TV News LIES

Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of tax evasion in federal court in Delaware and participate in a pretrial program for a firearm offense, after a multi-year investigation into his tax matters, a case with implications for President Joe Biden's re-election campaign and dealings with congressional Republicans.

U.S. Attorney David Weiss filed a letter in federal court Tuesday citing the charges and the plea agreement. In one case, Biden will plead guilty to the tax charges, which allege willful failure to pay federal income tax. In another case, Biden agreed to enter a pretrial diversion agreement for the gun offense, in which he acknowledged unlawful possession of a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver, despite being addicted to drugs.

Daniel Ellsberg, a US government analyst who became one of the most famous whistleblowers in world politics when he leaked the Pentagon Papers, has died. He was 92. His death was confirmed by his family on Friday.

In March, Ellsberg announced that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Saying he had been given three to six months to live, he said he had chosen not to undergo chemotherapy and had been assured of hospice care.

“I am not in any physical pain,” Ellsberg wrote, adding: “My cardiologist has given me license to abandon my salt-free diet of the last six years. This has improved my life dramatically: the pleasure of eating my favourite foods!”

The Pentagon Papers covered US policy in Vietnam between 1945 and 1967 and showed that successive administrations were aware the US could not win.

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The Senate on Thursday confirmed Nusrat Choudhury, a longtime civil rights attorney, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, making her the nation's first female Muslim federal judge.

Choudhury, a former American Civil Liberties Union attorney, was confirmed 50-49 on a mostly party-line vote. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, joined Republicans in opposing her.

Choudhury has served as the legal director of the ACLU of Illinois since 2020. She clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker, who was nominated to the appeals bench in New York by former President George W. Bush and to U.S. District Court by former President Bill Clinton. She received her law degree from Yale.

She is also the first Bangladeshi-American to serve as a federal judge.

Biden also nominated the first Muslim federal judge, U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi, who was confirmed in 2021. The Biden administration has made diversifying the federal judiciary − including with professional diversity − a centerpiece of the president’s agenda.

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Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday made his first public remarks after the historic indictment of former President Donald Trump on federal criminal charges.

Garland, taking questions at an event on combating violent crime, said he couldn't discuss particulars of the case but offered general praise for special counsel Jack Smith and his team after being asked about accusations made by Trump and other Republicans that the Justice Department has been "weaponized."

"As I said when I appointed Mr. Smith, I did so because it underscores the Justice Department's commitment to both independence and accountability," the attorney general said. "Mr. Smith is a veteran career prosecutor. He has assembled a group of experienced and talented prosecutors and agents who share his commitment to integrity. Any questions about this matter will have to be answered by their filings in court."

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Ask Britain’s foreign secretary which part of the world poses his biggest foreign policy challenge, and the chances are he will say either Russia or China. He probably will not say the Arctic. Yet the implications of what is happening in the Arctic will change patterns of international trade, drive food insecurity, deepen global poverty, increase refugee crises, reorient military alliances, and turbocharge military expenditures and the risk of war.

The eight Arctic states – Canada, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the US and Russia – have long collaborated on scientific research through the Arctic Council, a non-military body. Until now. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Arctic Council meetings ceased. So did cooperation with Russia. This has hampered progress on climate and environmental research and turbocharged the militarisation of the Arctic.

The success of the Arctic Council depended on its geopolitical balance. It is not a security alliance and has always tried to remain independent from politics. Five of the eight countries were part of Nato; the other three were not. That has now changed. Finland joined Nato in April. Sweden is in the process of joining. Soon, Nato will literally be surrounding Russia in the Arctic.

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Former president Donald Trump landed in Miami today ahead of his arraignment on 37 charges over his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

The former president flew from Newark Liberty International Airport to Miami International Airport on Monday afternoon, to spend the night at his Mar-a-Lago estate – the Florida home where he is accused of hoarding troves of classified papers, including national defence information.

Mr Trump will then appear for his arraignment in a federal courtroom in downtown Miami on Tuesday afternoon, before flying straight back to New Jersey where he has announced plans to deliver remarks that night at his golf club.

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