A major prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine is underway, a senior Ukrainian official said Friday.

The swap is not yet finished, the official told the Associated Press, despite President Donald Trump declaring Friday that Russia and Ukraine completed a ‘major prisoners swap.’ 

The announcements come after Russian and Ukrainian officials took part in direct talks in Turkey last Friday for the first time since the early days of the war, agreeing to release around 1,000 prisoners of war. 

‘A major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine. It will go into effect shortly,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big???’ 

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that ‘I held a meeting on the preparation for an exchange’ and ‘The agreement to release 1,000 of our people from Russian captivity was perhaps the only tangible result of the meeting in Turkey.’ 

Trump had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Following the conversation, Trump said ‘I believe it went very well.’ 

‘Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War. The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,’ Trump said. ‘The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later.’ 

Putin, in a statement after the call, also noted that ‘a ceasefire with Ukraine is possible’ but noted that ‘Russia and Ukraine must find compromises that suit both sides.’ 

The Kremlin then said Thursday that both sides had no direct peace talks scheduled. 

‘There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Associated Press. ‘They are yet to be agreed upon.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

An internal House GOP memo sent to Republican lawmakers and obtained by Fox News Digital highlights the party’s key accomplishments included in President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’

House Republicans passed all 1,118 pages of Trump’s ‘one big, beautiful bill’ on Thursday morning, after working through hourslong committee meetings, huddles in the speaker’s office and even a last-minute push from the president. 

Finally, late Wednesday night, House leadership found consensus among key factions of the Republican caucus. The late-night ‘manager’s amendment’ appeased lingering Republican holdouts, including fiscal hawks who wanted more reform on Medicaid and former President Joe Biden’s green energy subsidies, and blue state Republicans seeking to raise the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. 

The bill is a sweeping multitrillion-dollar piece of legislation that advances Trump’s agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. It aims to slash the federal government’s spending trajectory by cutting roughly $1.5 trillion in government spending. The U.S. government is over $36 trillion in debt and has spent $1.05 trillion more than it has collected in the 2025 fiscal year, according to the Treasury Department. 

The bill raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. 

The internal House Republican memo shared with Fox News Digital summarizes Republicans’ key legislative accomplishments. 

According to the memo, the bill reduces the deficit by $238 billion through the Agriculture Committee, securing $294 billion through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit reform. It reinvests $56 billion in SNAP benefit savings into rural America. 

Republicans say the SNAP reform restores its integrity by requiring states to pay a larger share for its benefits and incentivizing more state efficiency. It requires congressional approval for states to increase enrollment eligibility and creates SNAP work requirements for able-bodied adults who do not have young dependents. 

The Armed Services Committee increased defense spending by nearly $143 billion with improvements to service members’ quality of life, healthcare and family support. There are billions of dollars allocated to building the military’s arsenal, advancing technology and infrastructure and expanding military readiness. 

The bill allocates $34 billion for shipbuilding, $5 billion for border security enforcement, $400 million for the Department of Defense and $25 billion for Trump’s Golden Dome, which is a layered missile defense shield. 

It reduces the deficit by $349.1 billion through the Education and Workforce Committee, which made a series of reforms to streamline student loan payment options, support students and save taxpayer money. 

Specifically, the bill caps the total amount of federal student aid a student can receive annually to the median cost of the college, which is $50,000 for undergrad, $100,000 for graduate students and $150,000 for professional graduate programs. There is also a ‘lifetime limit’ of $200,000. 

The Education and Workforce Committee consolidated student loans into two plans – a fixed mortgage-style plan or a repayment assistance plan. 

It also establishes a performance-based PROMISE grant program, prevents future attempts at the loan forgiveness program championed by the Biden administration and reforms Pell Grant programs. 

The Energy and Commerce Committee, which had a lengthy overnight budget markup last week, includes a series of Medicaid reforms, which Democrats have railed against as conservatives pushed for more cuts. The bill establishes work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents, requires state cost-sharing for adults above the poverty line, eliminates illegal immigrants from enrolling and reduces state funding for states who prioritize coverage for illegal immigrants. 

The Financial Services Committee in the ‘big, beautiful bill’ includes reforms to save taxpayer money and reduce federal bureaucracy. Meanwhile, the Homeland Security Committee increases spending by a little over $79 billion to expand border security, and the Judiciary Committee increases spending by about $7 billion to stop illegal immigration. 

The Energy and Commerce Committee also delivered on one of Trump’s key campaign promises to unleash American energy by supporting domestic energy production and eliminating Biden-era green energy projects, including eliminating electric vehicle mandates. 

The Natural Resources Committee reduces the deficit by $18 billion to deliver Trump’s energy agenda. The bill reinstates quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales, requires geothermal lease sales and mandates at least 30 lease sales in the newly-renamed Gulf of America over the next 15 years and six in the Cook Inlet in south-central Alaska.

It returns oil and natural gas royalty rates to before Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, resumes leases on energy production in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, resumes coal leasing on federal lands, increases timber sales and long-term contracts on federal lands and walks back funds allocated by the Biden administration for climate change. 

The bill includes amendments by the Oversight Committee that will reduce the deficit by $12 billion by eliminating retirement annuity payments for new federal retirees that are eligible to retire before age 62, allows new federal employee hires the option to elect to serve ‘at will’ in exchange for higher take-home pay, requires a comprehensive audit of employee dependents currently enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program plans.

Finally, the Ways and Means Committee makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent, which prevents a 22% tax hike, and delivers Trump’s campaign promises, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay or car loan interests. It also provides additional tax relief for seniors. The bill increases the university endowment tax and subjects the largest endowments to the corporate tax rate.

As touted in the House GOP memo, the bill also prevents taxpayer benefits from going to illegal immigrants by requiring a Social Security number for individuals claiming tax credits and deductions, ends illegal immigrant eligibility for Obamacare premium tax credits and Medicare, and applies new remittance payment fees for illegal immigrants. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives 215 to 214. All Democrats and just two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, voted against it. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., voted ‘present.’

Now, the Senate is tasked with passing their own version of the bill before it lands on Trump’s desk. Republican leadership is eyeing a July 4 deadline, but sparks are likely to fly in the Senate before Trump can claim a legislative victory. 

The U.S. and Iran resumed nuclear negotiations on Friday in Rome as differences over demands have spilled over into the public sphere, making the red lines for both parties increasingly clear. 

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this week criticized Washington’s position that has called for an apparent ban on all uranium enrichment in Iran and suggested a deal may not be possible.

The White House did not answer Fox News Digital’s questions about whether it is in fact calling for a ban on uranium enrichment for civil needs like nuclear energy, but on Friday Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters that ‘This round of talks is especially sensitive.’

According to Iranian media outlets, Tehran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left the negotiations and said, ‘I hope that in the next one or two meetings we can reach solutions that will allow the negotiations to progress. 

‘With Oman’s solutions to remove obstacles, there is a possibility of progress,’ though he did not expand on what the hiccups were or what Oman’s solutions may have been.

Araghchi, who was set to negotiate largely indirectly with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff through Omani mediators, made Tehran’s position on Washington’s apparent demands clear in a post to X early on Friday. 

‘Figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science,’ he said. ‘Zero nuclear weapons = we DO have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal. 

‘Time to decide,’ he added.

Iran has claimed it has no intention of building a nuclear weapon. But steps Tehran has taken, like bolstering its missile program, which could give it the technology to launch a nuclear warhead, and stockpiling enough near-weapons-grade enriched uranium to possess five nuclear weapons, have experts worried, including the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency. 

While uranium enrichment for nuclear energy is a power source many countries, including the U.S., rely on for their energy needs, Iran’s nuclear energy amounts to less than 1% of its energy consumption. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the U.S. is attempting to form a deal that would enable Iran to have a civil nuclear energy program that does not include enriched uranium, though he admitted that this ‘will not be easy’.

‘Washington’s insistence on zero enrichment, I think, is the only sober, sane, non-proliferation approach you can take [with] the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has not stopped enriching uranium at various levels since April 2006 when this entire crisis really was kicked off, Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran expert and senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Fox News Digital.

‘Iran has more to lose by pushing away from the table,’ he continued. ‘Iran is engaging in 2025 for a very different reason than 2013 and 2015. It’s trying to blunt maximum pressure. It’s trying to prevent an Israeli military attack, and it’s trying to prevent European snap-back [sanctions]. 

‘This is why Iran is engaging today, and the Trump administration needs to be cognizant that, because of that, it does have the leverage in these negotiations and can demand more,’ Ben Taleblu urged. 

Hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners were released Friday in an exchange with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced, adding that ‘It is very important to return everyone who remains in captivity. 

‘We are bringing our people home. The first stage of the ‘1000-for-1000’ exchange agreement has been carried out. This agreement was reached during the meeting in Turkey, and it is crucial to implement it in full,’ Zelenskyy wrote on X, referencing a recent deal between Russian and Ukrainian officials.

‘Today — 390 people. On Saturday and Sunday, we expect the exchange to continue. Thank you to everyone who is helping and working 24/7 to bring Ukrainian men and women back home. It is very important to return everyone who remains in captivity. We are verifying every surname, every detail about each person. We will continue our diplomatic efforts to make such steps possible,’ he added.

The swap unfolded at the border between Belarus and Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official told the Associated Press. Moscow had no immediate comment. On his X account, Zelenskyy released images purportedly showing the newly-freed Ukrainians.

‘A major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine. It will go into effect shortly,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social this morning. ‘Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big???’ 

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that ‘I held a meeting on the preparation for an exchange’ and ‘The agreement to release 1,000 of our people from Russian captivity was perhaps the only tangible result of the meeting in Turkey.’ 

Trump had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Following the conversation, Trump said ‘I believe it went very well.’ 

‘Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War. The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,’ Trump said. ‘The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later.’ 

Putin, in a statement after the call, also noted that ‘a ceasefire with Ukraine is possible’ but noted that ‘Russia and Ukraine must find compromises that suit both sides.’ 

The Kremlin then said Thursday that both sides had no direct peace talks scheduled. 

‘There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Associated Press. ‘They are yet to be agreed upon.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump signed several executive orders (EOs) on nuclear energy proliferation and an order removing political considerations from public-sector science, as conservatives claimed the latter was scandalized in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump also signed restoring ‘gold standard science’ as the cornerstone of federal research. 

A senior White House official said on Friday there has been a decline in ‘disruptive research’ and investments in biomedical research, along with ‘serious cases’ of fraud and misconduct and the inability to reproduce scientific methods for the purpose of restoring public trust.

The official also blamed policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and ‘woke DEI initiatives’ for endangering the public’s trust in government scientists.

Now-retired NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci was repeatedly denounced for flip-flopping and obfuscating during his time engineering the federal response to COVID-19, leading many particularly on the right to disregard and dismiss the legitimacy of federal health authorities outright.

That order cites the fact the Biden administration included political edits from teachers unions in school-reopening guidance, instead of leading with any scientific evidence.

The order will enforce ‘gold standard science,’ defined as reproducible, transparent and falsifiable – as well as being subject to peer review and making sure that scientists are not discouraged from discovering outcomes that run counter to a narrative.

In terms of nuclear energy, one order will reform nuclear R&D at the Energy Department, accelerate reactor testing at national labs and establish a pilot program for new construction.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright previously told Fox News Digital that revitalizing and highlighting the work of U.S. national labs is paramount to his agenda.

In a move that appears to support Wright’s push for nuclear power, Trump will sign an order aimed at advancing new reactor construction on public lands.

A senior White House official cited the importance of that type of reliable power-source for critical defense facilities and AI data centers.

Another order being signed Friday will overhaul the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to require it to rule on reactor license applications within 18 months.

Only two new nuclear reactors have begun construction and entered into commercial operation since the Carter administration.

A typically risk-averse culture that requires, for example, nuclear facilities to emit as little radiation as possible, including below naturally-occurring levels, which critics said has hindered the NRC from licensing new reactors as technology begets safer and cheaper means of production.

The orders will also seek to raise nuclear energy capacity from 100 gigawatts (GW) to 400 GW within 25 years.

Another order will establish a vision to mine and enrich uranium within the U.S., decreasing another avenue of foreign reliance – and ‘reinvigorate’ the nuclear fuel cycle.

‘That means America will start mining and enriching uranium and expanding domestic uranium conversion and enrichment capacity,’ a senior White House official said.

Trump is expected to leverage the Defense Production Act – which last helped secure COVID-19 paraphernalia like masks and ventilators – to seek agreements with domestic nuclear energy companies for the procurement of enriched uranium, as well as finding ways to manage spent nuke fuel. 

Nuclear energy, the White House said in the order, ‘is necessary to power the next generation technologies that secure our global industrial, digital, and economic dominance, achieve energy independence, and protect our national security.’

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are spearheading plans to overhaul the National Security Council and shift its main functions to other agencies like the State and Defense departments. 

The move is the latest effort to slim down a federal agency and comes weeks after Trump announced former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz would depart his post at the White House overseeing the agency. 

Trump announced the same day that Waltz was nominated to serve as United Nations ambassador. 

The plans to upend the agency would include whittling down the size of the National Security Council, which the Trump White House believes is full of long-term, bureaucratic staffers who don’t align with Trump’s agenda. 

Additionally, the restructuring will move Andy Barker, national security advisor to Vice President JD Vance, and Robert Gabriel, assistant to the president for policy, into roles serving as deputy national security advisors. 

Axios was the first to report the Trump administration’s restructuring plans. A White House official confirmed Axios’ reporting to Fox News Digital. 

A White House official involved in the planning said Trump and Rubio are driving the change in an attempt to target Washington’s so-called ‘Deep State.’ 

‘The NSC is the ultimate Deep State. It’s Marco vs. the Deep State. We’re gutting the Deep State,’ a White House official told Axios. 

The National Security Council is located within the the White House and provides the president guidance on national security, military and foreign affairs matters. 

Waltz’s departure from the agency followed his involvement with other administration officials, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in the Signal chat controversy over strike plans against the Houthis in March.

Since Waltz’s departure earlier this month, Rubio has taken on the role of national security advisor. That’s in addition to leading the State Department and serving as acting archivist and acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the administration is aiming to dismantle this year. 

Fox News Digital was the first to report that the State Department planned to absorb the remaining operations and programs USAID runs so it would no longer function as an independent agency. The move requires cutting thousands of staff members in an attempt to bolster the efficiency of the existing, ‘life-saving’ foreign assistance programs, according to a State Department memo Fox News Digital obtained. 

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

Satellite imagery captured what remained of a mangled 5,000-ton North Korean naval destroyer damaged during its launch ceremony this week, leaving the country’s dictator distraught. 

A photo captured by Maxar Technologies of the northeastern port of Chongjin, shows the ship apparently twisted and lying on its side, partly lodged on a launch slip and partly submerged in water. 

The secretive communist nation covered the would-be warship with a blue tarp.

Mexar Technologies also snapped a satellite photo of the ship before the launch, looking pristine as it prepared for its first voyage. 

But that voyage was put on hold after a flatcar guiding the ship failed to move during the launch, throwing the warship off balance and crushing parts of its bottom before its stern eventually slid down the launch slipway into the water, state media reported.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was reportedly fuming over the botched launch, which was intended to show the nation’s military might but instead became an embarrassment on the world stage. 

State media also reported on Kim’s fury. 

He reportedly blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for a ‘serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism.’ 

The extent of the damage to the destroyer is unclear, though Kim demanded that repairs be completed before the communist Working Party’s meeting in June.

The dictator, known for his brutality as much as his secrecy, ominously warned that during that meeting, mistakes caused by the ‘irresponsibility of the relevant officials’ would be investigated. 

Under Kim’s rule, North Korea has been focused on building an arsenal of military weapons in what it regards as a response to western aggression. 

In March, Kim personally oversaw tests of AI-powered suicide drones, unmanned exploding drones that can be used to launch an attack without putting the attackers’ lives in danger. He reportedly called for an increase in production of those drones. 

He also recently claimed the country was in the process of building a nuclear submarine. 

In its first real showing of military force since the Korean War in the 1950s, an estimated 15,000 troops were sent to Russia to fight alongside the fellow communist nation in its war against Ukraine. 

South Korea claimed in late April that 600 of those troops had been killed.