Who’re the Individuals freed in a Russian prisoner swap? And, Simone Biles is GOAT

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Right now’s high tales

President Biden and Vice President Harris welcomed house a bunch of Individuals imprisoned by Russia final evening in what was the largest prisoner alternate between the West and Russia for the reason that finish of the Chilly Conflict. Wall Road Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was amongst those that landed at Andrews Air Pressure Base in Maryland to reunite with their households. The alternate 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. Here is all the things we all know about them to this point.

• 🎧 Germany’s cooperation was essential to the success of this deal because the nation held an important 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 Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned it may 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 consider this deal will enhance relations between Russia, the U.S. and its allies.

Israel and Lebanon are bracing for the opportunity of even stronger assaults after Israel’s killing of high 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 mentioned Hezbollah would pause assaults in respect for Shukr’s demise. Israel introduced it had killed the pinnacle of the Hamas army wing, Mohammad Daif, in an assault in Gaza on July 13. This morning, Israel additionally mentioned 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 evening. 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 executed the identical. Flights in Israel are being canceled, and solely the Israeli nationwide service continues to be flying.

Simone Biles cemented herself as the best gymnast of all time after she turned the third girl ever to win a second gold medal within the particular person all-around last on the Olympics final evening. Her win comes two days after she led the U.S. girls’s crew again to the gold medal within the crew occasion. The win didn’t come simple. 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 total — greater than some other U.S. gymnast in historical past.

• 🎧 “It really is a testament to Simone Biles that she can have a mistake that big and still 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 onerous to match the gymnastics of the 50s and 60s to that of as we speak, as the talents that Biles performs are orders of magnitude tougher. It is protected to present 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.
• ➡️ Observe and discipline occasions start as we speak. NPR’s reporters on the bottom will probably be watching Sha’Carri Richardson, the flamboyant American runner who was pressured out of the Tokyo Olympics because of 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, wished 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 because of excessive precipitation and sea stage rise from local weather change. Mendel captures the trauma that storms and rainfall go away behind. He meets and engages with the individuals who stay in impacted communities and, in the event that they agree, images them and their actuality at that second. He describes his type of pictures as shifting 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 finest identified for her prolonged vocal approach, an idea she discovered her technique to within the Nineteen 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 concept conceived throughout a 2015 highway journey. Paul W. Downs co-created the present along with his spouse, Lucia Aniello, and performs Jimmy. He tells NPR about what the collection, 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 practically 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 by means of 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: When 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 suppose you’ll do?

3 issues to know earlier than you go

Turkey’s Yusuf Dikec, pictured competing within the capturing 10m air pistol blended crew gold medal match at Chateauroux Taking pictures Middle on Tuesday, went viral for his informal look.

Alain Jocard/AFP

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Alain Jocard/AFP

1. Turkey’s Olympic shooter Yusuf Dikec took the web by storm for his decidedly lower-tech look. Whereas lots of his rivals donned extra cyberpunk-looking gear, he earned a silver medal within the air pistol blended crew competitors in an off-the-cuff jersey and glasses.
2. 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 a long time because of a mixture of excessive meals inflation, rising electrical energy tariffs and extra.
3. Columbia College may 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 knowledge for months.

This article was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.