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US

Joe, Hunter Biden staying for free at $20 million South Carolina mansion

President Biden and his family, including disgraced first son Hunter, are spending their summer vacation at a $20 million beachfront mansion in South Carolina, The Post has learned — and they’re not paying a dime.

The president recently asked prominent Democratic donor Maria Allwin — the widow of hedge fund founder James Allwin — if he could stay at her nine-bedroom Kiawah Island estate, a source close to the family told The Post.

“They stayed here before and they’re not paying,” the source said. “They’ve never paid. They’re just friends.”

The property features a large swimming pool on two acres and is surrounded by palm trees and other lush vegetation for privacy.

The White House frustrated reporters by offering little transparency about Biden’s South Carolina trip, which is expected to last through early next week.

Associated Press emphasized Wednesday that the White House “did not respond to requests to provide details on Biden’s vacation schedule, activities or when he planned to return to Washington, nor did it provide information on the residence where he was staying.”

aerial of mansion
The property is surrounded by lush vegetation for privacy.
Charleston Trident MLS

However, the Federal Aviation Administration’s website indicates “temporary flight restrictions for VIP Movement” will be in place over Kiawah until 9:15 pm Tuesday.

The Bidens have often stayed at Allwin’s mansion, which was listed for sale earlier this year — including as early as 2009, while Joe Biden was vice president.

Maria Allwin has contributed to an array of mostly Democratic political campaigns, but her most recent donations are to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and a PAC supporting her effort to beat back a primary challenge by Donald Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman.

Ahead of the 2020 election, Allwin generously supported Biden, sending a $35,000 check that September to the Biden Victory Fund and the Democratic National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records.

President Joe Biden, center, waves as he is joined by, from left, are Hunter Biden, grandson Beau Biden, first lady Jill Biden, and daughter-in-law Melissa Cohen
The excursion is a Biden family getaway, with son Hunter Biden joining as well.
Susan Walsh/AP
Aerial of backyard, pool
The homeowner, Maria Allwin, is a big-time contributor to an array of political campaigns, supporting Biden in 2020.
Charleston Trident MLS

The source said, however, that the Allwins and the Bidens are not engaged in business dealings together — and added the family is not directly linked to Hunter Biden, whose foreign business deals are under federal investigation. The first sons recently paid about $2 million to the IRS in a bid to avoid tax fraud charges.

Maria Allwin has known Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden socially for more than a decade, according to the source.

The Allwin family’s firm, Aetos Capital, is currently run by Maria Allwin’s son, Chris. The firm’s holdings include California-issued carbon credits.

Biden has stayed at the homes of other wealthy benefactors before. In November, his family spent Thanksgiving at billionaire private equity investor David Rubenstein’s compound on Nantucket, drawing raised eyebrows from ethics experts.

“Just a friendly reminder, [Biden] will have to pay fair market value for the stay on Nantucket or disclose the gift of free lodging in his annual disclosure in May 2022. I’m not suggesting he wouldn’t, just reminding not to let it slip through the cracks,” Walter Shaub, director of the US Office of Government Ethics under former President Barack Obama, tweeted at the time.

Shaub added regarding that stay, “There’s a disclosure exception for personal hospitality, but that only applies if the head of the Carlyle Group is staying there with the Bidens. I suspect the WH is all over compliance with the rule — and oblivious to the ethical optics.”

President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden
A source told The Post that the Biden family has never paid for their stay in the home because they are friends with the owner.
Joshua Roberts/REUTERS
inside mansion
The home features nine bedrooms on two acres of Kiawah Island in South Carolina.
Charleston Trident MLS

The Allwin family declined to comment and the White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s inquiry.

Biden also has yet to comment on the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, which reportedly dealt with the ex-president’s possession of records that may contain classified information. White House aides say Biden had no advance knowledge of the raid, which Republicans say demonstrates a double standard compared to the FBI’s investigation of the Biden family finances.

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Categories
Business

Urgent recall of Westinghouse glass cooktop over serious injury risk

An urgent national recall has been announced for a popular Electrolux home product after parts of the item have been found to shatter, posing serious injury.

Product Safety Australia on Thursday recalled the Westinghouse black tempered glass gas cooktop.

The product, which does not comply with the Domestic Gas Cooking Appliances Standard, comes in a 60cm three-burner cooktop and a 90cm five-burner cooktop.

Warning: Urgent recall on household appliance.  Picture: Supplied.
Camera IconThe Westinghouse black tempered glass gas cooktop has been recalled. Supplied Credit: NCA NewsWire

The cooktop, which is sold both nationally and internationally in stores such as Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Reece Plumbing and Winning Appliances, has been on sale since February 2020.

Consumers have been urged to check the model number of their cooktop to see if it is affected.

The model numbers are WG638BC and WHG958BC or serial digits 5301134 – 22503805.

Authorities said other identifying numbers on the device include AGA 8145G.

Affected consumers should contact Electrolux to arrange a refund or for a service technician to attend free of charge to replace the product.

For more information, consumers can contact Electrolux Home Products on 1800 001 218 or via email at [email protected].

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Categories
Australia

Lotto winners WA: Perth friends plan epic holiday after $2.1 million win from Rossmoyne Newsagency ticket

A group of Perth friends are set for the group holiday of a lifetime after winning millions of dollars in Lotto.

The two couples have been playing together for more than two decades but finally hit the jackpot on July 30, winning $2.1 million.

The ticket they bought from Rossmoyne Newsagency was one of 14 winning tickets from around Australia.

Your local paper, whenever you want it.

“We’ve been playing Lotto together basically since we met, and we love it,” one winner said.

“We love knowing that our money stays in WA and supports so many great projects.

“And now we’ve won! It’s all pretty surreal.”

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Categories
US

Mall of America shooting suspects nabbed after getting haircuts in Chicago

A man who allegedly fired a gun inside Minnesota’s Mall of America last week was arrested along with his accused accomplice 400 miles away in Chicago Thursday afternoon, a report said.

Shamar Alon Lark, 21, and Rashad Jamal May, 23, were busted by an FBI-led task force after getting haircuts in the Windy City, officials said at a press conference published by KARE 11.

“A week ago, we said you can’t shoot up the mall and expect to get away with it. You can’t commit these acts and enjoy the freedoms of a free society,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said while announcing the arrests.

On Aug. 4, the suspects were among a group of people who had gotten into an argument with another group at the Nike store, prosecutors said.

After the altercation, the pair returned and Lark allegedly fired three shots inside the store, according to officials. Not one was hit by the gunfire, but the startling event at the nation’s largest shopping mall sparked a nationwide manhunt.

Shamar Alon Lark, 21, was charged with a second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon along with other felonies.
Shamar Alon Lark, 21, was charged with a second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon along with other felonies.

Lark was charged with a second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, intentional discharge of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit in a public place. May was charged with aiding an offender to avoid arrest.

Three other people were also arrested for allegedly helping Lark and May escape from the mall.

The suspects were being held behind bars in Chicago ahead of an extradition hearing.

Three Minnesota residents in their early twenties were also charged in connection with the incident.
Three other Minnesota residents were charged in connection with allegedly helping the fugitives escape.
People are seen leaving the mall after shots were fired.
Shoppers evacuated the mall after shots rang out on the afternoon of Aug. 4.
AP

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Categories
US

Men wanted in Mall of America shooting arrested in Chicago area

The man who allegedly fired shots inside the Mall of America last week and the person police say directed him to do it were arrested Thursday after a week on the run.

FOX 9 is told Shamar Lark and Rashad May were taken into custody during a traffic stop Thursday in the Chicago area, seven days after shots rang out inside the mall on August 4.

This week, police said they believed Lark was the man who fired shots inside the mall after an altercation at the Nike store. Officers say it appears May “prompted” Lark who then fired multiple shots. Thankfully, no one was struck by the gunfire, but the act sparked a panic that had people running and looking for safety while officers swept the mall.

In the days after the shooting, three other people were arrested on charges of aiding Lark and May: 21-year-old Denesh Raghubir of Minneapolis, 23–year-old Delyanie Kwen-Shawn Arnold of Burnsville, and 23-year-old Selena Raghubir of Bloomington.

There was talk that Lark and May were prepared to surrender to police earlier this week but that never came about.

Shooting and charges

On August 4, police working at Mall of America responded to multiple gunshots at the Nike store, where they found three shell casings on the floor inside the entrance. Officers checked surveillance video, which showed a fight breaking out involving six people near the checkout of the store, causing customers to run away.

Then two people involved in the altercation left the store briefly before the suspect returned and fired a handgun several times at the males involved in the fight. The suspected shooter, identified Monday as 21-year-old Shamar Lark, and another man, identified as 23-year-old Rashad May, then ran out the north doors of the mall, into the IKEA parking lot, charges said.

It was later learned the two men may have been picked up by a Best Western hotel shuttle at IKEA and were taken to the hotel, just south of Mall of America.

Police believe May called Arnold a few minutes after the shooting, and he received five calls from Arnold between 4:20-4:23 pm, the complaint said. Arnold then contacted his girlfriend, Selena Raghubir, who is an assistant manager at the Best Western, as well as Selena Raghubir’s cousin, Denesh Raghubir, who picked up Lark and May at IKEA in the Best Western shuttle.

Denesh Raghubir told police he knew the two men were friends of Selena Raghubir, and when he dropped them off at Best Western, Selena Raghubir immediately left the front desk and he didn’t see her for about 45 minutes, charges said. He said Selena Raghubir later called him and asked him what time police left.

On Aug. 5, officers searched Arnold and Selena Raghubir’s home and vehicle, where they found the shirts the men were wearing at the time of the shooting, charges said.

Shamar Lark (left) and Rashad May (right) are wanted after Thursday’s shooting at the Mall of America. (Supplied)

subsequent search

During a Monday afternoon news conference, Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges released photos showing Lark and May. Hodges says May “prompted” Lark to shoot up the store – which Lark followed through on.

Police issued a nationwide warrant for Lark and May and had information that the duo could be in the Chicago area.

“You cannot, in a free society, continue to enjoy all the freedoms that we have and when you show a complete lack of respect for humanity by firing in a crowded mall store,” said Chief Hodges. “We cannot tolerate that as a society.”

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Categories
US

‘Very close’ Trump friend told FBI about Mar-a-Lago docs

​Only a handful of people who were “very close” to former President Donald Trump could have tipped off federal investigators about boxes of classified documents being stored at his Mar-a-Lago resort, onetime White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Thursday.

The FBI raided Trump’s ritzy residence in Palm Beach, Fla., Monday in search of sensitive papers that the 45th president purportedly removed from the White House at the end of his term of office.

Multiple outlets have reported that the Department of Justice opted to apply for a search warrant after a person with knowledge of the storage arrangement blew the whistle.

“This would be someone who was handling things on day-to-day, who knew where documents were, so it would be somebody very close, inside the president,” Mulvaney told CNN Thursday. “My guess is there’s probably six or eight people who had that kind of information.”

Mulvaney added that whoever talked to the feds was so close to Trump they knew the existence and location of a safe at Trump’s home.

​”​I didn’t even know there was a safe at Mar-a-Lago, and I was the chief of staff for 15 months​,” he said.

President Donald Trump, left, and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, right, walk along the colonnade of the White House in Washington.
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said a person close to former President Donald Trump may have tipped off federal investigators before the raid.
AP/Susan Walsh

​”I don’t know the people on the inside circle these days, so I can’t give any names of folks who come to mind, but … if you know where the safe is and you know the documents are in 10 boxes in the basement, you’re pretty close to the president,” Mulvaney added.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that after federal investigators visited the Florida resort in June to discuss government records kept on the property, a person “familiar with the stored papers” told the feds that there were more classified documents lying around the resort.

Agents carted about a dozen boxes from Trump’s winter home after Monday’s raid, which lasted more than nine hours.

Armed Secret Service agents stand outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, late Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla.
Armed Secret Service agents stand outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. 8, 2022.
AP/Terry Renna

Trump, who was in New York at the time, announced the FBI search Monday on Truth Social, saying his home had been “raided, and occupied,” adding “they even broke into my safe.”

Republicans have immediately demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray explain the reasoning behind conducting a raid on the private home of a former president.

“What was on the warrant? What were you really doing? What were you looking for? Why not talk to President Trump and have him give the information you’re after? This is unbelievable,” ​Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Fox News Monday night.

  An aerial view of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is seen Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla.
Agents carted about a dozen boxes from Trump’s Marg-a-Lago home.
AP/Steve Helber

Mulvaney, himself a former GOP congressman from South Carolina, said he understood his former colleague’s outrage.

“When the FBI has the track record it has in the recent past about dealing with Republicans, the burden is on them to show that they are absolutely on the up and up,” he said, “and releasing that [search warrant] affidavit is something they can and should do.

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Categories
Australia

Perth Children’s Hospital chief Aresh Anwar resigns amid overhaul after death of Aishwarya Aswath

The head of Perth Children’s Hospital has resigned amid an overhaul following the death of seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath.

Western Australia’s health department on Thursday confirmed the departure of Child and Adolescent Health Service chief executive Aresh Anwar.

Dr Anwar, who had served in the role since 2018, will finish up on Friday.

He was at the helm when Aishwarya died of sepsis in April last year, after presenting to the hospital’s emergency department with a fever.

An internal review into her death found staff had missed opportunities to escalate her care despite her parents pleading for help.

Dr Aresh Anwar, who had served in the role since 2018, will finish up on Friday.
Camera IconDr Aresh Anwar, who had served in the role since 2018, will finish up on Friday. Credit: daniel wilkins/The West Australian
Perth Childrens Hospital
Camera IconThe Perth Children’s Hospital. Credit: AAP

The government has since replaced several of the health service’s board members and recently appointed a new executive director to address “cultural challenges” at the hospital.

Chair Rosanna Capolingua said in a statement that she was confident the health service had the “right team in place”.

“The community can be assured that staff at the Child and Adolescent Health Service will continue to give their utmost to providing quality care for Western Australia’s children and young people and support them to lead healthier lives,” she said.

Health director-general David Russell-Weisz said Dr Anwar had brought dedication and integrity to the role.

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Categories
Technology

League of Legends patch 12.15 is combating smurfs with the new ranked Duo queue changes

League of Legends patch 12.15 dropped yesterday, and a new set of changes have implemented a system that will work towards significantly reducing the number of smurfs in the game.

Like most competitive multiplayer games, the MOBA also sees its fair share of smurfs in ranked matchmaking, which ultimately hampers the game’s competitive integrity.

🛠 Patch 12.15 Notes 🛠⚡️ Energy based champions get a boost 🔧 Fine tuning Mastery Yi and Sivir 💪 Buffing up some engage supports⬇️ Nerfing Divine Sunderer and First Strike

High-rank players often do not shy away from making a smurf account to either help out a friend or just ruin the fun for another who has taken their ranked climb seriously.

This issue has been plaguing League of Legends for many seasons now, and with patch 12.15, Riot has implemented a solution that will look to combat a fair bit of the issue.

The developers have addressed the growing concerns with smurfs earlier on in Season 12, and with the new update, they will eliminate the ranked Duo queue for high-level players and primarily make it a Solo-queue only option.


League of Legends patch 12.15 will reduce the number of smurfs in the game

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League of Legends patch 12.15 wasn’t exactly a big one when it came to introduce champion balance updates. While one of the more significant changes was buffs to the energy champions, the patch, to an extent, dealt with fixing some of the issues with the title.

Riot introduced changes to the Duo queue system, which will now not let high-ranked players employ the system.

In the patch notes, the developers stated:

“Having a premade duo is a slight advantage, and while current Apex Tier (Masters, Grandmaster, and Challenger) players aren’t able to duo with anyone, the system only works off current rank. With this change, we’re tightening up the Apex Tier restriction to apply to MMR as well.”

“The goal of this is to prevent climbing smurfs from being able to duo queue into Apex Tier. That said, decayed Apex Tier players and the highest skilled Diamond I players may also be impacted by this change. Up until now these players could duo and reliably get into Apex Tier games, which isn’t fair when the people they’re playing against can’t duo. If this change works as expected, we’ll evaluate shipping it to the rest of the world with plans to re-evaluate before Season Start.”

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From now on, League of Legends players will no longer be able to queue up for a ranked game with a friend if they are both of the Master rank or higher. The system will not take MMR into consideration and will ultimately look to reduce the number of smurfs that one gets to experience in ranked matchmaking today.

Riot Games have also mentioned that they have successfully tested this method back in patch 12.10 for both the Korea and NA servers, hence, with 12.15, they have officially made it live for all regions.


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Categories
Australia

Four Queensland children abducted by man with ‘Joker’ tattoos may be at ‘significant risk’

Four young children may be at “significant risk” after a man abducted them from a Queensland property on Thursday morning.

Queensland Police said the children – aged 8, 7, 4 and 3 – were taken from a property at The Leap, north of Mackay, about 11.30am.

“All of the children are described as being Caucasian in appearance with a slim build and brown hair,” police said in a statement.

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An amber alert has been issued asking members of the public to help locate the youngsters.

The children – aged three, four, seven and eight years old – were taken by a man from a property at The Leap. Credit: QLD Police

A man, with identifiable Batman ‘joker’ themed facial tattoos, was seen taking the children from a Maraju Yakapari Road address in a white 2005 Nissan Patrol 4WD with the Queensland Registration 063BC9.

The car was last seen heading toward Bruce Highway.

Police said the alleged offender is described as Caucasian, solid build, approximately 175cm tall with a shaven head and full bushy beard.

Police said the man seen taking the children, pictured, has identifiable facial tattoos. Credit: QLD Police
The man was seen driving toward Bruce Highway in a white 2005 Nissan Patrol 4WD. Credit: QLD Police

Anyone with information about the abduction is asked to call 131 564.

Those with life-threatening information about the incident should contact triple-0.

CCTV captures father using pram and pants to steal from shop.

CCTV captures father using pram and pants to steal from shop.

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Categories
Australia

Perth abortion rally: City protest marred by hecklers, ugly confrontation

Activists at an abortion rights protest have clashed with men bearing crosses at a rally in Perth on Thursday.

Around two dozen pro-choice supporters gathered outside Wesley Church before marching through the city to call for better abortion access in WA.

It follows a recent decision in the United States Supreme Court to strip back the laws allowing safe abortions.

Several men holding up wooden crosses tried to disrupt the rally in Perth by heckling speakers.

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