Today’s Big Story

A Historic Prisoner Swap

Negotiations with Russia required patience and creativity, but gave both sides what they wanted

Newly freed Americans Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva touched down on American soil late Thursday after being released in a historic prisoner exchange with Russia earlier in the day.

Apparently, while many of us were watching the world’s best athletes compete in a range of competitions, a group of international negotiators were teaming up to pull off an Olympian feat of diplomacy that has resulted in what CNN called the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War. But it wasn’t a fast process. It apparently took more than a year.

A turning point came on June 25, when a group of C.I.A. officers sat across from their Russian counterparts during a secret meeting in a Middle Eastern capital. According to the New York Times, American officials floated a proposal: an exchange of two dozen prisoners sitting in jails in Russia, the United States and scattered across Europe, a far bigger and more complex deal than either side had previously contemplated but one that would give both Moscow and Western nations more reasons to say yes.

The three high-profile Americans were among 16 prisoners swapped for eight Russian prisoners. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris joined families and others at Joint Base Andrews to welcome them home. Whelan was the first to disembark the plane. He saluted Biden and said, “How you doing, Sir?’’ Biden removed the flag pin from his lapel and pinned it on the former Marine. Asked about other political prisoners still in Russia, Whelan said later, “just hang in there. We’re coming for you.”

Gershkovich, who was detained in March last year and accused of spying for the United States, was recently sentenced to 16 years in prison and made one final request before his release: The chance to interview the man behind his imprisonment, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now that’s a guy dedicated to his job. Of course, that’s a reminder that Putin is trading innocent people that he took hostage for genuine criminals. The deal freed a notorious Russian hit man, Vadim Krasikov, jailed for the murder of a Chechen former separatist fighter in a park in Berlin. He was the prize most sought by Putin, who’d publicly praised the killing as an act of patriotism and for years had insisted that Krasikov be part of any swap.

Those Olympic Feels

Come for the competition, stay for the human interest stories

Speaking of the Olympics, are you watching? Maybe not even on TV, but through social media? Like, have you heard about the chocolate muffins at the Olympic Village? The meme apparently started when Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen posted a video rating various food items at the cafeteria and gave an obscenely gooey chocolate muffin an 11/10. He’s since made at least 10 videos about the Olympic muffins. Now people at the Olympics are running around looking for the muffins. (Hey Costco, you listening?!)

This is the other side of the Olympic competition that I love. The fun, unpredictable human interest stories. We love to see redemption stories, like Simone Biles returning to the top of the podium—becoming just the third woman to earn the All-Around gold multiple times and the first to do it in nonconsecutive Games. Or Katie Ledecky becoming the most-decorated female athlete in Olympic history.

I’m ready for Sha'Carri Richardson’s long-awaited Olympic debut later today. But, of course, not all the stories have to be positive. The triathlon was able to be held in the Seine, but several atheletes complained about the quality of the water (and one athelete vomited multiple times on live TV). Then there was the high-ranking table tennis player who had his paddle stepped on and broken by an overzealous photographer, causing him to use a back-up paddle (and lose his next match). Who knows what next week will bring?

Heat Wave Builds From Coast to Coast

Once again, we’re talking about the heat …

Another potentially deadly heat wave is expanding from the Central U.S. to both coasts, with more than 104 million people currently under heat warnings and advisories early Friday. And this heat isn’t just a drag—it’s dangerous. The National Weather Service says that heat waves kill more Americans than any other major weather event.

According to Axios, this current heat poses an acute public health risk, particularly since it will last more than a week in some places. It’s forecast to persist the longest in the West, where the National Weather Service shows at least some risk of extreme heat through Aug. 10. And don’t forget about the humidity: The heat index is likely to max out in the humid Mississippi River Valley during this event at around 115°F, according to the NWS.

Last month will go down in history as not just the hottest July on record for many cities in the West—particularly in California—but the hottest month overall since records began. And it’s not just here in the U.S. Most of France is under heat warnings, and since air conditioning isn’t as common there, the Paris Olympic organizers have brought out hoses and misters to cool down visitors. And even Antarctica is experiencing record heat at the moment.

AI Website Scrapers Are Evolving

Can regulation play a part in the industry's future?

The artificial intelligence conversation continues … the question this week is “just how much of the open internet is fair game for AI companies scraping the web to train their software?” You might’ve heard that Reddit has blocked most search engines—but, notably, not Google—from digging through its archive.

Writing at 404 Media, Jason Koebler reported on an unfortunate phenomenon: Websites taking steps to keep the AI company Anthropic (referred to as one of the industry’s “hottest start-ups” in a New York Times headline earlier this year) from scraping their content are being thwarted because the tactics that previously worked no longer apply to the software that’s currently being used to crawl the web.

A spokesperson for the online resource Dark Visitors told 404 Media that this is indicative of a larger problem: namely, that the technology involved is being updated at a breakneck pace. InsideHook says it’s hard to imagine this being sustainable for much longer, but it also begs the question of what regulation of scraper bots might look like. Earlier this summer, Reuters reported that some AI companies were bypassing existing standards to regulate what could and could not be scraped. Expect to see this issue come to a head sooner rather than later.

A Weekend Pairing

‘Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color’ + a Chu-Hai Cocktail

Godzilla Minus One just hit Netflix after months of wondering if and when the movie would actually be available in the U.S. after its theatrical run, but now the streamer is also getting its hands on the Minus Color version. It’s pretty explanatory. Yes, it’s the same film, but shown in an entirely new way. And it’s also a great opportunity for a rewatch.

The tonal take has been praised by critics and adds to the feeling of watching something actually made in the 1940s. And to achieve this, the filmmaker explained that they did much more than just put it through a color filter. “Simply removing the color alone wouldn't evoke the same type of emotion we were trying to instill in audiences,” he told The Wrap. “The process used to create this new version made it feel like it was composed by a professional still photographer.”

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