Biden and Harris speak with Cherelle Griner, wife of detained WNBA star Brittney Griner
CBSN
Washington — President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke Wednesday with Cherelle Griner, the wife of WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, who remains behind bars in Russia, the White House said.
Griner has been imprisoned in Russia since February, and her trial began last week. The Biden administration has been under increasing pressure to do more to secure her release.
The call comes two days after a handwritten letter by the 31-year-old Griner to Mr. Biden was delivered to the White House, according to her family, in which she implored the president to bring her home. "I'm terrified I might be here forever," the Phoenix Mercury player wrote.
An Arizona grand jury indicted 18 people Wednesday in the ongoing investigation into an alleged attempt to use alternate electors after the 2020 presidential election as part of a wider alleged conspiracy to falsely declare then-President Donald Trump the winner, the state's attorney general announced.
Almost four out of every 10 people in the United States live in a place where air pollution is considered bad enough to put their health at risk, the American Lung Association warned in its latest "State of the Air" report released on Wednesday. That proportion of people — about 39% of the population — had risen sharply since earlier rounds of pollutant data were analyzed for the annual report last year, and the trends were especially pronounced in certain parts of the country.