![Brittney Griner will return to the WNBA and the Phoenix Mercury](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2023/02/19/4629af22-eac3-494b-acc9-96fc1fbcc964/thumbnail/1200x630/3604281904513bc0b4fe58c666b02a8b/gettyimages-1345616011.jpg)
Brittney Griner will return to the WNBA and the Phoenix Mercury
CBSN
Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who was detained in Russia for nearly ten months, will be re-signing with the Phoenix Mercury for a one-year contract, a source confirmed to CBS News on Sunday.
The 32-year-old spent nearly 300 days in Russia, after she was arrested for marijuana possession while traveling to the country to play basketball during the WNBA off-season. The Biden administration considered her detention and trial as politically motivated. Moscow released the athlete in a swap for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
After Griner's release in December, she took to Instagram to say she intended to once again play for the Mercury, where she has been a center since 2013. She had been a free agent until her re-signing.
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
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The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.