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Celine Dion delivers stirring comeback performance at Paris Olympics opening ceremony
Against the rainy Paris night sky, Celine Dion staged the comeback of her career with a powerful performance from the Eiffel Tower to open the Olympic Games.
Hunter Biden is scheduled to stand trial on federal tax charges in September after a judge on Wednesday granted his request to delay the California trial that had been approaching next month.
U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi agreed during a hearing to push the case to September 5 after defense lawyers said they need more time to prepare with Hunter Biden also facing a separate trial on federal gun charges beginning June 3 in Delaware.
He has pleaded not guilty to both indictments, which his lawyers have claimed are politically motivated. Both cases are being overseen by judges nominated by then-President Donald Trump, a Republican who is running to unseat the Democratic president in November.
The trials will add to an already acrimonious presidential election as Trump's allies again seize on embarrassing details from the younger Biden's troubled life to attack his father, even as Trump faces his own legal problems. Trump is charged in four criminal cases, including a hush money trial underway in New York.
Hunter Biden's lawyers, who have pushed for dismissals and delays in both cases, say they have been struggling to line up expert witnesses to testify in the high-profile trial.
Prosecutors pushed back on the delay request, describing it as a straightforward tax case. Prosecutor Leo Wise told the judge: "The time to try this case is now."
"He is not above the rule of law and should be treated like any other defendant," Justice Department special counsel David Weiss' team wrote in a recent court filing.
Hunter Biden was not required to attend the hearing in Los Angeles federal court and did not do so. The judge cautioned his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, that this would be the only delay in the case, barring an order from a higher court.
Prosecutors say they have lined up roughly 30 witnesses to testify in the case alleging he failed to pay at least US$1.4 million in taxes over four years while living an "extravagant lifestyle" during a period in which he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. The back taxes have since been paid.
In the gun case, prosecutors allege that Biden lied about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a firearm that he kept for about 11 days in Delaware. He has acknowledged an addiction to crack cocaine during that period, but his lawyers have said he didn't break the law.
Prosecutors plan to show jurors in the gun case portions of his 2021 memoir "Beautiful Things," in which he detailed his struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse following the 2015 death of his older brother, Beau, who succumbed to brain cancer at age 46.
Hunter Biden's lawyers have pushed unsuccessfully in both cases to have them dismissed. They have argued, among other things, that prosecutors bowed to political pressure to indict him after a plea agreement hit the skids in court and was publicly pilloried by Republicans, including Trump, as a "sweetheart deal."
The long-running federal investigation into the president's son had looked ready to wrap up with a plea deal last year, but the agreement imploded after a judge raised questions about it. Hunter Biden was subsequently indicted.
Under the deal, he would have gotten two years of probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanour tax charges. He also would have avoided prosecution on the gun charge if he stayed out of trouble.
Against the rainy Paris night sky, Celine Dion staged the comeback of her career with a powerful performance from the Eiffel Tower to open the Olympic Games.
Premier Danielle Smith said Friday afternoon in Hinton while weather conditions are cooler, the Jasper fire is still considered out of control and that Jasper residents can expect to be away from their homes 'for several weeks.'
A three-year-old boy has been found dead a day after he went missing in a park in Mississauga, Peel police say.
An Irish museum will withdraw a waxwork of singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor just one day after installing it, following a backlash from her family and the public, it told CNN in a statement on Friday.
A Winnipeg senior is getting soaked with a six-figure water bill.
The lawyer for a former judge whose claims to be Cree were questioned in a CBC investigation says his client is not considering legal action against the broadcaster after the Law Society of British Columbia this week backed her claims of Indigenous heritage.
Orillia OPP arrested and charged a driver with impaired driving after flashing their high beams.
Scotiabank says it has fixed a technical issue that impacted direct deposits on Friday morning.
Health Canada is warning some take-home naloxone kits come with bad instructions that should be ignored in favour of the correct guidance.
As fire threatened people in Jasper National Park, Colleen Knull sprung into action.
Video posted to social media on Thursday morning appears to show the charred remains of a Jasper, Alta., neighbourhood.
A Saskatchewan-born veteran of the Second World War was recently presented with France's highest national order.
A local First Nations elder and veteran is helping to bring the Ojibwe language to a well-known film for the first time.
A cat who fled her Montreal home nearly a decade ago has been reunited with her family after being found in Ottawa.
A woman in Waterloo, Ont. is out thousands of dollars for a car crash she wasn’t involved in.
A swarm of bees living in a lamppost in Winnipeg’s Sage Creek neighbourhood has found a new home for its hive.
Around 100 acres of Manitoba Crown Land near the Saskatchewan border is being returned to the Métis community.
Nova Scotia is suspending the licensed Cape Breton moose hunt for three years due to what the province is calling a “significant drop” in the population.