That was Biden's way of acknowledging his four-year-old granddaughter, Navy Joan Roberts. His son Hunter has said he fathered Navy during a period when he was struggling with alcohol and drug addiction and does not have a relationship with her. The episode illustrated the political sensitivities around Hunter - and Biden's efforts to navigate them ahead of another bruising re-election campaign. It came in a week when Hunter was again at the centre of a legal storm that made him a target for Republicans.
The scrutiny is testing whether the family of a politician is fair game. Hunter has never served in the White House, but he is often seen at his father's side. What is beyond dispute is that Hunter, 53, has fought personal demons. He appeared in a Delaware court last month on two tax charges and a gun charge.
Republicans have been attempting to prove - so far without success - that there is a link between father and son that implicates the former in wrongdoing. Among their allegations is that, when Biden was vice-president, he played a role in his son's business dealings and profited from transactions. The White House says Biden was never in business with his son.
Denne historien er fra August 11, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra August 11, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Finn family murals
The optimism that runs through Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories also appears in her public works, now on show in a Helsinki exhibition
I hoped Finland would be a progressive dream.I've had to think again Mike Watson
Oulu is five hours north from Helsinki by train and a good deal colder and darker each winter than the Finnish capital. From November to March its 220,000 residents are lucky to see daylight for a couple of hours a day and temperatures can reach the minus 30s. However, this is not the reason I sense a darkening of the Finnish dream that brought me here six years ago.
A surplus of billionaires is destabilising our democracies Zoe Williams
The concept of \"elite overproduction\" was developed by social scientist Peter Turchin around the turn of this century to describe something specific: too many rich people for not enough rich-person jobs.
'What will people think? I don't care any more'
At 90, Alan Bennett has written a sex-fuelled novella set in a home for the elderly. He talks about mourning Maggie Smith, turning down a knighthood and what he makes of the new UK prime minister
I see you
What happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads? A new clinical trial reveals some surprising results
Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago
Fifty years ago, in a corner of white South Africa, Muhammad Ali already seemed a miracle-maker.
Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit
Justin Trudeau, who promised “sunny ways” as he won an election on a wave of public fatigue with an incumbent Conservative government, is now facing his darkest and most uncertain political moment as he attempts to defy the odds to win a rare fourth term.
Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping
After swapping machetes and binoculars for computer screens and laser mapping, a team of researchers have discovered a lost Maya city containing temple pyramids, enclosed plazas and a reservoir which had been hidden for centuries by the Mexican jungle.
'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital
Armed fighters advance into neighbourhoods at the heart of Port-au-Prince as authorities try to restore order
Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'
High emigration and youth unemployment levels belie the mountain nation's global reputation for cheeriness
