U.S. offers Russia a deal for the release of Brittney Griner

TheU.S. has offered a deal to Russia aimed at bringing home WNBA star Brittney Griner and another jugged American, Paul Whelan, Secretary of State Antony Blinker said Wednesday. In a sharp reversal of former policy, Blinker also said he expects to speak with his Kremlin counterpart for the first time since before Russia raided Ukraine. The statement marked the first time theU.S. government has intimately revealed any concrete action it has taken to secure the release of Grainer, who was arrested on medicine-affiliated charges at a Moscow field in February and witnessed Wednesday at hertrial.At her trial Wednesday, Griner said she didn't know how the cannabis oil painting ended up in her bag but explained she had a croaker 's recommendation for it and had packed in haste. She said she was pulled away at the field after inspectors set up the charges, but that a language practitioner restated only a bit of what was said during her questioning and that officers instructed her to su...