⚖️ Axios PM: Hunter's next worry

Plus: What to expect at Paris 2024 | Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Meta   Axios PM By Mike Allen · Jun 20, 2023 🕶️ Good Tuesday afternoon! Today's PM — edited by Erica Pandey — is 595 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for the copy edit.     1 big thing: Hunter's next worry Hunter Biden at the White House last year. Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP Hunter Biden has agreed to plead guilty to not paying taxes in 2017 and 2018, and he'll enter into a probation agreement on a charge of illegally owning a gun while being a drug user, according to a court filing by the U.S. attorney in Delaware. 🖼️ The big picture: Hunter's plea deal is not the end, Axios' Alex Thompson writes. Congressional Republicans will continue to investigate him. And he'll only avoid prosecution for his gun felony if he stays drug-free for a set period of time, something he has struggled with in the past. Former President Trump has said he will appoint a special counsel to "go after" the Biden family if he wins the next election, and several other Republicans running for the nomination criticized the plea deal. If a Republican wins the presidency in 2024, Hunter could be investigated again. ⚡ Catch up quick: The Justice Department charged that Hunter possessed a Colt Cobra revolver in Delaware in October 2018 while "knowing that he was an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance." The maximum penalty for the gun charge is 10 years in jail and a fine of $250,000. Hunter was also charged with failure to timely file and pay taxes in 2017 and 2018 when, by his own admission, he was in the throes of an addiction to crack cocaine. 🔭 What to watch: Hunter is set to appear and be arraigned in a federal court in Delaware in the coming week where he will enter his guilty plea. Share this story.     2. ⚓ 10,000-square-mile search zone The submersible Titan as it prepared to dive into the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday. Photo: Action Aviation via AP An international team of rescuers has scoured an area roughly the size of Vermont in the remote Atlantic Ocean, looking for a lost submersible that was on an expedition to the Titanic's wreckage. U.S. Coast Guard officials said this afternoon that the search continues and has not yet yielded any results. Rescuers are racing against the clock as the oxygen supply on board the sub is expected to run out by Thursday morning. The people on board, via AP: Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate, the company leading the expedition. Hamish Harding, a British businessman and billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness World Records. Father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, members of one of Pakistan's most prominent families. Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French navy officer and Titanic expert. Go deeper.     A message from Meta Augmented reality will help neighborhoods recover from outages     Augmented reality will help electrical lineworkers spot and repair problems in the power grid more quickly. Why it's important: Communities can get their lights on faster after power outages. The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real. Explore more possibilities with the metaverse.     3. Catch me up A construction worker last week at the scene of a collapsed elevated section of I-95. Photo: Matt Rourke/AP 🛣️ Temporary lanes being built to replace the damaged section of I-95 in Philadelphia will be open this weekend, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said this afternoon. More from the Philadelphia Inquirer. 🏠 There aren't enough homes in the U.S. That's one big reason house prices have barely fallen since the Fed's rate hikes sent mortgage costs soaring. Go deeper. ⚽ Tickets to see Lionel Messi's debut next month for Major League Soccer's Inter Miami are going for an average of about $2,600 on SeatGeek, rivaling prices for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. Go deeper.     4. 🇫🇷 Look ahead to Paris 2024 Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios   Paris will mark a "return to normal" after two Olympic Games — Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 — were overshadowed by COVID, Molly Solomon, president of NBC Olympics Production told Axios on stage today at the Cannes Lions Festival on the French Riviera. Here's what to expect: The opening ceremony will include "athletes floating down [the Seine River] in boats," she said. Paris is only six hours ahead of Eastern time. So that means many of the biggest events will be shown live from 2 to 5 p.m. ET.     A message from Meta Augmented reality will help students gain more hands-on experience     Students will use augmented reality to look inside the circulatory system and see how it powers the human body. The impact: They will gain a deeper understanding of how our bodies work. The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real. Explore more possibilities with the metaverse.   Are you a fan of this email format? Your essential communications — to staff, clients and other stakeholders — can have the same style. Axios HQ, a powerful platform, will help you do it.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: