Joe Biden’s consideration of dropping charges against Julian Assange is “significant”, the brother of the WikiLeaks founder has said. The president said on Wednesday 10 April that he is considering a request from Australia to drop the decade-long US push to prosecute Mr Assange for publishing a trove of American classified documents. Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said Mr Biden’s comment was “encouraging”. “This is a controversial prosecution and I think something that Joe Biden could easily get rid of in an election year,” Mr Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, told Sky News.