US President-elect, Donald Trump had hinted at mass pardons for defendants tied to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot just hours after President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Sunday night.

Hunter Biden, 54, is now off the hook after he was scheduled to be sentenced on separate federal gun and tax evasion cases later this month.

The first son pleaded guilty in September to nine counts tied to evading from the government $1.4 million in taxes and was convicted of three federal gun charges in June for possessing a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine.

Biden, 82, argued on Sunday his son was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” — and issued a sweeping pardon that covered any offenses committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024.

He previously claimed he would not take action to help his son, telling reporters at a press conference during the G7 summit in June: “I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”

In his Sunday night statement, Biden did an about-face, saying: “There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Reacting on Truth Social, Trump said;

“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump reacts to Joe Biden

The 45th president, who won back the White House last month, floated pardons during his campaign for the more than 1,500 defendants either still facing trials or those already convicted for breaching the Capitol as Congress was voting to certify Biden’s 2020 election win over Trump.

Trump’s transition also sent out a statement that blasted the Justice Department while vowing to fix the federal agency. It made no mention of Biden or his son.

“The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

“That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people.”

President Joe Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, after he was convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year.

The White House made the announcement on Sunday night.

Hunter, 54, had pleaded guilty in a separate felony tax case in September.

He was also found guilty of making a false statement in a gun case.

“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” Biden wrote in a statement.

“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”

“It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”

Fox News reports that Biden pardoning his son marks a departure from his previous remarks to the media declaring he would not pardon the first son.

Russia needs migrants in order to develop because of its dwindling domestic workforce, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview published on Friday, Nov. 22.

“Migrants are a necessity,” he told state news agency RIA Novosti.

“We have a tense demographic situation. We live in the largest country in the world but there aren’t that many of us,” he said.

Earlier this week, Russia’s parliament approved legislation banning “child-free propaganda”, effectively outlawing any person or organisation from encouraging others not to have children.

It was a move designed to help remedy a demographic crisis inherited from the Soviet era and which has worsened since the conflict in Ukraine.

“We need a labour force in order to have dynamic development and carry out all our development projects,” Peskov said.

He said Russian authorities welcomed migration.

Anti-migrant rhetoric is common in Russia, especially towards labourers from ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia who fill key sectors of the economy.

In July, the Kremlin acknowledged the low population was “disastrous for the future of the nation”.

The country’s population has not recovered since Soviet times despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government offering generous payouts and mortgage subsidies to large families.

Recent demographic problems include a low birth rate, large numbers of Covid deaths and hundreds of thousands of men fleeing the country to avoid being mobilised to fight in Ukraine.

In 2023, the fertility rate was 1.41 births per woman of child-bearing age, according to estimates from the national statistics office Rosstat, cited by news outlet RBC.

That is under the 2.0 rate needed to replace the existing population.

Rosstat figures show 920,200 babies were born in Russia between January and September this year, a 3.4 percent drop on the same period last year.

Russian media said that was the lowest number of births since the 1990s.