UNITED STATES
Hunter Biden indicted
Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, on Thursday was indicted on federal firearms charges. Hunter Biden is accused of lying about his drug use when he bought a firearm in October 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction to crack cocaine, the indictment filed in federal court in Delaware said. He has also been under investigation for his business dealings. The special counsel overseeing the case has indicated that charges of failure to pay taxes on time could be filed in Washington or in California, where he lives. A gun possession charge against Hunter Biden had previously been part of a plea deal that also included guilty pleas to misdemeanor tax charges, but the agreement imploded during a court hearing in July when a judge raised questions about its unusual immunity provisions. Hunter Biden’s personal income in 2017 and 2018 totaled about US$4 million, including fees from a company he formed with the CEO of a Chinese business conglomerate and Ukranian energy company Burisma, prosecutors have said.
CHINA
Mpox handling upgraded
The government plans to manage mpox in the same way it handles infectious diseases such as COVID-19 starting from Wednesday next week, health authorities said yesterday, after detecting about 500 cases of the viral infection last month. Mpox would be managed under Category B protocols, the National Health Commission said in a statement. Under this category, the nation could take emergency measures such as restricting gatherings, suspending work and school or sealing off areas when there is an outbreak of a disease. “Over 20 provinces have reported monkeypox cases in China since the first imported case in September 2022 and the beginning of locally transmitted cases in June 2023, triggering continued outbreaks and ‘hidden’ transmissions,” the commission said, using the former name of the disease.
AUSTRALIA
Stolen art discovered
Italian art detectives have found stolen pieces at a university in Canberra, including an artifact likely smuggled out of the country under piles of pasta, the institution said yesterday. Australian National University said that it was working with the “specialist art squad” of Italy’s Carabinieri military police to return the priceless pieces. The looted works discovered within the university’s classics museum included a 2,500-year-old amphora depicting Greek champion Heracles fighting the mythical Nemean lion. Italian police discovered a Polaroid photograph of the Heracles vase while investigating an unnamed art thief, which led them to believe it had been illegally plundered before it was sent to Australia. The university said it had bought the vase in “good faith” at a Sotheby’s auction in 1984, and was “proud” to work with Italian investigators to see it returned to its rightful home. Museum curator Georgia Pike-Rowney described the vase, which dates back to 530 BC, as a “stunning example” of ancient Mediterranean craftmanship. Working in tandem with the museum, the Carabinieri also identified a stolen red fish plate from the Italian region of Apulia which they were able to trace to David Holland Swingler, an American art trafficker and food importer known for a culinary modus operandi. “During trips to Italy, Swingler sourced material directly from tombaroli — literally ‘tomb robbers’ who undertake illegal excavations,” Pike-Rowney said. Swingler “then smuggled the items to the US hidden among bundles of pasta and other Italian foods.”
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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