Today is Thursday, December 21st.

We'll tell you about one of the biggest and multifaceted hostage deals the U.S. has ever made

with a hostile foreign government.

Also heavy rain, snow and flooding are impacting millions of Americans ahead of some busy travel days.

Plus, who might be getting a Christmas bonus from the IRS.

Which startup that was one of the fastest to hit a billion dollar valuation is now filing for bankruptcy.

And all about the first day of winter.

Those stories and even more news to know next.

Welcome, welcome to the Newsworthy.

All the day's news in around 10 minutes. Fast, fair, fun, and on the go.

I'm Erica Mandy, thanks so much for being here. You're ready? Let's do this. Well it took months of negotiations between top American and

Venezuelan officials, but in the end they reached a deal that included the

largest release of American prisoners

in Venezuela's history.

Ten Americans who have been in Venezuelan custody arrived back on American soil last night

as part of the high profile prisoner swap.

White House officials simply said the swap was 10 Americans and a fugitive from justice

in exchange for one Venezuelan prisoner in US custody,

though there is more to it than that. On top of the 10 Americans, the

fugitive the Biden administration got back on U.S. soil is a defense contractor

known as Fat Leonard. He's at the center of one of the U.S. Navy's

largest corruption cases.

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