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U.S. property catastrophe reinsurance rates rose by as much as 50% at a key July 1 renewal date, broker Gallagher Re said in a report on Monday, with states such as California and Florida increasingly hit by wildfires and hurricanes.

Reinsurers insure insurance companies, and have been raising rates in recent years because of steepening losses, which industry players put down in part to the impact of climate change. Higher reinsurance rates can affect the premiums which insurers charge to their customers.

Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of tax evasion in federal court in Delaware and participate in a pretrial program for a firearm offense, after a multi-year investigation into his tax matters, a case with implications for President Joe Biden's re-election campaign and dealings with congressional Republicans.

U.S. Attorney David Weiss filed a letter in federal court Tuesday citing the charges and the plea agreement. In one case, Biden will plead guilty to the tax charges, which allege willful failure to pay federal income tax. In another case, Biden agreed to enter a pretrial diversion agreement for the gun offense, in which he acknowledged unlawful possession of a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver, despite being addicted to drugs.

Daniel Ellsberg, a US government analyst who became one of the most famous whistleblowers in world politics when he leaked the Pentagon Papers, has died. He was 92. His death was confirmed by his family on Friday.

In March, Ellsberg announced that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Saying he had been given three to six months to live, he said he had chosen not to undergo chemotherapy and had been assured of hospice care.

“I am not in any physical pain,” Ellsberg wrote, adding: “My cardiologist has given me license to abandon my salt-free diet of the last six years. This has improved my life dramatically: the pleasure of eating my favourite foods!”

The Pentagon Papers covered US policy in Vietnam between 1945 and 1967 and showed that successive administrations were aware the US could not win.

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A North Carolina pastor and his son are facing felony drug charges after authorities said they caught the pair operating an illicit drug operation out of a church.

Josh Price, 50, and Matthew Price, 28, were arrested this week after deputies seized about 12 pounds of marijuana, nearly 32 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 41 THC vape pens, 20 marijuana plants, and about 2 pounds of tetrahydrocannabinol wax (THC wax) from South Side Baptist Church, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office reported.

Deputies responded to the church in Lexington, about 60 miles northeast of Charlotte, after receiving reports someone staying in the fellowship hall behind the church was manufacturing marijuana.

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The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that two state laws banning abortion are unconstitutional, but the procedure remains illegal in the state in most cases.