US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina was on a plane back to the United States on Thursday after being released in a prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington, her lawyer and America’s top diplomat said.She spent more than a year in Russian prison after being charged with “treason” for donating to a pro-Ukrainian charity.The prisoner swap was the second between Moscow and Washington since US President Donald Trump took office.Here are some of the most high-profile instances of US citizens still in Russian prisons:- Stephen Hubbard -Stephen Hubbard, in his early 70s, is serving almost seven years in prison after a Russian court convicted him of fighting as a mercenary with Ukraine’s army.Originally from Michigan, Hubbard was a retired English teacher living in the Ukrainian town of Izyum, in northeastern Ukraine, when Russia launched its February 2022 offensive.He was captured shortly after and held incommunicado for two and a half years before being put on trial in Moscow in October, accused of being paid to fight with a Ukrainian territorial defence battalion.A Ukrainian soldier detained with Hubbard told AFP last year that the American was beaten with sticks and truncheons, forced to simulate sexual acts with other prisoners and starved while in captivity.- Gordon Black -American soldier Gordon Black was jailed in June 2024 for three years and nine months by a court in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, convicted of having threatened to kill his girlfriend and for stealing from her.A Russian court reduced his sentence to three years and two months on Monday.The then 34-year-old, who completed tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, was visiting a Russian woman he had met and dated while serving in South Korea.US media have said the arrest could have been a “honey trap” operation targeting an American citizen.- Robert Gilman -Former US marine Robert Gilman from Massachusetts is serving seven years after being convicted of having attacked Russian police officers and prison guards.Originally convicted in 2022 of attacking a police officer while drunk, he was handed the longer term last year after prison authorities said he punched staff and attacked a criminal investigator.His backers say the charges are unsubstantiated and that he has been subjected to “forced drugging” and “torture” in prison.- Michael Travis Leake -A former US paratrooper, Michael Travis Leake, was detained in June 2023 and sentenced to 13 years in prison for selling illegal narcotics. CNN reported that Leake, who fronted a Moscow-based rock band called Lovi Noch, had lived in Russia for many years.- Joseph Tater -Joseph Tater faces five years in prison on accusations of assaulting a police officer after a confrontation with staff at a Moscow hotel.In a court hearing last year he rejected his US citizenship and claimed he had been targeted by the CIA for years.Russian state media reported last week that he had been forcibly hospitalised, after a board of Russian doctors accused him of impulsiveness and having “delusional ideas”.- Gene Spector -Russian-born Gene Spector was sentenced to 15 years on espionage charges in December.No details of the accusation against him have been released.Spector, born in Leningrad — now Saint Petersburg — in 1972 was already serving a jail sentence on bribery charges when convicted of espionage.

US-Russian ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina, who had been detained in Russia for 12 years on treason charges, has been released and is flying to the United States, according to the top US diplomat, with her lawyer saying she was part of a prisoner exchange agreed between Moscow and Washington.”American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States. She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media platform X on Thursday.He said US President Donald Trump “will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans.”Karelina’s lawyer, Mikhail Mushailov, confirmed to AFP she had been released, saying “the exchange took place in Abu Dhabi and, as of a couple of hours ago, she was already flying out of Abu Dhabi.”The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States released in exchange Arthur Petrov, a German-Russian citizen who was arrested in Cyprus in 2023 at Washington’s request for allegedly exporting sensitive microelectronics.”CIA Director John Ratcliffe and a senior Russian intelligence official conducted the talks for the swap,” according to the WSJ, which cited an unidentified CIA official.”Ratcliffe was present at the Abu Dhabi airport, where the exchange took place, and greeted Karelina as the US took custody of her, according to a person familiar with the matter,” the report said.A CIA spokeswoman told the paper that “the exchange shows the importance of keeping lines of communication open with Russia, despite the deep challenges in our bilateral relationship.””While we are disappointed that other Americans remain wrongfully detained in Russia, we see this exchange as a positive step and will continue to work for their release,” she said.Russia has yet to confirm the swap, which would be the second since Trump returned to the White House in January.Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have since pushed for a restoration of closer ties between the two countries that were severely damaged by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.Several meetings between the two sides have taken place, with a new round of talks beginning on Thursday in Istanbul on restoring some of the embassy operations that were scaled back following the Ukraine invasion.- Prisoner swaps -Karelina, who lived in Los Angeles, was serving a 12-year prison sentence for having donated around $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity.The ballet dancer and spa worker, born in 1991, was arrested in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in January 2024 while on a trip to visit her family. She was charged with “treason.”Russia’s Federal Security Service accused her of collecting funds for Ukraine’s army that were used to purchase “equipment, weapons and ammunition” — charges she denied. Her supporters say she donated to a US-based organisation that delivers humanitarian aid to Ukraine.Petrov was accused by US authorities of illegally exporting electronic components to Russia for military use, in violation of Washington’s sanctions against Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine.In mid-February, following a call between Putin and Trump, Russia released Kalob Wayne Byers, a 28-year-old US citizen who had been arrested at a Moscow airport for transporting cannabis treats.Washington and Moscow also exchanged US teacher Marc Fogel for Russian computer expert Alexander Vinnik in early February.The largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War took place between the two rival powers took place on August 1, 2024, allowing the release of journalists, including WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, and opponents held in Russia in exchange for alleged Russian spies held in the West.Several US citizens remain incarcerated in Russian prisons, with Washington denouncing “hostage-taking” to obtain the release of Russians — including alleged spies — imprisoned in the West.

A pair of sub-Antarctic volcanic islands unexpectedly hit by Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs may be the world’s most inhospitable spot for international trade.When Australia’s remote, uninhabited outposts were slugged with US levies, memes of their best-known residents — king penguins — exploded on social media.In fact, scientists say there is a lot more than penguins to the Heard and McDonald Islands territory, home to volcanoes and an “amazing” array of sea birds, elephant seals, mosses, grasses and herbs.Even for hardened researchers, however, the islands, which lie 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) southwest of mainland Australia, are fearsomely wild.They are not conducive to creating an industry for trade, nor for countries re-exporting goods to the United States in search of a tariff loophole.No human is known to have set foot there since 2016, and access is allowed only with permission from the Australian government.- No port, no runway -“There is no infrastructure or commercial industry of any sort on land,” said Justine Shaw, a researcher who camped on Heard Island for two months in 2023.There is no port, no runway. To get there, scientists approach in inflatable boats, or fly in by helicopter from a research ship docked offshore, said Shaw, a conservation scientist with Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future.The only signs of human occupation are the wood-and-metal remnants of a research station abandoned in 1955 and battered ever since by the freezing rain and wind.”It’s a true wilderness,” Shaw said.But also the “most amazing place” — with sweeping cliffs and glaciers groaning as they melt, populated by thousands of king penguins, elephant seals and sea birds.On the ground, there are 70 types of lichen, huge leafy plants, and cushion plants that resemble lush green carpets. – ‘Storms raged’ -Marine ecologist Andrew Constable oversaw a 40-day research expedition to Heard Island in 2004.For days, a fierce storm stopped them from landing.”At one point, we had to point the ship into the sea for nine days as storms raged and we couldn’t do anything,” Constable said.”The waves were pretty big: they were 10 metres (32 feet) tall.” But Constable said scientists were able to study its melting glaciers, seal and penguin behaviour and how human activity impacted its pristine ecosystem.One of the key aims for future research trips will be to find out how much more of Heard Island’s icy terrain has turned green, he said.Researchers will also need to probe changing food webs and document marine debris and fishing gear washing up on the coast, Constable said.With so little human activity, it is one of the few places “where you see the world in action”.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called US President Donald Trump’s pause on global tariffs a “welcome reprieve” and said Ottawa will begin negotiations with Washington on a new economic deal after elections. After days of turmoil in global markets, the mercurial US president abruptly announced Wednesday a pause for 90 days on tariffs on most countries except China. Carney took to social media platform X and called it a “welcome reprieve for the global economy”.He added that Canada and the United States will “commence negotiations on a new economic and security relationship immediately following the Federal election” on April 28. Tensions over trade and foreign policy have soured the relationship of the two traditionally close allies, who were also each others’ biggest trading partners. Canada was mostly spared in the latest round of Trump’s tariffs but had already been targeted by US tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles.It also began imposing a 25 percent tariff on certain US auto exports starting Wednesday, announced last week in retaliation to Trump’s levies on imported autos and parts. Trump on Wednesday also said that trade deals could be made with every country, which Carney warned in his X post could “result in a fundamental restructuring of the global trading system”. “In that context, Canada must also continue to deepen its relationships with trading partners that share our values, including the free and open exchange of goods, services, and ideas,” he said.Carney, who last month succeeded Justin Trudeau as prime minister, is from the Liberal Party, which is largely expected to win.The Liberals trailed in polls earlier this year but pulled back thanks to a defiant stance to Trump’s trade war, with their Conservative rivals seen as more accommodating to the US president.