WASHINGTON: Former US diplomat Bill Richardson said Sunday that he was “optimistic” about efforts to negotiate a “two for two” prisoner swap with Russia that would free US basketball star Brittney Griner and another American.
Richardson, a former ambassador to the UN, has negotiated the release of several Americans held in other countries. Reports last month said he was expected to travel to Russia for talks over Griner, who on Thursday was sentenced to nine years in prison on a drug charge.
While insisting Sunday that he is only a “catalyst” in any negotiations, Richardson’s mention of a “two-for-two” swap including Griner suggested inside knowledge.
“My view is, I’m optimistic,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”
“I think she’s going to be freed, I think she has the right strategy of contrition, there’s going to be a prisoner swap — though I think it will be two for two, involving Paul Whelan.”
Whelan is a former US Marine who was convicted of espionage in June 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He has insisted on his innocence.
His case and Griner’s have been enmeshed in the deep US-Russia tensions since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February.
But recent comments from both sides — including from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov — have suggested signs of movement, and US President Joe Biden has faced repeated calls to arrange a deal.
Reports suggested that Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” might be freed in exchange for Griner and Whelan. The Kremlin has long sought his release.
But Richardson’s mention of a “two for two” swap raises questions about who the second Russian in the equation might be.
And some Americans have asked why Marc Fogel, a US citizen serving a 14-year sentence in Russia on marijuana charges — which he said he had for medicinal purposes — has not been mentioned.
Griner was sentenced Thursday to nine years in a Russian penal colony and ordered to pay a fine of one million rubles ($16,590) for smuggling narcotics.
She was arrested at a Moscow airport for possessing vape cartridges with a small amount of cannabis oil.
The 31-year-old, who was in Russia to play for the professional Yekaterinburg team during her off-season from the Phoenix Mercury, said the substance was prescribed by a US doctor to relieve pain.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist and Women’s NBA champion pleaded guilty but said she did not intend to break the law.
Richardson is a prominent Democrat, having served in the US Congress, as governor of New Mexico, and both as UN envoy and energy secretary in the Bill Clinton administration.
Since then, he has worked as a discreet go-between in several sensitive hostage talks with foreign countries, including North Korea. In November 2021 he helped secure the release of US journalist Danny Fenster from a prison in Myanmar.
Ex-US envoy Richardson ‘optimistic’ Griner will be freed
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Ex-US envoy Richardson ‘optimistic’ Griner will be freed
- Bill Richardson: ‘I think she’s going to be freed, I think she has the right strategy of contrition, there’s going to be a prisoner swap — though I think it will be two for two, involving Paul Whelan’
- Some Americans have asked why Marc Fogel, a US citizen serving a 14-year sentence in Russia on marijuana charges — which he said he had for medicinal purposes — has not been mentioned
Climate change fueled deadly rainstorms in Iberia, Morocco: scientists
- Nine storms across the three countries have killed more than 50 people and forced over 200,000 to flee their homes, mostly in Morocco
- The volume of rainfall in places like Grazalema is “staggering,” said Garcia, a climate scientist
MADRID: Human-driven climate change intensified torrential downpours that killed dozens and forced thousands of people from their homes across Morocco, Spain, and Portugal earlier this year, a network of climate scientists said Thursday.
Precipitation during the region’s wettest days now entail around one-third more rainfall compared with the pre-industrial climate, which was 1.3C cooler, according to a report by the World Weather Attribution (WWA), whose scientists study the link between extreme weather events and climate change.
Nine storms unleashed torrential rain and hurricane-force winds across the three countries from 16 January to 17 February, killing more than 50 people and forcing over 200,000 to flee their homes, mostly in Morocco.
Grazalema, one of the hardest-hit municipalities in southern Spain, saw more than a full year’s expected rainfall in just a few days, according to the WWA.
Videos on social media showed residents breaking through the walls of their homes to drain water and prevent further flooding damage.
The volume of rainfall in places like Grazalema is “staggering,” said David Garcia-Garcia, a climate scientist at the University of Alicante and study co-author, calling it a “massive shock” to infrastructure and soil.
The WWA estimates that rainfall intensity is now about 11 percent higher in northern Portugal and northwestern Spain than in pre-industrial times.
The researchers were unable to quantify the exact impact of climate change on rainfall in southern Iberia and northern Morocco, as the available data show regional variations.
“This is exactly what climate change looks like: weather patterns that used to be more manageable are now turning into more dangerous disasters,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London who also worked on the study.
A “blocked” high-pressure system over Scandinavia and Greenland channelled “storm after storm” toward western Europe, resulting in wetter-than-usual conditions, according to the study.
Abnormally warm Atlantic waters west of the Iberian Peninsula “supercharged” the storms with moisture, it added.
The WWA is a pioneer in attribution science, which uses peer-reviewed methods to quickly assess the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events.
This allows a comparison of a drought or flood today against simulations that consider the climate before the industrial revolution of the 1800s and the smass foss fuel burning that came with it.
The study looked at weather data — in this case the most extreme one-day rainfall events in the three nations — and extrapolated trends back to the pre-industrial era to see how this type of event has changed over time.
