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Editorial: Equal justice for Hunter Biden – that’s rich

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

Must be nice.The perks of being a fortunate son were on full display when it was announced Tuesday that President Biden’s son Hunter will plead guilty to federal tax offenses but avoid prosecution on a separate gun charge in a deal with the Justice Department that likely spares him time behind bars.As the Associated Press reported, Hunter Biden, 52, will plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement made public Tuesday.The agreement will also avoid prosecution on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, as long as he adheres to conditions set by prosecutors. It’s somewhat unusual to resolve a federal criminal case at the same time charges are filed in court but not unheard of.True, this sort of deal isn’t unheard of, but it’s not often heard in connection with ordinary people.Hunter Biden is in violation of 18 USC § 922(g) & (n). under the Federal Firearms Laws. According to the Justice Dept., that can carry a pen...

Dear Abby: Husband’s female friend gets a bit too ‘hands-on’

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

Dear Abby: I need advice regarding my husband’s friend and how I should handle a delicate situation. My husband has a woman friend. (She has a boyfriend.) They recently helped us move, which we really appreciate. She likes to make sexual jokes, and my husband does, too. I’m not a prude, but I don’t enjoy the kind of flirty vibe she puts out.When they were helping us move, we went out for meals. She and I had privately shared that my husband and her boyfriend would sometimes forget to zip up after using the bathroom. Well, while we were walking to the car, she zipped up my husband’s zipper for him! I laughed it off, but it kind of caught me off guard. Later, my husband told me he thought it was weird, and so do I.Should I tell her it was crossing a line? She seems pretty clueless, but I don’t want it to happen again. — Awkward in the WestDear Awkward: Your husband’s friend appears to have a difficult time understanding boundaries. Because it ...

Canadian aircraft has detected underwater noises in search for missing sub near Titanic

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

The US Coast Guard says a Canadian aircraft has detected underwater noises during search for a submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.As a result of the noises detected by the Canadian P-3 aircraft, search efforts have been relocated. Those searches had not found anything, but are continuing.Rescuers have been racing against the clock because even under the best of circumstances the vessel could run out of oxygen by Thursday morning.In addition to an international array of ships and planes, an underwater robot had started searching in the vicinity of the Titanic and there was a push to get salvage equipment to the scene in case the sub is found.Three C-17 transport planes from the U.S. military have been used to move commercial submersible and support equipment from Buffalo, New York, to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to aid in the search, a spokesperson for U.S. Air Mobility Command said. The Canadian military said it provided a patrol aircra...

With Trump under indictment, House GOP calls on Trump-era special counsel who studied Russia probe

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Donald Trump faces a 37-count federal indictment and the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence if convicted, House Republicans are using a special counsel’s report to renew their argument that federal law enforcement is tainted by political bias. John Durham, who recently completed his report on the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign, will testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee. That’s one day after Durham met behind closed doors with members of the House Intelligence Committee. While Durham produced just three prosecutions — with two acquittals — in a four-year investigation, his report highlighted FBI agents withholding key information from judges and contended the bureau disregarded reasons not to investigate Trump’s campaign. Republicans who control the House say they’re still angry about the 2016 campaign probe, known as “Crossfire Hurricane,” and intend to push new curbs on the FBI in exchang...

Biden-Modi relationship built around mutual admiration of scrappy pasts, pragmatic needs

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — No one would mistake them for best of friends.But U.S. President Joe Biden, the son of blue-collar Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who rose from tea seller’s son to premier, have developed a relationship based on mutual respect of their scrappy backgrounds and a pragmatism about the shared challenges their two countries face.Biden is hosting Modi for a state visit this week as he looks to tighten his relationship with the leader of a nation of 1.4 billion that the U.S. administration sees as a pivotal force in Asia for decades to come. The pomp-filled visit will mark the two leaders’ 10th in-person or virtual engagement since Biden became president in 2021. They’re expected to meet again in September in India at the Group of 20 summit.The U.S.-India relationship is complicated. There are deep differences over Russia’s war in Ukraine and India’s human rights record. But the frequent engagement between th...

Modi to start US visit with yoga on the UN lawn, a savvy and symbolic choice for India’s leader

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — There will be plenty of time to discuss global tensions during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.S. this week. But he’s starting his day Wednesday by highlighting a pursuit of inner tranquility.After arriving in New York on Tuesday afternoon and holding private meetings, the leader of the world’s most populous nation kicks off his public schedule Wednesday with a group yoga session on the United Nations’ north lawn. U.N. General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and many other diplomats and U.N. officials are expected to attend the event. It honors the International Day of Yoga, which Modi persuaded the U.N. to designate in 2014 as an annual observance. The yoga-themed U.N. visit is a savvy and symbolic choice for a premier who has made the ancient discipline both a personal practice and a diplomatic tool. First practiced by Hindu sages, yoga has now become one of India’s mo...

Democrats downplay Hunter Biden’s plea deal, while Republicans see opportunity to deflect from Trump

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats, already anxious about President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, are seeking to downplay — or ignore altogether — revelations that the president’s son has entered into a plea deal with federal prosecutors over tax offenses and a gun charge.And as Democrats dodge, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies seized on the extraordinary legal development to tighten his grip on the GOP and deflect from his own legal shortcomings. But in a nation deeply divided and with voters from both parties firmly entrenched in their political outlook, there were few signs immediately after Hunter Biden’s plea deal was announced on Tuesday that the unprecedented prosecution of a president’s son had shifted the 2024 presidential election in any significant way.In conversations with The Associated Press, some of the elected Democratic officials best positioned to challenge Biden for the party’s presidential nomination reaffirmed thei...

Pride and pain for president as son Hunter has navigated years of investigation, reaches plea deal

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden had just six words to offer after his 53-year-old son Hunter pleaded guilty to federal tax offenses in a deal that is also likely to spare him time behind bars on a weapons charge.“I’m very proud of my son,” he said.That pride has been accompanied by pain, and for the president’s family, both have been on public display. Republicans have worked to use Hunter Biden’s actions — and his acknowledged struggle with addiction — as an anchor to try to drag down his father.As a parent, Joe Biden has tried to keep his son close; they speak almost every day. Hunter was at his father’s side on a recent trip to Ireland, on the lawn of the White House with other family members for the Easter egg roll and in the bleachers with his mom and dad as his daughter graduated from college last month. But out of public view, a five-year criminal investigation was coming to a conclusion, with a plea deal announced Tuesday that resolves the probe into the taxes and fore...

Summer solstice brings druids, pagans and thousands of curious people to Stonehenge

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

LONDON (AP) — All hail the rising sun.A seemingly curious alliance of druids, pagans, hippies, local residents, tourists and costumed witches and wizards are gathering around a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England to express their devotion to the sun, or to have some communal fun.They will stay and celebrate at Stonehenge for the night and greet sunrise on Wednesday, which will be the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere.All over the U.K., optimism will reign supreme as summer officially starts. It’s no coincidence that the nearby Glastonbury Festival, one of the world’s biggest music events, opens its doors on Wednesday, too. Both Stonehenge and Glastonbury supposedly lie on ley lines — mystical energy connections across the U.K.For the thousands making the pilgrimage to Stonehenge, approximately 80 miles (128 kilometers) southwest of London, it is more than looking forward to Elton John at Glastonbury or a few ciders in the sun.For druids, modern-d...

Once starved by war, millions of Ethiopians go hungry again as US, UN pause aid after massive theft

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:16:46 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An Orthodox Christian priest, Tesfa Kiros Meresfa begs door-to-door for food along with countless others recovering from a two-year war in northern Ethiopia that starved his people. To his dismay, urgently needed grain and oil have disappeared again for millions caught in a standoff between Ethiopia’s government, the United States and United Nations over what U.S. officials say may be the biggest theft of food aid on record.“I have no words to describe our suffering,” Tesfa said.As the U.S. and U.N. demand that Ethiopia’s government yield its control over the vast aid delivery system supporting one-sixth of the country’s population, they have taken the dramatic step of suspending their food aid to Africa’s second-most populous nation until they can be sure it won’t be stolen by Ethiopian officials and fighters.Almost three months have passed since the aid suspension in parts of the country, and reports are emerging of the first deaths fr...