Hunter Biden is first sitting US president’s son to be convicted of crime

Published

1 year ago

June 11, 2024

admin

Joe Biden’s son has been found guilty of illegally buying a gun after hiding his drug use.

Hunter Biden, 54, was convicted of three firearm charges in the first criminal prosecution of a sitting US president’s offspring.

Prosecutors had said he lied on a form when buying a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018 by stating he was not a drug user or addict, despite a problem with crack cocaine.

Hunter Biden latest as president’s son is found guilty

Mr Biden pleaded not guilty to felony charges that included lying about his addiction when he filled out a government screening document for the revolver and illegally possessing the weapon for 11 days.

First Lady Jill Biden was in the courtroom shortly after the verdicts – which came after the jury deliberated for about three hours – and was seen holding her stepson’s hand as they left.

In a statement following the verdicts, Joe Biden said he accepts the outcome of the case, as his son considers making an appeal – while Donald Trump described the trial as a “distraction” from the Bidens’ “real crimes”.

The trial included testimony from Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and sister-in-law, who gave accounts of his spiralling addiction in the weeks before and after buying the gun.

Prosecutors also showed text messages, photos and bank records they said showed Mr Biden was deep in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun.

Conviction is body blow to US president that will supercharge Trump rhetoric

It is another moment without precedent for America. The son of a sitting president has been convicted on three felony counts in a federal court.

Beyond the seriousness of the crime itself, the trial has lifted a lid on the layered struggles and tragedies of one family. It could be any number of American families – except it is the nation’s first family.

At its heart, it is a story of addiction, loss and grief which led to a criminal conviction. But because it’s about the Bidens, it is also, inevitably, a story of politics and scandal.

The first family’s private turmoil has played out in a public courtroom because one member of the family lied to obtain a gun.

It is a case that almost never came to trial. A plea bargain had been arranged – Hunter Biden would plead guilty to the tax fraud and the gun charges would be dropped.

But the plan fell apart.

Just as Donald Trump had been told he wasn’t above the law, so too was Joe Biden’s son. A trial began and history was made when the sitting president’s son entered the courtroom.

For the full analysis, click here.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers sought to show he was not using drugs when he bought the gun and didn’t intend to deceive as he didn’t consider himself a drug user at the time.

The defence called Hunter Biden’s daughter, Naomi Biden, who testified her father seemed to be doing well when she saw him shortly before and after he bought the gun.

Mr Biden did not testify at the trial, which was held in the Bidens’ hometown of Wilmington in Delaware.

The sentencing guidelines for the gun-related charges are 15 to 21 months, but legal experts say defendants in similar cases often get shorter sentences.

They are also less likely to see jailtime if they abide by the terms of pretrial release.

The judge set no date for sentencing, but added the timeline is usually within 120 days – which could place it a month before the US presidential election on 5 November.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer said they are “naturally disappointed” and will “continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available”.

The case followed another historic first after last month’s criminal conviction of Mr Trump, the first former US president to be found guilty of a crime.

Democrats have pointed to this case as evidence Joe Biden is not using the justice system for political ends, having said last week he would not pardon his son if convicted.

But in a statement Mr Trump said: “Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on 5 November, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit.”

The president said he is “also a dad” and is “proud of the man he is today”.

“So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery,” he added.

“Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that.”

US

What’s affected by internet outage – all we know so far

Published

11 hours ago

October 20, 2025

admin

What's affected by internet outage - all we know so far

Dozens of websites, banks and apps are being affected by a major internet outage.

The problem, which started on Monday morning, appears to be related to an issue at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

As of 9.20am, there were more than 2,000 reports of the Amazon Web Services outage in the US alone, according to Downdetector, which monitors issues and outages in real-time.

Follow live updates here

On its service status page, the company said it was seeing “increased error rates” and delays with “multiple AWS services”.

Here’s what we know so far.

What has been affected?

Multiple banks, the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website, mobile phone networks and video-chatting platform Zoom are among the websites having technical issues.

All Amazon products – including Prime Video and Amazon Music – have also been affected, as well as the main Amazon website.

Here’s a full list of what has been affected by the internet outage, according to Downdetector:

• Snapchat
• Ring
• Roblox
• Amazon Web Services
• Life360
• My Fitness Pal
• Amazon
• Xero
• Signal
• Canva
• Fortnite
• Blink Security
• Zoom
• HMRC
• Clash Royale
• Clash Of Clans
• Asana
• Wordle
• Slack
• Smartsheet
• Epic Games Store
• Duolingo
• Amazon Alexa
• Jira
• Vodafone
• Tidal
• Coinbase
• Atlassian
• IMDB
• Amazon Prime Video
• Pokemon Go
• BT
• Peloton
• EE
• Ancestry
• Square
• Playstation Network
• Eventbrite
• Amazon Music
• Sky
• Flickr
• Hay Day
• Rocket League
• Perplexity AI
• Dead By Daylight
• Bank Of Scotland
• Lloyds Bank
• Halifax

What has AWS said?

AWS confirmed it was suffering from “increased error rates and latencies” for multiple services.

What is Amazon Web Services?

Mickey Carroll

Science and technology reporter

Amazon Web Services was named as the cause of the problem by the chief executive of AI company Perplexity.

Aravind Srinivas posted on X saying: “Perplexity is down right now. The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it.”

AWS describes itself as “the world’s most comprehensive” cloud service.

It offers companies a virtual backbone, giving them access to servers, databases and storage without having to build their own infrastructure.

Millions of businesses are thought to use AWS, so when something goes wrong, it can have a huge impact. AWS hasn’t put out any information on the outage. Sky News has contacted the company for comment.

In a statement on its website, the company said: “We are actively engaged and working to both mitigate the issue and understand root cause,” an update on its website says.

“We will provide an update in 45 minutes, or sooner if we have additional information to share.”

The company is posting regular updates on the situation and said its engineers were “immediately engaged” as soon as they spotted the issue.

Concentrated in the US

ThousandEyes, a website that tracks the performance of local and wide area networks, servers and applications, shows many of the outages appear to be concentrated in the US.

A large portion is focused in Virginia, which is widely considered as the global capital for data centres.

Has something like this happened before?

US

Donald Trump mocks ‘No Kings’ protests with AI video of himself dropping brown sludge on protesters from jet

Published

1 day ago

October 19, 2025

admin

Donald Trump mocks 'No Kings' protests with AI video of himself dropping brown sludge on protesters from jet

Donald Trump has responded to so-called “No Kings” rallies with an AI video of himself in a fighter jet, pouring brown sludge over protesters.

Millions of people were expected to take part in the demonstrations this weekend – the second such gathering after an initial nationwide day of protest in June coinciding with the US president’s birthday.

The term “No Kings” reflects the belief by some that Mr Trump is behaving like a “king” and some in his administration are depicting him as a monarch.

On Sunday, the president shared the AI video on his social media platform, Truth Social.

In the clip, an AI-generated version of Mr Trump is wearing a crown and sitting in a jet with “King Trump” written across it, to the soundtrack of Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone, from the film Top Gun.

The jet then drops thick brown sludge on to AI-generated protesters.

Supporters say the marches are a patriotic defence of free speech, while critics are calling them anti-American.

Mr Trump’s Republican Party has dismissed the demonstrations as “Hate America” rallies.

Many of the events featured marching bands, huge banners and signs, as well as effigies of the president and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes.

The protests follow Mr Trump’s return to the White House and come against the backdrop of a government shutdown which has closed federal programmes and services.

There has also been criticism of what some see as an aggressive executive, confronting Congress and the courts, in ways that protest organisers believe are a slide toward authoritarianism.

So far, the atmosphere at most of the protests appears to have been largely energetic and upbeat, with protesters calling for accountability and protections for civil liberties.

Organisers said events would be peaceful – a direct response to Republican and Trump administration claims that the protests could be unsafe.

US

US airstrike destroyed ‘drug-carrying submarine’, says Trump – as survivors repatriated

Published

1 day ago

October 19, 2025

admin

US airstrike destroyed 'drug-carrying submarine', says Trump - as survivors repatriated

Two survivors of a US airstrike, targeting what Donald Trump has described as a “drug-carrying submarine” in the Caribbean, have been repatriated to their home countries.

The US president posted footage of Thursday’s operation, part of a recent military campaign targeting boats transporting drugs to America.

“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“US intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics,” he added.

The US military staged a helicopter rescue for the survivors on Thursday after the strike on their semi-submersible
vessel, suspected of trafficking illegal narcotics. They were then transported to a US Navy warship.

Two other crew members on board were killed.

President Trump confirmed the survivors would be returned to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador “for detention and prosecution”. Both countries subsequently confirmed they had been handed over.

“America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea,” he added.

On Saturday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted on X: “We have received the Colombian detained on the narco submarine, we are happy he is alive and he will be processed according to the law.”

The Trump administration has said previous strikes in the Caribbean have killed 27 people, raising concerns among some about the legality of the military operations.

The strikes also come against the backdrop of a US military buildup in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and around 6,500 troops as the US president escalates a standoff with the Venezuelan government.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump disclosed he had authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, adding to speculation in Caracas that the US is attempting to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Mr Maduro has denied any connection to drug smuggling and claimed the US boat strikes are a pretext for regime change, and violations of sovereignty and international law.