The Coast Guard Administration will step up defense preparations on the islands of Dongsha and Taiping—also known as Pratas and Itu Aba respectively—following recent drone sightings around the former. In a report given to legislators ahead of a parliamentary hearing on Thursday, Taiwan’s coast guard said the drone activity, likely for reconnaissance purposes, was in addition to the Chinese warplanes that frequently fly into the country’s air defense identification zone....

A fee in excess of £60 million has been mooted for Chelsea’s Costa, who continues to be linked with Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian, while Borussia Dortmund star Aubameyang could command a similar figure after Shanghai SIPG’s Oscar arrived in China for a league-record €60m. Mata: Wanted to win for Manchester The CFA wants to put an end to the inflated fees and focus on youth, with the transfer rule – set to come into effect in June – forcing clubs to invest into a development fund should they take a transfer loss....

Eight months after Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping’s death, Jiang has consolidated power. Out are his two biggest Politburo rivals, both veterans of a collective leadership that once vetted his every action. That leaves just two Politburo heavyweights at Jiang’s side–Prime Minister Li Peng and Deputy Prime Minister Zhu Rongji–both allies. Liu’s ouster removes the People’s Liberation Army from the party’s all-powerful Standing Committee, while Qiao’s opens a vacancy at the head of China’s legislature, the National Peo- ple’s Congress....

Cholesterol is critical for building and maintaining key parts of your cells, such as your cell membranes, and for making several essential hormones — including the estrogens, progesterone, vitamin D, and steroids. Triglycerides, which are chains of high-energy fatty acids, provide much of the energy needed for your tissues to function. So you can’t live without either of these types of lipids. But when blood levels of cholesterol or triglycerides become too high, your risk of developing heart attack, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease is significantly increased....

Can Eubank Jr. and Smith deliver the same type of explosive action that captivated U.K. audiences in the early 1990s? That will be a tall order, but this fight has been eagerly anticipated for a long time now and both men are confident of victory. “Liam Smith is going to get a serious lesson,” said Eubank Jr. in an interview with BoxingScene. “All these guys say all the same things leading up to these big fights and then when it actually comes down to the crunch time, when that bell goes, all the words flutter away and they just end up getting dominated by the better fighter in me....

“Nobody needs to defend me,” Matthews told Reid. “I did something wrong.” Matthews’ interview on Reid’s news discussion show, The Reid Out, marked his first return to the network since his retirement. During his interview, he mostly discussed career highlights from his newly released memoir This Country: My Life in Politics and History. At the end of their interview, Reid said that Matthews’ book also mentioned his early retirement from MSNBC, “which was not something you originally planned on doing....

The school announced Wednesday that 6-10 rising senior Chris Obekpa will transfer. The news comes after leading scorer D’Angelo Harrison finished his eligibility and second-leading scorer Rysheed Jordan, a rising junior, made the decision to turn pro. “It was a great three years of growing here at St. John’s. I am forever grateful for the friends and family I have met during my time here,” Obekpa said in a release....

The former Clippers star, who is now with the Rockets, has purchased a brand new 18,717 square foot mansion in Spring, Texas. MORE: LeBron James calls recent road trip ’trash' From TMZ Sports: The All-Star point guard recently sold his nearly 12,200 square foot home in Bel-Air for $8.7 million. Besides the 14 toilets … the home has 9 bedrooms, a 6-car garage and is on an exclusive Jack Nicklaus designed golf course....

Sale, who is working his way back from a stress fracture in his rib cage, made his first start for the WooSox against the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. It wasn’t a great one for the 33-year-old. Sale lasted just 3 2/3 innings. He allowed just three hits but struggled with his command, walking five batters. He was ultimately pulled after a bases-loaded walk in the top of the fourth inning that plated the only run Sale allowed during the game....

A federal judge in New York found Dawkins guilty of one count of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, while Code was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Dawkins was found guilty of two of the six charges brought against him, while Code was found guilty of one of the four charges he faced, according to The New York Times. Both men were accused of trying to influence assistant coaches within the NCAA to get potential NBA prospects to sign with Dawkins’ sports management company and specific advisors once they turned pro....

Many Christian leaders and believers have been ardent supporters of Trump since his election in 2016. A number of self-described “prophets”—including Bullock—predicted that Trump would easily win reelection in 2020, which turned out to be inaccurate. While some have admitted they were wrong and have apologized, Bullock still believes that he was correct and that Trump continues to be the legitimate president, according to his Tuesday remarks. “The stage is set,” Bullock said in his sermon, which was first reported by Right Wing Watch....

The campaign, which amassed more than 2,000 donations, was quickly approaching its $100,000 goal. Other crowdfunding campaigns supporting 17-year-old Rittenhouse on GoFundMe and Fundly were taken down shortly after they were created following Rittenhouse’s arrest on Wednesday. But GiveSendGo, which identifies itself as “the leader in Christian funding,” decided to keep the campaign on its platform active. One of the crowdfunding site’s founders, Heather Wilson, told Newsweek in a statement on Thursday that the site was “committed to giving both sides of the political culture in our society an equal chance to let their voices be heard....

Christina Nance’s body was discovered by a police officer inside the van in the parking lot of the Huntsville Public Safety Complex on October 7. Madison County Coroner Tyler Berryhill said an autopsy showed no signs of foul play or trauma. Nance’s cause of death will be determined after further tests, including toxicology, are complete. Frank Matthews, a cousin of Nance’s and a spokesperson for the family, told Newsweek that the family is concerned they may never get answers about how she died....

Jami Warner, executive director of the American Christmas Tree Association, an industry trade group, said extreme weather has hit tree growers hard. “It’s a double whammy—weather and supply chain problems are really hampering the industry,” she said. “Growers have been hard hit by floods, fires, smoke, drought, extreme weather conditions.” Record-breaking heat and wildfires in Oregon and Washington, the country’s biggest tree-growing states, have had an impact. Warner could not provide an estimate on how many fewer trees there will be this year because they take up to 10 years to grow....

Schumer criticized Trump’s Monday remark that the president has been taking hydroxychloroquine to stave off infection from the coronavirus, urging the president to “follow the scientists” and not just say “whatever suits his ego at the moment.” The Democratic New York senator and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Tuesday both expressed concern that Trump’s Monday letter suspending contributions to the WHO and his ridicule of China’s health officials is hampering a collaborative worldwide effort to find a vaccine to end the COVID-19 pandemic....

Born Charles Elwood Yeager in 1923, Chuck became one of the world’s most-renowned test pilots after the second World War. Yeager tested rockets, experimental crafts and rocket-powered machines. On October 14, 1947, he became the first human to break the sound barrier when he flew the Glamorous Glennis at Mach 1, and he did it at 45,000-feet altitude over Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. That was just the first of many speed and altitude records he would go on to break in his lifetime....

ABORTION Though evangelicals haven’t passed the Human Life Amendment or succeeded in overturning Roe , they have had some luck tinkering at the margins. Congress passed the partial-birth-abortion ban; it was challenged in federal court, and this week the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the measure. Congress also passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which counts a violent crime against a pregnant woman as a crime against two people....

The St. Paul First Lutheran Church in North Hollywood said the “disrespect” seen in the viral video posted by actress Alex Marshall-Brown is not representative of the place of worship’s values and confirmed the men have since voluntarily stepped down from their positions. The footage, which Marshall-Brown posted to social media, shows two men putting up a sign on a tree while she sits on the grass outside the church....

Father Gregory Loughney was arrested Friday by the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department and charged with four counts connected to alleged inappropriate contact with a minor after a successful internet sting operation. According to police, Loughney believed he was communicating with a 15-year-old boy he met through Tinder. He continued to communicate with the minor on a text free app and “talked about performing sexual acts on whom he believed was a 15-year-old minor male named ‘Cyrus....