Freed American’s family to miss Taylor Swift concert for the very best reason
CNN
Miriam Butorin was supposed to attend Taylor Swift’s concert on Friday for her 13th birthday. She is missing it, but for the very best reason.
Miriam Butorin was supposed to attend Taylor Swift’s concert on Friday for her 13th birthday. She is missing it, but for the very best reason. Miriam’s mother, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, was released Thursday from Russian detention in a historic prisoner swap. The release of the 47-year-old journalist for the US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was part of a complex prisoner swap between Russia, the US and other Western nations involving 24 detainees in total, including fellow freed Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. Kurmasheva had been detained in October 2023 and found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian army – charges her family and employer deny. Kurmasheva’s family joined President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday, where he shared the news that she was on her way back to the United States. There, the president led the crowd in singing happy birthday to Miriam. Minutes before midnight, in an incredibly emotional scene, she was reunited with her mother on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Kurmasheva was the final freed American to emerge from the aircraft that touched down late Thursday. She hugged Biden and the president pressed his forehead to hers. Kurmasheva also greeted Vice President Kamala Harris before running to her daughters and husband.
Panama denied a claim made by the State Department on Wednesday that the Central American nation had agreed to no longer charge fees for US government ships to transit the country’s famous canal.
The one-time Georgia prosecutor accused of using her office to impede the investigation into Ahmaud Arbery’s killers is set to stand trial more than four years after the Black 26-year-old’s death fueled nationwide protests over racial injustice.
Eligible federal workers must decide by 11:59 pm ET on Thursday whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which will allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September.
Two Treasury Department employees affiliated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will keep limited access to the highly sensitive payment system within the agency, following emergency court proceedings Wednesday that arose out of privacy concerns about DOGE’s access to the system.
The CIA has sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires that have been with the agency for two years or less in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, according to three sources familiar with the matter – a deeply unorthodox move that could potentially expose the identities of those officers to foreign government hackers.
After nearly three weeks in the minority, Democrats have finally settled on a target to rally against: Elon Musk.
The Office of Personnel Management’s chief financial officer, who manages more than $1 trillion in funds, was pushed out this week, two sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
Five former leaders of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from across Republican and Democratic administrations spoke out against the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the humanitarian agency.
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Newly released data from ground-based radar came out Tuesday suggesting an Army helicopter was higher than it was supposed to be when it collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 a week ago, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
Trump administration officials are hurrying to catch up to the president’s audacious and improbable plan for the United States to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop it into a “Middle Eastern Riviera,” trying to wrap their heads around an idea that some hope might be so outlandish it forces other nations to step in with their own proposals for the Palestinian enclave.
Guatemala has pledged a 40% increase in deportation flights carrying Guatemalans and migrants of other nationalities from the United States, President Bernardo Arévalo announced Wednesday during a press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A second federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship, saying it’s likely unconstitutional and “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth.”