AMNA NAWAZ: The day's other headlines start with an American teacher who's heading home after 3.5 years in Russian detention.

The U.S. envoy for hostages posted this photo today of Marc Fogel enjoying his newfound freedom.

Officials say Fogel was handed over in an exchange that they described as a diplomatic thaw with Moscow.

It's not clear what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed.

Fogel's arrest in 2021 sparked calls for his release.

He was serving a 14-year prison sentence after being found with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana.

At the White House today, President Trump celebrated Fogel's release, saying it bodes well for future talks on ending the war in Ukraine.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually.

I hope that's the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war and millions of people can stop being killed.

AMNA NAWAZ: Those comments came during an extended joint appearance by Trump and Elon Musk in the Oval Office.

The billionaire businessman defended the efforts of his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

That work has led to numerous lawsuits and pushback from Democratic lawmakers and other groups.

Twenty-seven religious groups are suing the Trump administration over a policy that makes it easier for immigration agents to carry out arrests at places of worship.

Plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit range from the Mennonite Church to the Central Conference of American Rabbis to Unitarian Universalists and more.

The groups say their congregations are -- quote - - "experiencing decreases in worship attendance due to fear of immigration enforcement action."

They argue that violates their religious freedom, including the ability to minister to migrants.

The Trump administration has not yet responded.

Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon pleaded guilty today to defrauding donors in a private effort to build a wall along the U.S. southern border.

Bannon called the case political persecution as he left the courthouse.

As part of his plea agreement, Bannon will avoid jail time.

But he is barred from holding leadership rules in any nonprofits or charitable organizations in New York.

This marks Bannon's second criminal conviction.

He spent four months in prison last year for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation of the January 6 attacks.

J.D.

Vance used his first major policy speech as vice president to warn against what he called the excessive regulation of artificial intelligence.

He made the comments at the A.I.

Action Summit in Paris, where more than 60 countries, including China, signed an agreement to promote responsible A.I.

development.

But the United States and the U.K. were not among those signing.

Instead, Vance told world leaders that a hands-off approach to the new technology is the best way to ensure growth.

J.D.

VANCE, Vice President of the United States: We need international regulatory regimes that fosters the creation of A.I.

technology, rather than strangles it.

And we need our European friends in particular to look to this new frontier with optimism, rather than trepidation.

AMNA NAWAZ: At that same Paris summit, OpenAI boss Sam Altman dismissed Elon Musk's offer to buy the ChatGPT maker, calling the idea ridiculous.

Altman added that the company is not for sale.

A consortium led by Musk said yesterday that it has offered more than $97 billion for the nonprofit that controls OpenAI.

It's just the latest in a long-running battle between the two men who helped start OpenAI back in 2015 before parting ways.

In North Carolina, one of the largest military bases in the world once again bears its controversial former name, Fort Bragg.

It was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023 as part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to remove names that honored Confederate leaders.

The original namesake, Braxton Bragg, was a Confederate general who owned a plantation where he enslaved African Americans.

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth restored the Bragg name, but now says it's an honor of World War II hero Private 1st Class Ronald Bragg.

In doing so, Hegseth got around a law prohibiting the military from naming a base after a Confederate leader.

A parade of winter storms is marching across the country this week, making travel treacherous and burying millions under snow; 60 million Americans are under some form of winter advisory, as two winter storms threaten to bring snow, sleet and freezing rain from Denver to Delaware.

Many areas in the South will see heavy rain and severe thunderstorms.

A third storm comes on shore on the West Coast starting Thursday.

Snow is already piling up in parts of the Tennessee Valley, the Appalachians and the mid-Atlantic, where Virginia's governor declared a state of emergency.

A record number of people tuned in to watch the Philadelphia Eagles trounce the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday Super Bowl.

Nielsen data out today showed an average of 127.7 million viewers across TV and streaming platforms.

That beats last year's title game by more than 3 percent, and it's the second year in a row that the Super Bowl has seen record viewership.

Kendrick Lamar's halftime show also set a record with more than 133 million people watching.

And on Wall Street today, stocks ended mixed after Fed Chair Jerome Powell struck a cautious tone on interest rates in congressional testimony.

The Dow Jones industrial average added more than 120 points on the day.

The Nasdaq went in the other direction, losing about 70 points.

The S&P 500 ended virtually flat.

And now to the mutt, the myth, the legend.

Scrim, the famous fugitive dog of New Orleans, has been captured again.

Michelle Cheramie, who runs a local animal shelter, posted an image of the white terrier mix in her arms on a leash and no longer on the lam.

Scrim has a history of escapes and a talent for not being kept for long.

He was captured in October for the first time, but soon chewed a hole through a window screen and jumped from the second story of a house to freedom.

The renegade pup eluded pursuit for months, becoming an unlikely folk hero and online sensation.

His current caretakers hope he stays in one place this time.

Still to come on the "News Hour": the global ramifications of the U.S. withholding AIDS funding; New York City's mayor cheers the Justice Department's order to drop his corruption charges; and Democratic Senator Andy Kim on why he thinks the nation is nearing a constitutional crisis.