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Right this moment’s prime tales
President Biden and Vice President Harris welcomed dwelling a gaggle of Individuals imprisoned by Russia final night time in what was the largest prisoner change between the West and Russia because the finish of the Chilly Warfare. Wall Road Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was amongst those that landed at Andrews Air Drive Base in Maryland to reunite with their households. The change was months within the making and relied on a number of American allies, together with Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland. Three U.S. residents, one authorized resident and 13 German nationals had been included within the swap. This is every thing we all know about them to this point.
Reporter Evan Gershkovich hugs his mom Ella Milman, left, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., following his launch as a part of a 24-person prisoner swap between Russia, the U.S. and several other different international locations on Thursday. Wanting on at proper is Elizabeth Whelan, sister of launched prisoner Paul Whelan.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Alex Brandon/AP
- 🎧 Germany’s cooperation was essential to the success of this deal because the nation held a very powerful prisoner within the eyes of Russian President Vladimir Putin, NPR’s Rob Schmitz tells Up First. That man, Vadim Krasikov, was serving a life sentence till yesterday for assassinating a former Chechen insurgent in Berlin 5 years in the past. Not everybody was for the deal. German International Minister Annalena Baerbock stated it might ship Putin the message that the West is open to negotiating with a regime that takes hostages at will. Schmitz says most political observers don’t imagine this deal will enhance relations between Russia, the U.S. and its allies.
Israel and Lebanon are bracing for the potential of even stronger assaults after Israel’s killing of prime leaders from the militant teams Hamas and Hezbollah. Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s chief, made it clear the group would retaliate in a speech at yesterday’s funeral for his or her second in command, Fuad Shukr. He stated Hezbollah would pause assaults in respect for Shukr’s dying. Israel introduced it had killed the pinnacle of the Hamas navy wing, Mohammad Daif, in an assault in Gaza on July 13. This morning, Israel additionally stated it had killed a senior commander in Islamic Jihad, one other militant group, in Rafah.
- 🎧 In an effort to assist de-escalate tensions, NPR’s Jane Arraf says that Biden and Harris spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu final night time. The U.S. embassy has been steadily upgrading its journey advisory for Lebanon and now tells residents to not journey. Residents who’re already there needs to be ready to shelter in place. Different embassies have additionally completed the identical. Flights in Israel are being canceled, and solely the Israeli nationwide provider remains to be flying.
Simone Biles cemented herself as the best gymnast of all time after she turned the third lady ever to win a second gold medal within the particular person all-around closing on the Olympics final night time. Her win comes two days after she led the U.S. girls’s staff again to the gold medal within the staff occasion. The win didn’t come straightforward. An unusually poor efficiency on the uneven bars put her behind two robust rivals. However, that setback didn’t cease her from standing on the winner’s podium along with her sixth Olympic gold and her ninth medal general — greater than some other U.S. gymnast in historical past.
- 🎧 “It truly is a testomony to Simone Biles that she will be able to have a mistake that huge and nonetheless pull off a decisive win,” NPR’s Becky Sullivan says. She has three extra Olympic occasions to go, every with an opportunity so as to add to her medal depend. There’s one other gymnast with double the Olympic medals as Biles: the Soviet Union’s Larisa Latynina. Nonetheless, Sullivan says it’s arduous to check the gymnastics of the 50s and 60s to that of at present, as the abilities that Biles performs are orders of magnitude harder. It is secure to offer her the best of all time title, particularly given how dominant she is and the way a lot longevity she’s had in a sport that historically ends a lot sooner than her age of 27.
- ➡️ Monitor and area occasions start at present. NPR’s reporters on the bottom will probably be watching Sha’Carri Richardson, the flamboyant American runner who was compelled out of the Tokyo Olympics resulting from a constructive marijuana check. Keep up-to-date with the Olympics with NPR’s protection right here.
Image Present
From left: Francisca Chagas Dos Santos. Taquari District. Rio Branco, Brazil. March 2015. Terence McKeen along with his mom Gloria. Blackcreek, Middleburg, Florida. USA. September 2017
Gideon Mendel
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Gideon Mendel
Gideon Mendel, an award-winning photojournalist, needed to doc local weather change from a younger age. That’s precisely what he did when he began photographing floods. Scientists within the U.S. know that floods have gotten extra frequent and extreme resulting from excessive precipitation and sea degree rise from local weather change. Mendel captures the trauma that storms and rainfall depart behind. He meets and engages with the individuals who dwell in impacted communities and, in the event that they agree, pictures them and their actuality at that second. He describes his model of pictures as transferring away from documentary photojournalism and someplace into artwork and activism.
- 📷 See the flood of feelings in his pictures and examine his our bodies of labor.
Weekend picks
Now in her 80s, the New York interdisciplinary artist Meredith Monk stays greatest recognized for her prolonged vocal approach, an idea she discovered her approach to within the Sixties.
Christine Alicino
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Christine Alicino
Try what NPR is watching, studying and listening to this weekend:
📺 TV: Hacks, a present exploring what it means to be a comedy hack, blossomed from an thought conceived throughout a 2015 street journey. Paul W. Downs co-created the present along with his spouse, Lucia Aniello, and performs Jimmy. He tells NPR about what the sequence, which simply wrapped its third season, means to him.
📚 Books: Jessica Anthony’s new novel, The Most, takes place over the course of a day, permitting readers to get to know a pair’s alternating factors of view — from their aspirations, personalities and backgrounds to their infidelities and secrets and techniques they’ve stored from one another.
🎵 Music: For almost 60 years, Meredith Monk has taken on a number of roles: singer, composer, pianist, filmmaker, director, choreographer, dancer, recording artist and educator. Now, at 81, she displays on her music-making journey.
🥘 Meals: Vérane Frédiani’s Style the World in Marseille leads readers via France’s oldest metropolis and its various neighborhoods. The brand new French cookbook provides readers a discovery of Marseille’s recipes and culinary traditions from a local.
❓Quiz: In the event you’re extra into sports activities than politics, you’re in luck with this week’s quiz. Go for the gold by testing your Olympics information with an uncommon quantity of sports activities questions. How nicely do you assume you’ll do?
3 issues to know earlier than you go
Turkey’s Yusuf Dikec, pictured competing within the capturing 10m air pistol blended staff gold medal match at Chateauroux Capturing Heart on Tuesday, went viral for his informal look.
Alain Jocard/AFP
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Alain Jocard/AFP
- Turkey’s Olympic shooter Yusuf Dikec took the web by storm for his decidedly lower-tech look. Whereas a lot of his rivals donned extra cyberpunk-looking gear, he earned a silver medal within the air pistol blended staff competitors in an informal jersey and glasses.
- Nigerians are taking to the streets to protest the cruel financial situations in Africa’s most populous nation. They’re affected by one of many worst financial crises in many years resulting from a mixture of excessive meals inflation, rising electrical energy tariffs and extra.
- Columbia College might face subpoenas if it doesn’t comply with a U.S. Home investigation into studies of rising antisemitism on school campuses. The committee has been requesting the data for months.
This text was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
