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Biden's Secret Documents: The Drip, Drip of Revelations

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting on reducing gun violence, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Monday, July 12, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo)
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting on reducing gun violence, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Monday, July 12, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo)
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Biden's Secret Documents: The Drip, Drip of Revelations

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting on reducing gun violence, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Monday, July 12, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo)
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting on reducing gun violence, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Monday, July 12, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo)

The first secret documents turned up in Joe Biden's former private office and home back in November, but it was January before the White House publicly admitted the embarrassing discovery -- under pressure from a steady drip of media revelations.

Since then, searches of the president's home have uncovered several more sets of classified files in a snowballing affair threatening to overshadow the Democrat's expected announcement that he will seek a second term in 2024, AFP said.

Here is a timeline of developments in the saga:

- November 2, 2022 -
While emptying an office that Biden used occasionally between 2017 -- after the end of his term as Barack Obama's vice-president -- and the launch of his 2020 campaign, Biden's personal lawyers find "a small number of documents" marked as classified in a locked closet.

The following day, the documents are handed over to the National Archives, as US presidents and vice presidents are required to do when they leave office.

The White House makes no public announcement of the discovery, which comes a week before critical midterm elections, and at a time when Biden's Republican predecessor Donald Trump is being investigated for his mishandling of hundreds of classified files.

- November 9, 2022 -
The Department of Justice begins investigating Biden's handling of classified documents.

- December 20, 2022 -
Biden's personal lawyers find more documents in the garage of his family home in Wilmington, Delaware, where the 80-year-old president often spends weekends.

The attorneys inform the Justice Department and hand over the documents.

The White House has yet to make a public statement on either of the discoveries.

- January 9, 2023 -
The White House confirms for the first time, reacting to media reports, that secret papers were found in Biden's office, but makes no mention of those found in his home in Wilmington.

- January 10, 2023 -
At a news conference in Mexico, where Biden is on an official visit, the president says he was "surprised" to learn about the classified document discoveries and does not know what is in them.

- January 12, 2023 -
The White House confirms that a "small number" of classified documents were found in storage areas and in the library of Biden's Wilmington home.

Facing an uproar in opposition ranks, US Attorney General Merrick Garland names Robert Hur, a Trump appointee, as special counsel to investigate the matter.

Biden's spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre tells the press that the search of his Wilmington home concluded the night before, on January 11.

- January 14, 2023 -
In a new twist, the White House says a lawyer found five additional pages of classified material in Biden's home in Delaware -- just a day earlier, on January 13.

The total number of documents found in Biden's home and his Washington office has become unclear at this stage -- with the White House referring variably to documents, pages or "items" -- and no details have been released on their level of classification.

- January 19, 2023 -
Traveling in California, Biden downplays the furor over the documents, declaring that "there's nothing there" and that he has "no regrets."

- January 21, 2023 -
The president's personal attorney, Bob Bauer, announces that six more classified documents have been found at Biden's Delaware home.

Unlike previous discoveries, the latest search was conducted by the US Department of Justice -- at the president's invitation, according to his lawyers -- and lasted from 9:45 am to 10:30 pm.

The latest find included documents dating back to Biden's tenure as vice president from 2009 to 2017, but also to his decades-long career in the Senate.

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World

Israel President Says at End of Visit Antisemitism in Australia 'Frightening'

Israel's President Isaac Herzog reacts during a Jewish community event in Melbourne on February 12, 2026. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP)
Israel's President Isaac Herzog reacts during a Jewish community event in Melbourne on February 12, 2026. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP)
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Israel President Says at End of Visit Antisemitism in Australia 'Frightening'

Israel's President Isaac Herzog reacts during a Jewish community event in Melbourne on February 12, 2026. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP)
Israel's President Isaac Herzog reacts during a Jewish community event in Melbourne on February 12, 2026. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

Antisemitism in Australia is "frightening" but most people want good relations, Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday as he wrapped up a four-day visit and was met by protests in the city of Melbourne.

Herzog's tightly policed visit to Australia this week was meant to offer consolation to the country's Jewish community following the mass shooting on Bondi Beach that killed 15 people in December, said AFP.

However, it sparked demonstrations in major cities, including in Sydney, where police used pepper spray on protesters and members of the media, including an AFP photographer, during scuffles in the central business district on Monday night.

Herzog told Channel Seven's Sunrise ahead of his Melbourne stop that a "wave" of anti-Jewish hatred in Australia had culminated in the December 14 killings at Bondi.

"It is frightening and worrying," he said.

"But there's also a silent majority of Australians who seek peace, who respect the Jewish community and, of course, want a dialogue with Israel."

The Israeli head of state said he had brought a "message of goodwill to the people of Australia".

"I hope there will be a change. I hope things will relax," he said.

Herzog attended a Jewish community event after a meeting with Victoria's governor at Melbourne's Government House.

Protesters waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans squared off with police outside the event.

More are expected to turn out later at around 5 pm (0600 GMT) on Thursday.

Herzog told the audience at the community event: "We came here to be with you, to look you in the eye, to embrace and remember."

He also said demonstrators outside should instead "go protest in front of the Iranian embassy".

The Australian government accused Iran last year of orchestrating a recent wave of antisemitic attacks and expelled Tehran's ambassador.

Canberra, citing intelligence findings, accused Tehran of directing the torching of a kosher cafe in the Sydney suburb of Bondi in October 2024 and a major arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024.

- Controversial visit -

Ahead of his arrival, national broadcaster ABC reported that a building at Melbourne University had been graffiti-ed with the phrase: "Death to Herzog".

Many Jewish Australians have welcomed Herzog's trip.

"His visit will lift the spirits of a pained community," said Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the community's peak body.

But some in the community disagreed, with the progressive Jewish Council of Australia saying he was not welcome because of his alleged role in the "ongoing destruction of Gaza".

The UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry found last year that Herzog was liable for prosecution for inciting genocide after he said all Palestinians -- "an entire nation" -- were responsible for the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

Israel has "categorically" rejected the inquiry's report, describing it as "distorted and false" and has called for the body's abolition.

World

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Says the US and Iran Showing Flexibility on Nuclear Deal

FILE PHOTO: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo
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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Says the US and Iran Showing Flexibility on Nuclear Deal

FILE PHOTO: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo

The United States and Iran are showing flexibility on a nuclear deal, with Washington appearing "willing" to tolerate some nuclear enrichment, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the Financial Times in an interview published Thursday.

“It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian enrichment within clearly set boundaries," Fidan, who has been involved in talks with both Washington and Tehran, told the FT.

“The Iranians now recognize ‌that they ‌need to reach a deal with the ‌Americans, ⁠and the Americans ⁠understand that the Iranians have certain limits. It’s pointless to try to force them.”

Washington has until now demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from the 90% that is considered weapons grade, said Reuters.

Iranian ⁠President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran would continue ‌to demand the ‌lifting of financial sanctions and insist on its nuclear rights including ‌enrichment.

Fidan told the FT he believed Tehran “genuinely ‌wants to reach a real agreement” and would accept restrictions on enrichment levels and a strict inspection regime, as it did in the 2015 agreement with the US and others.

US ‌and Iranian diplomats held talks through Omani mediators in Oman last week in ⁠an effort ⁠to revive diplomacy, after President Donald Trump positioned a naval flotilla in the region, raising fears of new military action. Trump on Tuesday said he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, even as Washington and Tehran prepared to resume negotiations.

The Turkish foreign minister, however, cautioned that broadening the Iran-US talks to ballistic missiles would bring "nothing but another war."

The US State Department and the White House did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

World

Russia Strikes Heating in Kyiv, Kills Two in East Ukraine

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire at a house following a Russian air attack in Barvinkove, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire at a house following a Russian air attack in Barvinkove, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
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Russia Strikes Heating in Kyiv, Kills Two in East Ukraine

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire at a house following a Russian air attack in Barvinkove, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire at a house following a Russian air attack in Barvinkove, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russian strikes early Thursday cut heating to nearly 2,600 residential buildings in Kyiv, in a nationwide attack on energy facilities that killed two people in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has stepped up strikes on Ukraine's power and heating infrastructure, plunging entire cities into darkness in the coldest winter of the four-year war.

AFP journalists in Kyiv heard loud blasts and saw explosions light up the night sky, as Ukrainian air defense systems fended off the Russian barrage.

"After last night's massive attack, due to damage to critical infrastructure targeted by the enemy, nearly 2,600 more buildings in the capital have been left without heat," the mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, said.

He added that two people had been wounded in the capital overnight.

More than 1,000 of the capital's approximately 12,000 apartment blocks were already without heating after massive Russian attacks over the last few weeks.

Russia launched 24 missiles and 219 drones at the war-torn country, Ukraine's air force said, adding that its air defense units had downed 16 missiles and 197 drones.

Two people were killed in the eastern Ukrainian town of Lozova, where the attack cut power to residents and forced authorities to use alternative power sources for critical infrastructure, a local official said.

The attack also wounded four people in the central city of Dnipro, and cut heating to 10,000 customers, Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said.

"This is yet another attempt to deprive Ukrainians of basic services in the middle of winter. But restoration efforts continue nonstop," Kuleba added.

In the southern Odesa region, the attacks wounded one person, the state emergency services said, while Kuleba said around 300,000 had been left without water supplies.

Russia meanwhile said it repelled a missile attack in the Volgograd region but that debris ignited a fire at a military facility and prompted the evacuation of a nearby village.