This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Nick Miles, and at 14 hours GMT on Thursday the 12th of December,

these are our main stories.

Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of around 1,500 people,

the largest presidential act of clemency in a single day in modern US history.

The funeral has taken place of the Syrian activist Mazan al-Hamada,

whose tortured body was found in the notorious Sadnaya prison.

We'll also report from inside Bashar al-Assad's former presidential palace in Damascus.

And South Korea's president vows to fight to the end, defending his short-lived

imposition of martial law last week. Also in this podcast, Romania and Bulgaria finally become

full members of the European Union's Schengen Free Travel Area and...

People these days are really thinking about purpose and

progress in the context of their careers but also their broader lives, right? How they fit in with

each other. New research on the art of being happy at work.

Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden issued a controversial pardon to his son Hunter.

Now, just weeks before he leaves office, he's commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people.

The White House describe it as the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

So who are these people and why are they being pardoned?

Rowan Bridge is our Washington correspondent.

It's worth understanding what the terminology means here.

So when they talk about commuting somebody's sentence,

effectively what you are doing is reducing the punishment that they will face.

...