Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Joe Biden’s office announced on Sunday that he was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer.

Biden’s office also said the cancer had metastasized, spreading to his bones.

Although some people were left wondering why the cancer was caught only after reaching a Gleason score of 9, oncology experts told ABC News that it’s not uncommon for older prostate cancer patients to receive a diagnosis after the disease has advanced or spread.

“Prostate cancer is something that we always hope screening will identify early, when the cancer is all still inside the prostate,” Dr. Alicia Morgans, a genitourinary medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and a member of the board of directors of the no-profit Zero Prostate Cancer, told ABC News.

“Even if we screen everybody perfectly, there will never be 100% detection of prostate cancer because, in truth, cancer does not follow a rule book,” Morgans continued. “And just because we are trying to catch it early doesn’t mean it necessarily is present when we screen.”

PSA levels may not have been checked

One screening test for prostate cancer involves a blood test that measures the level of prostate-specific antigens, which are proteins made by cells in the prostate gland.

Although there is no cutoff level that clearly indicates the presence of cancer, many doctors use a cutoff of 4 nanograms per milliliter to recommend further tests with a urologist, according to the American Cancer Society.

For an advanced form of cancer like Biden’s, a recent PSA test would have likely shown elevated levels.

However, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends against PSA-based screening for men age 70 and older due to harms such as false positives leading to more tests or a diagnosis of problems that would not have caused symptoms or death.

Morgans said it’s unclear what the former president and his doctor discussed regarding screening, but it’s plausible that he did not undergo PSA screening.

“It is absolutely possible that President Biden, like so many men over that age, have decided to stop doing PSA screening because they’ve decided that it is not consistent with their overall health goals and wishes, and that is completely reasonable,” Morgans said.

Cancer could have grown rapidly

Morgans said some men in their 70s and 80s do still undergo PSA screening for prostate cancer based on conversations with their primary care physicians and what’s right for them.

Even so, it’s possible that the results were normal — either due to a false negative or because their cancer was not present at the time, she said.

“Prostate cancer can develop between screening tests,” Morgans said. “It doesn’t necessarily grow super slowly. It can develop between screenings, and it can be aggressive when it does develop; that doesn’t mean it’s not treatable.”

Screening results could have been borderline

Dr. Alan Bryce, chief clinical officer for City of Hope Cancer Center Phoenix, said there may be some patients who receive PSA screening results showing borderline-high results who decide not to pursue further testing.

“There are absolutely scenarios where that conversation happens with a patient or their family member,” Bryce told ABC News. “All of them might say, ‘You know what? Given where we’re at in life, we’re not that worried about this. Let’s go ahead and wait another year.'”

Bryce, a medical oncologist specializing in prostate and testicular cancers, added that shared decision-making is important when it comes to deciding if a patient wants to pursue prostate cancer screening — and if they want to test further following test results that are abnormal.

“As physicians, we present patients with options and recommendations but, at the end of the day, it’s still the patient’s decision,” he said. “So, it’s entirely possible that a conversation happens and the patient decides they don’t want to proceed with further workup. Maybe they don’t want to do a scan, maybe they don’t want to do a biopsy.”

No symptoms present

Advanced prostate cancer can present symptoms such as a weak urination stream; needing to urinate more often; erectile dysfunction; fatigue; weight loss; loss of bladder or bowel control; and pain in the ribs, hips and spine when the cancer had spread to the bones, according to the ACS.

Morgans said just because a patient has advanced prostate cancer, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will exhibit symptoms.

“I would say that it’s more common than not that people sit in my office and tell me, ‘You know, I don’t have any symptoms. I don’t understand how I have this cancer. I certainly don’t understand how it could have spread outside of my prostate,'” Morgans said. “It is very common for people to be completely asymptomatic.”

Bryce added that some symptoms, such as difficulty urinating or a weak urination stream, may be due to an enlarged prostate, which is common in older men.

“It is entirely normal that in older men, there is a degree of urinary obstruction that just happens with age,” he said. “It’s entirely possible that a man just has normal symptoms associated with aging and nothing about it stands out as being related to a cancerous process.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has called for a “major investigation” into several celebrity endorsements former Vice President Kamala Harris received during the 2024 presidential campaign, suggesting without evidence that some of the celebrities were illegally paid for their endorsements.

Some of the celebrities have publicly denied denying being paid any fee at all, and experts say there’s no FEC law barring campaign payments for endorsements.

Among the celebrities the president suggests were illegally paid for their endorsements are Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen and Beyonce, each of whom appeared at Harris campaign events last year.

“Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment,” Trump wrote in a pair of social media posts Monday.

The Harris campaign paid production companies founded by Winfrey, Springsteen and Beyonce for services provided during and after the 2024 election — but Winfrey and Beyonce’s mother, who runs her production company, both said the payments were for production costs associated with the events they participated in.

Campaign law experts told ABC News that the Federal Election Commission has no regulations against federal campaigns paying celebrities or influencers for endorsements, nor would they be considered illegal contributions as Trump suggested — as long as those payments are properly disclosed. The Federal Trade Commission oversees disclosure obligations for paid endorsement, the experts said.

Campaign finance disclosures show the Harris campaign paid Winfrey’s company, Harpo Productions, a total of $1 million for “event production” on Oct. 15, 2024, roughly a month after Winfrey interviewed Harris at a “Unite for America” campaign event in Detroit in September.

“I did not take any personal fee. However, the people who worked on that production needed to be paid and were. End of story,” Winfrey said in a social media video in response to Trump’s accusation.

The Harris campaign paid Beyonce’s company, Parkwood Production Media LLC, $165,000 on Nov. 19, 2024, weeks after Beyonce took the stage at a Harris campaign rally in Houston and publicly endorsed Harris, according to campaign records.

Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles, in a social media video, said the accusation that her daughter was paid for her endorsement is a “lie,” adding that Beyonce also paid for the flights for herself and her team to and from the event.

The Harris campaign paid Springsteen’s production company, Thrill Hill Productions, Inc., roughly $75,000 for “travel and event production” on Nov. 19, 2024, roughly a month after he performed at a Harris campaign rally in Georgia, records show. Springsteen has not publicly addressed the campaign’s payment to his company.

Last year as unfounded claims about the Harris campaign’s payments for celebrity endorsements spread, senior campaign adviser Adrienne Elrod told Deadline, “We do not pay. We have never paid any artist and performer. We have never paid a fee to that person.”

Noting that FEC rules require campaigns to pay fair market value for the ancillary costs of holding events, Elrod told Deadline the campaign has paid “for any ancillary costs for that performance” and that “there are laws that have to be followed that we have followed religiously on this campaign.”

Among the celebrities who have appeared and performed at Trump’s campaign events over the years, ABC News has found no records of the Trump campaign or Trump’s other entities paying them or their companies.

Country singer Lee Greenwood, whose song “God Bless the USA” is frequently featured at Trump rallies and who has performed at Trump campaign events himself, stated on social media in November that he had not been compensated in “any form” by the Trump campaign or the Trump Organization for his campaign appearances, saying he’s “happy to have stood by” Trump.

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(WASHINGTON) — It’s crunch time in the House, where the next 48 hours will test Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership like never before as he scrambles to secure the needed votes to pass a megabill aimed at advancing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.

And now the president is set to attend the House GOP conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning, multiple White House officials confirmed to ABC News — an effort to sway the holdouts.

After Sunday night’s successful vote to send the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to the House Rules Committee, there are now two full intervening days for Johnson to put the final touches on the reconciliation bill and rally Republican support. And the pressure is on.

Johnson doesn’t have the votes at this time, given public concerns from conservatives and moderates alike. He can only lose three Republican members, so changes to the bill text are a certainty.

The speaker on Monday expressed confidence in the House’s consensus-building operation as lawmakers make modifications to the bill.

“It’s been a bottom-up process — that was what everybody wanted so we have delivered — and we’re almost there,” he said. “I’m very optimistic that we will find the right equilibrium point to get this bill delivered.”

Johnson’s effort to unify the conference behind the bill is a major test of his speakership, and his ability to deliver for Trump, who has also encouraged Republicans to support it.

Johnson worked over the weekend to sway Republican holdouts on the House Rules Committee to prevent blocking the legislation from moving out of the committee as they had on Friday. The hard-liners voted present on Sunday night to allow the bill to advance, but still haven’t offered full-throated support for the bill.

Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was “willing to pick up the phone” to encourage Republicans to fall in line on the bill — but his Tuesday morning meeting with the entire Republican conference is a stronger message to those on the fence.

Now, the Rules Committee is preparing for its hearing at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning — and that meeting will set the parameters for floor debate. Meanwhile, negotiations inside the speaker’s office will reach a fever pitch Monday and Tuesday as Republicans grapple over the sticking points — primarily regarding Medicaid work requirements and a cap on state and local tax deductions.

“Nothing is final until it’s final,” a senior House Republican leadership aide told reporters at a briefing Monday morning. “It’s a fragile process.”

Johnson on Monday downplayed perceived concerns that the GOP was dropping in last-minute changes to the legislation at this late stage in the process.

“We have a few issues to resolve — and we are working with all parties to do that — and I’m confident that we will,” Johnson explained.

Why meet at 1 a.m. on Wednesday? House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx let out a gentle laugh as she walked through the Capitol early Monday morning — telling ABC News the timing must adhere to the House rules after the House Budget Committee voted late Sunday night to advance the bill.

So what is the rule?

“Under the rules, Budget Dems get two calendar days to file minority views after [Sunday] night’s markup,” a Democratic aide explained. “Rules then has a one-hour notice requirement, hence [the hearing] starting at 1 a.m.”

If the Rules Committee reports the reconciliation package favorably to the floor, that would keep Johnson’s plans on schedule to hold a vote on passage on Thursday — though he has threatened to hold the House in session this weekend if there are any hiccups along the way.

Johnson is setting his sights on sending the package to Trump for his signature by the Fourth of July given a mid-July “deadline” to address the debt limit to avoid a default.

As negotiations continue behind closed doors, Republican aides stress that “95% of the bill is done” while they scramble to lock down support. A round of changes are anticipated to address technical modifications at the urging of the Senate parliamentarian, who is scrubbing the bill text and signaled some legislative language may be fatal to reconciliation privileges in the Senate.

“Everything is on the table,” a senior GOP aide said, stressing the fluidity of the overall discussions.

House Republicans are still weighing potential changes to implementation dates for Medicaid work requirements, balancing what is “feasible” for states to implement against the angst of Republicans whose patience does not extend to 2029, beyond the Trump presidency, as it’s currently written in the bill.

“We want to make sure that what we’re intending to do is actually matching an ability to implement,” a senior Republican aide said. “And so an exact date is hard to say at this stage because I think we’re still working through that.”

On SALT, aides said a resolution is “not decided yet” — explaining that members are just returning to town after a three-day weekend and the speaker continues to work through it.

Leavitt on Monday addressed a concern some of Republican holdouts expressed about the bill adding to the bloated national deficit, saying flatly that “this bill does not add to the deficit.”

Republicans insist they’re going to hit at least $1.5 trillion of savings with the bill while also reflecting Trump’s agenda — pointing at Congressional Budget Office’s letter confirming that all 11 committees met their reconciliation instruction targets.

“This has been a year’s worth of work to kind of figure out what are the priorities you want to instill. We started this a long time ago and worked towards it,” an aide emphasized. “We’ll work through all the changes that we need to make here, and then we’ll see where the final exact numbers shake out. But the bottom line is we had a framework set in the budget and we’re going to get that.”

And as the clock ticks down, Johnson has rejected questions about the crunch time giving him “heartburn.”

“No, I don’t have heartburn, because I know we are going to get this job done,” Johnson said.

ABC News’ Arthur Jones II, Rachel Scott, Katherine Faulders, Lauren Peller and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is set to pay out nearly $5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter fatally shot during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News on Monday.

The settlement will resolve a $30 million suit brought by Babbitt’s estate and the conservative group Judicial Watch alleging the Capitol Police officer who shot her as she attempted to breach a broken window of the House speaker’s lobby was negligent in his duties.

The Washington Post first reported news on the settlement amount.

The Justice Department in April 2021 announced it had cleared U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting, after an investigation revealed no evidence he “did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber.”

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

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(LONDON) — President Donald Trump held a high-stakes phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, as the White House continues its push for an end to Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion of Ukraine after last week’s peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey.

Trump over the weekend said the focus of Monday’s conversation would be on stopping the “bloodbath” on both sides. He said he would also be speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and various members of NATO.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at Monday morning’s briefing the public can expect to hear from President Trump or the White House following the calls.

Putin, speaking to journalists in Sochi, said the “conversation took place and lasted for more than two hours.”

The Russian leader claimed that he is willing to work on a “memorandum on a possible future peace agreement” with Ukraine, but did not elaborate on what that would look like.

“The question is, of course, that the Russian and Ukrainian sides show their maximum desire for peace and find the compromises that would suit all parties,” Putin added.

ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott pressed Leavitt if Trump would set a new deadline for peace talks during his conversation with Putin, but Leavitt said she wouldn’t get ahead of Trump on any specific timeline.

“His goal is to see a ceasefire and to see this conflict come to an end, and he’s grown weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict,” she said.

Leavitt also said she believed Trump “would certainly be open” to meeting with Putin but “let’s see how this call goes today.”

Renewed direct contact with Putin — the last publicly known direct phone call between the two presidents took place in February — comes after Trump’s hopes for peace talks progress in Istanbul were scuppered, Putin having declined to attend despite Zelenskyy’s invitation to do so.

The Istanbul talks were the first known meeting between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv since spring 2022, when the Turkish city hosted the final round of unsuccessful peace negotiations to end Russia’s unfolding invasion.

Once it became clear Putin would not attend, Trump told reporters of the peace effort, “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together, okay?”

“And obviously he wasn’t going to go,” Trump added. “He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we’re going to have to get it solved, because too many people are dying.”

On Monday, Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. is “more than open to walking away” from negotiations.

“We realize there’s a bit of an impasse here,” Vance told reporters, “and I think the president’s going to say to President Putin, ‘Look, are you serious? Are you real about this? Because the proposal from the United States has always been, look, there are a lot of economic benefits to thawing relations between Russia and the rest of the world, but you’re not going to get those benefits you keep on killing a lot of it is lot of innocent people.’”

Trump’s repeated threats of further sanctions on Russia have so far failed to precipitate any notable shift in Moscow’s war goals — which, according to public statements by officials, still include Ukraine’s ceding of four regions — which Russian forces do not fully control — plus Crimea, as well as a permanent block on Kyiv’s accession to NATO.

Putin said Sunday that any peace deal with Ukraine should “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis” and “guarantee Russia’s security.”

Kyiv and its European backers are still pushing for a full 30-day ceasefire, during which time they say peace negotiations can take place. Moscow has thus far refused to support the proposal, suggesting that all Western military aid to Ukraine would have to stop as part of any ceasefire.

Contacts between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian officials continued after the end of the talks in Istanbul. On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Rubio welcomed a prisoner exchange agreement reached during the Istanbul meeting and emphasized Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Monday wrote on X that the Istanbul meeting highlighted a “stark difference” between Moscow and Kyiv. “Ukraine is forward-looking, focused on the full and immediate ceasefire to kickstart the real peace process.”

“To the contrary, Russia is completely focused on the past, rejecting the ceasefire and instead talking constantly about the 2022 Istanbul meetings, attempting to make the same absurd demands as three years ago,” the foreign minister said.

“This is yet another reason why pressure on Russia must be increased,” Sybiha added. “Moscow must now understand the consequences of impeding the peace process.”

Meanwhile, long-range strikes by both sides continued. On Sunday night into Monday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 112 drones into the country, 76 of which were shot down or jammed. Damage was reported in five regions of Ukraine, the air force said in a post to Telegram.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday morning that its forces had downed 35 Ukrainian drones overnight.

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie, William Gretsky and Tanya Stukalova contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — It’s crunch time in the House, where the next 48 hours will test Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership like never before as he scrambles to secure the needed votes to pass a megabill aimed at advancing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.

After Sunday night’s successful vote to send the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to the House Rules Committee, there are now two full intervening days for Johnson to put the final touches on the reconciliation bill and rally Republican support. And the pressure is on.

Johnson doesn’t have the votes at this time, given public concerns from conservatives and moderates alike. He can only lose three Republican members, so changes to the bill text are a certainty.

Johnson’s effort to unify the conference behind the bill is a major test of his speakership, and his ability to deliver for Trump, who is also encouraging Republicans to support it.

Johnson worked over the weekend to sway Republican holdouts on the House Rules Committee to prevent blocking the legislation from moving out of the committee as they had on Friday. The hard-liners voted present on Sunday night to allow the bill to advance, but still haven’t offered full-throated support for the bill.

Trump is willing to get involved to help the effort, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday morning. She said the president was in contact with Johnson over the weekend and that Trump is “willing to pick up the phone” to encourage Republicans to fall in line on the bill.

Now, the Rules Committee is preparing for its hearing at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning — and that meeting will set the parameters for floor debate. Meanwhile, negotiations inside the speaker’s office will reach a fever pitch Monday and Tuesday as Republicans grapple over the sticking points — primarily regarding Medicaid work requirements and a cap on state and local tax deductions.

“Nothing is final until it’s final,” a senior House Republican leadership aide told reporters at a briefing Monday morning. “It’s a fragile process.”

Why meet at 1 a.m. on Wednesday? House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx let out a gentle laugh as she walked through the Capitol early Monday morning — telling ABC News the timing must adhere to the House rules after the House Budget Committee voted late Sunday night to advance the bill.

So what is the rule?

“Under the rules, Budget Dems get two calendar days to file minority views after [Sunday] night’s markup,” a Democratic aide explained. “Rules then has a one-hour notice requirement, hence [the hearing] starting at 1 a.m.”

If the Rules Committee reports the reconciliation package favorably to the floor, that would keep Johnson’s plans on schedule to hold a vote on passage on Thursday — though he has threatened to hold the House in session this weekend if there are any hiccups along the way.

Johnson is setting his sights on sending the package to Trump for his signature by the Fourth of July given a mid-July “deadline” to address the debt limit to avoid a default.

As negotiations continue behind closed doors, Republican aides stress that “95% of the bill is done” while they scramble to lock down support. A round of changes are anticipated to address technical modifications at the urging of the Senate parliamentarian, who is scrubbing the bill text and signaled some legislative language may be fatal to reconciliation privileges in the Senate.

“Everything is on the table,” a senior GOP aide said, stressing the fluidity of the overall discussions.

House Republicans are still weighing potential changes to implementation dates for Medicaid work requirements, balancing what is “feasible” for states to implement against the angst of Republicans whose patience does not extend to 2029, beyond the Trump presidency, as it’s currently written in the bill.

“We want to make sure that what we’re intending to do is actually matching an ability to implement,” a senior Republican aide said. “And so an exact date is hard to say at this stage because I think we’re still working through that.”

On SALT, aides said a resolution is “not decided yet” — explaining that members are just returning to town after a three-day weekend and the speaker continues to work through it.

Republicans insist they’re going to hit at least $1.5 trillion of savings with the bill while also reflecting Trump’s agenda — pointing at Congressional Budget Office’s letter confirming that all 11 committees met their reconciliation instruction targets.

“This has been a year’s worth of work to kind of figure out what are the priorities you want to instill. We started this a long time ago and worked towards it,” an aide emphasized. “We’ll work through all the changes that we need to make here, and then we’ll see where the final exact numbers shake out. But the bottom line is we had a framework set in the budget and we’re going to get that.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans who were protected from deportation and allowed to work in the United States.

The court approved the administration’s request to lift a lower court’s order that barred it from ending the protections.

In their application to the high court, lawyers representing the government had said the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California undermined “the Executive Branch’s inherent powers as to immigration and foreign affairs,” when it halted the administration from ending protections and work permits in April 2025 as opposed to the original date in October 2026.

Ahilan Arulanantham, who is representing TPS holders in the case, said he believes this to be “the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern U.S. history.”

“This is the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern U.S. history. That the Supreme Court authorized this action in a two-paragraph order with no reasoning is truly shocking,” Arulanantham said. “The humanitarian and economic impact of the Court’s decision will be felt immediately, and will reverberate for generations.”

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

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(LONDON) — A high-stakes phone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is underway, as the White House continues its push for an end to Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion of Ukraine after last week’s peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey.

“The subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade,” Trump wrote in a post to his conservative social media website on Saturday.

“I will then be speaking to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and then, with President Zelenskyy, various members of NATO,” Trump added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at Monday morning’s briefing the public can expect to hear from President Trump or the White House following the calls.

ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott pressed Leavitt if Trump will set a new deadline for peace talks during his conversation with Putin, but Leavitt said she wouldn’t get ahead of Trump on any specific timeline.

“His goal is to see a ceasefire and to see this conflict come to an end, and he’s grown weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict,” she said.

Leavitt also said she believed Trump “would certainly be open” to meeting with Putin but “let’s see how this call goes today.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed to journalists on Monday that the call would take place at 5 p.m. Moscow time — 10 a.m. ET — the state-run Tass news agency reported.

“The conversation is important given the talks that took place in Istanbul,” Peskov said, as quoted by Tass. “We have already said everything we could about the talks, what the main positional points are,” he said. “We will wait and give the best possible message based on the results of the conversation.”

Renewed direct contact with Putin — the last publicly known direct phone call between the two presidents took place in February — comes after Trump’s hopes for peace talks progress in Istanbul were scuppered, Putin having declined to attend despite Zelenskyy’s invitation to do so.

The Istanbul talks were the first known meeting between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv since spring 2022, when the Turkish city hosted the final round of unsuccessful peace negotiations to end Russia’s unfolding invasion.

Once it became clear Putin would not attend, Trump told reporters of the peace effort, “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together, okay?”

“And obviously he wasn’t going to go,” Trump added. “He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we’re going to have to get it solved, because too many people are dying.”

Trump’s repeated threats of further sanctions on Russia have so far failed to precipitate any notable shift in Moscow’s war goals — which, according to public statements by officials, still include Ukraine’s ceding of four regions — which Russian forces do not fully control — plus Crimea, as well as a permanent block on Kyiv’s accession to NATO.

Putin said Sunday that any peace deal with Ukraine should “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis” and “guarantee Russia’s security.”

Kyiv and its European backers are still pushing for a full 30-day ceasefire, during which time they say peace negotiations can take place. Moscow has thus far refused to support the proposal, suggesting that all Western military aid to Ukraine would have to stop as part of any ceasefire.

Contacts between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian officials continued after the end of the talks in Istanbul. On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Rubio welcomed a prisoner exchange agreement reached during the Istanbul meeting and emphasized Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire.

Vice President JD Vance also met with Zelenskyy at the Vatican on Saturday, following Pope Leo XIV’s offer to host a bilateral meeting.

After the meeting, Zelenskyy wrote on X that he had “reaffirmed that Ukraine is ready to be engaged in real diplomacy and underscored the importance of a full and unconditional ceasefire as soon as possible.”

“We have also touched upon the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, battlefield situation and upcoming prisoners exchange,” Zelenskyy continued. “Pressure is needed against Russia until they are eager to stop the war.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Monday wrote on X that the Istanbul meeting highlighted a “stark difference” between Moscow and Kyiv. “Ukraine is forward-looking, focused on the full and immediate ceasefire to kickstart the real peace process.”

“To the contrary, Russia is completely focused on the past, rejecting the ceasefire and instead talking constantly about the 2022 Istanbul meetings, attempting to make the same absurd demands as three years ago,” the foreign minister said.

“This is yet another reason why pressure on Russia must be increased,” Sybiha added. “Moscow must now understand the consequences of impeding the peace process.”

Meanwhile, long-range strikes by both sides continued. On Sunday night into Monday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 112 drones into the country, 76 of which were shot down or jammed. Damage was reported in five regions of Ukraine, the air force said in a post to Telegram.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday morning that its forces had downed 35 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — President Donald Trump is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin at around 10 a.m. ET on Monday, as the White House continues its push for an end to Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion of Ukraine after last week’s peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey.

“The subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade,” Trump wrote in a post to his conservative social media website on Saturday.

“I will then be speaking to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and then, with President Zelenskyy, various members of NATO,” Trump added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at Monday morning’s briefing the public can expect to hear from President Trump or the White House following the calls.

ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott pressed Leavitt if Trump will set a new deadline for peace talks during his conversation with Putin, but Leavitt said she wouldn’t get ahead of Trump on any specific timeline.

“His goal is to see a ceasefire and to see this conflict come to an end, and he’s grown weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict,” she said.

Leavitt also said she believed Trump “would certainly be open” to meeting with Putin but “let’s see how this call goes today.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed to journalists on Monday that the call would take place at 5 p.m. Moscow time — 10 a.m. ET — the state-run Tass news agency reported.

“The conversation is important given the talks that took place in Istanbul,” Peskov said, as quoted by Tass. “We have already said everything we could about the talks, what the main positional points are,” he said. “We will wait and give the best possible message based on the results of the conversation.”

Renewed direct contact with Putin — the last publicly known direct phone call between the two presidents took place in February — comes after Trump’s hopes for peace talks progress in Istanbul were scuppered, Putin having declined to attend despite Zelenskyy’s invitation to do so.

The Istanbul talks were the first known meeting between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv since spring 2022, when the Turkish city hosted the final round of unsuccessful peace negotiations to end Russia’s unfolding invasion.

Once it became clear Putin would not attend, Trump told reporters of the peace effort, “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together, okay?”

“And obviously he wasn’t going to go,” Trump added. “He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we’re going to have to get it solved, because too many people are dying.”

Trump’s repeated threats of further sanctions on Russia have so far failed to precipitate any notable shift in Moscow’s war goals — which, according to public statements by officials, still include Ukraine’s ceding of four regions — which Russian forces do not fully control — plus Crimea, as well as a permanent block on Kyiv’s accession to NATO.

Putin said Sunday that any peace deal with Ukraine should “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis” and “guarantee Russia’s security.”

Kyiv and its European backers are still pushing for a full 30-day ceasefire, during which time they say peace negotiations can take place. Moscow has thus far refused to support the proposal, suggesting that all Western military aid to Ukraine would have to stop as part of any ceasefire.

Contacts between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian officials continued after the end of the talks in Istanbul. On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Rubio welcomed a prisoner exchange agreement reached during the Istanbul meeting and emphasized Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire.

Vice President JD Vance also met with Zelenskyy at the Vatican on Saturday, following Pope Leo XIV’s offer to host a bilateral meeting.

After the meeting, Zelenskyy wrote on X that he had “reaffirmed that Ukraine is ready to be engaged in real diplomacy and underscored the importance of a full and unconditional ceasefire as soon as possible.”

“We have also touched upon the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, battlefield situation and upcoming prisoners exchange,” Zelenskyy continued. “Pressure is needed against Russia until they are eager to stop the war.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Monday wrote on X that the Istanbul meeting highlighted a “stark difference” between Moscow and Kyiv. “Ukraine is forward-looking, focused on the full and immediate ceasefire to kickstart the real peace process.”

“To the contrary, Russia is completely focused on the past, rejecting the ceasefire and instead talking constantly about the 2022 Istanbul meetings, attempting to make the same absurd demands as three years ago,” the foreign minister said.

“This is yet another reason why pressure on Russia must be increased,” Sybiha added. “Moscow must now understand the consequences of impeding the peace process.”

Meanwhile, long-range strikes by both sides continued. On Sunday night into Monday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 112 drones into the country, 76 of which were shot down or jammed. Damage was reported in five regions of Ukraine, the air force said in a post to Telegram.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday morning that its forces had downed 35 Ukrainian drones overnight.

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The House Budget Committee voted late Sunday night to advance President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” after several GOP hard-liners blocked the measure from moving forward Friday.

The vote passed down party lines 17-16, with four Republicans voting present.

Conservative Reps. Chip Roy, Andrew Clyde, Josh Brecheen and Ralph Norman all voted present — a change from their no votes on Friday.

Next, the Rules Committee will hold its meeting midweek, teeing up a vote on the floor by the end of the week.

The vote’s passage in the House Budget Committee comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Sunday that “talks have gone great.”

Sources told ABC News ahead of the vote that lawmakers had not yet reached a deal on several sticking points related to SALT and Medicaid reform.

Key components of the bill look to provide major tax breaks by cutting spending elsewhere, including hundreds of billions in cuts to Medicaid.

The House Freedom Caucus released a statement after the vote, saying, that the bill “does not yet meet the moment.”

“As written, the bill continues increased deficits in the near term with possible savings years down the road that may never materialize,” the caucus said on X.

A group of Budget Committee hard-liners on Friday voted to block the package from moving forward — partly over concerns with a starting date for Medicaid work requirements — defying Trump and Republican leaders. As the legislation is currently written, Medicaid requirements take effect in 2029. However, conservatives are pushing for the requirements to start much earlier, as soon as 2027.

“Some of the states have — it takes them some time. We’ve learned in this process to change their systems and to make sure that these stringent requirements that we will put on that to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, can actually be implemented. So, we’re working with them [hardliners] to make sure what the earliest possible date is to put into law something that will actually be useful. I think we’ve got to compromise on that. I think we’ll work it out,” Johnson claimed.

What about the Senate?

Johnson said both chambers have been working in “close coordination” and hopes the Senate won’t alter the House bill.

“The package that we send over there will be one that was very carefully negotiated and delicately balanced, and we hope that they [Senate] don’t make many modifications to it, because that will ensure its passage quickly,” he said.

Johnson added that Congress must pass the package by July 4, especially given the mid-July “deadline” to address the debt limit to avoid a default.

“We’ve got to get this done and get it to the president’s desk by that big celebration on Independence Day. And I’m convinced that we can,” he added.

Reaction to Moody’s downgrade over debt

On Friday, Moody’s Ratings downgraded the U.S. government from a gold-standard Aaa to Aa1 rating, citing its failure to stop a rising tide of debt.

Moody’s is the last of the three major rating agencies to lower the federal government’s credit. Standard & Poor’s downgraded in 2011 and Fitch Ratings followed in 2023.

“Moody’s is not incorrect, but that’s why that emphasizes the very need for the legislation we’re talking about, historic spending cuts. I mean, this will help to change the trajectory for the U.S. economy and send that message of stability to our allies and even our enemies around the world,” Johnson said. “President Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” will be passed, and that will be the key to turning this thing around. We have to get this done, and it just shows more of the urgency of why we’re doing exactly what we’re doing with the legislation.”

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