U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich goes on trial in Russia

Gershkovich, 32, became the first Western journalist to be arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War when he was detained in March 2023 on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg. The WSJ on Wednesday slammed the proceedings as a "sham trial", and his family called on the White House to push for his release. Gershkovich's parents, who fled repression in the Soviet Union and settled in the United States in the 1970s, told AFP this year that they were counting on a "very personal promise" from U.S. President Joe Biden to bring him home.