A savage squabble between China and Europe
Outrage mounts over a tryst between a Chinese student and a Ukrainian gamer
Xu Zewei was arrested in Milan on July 3rd
Can provincial DOGE-ing help them avoid it?
Some contemplate suicide. Others vaunt their folly as influencers
His League of Social Democrats, the territory's last pro-democracy party, disbanded this week
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The Guardian
a few seconds ago
- The Guardian
Trump gives New York attorney new title after judges reject his appointment
Donald Trump has given a New York prosecutor a new job title to keep him in power after federal judges rejected his appointment. John Sarcone III was supposed to be removed as interim US attorney for New York's northern district after a judicial panel refused to make his appointment permanent. Instead, the justice department has made him 'special attorney to the attorney general' with the same powers and no time limit. The appointment represents Trump's curious pattern of working around traditional oversight mechanisms. Unlike his first term, when all 85 US attorney nominees were confirmed by the Senate, his second administration has formally nominated only about a quarter of that number, relying instead on interim appointments that bypass Senate confirmation. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond trying to make sense of the appointment said the justice department is using a federal law called 28 US Code Section 515 to justify the move, but he says that's a stretch. That law allows for 'special attorneys' to handle specific cases, but this sort of application may not be intended to let someone serve as both acting US attorney and first assistant at the same time. 'It is unclear that Congress intended this code section to authorize the latter two named appointments,' said Tobias. 'The historical practice has been to nominate people to be US Attorneys during the appointing president's term subject to confirmation by the Senate.' The move keeps Sarcone in place despite a string of problems that have raised questions about his credibility and qualifications. The Albany Times Union revealed that an address he listed as his legal residence in a police affidavit was actually a boarded-up building. When questioned, Sarcone offered shifting explanations about apartment renovations delayed by tariffs on Chinese windows, admitting he had been staying in hotels since his March appointment. Federal law requires US attorneys to live within their district, making the residency question legally significant. One notable issue came when Sarcone appeared on Fox News claiming an undocumented immigrant had tried to kill him with a knife outside an Albany hotel. But surveillance footage showed the two men never got closer than 20 ft, a direct contradiction of Sarcone's story of being 'chased with a knife' by 'a maniac' speaking 'in a foreign language'. Based on Sarcone's account, prosecutors at first charged Saul Morales-Garcia with attempted murder. After seeing the video, they dropped those charges. The man pleaded guilty to a much lesser charge of menacing. When questioned about listing a false address in legal documents, Sarcone dismissed concerns: 'Have you been chased with a knife and threatened? Are you saying I lied? Give me a break.' The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters
a few seconds ago
- Reuters
US farm agency fires 70 foreign researchers following national security review
WASHINGTON, July 18 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it has fired 70 foreign contract researchers after a national security review intended to secure the U.S. food supply from adversaries including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. "USDA has completed a thorough review of individuals authorized to work on contracts with the department and identified approximately 70 individuals from countries of concern," a spokesperson said. "The individuals working on these contracts from countries of concern will no longer be able to work on USDA projects." U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on July 8 had announced a farm security plan that included efforts to bar purchases of U.S. farmland by nationals of the four countries, and to terminate any existing research agreements with them. Rollins said the moves were necessary to secure the U.S. food supply. The contractors had worked at the Agricultural Research Service, the in-house research arm of the USDA, said Thomas Henderson, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1657, which represents ARS workers in Albany, California. Most of those dismissed were Chinese post-doctoral researchers on two-year contracts with the agency, and who were already subject to vetting before being hired, Henderson said. Some arrived to work on July 9 to find their badges no longer worked, he said. Because of a federal hiring freeze that has been extended through October 15, the USDA will not be able to replace the fired staff and will need to halt ongoing scientific work that benefits farmers, like a project to develop a vaccine for a deadly toxin that occurs in undercooked beef, Henderson said. "We don't have the talent now to progress on these research projects. It's setting us back by years, if not decades," he said. The USDA did not comment on the concern about lost research capacity. The ARS conducts research on agriculture topics like pests, food safety and climate change that are high-priority to American farmers. The agency has lost about 1,200 employees, more than 17% of its 2024 staffing level, to terminations and voluntary incentives to quit offered by President Donald Trump's administration. In a July 8 memo, Rollins prohibited USDA staff from publishing research with foreign nationals from the four "countries of concern" without agency approval and from attending events organized by "foreign adversaries." Some ARS staff were further told in a meeting that all publications currently under review will be re-analyzed and those co-authored with foreign nationals from the four countries will be denied, said Ethan Roberts, an ARS employee and president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3247. Before the memo, there were already extra review processes in place to publishing research conducted with people from the four countries, Roberts said.
NBC News
30 minutes ago
- NBC News
Chinese university issues expulsion notice to female student over relationship with a foreigner
A Chinese university announced the expulsion of a female student for 'damaging national dignity' after she was accused of 'improper interactions' with a foreign man, generating heated discussions across Chinese social media about whether the university had gone too far. Over the last several days, the expulsion has drawn thousands of comments on platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, many of which question whether the school has the right to judge her personal life and elevate it to a matter of national import. In an announcement posted last week, Dalian Polytechnic University in the country's northeast declared that the student would be 'expelled' in 60 days, saying she violated the university rule against 'having improper interactions with foreigners that damage national dignity.' 'Your misbehaviors on December 16, 2024, caused a terrible negative impact,' the announcement said, without giving details on what constituted the 'misbehaviors.' The university released her name, but AP is not publishing it out of privacy concerns. The university's actions illustrate a number of issues percolating in modern Chinese society, including discussions around gender bias and a full-on push toward nationalism. Chinese internet users have connected the accused university student to videos posted by Danylo Teslenko, also known as Zeus, a professional Ukrainian gamer showing him being intimate with an Asian-looking young woman in a hotel room. AP cannot independently verify if the woman in the video is the student. Some on social media called the school's decision to expel the student a sign of the 'Taliban style,' by which a particular nation or group claims ownership over a woman's body. Others call it misogyny, asking if a Chinese man would be considered a 'national pride' if he had sex with a foreign woman. The Paper, a state-run newspaper in Shanghai, said it was not just 'inappropriate' to publish the student's full name but also 'may even violate the Personal Information Protection Law.' 'It is improper to graft private affairs onto the public domain for public disposal,' said The Paper. Teslenko, the gamer, confirmed on Sunday that he posted 'a few videos on Telegram with a girl I met in Shanghai' but later deleted them 'as soon as I understood the seriousness of the situation,' according to his post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'Our faces were visible, but there was no explicit content or anything disrespectful in those videos,' the post said, 'I have never said that Chinese girls are easy.' Media reports said Teslenko and the student met at the final of the Perfect World Shanghai Major, a gaming competition held in December 2024.
