(NewsNation) — As Brittney Griner’s family celebrates her return, there’s another family in a completely different situation: the family of Marc Fogel.

Fogel is the other American detained in a Russian prison on a marijuana charge. But unlike WNBA superstar Brittney Griner, his case hasn’t gotten international attention.

“I surely hope they won’t keep him for 14 years; if they kept him for 10, that wouldn’t be good either. The uncertainty of it all is brutal,” Anne Fogel, Marc’s sister, said on NewsNation’s “CUOMO.”

Anne Fogel said that while she’s happy about the release of Griner, her family has mixed emotions.

“We’re really kept in the dark on what the issue is of why he (Marc) would be left out of this process. Although, they’ve told us that he’s not left out of the process, that he is always at the top of the conversation … that they are still considering the situation,” Fogel said. “I don’t understand why they’re holding this up. … Unless they believe that he is lawfully there? That he deserves a 14-year punishment for this.”

Marc’s sister pleaded for officials to help get him home too.

“I don’t understand why they’re holding this up unless they believe he is lawfully there, that he deserves a 14-year punishment for this,” she said.

The similarities in Griner’s and Fogel’s cases are striking.

Both were temporarily working in Russia. Fogel was in Russia working as an English teacher. Griner was playing in a summer basketball league.

Both were stopped by customs agents for small amounts of marijuana. Fogel was arrested for half an ounce of doctor-prescribed medicinal marijuana. Griner was arrested for less than 1 gram of cannabis oil.

Both were given unusually harsh sentences. Fogel was sentenced to 14 years to Griner’s 9-year sentence.

But the difference in how the U.S. government has handled each case highlights the often complicated nature of diplomacy around getting Americans detained overseas back home. The State Department makes the call on whether Americans are “wrongfully” detained, like it did in Griner’s case.

If the American overseas meets certain criteria, like being innocent for example or targeted for their American citizenship or held to secure concessions. But for Fogel, despite pressure from his family, lawmakers and attorneys, the state department so far has not said he was wrongfully detained.

“I think every time we make an exchange with a rogue state, with a totalitarian country, with a terrorist group, we are setting a price, in effect, on other Americans,” said former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

While the Biden administration got praise for getting Griner home, they also faced criticism from some for negotiating with Russia in the first place.

And for failing to secure the release of Marine Paul Whelan, who has been detained in Russian prison for three years and counting.

Griner’s release brought attention to dozens of American families whose loved ones are still imprisoned in Russia, Iran, China, Japan, Syria and Venezuela.

France were leading England 1-0 at halftime in the last quarter-final match of the World Cup after Aurelien Tchouameni put the reigning champions in front after 17 minutes with a long-range strike on Saturday.

Shortly after Olivier Giroud had tested Jordan Pickford in the England goal with a header, midfielder Tchouameni found space outside the box and struck a shot that found the bottom corner at the Al Bayt stadium.

France keeper Hugo Lloris kept out his Tottenham Hotspur team mate Harry Kane twice while the England skipper felt aggrieved when he was denied a penalty following a challenge from Dayot Upamecano on the edge of the box.

The winners will play Morocco in the semi-finals at the same venue on Wednesday.

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A Mauritanian man who received a death penalty in Mali for involvement in attacks that killed dozens including an American in 2015, was extradited to the United States to face a six-count indictment related to the same crime, the Justice Department said on Saturday.

Fawaz Ould Ahmed was taken into custody by the United States and brought to New York on Friday, the Justice Department said in a statement. Ahmed received a death penalty in Mali after pleading guilty to planning and executing the deadly attacks targeting Westerners.

Ahmed, 44, faces charges including the murder of U.S. citizen Anita Ashok Datar and conspiracy to provide support to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al Mourabitoun, according to the Justice Department.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Cho ordered that Ahmed be detained pending trial.

Ahmed “now faces justice in a U.S. courtroom for the carnage that was carried out allegedly at his direction,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said in the statement.

Ahmed told a Malian court in 2020 he carried out an attack on La Terrace restaurant that killed five and that he was also involved in planning a raid at Hotel Byblos in the town of Sevare and another at Bamako’s Radisson Blu hotel.

The Justice Department said a total of 38 people had died in the three incidents.

“The defendant’s alleged actions — inhumanely plotting and carrying out ruthless terrorist attacks — were not forgotten and will not be forgiven,” said FBI assistant director-in-charge Michael Driscoll.

The attacks in 2015, just months after Islamist militants in Paris stormed the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and shot dead 12 people, marked a brazen new phase in jihadist operations across West Africa. The campaign hit top hotels and destinations frequented by Western tourists, aid workers and diplomats, which were no longer considered safe.

Ahmed told the Malian court that he did not regret the attacks and that he had been seeking revenge for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad printed in Charlie Hebdo.

He was captured in Bamako in 2016 as he was preparing to carry out another attack armed with grenades and a suitcase filled with weapons on behalf of al Mourabitoun, Reuters has reported, citing local authorities.

MITROVICA, Kosovo (Reuters) -Kosovo Serbs and country’s police exchanged gunfire on Saturday after a flareup of tensions in the volatile northern part of the country.

Earlier in the day Serbs from Kosovo’s north blocked main roads in the region to protest against the arrest of a former member of the Kosovo police who quit his post last month along with other ethnic Serbs.

With a crisis mounting in the majority Serb north, Kosovo’s president Vjosa Osmani on Saturday announced that local elections in that area would be delayed until April 23. Elections had been scheduled for Dec. 18 but Serbs said they would boycott the polls.

Police said the blockade halted traffic and they were forced to close two border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia. Later, they said they came under fire in several locations close to a lake bordering Serbia. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

“Police units, in self-defense, were forced to respond with firearms to the criminals who were repulsed and run in unknown directions,” police said in a statement.

Gunshots were also heard in other locations in the northern part of the country.

Police in Pristina said former policeman Dejan Pantic was arrested for allegedly attacking election commission offices, police officers and election officials on Tuesday.

Serb mayors in northern Kosovo municipalities, along with local judges and some 600 police officers, resigned last month in protest over a government decision to replace Belgrade-issued car license plates with ones issued by Pristina.

“Serbia has instructed its illegal structures to set up barricades in the north Kosovo. Belgrade bears the full responsibility for any escalation,” Blerim Vela, Kosovo’s presidential chief of staff said on Twitter.

Earlier, Kosovo police arrested another Serb on suspicion of taking part in an armed attack on a police patrol. On Thursday, a policeman was injured in an attack on a patrol after police ranks in the area had been reinforced by non-Serb officers following the mass resignations.

In an urgent press conference, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said he would ask NATO’s KFOR peacekeeper mission to let Serbia deploy troops and police in Kosovo, although he acknowledged there was no chance of permission being granted.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West, following a 1998-1999 war in which NATO intervened to protect Albanian-majority Kosovo.

All non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power after Russia used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy facilities, officials said on Saturday, adding it could take months to repair the damage.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said more than 1.5 million people in the southern port city and surrounding region had no electricity, and he described the situation as very difficult.

Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes.

The regional administration said people who relied solely on electricity to power their homes should consider leaving. Officials said Russian strikes hit key transmission lines and equipment in the early hours of Saturday.

“According to preliminary forecasts, it will take much more time to restore energy facilities in the Odesa region than after previous attacks,” the administration said.

“We are talking not about days, but even weeks and possibly even two to three months,” it said in a Facebook post.

Odesa, Ukraine’s largest port city, had a population of over 1 million before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

Kyiv says Russia has launched hundreds of Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones at targets in Ukraine and describes the attacks as war crimes due to their devastating effect on civilian life. Moscow claims they are militarily legitimate.

In a video address, Zelenskiy said there was a significant shortfall in the amount of power being generated.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said two power facilities in Odesa region were hit by Shahed-136 drones.

Ukraine’s armed forces said on Facebook that 15 drones had been launched against targets in the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, and 10 had been shot down.

Tehran denies supplying the drones to Moscow. Kyiv and its Western allies say that is a lie.

Britain’s defence ministry said on Saturday that it believed Iran’s military support for Russia was likely to increase in the coming months, including possible deliveries of ballistic missiles.

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France were leading England 1-0 at halftime in the last quarter-final match of the World Cup after Aurelien Tchouameni put the reigning champions in front after 17 minutes with a long-range strike on Saturday.

Shortly after Olivier Giroud had tested Jordan Pickford in the England goal with a header, midfielder Tchouameni found space outside the box and struck a shot that found the bottom corner at the Al Bayt stadium.

France keeper Hugo Lloris kept out his Tottenham Hotspur team mate Harry Kane twice while the England skipper felt aggrieved when he was denied a penalty following a challenge from Dayot Upamecano on the edge of the box.

The winners will play Morocco in the semi-finals at the same venue on Wednesday.

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Morocco will be advancing to the semifinals after a historic victory over Portugal at the 2022 World Cup on Saturday. Morocco won the match, 1-0, and is the first African country to make it this far in the World Cup. At the semifinals, Morocco will face off against either England or France.

Portugal was favored to win the match with star player, Cristiano Ronaldo, but the team didn’t score any points. Youssef En-Nesyri scored the match’s only goal at the 42nd minute just before halftime, assisted by Yahya Attiat-Allah. The team’s impressive winning streak has now spanned five matches and is credited to its strong defense, including goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou. So far none of the team’s opponents—Croatia, Belgium, Canada, Spain or Portugal—have scored goals.

“It is an unbelievable feeling. No one thought we could do it. I said last week that we wanted to end the curse,” Moroccan soccer player Abdelhamid Sabiri told German news channel ZDF, according to Al Jazeera. “We are taking it one match at a time. We want to win every game.”

Morocco’s win has fostered enthusiasm across the Arab world and its diaspora, already a momentous year with Qatar as the first Arab country to host a World Cup. Saturday’s match coupled with Morocco’s last victory over Spain on December 6 erupted in celebrations on the streets of Rabat, in France—home to a substantial Moroccan community—and at the World Cup itself in Doha.

The other teams that have been confirmed to play in the semifinals are Argentina and Croatia. The semifinals will feature two matches of two teams each and take place next week on December 13 and 14. The winners will compete at the finals on December 18.