President Donald Trump upended three years of U.S. policy toward Ukraine on Wednesday, saying that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war following a dramatic prisoner swap.
Trump said in a social media post that he and Putin had a lengthy phone call during which they committed to “work together, very closely” to bring the conflict to an end. Trump then called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said they discussed “opportunities to achieve peace.”
While speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that NATO membership was not realistic for Ukraine.
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GSA says it has no plans to pressure or surveil workers
The news release Wednesday from the General Services Administration says it has “no plans to surveil employees” and “characterizations that GSA senior leadership are unduly pressuring employees to leave the agency are categorically untrue.”
A memo sent by the Office of Management and Budget last week required all federal agencies to submit names of every employee with less than top ratings and to make sure they can swiftly fire “poor performing employees.”
And an email from GSA’s Washington headquarters instructed regional managers to begin terminating leases on roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide as President Trump and his advisor Elon Musk pursue a sweeping effort to fire government employees.
An independent agency established by President Harry S. Truman established in 1949, the GSA manages federal properties and delivers technology that serves millions of people across dozens of federal agencies.
As DOGE hammers away at the US government, Republicans stir with quiet objections
Republican lawmakers are beginning to speak up to protect home-state interests, industries and jobs that are endangered by President Trump’s executive actions and the slash-and-burn tactics erupting across the federal government by billionaire Elon Musk ’s DOGE.
Alabama Sen. Katie Britt said she’s working to make sure the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency doesn’t hit what she called “life-saving, groundbreaking research” at institutions including her state’s beloved University of Alabama.
Kansas GOP Sen. Jerry Moran is worried that food from heartland farmers would spoil rather than be sent around the world as the U.S. Agency for International Development shutters.
While Democrats have been openly denouncing the impact, these are more quiet concerns — taken together, the first glimmers of GOP pushback against Trump’s upending of the federal government.
▶ Read more on Republican support for federal programs
White House claims judges balking at Trump’s actions are provoking a ‘constitutional crisis’
The White House said during a press conference that court rulings going against the Trump administration are coming from “judicial activists” on the bench whose decisions amount to a “constitutional crisis.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the comments as she pushed back against critics of Trump’s expansive actions.
“We believe these judges are acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law,” Leavitt said.
Trump and Zelenskyy discuss war in Ukraine during phone call
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke with Trump about “opportunities to achieve peace” regarding the war with Russia. Zelenskyy said in a post on Wednesday on the social platform X that they also discussed their “readiness to work together at a team level,” as well as talking about Ukraine’s technological capabilities in drones and other technologies.
Zelenskyy said that he also talked with Trump about his conversation with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and that Trump talked to him about the U.S. president’s conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“Together with the U.S., we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace,” Zelenskyy posted on social media.
Trump, meanwhile, said his conversation with Zelenskyy went “very well” and that a Friday meeting was being set up in Munich for talks about the war with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“I am hopeful that the results of that meeting will be positive. It is time to stop this ridiculous War, where there has been massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Freed Russian prisoner is cryptocurrency money launderer Alexander Vinnik
The Russian prisoner released in exchange for American schoolteacher Marc Fogel of Pennsylvania is Alexander Vinnik.
That’s according to people familiar with the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic details.
Vinnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the U.S. on cryptocurrency fraud charges. He was later convicted of money laundering in France, where prosecutors accused him of extorting millions from victims using a malicious software called “Locky” that encrypted people’s data until they paid ransom in bitcoin through BTC-e, one of the world’s largest digital currency exchanges.
And then he was extradited to the U.S., where he pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is currently in custody in California awaiting transport to return to Russia, the officials said.
▶ Read more on the U.S.-Russia talks
— Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Matthew Lee and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
Ukraine official says Trump and Zelenskyy had a ‘good conversation’
Trump upended three years of U.S. policy toward Ukraine on Wednesday, separately calling Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump said in a social media post that his call with Putin was lengthy and they committed to “work together, very closely” to bring the conflict to an end. “As we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.”
It was unclear how closely Zelenskyy would be involved. Ukrainian presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn confirmed the phone call.
Trump’s announcement appeared to dismantle the Biden-era mantra that Kyiv would be a full participant in any decisions made. “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” President Joe Biden and his top national security aides said repeatedly.
Federal judge OKs FEMA blocking New York City migrant funding
U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island ruled that the government’s bid to withhold Federal Emergency Management Agency funds was not subject to an order, still in effect, that’s aimed at preventing a sweeping pause on federal funding.
FEMA pulled the funding and four employees were fired after Trump adviser Elon Musk posted on the social platform X that his government efficiency team team had discovered the payments were used to house migrants in “luxury hotels.”
FEMA’s acting administrator later said in court documents that the funding was pulled because of concerns it was “facilitating illegal activities” at a Manhattan hotel used as a migrant shelter.
Arts and Humanities endowments update grant guidelines
Anyone seeking funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities must now comply with Trump’s executive order.
The two groups hand out millions of dollars each year to individuals and to artistic and cultural organizations.
The NEA’s grants page now reads in part: “The applicant will not operate any programs promoting ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws, in accordance with Executive Order No. 14173.”
NEH applicants are alerted that money may not be used for the “promotion of gender ideology,” the “promotion of discriminatory equity ideology,” support for “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) or diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives or activities; or environmental justice initiatives or activities.”
“It is a longstanding legal requirement that all recipients of federal funds comply with applicable federal anti-discrimination laws, regulations and executive orders, an NEA spokesperson said.
RFK Jr advances toward confirmation to lead HHS on party-line vote
Senators voted on a party-line to advance Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.
Kennedy, the anti-vaccine guru who has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats, appears to be on track to lead the world’s largest public health system, which provides care for millions of Americans. He has tempered some views during his confirmation process.
The final confirmation vote by the Senate is expected no later than Thursday morning.
Exposed and on their own, evacuating USAID staffers in Congo faced angry crowds and looting
Employees of the U.S. Agency for International Developments say the Trump administration exposed them to violence by forcing agency leaders off the job and freezing their funding.
In court affidavits, multiple USAID staffers say they were abandoned in Congo without money and facing an explosion of political violence, with angry crowds looting their homes. Some spoke of arriving in the U.S. with only their children and backpacks.
Their accounts were filed in federal court late Tuesday in support of an employee lawsuit seeking to roll back and restore USAID.
Egyptian and Jordanian leaders again reject Trump’s Gaza plan
The leaders of Egypt and Jordan on Wednesday reiterated their rejection of Trump’s plan to depopulate the Gaza Strip.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and King Abdullah II of Jordan spoke by phone, and stressed the importance of the immediate start of Gaza’s reconstruction “without the transfer of Palestinian people from their land,” according to a statement from the Egyptian leader’s office.
The leaders “showed their keenness” to work with Trump to achieve “permanent peace” in the region through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, the statement said.
McConnell voted against Gabbard over her ‘alarming lapses in judgment’
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former GOP leader, was the sole Republican voting against Gabbard’s nomination as the nation’s director of the Office of National Intelligence, saying the nominee brings “unnecessary risk” because of her past statements and actions.
“In my assessment, Tulsi Gabbard failed to demonstrate that she is prepared to assume this tremendous national trust,” McConnell said in a statement.
He cited her views about Putin, China and Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who leaked sensitive U.S. data, in his decision to vote against her.
“The nation should not have to worry that the intelligence assessments the President receives are tainted by a Director of National Intelligence with a history of alarming lapses in judgment,” he said.
Trump says he and Putin have agreed to begin ‘negotiations’ on ending Ukraine war
The Republican said in a social media post on Wednesday, disclosing a call between the two leaders, that they would “work together, very closely.”
The call followed a prisoner swap that resulted in Russia releasing American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, of Pennsylvania, after more than three years of detention.
Alexander Vinnik, a convicted Russian criminal, is being freed as part of a swap that saw Moscow’s release of American Marc Fogel, two U.S. officials confirmed Wednesday. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the swap.
— Associated Press reporters Vladimir Isachenkov, Eric Tucker and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
Senate confirms Gabbard as director of national intelligence
Wednesday’s 52-48 vote fell along mostly party lines, with Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky the only Republican to join Democrats in opposing Gabbard’s nomination.
Gabbard is a veteran and a former Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii.
Her nomination initially faced bipartisan criticism over comments sympathetic to Russia and her past support of government leaker Edward Snowden, as well as a 2017 meeting with now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar Assad.
While several Republican lawmakers had expressed concerns about Gabbard, GOP support fell in line following a pressure campaign mounted by Trump allies, including Elon Musk.
Federal health agencies restore webpages and datasets following judge’s order
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have complied with a court order to restore some webpages and datasets.
The CDC information includes pages on adolescent health, information on HIV monitoring and testing, contraception guidance, and data on how pollution, poverty and other factors impact certain communities. The FDA restored recommendations for enrolling more females in clinical trials, analyzing sex-specific data and including sex-specific information in regulatory submissions.
On his first day back in the White House, Trump ordered agencies to use the term “sex” and not “gender” in federal policies and documents. The Office of Personnel Management’s acting director then required agency heads to eliminate any programs or websites that promote “gender ideology,” leading to widespread takedowns across government websites.
▶ Read more about litigation over public health data
Global reproductive health advocates decry shuttering USAID, reinstatement of global gag rule
Dilly Severin, executive director of the Universal Access Project at the UN Foundation, described Trump’s actions as “forfeiting our role as a leader in global health, including reproductive rights, health and justice.”
Dr. Carole Sekimpi, senior director of MSI Africa, said the organization has lost $40 million in funding from the U.S. since Trump took office and warned there will be a spike in deaths of women and girls across the region due to losing “life-saving, time-sensitive” family planning services.
“Women and girls woke up one morning and there was no care, whether it was contraception or HIV care,” she said. “There was no forewarning, so there’s a lot of panic.”
The global gag rule, sometimes called the “Mexico City Policy,” requires foreign nongovernmental agencies to certify that they don’t provide or promote abortion if they receive U.S. federal funds for family planning assistance.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he would seek to mitigate damage resulting from shutting down U.S.-funded global aid programs by issuing waivers to exempt emergency food aid and “life-saving” programs. But Sekimpi said it’s nearly impossible to restart the programs on the ground even with the waivers.
Danes jokingly petition to buy California as Trump seeks Greenland
The idea is a response to Trump’s talk about taking control of the vast and mineral-rich Arctic island from Denmark. The petition’s website claimed over 200,000 signatures by midmorning Wednesday.
“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality,” it says. “California will become New Denmark. Los Angeles? More like Løs Ångeles.”
As for Disneyland in Southern California: “We’ll rename it Hans Christian Andersenland. Mickey Mouse in a Viking helmet? Yes, please.”
The petition comes with a disclaimer: “This campaign is 100% real … in our dreams.
▶ Read more about the Danish petition
Trump taps oil industry advocate for land agency, former Wyoming official for Fish and Wildlife
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Colorado-based Western Energy Alliance, was named Bureau of Land Management director. Her group has long pushed for greater access by the oil and gas industry to public lands and increased mining.
Brian Nesvik led the Wyoming Game and Fish Department until last year.
The land management agency manages about 245 million acres of federal land, mostly in the West, while Fish and Wildlife oversees fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats. Both agencies are part of the Interior Department.
Human rights expert praises Trump’s order restricting transgender athletes from women’s sports
Trump’s executive order “mandates the preservation of all-female athletic opportunities and locker rooms, ensuring privacy and dignity for women and girls,” said Reem Alsalem, the U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
Alsalem is one of dozens of independent experts who work with the U.N. human rights office to keep tabs on human rights and is not a staffer of the United Nations.
Affidavits reveal scope of US foreign aid eliminations by DOGE and other outsiders
The newly filed affidavits of U.S. Agency for International Development workers describe a lieutenant of Trump ally Elon Musk and other outsiders directing the immediate termination of hundreds of assistance programs, allegedly without required authorization or justification.
The groups are suing to roll back the dismantling of USAID by Trump’s Republican administration and Musk’s government-cutting teams.
The affidavits were filed late Tuesday. One says that when USAID contract officers emailed agency higher-ups on Monday asking for the authorization and justification needed to cancel USAID programs abroad, a lieutenant of Musk's responded by asserting that the decisions came from the “most senior levels.”
Trump’s ultimate power move could test the Supreme Court’s supremacy
Trump is clearly pressing the boundaries of the relationship between the executive and judicial branches. And that may test one of the most foundational cases in American constitutional law, Marbury v. Madison, which established the courts as the law’s final arbiters.
Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in the 1803 ruling that while Congress makes the laws and the president enforces them, the courts decide whether the other branches have gone too far.
“It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is,” Marshall wrote.
So is the court supreme? Notably, the court lacks any independent means of enforcing its decisions. But Americans have come generally to believe that court decisions should be obeyed, even amid sharp disagreement.
▶ Read more about court precedent on the balance of powers
Subcommittee aimed at supporting DOGE’s work holds its first meeting
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and the subcommittee’s chair, described excessive spending as an existential threat to the country at Wednesday’s hearing, saying, “The American people are in debt slavery to everyone who owns our debt.”
She said the federal government needs to be held accountable, saying there are “no consequences” for bad financial management or service to citizens.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a New Mexico Democrat and the subcommittee’s ranking member, said Trump wasn’t interested in addressing waste and fraud because he was instead firing inspectors general.
“We have to ask ourselves, what is really going on here?” she said.
Stansbury also said it was wrong to let “Elon Musk and his hackers” gain access to sensitive databases like the U.S. Treasury payment system.
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This entry has been corrected to show that Stansbury represents New Mexico, not Maryland.
Trump teases the release of another American
With history teacher Marc Vogel safely back in the U.S., Trump said another American, someone “very special,” would be released on Wednesday, though he declined to name the person or say from what country.
The president also wouldn’t say if he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin about Fogel, who had been jailed in Russia three years ago after being caught with medical marijuana. But Fogel praised the Russian leader as “very generous and statesmanlike in granting me a pardon.”
Trump called the deal “Very fair, very, very fair, very reasonable. Not like deals you’ve seen over the years. They were very fair.”
The president did not say what the United States exchanged for Fogel’s release.
▶ Read more on the prisoner swaps
US defense chief calls NATO membership for Ukraine unrealistic
In sweeping remarks in Brussels, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested the way forward is for Ukraine: Abandon the “illusory goal” of a return to its pre-2014 borders, and prepare for a negotiated settlement with Russia, backed up with an international force of troops.
Allies have been waiting to hear how much continued military and financial support Washington intends to provide to Ukraine’s government.
What the Ukraine Defense Contact Group of about 50 countries supporting Ukraine heard: Trump is intent on getting Europe to assume the majority of the financial and military responsibilities for the defense of Ukraine. The peacekeeping force would not include U.S. troops.
▶ Read more about Hegseth’s speech on Ukraine
Trump: ‘If they charge us, we charge them’
“It’s time to be reciprocal,” Trump said earlier this week as he prepared additional actions to upset the world trade system.
With the tariffs he’s unleashed so far, Trump has fully taken ownership of the path of the U.S. economy, betting that he can eventually deliver meaningful results for voters, even if by his own admission the import taxes could involve some financial pain in the form of inflation and economic disruptions.
With imports totalling $4.1 trillion last year, a broad reciprocal tariffs order could amount to a substantial tax hike to be shouldered largely by U.S. consumers and businesses. Should job gains never materialize and inflation stay high, it’s an easy line of attack for Democrats: that Trump helped the ultrawealthy at the expense of the middle class.
▶ Read more on Trump’s big bet on the economy
U.S. inflation accelerated last month
Rising prices on groceries, gas, and used cars make it less likely that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates anytime soon.
The consumer price index increased 3% in January from a year ago, Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed, up from 2.9% the previous month. It has increased from a 3 1/2 year low of 2.4% in September.
Candidate Trump pledged to reduce prices. Most economists worry that his proposed tariffs could at least temporarily increase costs.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will likely be asked Wednesday by the House Financial Services Committee what the Fed will do.
Trump posted on social media early Wednesday that interest rates should be lowered to “go hand in hand with upcoming Tariffs!!!”
▶ Read more about consumer prices and inflation
Saudi Arabia ‘instrumental’ in negotiations to free Fogel, White House says
Witkoff gave some of the credit to Mohammed bin Salman, saying Saudi Arabia’s crown prince was “instrumental” in the negotiations.
“He has a very strong friendship with President Trump, and, behind the scenes, he was encouraging and pushing and looking for the right result. It was helpful, it really was.”
Asked if the crown prince was pushing the Russians, Witkoff said he was more of a “cheerleader.”
“He was a cheerleader for this rapprochement where the two leaders would come together and that’s what happened, so thank God. Sometimes you don’t get a good result. Here we got a very good result. Mark Fogel is the evidence of that.”
American freed by Russia has spoken with family, toured Lincoln Bedroom
Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for President Donald Trump, declined to reveal Marc Fogel ’s whereabouts but told reporters that Fogel had spoken with his wife, his two children and his 95-year-old mother.
Trump sent Witkoff to bring home the schoolteacher, who had been detained in Russia after his arrest in August 2021. Fogel was brought to the White House late Tuesday so Trump could officially welcome him home.
Trump gave Fogel a tour of the Lincoln Bedroom — as he had promised, Witkoff said.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that a Russian citizen was freed in the United States in exchange for Fogel’s release, but refused to identify him until he arrives in Russia.
▶ Read more about what Russia got from the deal
Senate poised to confirm Gabbard for intelligence position
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence.
The military veteran and former Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii faced criticism that was initially bipartisan over comments sympathetic to Russia and her past support of government leaker Edward Snowden, as well a 2017 meeting with now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar Assad.
Democrats remain opposed to her nomination, but Republican support has fallen into line following a pressure campaign by Trump allies including Elon Musk.
▶ Read more about impacts on intelligence sharing with U.S. allies
CFPB layoffs begin with fill-in-the-blank firing memo
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has started laying off probationary employees by distributing a form letter that doesn’t include their names.
“MEMORANDUM FOR (EmployeeFirstName) (EmployeeLastName),” the letter says. “This is to provide notification that I am removing you from your position of (JobTitle).”
“Unfortunately, the Agency finds that that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”
Probationary employees have less civil service protection because they’ve been on the job for less than a year. The bureau, which says it has obtained nearly $20 billion in financial relief for U.S. consumers, is the latest target as President Trump and Elon Musk dismantle federal regulators.
▶ Read more on Trump’s effort to shut down the consumer protection bureau
The Associated Press
