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The United States is actively working for the release of a retired American teacher held for four years by Russia, President Donald Trump said Tuesday, confirming the identity of the person Washington has been trying to free.
Stephen Hubbard, 74, is a Michigan native who was living in eastern Ukraine in 2022 when it was overrun by Russian forces and he was detained. He is the lone American in Russian custody whom the State Department classifies as wrongfully detained.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff plans to meet Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian leader’s hometown of St. Petersburg. Trump has previously said the U.S. was seeking to free a “hostage” from Russia but hadn’t confirmed the person’s identity until Tuesday.
Asked about Hubbard in the Oval Office, Trump said: “Just stick with me. I don’t want to talk about it. But everybody’s been after Hubbard for a long time, long before I got here. And just remember that question for a couple of days from now, okay?”
“I’ve been talking to President Putin about Mr. Hubbard. I’ve been talking to him at length,” Trump added. “I’ve asked him to release him. We’ll see what happens, okay? Let’s see what happens. I’d love to get him back. It’s time. It’s time. It’s time to have Mr. Hubbard back.”
A Russian court sentenced Hubbard in 2024 to six years and 10 months in prison after he was accused of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine, Russian state media reported at the time. Hubbard was accused of joining a Ukrainian territorial defense unit at the time of the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022. Russian media said that he pleaded guilty to the charges — which his family questioned, citing what they said were his longtime pacifist views.
The effort to free Hubbard comes as Trump pressures Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a deal with Putin by handing over territory that Russia has not been able to conquer, a move that the Ukrainians believe would amount to defeat.
Could the Deep South be blushing slightly blue — or at least less red? The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has shifted two Southern Senate races to the left, moving South Carolina to “lean Republican” from “likely Republican” and Mississippi to “likely Republican” from “solid Republican.”
Democrats are taking the tilt seriously, as evidenced by a $1.2 million ad buy in Mississippi to attack incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) that the Senate Majority PAC announced Tuesday.
The spot, airing on television around the state, contrasts Democratic nominee Scott Colom’s career as a prosecutor with Hyde-Smith’s political record, accusing her of being ineffective and self-enriching.
It’s a steep hill for Colom. Hyde-Smith defeated former agriculture secretary Mike Espy by 10 percentage points in 2020, and President Donald Trump carried Mississippi by nearly 23 percentage points in 2024.
In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews is challenging Sen. Darline Graham (R), who in July was appointed to serve the remaining term of her late brother, Lindsey Graham.
Republicans face big headwinds nationwide: a struggling economy, high grocery and gas prices, and the war in Iran. Cook’s decision to shift the races is based in part on candidate quality and is “further evidence that Democrats have expanded the map into red territory,” analyst Jessica Taylor wrote in her explanation for the ratings change.
President Donald Trump said he has committed more than $400 million to help Republicans in the midterms, including $300 million already spent on advertising, contacting voters, holding rallies and other efforts.
“It is my Great Honor to do so on behalf of the Republican Party,” Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday. He previously said his spending on the midterms would total between $400 million and $500 million, keeping about the same amount leftover in his war chest for 2028 or other purposes.
The money comes from a super PAC called MAGA Inc. and an allied nonprofit called Securing American Greatness. The super PAC has a disclosure report due Tuesday to the Federal Election Commission detailing its finances as of Sept. 30, including donors who gave more than $200. The nonprofit’s donors are not disclosed.
Other FEC reports from MAGA Inc. and affiliated super PACs show spending totaling more than $244 million on text messages, phone calls, direct mail, ads and media.
Trump said his figure also includes “Election Integrity,” referring to efforts to prevent voter fraud.
Christina Applegate, an Emmy-winning actress, said Tuesday that she had been misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis five years ago.
Applegate shared the news on her podcast “MeSsy,” where she described feeling “worse in some ways” after finding out that she doesn’t actually have MS. She was diagnosed with the chronic autoimmune disease in 2021, and said she now felt she was “back at square one.”
“I don’t know what’s going on with me,” she said.
In people with MS, the immune system attacks and breaks down the protective covering of nerves, impacting communication between the brain and the rest of the body. Symptoms vary from person to person, and several conditions mimic MS.
Applegate and actress Jamie Lynn Sigler, her podcast co-host who was diagnosed with MS roughly 25 years ago, were joined on Tuesday’s episode by Marwa Kaisey, an associate professor of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Kaisey said misdiagnoses of MS are common because there isn’t a single test for the disease.
Australian law enforcement charged a man Tuesday after a car ramming attack on an Australian Parliament member left her with critical injuries and caused a wave of outrage and shock across the country.
Independent lawmaker Helen Haines, 65, was standing at the rear of her car outside her office when the man drove his car into her, then reversed the car and hit her again, witnesses told Australia’s ABC.
Haines is hospitalized in critical but stable condition, the Victoria police said Tuesday. Local news outlets ABC and CBC reported that one of her legs has been amputated.
A 43-year-old man is in police custody, after being initially restrained by a bystander, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. He has been charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and causing harm to a Commonwealth public official.
“Police will allege the incident was targeted,” said the Victoria police.
Australia’s national police said it has “regularly” and “publicly” raised concerns about growing threats against federal parliamentarians and high-office holders, noting that there were 1,067 such reports made in 2025-26.
In a statement published by Australian news outlets, the father and stepmother of the suspect claimed that Haines “has been our friend for more than 20 years and what happened to her yesterday is devastating and unfathomable.”
Bob Seale, the onetime chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, filed a Federal Election Commission complaint Tuesday against David Flippo, a Republican congressional candidate in Nevada who has come under scrutiny for his personal finances and campaign finance reports.
The complaint, shared first with The Washington Post, pulls from reporting by several outlets, including Mother Jones, which reported that a “major donor” listed on Flippo’s FEC report said they had not donated anything to his campaign, and the Nevada Independent, which reported on the Republican candidate’s failure to file a personal financial disclosure document and raised questions about how he was self-financing his campaign.
“This allegation raises serious concerns about the accuracy of the reports that Respondents filed with the Commission,” Seale writes in the complaint, calling for an investigation.
Seale, a Republican who served two terms as Nevada treasurer in the 1990s and ran for the seat Flippo is seeking in 1996, compares Flippo to Republican former congressman George Santos. Santos was expelled from the House in 2023 after being accused of financial misconduct and telling myriad lies about his background. He was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, but President Donald Trump commuted his sentence.
“I find it offensive that he thinks he can get away with it,” Seale told The Post, adding that he is still a registered Republican but has never supported Trump. He said he will “likely” vote for Flippo’s opponent, Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson.
A spokesperson for the Flippo campaign attacked The Post for reporting on Seale’s letter and pointed to the Washoe County Republican Party chair’s request for an FBI investigation into Benitez-Thompson. Riley Sutton, the Democrat’s campaign manager, said the FBI complaint is “meritless.”
Additional Coverage
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday are set to announce an initiative to offer cash rewards for tipsters who help uncover allegations of fraud in government programs.
The president and vice president will appear in the Oval Office with conservative YouTube personality Nick Shirley, whose video series from Minnesota late last year led to fraud investigations of day care centers there that receive federal money. Shirley, who posted videos showing empty buildings that purported to be active day care centers, will be presented with a check for $10,000, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the program ahead of the announcement.
A woman featured in one of Shirley’s videos pleaded guilty in July to wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The videos were praised and amplified by Vance, Elon Musk and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Existing federal programs allow whistleblowers in some cases to receive money when fraud is proved in court. The new Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program will award up to $30,000 for a tip that “leads to a successful conviction for fraud or a significant federal enforcement action,” the White House said in a statement.
The Justice Department will administer the program, which will start with $25 million. Vance has been tasked with heading the administration’s anti-fraud efforts, which he has touted as a top issue on the campaign trail this year.
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