December 9, 2022 — Today’s Biggest News Stories

Brittney Griner was released from a Russian penal colony on Thursday and is on her way back to the US, President Joe Biden said.

The WNBA player and two-time Olympic gold medalist had been detained since February when she was arrested at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges of hashish oil in her luggage. Her arrest took place just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, and she was sentenced to nine years in prison.

According to CNN and CBS, Griner was released as part of a prisoner swap for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Paul Whelan, a former Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018, was not released as part of the deal. “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s,” Biden said. “And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up — we will never give up.”

Cherelle Griner, Brittney’s wife, said the two of them “will remain committed to the work of getting every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today as we celebrate BG being home.”

The campaign to bring Brittney Griner home will now advocate for 13 other Americans incarcerated abroad, her agent said

• The We Are BG coalition — led by Cherelle Griner with Brittney Griner’s agent Lindsay Colas — will continue to do its part in reuniting families with their relatives who are being held overseas. In addition to Whelan, Colas said the coalition will advocate for 12 other Americans: Emad Shargi, Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, and Shahab Dalili in Iran; Luke Denman, Airan Berry, and Eyvin Hernandez in Venezuela; Kai Li and Mark Swidan in China; Majd Kamalmaz in Syria; Jeffery Woodke in Mali; and Paul Rusesabagina in Rwanda.

• In a statement to CBS News, Paul Whelan’s brother David Whelan said he is “so glad” to hear of Griner’s release and that the family does “not begrudge Ms. Griner her freedom.” “As a family member of a Russian hostage, I can literally only imagine the joy she will have, being reunited with her loved ones, and in time for the holidays,” he wrote.

SNAPSHOTS

Understanding stiff-person syndrome, the extremely rare neurological disorder that Céline Dion was recently diagnosed with. There aren’t clear risk factors that make someone more likely to develop SPS, but twice as many women as men are diagnosed with the condition, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The “Boy in the Box” victim who was found dead in 1957 has finally been identified. Over the years, thousands of leads and hundreds of theories emerged regarding who the boy was and what happened to him. There is still a $20,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest or conviction in this case.

Prince Harry said members of the royal family treated Meghan Markle’s media harassment as a “rite of passage.” “The fact that I was dating an American actress was probably what clouded their judgment more than anything else at the beginning,” Harry said in the couple’s new Netflix docuseries. “‘Oh, she’s an American actress, this won’t last.’”

Former Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch admitted she lied about having cancer, her brother’s suicide, and having an abortion because she “needed support and attention.” Finch revealed she was actually first exposed by her wife, Jennifer Beyer.