LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Last night, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews to welcome a group of Americans imprisoned by Russia.
(CHEERING)
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The group included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in what was the largest prisoner exchange between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War. It also included radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was greeted by her husband and daughters, who she hadn't been able to speak to for nine months. The occasion was also her younger daughter's 13th birthday. Here's her husband, Pavel Butorin.
PAVEL BUTORIN: And not only will Alsu find that they have grown taller, but she'll also find two young women who are more mature, more resolute about their own rights to free speech and expression as Americans.
MARTÍNEZ: This deal was months in the making and depended on several American allies, including Germany.
FADEL: And that's where NPR's Rob Schmitz joins us from right now to talk about all this. Hi, Rob.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: Good morning. So President Biden made it clear that securing the freedom of these prisoners was dependent on allies like Germany, so give us some insight on the role Germany played here.
SCHMITZ: Germany's cooperation here was crucial for the success of this deal because Germany held the most important prisoner in the eyes of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that's a man named Vadim Krasikov. Up until yesterday, he was serving a life sentence for assassinating a former Chechen rebel in broad daylight at a public park here in Berlin five years ago. After he was caught, German authorities learned that he was likely a Russian state hitman sent here on a fake passport by Russian intelligence. And as such, he was on top of Putin's wish list. President Biden and his team, including Vice President Harris, knew about this and had met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about securing Krasikov's release in return for the group of prisoners we saw set free yesterday. Here's what President Biden said about the cooperation needed to make that deal happen yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: So for anyone who questions whether allies matter, they do. They matter. And today is a powerful example of why it's vital to have friends in this world.
SCHMITZ: And, Leila, that was a not-so-subtle nod at former President Donald Trump.
FADEL: Right.
SCHMITZ: Now, the Republican nominee, who was president, did not place such a high value on these alliances with European countries like Germany as much as the Biden-Harris administration has.
FADEL: So it seems like the big concession really came from Germany, so how did Germans feel about the news of yesterday's prisoner exchange?
SCHMITZ: Yeah, that's complicated. On one hand, Germans are relieved to have their nationals back on German soil. Russia released five Germans in this deal, one who had been sentenced to death by firing squad in Belarus and was pardoned for charges of espionage earlier this week. But on the other hand, as part of this deal, Germany released a convicted murderer back to Russia.
FADEL: Yeah.
SCHMITZ: Last night, after greeting the returned prisoners, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, quote, "nobody took this decision lightly to deport a murderer sentenced to life imprisonment after only a few years in prison." And we know now that there was a lot of hand-wringing inside Germany's leadership about this. It's been reported that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was against this deal because of the message it would send to Putin - that the West is open to negotiating with the regime that takes hostages at will. But in the end, even the biggest opposition party in parliament agreed with Scholz's decision on this, but, of course, it was not an easy one.
FADEL: Should we read further into this deal? I mean, does the fact that this prisoner swap happened at all mean that relations between the U.S., its allies and Russia are improving, could improve?
SCHMITZ: Yeah, most political observers I'm talking to say no. I mean, when President Biden was asked this very question at the White House yesterday, he responded by saying, your lips to God's ears - meaning that he was hoping this could improve relations with Russia. But then when he was asked if he'd be willing to speak directly with Putin, his answer was really quick. He said, I don't need to speak with Putin.
FADEL: That's NPR's Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz. Thanks, Rob.
SCHMITZ: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: Israel and Lebanon are bracing for the possibility of even stronger attacks.
MARTÍNEZ: This after Israel's killing of top leaders from the militant groups Hamas, and Hezbollah in three different countries. The U.S. and other nations have upgraded travel warnings to one of their highest levels. Airlines have canceled flights. And Hezbollah's leader warns they have not begun to retaliate.
FADEL: NPR's Jane Arraf joins us from Beirut now. Hi, Jane. Hi, Leila. So, Jane, it's kind of hard to get your head around what's happened in just the last few days. And now you are at the funeral of this top Hezbollah commander killed there. What was that like?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in non-English language).
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Yeah, it was the funeral for Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the capital on Tuesday...
FADEL: Yeah.
ARRAF: ...Along with five other people, including children. So Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, gave an hour-long video address at the ceremony Thursday. And he made clear Hezbollah would retaliate but said they were pausing attacks in the meantime in respect for the slain commander. Last night, though, Israeli attacks killed a family, including children, in south Lebanon, according to Iran-backed Hezbollah. Just to go back a bit, Israel said the assassination in Beirut was in response to a Hezbollah attack which killed 12 children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah has consistently denied it. This is what the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said at the memorial.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HASSAN NASRALLAH: (Through interpreter) We will respond. This is certain. And they must wait.
ARRAF: President Biden, meanwhile, and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night in a bid to deescalate tensions.
FADEL: Now, there was also the killing of Hamas' top political official in Tehran this week. Hamas and Iran blame Israel. Israel hasn't publicly claimed responsibility. He's also being buried today?
ARRAF: He is. He's being buried in Qatar. He was Hamas' top political official, and he was killed in an attack at the guest house where he was staying in Tehran. In Beirut, Hamas has called for a mass march this afternoon and morning. Israel also announced that it killed the head of the Hamas military wing, Mohammed Deif, in an attack in July in Gaza. And it said this morning it had killed a senior commander in Islamic Jihad, another militant group in Rafah. Israel says it tried to reduce civilian casualties. It consistently says that. But Gaza health officials and other agencies say about 40,000 people, most of those women and children, have been killed in Gaza since the war began last October.
FADEL: OK, so four senior leaders killed. What effect is this expected to have?
ARRAF: Well, it will certainly - expected to have a temporary effect on operations. Two of those men were hands-on commanders. Shukr, who was killed in Lebanon, actually had a $5 million U.S. bounty on him, accused by the U.S. of being involved in the bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983. Haniyeh, though, killed in Tehran, was a key part of the U.S.-brokered negotiations...
FADEL: Right.
ARRAF: ...With Israel on a cease-fire. And that could be a serious setback to those.
FADEL: Amid all that - I mean, you're in Beirut - how nervous are people there and in the region about what could happen next? It feels like a dangerous moment.
ARRAF: Yeah, they're pretty nervous. The U.S. embassy has now told citizens not to travel to Lebanon, and if they're there, to be prepared to shelter in place. And other embassies have done the same. Israel also is on high alert.
FADEL: That's NPR's Jane Arraf in Beirut. Thank you, Jane.
ARRAF: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: Now to Paris, where Simone Biles cemented her legacy as the greatest gymnast of all time.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, hard to argue that. She helped the U.S. reclaim the throne at the Olympic team event earlier this week. And last night, she became just the third woman ever to win a second gold medal in the individual all-around final.
FADEL: NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan was there and joins me now. Hi, Becky.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: OK, so often when Simone Biles is competing, her win is kind of never in doubt. But that's not what happened last night, right? Tell us about it.
SULLIVAN: Yeah, absolutely. So on her second of the four events last night, she had to do the uneven bars. And if she has a weakness, this is it. She had a really shaky routine, which is unusual for her. Like, she was trying to swing from the high bar to the low bar and just had, like, a poor swing where she lost momentum, barely made it to the lower bar. Her knees almost touched the ground. And afterward, with the low score from that, she was in third place behind some very strong competition. And so, basically, Simone Biles was in a position where she had to mount a comeback, which is unusual for her.
She ended up performing, the way the lineup worked out, the very last routine of the night, the floor exercise. And she was in a position where she needed to hit without any major mistakes to win, and by the time she was coming down on her final pass, she was already smiling because she knew she had pulled it off. And so the individual all-around event in the Olympics is usually a situation where gymnasts have to perform perfectly to win. And it really is a testament to Simone Biles that she can have a mistake that big and still pull off a decisive win. She ended up winning by a little over a point.
FADEL: Wow. So I know she wears the necklace, but is she the GOAT - the greatest of all time?
SULLIVAN: (Laughter) Yeah, I mean, so this was her ninth Olympic medal. Six of them are gold. There are three more events to go for her, so three more opportunities to win even more medals. And so if we're talking gymnasts, you know, technically, there is another gymnast with, as of today, double the Olympic medals of Simone. That is Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union. But I think it's just hard to compare gymnastics of that era, the 1950s and '60s...
FADEL: Right.
SULLIVAN: ...To that of today. Like, the skills that Biles is performing are, like, orders of magnitude more difficult than what they were doing back then. And so I think it's safe to say the greatest gymnast of all time, as you said in the intro - and there are some people who would argue the greatest athlete of all time in terms of, like, how dominant she is and how much longevity she's had in this sport, where careers traditionally end a lot earlier than where she is now at 27 years old. And so here's one person who believes that she's the best of all time, her teammate Jordan Chiles, who last night after Biles won, as you referenced, Chiles pulled out this necklace that Simone put on and showed the cameras, a diamond-encrusted goat, literally a goat necklace.
(LAUGHTER)
SULLIVAN: Here's what Simone Biles had to say about that.
SIMONE BILES: People love it, and then some people hate it. So it's like the best of both worlds. And I was like, OK, if it goes well, we'll wear the goat necklace. I know people will go crazy over it. But at the end of the day, it is crazy that I am in the conversation of greatest of all athletes because I just still think I'm Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, that loves to flip.
FADEL: Oh, my God. She definitely should be wearing that goat necklace. What else are you looking forward to this weekend?
SULLIVAN: Well, so the track and field events begin today. And so one early highlight from that that I'm looking forward to is the women's 100-meter dash. And so, here's a name you might recall. Sha'Carri Richardson...
FADEL: Yes.
SULLIVAN: ...Is going to be running in some heat for that today. The final will be tomorrow night. Richardson is the fantastic and, like, very flamboyant and stylish, fun American runner who was forced out of the Tokyo Olympics.
FADEL: Love her nails.
SULLIVAN: Exactly. She was forced out of the Tokyo Olympics due to a positive marijuana test. And she talked about it then - her mom had just died. Marijuana is not a performance-improving drug, it's just against the rules. So that was a bummer, that she had to pull out of that, but now she is finally here in Paris to make her Olympic debut. And I'm very excited to see it.
FADEL: That's awesome. NPR's Becky Sullivan in Paris. Thank you so much, Becky.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
