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Hunter Biden jury sees evidence of addiction, hears ‘no one is above the law’

Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, gets into a vehicle, as he departs the federal court, on the second day of his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, US, June 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 05 June 2024
Reuters
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Hunter Biden jury sees evidence of addiction, hears ‘no one is above the law’

Updated 05 June 2024
Reuters

WILMINGTON: Prosecutors in the historic criminal trial of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden told jurors on Tuesday that overwhelming evidence shows that the younger Biden lied to hide his drug addiction so he could illegally buy a gun, while the defense said he had no intent to deceive.

Jurors in federal court in Delaware heard opening statements by prosecution and defense lawyers in the first trial of a child of a sitting US president before witness testimony began.

The prosecution showed jurors text messages in which Hunter Biden arranged drug deals and discussed smoking crack cocaine, including within days of his October 2018 purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver. They also played excerpts from the audiobook version of his autobiography in which he described his “bloodhound” instinct for finding crack around the time of his gun purchase.

Prosecutor Derek Hines said during his opening statement that “the evidence is overwhelming” and written in the defendant’s own words.

“Addiction is not a crime. Lying is,” Hines said.

Hunter Biden, 54, has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges accusing him of failing to disclose his use of illegal drugs when he bought the gun and of illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.

The trial, presided over by US District Judge Maryellen Noreika, began in the aftermath of Donald Trump last week becoming the first former US president to be convicted of a crime. Trump is the Republican candidate challenging Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 US election. Neither the prosecution nor the defense directly addressed that issue.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell told jurors in his opening statement that no one disputes that Hunter Biden was a drug addict before and after the gun purchase. But Lowell told jurors that the gun purchase form asked Hunter Biden only if he was currently an addict, not whether he had used in the past, adding that his client had no “intent to deceive.”

The trial in the Bidens’ hometown of Wilmington is playing out as Trump and his congressional allies continue to accuse the Justice Department of a politicized prosecution of the former president.

US Special Counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee, brought the case against Hunter Biden and was present in the courtroom on Tuesday. Weiss has separately filed federal tax charges against Hunter Biden in California.

The trial is offering a tour of Hunter Biden’s years-long struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. Hunter Biden told Noreika at a hearing last year that he has been sober since the middle of 2019.

If convicted on all charges, Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, though defendants generally receive shorter sentences, according to the US Justice Department.

‘FINDING CRACK ANYTIME’

FBI agent Erika Jensen was called as the first prosecution witness to testify about Hunter Biden’s texts, bank records and writings about his drug use.

That included a text the day after Hunter Biden bought the gun in which he said he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie” and another the next day in which he said he had been sleeping on top of a car and smoking crack.

Hines asked Jensen about Hunter Biden’s 2021 autobiography, “Beautiful Things,” in which he documented his addiction. Hines played about 30 minutes of Biden’s monotone voice narrating the audiobook, including passages in which he detailed his constant hunt for drugs and what he called his “superpower — finding crack anytime, anywhere.”

Jensen also described Hunter Biden’s bank records that showed that he made almost daily cash withdrawals, totaling $151,000, from September to November 2018, covering the period of the gun purchase.

Lowell said Hunter Biden did not have a credit card at the time and was spending thousands of dollars on drug recovery.

Tuesday’s proceedings ended soon after Lowell began the cross examination of Jensen, which is set to continue on Wednesday.

Hines said prosecutors will call as a witness Hunter Biden’s former wife, Kathleen Buhle, who accused him in their 2017 divorce proceedings of squandering money on drugs, alcohol and prostitutes. Hallie Biden, widow of Beau Biden, Hunter’s brother who died of cancer in 2015, is also expected to testify.

Trump is due to be sentenced on July 11 after being convicted by a jury in state court in New York last Thursday of 34 felony counts of falsifying documents to cover up hush money paid to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal shortly before the 2016 US election.

He has pleaded not guilty in three other pending criminal cases, two related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden and one accusing him of unlawfully keeping classified national security documents after leaving office in 2021.

Topics: Hunter Biden

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More than 95,000 Japanese aged over 100, most of them women

Updated 2 sec ago
AFP
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More than 95,000 Japanese aged over 100, most of them women

Updated 2 sec ago
AFP

TOKYO: The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000 — almost 90 percent of them women — government data showed Tuesday.
The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks.
As of September 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the health ministry said in a statement.
On Sunday separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of Japan’s population.
The proportion puts Japan at the top of a list of 200 countries and regions with a population of over 100,000 people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
Japan is currently home to the world’s oldest living person Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908 and is 116 years old, according to the US-based Gerontology Research Group.
The previous record-holder, Maria Branyas Morera, died last month in Spain at the age of 117.
Itooka lives in a nursing home in Ashiya, Hyogo prefecture in western Japan, the ministry said.
She often says “thank you” to the nursing home staff and expresses nostalgia about her hometown, the ministry said.
“I have no idea at all about what’s the secret of my long life,” Japan’s oldest man, Kiyotaka Mizuno, who is 110, told local media.
Mizuno, who lives in Iwata, Shizuoka prefecture in central Japan with his family, gets up at 6:30 am every morning and eats three meals a day — without being picky about his food.
His hobby is listening to live sports, including sumo wrestling, the ministry said.
Japan is facing a steadily worsening population crisis, as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labor force to pay for it.
The country’s overall population is 124 million, after declining by 595,000 in the previous, according to previous government data.
The government has attempted to slow the decline and aging of its population without meaningful success, while gradually extending the retirement age — with 65 becoming the rule for all employers from fiscal 2025.

Topics: Japan age population

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Ozone layer on road to recovery despite volcano eruption, UN weather body says

Updated 17 September 2024
Reuters
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Ozone layer on road to recovery despite volcano eruption, UN weather body says

  • On current trends, the ozone layer is on track to recover to 1980 levels by around 2066 over the Antarctic, 2045 over the Arctic and 2040 for the rest of the world, the United Nations agency said
Updated 17 September 2024
Reuters

SINGAPORE: The world’s ozone layer is on “the road to long-term recovery” despite a destructive volcanic eruption in the South Pacific, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday, after efforts to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals.
On current trends, the ozone layer is on track to recover to 1980 levels by around 2066 over the Antarctic, 2045 over the Arctic and 2040 for the rest of the world, the United Nations agency said.
Though the volcanic eruption near Tonga in early 2022 led to a short period of accelerated depletion of ozone above Antarctica last year, driven by higher levels of atmospheric water vapor, overall losses were limited, it said in its annual ozone bulletin.
The ozone layer protects the earth from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, which is linked to skin cancer and other health risks.
The Montreal Protocol, which came into effect in 1989, agreed to phase out chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting substances, and its success “stands out as a powerful symbol of hope” at a time when multilateral cooperation has come under strain, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement.
CFCs have been largely replaced by hydrofluorocarbons, which do not cause ozone depletion but are a powerful climate-warming greenhouse gas.
Countries are now implementing the 2016 Kigali amendment to Montreal, which will phase down HFC production, and could avoid around 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100.
China remains the world’s biggest HFC producer, with current capacity the equivalent of nearly 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. About a quarter is exported.
China’s environment ministry said on Monday it would soon publish a plan to better control HFC production. As a developing country, it is obliged to cut HFC consumption by 85 percent from 2013 to 2045.
China is cutting manufacturing quotas and cracking down on illegal production, but it warned this year it still “faces huge challenges” in phasing down HFCs, which are used by a wide range of different industries, many of which have struggled to find substitute products.

Topics: UN

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COP29 hosts unveil busy program as main climate agenda stalls

COP29 hosts unveil busy program as main climate agenda stalls

Updated 17 September 2024
AFP
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COP29 hosts unveil busy program as main climate agenda stalls

  • Key among these is a fund, proposed by Azerbaijan, that intends to raise money for developing countries through donations from fossil fuel producing countries and companies
Updated 17 September 2024
AFP

PARIS: COP29 host Azerbaijan said Tuesday that voluntary pledges on everything from tourism to world peace would be sought at the UN climate summit as disagreements over money stymie the main agenda.
Nations are supposed to agree at the November conference how much should be raised for developing countries to cope with climate change but the formal negotiations so far have been mired in disagreement.
With two months to go, Azerbaijan — which has remained upbeat despite the deadlock — has unveiled over a dozen initiatives on the sidelines that it hopes will “supplement” the difficult talks.
These include asking nations to observe a ceasefire during the marathon summit, to commit to reducing methane from organic waste and emissions from the tourism industry, and pledging to boost global energy storage, among others.
“Successive COP Presidencies have supplemented their mandated programs with non-negotiated action agendas... to achieve ambitious outcomes,” COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev wrote to the nearly 200 nations participating in the summit.
Key among these is a fund, proposed by Azerbaijan, that intends to raise money for developing countries through donations from fossil fuel producing countries and companies.
Azerbaijan — wedged between Iran and Russia and heavily dependent on fossil fuels — is expected to make the first contribution to this so-called “climate finance action fund.”
The fund needs $1 billion and 10 countries as shareholders to launch. Azerbaijan says there has already been early interest, but has not offered specifics.
Voluntary initiatives at the COPs, such as non-binding pledges and commitments, are features of these summits but are distinct from the long and protracted negotiations that produce binding agreements, by consensus, with UN backing.
This year’s summit in Baku is supposed to agree on how much developing countries need to adapt to a warming planet, and where that money should come from.
This target will replace the $100 billion that wealthy countries agreed to pay in climate aid, every year, from 2020.
That amount was only reached for the first time in 2022, and has long been criticized as grossly inadequate.
The lead-up to COP29 has been slow, and two months until the final deliberations nations are no closer to agreeing on what the new figure should be, and who should pay it.
The UN published a draft document in late August setting out seven rough options for a finance deal, laying bare the conflicting positions between nations.

Topics: COP 29 Baku

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UK PM Starmer says first budget won’t undermine growth goal

Updated 17 September 2024
Reuters
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UK PM Starmer says first budget won’t undermine growth goal

  • Ahead of that budget, Starmer said that, while dealing with that black hole was essential for creating the stability necessary for growth, all decisions would be made against the objective of growth
Updated 17 September 2024
Reuters

ROME: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that his government’s first budget next month wouldn’t take steps that undermine his goal to generate growth, but warned that unfunded spending commitments could damage the economy.
Elected in July, Starmer has said he has a dire inheritance left by the previous Conservative administration, and new finance minister Rachel Reeves has warned that taxes are likely to rise in her first budget on Oct. 30 because of what she said was a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) black hole in the public finances.
Ahead of that budget, Starmer said that, while dealing with that black hole was essential for creating the stability necessary for growth, all decisions would be made against the objective of growth.
“If it promotes economic growth, it’s in the Yes column; if it inhibits economic growth, then it’s in the No column,” Starmer told reporters on a trip to Italy on Monday.
“And because I believe that stability is vital for economic growth — I don’t think we’re going to get economic growth if we don’t stabilize the economy — we’re going to do the really hard stuff now.”
Labour has committed to a fiscal rule that day-to-day costs are met by revenues and debt must be falling as a share of the economy within five years under a budget’s forecast.
Asked if he would tweak fiscal rules to promote growth, amid concern from some economists about underinvestment in the economy, Starmer said it was a matter for the budget but strong fiscal rules were important.
“I’ve always thought it’s important to borrow to invest,” Starmer said, though he warned he didn’t want a repeat of the unfunded budget measures that sparked a crisis that forced Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss from office in 2022.
“Unfunded commitments for spending are just as bad (as unfunded tax cuts) and likely to have the same impact on the economy.” ($1 = 0.7573 pound)

Topics: UK

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Climate change will escalate child health crisis due to malnutrition, says Gates

Updated 17 September 2024
Reuters
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Climate change will escalate child health crisis due to malnutrition, says Gates

  • “Around 90 percent of the negative effect of climate change works through the food system. Where you have years where your crops basically fail because of drought or too much rain,” he said
Updated 17 September 2024
Reuters

LONDON: Malnutrition is the world’s worst child health crisis and climate change will only make things more severe, according to Microsoft-co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates.
Between now and 2050, 40 million more children will have stunted growth and 28 million more will suffer from wasting, the most extreme and irreversible forms of malnutrition, as a result of climate change, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said in a report on Tuesday.
“Unless you get the right food, broadly, both in utero and in your early years, you can never catch up,” Gates told Reuters in an online interview last week, referring to a child’s physical and mental capacity, both of which are held back by a lack of good nutrition. Children without enough of the right food are also more vulnerable to diseases like measles and malaria, and early death.
“Around 90 percent of the negative effect of climate change works through the food system. Where you have years where your crops basically fail because of drought or too much rain,” he said.
Gates was speaking ahead of the publication of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s annual Goalkeepers report, which tracks progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), around reducing poverty and improving health. The report includes the projections above.
In 2023, the World Health Organization estimated that 148 million children experienced stunting and 45 million experienced wasting.
Gates called for more funding for nutrition, particularly through a new platform led by UNICEF aiming to co-ordinate donor financing, the Child Nutrition Fund, as well as more research. But he said the money should not be taken away from other proven initiatives, like routine childhood vaccinations, for this purpose.
“(Nutrition) was under-researched ... it’s eye-opening how important this is,” he added, saying initiatives like food fortification or improving access to prenatal multi-vitamins could be as effective as some vaccines in improving child health in the world’s poorest countries.
The Gates Foundation said in January it plans to spend more on global health this year than ever before — $6.8 billion – as wider funding efforts stall.

Topics: Bill Gates climate change

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