- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
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- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
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- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Guardians maul Tigers, miracle Mets rally in MLB series openers
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
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- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
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- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
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- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
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- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
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Hunter Biden pleads guilty to tax evasion charges
Joe Biden's son Hunter pleaded guilty in a tax evasion trial on Thursday, without reaching the deal he had sought with prosecutors, in a case that has been an embarrassment for the US president.
The 54-year-old admitted nine counts related to failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes over the past decade, money that prosecutors said he splurged instead on luxury living, sex workers and a drug habit.
The pleas came on the day jury selection for a trial had been due to start, and hours after Biden had offered to plead guilty in the hope of striking a deal that might keep him out of prison.
But no deal materialized and Biden made the pleas in open court.
US District Judge Mark Scarsi set sentencing for December 16. Biden faces up to 17 years in prison and a fine in excess of $1 million.
A trial had been expected to re-hash sordid details of a life that the defendant and his family -- including the president -- have long acknowledged had gone off the rails.
"I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment," US media reported Biden saying in a statement.
"Prosecutors were focused not on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my addiction."
Biden has already spent a chunk of 2024 in court, having been convicted in Delaware of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun -- an act that is a felony.
He has yet to be sentenced for that crime, and could face up to 25 years imprisonment.
President Biden has the power to pardon his son, but has said he would not do so.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday that his position had not changed.
"It is still very much a 'no'," she said.
- Political battle -
Lawyers for Biden have said he was only being brought before the court because of who he is.
"They want to slime him because that is the whole purpose," Biden's attorney Mark Geragos reportedly said during an August hearing in which he accused prosecutors of attempted character assassination.
Biden's defense team has argued that the non-payment of taxes was an oversight in a life wrought chaotic by a spiraling drug addiction and the trauma of losing his older brother, Beau, to a brain tumor in 2015.
Biden has paid the back taxes, as well as penalties levied by authorities, and had previously reached a plea deal that would have kept him out of jail.
That agreement fell apart at the last minute, and Biden is understood to have been trying to reach another since then.
That has been difficult for prosecutors, whose every move in this election year is being scrutinized by Republicans, who charge the defendant is being treated leniently because he is the president's son.
Hunter Biden has for years been a foil for his father's political opponents, who have sought -- without producing evidence -- to smear the family as a group of criminals who have gained wealth and power because of Joe Biden's career.
The elder Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race in favor of Kamala Harris has taken much of the zeal out of the Republican drive to make an example out of his son.
Nevertheless, prosecutors appeared unwilling to cut him any slack.
An attempt on Thursday morning by Hunter Biden to enter a so-called "Alford plea," whereby he would admit guilt because of the high probability of conviction but maintain his innocence, was rebuffed.
"I want to make crystal clear: the US opposes an Alford plea," prosecutor Leo Wise told the court. "Hunter Biden is not innocent, he is guilty."
In his statement, Biden, who lives in Malibu, said his drug addiction was "not an excuse, but it is an explanation for some of my failures at issue in this case."
"I have been clean and sober for more than five years because I have had the love and support of my family.
"I can never repay them for showing up for me and helping me through my worst moments.
"But I can protect them from being publicly humiliated for my failures."
S.Gregor--AMWN