International
Jury finds Hunter Biden guilty of illegal possession of a firearm
The jury of the trial of Hunter Biden for illegal possession of a firearm in 2018 found him guilty on Tuesday, in a historic ruling of the first trial of the son of a sitting United States president.
Hunter, the 54-year-old son of President Joe Biden, was found guilty of the three charges against him, in a context of drug addiction, CNN and other American media reported.
The president’s son was accused of lying about his drug use in order to buy a 38-caliber revolver in 2018.
The verdict comes at a time when his father seeks re-election and less than two weeks after the guilty sentence on charges of business fraud against Donald Trump, the probable Republican presidential candidate in November.
Hunter Biden did not testify during the trial held in Wilmington (Delaware), his hometown.
He faces a sentence of up to 25 years in prison, although a lighter sentence is expected, even without prison, for not having a criminal record.
The first lady, Jill Biden, attended the trial for several days to support him. The president did not show up but said that he is “proud” of his son.
“As president I do not or comment on pending federal cases, but as a father, I have an infinite love for my son, confidence in him and respect for his strength,” Biden said in a statement last week.
The process, along with another case in which Hunter faces tax evasion charges in California, complicates the efforts of the Democrats to keep the focus on Trump, the first former president to be found guilty of criminal offenses.
Hunter Biden’s past addictions were the central issue of the trial, which included the testimony of ex-partners of the president’s son.
Last week, the prosecutor reproduced fragments of Hunter Biden’s memoirs “Beautiful Things”, recorded by himself, in which he remembers moments of his addiction in which he was desperately looking for crack.
“I was cooking (the crack) and smoking. He cooked and smoked,” says the fragment reproduced in the court, extracted from the audiobook.
In addition to being a political distraction, Hunter Biden’s legal problems have reopened old family wounds, derived from his drug problems and other previous situations.
Her brother Beau died of cancer in 2015 and her sister Naomi died when she was a child, in 1972, in a car accident in which her mother, Neilia, the president’s first wife and mother of the three, also died.
Hunter, a Yale-trained lawyer and a lobist turned artist, had the firearm in his possession for eleven days after the purchase.
The president’s son, who has written profusely about his addiction, said that at the time he bought the revolver he did not consider himself addicted. Hunter assures that he has not used drugs since 2019.
Hunter Biden has long been in the sights of the Republicans, who promoted an exhaustive investigation within Congress pointing out corruption and influence peddling, although charges were never filed against him for that.
His businesses in China and Ukraine also served as a basis for Republicans to try to open impeachment proceedings to dismiss their father, but those efforts did not succeed.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction