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China’s paranoid purge

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

Something is rotten in the imperial court of Chairman Xi Jinping. While the world is distracted by war in the Middle East and Ukraine, a Stalin-like purge is sweeping through China’s ultra-secretive political system, with profound implications for the global economy and even the prospects for peace in the region.The signals emanating from Beijing are unmistakable, even as China’s security services have ramped up repression to totalitarian levels, making it almost impossible to know what is really happening inside the country.The unexplained disappearance and removal of China’s foreign and defense ministers — both Xi loyalists who were handpicked and elevated mere months before they went missing earlier this year — are just two examples.Other high-profile victims include the generals in charge of China’s nuclear weapons program and some of the most senior officials overseeing the Chinese financial sector. Several of these former Xi acolytes have apparently died in custody.Anothe...

EU in disarray over plan to fund Ukraine from frozen Russian assets

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

BRUSSELS ― EU countries have poured cold water on a plan to use revenue generated from Russian assets frozen since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine to support the war-torn country’s reconstruction.Several ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 governments argued that an idea drawn up by Spain, in its role at the helm of the EU’s rotating six-month presidency, would not give Ukraine’s economy the urgent boost it needs, and instead risks undermining the EU’s commitment to provide support to Kyiv.For months, EU officials have been exploring ways to skim off the earnings from assets worth some $300 billion that were immobilized after the war began. But the plan has drawn skepticism from some governments, including France and Germany, as well as from the European Central Bank, which fears it could cause instability in the euro currency.The criticism came to a head at a meeting of EU envoys on Tuesday evening. Under Spain’s proposal, obtained by POLITICO and discussed a...

Will China blink? EU to push Xi to cut dual-use exports to Russia

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

BRUSSELS — The EU’s two leaders are expected on Thursday to push China’s President Xi Jinping to take action to curb exports of dual-use goods by Chinese companies to Russia, including a veiled threat of sanctions absent fresh commitments from Beijing, according to five EU officials and diplomats.“We’re very concerned about circumvention of sanctions … And we would like China to take care of some of the entities that are circumventing our sanctions,” a senior EU official said on Tuesday. “The preferred option is that China deals with [the problem] themselves — but we have tools to deal with it ourselves, if necessary.”The strong message is the latest sign of what could be a frosty summit meeting between Xi, Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, presidents of the European Council and the European Commission. While China has stopped short of sending weapons to Russia, there are concerns it has shipped nonlethal but militarily useful g...

Skimming device found at Chelsea Market Basket register

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

An investigation got underway Tuesday after a skimming device was found on a register at a Market Basket store in Chelsea, police said. A police official told 7NEWS store management personnel at the Market Basket on Everett Avenue were told about the device Tuesday evening. The official said the device, which is used to steal credit card information, was similar to ones found at other stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire earlier this year. While the devices were similar, the official said authorities were still investigating whether this latest incident is related as of Tuesday night.Police in Concord, New Hampshire shared an initial warning about skimmers in their community on Nov. 13 a matter of weeks after the skimmers were found at local Walmart and Market Basket locations, respectively. Concord police at the time said skimmers had also been found recently in Somerville, Reading and Haverhill, Massachusetts as well as in Nashua, New Hampshire. The R...

7 Investigates: Dangerous mold spreading through luxury apartments in Quincy

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

A new luxury apartment complex in Quincy has great water views and high end amenities. But all was not what it seemed.  Dave Puglisi has tonight’s 7 Investigates.Sandra Fernandez said everything was great in her new Quincy apartment until her son developed a rash.“I was like ‘Something is not right in this apartment,’” she said. “‘My son is sick every night.’”Sandra says she begged management to check inside her walls after she found numerous leaks and suspected mold was growing.“I asked them, they kept denying it and denying it and denying it until we opened the walls,” she said.Mold was discovered in two bedrooms and under her carpets.“They have put our health in danger, my son’s health in danger,” she said.Now some residents have filed a class action lawsuit against Marina Bay, LLC and Bozzuto Management.“We had black mold over here that they recently had to do from the exterior,” said Jared Hannigan. “Our entire wall was taken out.”The suit claims that, by the f...

Man gets new trial after being convicted of murder based on blind witness’s testimony

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

A Cook County judge overturned the murder conviction Tuesday of a man who was found guilty in a fatal shooting at a South Side gas station primarily based on the testimony of an eyewitness who turned out to be legally blind.Darien Harris was an 18-year-old high school senior with a clean criminal record when prosecutors charged him in an ambush-style shooting that left one man dead and another seriously injured in June 2011.Now 30, Harris has long maintained his innocence, saying he was at home watching LeBron James play in the NBA finals between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks. But a now-retired judge found Harris guilty in 2014 and sent him to prison for 76 years.More than four years ago, his legal team, family and friends began urging the conviction integrity unit of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to take another look at the case. Among other arguments, they said the key witness had failed to disclose to the trial judge that the witness was legally blind beca...

Column: There’s no prize for winning MLB’s winter meetings, so the waiting game goes on

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

The good news for Chicago Cubs fans is Shohei Ohtani remained unsigned late into the second day of the MLB winter meetings.But whether the Cubs were still among the teams in the mix for the baseball unicorn was a question president Jed Hoyer repeatedly avoided, even after a social media report claimed the Cubs were out.Hoyer said there was no news to report and he didn’t know where the rumor came from. He declined to talk about any discussions with free agents, though manager Craig Counsell said earlier he had not talked to Ohtani.The notion that Hoyer feels some urgency to make a splashy signing for his new $40 million manager was downplayed. Hoyer said he sold Counsell on “where the organization was going.”“It wasn’t a referendum on ’24 necessarily,” Hoyer said. “But more where we are as a franchise, an organization at this moment in time. I don’t feel any big need to justify that. Certainly, I have no doubt over the next few y...

Video shows coyote run down busy North Park street

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Coyote sightings have become a pretty common occurrence the last few months in the North Park neighborhood.On Monday morning, a coyote was caught on video at Polk Avenue and Louisiana Street.A FOX 5 employee shot the video which shows the coyote trot down the street, take a glance at the camera and then run off. In October, FOX 5 reported on a story about coyote sightings. Coyotes are found in other parts of San Diego County from Escondido, Ramona and Del Mar to the urban city streets, according to the San Diego Humane Society. The animal organization says it receives about one call a week related to a coyote. Man arrested after San Diego school mass shooting threat Angela Hernandez, a supervisor for San Diego Humane Society Wildlife Rehabilitation, says there may be more coyotes due to their territory possibly being "uprooted as humans encroach on their territory."“When you see so many of them, it’s usually because they have become habituated to humans, so their fear...

Actors vote to approve deal that ended strike, bringing relief to union leaders and Hollywood

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood’s actors have voted to ratify the deal with studios that ended their strike after nearly four months, leaders announced Tuesday. The approval of the three-year contract from the members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists was no certainty, with some prominent members voicing dissent on the deal for which the union leaders bargained.The 78% yes result in voting that began Nov. 13 and ended Tuesday was a far cry from the near-unanimous approval and widespread enthusiasm members of the writers guild gave to the deal that ended their strike in September.But the outcome is a major relief for SAG-AFTRA leaders and an entertainment industry that is attempting to return to normal after months of labor strife. And it brings a final, official end to Hollywood labor’s most tumultuous year in half a century, with two historic strikes that shook the industry.“Today we close out one of the most important chapters in recent en...

Scientists say November is 6th straight month to set heat record; 2023 a cinch as hottest year

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:21:26 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — For the sixth month in a row, Earth set a new monthly record for heat, and also added the hottest autumn to the litany of record-breaking heat this year, the European climate agency calculated.And with only one month left, 2023 is on the way to smashing the record for hottest year. November was nearly a third of a degree Celsius (0.57 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than the previous hottest November, the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Climate Change Service announced early Wednesday. November was 1.75 degrees Celsius (3.15 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, tying October and behind September, for the hottest above average for any month, the scientists said.“The last half year has truly been shocking,” said Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess. “Scientists are running out of adjectives to describe this.’’November averaged 14.22 degrees Celsius (57.6 degrees Fahrenheit), which is 0.85 degrees Celsius (1.5 d...