WORLD BRIEFING: August 1, 2024
BREAKING
The Biden administration has agreed to a prisoner exchange with Russia and is expected to soon secure the release of three American citizens imprisoned in Russia including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, a senior administration official confirms.
The Turkish news channel TRT Haber reported at around 5:00 p.m. Moscow time that the exchange was complete. According to the outlet, the exchange was overseen by Turkish intelligence and saw 10 people traded to Russia, 13 to Germany, and three to the U.S. It also said that two of the people sent to Russia were children. The Russian Telegram channel Sirena suggested that these could be the children of convicted Russian spies Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, who were arrested in Slovenia. - Meduza
Russian-British political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was released today as part of the exchange.
Whelan and Gershkovich were both imprisoned in Russia on accusations of espionage that were consistently disputed by the United States. Kurmasheva, a dual American and Russian citizen, was detained in Russia in June of 2023 on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army - CBS News
Vadym Krasikov is suspected to be released by Germany as part of the swap - as well as a handful of Russian spies disguised as diplomats, CBS correspondent Elizabeth palmer said. Krasikov, 58, is a high-ranking colonel in the Russian secret service FSB serving a life sentence in a German jail for the 2019 murder of an opponent of the Russian regime in Berlin’s central Tiergarten park. Two German citizens were in the list of whom the Russians gave up. The former British ambassador to Russia, Sir Tony Brenton, said the swap, involving so many countries, was extremely complex. He told BBC News that Putin had hinted a swap could be made in his interview with Tucker Carlson.
A former US ambassador said the swap - that includes a senior FSB colonel charged with murder - comes at a huge cost to the United States.
The man accused of plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and two of his accomplices have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death-penalty trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, prosecutors said Wednesday. Prosecutors said the deal was meant to bring some “finality and justice” to the case, particularly for the families of nearly 3,000 people who were killed in the attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field. The defendants Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawireached the deal in talks with prosecutors across 27 months at Guantánamo and approved on Wednesday by a senior Pentagon official overseeing the war court. The men have been in U.S. custody since 2003. But the case had become mired in more than a decade of pretrial proceedings that focused on the question of whether their torture in secret C.I.A. prisons had contaminated the evidence against them. - NYT
The funeral for assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard has been held in Tehran, with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leading the prayers. Yesterday, the UN Security Council , currently chaired by permanent member Russia, held an emergency meeting amid regional tensions after Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr were assassinated. “The international community has a choice to make – let it be for peace and security, do not let Israel drag us all to the abyss,” Feda Abdelhady Nasser, Palestine’s deputy UN representative, told the council. The assassination of Haniyeh on Wednesday risks the region spiralling into a wider conflict and could help or hurt prospects for a ceasefire deal to end Israel’s war on Gaza, several analysts told Al Jazeera.
“It's not going to be easy for Iran to respond,” Meir Javedanfar, Iran lecturer at Reichman University told Israel 24 News, “but they have to respond” to the death of Ismail Haniyeh. He added however that Tehran's capability to engage in a long-term war is greatly hampered by a lack of funds
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged “all parties” in the Middle East to stop “escalatory actions” and achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, after Hamas’s political leader was killed in a strike that Iran blamed on Israel. Achieving peace “starts with a ceasefire, and to get there, it also first requires all parties to talk [and] to stop taking any escalatory actions,” Blinken told reporters in Mongolia.
Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi have been killed in an Israeli air attack on the Gaza Strip. The reporters were killed when their car was hit on Wednesday in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, according to initial information. They were in the area to report from near the Gaza house of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday in Iran’s capital, Tehran, in an attack the group has blamed on Israel.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists had this to say about the media workers’ deaths: “CPJ is dismayed by the news that Al Jazeera TV reporter Ismail Al Ghoul and cameraman Ramy Al Refee were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza. Journalists are civilians and should never be targeted. Israel must explain why two more Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in what appears to be a direct strike," says CEO Jodie Ginsberg.
President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday asked Venezuela’s high court to conduct an audit of the presidential election after opposition leaders disputed his claim of victory, drawing criticism from foreign observers who said the court is too close to the government to produce an independent review. Maduro told reporters that the ruling party is also ready to show all the vote tally sheets from Sunday’s election. “I throw myself before justice,” he said outside the Supreme Tribunal of Justice headquarters in the capital, Caracas, adding that he is “willing to be summoned, questioned, investigated.” This is Maduro’s first concession to demands for more transparency about the election. However, the court is closely aligned with his government; the court’s justices are proposed by federal officials and ratified by the National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro sympathizers. - AP
Russia launched almost 90 drones against Ukraine in one of its largest attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. The overnight attack, which lasted for seven hours and well into Wednesday morning, mainly targeted Kyiv where more than 30 drones were shot down, according to Ukraine’s air defence forces. It marked an escalation in Russia’s renewed offensive, which has prompted Ukrainian forces to also increase their aerial attacks on Russian targets. Kyiv city administration head Serhiy Popko described it as “one of the most massive drone attacks on Ukraine during the entire war”, while noting that none reached their targets. Authorities said 13 houses in the Kyiv region were hit by falling debris and the rest of the drones were downed outside of residential areas. Explosions were reported in four other Ukrainian regions — Mykolayiv, Dnipro, Sumy and Poltava. It was the first nationwide attack since July 8, when Russian missiles overpowered Kyiv’s air defences, killing 42 people and injuring 190 in an attack on a children’s hospital and several residential buildings. - FT
The Chinese capital Beijing on Wednesday introduced Beijing Pass, a multi-purpose card for international visitors with a max balance of 1,000 yuan (about $140.16), facilitating their payment for transportation, tourist sites, and shopping centers. Many popular Chinese payment apps are unavailable to foreign visitors so the card is expected to make payments easier for them
In other Olympic news…
The U.S. retains the top spot in the Olympic Games medal count with 30 (including five gold). In second place is France (26) and China (19).
The internet is buzzing about awkward photos showing French President Emmanuel Macron sharing a touchy-feely moment with his sports minister during the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony — with some comparing the affectionate display to a lovers’ embrace. The photo shows Macron, 46, tightly gripping the arm of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, 46, a former professional tennis player who is the country’s minister of sports and, as one X user pointed out, his subordinate. - NY Post
A French DJ who performed during the Paris Olympics' opening ceremony has filed a legal complaint after receiving abuse online. Barbara Butch took part in a drag queen sequence during the event which sparked controversy as viewers interpreted it as a reference to The Last Supper. The ceremony's artistic director, Thomas Jolly, denied this and some art experts said the scene shared more similarities with a painting of Greek gods. A lawyer for Barbara Butch said the DJ "has been threatened with death, torture and rape, and has also been the target of numerous antisemitic, homophobic, sexist and grossophobic insults". Butch said she had been the target of "cyber-harrassment", adding that the messages she was receiving were "increasingly extreme". - BBC
Paris's newest tourist attraction and one of the highlights of Friday's Opening Ceremony, the Olympic cauldron tethered to a hot-air balloon in the Tuileries garden has become one of the hottest tickets at the 2024 Games. Free visits to see the environmentally friendly, flame-free ring of fire – 10,000 a day – are now booked up until the end of the Games, with organisers promising to add more slots. Paris authorities are mulling making the cauldron a permanent fixture in the city. - France 24
