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President Biden had seemed so adamant. He would leave the Justice Department to make its own decisions.Hunter Biden would not be granted clemency for gun and tax convictions just because he was the president's son. But that was before he dropped out of the presidential race. A lot has changed since then. A lifetime in politics has just weeks left to run.Joe Biden's presidential legacy will be marked more by his failure to keep the country from swinging to the Republicans under Donald Trump than it will be for a last-minute pardon of his son. A reversal, yes - but hardly surprising he is choosing family first.The decision was announced after a weekend in Nantucket, which has long been the Biden family's traditional Thanksgiving getaway spot. ...

The French government is heading towards collapse after far-right and left-wing parties said they would vote for a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Michel Barnier.It follows Mr Barnier's decision to use special powers to force the social security budget through the lower house of parliament without a final vote after a last-minute concession was not enough to win support from the far-right National Rally (RN). RN leader Marine Le Pen said her party would table its own no-confidence motion but would also vote for any similar bill from other parties."The French have had enough," she said."Maybe they thought with Michel Barnier things would get better, but they were even worse." Mathilde Panot, from the hard-left France Unbowed party, said: "Faced with this umpteenth denial of demo...

Members of an organised crime gang which smuggled up to £7bn worth of drugs into the UK from the continent have been jailed.The gang was behind what is believed to be the biggest drug smuggling operation ever detected in the UK. Judge Paul Lawton described the gang's drug smuggling operation as being "on an industrial and hitherto unprecedented scale".The defendants were separated into two trials at Manchester Crown Court with reporting restrictions lifted following the conclusion of the second trial which lasted nine months.The first trial was 23 months, the longest ever in England and Wales. The lifting of the reporting restrictions means the details of the investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) can now be revealed.The gang's ringleader Paul Green, 59, known as The Big Fella, w...

Eamon Fay has been making Irish dancing shoes for more than 40 years.He counts the Riverdance and Lord of the Dance troupes among his customers, as well as the thousands of young children who have taken up the hobby. Mr Fay, 57, is the only remaining Irish dance shoe manufacturer in Ireland. He says the economic downturn with COVID was a major hit to business."I'm kind of the last man standing at this stage," he says. Image: 'Heavy' Irish dancing shoes in Fay's shop in Dublin's city centre Mr Fay lives in the north Dublin suburb of Clontarf, with his wife and three sons, aged 27, 24 and 22. "There's quite an argument in my house because my three sons vote Sinn Fein and I vote Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, and so does my wife."...

Israel's prime minister says he will "respond with force" after Hezbollah fired towards an Israeli military post in disputed territory in Lebanon.Two projectiles fell in open areas and no injuries were reported. Israel said they had been launched toward Mount Dov, a disputed Israeli-held territory known as Shebaa Farms in Lebanon, where the borders of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel meet.Hezbollah said it fired projectiles as a "defensive and warning response" after what it called "repeated violations" of the ceasefire deal by Israel. The attack was Hezbollah's first since the ceasefire was enacted last week.Lebanon has also accused Israel of violating the truce more than 50 times in recent days. The incident was "a serious violation" of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, said Israeli ...

Two paralysed patients have been able to walk short distances and even climb stairs once more after being implanted with electrodes in their brains.Both had catastrophic spinal injuries that meant they relied on a wheelchair before the operation. But in a world first, surgeons used a technique called deep brain stimulation to "re-awaken" dormant nerve fibres in the spinal cord and re-establish control of the leg muscles.Wolfgang Jaeger, 54, broke his back in a skiing accident in 2006 and had to shuffle downstairs on his backside.But since being implanted with electrodes two years ago, he has worked intensively with physiotherapists to recover movement of his limbs. Image: Wolfgang Jager climbs down the stairs in a time-lapse image. Pic: Neuro...

Police in Australia have seized a record 2.3 tonnes (2,300kg) of cocaine from a motorcycle gang's fishing boat that broke down off the coast of Queensland.The haul, worth around $760m Australian dollars (£388m), was being smuggled by the Comancheros biker gang, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commander Stephen Jay said. Detectives had been investigating the gang since last month after getting a tip-off that they were planning a multi-tonne smuggling operation. Image: Pic: Australian Federal Police Image: Pic: Australian Federal Police In the past week, the AFP said it worked with the Queensland Police Service (QPS) and the Australian Border Force (ABF) to...

A stowaway who somehow boarded a flight in New York and made it to Paris was removed from her flight back to the US this weekend.Last Tuesday, a woman was caught onboard a Delta Airlines flight without a ticket, after she bypassed two identity checks in New York plus a full security screening. She was removed from the plane when it landed in Paris and placed in a holding zone until her flight back on Saturday, when she "created a disturbance".Sky News' US partner network NBC News reports she was taken off the plane before departure and held in custody - and it's not clear when she will be flown back.According to CNN, which spoke to a witness across the aisle, she kept saying "I do not want to go back to the USA" and "only a judge can make me go back to the USA". The network added footage f...

A footballer who collapsed on the pitch during a match on Sunday is awake and answering questions after spending the night in hospital, Italian media reports have said.Fiorentina midfielder Edoardo Bove, 22, was taken to hospital after falling to the ground in their Serie A home game against Inter Milan at the Artemio Franchi Stadium. The Italian regained consciousness in the ambulance before being put into a medically induced coma. Image: Players on both sides surrounded the player after he collapsed. Pic: AP Image: An ambulance comes onto the pitch. Pic: AP Various reports in Italy have said Bove's night "went well" and the Fiorentina player was taken of...

Pictures and videos have revealed new, specialised hunting techniques used by killer whales to attack the world's largest fish, according to scientists.On four occasions caught on video, a group of orcas preyed on whale sharks in the Gulf of California. The orcas would work together to hit the whale shark until it turned upside down. Image: A killer whale hits the ventral side of the whale shark. Pic: Kelsey Williamson Image: A killer whale hits the shark with the side of its head. Pic: Kelsey Williamson "In that position the sharks enter a state of tonic immobility and can no longer move voluntarily or escape by going deeper," said Erick Higuera Rivas,...