A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, officials said Tuesday.

The deal to release two Americans, Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, was brokered by Joe Biden’s administration before he left office Monday, according to a Trump administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul said the two U.S. citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two life terms in 2008.

Biden, who oversaw the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, on Monday handed power to President Donald Trump. The Taliban praised the swap as a step toward the “normalization” of ties between the U.S. and Afghanistan.

The Trump White House cheered the release and thanked Qatar for its assistance with the deal while pressing the Taliban to free other Americans.

Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family when the U.S.-backed government collapsed in 2021, was detained by the Taliban in August 2022 on a business trip.

A Qatar Foreign Ministry statement said those who were traded passed through Doha and that it hopes the deal “would pave the way for achieving further understandings” to resolve disputes peacefully.

It was unclear what McKenty was doing in Afghanistan.

Turkey mourns 76 lost in ski resort fire

Turkey declared a national day of mourning after a fire at a hotel in a popular ski resort killed 76 people.

At least 51 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out around 3:30 a.m. on a restaurant floor of the 12-story Grand Kartal hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in northern Turkey. It quickly engulfed the rest of the building, which had 234 people inside, state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing the provincial governor.

It took around 10 hours to control the fire, AA added. The hotel’s position at the top of a steep slope made it more difficult to extinguish, the agency reported.

At least two of the victims died after jumping from the building in panic, Anadolu reported. Others were seen tying sheets together and hanging them from the windows to escape.

Rubio begins Asian diplomatic meetings

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Tuesday with his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan as the Trump administration kicked off its formal foreign policy engagements in discussions with the Indo-Pacific “Quad.”

The grouping of the four countries has been seen by many as an initiative to counter or at least slow China’s increasing assertiveness and aggressiveness in the region, something over which President Donald Trump and his predecessors have all expressed deep concern.

The timing of Tuesday’s meeting — on Trump’s first full day in office and just hours after Rubio was sworn in as America’s top diplomat — suggests that it will remain a priority for Trump.

However, none of the four foreign ministers — Rubio, Australian Penny Wong, Indian S. Jaishankar or Japanese Iwaya Takeshi — spoke as they opened their meeting at the State Department. Instead they stood silent and expressionless in front of their respective flags before journalists were ushered out.

Rubio was to see each of the other three separately after the group meeting.

Trump fires U.S. Coast Guard chief

The Trump administration fired the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Adm. Linda L. Fagan, within 24 hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The admiral, who was sworn in as the service chief on June 1, 2022, was the first female officer to lead a branch of the armed forces.

In a message sent to all Coast Guard units on Tuesday, the acting secretary of the Homeland Security Department, Benjamine C. Huffman, said he had relieved Fagan of her duties.

“She served a long and illustrious career, and I thank her for her service to our nation,” Huffman said without saying why her tenure was abruptly cut short.

However, a lengthy department statement indicated that the admiral was fired for several reasons, many involving Trump’s key issues.

“She was terminated because of leadership deficiencies, operational failures and inability to advance the strategic objectives of the U.S. Coast Guard,” the statement said.

New York state mulls student cellphone ban

Students throughout New York state might have to give up their cellphones during school hours starting next fall under a proposal announced Tuesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The plan, which would require legislators’ approval, would take effect in the

next academic year and force students to disconnect from their phones and other personal devices while at school, including in class, during lunch and in hallways.

Hochul, a Democrat, has for months hinted at a potential ban and said limiting access to smartphones during school would help students focus in class and improve their mental health.

Tenn. deputies fatally shoot alleged car thief

At least one sheriff’s deputy fatally shot a person suspected of driving a stolen car on Tuesday in Memphis, Tenn., authorities said.

Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies came across the person in a stolen car and tried to take them into custody near a cluster of businesses in east Memphis, said Kim Wheeler, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The situation escalated, and at least one deputy shot the person, who died at the scene, Wheeler said. No deputies were hurt.

No other details were immediately provided.

S. Korea’s Yoon defends martial law decree

South Korea’s impeached president denied Tuesday that he ordered the military to drag lawmakers out of the National Assembly to prevent them from voting to reject his martial law decree last month, as he appeared for the first time before the Constitutional Court that will determine his fate.

Yoon Suk Yeol’s presence at the court was his first public appearance since becoming South Korea’s first sitting president to be detained over his short-lived declaration of martial law, which plunged the country into political turmoil.

After abruptly imposing martial law on Dec. 3, Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but enough lawmakers managed to enter to vote unanimously to reject his decree, forcing Yoon’s Cabinet to lift the measure early the following morning.

Yoon, a conservative, has since argued that his dispatch of troops was not meant to block the assembly but instead was a warning to the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, which has used its legislature majority to obstruct Yoon’s agenda, undermine his budget bill and impeach some of his top officials.

Inauguration ratings lowest since Obama’s

An estimated 24.6 million television viewers watched President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the smallest audience for the quadrennial ceremony since Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.

The Nielsen Co. said Tuesday that viewership was down from Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration, which reached 33.8 million, and Trump’s first move into the White House, seen by 30.6 million in 2017.

The length of Trump’s inauguration coverage may have hurt him in bragging rights. The 24.6 million figure represents the average number of people tuning in to coverage on one of 15 networks between 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Eastern. In past years, the coverage didn’t go on for so long, which meant the averages were likely higher because people tune away as the day goes on.

— From news services