This is a special breaking news update from up first and NPR news.

Hayd's Rachel Martin, Brittany Griner is heading home.

The WNBA star, who has been detained in Russia since February, has been released as part

of a prisoner swap.

The man freed from the U.S. is an notorious Russian arms dealer.

President Biden announced the news about Griner from the White House this morning.

She's safe.

She's on a plane.

She's on her way home.

She's been detained in Russia, held under untolverly circumstances.

Brittany will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones and she should have been there

all along.

With more, we are joined now by NPR White House correspondent Tamra Keith Heitam.

Good morning.

Just described the scene.

It was quite dramatic.

Yeah, early this morning, Biden, Brittany, Griner's wife, Sherelle, and others gathered

in the Oval Office to call Brittany, who by then was on a plane heading home and there

were smiles all around.

She was exchanged at an airport in Abu Dhabi for an arms dealer named Victor Boot, whose

release has long been a priority for the Russians.

And later, Biden announced her release with brief remarks in the Roosevelt Room and

...