WNBA Star Brittney Griner Release Is Not A Main Concern, Russian Aide Declares – Update

Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison in Russia on drug possession charges, and just last week, her appeal of that sentencing was . Since she was first detained in the country in February, the American government and various human rights organizations have been working round the clock in an effort to bring her home.

UPDATE: A Russian court has upheld the nine-year prison sentence of American basketball star Brittney Griner, drawing a rebuke from President Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who called for Griner’s immediate release and decried the “sham judicial proceeding.”

It’s been eight months since WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport, and one NBA superstar wants to make sure she hasn’t been forgotten.

reported by CNN, Griner's attorneys, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, spent a few hours with her on her birthday. Before they left, she gave them a statement to share with everyone who has been supporting her.«Thank you everyone for fighting so hard to get me home. All the support and love are definitely helping me,» read Griner's statement.The eight-time All-Star is currently only allowed to communicate through her lawyers and letters — all of which are carefully examined by Russian officials before they can be sent.

An adviser to Vladimir Putin has insisted Brittney Griner's release is not a priority for Russia. The 31-year-old basketball star - who normally lives in Houston, Texas with wife Cherelle Griner - was arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling in Russia just days before the country launched the ongoing invasion on Ukraine in February and in August, she was sentenced to nine years behind bars. Although US President Joe Biden has vowed to ensure the sportswoman's freedom, Yury Ushakov - one of the Russian leader's top advisors and the country's ambassador to America from 1998 to 2008 - suggested this was nothing more than a bid to bolster support ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.

House Republican Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York predicted a "big Republican year" in the 2022 midterm elections, saying inflation is the "top reason" behind the projected gains. During a video interview with Fox News Digital, Stefanik said the "energy and enthusiasm" for Republicans is "contagious" and pointed to key issues such as inflation and crime as drivers of people backing the GOP. "People want safety and security.They want to change," Stefanik said.

Joe Biden has taken aim at Liz Truss's mini-budget that led to chaos on the markets and to her sacking Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor.

Russian military forces are expected to continue with pre-planned nuclear testing at the same time as similar NATO drills are expected. NATO announced on Friday the launch of its annual "Steadfast Noon" exercise on Monday.The drill involving 14 countries is expected to mobilize approximately 60 aircraft in regions near the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the North Sea.

Former Central Intelligence Agency officer David Priess defended being a signatory on a letter with more than two dozen other current and former intel agents and experts who claimed the New York Post's Hunter Biden laptop bombshell looked like a "Russian information operation." In October 2020, the Post broke the story about how then-Wilmington computer shopkeeper John-Paul Mac Isaac came into possession of the laptop first son Hunter Biden left at his store near Trolley Square.  A copy of the hard drive was provided to the FBI and another to former New York City Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "It is for all these reasons that we write to say that the arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation," Priess and fellow signatories wrote in-part.

President Biden believes that the three Los Angeles City Council members who were involved in a closed-door meeting, in which racist language was used to describe colleagues, should resign from office, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.  Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez resigned from her leadership role following a leaked audio recording that captured open racist remarks made last year with other Latino council members Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo. FILE: Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez at podium, and Mayor Eric Garcetti, standing to her right, are seen during a news conference at Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles on April 1, 2022.

LGBTQ Nation.Addressing “all the citizens of Russia,” he said, “Do we want to have, here, in our country, in Russia, parent number one, number two, number three instead of mom and dad? Have they gone mad out there? Do we really want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed on children in our schools from the primary grades? To be drummed into them that there are various supposed genders besides women and men, and to be offered a sex change operation? Do we want all this for our country and our children?”Putin’s remarks were a well-timed attempt to blunt criticism from the West of elections, held in Russian-sympathetic territories in eastern Ukraine, in which voters allegedly chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the attack on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea a "terrorist act" carried out by Ukrainian special forces, Russian media outlets are reporting.

Brittney Griner, was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison for drug possession, Cherelle Griner told  co-host Gayle King that she is terrified of the WNBA star's fate. «It's like a movie for me. I'm like, 'In no world did I ever thought, you know, our president and a foreign nation president would be sitting down having to discuss the freedom of my wife.' And so to me, as much as everybody's telling me a different definition of what B.G.