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Awaken Church in Jonesboro claimed in a Wednesday evening Facebook post that Jesus was the “first death of Covid-19,” the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The post included an image of a cross wrapped in a white sash against a sunset background, with the words “Jesus died with COVID-19 so that you didn’t have to bear it.” In a separate post earlier on Wednesday, the church explained that it would continue to hold services despite the rapidly spreading pandemic....

A pair of third-quarter touchdowns helped the Chiefs (7-4) past AFC West rivals the Chargers (4-7) at the Estadio Azteca. Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes improved in the second half and finished with 182 yards on the back of 19 of 32 completed passes with one TD and an interception. Travis Kelce led the Chiefs with 92 receiving yards, including a TD, in a key win for division leaders Kansas City, who had Tyreek Hill suffer a hamstring injury....

Game time is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Arrowhead Stadium. The game will be televised on CBS and streamed on Paramount. Cincinnati is making its first AFC championship appearance since 1988. The Bengals beat Tennessee 19-16 in the AFC divisional round on a last-second field goal by Evan McPherson. Second-year quarterback Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase torched the Chiefs’ secondary in the regular-season matchup, which the Bengals won 34-31. Third-year coach Zac Taylor is on a roll....

Arturo Salah, the president of Chile’s football association, made the comments Tuesday in Russia, with Chile preparing to face Germany on Thursday in the Confederations Cup. Osorio sorry for outburst The United States, Canada and Mexico have already announced plans to submit a joint bid for 2026, with the USA hosting the lion’s share of the event. Salah seemingly wants to make a similar bid with other South American nations....

The ban applies to the U.K. as a second lockdown begins and also applies to citizens from Belgium, India, and the Philippines. It has been described as a “temporary response” due to the “current situation of COVID-19”. Britain is among the hardest-hit countries in the world, recording a total of 1,099,059 positive virus cases and nearly 48,000 deaths. The Chinese Embassy in the UK said in a statement: “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, China has decided to temporarily suspend entry into China by non-Chinese nationals in the U....

In an annual threat assessment report released on Tuesday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) stated that, “China has already fielded ground-based [Anti-Satellite weapons] missiles intended to destroy satellites in [Low Earth Orbit] and ground-based ASAT lasers probably intended to blind or damage sensitive space-based optical sensors on LEO satellites.” The report assessed a multitude of threats to the U.S., ranging from issues like the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, terror organizations, weapons of mass destruction and nation-state competitors, like China and Russia....

Sanctions imposed since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion have driven out many western companies from Russia and forced Moscow to look for new suppliers for crucial electronic components, including those for its weapons. Russian manufacturers had been testing Chinese-made processors to replace those produced by companies like Intel, which had suspended deliveries, the Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported. But a source from Russia’s ministry of digital development told the outlet that the Chinese government had banned the sale and export of the processors due to their strategic importance for China’s own military....

The president said Thursday that he was considering a range of responses to China, on which country he places blame for the pandemic. The novel coronavirus originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan before spreading worldwide, and to date has infected more than 4.4 million people and killed 302,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. Trump told Fox Business news that the “plague” from China may torpedo the long-awaited trade deal with Beijing....

The changes signal the growing clout of the People’s Liberation Army inside the Communist Party and highlight the militarization of the country’s external relations. The new law, most significantly, contemplates the mass mobilization of society, presumably for war. The amendments reduce the role of the central government’s State Council in making military policy, transferring powers to the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission (CMC). Specifically, the State Council will no longer supervise the mobilization of the People’s Liberation Army....

The problem is a looming one. In less than a decade, China’s stake in American farmland has grown exponentially. Records from the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act show that Chinese acquisitions “rose from less than 10 annually” before 2008 to “12 to 25 each year during 2008-13.” In 2007, China bought six farms, all in California. The next year, they had bought 30 outside California, in Arizona, Texas and Missouri....

China’s foreign ministry said Thursday it would restrict travel to Hong Kong by some U.S. officials and others in response to similar measures imposed on Chinese officials by Washington, D.C. Spokesperson Hua Chunying accused the U.S. of “using the Hong Kong issue to seriously interfere in China’s internal affairs and undermine China’s core interests.” The U.S. and China have been at odds over the status of Hong Kong over the last 18 months, following eventual American backing for mass pro-democracy protests that erupted in the semi-autonomous territory in the summer of 2019....

Kirby said China’s move to cancel or pause a series of U.S.-China talks following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan has not totally disrupted military communications. “These channels they took down don’t eliminate the opportunity for senior members of the military to communicate,” he told reporters Friday. He added that in times of tension, it is important to have these military communication channels open. Kirby said China’s decision to halt climate change talks with the U....

The four-team tournament takes place over four days, kicking off on Thursday March 22, with Uruguay and Czech Republic also competing. Both teams will be keen to win after they failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, which led to Chris Coleman’s departure as Wales head coach in November. China finished just shy of an automatic spot in Russia this summer in Asian qualification, while Wales finished third in their European group behind Serbia and Republic of Ireland...

In recent years, by dangling access to the world’s largest movie market, China successfully co-opted large swaths of Hollywood to export its authoritarian, anti-democratic ideology and values. Conglomerates with ties to the CCP have also snapped up American entertainment properties ranging from movie theater chains to production studios to theme parks. There are countless examples, both subtle and sweeping, of the CCP’s success in the film industry. Paramount Pictures removed the Japanese and Taiwanese flags from Tom Cruise’s jacket in trailers for Top Gun: Maverick....

For the first time since the pandemic began in late 2019, residents in Beijing’s largely shielded communities are coming face to face with COVID-19 or learning of acquaintances who have been infected. The loosening of once-stringent public health rules such as lockdowns and daily mass testing mean official case numbers are declining, but there’s little doubt that the virus is spreading in what is China’s first real nationwide wave....

While this footage is certainly disturbing, it sadly barely scratches the surface of what has been described by many as the worst human rights crisis in the world today. In November 2019, a New York Times report highlighted more than 400 pages of internal Chinese documents (dubbed the “Xinjiang Papers”) that provide a breakdown of how China created and organized re-education camps in Xinjiang in 2017. This was followed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists publishing a collection of Chinese government documents (dubbed the “China Cables”) detailing the repressive inner workings of detention camps in Xinjiang....

Speaking to reporters at a virtual press conference Friday, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S., recognized that Beijing and a number of other major Chinese cities “are suffering a new wave of COVID,” while “China’s response policy has been adjusted based on the condition, the situations in a scientific, targeted and responsive approach.” He outlined three ways in which “China’s epidemic provision control has entered a new stage....

Zhang, speaking at the World Soccer Forum in Changsha, told state news agency Xinhua that China would not rush into a bid and would do so only when conditions were right. “Sooner or later we will bid for the World Cup, because it is written in the General Development Plan of Chinese Football,” Zhang said. “However, which edition we apply for will be determined by lots of factors, and it will be a national project....

Zou, 35, will make his debut in the United States to compete against 19-year-old Jozsef Ajtai in a 10-round flyweight bout, which will probably provide a good opportunity for Zou to refresh him and gather experience in pursuit of the world title, reports Xinhua. According to Top Rank, a company that had signed Zou to a contract to fight under its banner, a victory in the US will help him get the qualification to challenge for a world title later in Autumn....

After months of negotiations, Lee and his Ledman Group – a major LED lighting manufacturer – have reportedly bought the Jets for $4.1 million. This is the first major Chinese investment in the A-League’s 11-year history, reports Xinhua. The Jets are one of 10 teams who make up Australia’s premier men’s football league - the Hyundai A-League - and are governed by the Football Federation Australia (FFA). The Jets have been under the FFA’s ownership since May last year, after former owner Nathan Tinkler’s licence was terminated....