WORLD BRIEFING: August 3, 2024
Russian opposition figure Ilya Yashin had explicitly asked not to be included into exchange lists as he didn't want to make Russian President Vladimir Putin happy by leaving. He told Bellingcat how two days before the swap he was told to write a plea for clemency to Putin. He refused, saying he would not plead to a war criminal. The next day they asked him again. Instead, he wrote this letter. It said "I refuse to be exchanged against my will as this is unconstitutional". Yet, he is here, "extradited, not swapped". He says his first instinct was to turn around and go back to his homeland. Yet, he realizes that if he does that, this will mean an end to all future swaps. So he will stay in the U.S. to fight for freedom of all political prisoners in Russia. "My goal so to go back to a free Russia"
Similarly, Vladimir Kara-Murza was approached by an FSB officer instructing him to sign a mercy plea. He said he wouldn't. The next day he was approached again. He asked for a piece a paper, and wrote on it everything he thought about Putin. At 3 am, he was awoken, and taken to the airport - Twitter feed of Bellingcat’s Christo Grozev
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radislav Sikorski said the historic Russian prisoner swap underscores the complexities of international diplomacy and their strong alliance with the U.S. But the country’s prosecution office wasn’t happy to let Pavel Rubtsov - a Russian spy posing as a journalist- go. He added that that’s what allies do - they do favours for one another. Sikorski said the process to release Rubtsov was initiated by the previous government
The US will deploy additional warships and fighter jets to the Middle East to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies, the Pentagon said. Tensions remain high in the region over the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and a key commander of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Missile defence forces were placed on a state of increased readiness to deploy, the Pentagon said, adding that its commitment to defend Israel was "ironclad". Iran's leader Ayatollah Khamenei has vowed "harsh punishment" against Israel for the assassination of Haniyeh. A Pentagon statement said the new deployments would "improve US force protection... increase support for the defence of Israel, and ... ensure the US is prepared to respond to various contingencies". The deployments would include additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers, it said. - BBC
The US has recognised Edmundo González as the winner of Venezuela’s disputed election, claiming there is “overwhelming” evidence of Nicolás Maduro’s defeat, as anti-government protesters prepared to return to the streets to demand political change. Maduro, under whose 11-year presidency Venezuela has taken an increasingly authoritarian tack and been plunged into economic chaos, has claimed victory in last Sunday’s vote, despite a mounting body of evidence suggesting he lost. On Thursday night, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, rejected the incumbent’s claims and recognised González as Venezuela’s president-elect. Blinken said tally sheets obtained by Venezuela’s opposition indicated that González “received the most votes in this election by an insurmountable margin”. - Guardian
CBS News plans to turn CBS Evening News into a man’s world. The network announced Thursday it would install John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois as the anchors of Evening News after O’Donnell departs the program following the election. Weatherman Lonnie Quinn will become the show’s chief weathercaster, and though the show will return to New York, it will feature regular reporting from D.C.-based Face the Nation star Margaret Brennan. The new cast came two days after O’Donnell abruptly announced her exit from the CBS staple, which has languished in third place behind ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC’s Nightly News. The network’s new plan leaves every broadcast evening news show with a male host, joining the likes of David Muir and Lester Holt. It also returns the program to its roots; O’Donnell was only the second woman to permanently host Evening News solo, following Katie Couric’s five-year run. Connie Chung co-hosted the program with Dan Rather for two years between 1993 and 1995. - Daily Beast
And in Paris Olympics news…
Athletes from 184 countries representing 206 Olympic committees, plus the refugee Olympic team, are competing for gold in 32 sports, including four new additions. At the top of the total medal count board is the United States with 43 (including 9 gold), followed by France with 37 and China with 31
A lack of air conditioning, uncomfortable cardboard beds, the spread of Covid, and lousy food. What more could go wrong at the Paris Olympics? Swarms of bugs according to some athletes who’ve posted video on social media…
Women’s boxing is at the center of the latest Olympics controversy as critics take issue with the participation of two athletes — Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan — who have failed gender eligibility tests in the past. Both Khelif and Lin identify and have long competed as women, but were disqualified from the 2023 women’s world championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for what it called failure to meet “eligibility rules.” Olympic organizers are defending their right to compete in Paris and questioning the validity of those unspecified tests and the fairness of their previous disqualification, which they said happened without due process. “The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure — especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years,” the International Olympic Committee said in a statement Thursday. - NPR
A judge at the Paris Olympics surfing competition in Tahiti has been dismissed after a social media photo showed him posing with Australian surfer Ethan Ewing and his coach. On Thursday, the International Surfing Association dismissed veteran judge Ben Lowe in response to a photo on Instagram of him with Ewing and Australian national team coach Bebe Durbidge that was captioned, "These 3 Straddie boys doing their stuff at the Olympics." - USA Today
Ivan Litvinovich of Belarus has become the first athlete competing as a neutral at the Paris Olympics to win a gold medal. Litvinovich won the men's trampoline final on August 2. The 23-year-old, who also won the event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, finished more than a full point ahead of his nearest competitor, Wang Zisai of China, who took silver. After initially banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from world sports following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the International Olympic Committee adjusted its regulations to allow their participation under a neutral banner subject to strict conditions and excluding team events. - RFE/RL
