EXCLUSIVE: Shortly after news broke Thursday morning that journalist Evan Gershkovich has been freed in a 24-person swap across multiple countries, Gershkovich’s employer, Wall Street Journal, published a detailed account of the complex and difficult behind-the-scenes efforts that led to the diplomatic breakthrough. The story, Inside the Secret Negotiations to Free Evan Gershkovich by Joe Parkinson, Drew Hinshaw, Bojan Pancevski and Aruna Viswanatha, reads like a spy thriller and sparked immediate interest from top Hollywood players. Gershkovich was arrested in April 2023 and later sentenced to 16 years in prison. Evan Gershkovich greets mother Ella Milman at Joint Base Andrews Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesBut at its heart, it is the story of a mother, Ella Milman, who would not give up on her mission to bring her son home. “To me, this is about the essence of who we are as a country,” President Joe Biden said after the deal was announced.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 03, 2024 12:27 UTC