American hostages released in largest prisoner swap since the Cold War

American hostages released in largest prisoner swap since the Cold War | The Excerpt

Posted by Admin August 2, 2024 World

On Friday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: A historic prisoner swap between NATO nations and Russia results in 24 people being released, including three detained American citizens and one permanent American resident. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers takes us behind the scenes to share details of this historic deal. From outrage to agreement, families react to 9/11 terrorist plea deals announced earlier in the week. A conservative activist is going after iconic American brands, claiming their diversity, equity and inclusion policies betray their socially conservative customers. Americans are being overcharged for health care that should have been free or covered by their health insurance. Plus, Simone Biles is officially the gymnastics GOAT, with her ninth Olympic medal overall.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Sara Ganim:

Good morning. I’m Sara Ganim filling in for Taylor Wilson. Today is Friday, August 2nd, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, 24 prisoners swapped in a diplomatically complicated exchange that brings home three detained Americans and a green card holder. Plus, nearly half of Americans are being overcharged for healthcare, and it’s contributing to growing medical debt, and Simone Biles is officially the world’s most decorated gymnast.

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In the biggest prisoner swap between NATO nations and Russia since the Soviet Union, 24 detainees, including three American citizens and one permanent American resident, were released from prison yesterday. In a short press conference, President Joe Biden stood with the four families praising the efforts of other NATO nations to make this deal happen.

President Biden:

This deal would not have been made possible without our allies, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey. They all stepped up and they stood with us. They stood with us. They made bold and brave decisions, released prisoners being held in their countries who were justifiably being held and provided logistical support to get the Americans home. For anyone who questions whether allies matter, they do. They matter.

Sara Ganim:

I spoke to USA TODAY White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers about this historic exchange.

Francesca, thanks so much for joining me today. I know it’s a busy news day.

Francesca Chambers:

Thanks so much for having me on this really important day, Sara.

Sara Ganim:

Let’s dig right in. This exchange involved the release of three Americans. Tell me who they are, how long they’ve been held by Russian authorities, and what crimes they were convicted of.

Francesca Chambers:

Sara, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in March 2023. He was convicted of being a spy. Then just last month he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Then there’s former US Marine Paul Whelan. He was detained the longest of the three, beginning in December 2018. He’s a corporate security executive from Michigan who was also accused of spying and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Then there was Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who was arrested in Russia in 2020. She was convicted of spreading false information about the Russian Army and sentenced to six and a half years. Now, President Biden says that all of these were show trials. He said that they were a sham and that these were not spies.

Sara Ganim:

There was also an English journalist, a Washington Post contributor who was a green card holder here in the US. He had British and Russian citizenship and also a Pulitzer Prize. Tell me about him. He was released as well?

Francesca Chambers:

Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was arrested in April 2022 and convicted on charges of treason and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Now, he was being held in a Siberian penal colony where the conditions were likely worse than the others. His release was critical, his family has said, from a survival perspective because his health was deteriorating.

Sara Ganim:

What have we heard from the other families of the Americans who were released?

Francesca Chambers:

Well, we have heard from David Whelan, the brother of Paul Whelan, who released a statement. He asked for his privacy. He said that Paul will be receiving US government support, as all freed hostages do, in the next few days and weeks. He said, “This is now Paul’s story to tell, I’m sure he will in time communicate how he wants to tell it.”

As President Biden delivered a televised statement, he was standing with the families of the three Americans and the green card holder. Sara, it was a really emotional moment. He noted that today is Kurmasheva’s daughter, Miriam’s 13th birthday. He reached out his hand, and he invited her to the lectern in that moment. You could just see the emotion written all over her face, all over the family’s faces during that time.

Now, what we didn’t see was earlier in the day that President Biden made calls to those Americans. The families were on hand too. President Biden spoke to them first. Then he sat there while they spoke to their loved ones.

Sara Ganim:

That sounds like a really emotional moment. There is one American that remains in Russian custody. Can you please tell me about him?

Francesca Chambers:

That’s Marc Fogel. He’s an American school teacher from Pennsylvania. He was not included in this round. The White House did note that it’s a hard day for his family. They said that in an earlier round, for instance, Paul Whelan wasn’t able to be included. Now, they declined to say why it is that Fogel wasn’t part of this group because they’re still working on it, but they did say that President Biden and the whole entire White House National Security team would continue working for his release.

Sara Ganim:

From a diplomatic perspective, can you put this exchange into context?

Francesca Chambers:

Sara, this was a really big deal. This was the largest East/West prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War. It was complex. It involved multiple countries, as well as Germany. Germany was really the linchpin to this even being able to take place because they were the ones who had Vadim Krasikov in their custody. He’s a Russian assassin who was convicted and serving a life sentence in Germany for killing a Georgian citizen. This was very difficult for them to be able to get behind.

The White House is making sure today that President Joe Biden gets credit here because he spoke to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about this. It is important to note that at one point the US, and Germany and other countries involved, thought that they would be to get Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny included in this group as well, but then Navalny died in prison. Then they had to go back to the drawing board on this deal.

This also came at a difficult time personally for President Biden. He was finalizing the details of this on the same day that he decided to end his presidential bid.

Sara Ganim:

Wow, that’s incredible. Incredible reporting, Francesca. I know it’s going to be a busy couple of days ahead as you continue to cover this, so I really appreciate you taking the time. Francesca Chambers is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. Thanks so much.

Francesca Chambers:

Thank you, Sara.

Sara Ganim:

The three American former prisoners are now safely back on US soil.

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Terry Strada’s husband Tom died on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower on September 11th. She’s been waiting for justice ever since. This week, US defense officials informed her that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his Al-Qaeda accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi were allowed to plead guilty, get a life sentence, and avoid a death penalty trial.

Strada reacted to the news telling USA TODAY that, “Taking the death penalty off the table was outrageous.” Strada, who is the national chair of 9/11 Families United, called the US plea a victory for Mohammed, or KSM as he’s often called, and his Al-Qaeda accomplices. All three had been jailed at Guantanamo Prison for nearly two decades with no formal sentences imposed. Many close to the case say the agreement that spares Mohammed’s life is a practical solution to what had become an intractable legal effort, but experts worry it will deprive the public of evidence tied to the case. Some families say it amounts to no justice at all.

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A conservative activist named Robby Starbuck is going after iconic American brands claiming their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies betray their socially conservative customers. Starbuck is part of a new wave of anti-woke agitators pressuring corporate America to back off of commitments to diversity and inclusion. The 35-year-old podcast host most recently launched a boycott of Harley-Davidson calling the company out for hosting an LGBTQ bootcamp and supporting gay and transgender equality legislation. He’s also gone after Tractor Supply and the farm equipment manufacturer, John Deere. Both companies scaled back their DEI initiatives after Starbuck’s social media attacks.

Starbucks operates like this. He clusters his attacks on one company at a time. He makes dozens of posts over the course of weeks to get his followers attention and urge them to protest with their voices and their wallets. A GLAAD and Ipsos poll last year found that Americans are nearly twice as likely to support companies who are facing criticism for supporting people in the LGBTQ community rather than their critics.

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Nearly half of Americans with health insurance say they received a recent medical bill or a charge that should have been free or covered by their health insurance. That’s according to a survey released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund in New York City, which found that 45% of working-age Americans were erroneously billed last year. It also found that less than half of those patients challenged their health insurance companies or a medical provider to correct the unexpected charges. Many did not know they could. But if they did push back, more than a third of patients found that they were able to get the bills reduced or eliminated.

The issue of rising healthcare costs has captured the attention of Congress. In July, a Senate committee held a hearing aimed at fixing the nation’s growing medical debt problem. More than 40% of adults have reported some kind of medical debt, and 10% of Americans owe more than $10,000 in unpaid medical bills.

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Simone Biles cemented her legacy as the world’s most dominant gymnast on Thursday night, narrowly defeating Rebeca Andrade of Brazil in the 2024 Paris Olympics. She’s now also the oldest all-around Olympic champion since 1952. It wasn’t a given that this would happen. Biles made a major mistake on the uneven bars leaving her in third place at the midway point of the competition, but she responded with a big routine on the sport’s trickiest apparatus, the balance beam, and then put the competition behind her with a show-stopping performance for her floor routine. As her teammate Jordan Chiles put it earlier this week, “Biles is now the greatest of the greats.”

This win marks Biles’ ninth Olympic medal overall, the most ever won by an American gymnast. In the coming days, she could add as many as three more golds as she is expected to compete in the apparatus finals for balance beam, floor exercise, and vault.

It was also a big day for the US Men’s Rowing and the US Women’s Fencing teams who captured the gold in their respective sports, and USA swimmer Kate Douglass beat her own previous record to bring home a gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke. She out-touched South Africa’s Tatiana Smith by a difference of slightly more than a third of a second. Its Team USA’s third individual swimming gold medal so far at the Paris Olympics. You can follow along with more Olympics coverage from USA TODAY sports.

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Thanks, as always, for listening to The Excerpt. We’re produced by Shannon Rae Green. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you’re on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I’m Sara Ganim filling in for Taylor Wilson. I’ll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.