Washington and Moscow agreed to a massive swap of political prisoners, which includes the return of a jailed Wall Street Journal reporter and a former U.S. Marine. Early reports say as many as two dozen individuals held in the U.S., Europe and Russia are involved in the exchange.

The Washington Times’ Jeff Mordock is tracking the breaking news today. The two wrongfully detained American citizens had both been held in Moscow.

It’s the first major prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia since 2022, when the Biden administration secured the release of imprisoned WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The Middle East is once again staring down the barrel of a wider war as Israel and Iran trade threats following the apparent assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Israel is widely believed to have been behind the strike, though it has not officially claimed responsibility for it.

Iran’s supreme leader has already vowed revenge on Israel, and new details emerged Thursday morning about exactly what Tehran’s revenge plan may look like. Iranian officials are reportedly set to meet Thursday with the leaders of its axis of resistance: Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and a network of Shiite militias who operate in Iraq and Syria.

Those proxy groups, analysts believe, are likely to be the tip of the spear for Iran in its response against Israel.

But Israel has dealt a series of major blows to that proxy network. The Israeli military confirmed Thursday that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, had been killed in an earlier airstrike in Gaza in July. The confirmation comes just days after Israel targeted and killed Hezbollah official Fouad Shukur, whom Israel said was responsible for last weekend’s Golan Heights attack that killed 12 teenagers at a playground.

And there are fascinating new details emerging about how exactly Mr. Haniyeh may have been killed: a bomb smuggled into the guesthouse in Tehran where he was staying while attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president.

As Iran plots its next move, the former head of U.S. Central Command has a simple message for Tehran: Think twice before attacking Israel directly.

Retired Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, who led the U.S. Mideast command from 2019 to 2022, spoke with Mr. Wolfgang in an exclusive interview about the possibility of escalation in the region and the likelihood that Iran might launch full-scale attacks on the Jewish state.

The big takeaway here: Gen. McKenzie says that Iran should know it can’t compete with Israel in a one-on-one military face-off, as evidenced by the failure of its April drone-and-missile assault on Israel.

“Last time they tried this, on April 13, it was a spectacular failure in all dimensions. And they’ve got to think about that as they think about how they want to respond,” Gen. McKenzie told Threat Status. “I do not believe that a massive Iranian response is inevitable. … They’ll do something, I’m sure. I don’t know that it will be a major attack.”

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of being the main plotter in al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, has agreed to plead guilty, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Two accomplices, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are also expected to plead guilty during a hearing next week at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The exact details of the plea agreement are unclear, amid reports the defendants will be spared the death penalty. But it appears as if there may finally be legal closure to a case that’s been dragging on for more than two decades.

And not everyone is happy about it. House Speaker Mike Johnson blasted the Biden administration for striking deals with the alleged terrorists, calling it “unthinkable” and saying it’s highly disrespectful to the families of 9/11 victims.

“This plea deal is a slap in the face of those families. They deserved better from the Biden-Harris administration,” the speaker said in a social media post.

Another bit of 9/11 news: In a federal court Wednesday, lawyers for Saudi Arabia argued that the country fought against terrorism and al Qaeda in the 1990s, and should not be a defendant in lawsuits seeking more than $100 billion for relatives of individuals killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Times’ Bill Gertz has a fascinating look inside one of the Pentagon’s most closely guarded secrets: the nation’s approach to countering foreign spies.

Mr. Gertz reports that Tonya P. Wilkerson, nominated to be the Defense Department’s undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, revealed in written responses to questions posed by the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon has adopted a new strategy calling for the use of offensive action to thwart spies.

Efforts to employ more aggressive strategic offensive operations — including greater targeting of foreign spy services, increased use of double agents and seeking more in-place intelligence defectors — had long been opposed by many intelligence community leaders as too risky and potentially counterproductive, according to former U.S. counterintelligence officials. But faced with mounting 21st-century threats, America’s approach is shifting.

Drug trafficking. Narco-terrorism. Human rights abuses. Nullifying a failed presidential election. Sound familiar? The Times’ Assistant Commentary Editor Jeffrey Scott Shapiro poses the question of whether embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been borrowing from the 1980s playbook of Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega. In 1989, the U.S. launched Operation Just Cause to capture Noriega, make him answer for his crimes and safeguard Panama to defend human rights and democracy.

Perhaps Mr. Maduro should face a similar policy, Mr. Shapiro argues.

“Like his Panamanian predecessor, Mr. Maduro has evaded justice for several years. The U.S. should ensure he faces a similar fate and answer for his crimes against the United States and humanity — by facing the scales of justice in an American court,” Mr. Shapiro writes.

• Aug. 6 — Organized Crime & Violence in Mexico: Considerations for Future Nearshoring Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Wilson Center

• Aug. 7 — Preserving the Free Flow of Commerce in the Red Sea and Beyond: An Update from Fifth Fleet Commander VADM George Wikoff, USN, Center for Strategic and International Studies

• Aug. 7 — Navigating Global Challenges: A Conversation with Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral Lunday, Brookings Institution

• Aug. 8 — Over the Brink: Escalation Management in a Protracted U.S.-PRC Conflict, Center for a New American Security