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Chinese government agents accused of running illegal overseas police station in New York City

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

Two agents of the People’s Republic of China are accused of running an illegal overseas police station for the Chinese government in New York City and then destroying evidence when confronted by the FBI, according to the feds.The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York also announced on Monday that 40 officers of China’s National Police have been charged with targeting U.S. residents whose political views are disfavored by the Chinese government.In the police station case, two defendants were charged in connection with opening and operating an illegal overseas police station in lower Manhattan — for a provincial branch of the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China. “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan, were arrested at their homes in New York City.Lu and Chen are charged with conspiring to act as agents of the PRC government, as well as obstructing justice by des...

Supreme Court to deliver answer in religious mailman’s case

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Gerald Groff liked his work as a postal employee in Pennsylvania’s Amish Country. For years, he delivered mail and all manner of packages: a car bumper, a mini refrigerator, a 70-pound box of horseshoes for a blacksmith. But when an Amazon.com contract with the Postal Service required carriers to start delivering packages on Sundays, Groff balked. A Christian, he told his employers that he couldn’t deliver packages on the Lord’s Day.Now Groff’s dispute with the Post Office has reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which will consider his case Tuesday. Lower courts have sided with the Post Office, which says Groff’s demand for Sundays off meant extra work for other employees and caused tension. Groff, for his part, argues employers can too easily reject employees’ requests for religious accommodations, and if he wins, that could change.“We really can’t go back and change what happened to me,” said Groff, who ultimately quit his job ...

Ex-leader Merkel decorated with highest German honor

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Former Chancellor Angela Merkel was decorated with Germany’s highest possible honor on Monday in recognition of her near-record 16 years at the helm of the country.President Frank-Walter Steinmeier bestowed the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit for special achievement on the four-term chancellor, who became only the third ex-leader to receive that level of distinction. The other two were Konrad Adenauer, West Germany’s first leader, and Helmut Kohl, who led Germany to reunification.“For 16 years, you served Germany — with ambition, with wisdom, with passion,” Steinmeier told Merkel and a group of guests — handpicked by Merkel herself — in his laudatory speech at the president’s residence, Bellevue Palace, in Berlin.“For 16 long years, you worked for freedom and democracy, for our country and the well-being of its people. Tirelessly and sometimes to the limits of your physical strength,” Steinmeier added.Merkel, 68, was the first woman to lead Germany ...

DeSantis seeks to control Disney with state oversight powers

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers ratcheted up pressure on Walt Disney World on Monday by announcing legislation that will use the regulatory powers of Florida government to exert unprecedented oversight on the park resort’s rides and monorail.Lawmakers will introduce a bill in coming weeks that would end an exemption for Disney parks when it comes to ride inspections by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, DeSantis said at a news conference near Disney World.The agriculture agency is responsible for inspecting amusement rides in Florida, but an exception was carved out for the state’s largest theme park operators, such as Disney and Universal Destinations & Experiences. Under the proposal, the exemption would end for rides located in special districts, which basically targets just Disney World.An emailed inquiry seeking comment was sent to Disney on Monday.DeSantis’ announcement was the latest in a tit-for-tat...

GOP leader McConnell returns to Senate after head injury

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is back at work in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, almost six weeks after a fall at a Washington-area hotel and extended treatment for a concussion.The longtime Kentucky senator, 81, has been recovering at home since he was released from a rehabilitation facility March 25. He fell after attending an event earlier that month, injuring his head and fracturing a rib. McConnell arrived at the Capitol early Monday and is expected to work a full schedule in the Senate this week.“I am looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday,” McConnell tweeted last week. “We’ve got important business to tackle and big fights to win for Kentuckians and the American people.”McConnell returns to the Senate ahead of a busy stretch in which Congress will have to find a way to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and negotiate additional aid for the Ukraine war, among other policy matters. And he comes back as several other senators have been out for...

Death toll soars past 180 as generals battle across Sudan

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — As explosions and gunfire thundered outside, Sudanese in the capital Khartoum and other cities huddled in their homes for a third day Monday, while the army and a powerful rival force battled in the streets for control of the country. More than 180 people have been killed and over 1,800 wounded since the fighting erupted, U.N. envoy Volker Perthes said. The two sides are using tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons in densely populated areas. Fighter jets swooped overhead and anti-aircraft fire lit up the skies as darkness fell.The toll could be much higher because there are many bodies in the streets around central Khartoum that no one can reach because of the clashes. There has been no official word on how many civilians or combatants have been killed. The doctors’ syndicate earlier put the number of civilian deaths at 97. The sudden explosion of violence over the weekend between the nation’s two top generals, each backed by tens of thousands o...

Secret Chinese police outpost revealed in NY; 2 men arrested

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Two men have been arrested on charges that they helped establish a secret police outpost in New York City on behalf of the Chinese government, and more than three dozen officers with China’s national police force have been charged with using social media to harass dissidents inside the United States, the Justice Department said Monday.The cases, taken together, are part of a series of Justice Department prosecutions in recent years aimed at disrupting Chinese government efforts to locate in America pro-democracy activists and others who are openly critical of Beijing’s policies.One of the cases concerns a local branch of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, which operated inside an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood before closing last fall amid an FBI investigation. The two men charged with establishing the outpost were acting under the direction and control of a Chinese government official, and deleted communication with tha...

Macron addresses France amid anger over pension reform

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that he heard people’s anger over raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, but insisted that it was needed.In an televised address to the nation, Macron said “this changes were needed to guarantee everyone’s pension,” after he enacted the pension law on Saturday.“Gradually working more is also producing more wealth for our whole country,” he added.Macron acknowledged anger over increasing prices and jobs that don’t “allow too many French people to live well.”The evening address kicks off a likely arduous battle for the French president, who is trying to repair the damage done to his public image and politics by forcing the pension plan through parliament last month.Before Macron’s speech, opponents to the reform called for people to bang pots and pans across France during his address.Macron, who just enacted the protest-igniting pension changes, was expected to provide details about his domestic policies in the c...

CBC should exit Twitter over ‘government-funded media’ label: public policy expert

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

TORONTO — CBC should leave Twitter after its main account was labelled “government-funded media” by the social media platform, at least one public policy expert says.Unless the label issued Sunday changes as quickly as it was applied, Vass Bednar said the public broadcaster should find other ways to stay connected with Canadians because the tag erroneously positions CBC as an extension of the government that is not intellectually independent.“In the immediate moment, it feels like an opportunity to refresh the public’s understanding of how they’re funded and how they maintain their editorial independence,” said Bednar, the executive director of McMaster University’s master of public policy in digital society.Her remarks come less than a day after Twitter added the label to the @CBC account — a move federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had been pushing for.Twitter’s website defines “government-funded media” as “...

Review: ‘Beau Is Afraid’ is stuck in a one-note nightmare

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:50 GMT

Beau may be afraid but Ari Aster certainly isn’t.Of the many words used to describe the writer-director’s previous two films — “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” — timidity was never of them. This is a filmmaker who has sent Toni Collette skittering across the ceiling and intricately arranged mutilated bodies the way some people make bouquets.But if any doubts remained about just how far Aster is willing to go, “Beau Is Afraid” should pacify them. Not because of the degree of terror within it; by Aster’s high standards, “Beau Is Afraid” is notably less ghastly than his first two outings. But it’s even more audaciously grotesque, more self-evidently pulled from its director’s psyche, more a work of a filmmaker’s unfiltered, runaway imagination.Rather than slotting in as a “horror” film, it can be categorized a little less neatly as a surreal three-hour Homeric odyssey about Jewish guilt, Oedipal angst and somebody named “Birthday Boy Stab Man.” And...