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BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaPutin gifts luxury Aurus car to North Korea’s KimPublished32 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, The carmaker’s website describes the Aurus as Russia’s first full-size luxury sedanBy Robert GreenallBBC NewsRussian President Vladimir Putin has given North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a luxury Russian-made car.Pyongyang’s state media said the limousine was delivered to Mr Kim’s top aides on Sunday.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later confirmed the gift, saying it was an Aurus, a full-sized luxury sedan of the type used by Mr Putin himself.The two internationally isolated countries have forged close relations since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.North Korea is thought to be supplying Russia with artillery, rockets and ballistic missiles for the war, despite international sanctions on both countries. Both sides deny breaching sanctions.Mr Putin welcomed Mr Kim to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East last September, in what was his first trip abroad in four years.Image source, ReutersImage caption, President Putin (left) and Kim Jong Un met in September for their first face-to-face in four yearsDuring that visit, the North Korean leader inspected Mr Putin’s own Aurus Senat limousine and was invited to get in the back seat. They also swapped guns as gifts.Kim Jong-un is believed to be a car enthusiast and to have a collection of luxury foreign vehicles.Kim’s sister Yo Jong said the “gift serves as a clear demonstration of the special personal relations between the top leaders” of the two countries, in remarks quoted by North Korean state news agency KCNA.But South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the gift breached UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea, which prohibit supplies of certain categories of vehicle including luxury cars.Kim and Putin go public – but is it all a show? Putin and Kim: Friends in need (of ammunition)Inside Kim Jong Un’s luxury bulletproof trainThe BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says that while the two leaders’ personal relationship is hardly a bromance – unlike that between Mr Kim and former US President Donald Trump – they both see the benefits of closer ties.Both Russia and North Korea have indicated that Mr Putin will visit Pyongyang in the near future.Related TopicsKim Jong UnRussiaVladimir PutinNorth KoreaMore on this storyKim and Putin go public – but is it all a show?Published15 September 2023Kim Jong Un extends Russia visit by several daysPublished14 September 2023The US wants to talk to North Korea but doesn’t know howPublished14 September 2023Kim and Putin discuss possible military cooperationPublished14 September 2023Putin and Kim: Friends in need (of ammunition)Published12 September 2023Top StoriesCameron government knew Post Office ditched Horizon IT investigationPublished10 hours agoStrictly dancer Robin Windsor dies aged 44Published54 minutes agoNavalny’s widow is strong but return to Russia would be highly riskyPublished6 hours agoFeatures’Evacuating was a mistake’: Israelis push to return to border homesHow Russia has rebranded Wagner in AfricaOne of UK’s ‘most advanced’ vertical farms opensWho is Julian Assange and why is he facing extradition?Boarders: ‘We all have to code switch to survive in life’Navalny’s widow faces daunting challengeThe Papers: Navalny wife blames Putin and US’s move to block Rafah offensiveHow an asbestos scare has sent Sydney scramblingLyse Doucet: Rafah deadline raises stakes as Ramadan nearsElsewhere on the BBCA dream holiday turns into a nightmareEverything changes for Karl Williams when he is busted with a kilo of drugsAttributioniPlayerCan dental chews really clean your dog’s teeth?Greg hears from a pet nutritionist and a vet who’s an expert in dental careAttributionSoundsEveryone has something to hide…When Sabine’s body is found beneath the cliffs, her sister is convinced she was murderedAttributionSoundsGet to know Cillian Murphy through musicThe Golden Globes and BAFTA-winning actor shares what he’d take with him to a desert islandAttributionSoundsMost Read1Strictly dancer Robin Windsor dies aged 442Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine ‘shot dead’3Government knew Post Office ditched Horizon probe4Brightest and hungriest black hole ever detected5Putin gifts luxury car to North Korea’s Kim6TV presenter’s rail rant leads to apology7Navalny’s widow faces daunting challenge8Probe after ‘Israel’ crossed out on birth certificate9’Too high’ baby milk prices to be investigated10Germany World Cup winner Brehme dies aged 63AttributionSport
[ad_1] The Kremlin says it was an Aurus, a full-sized sedan of the type used by the Russian president himself.
![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaBiden classified documents: Special counsel raises questions about the president’s ‘poor memory’Published41 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsUS election 2024Image source, Getty ImagesBy Matt MurphyBBC News, WashingtonA landmark report from Special Counsel Robert Hur has raised serious questions about President Joe Biden’s memory, allegations the White House has been quick to rebuff. Declining to prosecute Mr Biden for retaining troves of classified documents, Mr Hur – a Republican – said the 81-year-old would likely present himself at trial as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. Elsewhere, the report challenged Mr Biden for retaining reams of classified information, and for storing it improperly and insecurely. The White House has already attacked the report, saying the descriptions of the president’s memory were not “accurate or appropriate” and said that they had no place in a Department of Justice report. Major questions raised about the president’s memoryThe report found that the president’s memory “appeared to have significant limitations”.The quotes are among dozens of examples in the report which raise major questions about Mr Biden’s memory and mental agility. In one passage, the special counsel described extended interview with the ghost writer of Mr Biden’s book, Mark Zwonitzer, where the president appeared to struggle to recall significant events from his time serving as vice-president to Barack Obama. “Mr Biden’s recorded conversations with Zwonitzer from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries.” The report then details Mr Biden’s interviews with the special counsels’ office, for which he sat voluntarily, six years later. It describes his memory as having become worse in intervening period. “In his interview with our office, Mr Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President’).” Elsewhere, the report says that Mr Biden struggled to remember key events that caused divisions in the early days of the Obama administration. In particular, it suggests that Mr Biden struggled to describe the intricacies of a debate surrounding the surge of troops into Afghanistan in 2009. The then vice-president was opposed to President Obama’s decision to send 30,000 additional US troops into the country to support the government of Hamid Karzai. Instead, Mr Biden wanted to expand special operations missions and drone strikes. “His memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he “had a real difference” of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Mr Biden disagreed with Mr Obama’s decision to send 30,000 US troops to shore up Hamid Karzai’s governmentElsewhere, Mr Hur’s report also suggests that Mr Biden could not recall when exactly his son, Beau, passed away. “He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.” The president’s son, a former US army soldier in Iraq and Delaware’s ex-attorney general, died in May 2015, aged 46. Mr Biden has described the event as one of the worst days of his life. While Mr Hur’s report offers these examples as evidence of Mr Biden’s diminished mental faculties, the report has already come under attack from Democrats. Richard Sauber – Mr Biden’s special counsel – condemned the report and urged Mr Hur, who has no medical training, to “revisit [his] descriptions of President Biden’s memory and revise them so that they are stated in a manner that is within the bounds of your expertise and remit”.Mr Sauber also observed that the interviews began the day after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October last year, and that Mr Hur seemed to accept it was reasonable that other witnesses could not recall events which, in some cases, occurred almost 15 years ago. Biden stored classified documents next to a dog bedIn another section of the report, Mr Hur described how investigators who raised Mr Biden’s home in Delaware found scores of classified documents relating to Afghanistan in his cluttered garage. The report said the files were discovered “near a collapsed dog crate, a dog bed, a Zappos box, an empty bucket, a broken lamp wrapped with duct tape, potting soil, and synthetic firewood”.Image source, FBIImage caption, A number of classified files were found in Mr Biden’s cluttered garageBut it noted that “reasonable juror could conclude that this is not where a person intentionally stores what he supposedly considers to be important classified documents, critical to his legacy”. Instead, Mr Hur once again raised questions over Mr Biden’s memory, saying the discovery looked “like a place a person stores classified documents he has forgotten about or is unaware of”. Biden thought Obama was making a major mistake with Afghanistan surgeShortly after coming to office, Mr Obama became convinced that a surge of US forces into Afghanistan was the only way to maintain stability in the country. Mr Biden, as previously stated, was strongly opposed to the policy. The then vice-president viewed himself as “a historic figure” who frequently maintained diaries and records with a view to later writing his legacy. The report says Biden had a strong motive to keep the classified documents about Afghanistan, because he wanted to prove that he was opposed to Mr Obama’s decision to send extra troops there.He “believed President Obama’s 2009 troop surge was a mistake on par with Vietnam”, the report states, adding: “He wanted record to show that he was right about Afghanistan; that his critics were wrong.”Contrast drawn with evasive TrumpMr Hur credits Mr Biden with immediately handing over the documents to investigators after he found them. “Mr Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice, consented to the search of multiple locations including his homes, sat for a voluntary interview. and in other ways cooperated with the investigation.” And he drew a strong distinction with former President Donald Trump, who he says adopted the opposite approach. Mr Trump is facing multiple charges for obstructing efforts to investigate the storage of the files at his Florida home. “Unlike the evidence involving Mr. Biden, the allegations set forth in the indictment of Mr Trump, if proven, would present serious aggravating facts.”Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr Trump allegedly did the opposite. According to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it.”Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Donald trump allegedly kept secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left office and obstructed government efforts to retrieve themIt was reasonable for Biden to keep some classified diaries Mr Biden has long kept notebooks in which he would write classified information during meetings. The report noted that during his eight years as vice-president, Mr Biden regularly kept notebooks that included details of classified subjects, including the President’s Daily Brief and National Security Council meetings. These notebooks were later removed from the White House and discovered in unlocked drawers and from the basement of his Delaware and Virginia homes. Mr Biden, the report said, was aware the notebooks contained classified information but still read aloud from them to his ghost writer. But the report accepts that given the precedent set by former President Ronald Reagan – who also kept notebooks filled with classified information – that it may have been reasonable for Mr Biden to believe that he had a right to hold onto the information. “Many jurors would conclude that, given the Department’s treatment of Mr Reagan, who kept his classified diaries for more than a decade before his death, it would have been plausible for Mr Biden to believe he could properly keep his classified notebooks. Citing relevant sources of likely would not sway such jurors from this conclusion.” Related TopicsRepublican PartyUS election 2024Joe BidenMore on this storyBiden will not be charged over top secret documentsPublished36 minutes agoBiden interviewed over handling of classified filesPublished10 October 2023Top StoriesSpecial counsel raises questions about Biden’s memoryPublished41 minutes agoStarmer defends U-turn on £28bn green spendingPublished4 hours agoKing doing ‘extremely well’ after diagnosis, says Queen. VideoKing doing ‘extremely well’ after diagnosis, says QueenPublished3 hours agoFeaturesWhat does Putin gain from Tucker Carlson interview?’We are surrounded’ – Guarding the Middle East’s most dangerous borderWhat happened to Labour’s £28bn for green projects?North Koreans working in China ‘exploited like slaves’Listen: Starmer faces backlash over scaling back of green plan. AudioListen: Starmer faces backlash over scaling back of green planAttributionSoundsParis 2024 medals to include Eiffel Tower metalAttributionSportI rarely saw people like me in lead roles, says One Day starClimbing Everest? 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