Reuters World News - Prisoner exchange, Israel retaliation fears and Olympic boxing controversy

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

Journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan have returned to the United States, hours after being freed from Russian detention in the biggest prisoner exchange between the two countries since the Cold War. President Joe Biden says the killing of Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh is not helpful for reaching a ceasefire in Gaza. Italian boxer Angela Carini has pulled out of the Paris Olympics mid-fight after she sustained a series of crunching blows from her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif, who last year failed a gender eligibility test at the World Championships.  Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, a historic prisoner swap sees celebrations in the US and in Moscow. Israel on alert after threats of retaliation, following the deaths of senior Hamas and Hezbollah figures, and controversy at the Olympic boxing over gender eligibility. It's Friday, August 2nd. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in just 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool.

Ella Millman, mother of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, speaking over the phone to her son in a video posted by President Joe Biden's social media account on X. Russia freed Gershkovich, ex-US Marine Paul Whelan, and others on Thursday, as part of the elaborate multi-country exchange, the biggest since a Cold War. Gershkovich's colleagues at the Wall Street Journal joined in celebrations when they heard of his release. The deal, worked on in secrecy for more than a year, involved 24 prisoners, 16 moving from Russia to the West,

and eight sent back to Russia from the West. Andrew Osborne is our chief political correspondent for Russia. This was a deal that was a long time in the making, and the big stumbling block for this deal was the fact that one of the people that Russia wanted back, perhaps the person at Russia wanted back more than anyone, a hitman called Vadim Krasikov, was in Germany. So Russia wanted him back. And of course, it wasn't in the gift of the Americans to get him back. So the Americans, therefore, needed to persuade Germany that there was something

in it for them to do this deal. And that's what happened. Are Russia happy with what they've got? In Russia, this is very much being presented as a big win for Moscow. Vladimir Putin met the people who have freed off the plane at the airport. He held them as heroes and promised they would be given state awards. I think the big thing for Russia is that there's a loyalty thing here, which is important. And Putin has always said that anyone who works for a Russian state doing this kind of dangerous and risky work, that we will always bring them back. That's important as well because, of course, the Russian state wants to send other people, frankly, abroad, to do these kind of jobs to spy on other countries. And critics in the West have said the deal encourages hostage taking. What exactly

did they mean? What they mean by that is that Russia got what it wanted and the people who were returned to Russia are spies or intelligence operatives or connected to the military. Whereas the people the West got back, well, a lot of them were actually opposition activists and of course Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist. So I think critics say, look, you're not swapping like for like, and the risk is that you send a signal to Putin and to Russia that actually if you jail people that we want, we will give you back people that you want who are spying on us and who are trying to do harm to our societies. The United States has recognised Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmondo Gonzalez

as the winner of a disputed presidential election, rejecting President Nicholas Maduro's claim of victory. Since last Sunday, there have been deadly protests that Maduro and his allies in the military have denounced as an attempted coup. Simone Biles, the world's most decorated gymnast, has clinched her sixth Olympic gold medal in front of a delirious crowd, completing a triumphant comeback three years after withdrawing from the same final at the Tokyo Games. She leaned into her reputation as the greatest of all time by showing off a sparkling goat necklace after she sealed the all-round title. Marcia Anderson from Miami, Florida, was thrilled to be there. She inspires all of us in the USA. I love her. This is why I came to the Olympics to see Simone

Miles. I got to see her. A rollercoaster week for markets ends with some fears that the Fed may be behind the curve in easing interest rates. While the UK cut the cost of borrowing this week, the Fed held firm, and traders have priced in an even greater chance of a 50 basis point cut next month versus the previous consensus of 25. And treasury yields have slumped to their lowest in months after manufacturing data triggered doubts over whether the U.S. economy could achieve the much-anticipated soft landing. President Joe Biden says the killing of Hamas's leader, Ismail Hanier, is not helpful for reaching a ceasefire in Gaza. The assassination of Hania in Iran has drawn threats of retaliation against Israel.

And Hezbollah says the killing of its senior commander, Fuad Shukr, has moved their conflict with Israel into a new phase. James McKenzie is in Jerusalem. James, is there concern about retaliation from Iran and its allies? Well, I think we're in a sort of wait-and-see moment right now, because, you know, everyone's waiting to see what the response from Hezbollah Hamas, Iran will be. They haven't changed the rules for civilians, the sort of security guidelines for civilians, that a weekly protest in support of the hostages.

That happens on Saturday is being called off for safety reasons. So, you know, people are obviously aware of what's happening. Is there a feeling that ceasefire talks are now on hold? There's two sort of two ideas. One is the idea expressed by President Biden's comment, which is the Hania killing. doesn't make it any easier. And the other is a view which you see in some Israeli media that Ania was in fact an obstacle to a deal because he was very much a hard liner on this. There's an

Israeli belief in that military pressure, that pressure in general on Hamas is the best way of getting an agreement. And the killing of Ania is part of that approach. Of course, Israel hasn't admitted that it killed Anya at all. They haven't made any comment. But this is the sort of speculation behind the scenes on that. And what about Israel's main objectives? This week has been significant for the military, right? Well, they came out with their confirmation that they'd killed Muhammad Daif,

the military leader in Gaza. They struck a very high-ranking official, heads bowler official in Beirut. That's certainly a large number of senior figures to have been killed. And there's a feeling in Israel that Hamas' military capability in Gaza has really been significantly degraded,

and now fighting guerrilla bans rather than an organised military force, and that the leadership has been significantly weakened. So I think, you know, there's certainly a sense, from the Israeli perspective, at least, that they've made significant gains over the past week. Back to Paris and the controversy over gender eligibility at the Women's Olympic Boxing.

On Thursday, Italy's Angela Carini pulled out of her balance, in tears, as she sustained a series of crunching blows from Algeria's Imman Khalif. The fight lasted just 46 seconds. Caliph had been cleared to compete, but last year failed a gender eligibility test at the World Championships. This has refueled the debate over whether athletes like Khalif, with differences of sexual development or DSD, should compete in women's competition. Mitch Phillips is in Paris. Mitch, help us understand this controversy.

D.FD athletes are basically born with more testosterone and sports have introduced rules to prevent them competing as women. And in athletics, for example, they are forced to take testosterone, reducing medication, to bring them down to a certain level, because they are stronger, they have stronger bones, and so it's considered unfair for them to compete against females. The IOC has been clear to say this is not a transgender issue, but obviously it's a very sensitive issue.

What are its policies here? The IOC pretty much handed it back to each federation to make their own rules. Boxing, amateur boxing, is currently without a federation. The International Boxing Association was bad. So the IOC have had to step in to organise their own boxing competition and they have, controversially, allowed some DSD female boxers to take part in the games. And now you have the likes of J.K. Rowling or even Italy's Prime Minister weighing in and saying that boxes with male attributes shouldn't be allowed to compete. Of course, it's massively sensitive. And it's difficult for the governing bodies to make these decisions because these women say it's unfair on them. They can't compete.

They are being discriminated against. There's the problem. But the argument is that, that if they are allowed to box, then their opponents are being discriminated against because they're being forced to fight against what they say, women with much stronger characteristics, male characteristics. It's now time for our recommendation of other Reuters reporting. And today, it'll be our weekend edition of the podcast, focusing on the divided island of Cyprus. Take a listen tomorrow to hear about the elusive chances of reconciliation in the country, 50 years since Turkey's invasion of part of the island,

after a brief Greek-inspired coup. For more on that, or any of the stories from today's episode, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. We'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show. And to never miss an episode, subscribe on your favourite podcast player.