Russia wants 2 prisoners in swap for Americans Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan
Moscow is leaning toward rejecting a prisoner swap unless it gets two Russians in return for the two Americans the U.S. wants released, according to people familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking.
The U.S. has called on Russia to free WNBA player Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, offering to free convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. Discussions have been stop-start since June, with Moscow reluctant to agree to a deal it sees as unequal, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters.
Russia has not yet supplied a detailed response to the American proposal, another person familiar with the discussions said.
The delicate nature of the discussions shows the level of mistrust that has only heightened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. The U.S. has strongly supported the government in Kyiv with weapons and financial aid, and President Joe Biden has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and “murderous dictator.” Biden is under pressure at home to secure the release in particular of Griner, arrested in Russia on drug charges, but equally cannot be seen to be giving ground to Moscow.
—Bloomberg News
Bill to declaw ‘big cat’ breeders heading to the Senate
The Senate is expected to take up and approve a House-passed bill that would restrict the breeding or possession of “big cats,” including tigers, lions, jaguars and cougars, and limit ownership of the animals to zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, veterinarians and universities.
The bill, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, was approved by the House 278-134 on July 27 and its sponsors say they are “optimistic” it will be passed by the Senate, possibly after the August recess.
Congressional efforts to control ownership of big cats go back nearly two decades, when a bill labeled the Captive Wildlife Safety Act was introduced in 2003 after a tiger nearly killed an animal trainer during a Siegfried and Roy performance in Las Vegas, and one day later, a 425-pound tiger bit its owner in a New York City apartment.
That bill never saw action, but the House approved a similar measure in 2020 after national attention was focused on the issue by the Netflix series “Tiger King,” which told the story of the former Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma and its owner Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic. He is now serving a 21-year prison sentence for wildlife crimes and a murder-for-hire scheme.
The 2020 bill did not see action in the Senate before the end of the 116th Congress, and a new bill was introduced in this Congress by Reps. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.
—CQ-Roll Call
California is trying to make the world’s tallest tree invisible. Now visitors face jail, fines
LOS ANGELES — It sounds hard to hide the tallest tree in the world. But that’s exactly what officials at California’s Redwood National Park have been trying to do since 2006.
Now, the 380-foot tall redwood tree is officially off-limits. In a statement last week, the park wrote that any visitors caught near it could face six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
For 16 years, the park refused to publish the location of the tree in order to protect it. Officials feared that too many visitors to the site could damage it and the delicate ecology of its surrounding slopes.
The coast redwood (sequoia sempervirens) is estimated to be 600 to 800 years old. Named Hyperion after the Greek Titan god of heavenly light, it stands deep in the park and has no trails leading to it, but its internet fame has made it a frequent destination for thrill-seekers, travel bloggers and tree enthusiasts. People are fascinated by Hyperion’s size and secrecy.
Given Hyperion’s off-trail location, hikers must walk through heavy vegetation and bushwhack in order to reach it, the statement says. This causes irreversible environmental damage. People leave trash, human waste, create secondary footpaths and trample the area around the tree. Some even bring drones or try to climb Hyperion. The result is degradation of the tree’s base and an unnatural lack of vegetation around it. Increased foot traffic also leads to soil compaction, damaging the tree’s shallow roots.
The park’s statement leaves readers with a choice: “You must decide if you will be part of the preservation of this unique landscape — or will you be part of its destruction?”
—Los Angeles Times
Politicians warn of heightened threat at nuclear arms conference
UNITED NATIONS — Politicians from around the world gathered in New York on Monday for the 10th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, amid heightened tensions over nuclear arms in Russia and Iran.
The U.N. describes the NPT as a landmark international treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to promote cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
It is subject to review every five years, and this the 10th review was to have taken place in 2020 but was postponed on account of the coronavirus pandemic.
It takes place now amid stalling negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal and Russia's war in Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of using its nuclear weapons to intimidate and threaten by engaging in "reckless, dangerous nuclear saber rattling."
Blinken added that there is no place in the world for "nuclear deterrence based on force and intimidation or blackmail."
"We have to stand together in rejecting this," Blinken said.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that the climate crisis, inequality, violent conflicts around the world, and the COVID-19 pandemic have placed the world under huge stress "at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War."
—dpa
