The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says that if governments of Muslim-majority nations do not act against countries that allow desecration of the Quran, Muslims should “punish” those who facilitate attacks on Islam's holy book

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that he granted the US attorney investigating Hunter Biden special counsel status. Mr Garland announced that David Weiss, who has served as the US Attorney for Delaware since 2018, would serve as special counsel and he had informed relevant members of Congress about the nomination. The move is a shift from July when Mr Weiss informed Congress that he had not requested special counsel designation for his investigation into the president’s son. But on Tuesday, Mr Weiss requested such status. “I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel,” Mr Garland said on Friday. “This appointment confirms my commitment to provide Mr. Weiss all the resources he request.” Mr Weiss had previously been investigating Hunter Biden since 2019. Mr Garland and the Department of Justice allowed Mr Weiss to stay on board as US attorney when Joe Biden took office in 2021 to continue his investigation of Hunter Biden. In July, Hunter Biden looked set to enter into a plea deal for unpaid taxes and lying on a federal application for a firearm. Republicans, including former president Donald Trump, had decried the agreement as a sweetheart deal. Many Republicans argued that Hunter Biden received preferential treatment because he is the president’s son despite the fact that Mr Trump nominated Mr Weiss and Republicans in the Senate voted to confirm him in 2018. Then in late July, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to two of the charges after the presiding judge questioned whether the deal would prohibit the federal government from prosecuting him for other crimes he might have committed in the future. The White House referred to remarks from Mr Garland and the Justice Department when asked by The Independent. Mr Garland said that Mr Weiss’s office would not be subjected to day-to-day supervision but would have to comply with regulations, procedures and policies of the Justice Department. Mr Weiss would also be mandated to write a report of his investigation once it concludes. “ As with each special counsel who has served since I have taken office, I am committed to making as much of his report public as possible, consistent with legal requirements and department policy,” he said. “Today's announcement affords the prosecutors agents and analysts working on this matter, the ability to proceed with our work expeditiously and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.” Mr Garland’s announcement comes the same day that former president Donald Trump’s legal team appeared in court in Washington, DC and earned a win as US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that a protective order against Mr Trump would only apply to sensitive material such as jury transcripts, witness interview records and other documents. Mr Trump faces charges for his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election after a federal grand jury indicted him in response to a presentation from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office. Mr Garland nominated Mr Smith to investigate Mr Smith to investigate Mr Trump. In addition, the attorney nominated Robert Hur to investigate classified documents found in locations associated with President Biden earlier this year. But House Oversight & Accountability Committee blasted the move by Mr Garland. “Let’s be clear what today’s move is really about,” the statement said. “The Biden Justice Department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption. Our Committee will continue to follow the Biden family’s money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised and corrupt, and our national security is threatened.” Read More Hunter Biden’s plea deal appears at risk of falling apart. What happens next? Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to two tax charges after court chaos around deal with prosecutors Judge shuts down Trump lawyer as he claims protective order would give Biden an ‘advantage’ EXPLAINER: What are special counsels and what do they do? Attorney General Garland will appoint special counsel in Hunter Biden probe Utah man killed after threats against Biden believed government was corrupt and overreaching

Democratic presidential candidate and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F Kennedy Jr said during a Twitter Spaces event on Monday that he would not take away people’s guns as a solution to reducing mass shootings and instead pointed the finger at pharmaceutical drugs. “My position on the gun control is I’m not going to take away anybody’s guns,” Mr Kennedy, 69, said in response to a listener-submitted question about gun control while speaking about his political platform with Elon Musk and venture capitalist David Sacks. “I’m a constitutional absolutist. We can argue about whether the Second Amendment was intended to protect guns. That argument has now been settled by the Supreme Court.” Instead, Mr Kennedy made unfounded claims that psychiatric drugs are linked to mass shootings, “There’s something happening in our country right now that is not happening anywhere, that has never happened in human history,” he said. “Guns, the proliferation, clearly, abets violence, but anybody who tells you that they can remove enough guns, AR-15s, by tinkering at the margins and get to the situation they have in western Europe is puling your leg,” he added. “It’s not going to happen.” According to researchers, there’s no evidence for a link between pharmaceutical drugs and mass shootings. Over 10 per cent of the US population takes anti-depressants, and experts say if such medicines were linked to violence, one would expect to see more shootings, and more shootings committed by groups who are prescribed the treatments at a higher rate. "If there was a connection or link, one would expect it to be pronounced, or at least much greater than we are seeing," Dr James Knoll, director of forensic psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University, told Politifact. "Why do we not see increased violence in women? People over 60?" In fact, according to a USA Today review of mass shootings, a minority of school shooters were prescribed medications. "I am unaware of any consistent, credible accounts that provide strong evidence regarding the prevalence of SSRI usage in cases involving school shootings or a causal relationship between SSRIs and school shootings," Daniel Mears, a professor of criminology at Florida State University, told the paper. Read More RFK Jr compares Elon Musk to American revolutionaries during conspiracy-driven Twitter event

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