Joe Biden Pardons His Son Hunter, Says Charges Politically Motivated 2
Outgoing US President Joe Biden on Sunday issued “a full and unconditional pardon” to Hunter Biden arguing that he was singled out only because he was his son.
“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” Biden said in a statement Sunday night.
Hunter Biden was convicted early this year on federal gun and tax charges and was set to appear soon in Delon, California, where he faced the potential of lengthy prison sentences.
“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” Joe Biden said.
“Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently,” said the president.
Biden said the charges in his cases came about only after several of his political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose his election.
“Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases,” he said.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” he said.
“There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough,” Joe Biden said.
UPSC Coaching Teacher Avadh Ojha Joins AAP in Presence of Arvind Kejriwal 4
Civil services coaching teacher and motivational speaker Avadh Ojha joined the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday in the presence of party chief Arvind Kejriwal and senior leader Manish Sisodia.
Ojha said he is aligned with the party’s ideology focused on the future of children and the termed the development of education his biggest ambition.
“I want to thank Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia to give me a chance to work in the field of education in politics,” Ojha said after joining the party.
AAP is doing work in the field of education and Ojha’s joining the party will strengthen efforts to strengthen education and “ultimately, our nation will be strengthened,” Kejriwal said.
Sisodia added that it was a special day and Ojha had been doing good work in education for which he too has dedicated his whole life.
The Delhi assembly elections are slated for February next year. AAP, which won 62 of 70 seats in 2020, is eyeing a third consecutive term.
Fadnavis' Name Approved as Maharashtra Chief Minister, Claims Senior BJP Leader 6
The name of Devendra Fadnavis has been finalised as the new chief minister of Maharashtra who will be elected as the legislature party leader in a meeting to be held either on December 2 or 3, a senior BJP leader said on Sunday night.
Earlier in the day, outgoing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said he would support the BJP’s decision to pick the new chief minister.
“The name of Devendra Fadnavis has been finalised as the new chief minister of Maharashtra. The meeting to elect the new BJP legislature party meeting will be held on either December 2 or 3,” a senior BJP leader told PTI.
Amid speculation that his son Shrikant Shinde might get the deputy CM’s post and Shiv Sena is keen on the Home portfolio, Eknath Shinde said the Mahayuti allies- BJP, NCP, and Shiv Sena- will decide the government formation through consensus after sitting together.
More than a week after the Mahayuti clinched a massive victory in Maharashtra polls with the BJP emerging as the single largest party with 132 seats, the new government is yet to be sworn in.
The oath-taking ceremony of the new Mahayuti government is scheduled for December 5 evening at the Azad Maidan in south Mumbai and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend it.
The BJP is moving cautiously as aspirations of its allies, especially Shiv Sena, grew after the massive poll victory.
Despite Shinde’s insistence on Mahayuti unity, some leaders of allies spoke in different voices.
Former Union minister and BJP leader Raosaheb Danve said if the undivided Sena and BJP had contested the elections together, they would have won more seats.
Separately, Shiv Sena MLA Gulabrao Patil claimed that the Eknath Shinde-led party would have won 90-100 seats in polls had Ajit Pawar’s NCP not been part of the alliance, drawing a sharp reaction from the Ajit Pawar-led party.
The BJP legislature party meeting to elect the leader, who will be the party’s chief ministerial pick, is yet to be held even though Shiv Sena and NCP have elected Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as their legislature party leaders, respectively.
A senior Mahayuti leader said the allies will jointly decide whether only the chief minister and deputy CMs will take oath on December 5 or ministers will also be sworn in.
Shinde had left for his native village in Satara district on Friday amid speculation that he was not happy with the way the new government was shaping up. He developed a high fever in his village.
Talking to reporters in his village on Sunday before leaving for Mumbai, Shinde said, “I have already said the decision on CM’s post taken by the BJP leadership will be acceptable to me and Shiv Sena and will have my full backing”.
On speculation that Shrikant Shinde will be made a Deputy CM in the new government and whether Shiv Sena has staked the claim for the home portfolio, Shinde replied, “Talks were on”.
“A meeting took place in Delhi last week with (Union home minister) Amit Shah, and now we three alliance partners will discuss the nitty-gritty of government formation after sitting together,” he said.
Responding to a query on his health, the Shiv Sena leader said he was fine now and had come to his native village to get some rest.
Shinde reiterated that there are no differences among Mahayuti allies and pointed out that the BJP is yet to announce its legislature party leader.
“There are no ifs and buts. My health is fine now. The work of our government will be written in golden words in the history,” he said.
Shinde landed in Thane on the late Sunday afternoon.
Though the oath-taking ceremony of the new government just four days away, there seems no clarity on the schedule of the much-awaited BJP legislature party meeting.
A BJP leader claimed the party’s MLAs have not been informed yet regarding the timing of the legislature party meeting. A day earlier, BJP leaders confirmed that the meeting will be held on December 2.
Maharashtra NCP chief Sunil Tatkare said,”We will sit together and decide whether only chief minister and deputy chief ministers will take oath or ministers will also be sworn in”.
Differences among Mahayuti allies, meanwhile, came out in the open on Sunday.
“Had Shiv Sena not split into two, and contested assembly elections with the BJP, our victory would have been bigger than what we achieved today. We had also won comfortably in the 2019 assembly elections,” Raosaheb Danve said.
He claimed the Shiv Sena split because of Sanjay Raut, a close aide of Uddhav Thackeray.
“You wait for six months, and Raut will cause a rift between Uddhav and his son Aaditya as well,” he added.
Separately, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Gaikwad, who won the Buldana constituency by a wafer-thin margin against Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee Jayashree Shelke, levelled serious allegations.
“Local MP and Union minister Prataprao Jadhav of Shiv Sena called Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and confidante of Uddhav Thackeray to field Jayashree Shelke. BJP’s Sanjay Kute passed on the same message to Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab to field Shelke against me,” he claimed.
The Mahayuti won 230 of the 288 assembly seats. The BJP led with 132 seats, while the Shiv Sena got 57 and NCP 41.
“We contested only 85 seats. Without Ajitdada, we could have won 90-100 seats. Shinde never asked why Ajit Pawar-led NCP was inducted in his government,” Gulabrao Patil, a minister in the outgoing government, told a regional news channel.
NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari hit back, asking Patil to not shoot off his “loose tongue”.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has said if the petition over a Mughal-era mosque at Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh had prayed for the right to access, then why a court there ordered a survey of the structure.
Targeting the ruling BJP, Owaisi said such issues weaken the country, which is facing inflation, unemployment, farmer suicides and other issues.
On November 19, a court of civil judge (senior division) of Sambhal passed an ex-parte order for a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid by an advocate commissioner, after taking note of a plea of the Hindu side claiming the mosque was built by Mughal emperor Babur in 1526 after demolishing a temple.
On November 24, violence gripped the area during the court-ordered survey of the mosque, killing four persons and injuring many others.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a Sambhal trial court to halt proceedings in the case over the Shahi Jama Masjid and its survey at Chandausi while directing the UP government to maintain peace and harmony in the violence-hit town.
Talking to reporters here on Sunday over the Sambhal incident, Owaisi said, “If we read the petition, we find the prayer in it is right to access. If this is so, why did the court order the survey, which is wrong. If they need access, who stops them from going and sitting in the mosque?” “If according to the Places of Worship Act, the character and nature (of a religious place) can’t be changed, then why still the survey was ordered?” the Hyderabad MP asked.
Notably, a court recently also admitted a petition seeking to declare the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in Rajasthan as a temple.
Several opposition leaders have raised serious concerns over the controversy on the Ajmer Dargah, which comes close on the heels of similar claims made regarding the Sambhal mosque in UP.
Asked about claims over the shrine in Ajmer, Owaisi said the dargah exists for 800 years and (Sufi poet) Amir Khusro had also mentioned about it dargah in his book.
“Now they say that it is not a dargah. If this is so, where is this going to stop? Even prime ministers send ‘chadar’ to this dargah during ‘Urs’. What will the Modi government say when they send the chadar every year?” he sought to know.
“If the Buddha and Jain community people go to court (in such a manner), they will also claim (some) places. So, an Act was brought in 1991 that the nature of a religious place will not be changed and it will remain as it was on August 15, 1947,” he said.
Owaisi said such issues weaken the country and BJP leaders should stop going this.
“There are problems like inflation, unemployment, farmer suicides, China becoming powerful. But they put the people at work for this (survey of religious places). I earlier said after the judgement in the Babri case that more such incidents may pop up now,” he said.
Notably, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday expressed concern over the declining population growth and said India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR), the average number of children a woman gives birth to in her lifetime, should be at least 3, well above the present one of 2.1.
To a query on it, Owaisi said, “Now those in the RSS should start marrying. Their (BJP) MPs say that no one having more than two children should be given the benefit of government schemes. They should stick to one policy.”
Mahayuti 2.0 to Take Oath on December 5 in PM Modi's Presence at Azad Maidan 9
The newly elected Mahayuti government in Maharashtra will officially take charge with a grand oath-taking ceremony on December 5 at Azad Maidan, Mumbai. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the event, adding significant stature to the occasion.
Grand Ceremony at Azad Maidan
State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule confirmed the event, announcing: “The oath-taking ceremony of the Mahayuti Government in Maharashtra will be held in the presence of Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji on Thursday, December 5, 2024, at 5 PM at Azad Maidan, Mumbai.”
राज्यातील महायुती सरकारचा शपथविधी
विश्वगौरव माननीय पंतप्रधान श्री. @narendramodi जी यांच्या उपस्थितीत गुरुवार, दि. ५ डिसेंबर २०२४ रोजी संध्याकाळी ५ वाजता आझाद मैदान, मुंबई येथे संपन्न होणार आहे.
The Mahayuti alliance, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, and the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP, is set to showcase its unity and strength at the high-profile event.
This marks the beginning of Mahayuti 2.0’s governance, following their resounding victory in the state elections. The new leadership’s plans and vision for Maharashtra now take center stage.
17 Terrorists Killed in Helicopter Gunship Strikes in Northwest Pakistan 11
Seventeen terrorists were killed on Friday in two separate operations when Pakistani security forces’ helicopter gunships targeted their hideouts in the country’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The intelligence-based operations were conducted in the Bannu and the North Waziristan districts, according to security sources.
In the Baka Khel area of the Bannu district, 12 terrorists affiliated with the Hafiz Gulbahadur group were eliminated as choppers struck their compound.
The second operation was carried out in the Hasso Khel area of Mir Ali, North Waziristan, where five militants were killed.
A large cache of weapons and ammunition was seized from the militants, sources said. Security forces also released images of the killed terrorists.
The operation is ongoing, with reinforcements arriving for the security forces.
The security forces launched a massive operation against terrorists in response to the fresh wave of attacks against security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s southern districts.
A Kerala court has convicted and sentenced a man to a cumulative 141 years imprisonment for repeatedly raping his minor stepdaughter for several years when her mother was not at home.
Manjeri Fast Track Special Court Judge Ashraf A M sentenced the man to varying durations of imprisonment under various provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the IPC and the Juvenile Justice Act for a total of 141 years.
However, the man will serve 40 years in prison as that was the highest of jail terms given to the man and the varying sentences are to be served concurrently, according to the court’s order of November 29.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 7.85 lakh on the convict.
It also ordered that the victim be provided compensation.
The convict and the victim are Tamil Nadu natives and the stepfather had been sexually assaulting the girl since 2017, a police officer associated with the case said.
The girl, on a friend’s advice, finally told her mother who in turn informed the police, the officer said.
Staying hydrated offers more than just quenching thirst. A review of 18 studies led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, highlights the significant health benefits of drinking water, including preventing kidney stones and aiding in weight loss.
Key Findings:
Preventing Kidney Stones: Drinking at least eight cups of water daily reduced the risk of recurring kidney stones.
Weight Loss: Consuming about six cups of water per day helped adults lose weight, especially when drinking water before meals.
Other Health Benefits:
Diabetes: Four additional cups daily for eight weeks helped diabetic patients manage elevated blood glucose levels.
Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs): Women drinking six more cups of water daily experienced fewer recurrent infections.
Low Blood Pressure: Drinking more water benefited young adults with hypotension.
Migraines: Adults reported relief from recurring headaches after increasing water intake over three months.
Mixed Results for Teens
While adults benefit significantly from hydration, a study involving teenagers found that drinking over eight cups of water daily had no measurable impact.
Call for More Research
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, noted that while evidence supports certain health benefits, more well-designed studies are needed to establish water’s role in managing migraines, diabetes, and other conditions.
Expert Insights
Benjamin Breyer, senior author and chair of the urology department at UCSF, emphasized the individualized nature of water consumption:
“Dehydration is detrimental, particularly for those with a history of kidney stones or urinary infections. However, frequent urination sufferers may benefit from drinking less. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach for water consumption.”
Bottom Line
Hydration is a cost-effective, low-risk intervention that offers significant health benefits. Encouraging consistent water consumption—tailored to individual needs—can positively impact weight management, chronic conditions, and overall well-being.
Shiv Sena Demands Home Ministry in Maharashtra Government: Sanjay Shirsat 15
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Shirsat on Saturday emphasized that the party should secure the crucial home portfolio in the newly formed Maharashtra government. He also hinted at growing tensions within the Mahayuti alliance, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP, while alleging attempts to sideline caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Speaking to PTI, Shirsat highlighted Shinde’s “positive image” and his contribution to governance, stating, “If Shinde had two and a half more years as CM, his impact would have been greater.” Shirsat insisted that the home department, traditionally held by the deputy CM, should go to Shiv Sena.
Currently, Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP manages the home portfolio in the outgoing government.
Rift Among Allies
Shirsat’s comments reflect internal fissures among Mahayuti allies following their impressive performance in the state elections, where they collectively won 230 out of 288 assembly seats. The BJP emerged as the largest party with 132 seats, while Shiv Sena and NCP secured 57 and 41 seats, respectively.
Despite his support for BJP’s decision to name the next CM, Shinde is reportedly discontent with the ongoing discussions over portfolio allocation.
Shinde’s Contributions Acknowledged
Shirsat praised Shinde’s leadership during the Maratha reservation agitation and his welfare initiatives like the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme, which resonated with voters. “Shinde’s common man image has significantly benefited the Mahayuti. He managed to win public trust despite being labeled a ‘gaddar’ (traitor),” Shirsat said.
Shirsat warned that sidelining Shinde or denying Shiv Sena a key portfolio like the home ministry could upset the delicate balance within the alliance, urging the BJP to recognize the value of Shinde’s leadership.
9 Dead, 25 Injured as State Transport Bus Overturns in Maharashtra's Gondia 17
A tragic accident occurred in Maharashtra’s Gondia district on Friday afternoon when a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus overturned, leaving nine passengers dead and 25 others injured, police reported.
The MSRTC ‘Shiv Shahi’ bus was en route to Gondia from Bhandara with 36 passengers onboard when it flipped over at Davva village in Sadakarjuni taluka. According to a senior police official, the bus overturned while attempting to overtake another vehicle around 12:30 pm.
Emergency responders transported the injured passengers to a nearby hospital for treatment. Investigations are underway to determine the exact cause of the accident.
