Category: Security

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

Taiwan urged democracies worldwide to condemn China for being a “troublemaker” after Beijing launched military drills around the island.

China’s military said Tuesday it had kicked off joint exercises involving its army, navy, air force and rocket force around Taiwan as a “stern warning,” days after U.S. defense chief Pete Hegseth vowed to counter “China’s aggression” on his first visit to Asia.

Forces from China’s People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, were approaching Taiwan from “multiple directions,” according to a statement from the Eastern Theater Command, which oversees military operations in the region, posted on the command’s official WeChat account.

It said the drills would focus on “combat readiness patrols at sea and in the air, seizing comprehensive control, striking maritime and land targets and imposing blockade controls on key areas and routes.”

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 19 PLA ships around Taiwan by 6 a.m. on Tuesday, including the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong. It deployed aircraft, Navy ships, and coastal missile systems in response.

“Taiwan’s military vowed to remain vigilant and adhere to the principle of not escalating conflicts or provoking disputes while effectively countering gray-zone threats,” the ministry said in a press release.

Taiwanese defense minister Wellington Koo Li-Hsiung said that the PLA’s actions undermine regional peace and stability, making it evident that they are a “major troublemaker.”

“Recent reports have exposed widespread corruption within the Chinese military, suggesting that they should focus on addressing their internal issues rather than engaging in activities that disrupt regional peace,” he told journalists at a press conference Tuesday.

Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council under the chairmanship of the island’s president, condemned the drills as “reckless” and “irresponsible” in threatening Taiwan as well as peace and stability in the region.

“It came without justification, violates international laws and is totally unacceptable. Democracies need to condemn China for being a troublemaker,” Wu said in a post on the social platform X.

The latest Chinese military drills came days after Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth vowed to enhance America’s military alliance with the Philippines to counter “China’s aggression” in the Indo-Pacific region during his first trip to Asia last week.

He also called Japan an “indispensable partner in deterring communist Chinese military aggression,” including across the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing asserts that Taiwan is part of its territory and is steadily developing the military capacity to take it by force. While analysts say China hasn’t yet reached that point, it has made notable progress. In the meantime, it employs military pressure – such as drills – and other coercive tactics to try to compel Taiwan into submission.

China has conducted numerous military drills targeting Taiwan in recent years, typically in reaction to what it views as separatist or pro-independence actions.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, elected last year to continue the leadership of the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive Party, has adopted a firm stance on cross-strait relations.

Just last month, he labeled China a “foreign hostile force” under national security law and introduced several initiatives aimed at curbing its expanding influence and espionage activities.

The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a “high-ranking’ MS-13 leader in New York. The MS-13 leader is allegedly linked to 11 murders.

In a Wednesday press release, the Justice Department said, “Last night, a high-ranking leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, was arrested in New York for his alleged role in a conspiracy responsible for 11 murders.”

The Justice Department identified the MS-13 leader as Joel Vargas-Escobar and explained that he was indicted in the District of Nevada and charged with a racketeering conspiracy involving 11 murders. The Justice Department added that Vargas-Escobar was also charged with gun charges and two counts of murder-in-aid of racketeering.

According to the Justice Department, the MS-13 leader was previously deported to El Salvador before illegally re-entering the United States.

“The American people are safer following the arrest of yet another MS-13 leader thanks to the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and Joint Task Force Vulcan,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “This terrorist entered our country illegally and is accused of orchestrating 11 murders — under President Trump’s leadership, we will not rest until this terrorist organization is completely dismantled and its members are behind bars.”

READ MORE: Video: 17 ‘foreign gang terrorists’ deported by Trump admin to El Salvador

The Justice Department claimed that Vargas-Escobar and his co-defendants were part of MS-14’s “command and control structure” in California and Las Vegas. The indictment against Vargas Escobar charges him as the “leader of the Parkview clique of MS-13 in Las Vegas,” which is believed to have committed 11 murders in roughly a year. Vargas-Escobar is accused of “personally ordering” the murders of two victims and “orchestrating” nine additional murders.

“The arrest of yet another violent and dangerous MS-13 leader is a major win for our FBI agents, law enforcement partners, and safer American streets,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “Our agents and analysts are continuously coordinating across multiple field offices and investigating with our valued partners to keep this work going — and we will not stop until that work is done.”

In the press release, the Justice Department confirmed that Vargas-Escobar appeared before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York – Central Islip on Wednesday, where a judge ordered him to be detained and transferred to the District of Nevada for trial. If convicted, the MS-13 leader could face a mandatory sentence of life in prison, according to the Justice Department.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

In January 2025, a 79-year-old man went viral on social media after testing positive for HIV at a hospital in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong where he was being treated for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Asked when he could have become infected, the man told the Yangcheng Evening News that he had found a lover after his wife died 10 years ago, but had “never used condoms.”

News of the case quickly went viral on social media, registering in the list of hot search topics on Sina Weibo.

The social media reaction betrayed considerable social prejudice about the sex lives of older people, experts told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.

And the case highlighted a public health problem that has been brewing in China for many years.

Studies have shown that older people are a fast-growing high-risk group for HIV infection.

A 2020 report in the journal Microbiology found that 58.4% of new HIV infections reported in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing were in the over 50s, while 46% of newly reported cases in the southwestern region of Guangxi were in men aged 50 and over.

Some studies have predicted that nearly 33% of HIV positive people in China will be over the age of 60 by 2035.

“The proportion of older people among among newly reported HIV or AIDS patients in China has been gradually increasing since 2015,” former China Red Cross official Ren Ruihong told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “It’s just that nobody has paid that much attention.”

Changing transmission patterns

Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said patterns of HIV transmission in China have changed drastically since the 2000s, when it was mostly driven by rural blood-selling schemes.

“Before about 2010, the spread of HIV/AIDS in China was mainly due to blood selling, which was more likely to attract media attention,” Huang said. “But the spread of HIV/AIDS in China has undergone very significant changes, with the increase in the number of elderly HIV patients the most important challenge.”

As of June 30, 2024, China has more than 1.32 million people confirmed to be living with HIV/AIDS, exceeding the number of infections in the United States (which stand at around 1.2 million) — nearly 1% of the population, according to a report from China Radio International.

Infection rates among the over 50s stand at around 2.1%, twice the prevalence in the wider population, and higher than in most other countries.

While younger at-risk groups may be more aware of the need to take precautions or get tested, the danger of getting HIV as an older person in China is that you may not find out until it’s too late.

“The thing about older HIV/AIDS patients is that they usually don’t find out until the disease is very advanced,” Chinese AIDS expert Wan Yanhai told RFA Mandarin.

“It shows that prevention campaigns shouldn’t only target specific high-risk groups, but should target the entire population, including older people,” he said.

According to China’s Statistical Communiqué on the Development of Civil Affairs in 2023, the number of people aged 60 and above in China was 297 million in 2023, or 21.2% of the total population.

Yet there is almost no mention of their sex lives in the mainstream media.

A 2019 survey by the Shenzhen University’s School of Communication found that around 40% of respondents think older people are “pure,” while others believed they were “healthy.”

The results suggest that social attitudes don’t expect people of a certain age to have sex lives at all.

The latest figures show a marked gender difference when it comes to reported HIV infections.

Between 2012 and 2018, the number of cases in older men rose threefold, while they only doubled in women.

Yet Chinese women over 50 are also increasingly getting infected with HIV, accounting for 38.1% of cases in the over-50s in 2016, compared with 17.8% in 2010.

There are also obvious regional differences, too. According to the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology, from 2015 to 2022, HIV infections in the over 60s were mainly concentrated in the southwest and southern parts of the country.

Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention data for January-October 2023 shows a total of 198 cases in the over-50s, 75.8% of whom were men. The number accounted for 15.1% of total new HIV cases for that period.

According to Huang, those figures are likely just the tip of the iceberg.

“These are just the officially released data, so the real figures are probably higher,” he said. “Many of them don’t find out until they develop other infections due to decreased immunity, and go to hospital for treatment.”

“But a lot of people may not have symptoms at all, and the older people are unlikely to take the initiative to get tested for HIV,” Huang said, citing the case of the 79-year-old man whose case was reported by the Yangcheng Evening News.

Relationships with sex workers

More than 90% of cases in this age group are the result of heterosexual transmission, most commonly during “commercial or extramarital sex,” according to a recent report in the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology.

This is borne out by a survey by sociologist Pan Suiming, whose survey of the nation’s sexuality found that 53% of Chinese people aged 55-61 have sex at least once a month, and 14% have sex more than once a week.

Some 47% reported never having sex at all, while 40% of men over 50 told the Shenzhen University survey they had used the services of sex workers. Nearly half were married.

The data point to a growing number of older men across China engaging in commercial sex, while a 2012 study by the journal Population Research found that many older men who seek out sex workers become long-term clients, and feel as if they have a relationship with them.

The sense of cosy familiarity means people are far less likely to use condoms. And surveys have found that more than 40% of sexually active people in China said they would never use protection at all.

Yet the perception of older people as somehow “pure” means that many who seek out sex workers or find lovers are castigated by their families.

And there is a general lack of education around HIV/AIDS, according to a 2020 survey by the World Health Organization and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers interviewed 45 people over 60 in three rural areas, nearly half of whom were HIV positive. They found that none of the respondents knew much about HIV.

In December 2022, Practical Preventive Medicine conducted a survey on AIDS-related knowledge, sexual behavior, and acceptance of HIV testing among people aged 50 and over who participated in community health examinations in an unnamed province.

It found that the overall awareness rate of AIDS prevention and control knowledge was only 32.9% among city-dwellers. Out in rural areas, that number was just 23.3%.

And there is scant support for HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.

“Even back in the day when there were a lot of NGOs, there wasn’t much support for HIV/AIDS prevention work or publicity,” Ren said.

“A lot of organizations didn’t want to be associated with it, and non-government organizations have been declining in China since 2012,” she said.

“There aren’t any younger or middle-aged people to publicize this stuff.”

A 17-year-old suspect was arrested on Wednesday after fatally stabbing another 17-year-old in an “altercation” at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas.

In a Wednesday press release, the Frisco Police Department confirmed that officials were investigating a “fatal stabbing” incident and that the suspect involved in the incident had been taken into custody.

“On Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at approximately 10:00 a.m., Frisco Police and Fire responded to an incident at a track meet in the 6900 block of Stadium Lane,” the Frisco Police Department stated. “An altercation between two students resulted in one stabbing the other.”

The Frisco Police Department confirmed that 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, a student at Frisco Memorial High School, died despite police and fire officials attempting “lifesaving measures” such as “CPR and the administration of blood.”

In Wednesday’s press release, police officials also identified the suspect as 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, a student at Frisco Centennial High School. The Frisco Police Department announced that the 17-year-old suspect had been charged with murder and that no bond had been set for Anthony as of Wednesday.

READ MORE: 2 killed, 2 wounded in Denver stabbing spree

Hunter Metcalf, the victim’s twin brother, told WFAA that his brother was stabbed following an altercation with the suspect over a seat at the track meet. Hunter Metcalf explained that the suspect became “aggressive” after he was asked to move.

“I tried to whip around as fast as I could. I looked at my brother and I’m not going to talk about the rest,” he added. “I tried to help him.”

Describing the death of his brother as “senseless,” Hunter Metcalf said, “I don’t know why a person would do that to someone just over that little argument.”

“It was senseless.”

Hunter Metcalf recounts the killing of his twin brother Austin Metcalf.

17-year-old Karmelo Anthony has been arrested and charged with first degree murder in the stabbing.pic.twitter.com/sQLSsQnbGF

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 3, 2025

Jeff Metcalf, the victim’s father, told NBC 5, “They were twins, identical twins, and his brother was holding on to him, trying to make it stop bleeding, and he died in his brother’s arms.”

The victim’s father added, “I rushed up there and I saw him on the gurney and I could tell — they said he wasn’t breathing. I could see all the blood, and I saw where the wound was, and I was very concerned, so I had to find his brother, and we rushed to the hospital. And we prayed, and it’s God’s plan, I don’t understand it, but they weren’t able to save him. This is murder.”

Pictures of Austin Metcalf and Karmelo Anthony have been shared on X, formerly Twitter.

SAY HIS NAME: Austin Metcalf (17)

High achieving student, athlete, 4.0 GPA. KiIIed in cold bIood by Karmelo Anthony.

Zero national outrage. pic.twitter.com/bzcq0P1wdc

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 3, 2025

Sian Barbara Allen, a Golden Globe-nominated actor who appeared in dozens of TV series including “The Waltons” from the 1970s to the ’90s and also was known for her work in the 1972 film “You’ll Like My Mother,” has died.

Allen died Monday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, of Alzheimer’s disease, her family announced in an online obituary. The actor’s loved ones said Allen was best known for portraying characters who “showed great vulnerability and uncommon empathy, which won her a legion of fans all over the world.” She was 78.

Throughout her career, Allen garnered dozens of credits ranging from hit series “Columbo,” “Kojack” and “Hawaii Five-O” to films “Billy Two Hats” and “You’ll Like My Mother.” Allen also appeared in several TV movies, including “Scream, Pretty Peggy” and “The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case,” notably sharing the screen with Bette Davis and Anthony Hopkins, among others.

Allen was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on July 12, 1946, and was raised by her mother and grandmother. Before her screen debut in “O’Hara, U.S. Treasury” in 1971, she accepted a scholarship to the Pasadena Playhouse. She studied under Peggy Feury through the Journeyman program at the Mark Taper Forum, according to her obituary.

The first couple of years of Allen’s television career were defined by minor roles in series including Westerns “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza” and TV movies “The Scarecrow” and “The Family Rico.” In 1972, she tried her hand at film, portraying a mentally challenged young woman in “You’ll Like My Mother” opposite Patty Duke, Rosemary Murphy and Richard Thomas.

For Allen, “You’ll Like My Mother” was more than just another acting credit under her belt. The film earned her a new star of the year nomination at the 1973 Golden Globes (Diana Ross won the prize for her starring role in “Lady Sings the Blues”) and marked the beginning of her partnership with Thomas. They had a brief romance before Allen married (and later divorced) Peter Gelblum in 1979.

After their time on “You’ll Like My Mother,” Allen and Thomas reunited in 1972 for the CBS drama “The Waltons.” Allen briefly portrayed Jenny Pendleton, the love interest of Thomas’ John-Boy Walton. Throughout the ’70s, Allen had a steady stream of minor roles in shows including “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” “Ironside,” “Baretta” and “The Incredible Hulk.”

Allen’s screen career began to taper off in the ’80s and her final acting credit was in 1990 for a single episode of “L.A. Law,” according to IMDb. Allen, who also enjoyed a theater career, withdrew from the public eye in 1990 and focused on local politics, including supporting Cesar Chavez’s United Farmer Workers labor movement.

Allen received the key to the city of her hometown and was also a poet, music enthusiast and lover of “mac and cheese, root beer floats, and bacon cheeseburgers (no lettuce or tomato),” her family said. She is survived by her ex-husband, Peter, their daughter, Emily (whom she named after her “Our Town” character Emily Webb), sisters Hannah Davie and Meg Pokrass, nephew Miles Bond, several cousins and grandson Arlo Fonseca.

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© 2025 Los Angeles Times.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.

Kirill Dmitriev, a senior Kremlin adviser and head of a major state-backed investment fund, was expected to visit Washington this week for talks with US officials on Ukraine and bilateral relations, the Kremlin said.

Dmitriev’s reported visit comes as Washington and Moscow move to repair relations following years of spiraling tensions that predate Russia’s February 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine.

Dmitriev, who heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, has assumed a more prominent role in negotiations with US officials in recent months. He recently met with White House envoy Steve Witkoff when the latter traveled to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin and others.

Speaking to reporters on April 2, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed reports by Reuters and CNN that Dmitriev’s visit might occur this week.

“Yes, I confirm. This visit may be possible. We are continuing to talk to the Americans. I will not give more concrete (details),” Peskov said.

In a post to X, responding to another report about the visit, Dmitriev said “maybe.

CNN and Reuters, quoting unnamed officials, said Dmitriev would meet with Witkoff. Reuters said the meeting would reportedly take place on April 2.

CNN said a special visa had to be granted to Dmitriev because he is under US sanctions.

Earlier on April 2, Putin signed an order allowing a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs to sell stocks of major Russian companies that had been frozen since Russia invaded, The Moscow Times reported. Ukraine in February 2022. The US investment bank had to sell the stock to companies preselected by the Kremlin.

Both countries have been touting steps to mend relations, which began to deteriorate in 2012 during the presidency of Barack Obama and then markedly worsened following the Ukraine invasion.

Trump has made ending Russia’s more-than-three-year assault on Ukraine one of his top foreign policy priorities.

In contrast to his predecessor, Joe Biden, who refused to engage with Moscow, Trump’s administration has done just that, holding at least two phone calls with Putin and dispatching top advisers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to Saudi Arabia last month to open negotiations.

However, last week Trump lashed out at Putin and threatened Russia with new tariffs on oil products if Moscow blocks his cease-fire initiatives.

During a phone interview with NBC News on March 30, Trump said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” when Putin called for a transitional government to be put in place in Ukraine, which could effectively push out current President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Dmitriev was at the talks in Saudi Arabia, focused not only on resolving the war but more broadly on restoring US-Russian relations.

Considered a close ally of Putin, he is seen as a key player in talks on reviving investment between the two countries amid reports of talks over joint rare earth metals projects.

 This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.

US lawmakers and experts at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing underscored a rare bipartisan consensus — preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons as a top priority.

However, divisions remain over how far Washington should go in applying pressure versus pursuing diplomacy.

Republican lawmakers strongly supported the Donald Trump administration’s decision to reinstate the “maximum pressure” campaign that defined his Iran policy during his first term as US president.

“The maximum pressure campaign devastated Iran’s economy and denied it critical resources. A nuclear Iran is not an option,” Subcommittee Chairman Mike Lawler (Republican-New York) said on April 1.

Democratic lawmakers also acknowledged the threat posed by Iran but stressed the importance of diplomacy.

“There is bipartisan understanding of the danger posed by Iran as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. We must combine pressure with diplomatic engagement,” Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (Democratic-New York) said.

Three expert witnesses provided testimony on the challenges posed by Iran and the potential consequences of US strategies.

Norman Roule, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warned that Iran is advancing its nuclear program and could produce a weapon within months if left unchecked.

“Iran is closer than ever to producing a nuclear weapon,” Roule warned, adding that military strikes could only delay its program. He called for a comprehensive approach that combines sanctions, military readiness, and diplomacy.

Claire Jungman of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) highlighted the economic toll that sanctions have taken on the country, noting that its economy remains fragile due to inflation and currency devaluation.

She stressed the importance of targeting Iran’s oil trade with China in violation of US sanctions and leveraging its economic vulnerabilities to weaken its support for regional proxies like the US-designated Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

Dana Stroul of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted that military strikes could escalate into broader conflict and urged Washington to pair pressure tactics with robust diplomacy.

She added that “the pillars of Iran’s security strategy”, including its nuclear program, proxy network, and arsenal of missiles and drones, are “more vulnerable today than ever.”

Trump has threatened to bomb Iran if it fails to reach a deal with Washington. Tehran has dismissed the threat, describing it as an “affront” to peace and security.

Iran last week delivered a formal response to Trump’s letter proposing direct talks to reach a new nuclear deal. Tehran has dismissed direct negotiations as long as the “maximum pressure” campaign is in effect.

Axios reports that the White House is “seriously considering” Iran’s proposal for indirect talks while boosting its military presence in the Middle East.

Addressing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Committee Chairman Brian Mast (Republican-Florida) said Trump “will work with you to peacefully end” Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“Or, President Trump will destroy your nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. You get to choose the remedy,” he said.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, but there are growing calls in Iran to weaponize it as a form of deterrence against the United States and Israel.

Later on April 2, the Trump administration announced sanctions against individuals and companies it claims are helping the Iranian-backed Houthis, a rebel group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.

The Houthis, formally known as the Ansarallah movement, seized power in Yemen in 2014 by toppling the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government. The Trump administration last month launched strikes against Houthis rebels, who have been target shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial transportation corridor.

The Trump administration sanctioned two Russia-based Afghan brothers who assisted an Iran-based financier l in orchestrating shipments of stolen Ukrainian grain from Crimea to Yemen.

It also blocked eight digital asset wallets used by the Houthis to transfer funds associated with the group’s activities.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, announced this week that he will be dropping out of the Democratic primary and running as an independent candidate in the 2025 mayoral election in the city.

In a Thursday video shared on X, formerly Twitter, Adams explained that he had initially hoped to “fight” for his values in the upcoming Democratic primary election for mayor of New York City. The Democrat mayor noted that despite over 25,000 New York residents signing his Democratic primary petition, the “dismissal of the bogus case” against him “dragged on too long” and made it “impossible” for him to campaign in the Democratic primary while facing “false accusations.”

“But I’m not a quitter. I’m a New Yorker,” Adams said. “And that is why today, although I am still a Democrat, I am announcing that I will forgo the Democratic primary for mayor and appeal directly to all New Yorkers as an independent candidate in the general election.”

Adams added, “I firmly believe that this city is better served by truly independent leadership, not leaders pulled at by the extremists on the far left or the far right, but instead those rooted in the common middle, the place where the vast majority of New Yorkers are firmly planted.”

NYC Democrat Mayor Eric Adams just announced he is dropping out of the Democrat primary and will instead run for reelection as an independent. pic.twitter.com/PM9d9yCYeg

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) April 3, 2025

Prior to the release of his campaign video on Thursday, Adams told Politico on Monday that he intended to “mount a real independent campaign” after he was “handcuffed” by federal bribery charges in September.

According to Fox News, the federal charges against Adams were dismissed on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho. The charges against Adam had alleged that the Democrat used his position as mayor in exchange for illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals and luxurious travel arrangements.

READ MORE: Video: NYC mayor admits immigration system ‘needs to be fixed’

“I’m in the race to the end. I’m not running on the Democratic line. It’s just not realistic to turn around my numbers and to run a good campaign (from) where we are right now,” Adams told Politico. “It hurts like hell.”

Both Adams and one of his aides confirmed to Politico that the Democrat mayor is planning on submitting the 3,750 signatures that will be needed for him to appear on the November ballot by May 27.

During Thursday’s video announcement, Adams acknowledged that the accusations brought against him by the federal charges may have “shaken” people’s confidence in him and that people “may rightly have questions” regarding his conduct as mayor.

“And let me be clear, although the charges against me were false, I trusted people I should not have, and I regret that,” Adams said. “But the issues I face are nothing compared to yours.”

The Department of Government Efficiency announced on Wednesday that it recently discovered the Department of Veterans Affairs was paying roughly $380,000 per month for “minor website modifications.”

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Department of Government Efficiency celebrated the “good work” by the Department of Veterans Affairs after it made a significant change to how modifications are made on the department’s website.

“VA was previously paying ~$380,000/month for minor website modifications,” the Department of Government Efficiency tweeted. “That contract has not been renewed, and the same work is now being executed by 1 internal VA software engineer spending ~10 hours/week.”

According to Detroit Free Press, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins confirmed during an event at American Legion Post 141 near Howell, Michigan, on Monday that President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to reduce the size of the Department of Veterans Affairs by approximately 80,000 employees.

Collins said, “We’ve got a lot of change coming up; it’s putting the veteran first.”

While the Veterans Affairs secretary indicated that the department’s goal is to decrease its workforce by roughly 80,000 jobs, he acknowledged that the department may not cut all 80,000 jobs.

READ MORE: Videos: ‘We’re coming after you’: top Trump official says amid DOGE audit of gov’t fraud

“If we get there, great,” Collins said. “But we may not get there.”

In February, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that over 1,000 employees had been fired amid the Trump administration’s effort to decrease government spending and increase government efficiency. At the time, the department said it would be “refocusing on its core mission” of providing “the best possible care and benefits” to U.S. veterans and to the families, caregivers, and survivors of U.S. veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs stated, “The personnel moves will save the department more than $98 million per year, and VA will redirect all of those resources back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries.”

In addition to the discontinuation of the $380,000 per month contract for “minor website modifications” at the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday, the Department of Government Efficiency also shared a government “contract update” on social media.

In a post on X, the Department of Government Efficiency wrote, “Contract update! Agencies cancelled 47 wasteful contracts today with $87.5M ceiling value and $30.2M in savings, including a $3.4M @StateDept management consulting contract for ‘aviation advisors in Kenya.’”

People with a complex heart, kidney and metabolic-related condition who got better quality sleep were less likely to have an advanced stage of the illness than those getting poor sleep, according to a new study.

The investigation looked at the link between sleep quality and advanced cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic, or CKM, syndrome. It was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Overall sleep quality could be a modifiable lifestyle factor for advanced CKM syndrome prevention,” said lead study author Dr. Chaoqun Ma, a senior researcher at the Cardiovascular Research Institute and Department of Cardiology at the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command in Shenyang, China.

CKM syndrome refers to a health disorder arising from connections among obesity, Type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease, including heart failure, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease. It includes both people at risk for cardiovascular disease and those who already have it.

According to the American Heart Association, about 1 in 3 adults – roughly 89 million – in the U.S. have three or more risk factors leading to CKM syndrome. Risk factors include excess weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose and triglycerides. Sleep disorders are among many factors that can increase the likelihood of progressing to advanced stages of CKM syndrome.

Analyzing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2015 to 2020, researchers in the new study looked at overall sleep quality and the presence of five stages of CKM syndrome for 10,607 U.S. adults. Participants were 49 years old on average.

Overall sleep quality included five sleep behaviors: sleep duration, trouble sleeping, daytime sleepiness, snoring and nocturia, the need to get up during the night to urinate. Stages of CKM syndrome included zero (no risk factors), stage 1 (excess weight), stage 2 (metabolic risk factors and kidney disease), stage 3 (subclinical cardiovascular disease) and stage 4 (clinical cardiovascular disease). Adults in stage 3 or 4 were considered to have advanced CKM.

Participants with CKM syndrome who had moderate or high sleep quality were less likely to be in the advanced stages of the disease than those with CKM syndrome and low sleep quality.

However, that doesn’t mean better sleep leads to a less advanced stage of the disease, said Dr. Brendan Everett, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Because this was a cross-sectional study – which provides a snapshot of a single moment in time – “this study can say zero about any directional causality between sleep and metabolic disease,” he said. “You can’t say that one thing comes before the other.”

In contrast, the findings could just as easily suggest that having an advanced stage of disease makes it harder for people to sleep, said Everett, who was not involved in the research.

Ma agreed that longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether poor sleep quality causes advanced CKM syndrome or vice versa. Such studies, he said, “would enable researchers to track changes over time, providing clearer insights into whether poor sleep quality precedes the development of advanced CKM stages, thereby offering stronger evidence of a potential causal relationship.”

Studying the effect of sleep quality on disease is challenging because of the numerous factors that are hard to control for, Everett said. For example, someone may not sleep well because of diet, work and other life stressors. “It’s hard to isolate the effects of sleep quality from all of these other factors,” he said.

Studies have shown that a wide variety of social factors can contribute to sleep disparities. Researchers in the new study adjusted for some social drivers of health, such as educational level and family income, Ma said. But the database did not collect information about housing quality, local crime rates, social support or social isolation, so those factors could not be accounted for.

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© 2025 American Heart Association, Inc.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC