telling local station KXAN on Thursday that the county will “need to have adequate time to operate a fair and accurate election, not a crazy election like what they conducted in the past.”

State audits found that Harris County had issues with administering elections in 2021 and 2022, according to Votebeat. Those issues included not properly training election workers and not issuing enough ballot paper at various places. But the county has also been a target for unfounded theories or allegations about elections.

However, Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth noted in a statement on Friday that the county has successfully run eight elections since election administration duties were given to the Harris County Clerk’s Office in September 2023 and said the county is prepared to run the special election.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on Monday afternoon that an announcement is “forthcoming” on litigation over filling the seat.

“The Republicans are on the run on the economy … and they’re on the run legislatively, which is why Gov. Abbott is conspiring with House Republicans to rig the system and not call a special election,” Jeffries said at a news conference in the U.S. Capitol.

In a later statement on Monday after Abbott announced the date, Jeffries said House Democrats are still considering legal action. The Texas Democratic Party has also threatened to file a lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Abbott’s office, when asked on Monday by ABC News about the governor’s response to Democratic allegations about margins in the House and the allegation that Abbott is following President Donald Trump’s or Republicans’ direction, pointed to Abbott’s comments from the local news interview, without elaborating.

The spokesperson did not address how Abbott might respond to any litigation.

Abbott’s announcement means the congressional seat will be vacant for about eight months since Turner’s passing in March, if the new date holds.

Sawyer Hackett, a Democratic strategist who works for various Texas Democratic clients, told ABC News on Monday that the seat vacancy comes “at a time when people absolutely need their congressional representation” as the Trump administration implements sweeping tariffs and cuts to the federal government.

From a legal standpoint, however, Texas state law appears to give the governor wide latitude to choose when to set special elections.

Joshua Blank, the research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, Austin, told ABC News on Tuesday that the amount of time the seat will remain vacant in this case is much longer than previous occurrences in 2018 and 2021, when Abbott also called special elections to fill vacancies.

But Blank pointed out that Abbott, a former state attorney general and state Supreme Court justice, is likely sure he is on solid legal ground: “Gov. Abbott doesn’t seek out lawsuits against him. He was a sophisticated legal operator before he became a sophisticated politician and a sophisticated governor, and that really suffuses his politics and his approach.”

Chad Wilbanks, a Republican strategist and former Texas GOP executive director, told ABC News on Friday, “The governor is the sole authority of calling the special election for when he wants.”

“Democrats at the state and federal level support boys playing in girls sports, they support open borders and drags shows in public libraries,” he added, referring to LGBT and immigration issues. “There is no urgency because of their policies that Texans oppose.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to expand the mining and use of coal in the U.S., calling it “beautiful, clean coal.”

During a ceremony at the White House, surrounded by hard-hat-clad coal miners, Trump signed the “Unleashing American Energy” executive order that follows the president’s recent promises to oversee a boost of coal production in the U.S.

The action directs the Interior Department to facilitate coal leases for millions of acres of public lands. Trump’s order also directs the Energy Department and other agencies to research if coal can be used to supply electricity for artificial intelligence data centers.

The comments Tuesday follow plans announced last month for a sweeping rollback of longstanding regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency — which the Trump administration has called the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”

Several of the 31 actions announced by the agency in March targeted prior regulations meant to restrict emissions and pollution related to the use of coal. Chief among these was the announcement to “reconsider” President Joe Biden’s “Clean Power Plan 2.0,” which was a group of regulations targeting coal and natural gas power plants announced last year.

The “Clean Power Plan 2.0” tightened the emissions standards for coal-fired power plants for toxic metals like mercury and forced plants to control and clean coal ash released during their operations. But during his campaign, Trump spoke favorably about using more coal to power America’s energy needs.

Coal is an abundant, energy-dense resource with a higher concentration in the U.S. than any other country in the world, but it is also a fossil fuel and creates carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) when burned, which contributes to global warming and human-amplified climate change. Coal emissions can also lead to health issues, including respiratory illness, lung disease, acid rain, smog, and neurological and developmental damage.

While coal-fired electricity has become “cleaner than ever,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the fossil fuel is still responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions and environment-polluting coal ash. So “clean coal” is a bit of a misnomer, sometimes referring to types of technology used to physically clean coal before it is burned or capture carbon related to its burning, according to Michelle Solomon, senior policy analyst at Energy Innovation.

“Burning coal could never be technically considered clean regardless of the treatment applied to it before combustion – it will always emit the largest concentration of greenhouse gases of any fossil fuel, and soil and water pollution from coal and coal ash (what’s left after it’s burned) will never go away,” Solomon said. “Even the best technologies that reduce air pollutants like sulfur and nitrogen oxides still allow many of these to get through.”

These technologies are also not widely used in the U.S. According to a December 2023 report from the Congressional Budget Office, 15 carbon capture and storage facilities are operating in the United States. And none of them are being used at coal-burning power plants. The CBO also found that the 15 facilities can capture “0.4% of percent of the United States’ total annual emissions of CO2.”

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the most significant factor in recent reductions of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. has been the decline in coal usage. In 2022, coal-fired electricity generation was largely replaced by other sources, primarily natural gas and renewables. As the production of cleaner alternatives continues to grow, the reliance on coal to meet the country’s energy needs continues to diminish.

ABC News’ Climate Unit contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A National Park Service webpage about the Underground Railroad has been restored to its original state months after it was changed to remove abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman from the top of the page.

The “What is the Underground Railroad?” page featured a photo of and quote from Tubman as leading elements on the page, followed by text explaining the significance of the Underground Railroad in transporting enslaved people to freedom and out of the South. The page was altered to remove Tubman in early February, per data from the Wayback Machine, replacing the image with a collage of Postal Service Underground Railroad commemorative stamps highlighting “Black/White Cooperation.”

The change also altered the text to market the Underground Railroad as a bridge for “the divides of race, religion, sectional differences, and nationality” rather than “resistance to enslavement through escape and flight.”

Mentions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 were also deleted before the restoration, along with historical cards of enslaved peoples fighting to reach freedom and a mural of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the first Black regiment made up of those raised in the North. All of these elements have since been added back in their original states.

“Changes to the Underground Railroad page on the National Park Service’s website were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership. The webpage was immediately restored to its original content,” the NPS said in a Tuesday statement to ABC News.

The NPS is a bureau of the Department of the Interior, and two anonymous NPS employees told the Washington Post that Interior Department political appointees directed senior career officials to identify webpages to change, which were then sent to management for consideration amid the Trump administration’s push against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. However, the employees told the Washington Post that they didn’t know whether the recommendations were the direct reason for any webpage removals.

“The removal of Harriet Tubman’s image and quote from the National Park Service’s ‘Underground Railroad’ webpage is concerning,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump posted on X while Tubman was still scrubbed from the page. “Tubman’s legacy and the resistance of enslaved people must never be diminished. We must stand in the truth of our history!”

Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., argued the removal was “an attack on truth, an attempt to erase history that would help us improve society today, a refusal to be uncomfortable and engaged in changing harmful policies and practices.”

The Washington Post investigation published on Friday pointed out these changes and others from the NPS. Its analysis of thousands of NPS webpages found several changes in language to rebrand racially charged moments in American history or remove references to slavery entirely.

A page on Benjamin Franklin’s views on slavery was taken down, and some mentions of prominent figures such as Thomas Stone owning enslaved people were omitted.

This comes amid a larger effort from the Trump administration to purge DEI from government webpages.

Last month, the Department of Defense said it “mistakenly removed” Jackie Robinson’s Army service as well as other content, including a page that honored the 60th anniversary of U.S. troops, in its effort to remove DEI from its sites.

Actress Viola Davis, who is set to play Tubman in an untitled HBO biopic, took to Instagram on Monday to share comment on the situation, saying the edits were “downplaying Harriet Tubman and slavery.”

“Really?!! Harriet Tubman?!!” she wrote in the caption. “Elevating this icon of American History is being diminished?!!! Erased?! Man…..Lord….give us STRENGTH!!!!”

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