Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former marine Paul Whelan and Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva landed in the U.S. late Thursday after being freed from Russian custody in a historic prisoner exchange — the largest between Russia and Western nations since the Cold War era. The three were welcomed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland by President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their family members, who rushed to embrace them as they stepped out of the plane. Biden spoke earlier in the day surrounded by the released prisoners’ relatives.

President Joe Biden: “Three American citizens, one American green card holder. All four have been imprisoned unjustly in Russia — Paul for nearly six years, Vladimir since 2022, Evan since March of 2023, and Alsu since October of 2023. Russian authorities arrested them, convicted them in show trials and sentenced them to long prison terms with absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever. None.”

Russian British dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has a U.S. green card, was also released in the swap but was not on the U.S-bound flight. In total, 16 political prisoners were freed, including human rights defenders and journalists. Five of those released were German. In return, eight Russians were released from prisons in the U.S., Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Poland. Among them is Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian assassin who was in German custody after the 2019 killing of a Chechen dissident in Berlin. We’ll have more on this story later in the broadcast.

In Qatar, thousands have gathered for the funeral of Hamas’s assassinated political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha. This is Heba Ghazi, a mourner who is originally from Egypt.

Heba Ghazi: “We came here today to provide moral support to the Palestinian people and the Arab people, to bid farewell to the body of Ismail Haniyeh. He is considered a leader of the resistance against Israel. … He was the essence of the negotiations. He was the main side of the negotiations speaking on behalf of the resistance. His assassination has for sure assassinated the negotiations.”

Protests and other gatherings are also taking place today across the Arab and Muslim world. Israel summoned Turkey’s deputy ambassador after the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv lowered its flag to half-mast in a tribute to Haniyeh. U.S. President Joe Biden said late Thursday that Haniyeh’s killing had “not helped” the situation in Gaza and the region.

Meanwhile, new reports say that an Israeli bomb that was smuggled into a Tehran guesthouse two months ago, then remotely detonated Wednesday, is to blame for Haniyeh’s death. The Hamas leader was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president.

In Doha, Al Jazeera journalists gathered at the media network’s headquarters to condemn Israel’s targeted killing of their colleagues Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi while they were reporting in Gaza Wednesday. Al Jazeera refuted Israeli claims that it targeted al-Ghoul because he was a Hamas operative. Al Jazeera said the claim “highlights Israel’s long history of fabrications and false evidence used to cover up its heinous crimes.”

In Gaza, at least 15 Palestinians were killed in another Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people today as the official death toll nears 40,000. The true toll is certainly much higher.

In election news, as the Democratic National Convention kicked off its virtual roll call vote Thursday, the Uncommitted National Movement is calling on the Democratic Party to allow Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, who volunteered in Gaza, to take the stage at the DNC later this month. Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor, has been outspoken about the horrors she witnessed treating war victims in Gaza. She is one of 30 delegates representing the uncommitted movement after its hugely successful campaign got over 700,000 primary voters to cast ballots for “uncommitted” instead of Joe Biden to protest U.S. support for Israel’s war. Dr. Haj-Hassan appeared on Democracy Now! in March after she returned from two weeks in Gaza.

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan: “This is not a humanitarian crisis. This is the worst of what humanity is capable of, and it’s entirely all man-made. And when you witness it firsthand, it’s an unbearable injustice.”

Democracy Now! will be in Chicago with daily coverage of the DNC starting August 19.

In other election news, progressive leaders are throwing their weight behind Missouri Congressmember Cori Bush ahead of her primary election next Tuesday, as the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC is throwing millions of dollars to smear Cori Bush and fund her challenger, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell. AIPAC’s super political action committee United Democracy Project already unseated another Squad member, New York’s Jamaal Bowman, earlier this primary season. Cori Bush has been an outspoken defender of Palestinian rights and against Israel’s war on Gaza.

Dozens of Jewish activists and allies staged a mock press conference and protest Wednesday at the White Plains headquarters of Atlas Air to call out the company’s role in fueling the war on Gaza. Activists posed as Atlas executives and handed out flyers designed to look like marketing materials but that read “Atlas Air: we fly for genocide.” This is Jake Levin from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.

Jake Levin: “The U.S. government sends so much support to the Israeli military that it contracts with private companies to send these — it doesn’t have enough planes to send the amount of bombs that they are trying to send and planes and tanks that they are trying to send to Israel. It’s not right. It’s disgusting, is what it is.”

Atlas Air is the world’s third largest cargo company, has hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts and received $18 million in New York state tax breaks and subsidies.

In Sudan, the U.N. has declared a famine in the Zamzam camp in the besieged North Darfur city of El Fasher. The camp houses half a million displaced people. The U.N. warns at least 13 other Sudanese regions are also on the path to famine amid the protracted civil war, which has ravaged the country since April of 2023. In February this year, Doctors Without Borders warned one child was dying of starvation every two hours at Zamzam, and nearly 40% of infants and toddlers were malnourished.

In Nigeria, at least two people have been killed in northern Niger state as security forces fired on demonstrators amid a growing nationwide anti-government protest movement. Protesters are calling for an end to corruption, the soaring cost of living and bad governance. This is activist and journalist Abiodun Sanusi speaking from Lagos Thursday.

Abiodun Sanusi: “Things have been expensive in the market. Nigerians are suffering. Nigerians are hungry. Nigerians are angry. As you know, in Nigeria today a lot of people are unemployed. The issue of insecurity in the north and the south continues to increase every day. So we are here to just make our grievances known to the federal government.”

The Biden administration has recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of Sunday’s contested presidential election — a move expected to add to tensions with President Nicolás Maduro, who has called for a “new revolution” if the U.S. and other foreign actors continue to challenge his reelection for a third term. Venezuela’s electoral body declared Maduro the winner Monday, but his rivals have claimed they have proof that Edmundo González received more votes, but have not made this evidence public.

Here in New York, the chief of the Honduran National Police has been sentenced to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to cocaine trafficking charges. Juan Carlos “El Tigre” Bonilla was extradited to the United States in 2022 and was expected to go on trial with former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, when Bonilla accepted a plea deal.

Bonilla was accused of deploying Honduran armed forces to protect drug traffickers and enable the flow of cocaine shipments in Honduras while committing widespread human rights abuses, while receiving the backing of the United States government. Former Honduran president and longtime U.S. ally Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in a U.S. prison in June after a jury convicted him of cocaine trafficking.

In Texas, Eddie Canales, a tireless advocate for immigrants’ rights and founder of the South Texas Human Rights Center, died this week at 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Canales was well known for setting up water stations around rural Brooks County for migrants traveling through the brutal border landscape, and for helping families who are searching for loved ones who have disappeared or died during the treacherous journey. Canales spoke about his work several times on Democracy Now!, including just last year.

Eddie Canales: “Migrant deaths will continue to happen until we have a policy that makes sense in terms of receiving workers that are coming through, essential workers that are coming through, to provide and contribute to this economy in this country, and then also, at the same time, deal with the lack of human rights from their home country.”

In Missouri, 52-year-old Christopher Dunn was freed this week after spending nearly three-and-a-half decades in prison on a now-overturned murder conviction. Dunn, who is Black, was convicted in 1991, when he was just 19 years old, on eyewitness testimony of two young teens, who later recanted. Dunn’s conviction was overturned last week, but Missouri’s attorney general blocked a judge’s order for his immediate release, delaying his freedom until Tuesday this week.

South Carolina’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that death by firing squad is a lawful method of state-led execution and it does not constitute “cruel or unusual punishment” since death row prisoners can also choose to be electrocuted or die by lethal injection instead. The ruling means the state could soon resume executions, which have been on hold since 2011. The ACLU of South Carolina said, “Execution is a costly, ineffective form of cruel and unusual punishment that not only fails to make us safer but raises the possibility of the state killing innocent people in our name.”

The Navajo Nation has temporarily banned any transport of uranium and other radioactive material over its land without an explicit approval. The executive order issued by Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren will be in effect for at least the next six months. Earlier this week, Navajo police attempted to stop two trucks carrying uranium ore across the reservation from an Arizona mine to a Utah processing mill. Nygren said Energy Fuels Inc., which owns the mine and processing mill, did not provide any notice that the trucks would be crossing through Navajo Nation. Nygren said in a statement, “We’re taking this stance of interpreting and executing the law to ensure the safety of our people and respect for Navajo sovereignty.”