First Thing: Hunter Biden indicted on tax charges in new criminal case

The second set of charges against the president’s son allege he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ‘women’, ‘clothing’ and ‘accessories’ rather than paying his tax bill. Plus, the Golden Gate Bridge is finally getting a safety net

Good morning.

Hunter Biden has been indicted on nine tax charges in California. It is the second indictment against the president’s son, adding fuel to a scandal that Republicans have been seizing on in the lead-up to the 2024 election.

Biden had already been charged federally in Delaware over allegations that he unlawfully obtained a revolver in October 2018 after falsely stating he was not using narcotic drugs.

The new charges include three felonies and six misdemeanor offenses. Biden faces a possible 17-year sentence if convicted.

“The Defendant engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4m in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019,” the 56-page indictment said, adding that Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills”.

• What does the indictment say? In 2018, the indictment read, Biden “spent more than $1.8 million, including approximately $772,000 in cash withdrawals, approximately $383,000 in payments to women, approximately $151,000 in clothing and accessories” among other expenditures.

• What has Biden said? His lawyers did not immediately respond to an inquiry and the White House declined to comment.

US highlights ‘gap’ in Israel’s commitment to protect civilians in Gaza

The US has issued some of its strongest criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas.

Pressure has been growing to speed up the delivery of humanitarian supplies into Gaza; the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has responded by saying another crossing would be opened into the territory.

However, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said there was a gap between the Israeli government’s declared intentions to protect civilians and the mounting casualties seen on the ground.

“As we stand here almost a week into this campaign into the south … it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection,” Blinken said at a press conference after a meeting with the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, in Washington.

“And there does remain a gap between … the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground,” Blinken said.

• How many people have been killed in Gaza? More than 17,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since 7 October when Israel began bombarding the territory after a cross-border rampage by Hamas militants.

• What’s the situation like in Gaza now? “We are reaching a point of no return in Gaza, where the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law scars our collective conscience,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA, has warned. Its commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, has called for more funding for humanitarian purposes.

US university presidents face firestorm over ‘evasive’ answers on antisemitism

The presidents of three of the nation’s top universities are facing intense backlash, including from the White House, after being accused of evading questions during a congressional hearing about whether calls by students for the genocide of Jews would constitute harassment under the schools’ codes of conduct.

In a contentious, hours-long debate on Tuesday, the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sought to address the steps they were taking to combat rising antisemitism on campus since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. But it was their careful, indirect response to a question posed by the Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York that drew scathing criticism.

In an exchange that has now gone viral, Stefanik, a graduate of Harvard, pressed Elizabeth Magill, the president of UPenn, on Tuesday to say whether students calling for the genocide of Jews would be disciplined under the university’s code of conduct. In her line of questioning, Stefanik appeared to be conflating chants calling for “intifada” – a word that in Arabic means uprising, and has been used in reference to both peaceful and violent Palestinian protest – with hypothetical calls for genocide.

“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill replied, in a reference to distinctions in first amendment law. “It is a context-dependent decision.” Stefanik pushed her to answer “yes” or “no”, which Magill did not.

The backlash was swift and bipartisan.

• How has the White House responded? “It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country,” said Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson. “Any statements that advocate for the systematic murder of Jews are dangerous and revolting – and we should all stand firmly against them, on the side of human dignity and the most basic values that unite us as Americans.”

In other news …

• Torrential rains that pummeled the Pacific north-west this week have begun to slow, as the region examines the damage left in the wake of severe storms across Washington and Oregon. Officials reported the death of two men whose bodies were recovered from rushing waters.

• Ukraine has told residents to save energy after a power plant near the frontline was hit by shelling, in the first such warning this winter. The energy ministry did not say which plant was affected, but said that two of its power units had stopped working, leading to a “temporary shortage of electricity” in the grid.

• A Texas woman with a non-viable pregnancy will be able to get an emergency abortion, a judge ruled yesterday, after the woman was denied care because of the state’s strict abortion bans. Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two in Dallas, learned last week that her fetus has a lethal diagnosis.

• Taiwan’s defence ministry has said that a Chinese balloon crossed the Taiwan Strait median line yesterday, about a month before Taiwan’s presidential election.Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, frequently accuses Beijing of seeking to exert military or economic pressure to sway its elections.

Stat of the day: Canada’s fossil fuel firms will need to cut emissions by at least 35% by 2030

Canada will require its fossil fuel industry to cut its emissions to between 35% and 38% below 2019 levels starting in 2030, it was announced yesterday. Justin Trudeau’s government plans to limit emissions from the oil and gas sector through a national cap-and-trade system, which he first proposed in his 2021 election campaign.

“Every sector of Canada’s economy must do its part to combat climate change and build a safe, prosperous, and healthy future for Canadians,” said Canada’s environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, at the Cop28 UN climate conference in Dubai.

Don’t miss this: The Golden Gate Bridge is finally getting a safety net – ‘It might have saved my son’s life’

The Golden Gate Bridge has long been known as one the deadliest suicide locations in the world, with at least 1,700 deaths since the bridge was completed in 1937. Research has shown that young people like Alexander are among the most at risk of dying here. Those who study the Golden Gate say it provides a particular lure because of its fame and its ready availability. But they’ve also found that, when a person survives a suicide attempt or can be prevented from one altogether, they often do not go on to attempt again. It’s a reminder, mental health advocates say, that recovery is possible.

This reality has spawned a years-long movement to save lives by reducing access to the bridge, led by the parents and relatives of young suicide victims. Now, their fight is at last nearing a significant payoff.

Climate check: Talks at Cop28 to intensify in bid to break impasse over fossil fuels

Negotiations on how the world can slash greenhouse gas emissions and stave off the worst impacts of the climate crisis will reach a fresh intensity over the next few days, with nations wrangling over whether to phase out or phase down fossil fuels. For the remaining five negotiating days of the Cop28 UN climate summit in Dubai, ministers will hold a series of meetings to try to break the impasse and present a text that sets out a roadmap for staying within a rise of 1.5C of global heating above preindustrial levels. As the talks reach their conclusion the host country, the United Arab Emirates, holds the key to what next happens. The hosts will appoint pairs of ministers, each pair representing a developed country and developing country to liaise and find compromises.

Last Thing: Nikki Haley says TikTok makes people ‘17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas’

The former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley claimed during the Republican presidential primary debate that watching TikTok made people “17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas” every 30 minutes, adding that: “We really do need to ban TikTok once and for all.” Amid online mockery – reporter Ben Dreyfuss said the claim was “so crazy that I’m not ready to move on … I need a whole extra hour just to dig into this belief” – it became clear Haley was referring to a survey, not a scientific analysis, conducted by Generation Lab and released last month. Steve Goldstein, European bureau chief for MarketWatch, said Haley was not “accurately stating” the results of the survey.

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