How prisoner swaps work, white Christmas forecasts: 5 Things … – USA TODAY
On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Inside the secretive world of freeing American hostages abroad
USA TODAY World Affairs Correspondent Kim Hjelmgaard explains how the prisoner exchange process works, Hanukkah begins amid a rise in antisemitism, reporter Kierstin Foote looks at how the power dynamic with some police unions is shifting, Reviewed.com Accessibility Editor Sarah Kovac has some inclusive gift ideas, and a white Christmas could be on the way for these areas.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning and Happy Hanukkah. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Monday, the 19th of December 2022. Today a look at freeing hostages abroad. Plus, how the power dynamic with some police unions has shifted, and we’ll hear holiday gift ideas for people with disabilities.
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The Brittney Griner-Viktor Bout prisoner exchange highlighted the secret, chaotic, divisive, and sometimes weird world of global prisoner negotiation. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY World Affairs Correspondent Kim Hjelmgaard to discuss how the process works.
PJ Elliott:
Kim, first off, thanks for jumping on with 5 Things today. I want to start off by getting into how many Americans are detained right now overseas.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Best guessed estimates for how many Americans are either hostages or wrongfully detained right now is around 60. There’s a couple different organizations that track these. And they’re in Iran. They’re in a couple high profile cases in Russia right now, one of whom people have heard about Brittney Griner, the basketball star was recently released. Before her there was a former US Marine who was imprisoned in Russia and was released, his name is Trevor Reed. And there’s still another American over there guy called Paul Whelan who is another former Marine and was a tourist over there when he was detained. But the Russians have accused him, falsely we understand, of being some kind of spy.
PJ Elliott:
So exactly how do these negotiations work when we’re trying to bring Americans back home?
Kim Hjelmgaard:
So the first thing to say about how this process works is that it’s like shrouded in secrecy, and there’s so much of it that we are just dark to and that we don’t understand. There is a kind of joint effort between the State Department and the FBI and other US government agencies that sort of coordinates this work and lobbies on behalf of, or advocates, I should say, on behalf of these detainees and tries to have discussions, negotiations, talks with their counterparts in these other countries. But sometimes it’s difficult because for example, with Iran, the US has no formal diplomatic relations. So the US Secretary of State can’t just speak to the Iranian foreign minister, his or her counterpart. It sort of sounds a little bit ridiculous, why couldn’t they? But anyway, that’s the protocol. That’s their tradition. That doesn’t happen.
So a lot of times what ends up taking place is the families find their way by hook or crook to kind of third parties who sometimes get the ball rolling in through sort of back channels. And there’s quite a well-established organization called the Richardson Center, which is started by former US Ambassador of the United Nations and former governor of New Mexico, a guy called Bill Richardson. And he has a lot of contacts all over the world. So him and some of his kind of lieutenants, they seem to always be involved in recent years with some of the big cases. And they essentially kind of leverage their contacts and find a way to start discussions informally in ways that kind of get them into the room in ways of the US government for various reasons can’t always.
So it’s kind of a dark art. It’s like networking, it’s getting on the phone and just working your contacts and just finding a way to get these conversations started. At some point, these third parties, they end up working with the US government, either side by side, or in conjunction or through parallel tracks, and so on and so forth.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find Kim’s full story in today’s show notes.
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Hanukkah began last night. Jews around the world will celebrate the holiday for the next eight nights through December 26th. But there’s a shadow over some celebrations with antisemitism on the rise. The Anti-Defamation League counted nearly 3000 anti-Semitic incidents in the US last year. That’s an all-time high and up 34% from the previous year. And anti-Jewish rhetoric from celebrities including Kanye West and Kyrie Irving have dominated the news cycle.
Jewish community leaders say that putting a menorah in the window is a sign of strength. Menorahs hold candles and are used in Jewish worship and they might make a difference in the fight against antisemitism. In 1993 in Billings, Montana, citizens fought back after someone launched a brick through the window of a five-year-old’s bedroom. According to the New York Times, a menorah in the window sparked the attack. The Billings Gazette responded by publishing a menorah drawing and thousands in the community hung makeshift menorahs in response.
The Billings Gazette this year is recreating the makeshift Menorah ad and asking the community to do the same. And even if you’re not in Billings or Jewish, you can do the same this holiday season. Jewish leaders say that menorahs in public spaces suggest solidarity. Adam Neufeld, the Anti-Defamation League’s Vice President of Innovation and Strategies said, “What is great about the menorah, man, the time of year we’re in, is that you don’t need to go down and lobby for a bill this month. It’s great if you do, but you can just put a menorah up. You can speak out among your friends, you can teach about anti-Semitism at the workplace and you can start to turn this tide.”
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The power dynamic with some police unions has shifted. Some leaders have tried to lead change, others have made concessions, and still others are fighting it. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with reporter Kierstin Foote to find out more.
PJ Elliott:
Kierstin, thanks so much for joining 5 Things.
Kierstin Foote:
Thanks for having me.
PJ Elliott:
What role are police unions playing in police reform around the United States?
Kirestin Foote:
So the role that police unions are playing in reform around the US is very varied. It’s different everywhere you look. We see an example of a police union putting out a survey to the public, asking the public’s opinion on kind of tactics that they’re using and what they like and what they don’t like and trying to make reforms that way.
We also saw some unions kind of being hardcore in their beliefs and the public kind of coming to and making them make concessions in some way and putting some pressure on them for them to kind of realize that they needed to make some kind of changes.
And we also talked about St. Louis. And it’s not just in St. Louis. There’s many cities that have unions that represent different groups of people, whether it’s Black and brown police officers or LGBTQ officers, but those unions are really trying to push for accountability for officer misconduct. And so it’s really different wherever you look at it.
Sometimes it’s someone in the union that wants to make a difference, that wants to really put forth the effort. Other times it’s kind of that public pressure that’s really making that change. So that’s the beauty of the story is that it’s very complicated.
PJ Elliott:
So how much power do they actually have though?
Kierstin Foote:
One thing that we learned in the story is that they started in the early 1900s and there was a long time where they had a lot of power. I think those power dynamics are shifting and it’s one of the things that we did talk about in the story was that the public, as we saw in 2020, really kind of changed the way that we see things and really put the power to the people. And so in San Antonio, there was the vote that it wouldn’t disband the union, but it would take away their bargaining power, and the union almost lost that power. And so it’s waning in some ways and it’s also not in others. They still have a very big stronghold, but I think that it’s kind of, it’s teetering that line.
PJ Elliott:
Kierstin, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
Kierstin Foote:
Yeah, thank you so much. Have a good one.
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Taylor Wilson:
Gifting season has arrived. It’s time to finish buying your gift list and it’s always nice to make sure everyone feels included. Audio Editor Shannon Rae Green spoke with Reviewed.com Accessibility Editor Sarah Kovac about inclusive gift ideas for kids and families.
Shannon Rae Green:
Sarah Kovac, Reviewed.com Accessibility Editor, welcome to 5 Things.
Sarah Kovac:
Thank you for having me.
Shannon Rae Green:
Sarah, you were last on the podcast about a year ago to talk about the launch of the Accessibility section. Congrats on that.
Sarah Kovac:
Thank you. It’s such a pleasure to work with all the different writers that we have and see what kind of things that are helping them through their daily lives.
Shannon Rae Green:
I have you on the podcast today to highlight a few that are for families and kids and that are accessible. What’s first on the list?
Sarah Kovac:
We were looking at the Yogi Bow lounger, and the writer that tested this for us, her son has cerebral palsy, and it’s a comfortable place for him to sit that they can just drag around anywhere in the house. It’s a big bean bag. A lot of them are big, but they’re also some that are smaller chair sized. There’s really a size that would fit for pretty much anybody to sit comfortably.
Shannon Rae Green:
That’s lovely. I mean the idea of no pressure points, that sounds pretty good to me too.
Sarah Kovac:
I know. No, after I read the review, I was clicking around thinking, I think I need to get one of these.
Shannon Rae Green:
Another one you sent me was Teddy Footsplint, and it instantly made me think of the fact that when kids are on crutches or kids have something that’s adaptable, seeing characters with the same experience just really lights them up, doesn’t it?
Sarah Kovac:
Yeah. Yeah, it does. It’s something to see representation when the toys that children get. And that particular seller makes those AFOs and splints that the kids can put on their dolls and it makes them feel a little more seen and included in the play that they’re doing.
Shannon Rae Green:
You also sent me some ideas for including people in a game who happen to have disabilities.
Sarah Kovac:
We were talking about the Microsoft Adaptive Controller, which I mean you could play any video game with it because you can attach switches, so those are like external buttons. Or you might use something that you bite on, you can plug them into the back of this controller and use it to push any kind of button that you would’ve been pushing on the Xbox controller.
Shannon Rae Green:
That’s so fun. This is making me so excited for the fact that we’re all going to be getting together with folks, and I think that these are some really wonderful ideas. I’m going to drop a link in the short description to the list of accessible gift ideas that your team created. Sarah, it’s just been a delight. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Sarah Kovac:
Thank you, Shannon.
Taylor Wilson:
A major snowstorm is brewing in parts of the Central and Eastern US this week before Christmas. AccuWeather says the storm is also expected to coincide with an outbreak of Arctic air forecast to drop temperatures significantly, and the National Weather Service has forecast below average temperatures for parts of the South, East Coast and Midwest. From Thursday through Saturday, Christmas Eve, the most serious snow threat will be from the southern plains like Oklahoma and Nebraska across the Midwest to the mid-south and inland northeast. All of this comes after a powerful storm that’s already lasted more than a week, created a nor Easter that dumped more than two feet of snow in Maine over the weekend.
And last up today, Lionel Messi is finally a world champion. One of the great soccer players of all time won his first World Cup yesterday as Argentina beat France in penalties after a 3-3 extra time match in the final, already being considered one of the great games of all time. Messi scored two goals while Kylian Mbappé for France scored all three, and Argentina has its first cup since 1986. For a full recap, including Argentine announcer Andrés Cantor’s amazing winning call of the game, head to USA TODAY Sports.
And thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every morning right here, wherever you’re listening right now. I’ll be back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
