U.S. diplomats are “actively engaged” with their Russian counterparts to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and fellow American Paul Whelan, possibly in a prisoner swap. “We have to see if the engagements that we’ve had, the discussions that we have, produced an actual result. That’s the most important thing, but we are not resting on the laurels of having put forward a proposal some months ago. We’ve been actively engaged over these many months to try to move things forward,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, Dec. 4, on CBS News’ Face the Nation. (https://www.bet.com/article/muluo5/top-us-diplomat-says-administration-actively-engaged-prisoner-swap-brittney-griner) A Russian diplomat said in November that the two sides could reach a prisoner swap agreement this year that could bring home Griner and Whelan, a former U.S. Marine detained in Russia since 2018 on alleged espionage charges.