Russia releases imprisoned American Marc Fogel in what US calls a step toward the end of Ukraine war

WASHINGTON (AP) — Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was deemed wrongfully detained by Russia, has been released and returned to the U.S. in what the White House described as a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for President Donald Trump, left Russia with Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, and brought him to the White House, where Trump greeted him.

“I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” Fogel said at the White House as he stood next to Trump with an American flag draped around his shoulders.

Fogel, who was expected to be reunited with his family by the end of the day, said he would forever be indebted to Trump.

Trump said another American would be released on Wednesday, though he declined to name the person or say what country, only saying it was someone “very special.”

___

White House fires USAID inspector general after warning about funding oversight, officials say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday, U.S. officials said, a day after his office warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds.

The White House gave no reason for the firing of Inspector General Paul Martin, one of the officials said. The officials were familiar with the dismissal but not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Inspectors general are typically independently funded watchdogs attached to government agencies and tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. The Trump administration earlier purged more than a dozen inspectors general.

On Monday, Martin’s office issued a flash report warning that the Trump administration’s freeze on all foreign assistance and moves to cut USAID staff had left oversight of the humanitarian aid “largely nonoperational.”

That includes the agency’s ability to ensure none of the funding falls into the hands of violent extremist groups or goes astray in conflict zones, the watchdog said.

___

US aid freeze sets back fight against human trafficking in Cambodia

BANGKOK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign assistance has dealt a blow to organizations fighting human trafficking and forced labor in Cambodia, where tens of thousands of people are held captive and forced to work in call centers running telephone scams.

Hundreds of thousands of people work in remote compounds in countries including Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos where they run online scams targeting people all over the world, including Americans, according to U.N. estimates. Some are trafficked and lured to the jobs under false pretenses and forced to work against their will.

A shelter for people who manage to leave these compounds run by the Catholic charity Caritas recently let some victims go and may stop accepting further victims due to the funding squeeze, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said. The shelter, in the capital Phnom Penh is the only one not operated by the government which takes in victims of scam compounds, both foreign and Cambodian. The sources declined to be named because they were concerned about retaliation from the Trump administration.

The funding freeze has also halted civil-society-assisted rescue work and related programs on preventing human trafficking.

The compounds operate with support from some local elites. Last October, the U.S. sanctioned Ly Yong Phat, a leading member of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party of Prime Minister Hun Manet, for owning businesses that have trafficked people and forced to work in online scam centers.

___

After meeting with Trump, Jordan’s king says his country opposes displacing Palestinians in Gaza

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday and renewed his insistence that Gaza could somehow be emptied of all residents, controlled by the U.S. and redeveloped as a tourist area.

It’s an audacious, but highly unlikely, scheme to dramatically remake the Middle East and would require Jordan and other Arab nations to accept more Gazans — something Abdullah reiterated after their meeting that he opposes.

The pair met in the Oval Office with Secretary of State Marco Rubio also on hand. The president suggested he wouldn’t withhold U.S. aid to Jordan or Egypt if they don’t agree to dramatically increase the number of people from Gaza they take in.

“I don’t have to threaten that. I do believe we’re above that,” Trump said. That contradicted the Republican president’s previous suggestion that holding back aid from Washington was a possibility.

Abdullah was asked repeatedly about Trump’s plan to clear out Gaza and overhaul it as a resort on the Mediterranean Sea. He didn’t make substantive comments on it and didn’t commit to the idea that his country could accept large numbers of Gazans.

___

Netanyahu threatens to resume fighting in Gaza if hostages aren’t released Saturday

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire in Gaza and directed troops to prepare to resume fighting Hamas if the militant group does not r elease more hostages on Saturday.

Hamas said Monday — and reiterated Tuesday — that it planned to delay the release of three more hostages after accusing Israel of failing to meet the terms of the ceasefire, including by not allowing an agreed-upon number of tents and other aid into Gaza.

Amid the mounting tensions, U.S. President Donald Trump emboldened Israel to call for the release of even more remaining hostages on Saturday.

After meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, Trump predicted Hamas would not release all the remaining hostages as he had demanded.

“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally,” the president said of Hamas. “They want to play tough guy. We’ll see how tough they are.”

___

Musk appears at White House defending DOGE’s work but acknowledging mistakes

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s most powerful adviser, Elon Musk, made a rare public appearance at the White House on Tuesday to defend the swift and extensive cuts he’s pushing across the federal government while acknowledging there have been mistakes and will be more.

Musk stood next to the Resolute Desk with his young son as Trump praised Musk’s work with his Department of Government Efficiency, saying they’ve found “shocking” evidence of wasteful spending. The Republican president signed an executive order to expand Musk’s influence and continue downsizing the federal workforce.

Despite concerns that he’s amassing unaccountable power with little transparency, Musk described himself as an open book as he took questions from reporters for the first time since joining the Trump administration as a special government employee. He joked that the scrutiny over his sprawling influence over federal agencies was like a “daily proctology exam.”

He also claimed that DOGE’s work was being shared on its website and on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. However, the DOGE website has no information, and the postings on X often lack many details, including which programs are being cut and where the organization has access.

The White House has also been moving to limit independent oversight. The inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development was fired a day after warning that it had become nearly impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in humanitarian funds after DOGE began dismantling the agency.

___

Vance offers an ‘America First’ argument on AI deregulation in his first foreign policy speech

PARIS (AP) — In his first big moment on the world stage, Vice President JD Vance delivered an unmistakable message: the United States under the 47th president has room for you on the Trump train — but it also has no problem leaving you behind.

Vance, speaking at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris on Tuesday, hewed closely to President Donald Trump’s “America First” outlook as he spoke of maintaining U.S. dominance in the surging industry.

He also pressed European nations to step back from “excessive regulation” of the AI sector that he said “could kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off.”

“Now, just because we’re the leader doesn’t mean we want to or need to go it alone,” Vance said. “But to create that kind of trust, we need international regulatory regimes that fosters the creation of AI technology rather than strangles it. And we need our European friends in particular to look to this new frontier with optimism rather than trepidation.”

The message was centered on AI, but the tone and substance of Vance’s remarks fall in line with a Trump administration that has been approaching policymaking — and it opponents — with the attitude that it’s a juggernaut that will not be stopped.

___

Her parents were injured in a Tesla crash. She ended up having to pay Tesla damages

BEIJING (AP) — Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes don’t work! Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into an SUV and a sedan and crashing into a large concrete barrier.

Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the car’s brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than $23,000 in damages and publicly apologize to the $1.1 trillion company.

Zhang is not the only one to find herself in the crosshairs of Tesla, which is led by Elon Musk, among the richest men in the world and a self-described “ free speech absolutist.” Over the last four years, Tesla has sued at least six car owners in China who had sudden vehicle malfunctions, quality complaints or accidents they claimed were caused by mechanical failures.

The company has also sued at least six bloggers and two Chinese media outlets that wrote critically about the company, according to a review of public court documents and Chinese media reports by The Associated Press. Tesla won all eleven cases for which AP could determine the verdicts. Two judgments, including Zhang’s, are on appeal. One case was settled out of court.

It is not common practice for automakers — in China or elsewhere — to sue their customers. But Tesla has pioneered an aggressive legal strategy and leveraged the patronage of powerful leaders in China’s ruling Communist Party to silence critics, reap financial rewards and limit its accountability.

___

New York City’s mayor has 4 months to persuade Democratic voters he’s not Trump’s puppet

New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared Tuesday that he is “no longer facing legal questions” after the Justice Department moved to shield him from the bribery charges that have been hanging over his reelection campaign.

But now, with the Democratic primary just four months away, he faces a seemingly impossible political balancing act.

The Democrat may have to continue pleasing Republican President Donald Trump with his policies and public statements to keep the charges from being revived — while simultaneously convincing voters in a deep-blue city that he’s still his own man.

Adams’ fraught position is owed to a section of the extraordinary Justice Department memo that ordered prosecutors to drop the case but left open the possibility that the charges could be brought back.

In the memo, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told prosecutors in New York not to take “additional investigative steps” against the mayor until after the November election — when the new top prosecutor in the district will review the case and could potentially reinstate charges.

___

California’s insurer for people without private coverage needs $1 billion more for LA fires claims

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s plan that provides insurance to homeowners who can’t get private coverage needs $1 billion more to pay out claims related to the Los Angeles wildfires, the state Insurance Department said Tuesday.

The FAIR Plan is an insurance pool that all the major private insurers pay into, and the plan then issues policies to people who can’t get private insurance because their properties are deemed too risky to insure. The plan, with high premiums and basic coverage, is designed as a temporary option until homeowners can find permanent coverage, but more Californians are relying on it than ever. There were more than 452,000 policies on the Fair Plan in 2024, more than double the number in 2020.

The plan says it’s expecting a loss of roughly $4 billion from the Eaton and Palisades Fires, which sparked Jan. 7, destroyed nearly 17,000 structures and killed at least 29 people. Roughly 4,700 claims have been filed as of this week, and the plan has already paid out more than $914 million.

Under a FAIR Plan request approved by the state Tuesday, all insurers doing business in California will have to bear half the cost and can pass on the rest to all policyholders in the form of a one-time fee. Insurers can collect that cost in the next two years. The state Insurance Department must approve those costs.

State officials didn’t immediately have details on how large the fee would be. In approving the request, the state allowed the plan to send out notices and collect funding from marketplace insurers within 30 days.