Three men including ex-NYPD officer convicted of harassing Chinese exile

A former New York City police sergeant and two Chinese citizens living in the US have been convicted of various charges in a trial showcasing Chinese efforts to pressure expatriates into returning home, part of a program called “Operation Fox Hunt”. Michael McMahon, who now works as a private investigator, Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong were accused of taking part in scare tactics aimed at a former Chinese official. Zhu was convicted of acting as an illegal foreign agent, stalking, interstate stalking conspiracy and conspiring to act as an illegal…

Tiananmen massacre museum opens in New York despite fear of Beijing backlash

When Zhou Fengsuo was looking for a space in New York to display his art collection, he couldn’t believe his luck when he stumbled across 894 6th Avenue in the heart of midtown Manhattan. The numbers of the address – 8946 – were the same as the date he wanted to commemorate: 4 June 1989. It was “unbelievable”, the former student leader marvelled. That Zhou’s collection, which opened to the public on Friday as part of the June 4th Memorial Museum, ended up in such an uncanny location is the…

Ukraine war to take centre stage at UN as west and Russia vie for support

The UN general assembly summit this week will be dominated by a struggle – between the US and its allies on one side and Russia on the other – for global support over the fate of Ukraine, as the global south fights to stop the conflict from overshadowing the existential threats of famine and the climate crisis. With a return to fully in-person general debate, presidents and prime ministers will be converging on New York, many of them direct from London, where the diplomacy got under way on the sidelines…

Covid news live: New York scales back New Year’s Eve celebrations; AstraZeneca booster protects against Omicron, study finds

China is reporting 87 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Thursday, 23 December. The figure is a slight decrease from 100 reported a day earlier, its health authority said on Friday. Of the new infections, 55 were locally transmitted, including 49 in the northern city of Xi’an currently under lockdown, according to a statement by the National Health Commission, compared with 71 from a day earlier. China reported 26 new asymptomatic cases, which it classifies separately from confirmed cases, up from 19 a day earlier. There were no new deaths, leaving…