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Hunter Biden agrees to plea agreement on federal tax, gun charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, will plead guilty to tax crimes in a plea deal with prosecutors, and he reached a diversion agreement relating to unlawful possession of a weapon, according to court papers filed Tuesday.The plea deal, which must be accepted by a judge, likely would keep Hunter Biden out of jail.Biden, 53, has been under investigation for tax matters since 2018. He reportedly paid off his tax liability in 2020, a sum that surpassed $1 million.Biden was charged with two counts of willful failure to pay income tax. The third charge stems from possession of a firearm in 2018, a weapon he was in possession of while using crack cocaine. Biden denied drug use when applying to secure the gun.In a separate agreement on the gun charge, the president's son will be entered into a pretrial diversion program, meaning those charges are likely to be removed from his record if he complies with the terms of the program. “With the announcement of two agreements between my cli...

Belarus human rights activist gets 7-year prison term for work documenting police crackdown

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Belarus convicted a prominent human rights activist Tuesday of “inciting social hatred” for her work documenting alleged police abuses against political opposition groups. The Minsk City Court sentenced Nasta Loika, 34 to seven years in prison. She rejected the charges as trumped up and said during her closed-door trial that police used an electroshock weapon on her during her arrest. Loika, who has spent nine months in custody, also said that she was once kept in the prison yard for eight hours without warm clothes in freezing winter temperatures and became gravely ill.She protested her treatment to the United Nations, and the U.N. human rights watchdog demanded last week that Belarusian authorities ensure her access to independent medical care.Loika’s prosecution came amid a relentless crackdown on dissent in Belarus, a Russian ally which President Alexander Lukashenko has led with an iron fist since 1994. Viasna, a Belarusian human rights ...

OSFI raises capital requirements for big banks to 3.5% amid higher debt levels

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s financial regulator is raising the amount of capital the country’s major banks need to have on hand to cover potential losses as it says financial system vulnerabilities remain elevated and in some cases have continued to increase.The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said Tuesday that the domestic stability buffer will increase by half a percentage point to 3.5 per cent, effective Nov. 1.It follows a move in December by the regulator to increase the buffer by half a percentage point to three per cent.The federal regulator said current vulnerabilities facing the banking industry include high household and corporate debt levels, the rising cost of debt and increased global uncertainty around fiscal and monetary policy.Peter Routledge, the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, said households and companies remain highly indebted, making them more vulnerable to economic shocks. “At the same time, the Canadian financial sector...

Why haven’t China and the U.S. agreed to restore military contacts?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has wrapped up a closely watched visit to Beijing during which he and President Xi Jinping pledged to stabilize plunging U.S-China ties. But China refused the biggest U.S. request: restoring military-to-military contacts.Blinken said he raised the issue of military communications “repeatedly” but was rebuffed by the Chinese. “It is absolutely vital that we have these kinds of communications,” he said, adding that it was something the United States will “keep working on.”Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and President Joe Biden have called often over the past few months for China to reestablish military communication channels with the U.S.WHY DID CHINA HALT MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS?China suspended regular contacts with the U.S. military last August after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, challenging Beijing’s principle that other countries should refrain from official exchanges with self-governing Taiwan, whi...

Palestinian attacker opens fire at West Bank gas station, kills at least 4 people

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian attacker opened fire at a gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank on Tuesday, killing at least four people and wounding several others, Israeli medics said, as violence continued to roil the occupied territory.Israeli security forces said they shot the gunman and were still searching for other attackers near the Jewish settlement of Eli north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Palestinian media reported that the attacker’s driver had fled the scene.The condition of the attacker was not immediately clear. Photos circulated of a man lying bloodied and face-down in the street beside an automatic rifle.The Israeli rescue service said it had evacuated two seriously wounded men, ages 20 and 38, to nearby hospitals for treatment. It said that four more people were wounded at the scene, three of them unconscious. The identities of the victims were not immediately clear. Tuesday’s shooting followed a deadly Israeli military raid into the...

Supreme Court turns away veterans who seek disability benefits over 1966 hydrogen bomb accident

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal on behalf of some U.S. veterans who want disability benefits because they were exposed to radiation while responding to a Cold War-era hydrogen bomb accident in Spain.The justices not did comment in turning away an appeal from Victor Skaar, an Air Force veteran in his mid-80s.Skaar, of Nixa, Missouri, filed class-action claims seeking benefits for him and others who say they became ill from exposure to radiation during the recovery and cleanup of the undetonated bombs at the accident site in Palomares, a village in southern Spain, in 1966.A federal appeals court rejected the class-action claims. The Supreme Court’s action leaves that ruling in place.The Justice Department, arguing against high-court review, noted that Congress last year enacted legislation that expands eligibility for benefits for many Palomares veterans. But the department also acknowledged that Skaar is not covered by the legislation.SkaarR...

Electric vehicle maker Rivian to join Tesla charging network as automakers consider company’s plug

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Electric vehicle maker Rivian says it will follow General Motors and Ford and join Tesla’s charging network next year.The startup truck, SUV and delivery van maker says Tuesday that like GM and Ford, it will include ports with Tesla’s connector on future Rivian vehicles starting in 2025. It also will offer an adapter for owners of current Rivian EVs.It is another domino to fall as the auto industry considers switching to Tesla’s connector, which it calls the North American Charging Standard. At present, nearly all automakers other than Tesla use what is called a CCS connector developed with the Society of Automotive Engineers.Tesla has more direct current fast-charging plugs in the U.S. than any other network, and its stations are in prime locations along freeway travel corridors.Other automakers also are looking into the switch. Last week, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said his company’s U.S. teams are studying the change and will make a decision in...

EU unveils plan to protect economies from rivals. China is a focus, but is not named in the proposal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union unveiled a proposal Tuesday to protect the bloc’s economies from risks posed by unreliable suppliers in countries that do not share its values, like China, after the war in Ukraine exposed Europe’s dependency on Russia for oil and gas.The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is trying to develop measures to protect trade and investment, particularly in the tech and communication sectors, that rivals might want to exploit for security or military purposes.Announcing the proposal, which must be endorsed by EU member countries, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “the world has become more contested and geopolitical, and there is a limited set of key technologies that can be used in a different and aggressive way.”“Given the changing nature of the risks, we now need a strategic vision for how we are going to handle these risks,” von der Leyen told reporters. She said the EU must be “more assertive” in using the tools that it has to ...

Thai activists sue government agencies for allegedly using Pegasus spyware against them

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Two prominent Thai activists filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the government of using the internationally notorious Pegasus spyware to infiltrate their mobile devices during a period of political unrest almost three years ago.Law reform advocate Yingcheep Atchanont and human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa accuse nine state agencies in the administration of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha of unlawfully violating their privacy by spying on their smartphones using the spyware produced by the Israeli-based cybersecurity company NSO Group.They requested an immediate court injunction barring the use of Pegasus against them and other citizens, and for the court to order the government to release the data on its use of Pegasus. They also demanded compensation of 2.5 million baht ($72,000) each.Pegasus spyware can be installed remotely onto a target’s phone without the target having to click any links or download software to become infected. It can obtain any data on the device...

Nomination process begins to replace ex-Supreme Court justice Russell Brown

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:32:30 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has begun the search for a new Supreme Court of Canada justice.Qualified candidates interested in the job, who must be functionally bilingual and demonstrate a relationship with Western or Northern Canada, will have until July 21 to apply. A non-partisan advisory board is then expected to pick a shortlist of candidates to present to Trudeau.The vacancy was created when former justice Russell Brown resigned from the top court earlier this month, ending a probe into allegations of misconduct related to an event in late January.Brown has vigorously denied accusations that he was intoxicated and harassed a group of friends after an event at a Scottsdale, Ariz., resort hotel.The Canadian Judicial Council ended its review when Brown stepped down, saying it no longer had jurisdiction to investigate.This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2023.The Canadian Press