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WASHINGTON – The probe into classified documents found in President Joe Bidens possession is a political embarrassment for him and will undercut Democrat criticisms of former president Donald Trump, who is being investigated for his own mishandling of sensitive material.

But while the furore may make Mr Bidens expected bid for re-election in 2024 bumpier and give Republicans plenty of ammunition, it is unlikely to be a major campaign issue that sways voters, say experts.

The Biden case echoed the seizure of classified documents from Mr Trumps Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, but Democrats and Biden officials have argued strenuously that they are not equivalent.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Mr Biden had cooperated with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and that his team had informed the National Archives once they discovered a small number of documents in his possession in a think-tank office in Washington and at his home in Delaware, and turned them over shortly afterwards.

Mr Trump, in contrast, resisted turning over hundreds of documents that the authorities retrieved only after a subpoena and a raid.

Still, Mr Bidens carelessness makes it harder for him to criticise Mr Trump without caveats and Americans not familiar with the details of the cases might view them similarly.

University of New Haven political scientist Patricia Crouse told The Straits Times: In Bidens case, people will probably view it as just an oversight or accidental, and they may start to look at what Trump did in the same way even though the cases are definitely not equivalent. If the conservative media spin it that way, it could undermine the Trump investigation.

Dr Crouse said she does not think this would have an impact on the next presidential election.

Mr Trump has thrown his hat in the ring for 2024, while Mr Biden has hinted at a re-election campaign but not formally unveiled one yet.

The American electorate has notoriously short memories, and I dont see this being a major campaign issue for either side. Disapproval among Republicans for Biden is probably already as low as it can go, she said.

Political scientist Chris Haynes, also from the University of New Haven, said: I really dont think this moves the needle much for independent voters or Democrats, but its something that Republicans can definitely make a lot of hay out of.

Republicans have the majority in the House of Representatives, and have vowed to open investigations into Mr Biden.

It also puts a damper on the Biden teams ebullience following the better-than-expected Democratic showing in the November midterm elections and amid slowing inflation.

Dr Haynes said the case might get Democratic elites to reconsider Mr Biden as the partys nominee for 2024.

I think it might give a lot of them a little bit of pause. It may not convince them that he cant run or shouldnt run, but it might get them to rethink whether or not he really is in the best interest of the Democratic Party, he said. More On This Topic Biden aides find second batch of classified documents at new location Biden versus Trump: What is the difference between the two classified records cases? Democrats are also nervous about a potential rerun of the controversy over 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clintons handling of her e-mails, with some criticising media outlets for not putting the story in proper context and blowing it out of proportion.

But the appointment of a special counsel, former prosecutor and Trump nominee Robert Hur, to oversee the Biden probe could also lend credibility to the Trump investigation, by showing that the DOJ is impartial, said experts.

You can see how some segments of our population could probably take solace in the fact that we have a Justice Department that is not only willing to investigate Trump, but also investigate its own president, said Dr Haynes.

Said Dr Crouse: I think (Attorney-General) Merrick Garland appointing a special counsel to take over the investigation does help protect the integrity of the DOJ and shows there is no double standard when it comes to Biden and Trump. More On This Topic Special counsel to probe Bidens handling of government documents Donald Trump 2024: The legal woes of the former US president

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Dayle Haddon: Former Sports Illustrated model dies of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning

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Dayle Haddon: Former Sports Illustrated model dies of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning

Dayle Haddon – the actor, activist and former Sports Illustrated model – has died from what authorities believe was carbon monoxide poisoning.

Authorities found the 76-year-old dead in a second-floor bedroom on Friday morning after emergency dispatchers were notified about a person unconscious at the house in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania.

A 76-year-old man, later identified as Walter J Blucas, of Erie, is in a critical condition.

Responders detected a high level of carbon monoxide in the property.

Investigators believe the leak was caused by “a faulty flue and exhaust pipe on a gas heating system”.

As a model, Haddon appeared on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Esquire in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the 1973 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

She also appeared in about two dozen films from the 1970s to 1990s, including 1994’s Bullets Over Broadway, starring John Cusack.

Haddon (Left) with Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde (Right) during a meeting of the Gender Equality Advisory Council. Pic: Michael Kappeler/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
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Haddon (left) with Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde (right) during a meeting of the Gender Equality Advisory Council. Pic: AP

Haddon left modelling after giving birth to her daughter, Ryan, in the mid-1970s, but then had to re-enter the workforce after her husband’s 1991 death.

This time, she found the modelling industry far less friendly: “They said to me, ‘At 38, you’re not viable’,” Haddon told The New York Times in 2003.

Read more on Sky News:
Olivia Hussey, star of 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, dies at 73

Working for an advertising agency, she began reaching out to cosmetic companies, telling them there was a growing market to sell beauty products to aging baby boomers.

She eventually landed a contract with Clairol, followed by Estee Lauder and then L’Oreal, for which she promoted the company’s anti-aging products for more than a decade.

She also hosted beauty segments for CBS’s The Early Show.

In 2008, Haddon founded WomenOne, an organisation aimed at advancing educational opportunities for girls and women in marginalised communities, including in Rwanda, Haiti and Jordan.

Read more on Sky News:
Andrew Garfield on baking cookies and his mum’s perfume
Disabled musicians demand greater inclusivity

Haddon’s daughter, Ryan, said in a social media post that her mother was “everyone’s greatest champion. An inspiration to many”.

“A pure heart. A rich inner life. Touching so many lives. A life well lived. Rest in Light, Mom,” she said.

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Director of one of last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza detained in Israeli military raid

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Director of one of last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza detained in Israeli military raid

The director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza was arrested in a raid the Israeli military said was targeting a Hamas command centre.

The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was held by Israeli forces on Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation centre.

Sky News has spoken to patients who say they were forced outside and told to strip in winter weather after troops stormed the hospital.

Israel‘s military said it “conducted and completed a targeted operation” as the hospital was being used as a command centre for Hamas military operations.

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya
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Dr Hussam Abu Safiya. File pic

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said more than 240 terrorists were detained, some of whom tried to pose as patients or flee using ambulances.

Among those taken for questioning are the hospital’s director, who it said was suspected of being a “Hamas terrorist operative”.

Around 15 people involved in last year’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 others abducted, were also detained, the IDF said.

More on Israel-hamas War

The Israeli military said hundreds of patients and staff were evacuated to another hospital before and during the operation, and it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.

Militants fired on its forces and they were “eliminated”, while weapons, including grenades, guns, munitions, and military equipment, were also seized in the raid, it said.

‘It was humiliation’, says injured patient

After news spread on Friday of Kamal Adwan – one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza – being burnt and raided by Israeli forces, a haunting video emerged, writes Sky News correspondent Yousra Elbagir.

Half-stripped men treading over rubble through a scene of full scale destruction with their arms raised and large tanks on either side.

One of the injured patients made to take the walk was being treated in the hospital with his wife and children by his side.

In the hours after being released he shared his experience from the safety of al Ahli hospital.

“The army came the night before and started firing rockets at the hospital and surrounding buildings,” he says. He looks weak and his clothes are grey with concrete dust.

“Yesterday between 5.30 and six, the army came to the hospital and called out [with a loudspeaker] that the director of the hospital must hand over all the displaced, the sick and wounded.”

The director of Kamal Adwan hospital Dr Hussam Abu Safiya had been sharing videos online sounding the alarm on intensified Israeli attacks on the hospital in a 10-day siege before the full raid. He has been detained in the raid.

“We all started leaving then the army stopped us and told the director, ‘I want them in their underwear without any clothes on and they should leave without clothes on’,” says the patient.

“So, we went out without clothes and walked a long distance to a checkpoint. They made us sit there still without any clothes all day in the freezing cold. Once we entered the checkpoint – it was humiliation, cursing and insults in an unnatural way.”

“When they finished the search they placed a number on the back of our necks and on our chest. After we were done with the search they loaded us on to trucks – still naked without any clothes on.”

He says they waited in the trucks for four hours before they were released and that the injured, sick, the medical staff and visitors all faced the same humiliating treatment.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped.

The health ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by Friday’s raid, which it said put northern Gaza’s last major health facility “out of service”.

“The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days… puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk,” a statement said.

The Israeli military said in a statement: “The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law regarding medical facilities, including those where Hamas has chosen to embed its military infrastructure and conduct terrorist activities in blatant violation of international law.”

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to undergo surgery to have prostate removed

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to undergo surgery to have prostate removed

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will go into hospital to have his prostate removed, his office has said.

The 75-year-old was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection resulting from a benign prostate enlargement.

Mr Netanyahu is expected to go into hospital on Sunday to undergo the operation.

Earlier this year, he had surgery for a hernia and had a pacemaker fitted last year.

The announcement comes after the Israeli military raided one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, arresting its director.

Israel has been at war with Hamas for more than 14 months since the 7 October attacks in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 others abducted.

More than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, have been killed and more than 108,000 others wounded, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

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