News Wrap: Brittney Griner returns to the U.S. amid discussions about more prisoner swaps

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Brittney Griner is back in the United States tonight, a day after the Russians traded her for a convicted arms dealer. The WNBA star returned before dawn, and questions about prospects for additional prisoner swaps.

  William Brangham has our story.

• William Brangham:

  It was a homecoming 10 months delayed, as the plane carrying Brittney Griner touched down on U.S. soil early this morning.

  Her first stop, Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, a hospital that, along with other care, treats civilians and military personnel who have undergone trauma or torture.

  White House officials confirmed the WNBA star and two-time gold medalist appeared to be in good health and she has been reunited with her wife, Cherelle. Russian authorities arrested Griner back in February after finding vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She was sentenced and then imprisoned in a Russian penal colony.

  Her release yesterday was part of a high-profile prisoner swap for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. He was reunited with his family back in Moscow. Russian state media hailed Bout's release as a win for President Vladimir Putin.

• Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary:

  Good afternoon, everybody.

• William Brangham:

  White House officials defended the exchange.

• Karine Jean-Pierre:

  It was either Brittney Griner, one American, or no American. And so that's how we see the negotiation that was presented in front of us. And that's the very difficult decision that the president had to make.

• William Brangham:

  Today, Putin left open the possibility of further prisoner exchanges.

• Vladimir Putin, Russian President (through translator):

  Everything is possible. This is the result of negotiations in search of a compromise. In this case, compromises were found, and we are not against continuing this work in the future.

• William Brangham:

  The U.S. is still trying to win the release of Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who the U.S. says was wrongfully jailed by the Russians in 2018 for alleged espionage.

  State Department officials confirmed talks between Washington and Moscow are ongoing.

• Vedant Patel, Principal Deputy State Department Spokesperson:

  This is something that we are going to continue to work on. It's something that this department continues to be engaged on tirelessly. And, of course, it is our hope that we are able to bring Paul home very soon.

• William Brangham:

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Reports out of Ukraine say that Russian shelling in the east is intensifying.

  Buildings were heavily damaged in the city center of Donetsk today. The assault left behind a shell of what had been a university campus. Moscow illegally proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk as Russian territory in September.

  There's been a political shakeup in the U.S. Senate today. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema switched her official registration from Democrat to independent. But she will not caucus with Republicans, so Democrats will keep their narrow majority.

  In Mesa, Arizona, today, Sinema said rising partisan divisions drove her decision.

• Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ):

  Arizonans know that I don't spend much time talking about the politics or the electoral stuff. I really just stay focused on the work that is ahead of us.

  And so today's announcement is a reflection of my values, and I think the values of most Arizonans, who are tired of a political system that pulls people to the edges and really doesn't reflect who we are as a people.

• Judy Woodruff:

  We will return to this after the news summary.

  U.S. health experts urged older Americans today to get COVID-19 boosters before the holidays. They said only about a third of those 65 and older have received updated boosters. Meanwhile, the CDC approved the new shots for children as young as 6 months today.

  We will focus on all of this and more with Dr. Anthony Fauci later in the program.

  Social media users in China are reporting rising COVID cases now that pandemic restrictions have eased. In Baoding, a city southwest of Beijing, streets were mostly empty today. Shop owners, including one man who did not give his name, said fear is keeping people at home.

• Speaker (through translator):

  Look at how it is now. There's hardly anybody outside. People only come out to buy their daily necessities. They still take self-protection measures by not going out. Basically, there's hardly anyone on the streets.

• Judy Woodruff:

  There were similar reports from other cities across China.

  Back in this country, one of the former Minneapolis police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd was sentenced today to 3.5 years in state prison. J. Alexander Kueng helped to restrain Floyd during a fatal encounter in may 2020. Kueng is already serving federal prison time for violating Floyd's civil rights.

  Inflation at the wholesale level has risen again. The U.S. Labor Department says that producer prices were up 7.4 percent in November from a year earlier. Now, that was down from October, but still more than economists had expected. The latest look at consumer prices comes out next week.

  And, on Wall Street, the inflation news was bad news to stock traders. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 305 points to close at 33476. The Nasdaq fell 77 points. The S&P 500 slipped 29. For the week, the Dow lost nearly 3 percent. The Nasdaq fell more than 3 percent. The S&P 500 dropped 4 percent.

  Still to come on the "NewsHour": Dr. Anthony Fauci addresses the uptick in respiratory illnesses this holiday season; a space historian examines the parallels between NASA's first moon landing and the current Artemis mission; author and Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux reflects on her genre-bending work; plus much more.

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