Due to Russia's ongoing intervention in Ukraine, the United States canceled its presidential delegation to the Paralympic Games on Monday.

The American athletes, though?

They're in Sochi, ready to compete.

For instance, NPR reported on a sled hockey team that includes an all-veteran line made up of soldiers injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Here's former marine Josh Sweeney, who lost both legs in Afghanistan in 2009:

"When I first got out there, the hitting — it was a little scary because you don't really know how to take it. But at the same time, I'd been in a hospital for so long and I'd been cooped up doing rehab... I was ready to take out some frustration... If you hit somebody, you feel a lot better."

Give the whole story a listen. Sarah Eberspacher

On Friday, South Korea announced that it had set up and successfully tested a hotline that connects President Moon Jae-in with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "The historic direct telephone line between the leaders of the South and North has been connected a short while ago," said South Korean presidential official Youn Kun Young. "The test call went on for 4 minutes and 19 seconds starting at 3:41 p.m. with (officials from) both sides speaking to each other. ... The connection was smooth and the voice quality was very good. It was like calling the next door."

Moon and Kim did not participate in the test call, but they are expected to use it to converse sometime before their historic summit next week. The leaders of North and South Korea have met only twice before since the 1950-53 Korean War. Kim is also in talks to hold a summit with President Trump in early summer, and South Korean officials say Kim has shown genuine willingness to negotiate away his nuclear weapons program. Still, "North Korea for decades has been pushing a concept of 'denuclearization' that bears no resemblance to the American definition," The Associated Press notes, and it is not yet known what Kim is willing to put on the table. Peter Weber

Everybody is talking about President Trump's peace efforts with North Korea, Stephen Colbert said on Thursday's Late Show. "The president is busy preparing for the possible summit by not preparing," he said. "He's gonna wing it with a nuclear madman. That's like your surgeon going, 'We're just going to open you up and improvise." But if things don't go well with Kim Jong Un, Trump has an exit strategy. "What does he mean, he'll leave if the meeting is 'not fruitful'?" Colbert asked. "I mean, do either of these guys look like they know what a fruit is?"

Trump may not have any plan when it comes to personal lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen, Colbert said. "Apparently, Trump and his advisers are increasingly worried that Cohen might be susceptible to cooperating with federal prosecutors. The obvious answers: Michael Cohen just pays himself $130,000 to shut up."

One of Trump's legal advisers wondered how many years in prison Cohen would have to face to flip, and Colbert found the upper range a little implausible: "Fifteen years loyal? Michael Cohen disclosed Sean Hannity's name in court after being asked twice. He's not 5 minutes loyal. And, let's just pause a moment to notice that they have jumped immediately to whether Michael Cohen will turn state's evidence against the president of the United States to avoid jail time — which everybody believes is coming for at least one of these guys. The word 'innocent' is nowhere in this conversation. Even Justice is like, 'I'm blind, but I can smell fear.'" He had some advice for Cohen, too, and it involved not fishing in Lake Tahoe. Watch below. Peter Weber

"Well, a coordinated smear campaign is underway against both Robert Mueller and James Comey, a joint effort by the president's supporters and Fox News, two groups which are increasingly indistinguishable from one another," Anderson Cooper said on CNN Thursday night. "The smear campaign includes a number of claims that are just plain false — the whole thing's frankly kind of weird, so stay with me here."

Cooper began with the quickly debunked claim by President Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski that Comey had been in charge of the FBI during the Boston Marathon bombing — a story that, when confronted, he changed to something about Boston mobster Whitey Bulger. Lewandoski was just trying to "grasp at another straw in this bale of B.S.," Cooper said, and he traced the Bulger thread back to Alan Dershowitz, who was talking about Mueller. Dershowitz walked back his Mueller claim, but "of course, by then, the genie was out of the bottle, and the president's supporters, hellbent on smearing the Russian investigation, have taken said genie and run with it," he added. "And you know what that means — enter Sean Hannity." You can watch Cooper walk through and pull down these two allegations below. Peter Weber

One of the more bizarre and eye-catching parts of the newly released memos former FBI Director James Comey wrote after his conversations with President Trump is a comment Trump reportedly made at a Feb. 8, 2017, meeting in the Oval Office.

"The president brought up the 'Golden Showers thing' and said it really bothered him if wife had any doubt about it," Comey recalled. "He then explained, as he did at our dinner, that he hadn't stayed overnight in Russia during the Miss Universe trip. ... The president said 'the hookers thing' is nonsense but that Putin had told him 'we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world.' He did not say when Putin had told him this."

That is a strange thing to say to an FBI director on your third-ever meeting — in their first, Comey had briefed Trump on the Russia dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, which included the unsubstantiated "golden showers thing" — but it is also odd because officially, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken only once, on a Jan. 28 phone call. Trump claimed to have met Putin several times between 2013 and 2016 — as CNN meticulously documents — including during a 2015 debate, though his story changed in 2016.

On Jan. 17, 2017, however, Putin said on TV: "I don't know Mr. Trump. ... I have never met him and I don't know what he will do on the international arena." And in that same speech, he made light of the Trump-prostitute allegation, saying Trump had met the most beautiful women in the world and so had no need for Moscow prostitutes, adding that "they are also the best in the world."

So, maybe Putin told Trump the same thing right after his inauguration, in their first conversation, or perhaps Trump saw the quip on TV and thought it was directed at him, or Comey might have misunderstood Trump's comment. The possibilities aren't quite endless, but they are curious. Peter Weber

There was no hesitation — when Charlie Ball heard that his old high school classmate Kenneth Walker needed a kidney, he volunteered to donate if a match.

Ball and Walker both graduated from Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., in 1969, and while they weren't friends, Ball recognized Walker's name when he saw an email from him in his inbox. Walker, a journalist, learned when he returned to the United States from South Africa 18 months ago that he needed a kidney transplant, and tried everything to find a match. A high school friend suggested he send an email to their old classmates, and Walker figured it was worth a shot; in his email, he wrote that he completely understood if no one felt comfortable being a donor, and he was happy to at least spread awareness regarding organ donation.

Ball responded within 15 minutes with his offer. Doctors told him they usually don't accept donors over 60, but because he's in good shape, it wouldn't be an issue, and after a battery of tests, it was determined he was a match. This week, Ball and Walker underwent surgery at George Washington University Hospital, with Walker — who called this an "example of humanity" — eternally grateful for the gift of life. "I'm giving him a piece of my body," Ball told WJLA. "It's simple enough. God gave me two, I don't have to wonder why." Catherine Garcia

It took less than an hour from the Justice Department handing Congress former FBI Director James Comey's contemporaneous memos on his interactions with President Trump to The Associated Press and other news organizations starting to release excerpts of the memos, and then the entire 15-page unclassified version. This quick sharing of the documents would not have surprised Comey, apparently.

Before Congress obtained the memos, CNN's Jake Tapper asked Comey on Thursday if he thought the Justice Department was right to turn them over. "I don't know, because I don't know what considerations the department has taken into account — it's fine by me," he said. (In a letter accompany the memos, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said that after consulting "the relevant parties," the Justice Department had concluded that giving Congress the memos would not adversely affect any ongoing investigation.)

"I'm totally fine with transparency," Comey said. "I've tried to be transparent throughout this, and I think what folks will see, if they get to see the memos, is I've been consistent since the very beginning, right after my encounters with President Trump, and I'm consistent in the book and try to be transparent in the book as well."

In the CNN interview, Comey also said he "definitely" doesn't hate Trump or even dislike him but "there are things he does that make me uncomfortable and I think are inappropriate," and acknowledged he may be called as a witness if federal prosecutors decide to charge his former deputy, Andrew McCabe, for allegedly lying about talking to The Wall Street Journal about a Clinton Foundation investigation. You can watch the entire interview below. Peter Weber

The Daily Show has launched a new segment, "A Series of Gunfortunate Events," to help viewers keep track of all the completely whack gun-related incidents taking place around the country.

Thursday night's edition included mentions of the Parkland teacher who left his loaded gun in a public restroom, where it was found by a man who then fired it, as well as a 23-year-old with a concealed carry permit who shot himself while grocery shopping. Trevor Noah saved the best for last, though, with the story of a police officer at a children's learning center.

The officer — who didn't lose his job — said a third grade student was able to grab his gun and fire it; the bullet went into the ground, and no one was hurt in the debacle. "A third-grader grabbed a police officer's gun, unholstered it, and fired it before the cop could stop him?" Noah said. "That cop needs to be disciplined and that child needs to be promoted." Watch the video below. Catherine Garcia