Good afternoon. The outgoing US president, Joe Biden, has issued “a full and unconditional” pardon to his son Hunter Biden, who was to be sentenced in the coming weeks after being convicted of federal gun and tax fraud charges.
The decision marked a reversal for the president, who had repeatedly said he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence. In a statement announcing the decision, Joe Biden said Republican opponents had inflated the charges “to attack me and oppose my election”.
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” Biden added. As the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief writes, “any father might have done the same – but this exercise of power also looks like a validation of Donald Trump”.
Top news
In pictures
Australia’s best photos of the month – November 2024
From the Rising Tide protest flotilla in Newcastle to sunburnt schoolies and a corpse flower in bloom, Guardian Australia looks back at striking images from around the country.
What they said …
“I had a hell of a week … [I] felt like a zombie.” – Aurimus Mockus
Just a few months ago, the 44-year-old Lithuanian had never rowed. Now he has been at sea for more than a month, about a quarter of the way into a 12,000km trip from San Diego to Brisbane in a single-seater ocean rowing boat. Undertaking the quest in solidarity with Ukraine, Mockus rows naked most of the time – “so I don’t have any problems with my buttocks, and the good news is that I’ll be back with a nice tan”.
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In numbers
More than a dozen people have been charged over the largest alleged cocaine importation in Australia’s history. Authorities claim they busted the attempt by a transnational organised crime syndicate to import the illegal drug, with a street value of about $760m, after a recreational fishing boat police were tracking became stranded about 18km off the north-eastern tip of K’gari.
Before bed read
Three things with Wendy Whiteley: ‘My daughter died, so it’s a real emotional connection to her being very much alive’
In Guardian Australia’s weekly interview about objects, the Sydneysider talks about things that bring her happy memories – and the photos she really hates.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: IDE. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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