Morning Wire XX
[0] After months of talks between Washington and the Kremlin, WNBA star Brittany Griner has been released from a Russian prison in a prisoner swap for an infamous Russian arms dealer.
[1] The most important emotion that I have right now is just sincere gratitude.
[2] What is Griner's family saying?
[3] And why are some highly critical of the exchange?
[4] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howl.
[5] It's Friday, December 9th, and this is Morning Wire.
[6] The New Zealand government took customer.
[7] of an infant after his parents requested unvaccinated blood for the child's required transfusion.
[8] What's next for the family?
[9] And is there a growing marketplace for what's being called clean blood?
[10] And the makers of American Girl Doll are under fire for endorsing gender transition in a new book about puberty.
[11] What exactly did the book say?
[12] And why are parents saying they've lost trust in the brand?
[13] Thanks for waking up with Morningwire.
[14] Stay tuned.
[15] We have the news you need to know.
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[23] WNBA star Brittany Griner, who was arrested in Moscow in February, has been released from Russian prison after months of negotiations in a growing public movement for her release.
[24] But while Americans are cheering the news, the terms of that release, including that Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman helped broker the deal, have sparked controversy.
[25] David Cohn, co -host of Crane & Company, is here to tell us more.
[26] All right, so David, Griner is now free.
[27] where is she now and how did her lawyers make that happen?
[28] Yes, Brittany Griner has been released from the penal colony where she was imprisoned.
[29] President Biden tweeted early Thursday morning, moments ago I spoke to Brittany Griner.
[30] She is safe.
[31] She is on a plane.
[32] She is on her way home.
[33] Her spouse, Shirel, also delivered a statement Thursday upon her release, thanking everyone who stood by them through the extremely difficult situation.
[34] Today my family is whole, but as you all are aware, there are so many other families who are not whole.
[35] And so BG is not here to say this, but I will gladly speak on her behalf and say that BG and I will remain committed to the work of getting every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today as we celebrate BG being home.
[36] Griner's release comes by way of a one -for -one prisoner exchange in which the Biden administration traded convicted Russian arms dealer Victor Bout.
[37] It's also worth noting Georgia, Paul Whelan, the former Marine who was imprisoned in Moscow four years ago this month on charges of espionage was not a part of this exchange, despite attempts by the State Department to include him in negotiations.
[38] Right.
[39] Well, and the administration's inability to get Weelandfried has also been the subject of a lot of criticism, as has the role that Saudi Arabia may or may not have played there.
[40] Now, let's talk about the criminal that Griner was swapped for.
[41] That's Victor Bout.
[42] Tell us more about him.
[43] Well, he's known by the infamous moniker, the merchant of death.
[44] He was arrested in 2008 during a joint sting operation involving the U .S. and the Royal Thailand Police.
[45] He was then convicted in 2011.
[46] by a jury in Manhattan federal court of conspiracy to kill U .S. citizens and officials.
[47] Bout purportedly has deep ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin and the 2005 film Lord of War is supposedly based on Bout's black market activities.
[48] Right.
[49] So a lot of concern going forward about the threat that his release might pose to America and our allies, as well as the signal that it sends trading him.
[50] Now, just let's review, for people who have not been following the Brittany Griner story, how long has she been in custody and what was she convicted for?
[51] So, Brittany Griner was arrested on February 17th at an airport just outside of Moscow for traveling with what customs officials described as vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is a cannabis product.
[52] At that point, Griner was jailed while awaiting trial.
[53] Her reason for being in Russia was to play club basketball there, during the WMBA offseason.
[54] Now, the public did not find out about her imprisonment for a few weeks because one week later, February 24th, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine on the orders of Vladimir Putin.
[55] That move, of course, has complicated the U .S.'s relationship with Russia in many respects beyond just this matter.
[56] It wasn't until March 5th that the news officially broke of Griner's detainment.
[57] Roughly two months later, on May 3rd, the U .S. for the first time, declared that Greiner was being wrongfully detained.
[58] Then on Independence Day, Brittany Greiner penned a letter to President Biden in which she pleaded for his help.
[59] By this time, the public was aware that the State Department was negotiating a prisoner exchange with the Kremlin.
[60] Three days after that, on July 7th, Griner pleaded guilty to the drug charges, and then about a month later, on August 4th, the two -time Olympic gold medalist was found guilty in sentenced to nine years in Russian prison.
[61] She was then move to a penal colony 200 miles from Moscow on November 17th, where she has stayed until her release Thursday morning.
[62] So Brittany Greiner is finally free.
[63] That's fantastic.
[64] Let's hope we can now see that same level of urgency applied to Wieland's release.
[65] Let's hope.
[66] All right.
[67] Well, David, thanks so much for reporting.
[68] Thank you, Georgia.
[69] That was Crane & Company co -host David Cohn.
[70] Coming up, a child is in government custody in New Zealand after a family requests unvaccinated blood for a transfusion.
[71] Hey guys, producer Brandon here.
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[79] Parents in New Zealand have lost medical custody of their critically ill baby after requesting non -vaccinated blood for necessary transfusions.
[80] Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo.
[81] Amanda, this seems like an urgent and rather complicated situation.
[82] What is this child facing and why are the courts involved?
[83] Hi, John.
[84] Yes, definitely an urgent matter.
[85] The six -month -old baby boy, who's not being named for legal reasons, he has a congenital heart defect and needs a heart operation to survive.
[86] The child's parents also want him to get the surgery, but they requested that the hospital used blood from pre -approved donors who have not received the MRI COVID vaccine.
[87] The parents say that they're worried about risks the vaccine might bring to their baby and that they have lined up donors willing to give this blood.
[88] The hospital, though, said no. They said there were no known risks associated with COVID -vaccinated blood transfusions and that they could not accommodate the request.
[89] The issue ended up going to the court, and the court sided with the health officials.
[90] All right, so did the hospital say it just wasn't feasible to choose a specific donor for the blood?
[91] Well, health officials don't want to set this precedent of patients choosing their own blood because of the chaos that could cause to the health care system.
[92] They also argued that the approved donors might not be able to provide all the necessary blood products and that there isn't a medical reason to not use blood from banks.
[93] What's notable about this case is that the judge went ahead and awarded the state medical custody of the child until after the surgery.
[94] Justice Ian Galt made it clear in his ruling that these are loving parents who want the best for their child and that they want the surgery too.
[95] But the state has the right to make medical decisions with respect to this heart operation.
[96] Well, this family is not the first to make a request like this.
[97] We recently heard about a growing market for so -called clean blood.
[98] What can you tell us about that development?
[99] Yeah, there certainly seems to be.
[100] Right now we have a Swiss nonprofit building a global network called Safe Blood Donation.
[101] And what they're doing is they're trying to connect unvaccinated blood donors with recipients looking for this clean blood.
[102] The founder said who created this network for people who want to have a free choice of blood donors for whatever reason that might be.
[103] But this is a long ways away from being a viable solution for most people.
[104] Getting hospitals insurers to accept these alternate blood banks would be a major undertaking.
[105] Regardless, safe blood's end goal is to open blood banks worldwide for its members.
[106] For now, the nonprofit is asking hospitals and health officials to accept direct donations of unvaccinated blood from willing donors.
[107] Well, a complex issue here for sure.
[108] Amanda, thanks for reporting.
[109] Yeah, my pleasure.
[110] That was Daily Wire Reporter, Amanda Presta Giacomo.
[111] The American Girl brand, known for its popular line of historic dolls, is under fire for a new book about puberty that encourages girls to question their gender and includes advice on how to access puberty blocking hormones.
[112] Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham, is here to tell us a little more.
[113] So, Megan, just cutting to the chase here, what's the exact language in this book that has parents so upset?
[114] Well, the name of the book is The Smart Girls Guide to Body Image, and it's available online or you can get it at American Girl stores.
[115] And this particular line of books, I'll preface by saying, is targeted at girls from around age 8 to 12, and it's basically what to expect during puberty.
[116] Well, in a section with the heading, Gender Joy, the book discusses how gender is separate from sex and that a person might not know what their gender is and that they might want to take medicine to halt uncomfortable changes.
[117] So I'll just read a few verbatim quotes here.
[118] So the section starts out with this.
[119] The way you show your gender to the world through clothes and behaviors is your gender expression.
[120] Your gender expression can be feminine, masculine, or somewhere in between.
[121] And it might change.
[122] The book then continues.
[123] Parts of your body may make you feel uncomfortable and you may want to change the way you look.
[124] That's totally okay.
[125] You can appreciate your body for everything it allows you to experience and still want to change certain things about it.
[126] And then this is the part that's getting especially a lot of attention.
[127] If you haven't gone through puberty yet, the doctor might offer medicine to delay your body's changes, giving you more time to think about your gender identity.
[128] So the book clearly seems to be endorsing puberty blockers there.
[129] And it then follows that up by saying, again, quote, studies show that transgender and non -binary kids who get help from doctors have much better mental health than those who don't.
[130] And then it finishes by providing a list of organizations that girls can contact if they're questioning their gender and don't think they can trust their parents.
[131] And that list includes LGBT activist groups like the Trevor Project and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
[132] Why is it just now getting press?
[133] So my guess is no one noticed the content before now because parents don't really think they need to review American Girl books for controversial gender messaging.
[134] And the first revelations about it popped up at the religious news outlet, The Christian Post.
[135] A small business owner and mom of two girls ages 8 and 10 came across the material in an American Girl's store and she wrote an op -ed about it in November.
[136] So I spoke to that mom who is choosing not to share her name and she said she actually first noticed signs that American girl was promoting gender ideology in products for very young children.
[137] One of the main clues was the introduction of a feminine boy doll for ages three to six in their Willie Wishers line.
[138] And I was really, my head started to turn when I saw that come out.
[139] And I've seen it coming in so many ways, but I knew that there's no ground that I can consider is safe anymore.
[140] I have to say, no, these ideologues will not have my children and therefore I must vet every single thing that comes before my children's eyes.
[141] To that point, I had one teacher tell me that she's been recommending an older version of this book to other moms for years as a resource for girls who are entering adolescence.
[142] She said she feels betrayed.
[143] Well, I guess this is just a reminder to look at the stuff your kids are reading.
[144] Megan, thanks so much for reporting.
[145] My pleasure.
[146] That was Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.
[147] Another story we're tracking this week.
[148] Independent journalist Barry Weiss published the latest update in what are being called the Twitter files Thursday night.
[149] Weiss revealed that contrary to Twitter's previous denials, the site routinely shadow -banned users for what appear to be political or ideological reasons.
[150] Using the term visibility filtering, content moderators added popular conservative pundits, medical experts who questioned COVID policies, and others to blacklist they were.
[151] were never informed they were on.
[152] Once on the list, their posts would be blocked from trending, appearing in search results, and generally deamplified by the algorithm.
[153] Weiss said these findings were confirmed not only by internal Twitter records, but by Twitter employees.
[154] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[155] Thanks for waking up with us.
[156] We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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