International

Biden vows to respect guilty verdict in son’s gun trial

Published

7 months ago

June 12, 2024

Biden vows to respect guilty verdict in son’s gun trial

US President Joe Biden has said he will respect a jury’s decision to find his son guilty of gun crimes, after a week-long trial that laid bare a tumultuous time for the family.

The 12-person jury found Hunter Biden, 54, guilty of lying about his drug use on a form while purchasing a handgun in 2018. He faces possible jail time following the verdict, which marked the first criminal prosecution of a sitting president’s child.

His conviction on all three felony counts comes as President Biden campaigns for re-election in November, and less than two weeks after his election rival Donald Trump was himself convicted of a crime in New York.

While President Biden did not attend the trial in Delaware, many family members including First Lady Jill Biden did so regularly. Hunter Biden’s wife, sister and uncle were all present at times to support him during proceedings.

President Biden flew to Wilmington, Delaware, after the verdict where he greeted and hugged his son on the tarmac.

“I am the president, but I am also a dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” he said in a statement. Mr Biden added that he would “accept the outcome of this case and… continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal”.

President Biden earlier ruled out pardoning his son, whose trial aired embarrassing details as prosecutors sought to show he was using crack cocaine at the time he bought the gun.

Jurors heard from his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and a former girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, who described frequent drug binges that took a toll on his friends and family. Text messages detailing his addiction and photographs, some showing a half-naked Hunter Biden, were also shown to the court.

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The verdict on Tuesday prompted instant political reaction, including from Republicans in Congress who have spent years investigating Hunter Biden’s behaviour and business ties.

James Comer, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, said it marked a “step toward accountability”, but added that “everyone involved” in what he called the “Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes” should be investigated.

A statement from the Trump campaign, meanwhile, said the trial had “been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family”. The former president has often used that description of the family on the campaign trail, referring to allegations of improper conduct made against the president and his son by Republicans.

Democrats in Congress accused their Republican colleagues of hypocrisy, and praised the US justice system.

“Compare and contrast the difference in reaction between the Republicans and the Democrats,” Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin said in a hearing.

Referring to Trump’s criminal conviction, he said: “The Republicans are attacking our entire system of justice and the rule of law because they don’t like the way one case came out, whereas the son of the president of the United States is prosecuted and I don’t hear a single Democrat crying foul.”

Meanwhile, several jurors who convicted Hunter Biden have said politics was not a factor in their decision. “I was never thinking of President Joe Biden,” one juror told the BBC.

“Out of all the jurors, nobody mentioned anything about political motivations,” he added.

Aides to President Biden have told US news outlets that the trial and verdict have taken an emotional toll on Mr Biden, who has been closely watching the case.

Politico reported that Mr Biden had been “consumed with the trial for weeks” and asked family members for updates while he was on a trip to France for D-Day anniversary events.

The outlet also said Mr Biden has at times felt guilty about the spotlight that has been placed on his son, and believes his political career has contributed to his son’s legal problems.

According to the Washington Post, the president’s advisers have often been reluctant to speak to him about his son and some have tried to limit Hunter Biden’s public appearances.

Hunter Biden will be sentenced at some point in the next 120 days, but the judge overseeing the case has not set a date for the hearing. He faces up to 25 years in prison, but legal experts say it is highly unlikely the eventual sentence will be close to that given he is a first time, non-violent offender.

His legal issues are set to continue throughout the year, and throughout his father’s election campaign. In September, he will face trial in California on charges of failing to pay $1.4m (£1.1m) in income taxes.

If convicted in that case, Hunter Biden could face up to 17 years in prison.

Biden vows to respect guilty verdict in son’s gun trial

BBC

International

UN health chief at Yemen airport during Israeli strikes

Published

14 hours ago

December 27, 2024

Trends Admin

Dr Tedros said he was unhurt after the bombardment

UN health chief at Yemen airport during Israeli strikes

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN staff were at Yemen’s international airport in Sanaa on Thursday during Israeli air strikes which are reported to have killed at least six people.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said they were about to board a plane when the attacks began.

Houthi-run Saba news agency said three people were killed at the airport and 30 injured. It said another three people were killed and 10 wounded in the western Hodeidah province.

The Iran-backed rebel group described the attacks – which also hit power stations and ports – as “barbaric”. Israel’s military said it carried out “intelligence-based strikes on military targets”.

It is unclear whether the fatalities were civilians or Houthi rebels.

In a statement on X, Dr Tedros said he was in Yemen “to negotiate the release of UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation” in the country. He provided no further details about who the UN detainees were.

Referring to the strikes on Sanaa’s airport, he said: “The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge – just a few meters from where we were – and the runway were damaged.

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“We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” Dr Tedros added.

UN Secretary General António Guterres called the strikes “especially alarming”.

“I regret the recent escalation between Yemen and Israel, and remain deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region.” he wrote on X.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its “fighter jets conducted intelligence-based strikes on military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and inland Yemen”.

It targeted “military infrastructure” at Sanaa’s airport as well as the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, and sites in the Al-Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports on the west coast, the IDF said.

In comments shortly after the strikes, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would “continue to cut off the terror arm of the Iranian axis of evil until we complete the job”, adding “we are only just starting with [the Houthis]”.

Early on Friday, the IDF reported that one missile fired from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthis’ supreme revolutionary committee, called Thursday’s strikes on Yemen “barbaric” and “aggressive”.

He said that “confrontations with American and Israeli arrogance” will continue until the conflict in Gaza stops.

Several people injured by the strikes at the airport in Sanaa told Houthi-run broadcaster Al Masirah that the runway was struck three times before the airport’s control tower was also hit.

One man, who identified himself as Dr Abbas Rajeh, said the police hospital he works in treated 10 patients after the attacks – one had already died, another was in critical condition, and others had minor injuries or broken bones.

Iran described the strikes as a “clear violation of international peace and security”.

Houthi rebels have been attacking Israel since the first months of the Gaza war, which began in October 2023.

A Houthi missile strike injured more than a dozen people in Israel last week.

Israel has carried out intermittent strikes against Houthis in retaliation.

Earlier this week, Israel’s defence minister said the country was preparing to “strike hard” at the Houthis, warning it would “decapitate” the group’s leadership.

The Houthis are an armed political and religious group backed by Iran. The group has ruled large parts of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since ousting the internationally recognised government in 2015.

UN health chief at Yemen airport during Israeli strikes

BBC

International

Baby freezes to death overnight in Gaza as ceasefire delays

Published

1 day ago

December 26, 2024

Trends Admin

The father of Sila, Mahmoud Al-Faseeh, wrapped her in a blanket to try and keep her warm in their tent in the Muwasi area, but it wasn’t enough. (Getty Images)

Baby freezes to death overnight in Gaza as ceasefire delays

JERUSALEM: A baby girl froze to death overnight in Gaza, while Israel and Hamas accused each other of complicating ceasefire efforts that could wind down the 14-month war.

The 3-week old baby was the third to die from the cold in Gaza’s tent camps in recent days, doctors said, deaths that underscore the squalid conditions, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into often ramshackle tents after fleeing Israeli offensives.

Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The offensive has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into tent camps along the coast as the cold, wet winter sets in. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there are shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.

Israel has increased the amount of aid it allows into the territory, reaching an average of 130 trucks a day so far this month, up from around 70 a day in October and November. Still, the amount remains well below than previous months and the United Nations says it is unable to distribute more than half the aid because Israeli forces deny permission to move within Gaza or because of rampant lawlessness and theft from trucks.

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The father of 3-week-old Sila, Mahmoud Al-Faseeh, wrapped her in a blanket to try and keep her warm in their tent in the Muwasi area outside the town of Khan Younis, but it wasn’t enough, he told The Associated Press. He said the tent was not sealed from the wind and the ground was cold, as temperatures on Tuesday night dropped to 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit.) Muwasi is a desolate area of dunes and farmland on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.

“It was very cold overnight and as adults we couldn’t even take it. We couldn’t stay warm,” he said. Sila woke up crying three times overnight and in the morning they found her unresponsive, her body stiff.

“She was like wood,” said Al-Faseeh. They rushed her to a field hospital where doctors tried to revive her, but her lungs had already deteriorated. Images of Sila taken by the AP showed the little girl with purple lips, her pale skin blotchy.

Ahmed Al-Farra, director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, confirmed that the baby died of hypothermia. He said two other babies — one 3 days old, the other a month old — had been brought to the hospital over the past 48 hours after dying of hypothermia.

Meanwhile, hopes for a ceasefire looked complicated Wednesday, with Israel and the militant Hamas group that runs Gaza trading accusations of delaying an agreement. In recent weeks, the two sides appeared to be inching toward a deal that would bring home dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza, but differences have emerged.

Although Israel and Hamas have expressed optimism that progress was being made toward a deal, sticking points remain over the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, people involved in the talks say.

On Wednesday, Hamas accused Israel of introducing new conditions related to the withdrawal from Gaza, the prisoners and the return of displaced people, which it said was delaying the deal.

Israel’s government accused Hamas of reneging on understandings that have already been reached.” Still, both sides said discussions are ongoing.

Israel’s negotiating team, which includes members from its intelligence agencies and the military, returned from Qatar on Tuesday evening for internal consultations, following a week of what it called “significant negotiations.”

During its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, Hamas and other groups took about 250 people hostages and brought them to Gaza. A previous truce in November 2023 freed more than 100 hostages, while others have been rescued or their remains have been recovered over the past year.

Israel says about 100 hostages remain in Gaza — at least a third whom it believes were killed during the Oct. 7 attack or died in captivity.

Sporadic talks have taken place for a year, but in recent weeks there’s been a renewed push to reach a deal.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month for his second term, has demanded the immediate release of Israeli hostages, saying on social media that if they’re not freed before he is sworn in, there will be “HELL TO PAY.”

Families of the hostages are becoming increasingly angry, calling on the Israeli government for a ceasefire before Trump is sworn in.

After Israel’s high-level negotiation team returned from Doha this week, hostage families called an emergency press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, pleading for a ceasefire and a complete end to the war.

Shir Siegel, the daughter of Israeli-American Keith Siegel, whose mother was released after more than 50 days in captivity, said every delay could endanger their lives. “There are moments when every second is fateful, and this is one of those moments,” she said.

Families of the hostages marked the first night of Hannukah with a candle lighting ceremony in Tel Aviv as well as by the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The agreement would take effect in phases and include a halt in fighting, an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and a surge in aid to the besieged Gaza, according to Egyptian, Hamas and American officials. The last phase would include the release of any remaining hostages, an end to the war and talks on reconstruction.

Baby freezes to death overnight in Gaza as ceasefire delays

ARAB NEWS

International

At least 10 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

Published

1 day ago

December 26, 2024

Trends Admin

At least 10 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

At least 10 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza early on Thursday, medics with the Gaza health authorities said.

Five people were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, the medics reported. They warned the death toll could rise as many remained trapped under the rubble.

In a separate incident, five journalists were killed when their vehicle was struck in the vicinity of Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, the enclave’s health authorities said. The journalists worked for the Al-Quds Al-Youm television channel.

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Palestinian media and local reporters said the vehicle was marked as a media van and was used by journalists to report from inside the hospital and Nuseirat camp.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the reported strikes.

On Wednesday, Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel traded blame over their failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days.