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President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he was granting 39 pardons and 1,499 commutations in what his administation called the “largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.” But it’s not Thursday’s set of commutations that have caught the attention of concerned Americans — it’s those that were quietly given weeks ago to Chinese spies.X user Nick Sortor posted that “Joe Biden just pardoned multiple Chinese spies and an individual convicted of possessing child p*rnography. WHY?”But the thing is, Biden didn’t “just” commute the sentences for these criminals — he did it quietly only days before Thanksgiving.While most Americans...

President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the complex prisoner-swap deal with Russia that freed unjustly imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and two others in exchange for prisoners including Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov as a prodigious “feat of diplomacy.” Biden said all four of the recovered prisoners were “convicted in show trials” by Russia “for absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever.” In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the freed detainees included Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Muza, a U.S. green-card holder and Washington Post contributor who was sentenced to 25 years in prison...

President Joe Biden celebrated the end of the 'brutal ordeal' for Americans 'imprisoned unjustly' inside Russia as he announced a complex prisoner swap and then led a rendition of 'happy birthday' to the teen daughter of a freed prisoner. Biden made a surprise appearance inside the State Dining Room at the White House hours after the historic deal that freed American ex-Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. All were held inside Russia, Whelan since 2018, for 'no legitimate reason whatsoever - none,' Biden said. 'And now they're brutal ordeal is over and they're free.

Imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan were freed from prison in Russia Thursday as part of the largest multi-country prisoner swap since the Cold War. The Americans were among 26 prisoners from the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Russia, and Belarus freed as part of the prisoner exchange overseen by Turkish intelligence, Turkey’s presidency said. Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich spent nearly 500 days in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison alongside serial killers and other political prisoners.

The soldier, who was stationed in Korea and traveled to Russia on his own, is accused of stealing from a woman. A U.S. soldier was detained in Russia last week, a U.S. Army spokesperson said in a statement. He had been stationed in South Korea and traveled to Russia on his own and not on official business, according to four U.S. officials. The soldier is accused of stealing from a woman, the officials said. The soldier was detained on May. 2, U.S. Army spokesperson Cynthia O. Smith, said in a statement. In a statement, Smith said that the soldier was...

American Paul Whelan said he is "extremely concerned about being left behind" in Russia again, as the Biden administration looks to cut a deal with the Kremlin to release U.S. detainees. In one of several phone calls over the Christmas holiday, Whelan told WTOP that the Russians are "adamant" about doing "one-for-one exchanges," which he worries will result in Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's release and not his own. "At this point, the five-year mark, I'm extremely concerned about being left behind a third time," Whelan said. "I'm concerned that the Biden administration will work out a deal for...

The Russian military mission in Syria says that drones of the US-led military coalition violated flight safety rules 14 times today... US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy visiting imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich today... China responding to US-led economic warfare over the manufacture of computer chips...Now China will require government permission to export raw materials... The US State Department putting out a "Level 3" travel advisory for China and Hong Kong... This protest walk in the eastern German town of Bitterfeld this evening. Hundreds expressing opposition to government policies and worsening economic conditions... In France more than 3200...

VIDEO If the Russians had sent a couple of drones to attack the White House Correspondents Dinner while Biden was speaking there, would that have made Sleepy Joe more likely to order that charges against Julian Assange be dropped? Well, no more likely than the Russians are now more disposed to release imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Dershkovich following the drone attack upon the Kremlin in an attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin.Oh, and one possible side effect of such an attack upon the Kremlin is that it could lead to a thermonuclear war that could destroy all life on...

[NOTE: I just posted the following message on Twitter.]Just a thought here: How about if Russia agrees to free the jailed WSJ reporter [Evan Gershkovich] in exchange for the USA dropping ALL charges against Julian Assange so he too can become a FREE man? This offer by Putin would put the ball in Biden's court.Whether or not Biden agrees to the deal, it helps Putin's image. And with that image improvement he would have enough prestige to make a PEACE deal with Ukraine to end that DANGEROUS war and prevent a possible nuclear holocaust. This is even beyond freeing a...

Russian authorities on Thursday arrested an American journalist for The Wall Street Journal on spying charges. Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of “espionage in the interests of the American government,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement, which was reported by state media. The FSB accused Gershkovich of collecting “information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

Russia’s top security agency arrested an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal on espionage charges, the first time a U.S. correspondent was put behind bars on spying accusations since the Cold War. The newspaper denied the allegations against Evan Gershkovich. The Federal Security Service said Thursday that Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information. The FSB, which is the top successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, alleged that Gershkovich “was acting on the U.S. orders to collect information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian...

Ukrainian forces said they hit another base in Russian-occupied Kherson as the leaders of Turkey and the United Nations were expected to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and discuss food shipments from Ukraine and the increasingly tense situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The Ukrainian military’s Southern Command said Thursday that it had struck an ammunition depot in the village of Bilohirka, near the front line of fighting in the Kherson region. The rocket strike is the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted logistics in the Russian-occupied south—part of a strategy to starve Russian troops in the...

At the start of the year, Russia dispatched more than 2,000 troops to its longtime ally Kazakhstan to help put down violent antigovernment unrest. Six weeks later, when Russian troops stormed into Ukraine, Kazakhstan had an opportunity to repay the favor by supporting the invasion. It didn’t.

There wasn’t much left of Russian army Sgt. Andrei Akhromov’s body when it arrived in a zinc coffin at his hometown, a four-hour drive south of Moscow, relatives said. The 21-year-old died in April near the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv when his tank was hit by enemy fire. Sgt. Akhromov’s cousin, Sergei Akhromov, said a representative of the regional governor’s office told the family it took the armed forces three weeks to identify what remained of him using DNA analysis. Loved ones didn’t look into the casket before burying him last week, he said. “I only blame America—not Ukraine, not...