Freed prisoners return to U.S. from Russia and the race to define Kamala Harris: Morning Rundown

Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva make an emotional return to the U.S. Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky add to their Olympic medal collections. And the killing of Sonya Massey triggers scrutiny over police hiring across the country.

Here’s what to know today.

Biden, Harris greet freed prisoners in emotional return to the U.S.

Three of the four U.S. residents freed in a major prisoner exchange with Russia arrived back on American soil late last night to greetings from President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, families and friends. 

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A plane carrying journalists Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Marine veteran Paul Whelan touched down at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at 11:30 p.m. ET. Whelan exited the jet first, followed by Gershkovich and Kurmasheva. Biden said he told each, “Welcome home.” See a video of their joyous return.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a legal permanent U.S. resident, had planned to go to Germany, where his family was set to meet him, but is expected to return to the U.S. soon, the Biden administration said. 

The massive deal among seven nations involved 24 people, including five Germans, seven Russian citizens held in Russia and eight Russians imprisoned in the U.S., Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland. The complex swap was a rare example of cooperation amid heightened political tensions between the U.S. and Russia. 

Gershkovich, a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, was arrested in March 2023 and convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison in July. Whelan was detained in 2018 while visiting Russia for a friend’s wedding and also convicted of espionage. He had been serving a 16-year-sentence in a penal colony. Kurmasheva, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was arrested in October and sentenced to 6½ years after being convicted of spreading false information about the Russian army. 

Read the full story here.

More coverage of the prisoner exchange: 

• Antony Blinken’s blunt talk with Sergei Lavrov and a breakthrough with Berlin: How the prisoner swap unfolded over two years
• The release of Russian hackers is believed to be the first U.S. prisoner swap of international cybercriminals.

Paris 2024: U.S. women dominate in swimming and gymnastics

Gymnasts Simone Biles and Suni Lee and swimmer Katie Ledecky each added to their Olympic medal collections in a day of fierce competitions.

Biles won gold in the women’s all-around gymnastics final, reclaiming her 2016 title and becoming the first American to win the Olympic all-around gold medal more than once. Biles was trailing after a shaky performance on the uneven bars but rebounded with a stellar showing on the balance beam (She performed her namesake Biles II — a Yurchenko double pike). Then, she clinched the gold by performing the world’s most difficult floor routine (Want to witness it again? Watch here). 

Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade won silver, and American Suni Lee, who won the all-around gold medal three years ago in Tokyo, took home the bronze. 

If that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, American women took silver in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, officially giving Katie Ledecky more swimming medals than any woman in Olympic history. (See the race that sealed the deal.) Ledecky can add to that total this weekend in her final event, the 800-meter freestyle.

Meanwhile, the U.S. women’s basketball team fended off a close comeback attempt by Belgium, and the U.S. men’s rowing team won gold in the four rowing event for the first time in 64 years. Here’s the full recap of Day 6 of the Paris Games.

Stream every moment and every medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Peacock.

Read more

• 🏅 Coming up today: France and Germany square off in basketball, which means a chance to see NBA star Victor Wembanyama play. Sha’Carri Richardson makes her Olympic debut. Swimmer Caeleb Dressel defends his gold in the men’s 50m freestyle. Plus, much more. Follow our live blog. 
• 🥊 Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was previously barred from women’s events, won her first fight of the Games after her opponent quit in 46 seconds.
• 🧀 Move over Mr. Pommel Horse: An Italian gymnast is setting the internet ablaze for her parmesan cheese partnership.
• 🎯 With one hand in his pocket and minimal gear, a nonchalant Turkish sharpshooter scores silver — and fans’ hearts.
• 👟 A runner who fled ethnic violence in Darfur, then from Israel after the Oct. 7 attack, lands on the refugee team.

▶️ Watch top highlights

• Suni Lee dazzles on bars in the women’s all-around.
• What you missed from Round 1 of men’s golf
• Lauren Scruggs and Lee Kiefer lead U.S. to first-ever team fencing gold
• U.S. women’s basketball survive a stiff test from Belgium

Hope stalls for a stronger hiring market

The U.S. job market is cooling, and the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, set to be released this morning, are expected to show that. Analysts expect a gain of 185,000 jobs for July, down from 206,000 in June.

The current climate is a double-edged sword: People who are employed are unlikely to lose their jobs, but those on the job hunt face dim prospects. At 4.1%, the unemployment rate has reached its highest level since 2021 and has been climbing for three months in a row. Economists fear a lack of hiring could push that figure higher, but cutting the key interest rate — which the Fed is considering for next month — could be a saving grace. 

The battle intensifies to define Harris

It goes without saying that Vice President Kamala Harris’ path to de-facto Democratic presidential nominee has been unprecedented. She’s not the incumbent, and she didn’t have to go through a grueling primary process. With less than 100 days until the general election, some voters are still learning about her background, the policies she has supported and how she’s different from President Joe Biden. 

She’s introducing herself to the country as a prosecutor out to press the case against former President Donald Trump. But the Trump campaign is rushing to define her differently: “Weak, failed, too liberal,” a senior Trump adviser said.

The Trump campaign’s overall messaging strategy that will play out in the coming weeks can largely be seen as multipronged: tying Harris to Biden administration policies, focusing on her role trying to fix the flow of migrants at the southern border and a record in the Senate that the Trump campaign will argue was very liberal.

Harris’ team has a few ideas of how it’ll counter those arguments and define her on its own terms.

More 2024 election coverage: 

• Harris’ campaign has met with six potential running mates, sources said, and a final decision is expected next week. Here’s who she’s considering.
• JD Vance attacked Harris’ record on immigration during an Arizona rally near an unfinished section of the border wall.
• “Crazy” and “not Black” are just some of the ways Trump has gone after Harris’ race and gender.
• Trump has a message for his conservative foot soldiers after criticism of Project 2025.
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed Supreme Court reform would be “a very big priority” if Democrats win in the White House and both chambers of Congress in November.

Sonya Massey killing spotlights inconsistent police hiring

Almost three weeks since Illinois Deputy Sheriff Sean Grayson was charged with murder after fatally shooting Sonya Massey, observers have questioned how and why he had kept on getting hired.

Grayson had worked for six law enforcement agencies in four years. His personnel files show a string of apparent red flags that include DUI arrests, being discharged from the Army for “misconduct” and more. But his most recent hiring at the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office did not appear to have violated state or local police hiring policies, according to a review of laws in the state. In an interview with “NBC Nightly News” this week, Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell defended his hiring of Grayson.

An NBC News review of hiring practices across the country also shows that there is a patchwork of hiring standards that vary from state to state and from community to community. Some states, such as California, have extensive requirements detailed over hundreds of pages, while Illinois’ rules leave police chiefs and sheriffs with wide latitude when it comes to vetting their job candidates.

NBC News’ investigative unit looked into the disparities in hiring policies and other problems police departments face in searching for qualified candidates. “In some areas, you really are dealing with, ‘Who is the best of the worst?’” said one psychologist who screens applicants for more than 600 law enforcement agencies.

Politics in Brief

9/11 plea deal: Former Attorney General Eric Holder slammed the “political hacks” who blocked the federal trial of accused Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists nearly 15 years ago, which he said would have resulted in swifter justice rather than a plea deal this week that allowed three defendants to avoid the death penalty.

Osprey crash report: The crash of an Air Force Osprey aircraft eight months ago in Japan that killed all eight airmen on board was caused by a “catastrophic” gearbox failure and the pilot’s “insufficient sense of urgency,” according to a crash investigation by the U.S. military.

Virginia politics: House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good lost his primary recount, cementing his narrow defeat to GOP state Sen. John McGuire. 

Want more politics news? Sign up for From the Politics Desk to get exclusive reporting and analysis delivered to your inbox every weekday evening. Subscribe here.

Staff Pick: Flavor Flav and Reddit co-founder help debut Olympian pay her rent

I couldn’t imagine the stress of an upcoming Olympic debut, never mind compounding that with worries about making rent. But that was what track and field athlete Veronica Fraley was dealing with when she tweeted yesterday that her college hadn’t paid her in full for the month. U.S. water polo ‘hype man’ Flavor Flav and Reddit co-founder (and Serena Williams’ husband) Alexis Ohanian stepped in to make sure Fraley would only have to worry about her performance in the discus throw today, in a heartwarming tale of people stepping up — but also a sobering vignette of inequalities in college sports impacting the athletes giving their all.

— Annie Hill, platforms editor

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

 It’s August, and that means back-to-school shopping season is upon us. When looking for a backpack, keep in mind that it shouldn’t be heavier than 10% to 15% of a person’s body weight. Maybe a rolling backpack is the way to go. For college students looking for dorm room essentials, consider these recommendations from recent grads.

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