Justice Department says 2 Chinese nationals charged with spying inside the US for Beijing

Justice Department says 2 Chinese nationals charged with spying inside the US for Beijing

Two Chinese nationals have been charged with spying inside the United States on behalf of Beijing, including by taking photographs of a naval base, coordinating a cash dead-drop and by participating in efforts to recruit members of the military who they thought might be open to working for Chinese intelligence. The case,filed in federal court in San Franciscoand unsealed Monday, is the latest Justice Department prosecution to target what officials say are active efforts by the Chinese government to secretly collect intelligence about American military capabilities —a practice laid bare in startling fashion two years agowith China's launching of a surveillance balloon that US officials ultimately shot down over the coast of South Carolina. "This case underscores the Chinese government's sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the case. "The Justice Department will not stand by while hostile nations embed spies in our country – we will expose foreign operatives, hold their agents to account, and protect the American people from covert threats to our national security." Officials identified the defendants as Yuance Chen, 38, who arrived in the US on a visa in 2015 and later became a lawful permanent resident, and Liren "Ryan" Lai, 39, who prosecutors say lives in China but came to Texas this past spring as part of an effort to supervise clandestine espionage operations on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security or MSS. The two were arrested on charges of secretly doing China's bidding without registering as foreign agents with the Justice Department, as required by law. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday. According to an FBI affidavit filed in connection with the case, investigators believe Lai had been developing Chen to be a Chinese intelligence asset since at least mid-2021. Their activities, the FBI says, included coordinating on a dead-drop of at least $10,000 in cash to another person operating at the direction of the MSS. They also conducted surveillance of a Navy recruiting station in California and Navy base in Washington state, including through photographs and videos that investigators believe were sent to Chinese intelligence. Authorities say Lai and Chen also discussed recruiting Navy employees to work for China, with Chen obtaining – during a tour of a Navy installation – photographs of names and hometowns of recent recruits. Many listed China as their hometown and investigators believe the information was sent to China, the FBI affidavit says. The case is one in a series of prosecutions concerning Chinese intelligence-gathering, including concerning the military. Last year, for instance,the Justice Department charged five Chinese nationalswith lying and trying to cover their tracks, more than a year after they were confronted in the dark near a remote Michigan military site where thousands of people had gathered for summer drills. And in 2023,two Navy sailors were charged with providing sensitive military information to China, including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

byAllias Grif

in

July 01, 2025

Justice Department says 2 Chinese nationals charged with spying inside the US for Beijing

Justice Department says 2 Chinese nationals charged with spying inside the US for Beijing Two Chinese nationals have been charged with spyin...

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UPenn to update swimming records set by Lia Thomas, settling with feds on transgender athletes case

UPenn to update swimming records set by Lia Thomas, settling with feds on transgender athletes case

WASHINGTON (AP) — The University of Pennsylvania says it will update records set by transgender swimmerLia Thomasand apologize to female athletes "disadvantaged" by Thomas' participation on the women's swimming team, part of a resolution of a federalcivil rights case. The U.S. Education Department and Penn announced the voluntary agreement Tuesday. The case focused on Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022, when she became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title. The department investigated Penn as part of theTrumpadministration's broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls' and women's sports, finding the college violated the rights of female athletes. Under the agreement, Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I swimming records and titles to female athletes who lost out to Thomas and send a personalized apology letter to each of those swimmers, the Education Department said. On Tuesday afternoon, thePenn websiteshowed other athletes holding the school's top times in Thomas' freestyle events. The site was annotated with a note that read, "Competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season." "While Penn's policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules," Penn President J. Larry Jameson said in a statement. "We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time." As part of the settlement, the university must also announce that it "will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs" and it must adopt "biology-based" definitions of male and female, the department said. In his statement, Jameson said Penn has always been in compliance with NCAA and Title IX rules as they were interpreted at the time, and that the university has never had its own policies around transgender athlete participation. The school has followed changes to eligibility guidelines as they were issued earlier this year, he said. The NCAA changed its participation policy fortransgender athletesin February, limiting competition in women's sports to athletes who were assigned female at birth. "Our commitment to ensuring a respectful and welcoming environment for all of our students is unwavering," Jameson said. "At the same time, we must comply with federal requirements, including executive orders, and NCAA eligibility rules, so our teams and student-athletes may engage in competitive intercollegiate sports." Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it a victory for women and girls. "The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls, and we will continue to fight relentlessly to restore Title IX's proper application and enforce it to the fullest extent of the law," McMahon said in a statement. The Education Department opened its investigation in February and concluded in April that Penn had violated Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding sex discrimination in education. Such findings have almost always been resolved through voluntary agreements. If Penn had fought the finding, the department could have moved to refer the case to the Justice Department or pursued a separate process to cut the school's federal funding. In February, the Education Department asked the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFSHSA, to restore titles, awards and records it says have been "misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories." The most obvious target at the college level was in women's swimming, where Thomas won the national title in the 500-yard freestyle in 2022. The NCAA has updated its record books when recruiting and other violations have stripped titles from certain schools, but the organization, like the NFSHSA, has not responded to the federal government's request. Determining which events had a transgender athlete participating years later would be challenging. ___ Associated Press writers Annie Ma and Dan Gelston contributed. Gelston contributed from Philadelphia. ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP'sstandardsfor working with philanthropies, alistof supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

byAllias Grif

in

July 01, 2025

UPenn to update swimming records set by Lia Thomas, settling with feds on transgender athletes case

UPenn to update swimming records set by Lia Thomas, settling with feds on transgender athletes case WASHINGTON (AP) — The University of Penn...

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Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who became a household name amassing an enormous following and multimillion-dollar ministry only to be undone by his penchant for prostitutes, has died. Swaggart died decades after his once vast audience dwindled and his name became a punchline on late night television. His death was announced Tuesday on his public Facebook page. A cause wasn't immediately given, though at 90 he had been in poor health, having suffered cardiac arrest last month. The Louisiana native was best known for being a captivating Pentecostal preacher with a massive following before being caught on camera with a prostitute in New Orleans in 1988, one of a string of successful TV preachers brought down in the 1980s and 1990s by sex scandals. He continued preaching for decades, but with a reduced audience. Swaggart encapsulated his downfall in a tearful 1988 sermon, in which he wept and apologized but made no reference to his connection to a prostitute. "I have sinned against you," Swaggart told parishioners nationwide. "I beg you to forgive me." He announced his resignation from the Assemblies of God later that year, shortly after the church said it was defrocking him for rejecting punishment it had ordered for "moral failure." The church had wanted him to undergo a two-year rehabilitation program, including not preaching for a full year. Swaggart said at the time that he knew dismissal was inevitable but insisted he had no choice but to separate from the church to save his ministry and Bible college. From poverty and oil fields to a household name Swaggart grew up poor, the son of a preacher, in a music-rich family. He excelled at piano and gospel music, playing and singing with talented cousins who took different paths: rock-'n'-rollerJerry Lee Lewisand country singerMickey Gilley. In his hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana, Swaggart said he first heard the call of God at age 8. The voice gave him goose bumps and made his hair tingle, he said. "Everything seemed different after that day in front of the Arcade Theater," he said in a 1985 interview with the Jacksonville Journal-Courier in Illinois. "I felt better inside. Almost like taking a bath." He preached and worked part time in oil fields until he was 23. He then moved entirely into his ministry: preaching, playing piano and singing gospel songs with the barrelhouse fervor of cousin Lewis at Assemblies of God revivals and camp meetings. Swaggart started a radio show, a magazine, and then moved into television, with outspoken views. He called Roman Catholicism "a false religion. It is not the Christian way," and claimed that Jews suffered for thousands of years "because of their rejection of Christ." "If you don't like what I say, talk to my boss," he once shouted as he strode in front of his congregation at his Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, where his sermons moved listeners to speak in tongues and stand up as if possessed by the Holy Spirit. Swaggart's messages stirred thousands of congregants and millions of TV viewers, making him a household name by the late 1980s. Contributors built Jimmy Swaggart Ministries into a business that made an estimated $142 million in 1986. His Baton Rouge complex still includes a worship center and broadcasting and recording facilities. The scandals that led to Swaggart's ruin Swaggart's downfall came in the late 1980s as other prominent preachers faced similar scandals. Swaggart said publicly that his earnings were hurt in 1987 by the sex scandal surroundingrival televangelist Jim Bakkerand a former church secretary at Bakker's PTL ministry organization. The following year, Swaggart was photographed at a hotel with Debra Murphree, an admitted prostitute who told reporters that the two did not have sex but that the preacher had paid her to pose nude. She later repeated the claim — and posed nude — for Penthouse magazine. The surveillance photos that crippled Swaggart's career apparently stemmed from his rivalry with preacher Marvin Gorman, who Swaggart had accused of sexual misdeeds. Gorman hired the photographer who captured Swaggart and Murphree on film. Swaggart later paid Gorman $1.8 million to settle a lawsuit over the sexual allegations against Gorman. More trouble came in 1991, when police in California detained Swaggart with another prostitute. The evangelist was charged with driving on the wrong side of the road and driving an unregistered Jaguar. His companion, Rosemary Garcia, said Swaggart became nervous when he saw the police car and weaved when he tried to stuff pornographic magazines under a car seat. Swaggart was later mocked by the late TV comic Phil Hartman, who impersonated him on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." Out of the public eye but still in the pulpit The evangelist largely stayed out of the news in later years but remained in the pulpit at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, often joined by his son, Donnie, a fellow preacher. His radio station broadcast church services and gospel music to 21 states, and Swaggart's ministry boasted a worldwide audience on the internet. "My dad was a warrior. My dad was preacher. He didn't want to be anything else except a preacher of the gospel," Donnie Swaggart said in avideo message sharedon social media Tuesday following his father's death. "That's what he was put on this earth to do." The preacher caused another brief stir in 2004 with remarks about being "looked at" amorously by a gay man. "And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died," Jimmy Swaggart said, to laughter from the congregation. He later apologized. Swaggart made few public appearances outside his church, save for singing "Amazing Grace" at the 2005 funeral of Louisiana Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, a prominent name in state politics for decades. In 2022, he shared memories at thememorial servicefor Lewis, his cousin and rock 'n' roll pioneer. The pair had released "The Boys From Ferriday," a gospel album, earlier that year. Donnie Swaggart said he promised his father that "I will continue the work" — distributing Bibles, sharing the gospel and "proclaiming the message of Christ." Swaggart is survived by his wife, Frances, son Donnie, daughter-in-law Debbie, grandson Gabriel, daughter Jill, granddaughter Jennifer, son-in-law Clif, son Matt, daughter-in-law Joanna and nine great-grandchildren.

byAllias Grif

in

July 01, 2025

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90

Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90 BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Televangelist Jimmy Sw...

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140,000 pounds of bologna recalled nationwide

140,000 pounds of bologna recalled nationwide

More than 140,000 pounds of ready-to-eat bologna have been recalled because the products were mislabeled, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. The bologna, made by Gaiser's European Style Provisions Inc., contains meat or poultry ingredients that are not declared on the packaging. The recall includes products sold under various brand names, including: Vacuum-packed "Family Tree Bologna Veal," which contains undeclared pork Plastic-wrapped "Babushka's Recipe Chicken Bologna," which contains undeclared pork Plastic-wrapped "Fancy Bologna," labeled as containing pork but also containing undeclared beef and chicken Vacuum-packed "Gaiser's Russian Brand Doktorskaya Bologna," which contains undeclared beef Plastic-wrapped "Gaiser's Bologna Veal," which contains undeclared chicken and pork Plastic-wrapped "Gaiser's Turkey Bologna," which contains undeclared chicken and pork Plastic-wrapped "Chicken Bologna Kypoyka Paba," which contains undeclared pork The USDA said the products were shipped to both retail and wholesale outlets across the country. Although no illnesses have been reported, officials advise consumers not to eat the recalled bologna. The products may still be in refrigerators or freezers, and should be thrown away or returned to the store.

byAllias Grif

in

July 01, 2025

140,000 pounds of bologna recalled nationwide

140,000 pounds of bologna recalled nationwide More than 140,000 pounds of ready-to-eat bologna have been recalled because the products were ...

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HHS layoffs were likely unlawful and must be halted, US judge says

HHS layoffs were likely unlawful and must be halted, US judge says

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A federal judge ruled that recent mass layoffs at theU.S. Department of Health and Human Serviceswere likely unlawful and ordered the Trump administration to halt plans to downsize and reorganize the nation's health workforce. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose granted the preliminary injunction sought by a coalition of attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed in early May. DuBose said the states had shown "irreparable harm," from the cuts and were likely to prevail in their claims that "HHS's action was both arbitrary and capricious as well as contrary to law." "The executive branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress," DuBose wrote in a 58-page order handed down in U.S. district court in Providence. Her order blocks the Trump administration from finalizing layoffs announced in March or issuing further firings. HHS is directed to file a status report by July 11. An HHS spokesperson said the administration is reviewing the decision and considering next steps. "We stand by our original decision to realign this organization with its core mission and refocus a sprawling bureaucracy that, over time, had become wasteful, inefficient and resistant to change," Andrew Nixon said in an emailed statement. The ruling applies to employees in four different parts of HHS: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Center for Tobacco Products within the Food and Drug Administration; the Office of Head Start within the Administration for Children and Families and employees of regional offices who work on Head Start matters; and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.eliminated more than 10,000 employees in late March and consolidated 28 agencies to 15. Since then, agencies including the CDC have rescinded layoffs affecting hundreds of employees, including those monitoring HIV, hepatitis and other diseases. The attorneys general argued that the massive restructuring was arbitrary and outside of the scope of the agency's authority. The lawsuit also says the action decimated essential programs and pushed burdensome costs onto states. DuBose wrote that states have lost access to "funds, guidance, research, screenings, compliance oversight, data, and, importantly, the expertise and guidance on which they have long relied." The cuts are part of afederal "Make America Healthy Again" directiveto streamline costly agencies and reduce redundancies.Kennedy told senators at a May 14 hearingthat there is "so much chaos and disorganization" at HHS. But the restructuring had eliminatedkey teams that regulate food safety and drugs, as well as support a wide range of programs for tobacco, HIV prevention and maternal and infant health. Kennedy has since said that because of mistakes, 20% of people fired might be reinstated. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

byAllias Grif

in

July 01, 2025

HHS layoffs were likely unlawful and must be halted, US judge says

HHS layoffs were likely unlawful and must be halted, US judge says PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A federal judge ruled that recent mass layoffs at...

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