According to Washington, a representative from the US government has been told not to leave China after making a personal trip there.
The US Department of State said on Monday that the employee of the US Patent and Trademark Office, a division of the US Department of Commerce, was subject to an “exit ban” while “visiting China in a personal capacity.
A State Department spokesman said in a statement that “the Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens.”
“We are closely monitoring this case and working with Chinese officials to resolve it as quickly as possible.”
The US Commerce Department’s employee was barred from leaving China after failing to disclose his work for the government on a visa application, according to The Washington Post on Sunday.
The employee had visited family in China several months ago, according to the report, which cited four unnamed individuals with knowledge of the situation.
The man, a naturalized US citizen, was detained in Chengdu, Sichuan, in April over “actions Beijing deemed harmful to national security,” according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post on Sunday.
An unnamed “source familiar with the matter” was cited in the Post’s report.
Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who told journalists he had “no details to share” about the case, made remarks that were reported to Al Jazeera by the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC.
At a regular press briefing, Guo stated that “China upholds the rule of law and conducts entry and exit matters in accordance with the law.”
Beijing on Monday announced it had halted the departure of a US citizen employed by Wells Fargo, prompting Washington’s confirmation of the exit ban.
Chenyue Mao, a managing director with the Atlanta office, was given an exit ban, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s statement.
Beijing and Washington have long exchanged allegations of meddling in one another’s domestic affairs.
A Chinese-born US researcher admitted to stealing trade secrets, including blueprints for infrared sensors used to track ballistic missile launches, on Monday, according to the US Department of Justice.
Chenguang Gong, a dual US citizen, was accused of transferring more than 3,600 company files to his personal storage devices while working for a research and development company in Los Angeles.
One sign will feel restless as they reflect on their long-term objectives on Tuesday, July 22 in today’s horoscope.
Find out what’s written in the stars with our astrologer Russell Grant(Image: Daily Record/GettyImages)
One star sign experiences a lot of pressure, while another feels a rush of creativity.
There are 12 zodiac signs – Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces – and the horoscopes for each can give you the lowdown on what your future holds, be it in work, your love life, your friends and family or more.
These daily forecasts have been compiled by astrologer Russell Grant, who has been reading star signs for over 50 years. From Aries through to Pisces, here’s what today could bring for your horoscope – and what you can do to be prepared.
Aries (Mar 21 – Apr 20)
Some people may question your values, but this shouldn’t necessarily be so. Different viewpoints won’t intimidate you if your beliefs have a solid foundation. However, it might be time to reevaluate your current perspective if it’s confusing you.
Taurus (Apr 21 – May 21)
Your time is a lot of work and other responsibilities. You have a commitment to completing specific tasks on time and within budget. People who can assist you in achieving your goals will see that you have a positive impression of them. It will be wonderful to finally complete a particular project.
Gemini (May 22 – June 21)
You’ll be handling tasks and establishing connections with others at all times. This level of discussion and activity can inspire creativity. So make sure to immediately jot down a brilliant idea if you’re rushing to pick up the kids from school or taking a conference call.
Cancer (June 22 – July 23)
Your delicate personality has advantages and disadvantages. Your friends trust you for their support because you can sense their needs. Some people, however, have grown very demanding, which makes it difficult to exceed their expectations. It’s crucial to give your own well-being priority.
Leo (July 24 – Aug 23)
Discussions in business and finance are likely to turn out well. You might choose to invest in a brand-new computer or other cutting-edge technology to facilitate your responsibilities. It will be simpler than anticipated to organize a celebration gathering. At the end of the day, you’ll be reflecting on your long-term objectives.
Virgo (Aug 24 – Sept 23)
You sense a growing apprehension and an escape desire. You must first adhere to some stringent deadlines before you can even consider taking a break. You’ll need the motivation to work your way through by having long-term plans in place. Working quietly in the background can accomplish a lot.
Libra (Sept 24 – Oct 23)
In close relationships, tension is unavoidable, and it manifests in a variety of ways. You and a member of your family are arguing about trivial things. As well as managing your partner’s finances and belongings carefully, it’s important to do the same. You could never use something you lent out again.
Scorpio (Oct 24 – Nov 22)
You must be open and honest about any issues you have with a joint venture. It’s unfair to leave someone with false expectations for them if they rely on you for support. You finally get some postponed updates. You might question the extent of someone’s efforts if they claim to have been attempting to contact you for a while.
Sagittarius (Nov 23 – Dec 21)
Your efforts will be useless if you act impulsively without considering the outcome. You must be determined, focused, and disciplined to accomplish a personal goal. A careless choice will only open the door for failure. Eliminate distractions and refrain from ruminating.
Capricorn (Dec 22 – Jan 20)
You will gain a competitive advantage by attempting a career challenge. You will be asked to lead an individual event or activity. Stick to the rules strictly, and nobody will be left out. If you provide special privileges right away, it will set a precedent for what others will expect.
Aquarius (Jan 21 – Feb 19)
When confronting an unfamiliar situation, pay attention to what you are doing. You’ll soon establish new routines, and once you’ve adjusted, you’ll be able to complete new tasks without much effort. You have every reason to be optimistic about your progress and your activities.
Continue reading the article.
Pisces (Feb 20 – Mar 20)
Contact someone who has your thoughts in mind. It won’t take much effort to get their number, even if you have lost touch with them a while ago. Make an effort to meet new neighbors. You will respect their opinions and viewpoints despite their unique communication methods and behaviors.
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Nasir Amin Bhat, 17, was just barely ankle-deep in the water when his friend Adil Ahmad, a neighbor from his school, shouted from the riverbank on a cool May evening.
“Turn back!” Something is in the water, exactly.
A Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) plunged into the glacial waters in Hugam village in the Indian-administered Kashmir’s Anantnag district and paddled furiously against the current with all four limbs across the Lidder, a tributary of the Jhelum River.
I turned on the camera on my smartphone, but I had no idea what it was,” said Bhat, a student in high school.
The fur-clad creature, which is “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, is pictured gliding out of the water and jumping onto the riverbank in the nine-second video.
The semiaquatic animal, which can reach 3, 660 metres (12, 000 feet) in the Himalayas during the summer, disappears behind a dense grove of bushes, bringing the video to an uneventful conclusion.
Eurasian otters once enjoyed a healthy lifestyle along the Lidder River, but growing urbanization [Jehangir Ali/Al Jazeera] forced the semiaquatic animal to leave.
Eurasian otters have been spotted twice in Kashmir since 2023, with three of them identified by Indian wildlife officers as extinct, and they are now resembling to be extinct.
Environmentalists and conservationists are hopeful that the Himalayan region’s fragile freshwater ecosystems, which have been impacted by climate change in recent years, will recover from their initial excitement after seeing the chance sightings.
Habitat has improved, according to the statement.
Otters were spotted in Kashmir, according to Indian wildlife biologist Nisarg Prakash, as an indication of high-quality aquatic habitats.
According to Prakash, whose research focuses on otters in southern India, “the reappearance of otters might mean that poaching has decreased or the habitat has improved, or perhaps both,” he said.
Otters were once common in northern India, including the Himalayan foothills, the Gangetic plains, and some parts of the northeast, protected by the Indian Wildlife Protection Act.
The Eurasian otter, known as “voddur,” was discovered in water bodies in the Lidder and Jehlum valleys, including Wular Lake, one of Asia’s largest freshwater lakes, in a peer-reviewed study conducted by IUCN in November of last year.
[Jehangir Ali/Al Jazeera] Hugam village in the Anantnag district of Indian-administered Kashmir
However, their population has gotten “patchy and fragmented” over time as a result of “habitat loss, pollution, and human disturbances,” according to Khursheed Ahmad, a senior wildlife scientist at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST-K).
Eurasian otters retreated and were restricted to areas that were least accessible to humans because of habitat changes caused by human activities and the encroachment of their ideal habitats along riverbanks and other water bodies.
Although they were not extinct, SKUAST-K’s Division of Wildlife Sciences, Ahmad, said, “Sightings and occurrences had become extremely rare and never were documented.
A research team led by Ahmad unintentionally stumbled upon otters in Gurez, a valley of lush meadows and towering peaks split into two by the Kishanganga River, the de facto Himalayan border between India and Pakistan, during a study on musk deer.
Two individual otters were found in a valley near the 330MW Kishanganga Hydro Electric Project, which was constructed by India after a protracted legal battle with Pakistan at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, on August 6, 2023, at an elevation of 2,600 metres (8,530 feet).
The research team concentrated on keeping track of otters’ presence on Kashmir’s Indian side following that sighting.
No additional presence was unfortunately not documented due to the significant disturbances caused by fishing and other local and paramilitary activities, according to the IUCN study.
Ahmed claimed that Bhat’s video is only Kashmir’s second instance of photographic evidence of otters.
Too afraid to go there
Residents of the large farming community of Hugam, which has around 300 families, are both excited and worried.
Muneera Bano, a homemaker, wakes up to the crows chirping furiously on the willow trees lining the tributary’s banks outside her 58-mile (36-mile) south of Srinagar’s main city, to the sound of dawn.
After the discovery of the otter, Bano had been doing this for years, so she has stopped washing clothes and utensils on the riverbank.
It is hiding in one of the underwater caves in the tributary, which there are. Crows see it when it first appears in the morning and scream. She said, “I’m too terrified to go there.”
The teenager who made the video, Bhat, claimed that he frequently took a dip in the tributary’s icy waters and occasionally caught fish. He said, “I can’t even think about going there right now.”
On May 28, 2025, Nasir Amin Bhat was about to take a bath in the Lidder [Jehangir Ali/Al Jazeera] when he discovered the Eurasian otter on his cell phone.
Indian wildlife officials set up a camera trap to confirm that it was an Eurasian otter, which was also visible in Bhat’s video, and not a crocodile, as a result of the grainy video’s conundrums about the presence of crocodiles in the tributary.
Some wildlife officials took a bath in the river while village elders were present, demonstrating that the water was completely safe.
Otters are unpredictable, especially when they are close to humans, even though they are not a threat to them. However, according to scientists, these animals can become used to being around humans.
Wildlife biologist Prakash said curiosity about otters can make them a sight to behold while watching them fish or swim rather than be afraid or afraid.
“Otters are primarily active at dawn, dusk, and after dark, but they can occasionally be seen at night.” He claimed that the majority of Asian otters eat fish, eels, and occasionally waterfowl.
Wasim Ahmad, a farmer in Kashmir, recalls a summer day in the early 1990s when he was returning from school along the banks of the Jhelum River, a significant tributary of the Jhelum River.
As Ahmad, who is now in his 40s, turned the corner and saw a large crowd of people cheering along. One man was walking a dog on a leash while another was pursuing a dead otter.
A group of poachers who, in the past, sold the skins of animals like cats, otters, and other animals to survive in Bagh-e-Mehtab in Srinagar. The community has abandoned the previous profession as more stringent animal welfare laws are now in effect in India.
Our elders had warned us that otters would cut off the children and eat them raw, Ahmad, who was in the ninth grade at the time, said. However, as I got older, I never saw even one person who had an otter bite. In essence, it was a plan to divert the children’s attention away from the river.
The otters’ return to Kashmir was a positive sign, according to Ahmad, the wildlife scientist.
“We should now make sure that the new habitat is protected from unchecked pollution, garbage accumulation, increased carbon emissions, and habitat degradation.” He told Al Jazeera, “These challenges are crucial for their conservation and wellbeing. “Addressing these challenges is.
The star used the video as a tool to promote his own hot sauce brand after posting it on his Instagram to show him how to prepare a meal on a luxurious yacht.
Brooklyn Beckham’s unusual cooking tip has divided opinion(Image: Brooklyn Beckham/Instagram)
Brooklyn Beckham has split opinion with a video in which he cooks a pasta dish – using water from the ocean.
Some fans praised the chef, 26, while others blasted him after he uploaded the clip on Instagram. It showed the former model dip a saucepan into the water, before chopping his tomatoes and adding them to an oiled pan in the industrial kitchen on a luxury yacht. He then adds pasta to the pot of water and lathers his signature Cloud 23 hot sauce on the tomatoes, before he presents his meal.
However, Brooklyn source his water from the ocean, which disgusted some viewers. Brooklyn’s ocean, or indeed sea, is unknown, but Instagram users have quickly made the claim that the water is likely polluted. Others praised Brooklyn for providing an apparent delectable meal, though.
One comment reads, “You will realize that the source from which you got the water wasn’t the wisest of moves when you are sat on the toilet for the fourth time in 30 minutes.” Another critic remarked, “That’s disgusting using that water.”
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According to another commentator, “Evidencing cooking pasta in sea water where there are boats that dump diesel into the sea and E. coli abounds is not really the best option you could have chosen.”
Yet, one person wrote, “Nice work! ” among the many comments praising Brooklyn’s culinary prowess. You’re cooking on a yacht, too, I see. “Nice one” ! Another person said, “Love your cooking advice about Brooklyn xx.”
According to another user on social media, “Italian cooks on boats also add sea water to fish or pasta dishes to give it a little flavor.”
Continue reading the article.
Brooklyn mentioned his admiration for chefs in a 2023 statement, saying, “One of the many things I like about chefs is how artistic they are, how diligent they are, and how relentlessly they work every day to perfect their craft.
He previously mentioned to Variety that he would like to one day open a bar in Los Angeles. He stated in this interview, “I would love to have my own pub. I’d like to have my own sauces, knives, pots and pans because I’m always learning how to cook.
Tehran’s uranium enrichment program, which was severely damaged by US and Israeli airstrikes last month, cannot be stopped, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
In an interview that was broadcast on Monday, Araghchi told the US broadcaster Fox News, “It is now stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe, but obviously, we cannot give up our enrichment because it is an accomplishment of our own scientists, and now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” Araghchi said.
Iran and the United States are “open to talks,” according to Araghchi, who stated at the start of the interview, but that they won’t be direct talks for the time being.
I’m prepared to talk with them if they [the US] are seeking a win-win solution, he said.
The foreign minister continued, “We are ready to take any confidence-building measures necessary to demonstrate that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful and will continue to be peaceful forever, and that it will never obtain nuclear weapons, and that they will also expect to lift their sanctions.”
Therefore, I urge the United States to pursue a nuclear-related negotiated resolution.
The comments made by Araghchi were the subject of a 16-minute Fox News interview that Donald Trump is a closely watched US president.
Our nuclear program has a compromise, according to the statement. We’ve already done it once. “We’re prepared to do it once more,” Araghchi said.
Tehran and Washington had been negotiating about the nuclear program earlier this year, seven years after Trump withdrawn the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Tehran signed with a number of world powers in 2015. Iran’s nuclear sites were open to comprehensive international inspection in exchange for the lifting of sanctions under the pact.
After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of having a “secret nuclear program,” Trump made the decision to pull the US out of the deal.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear enrichment program is solely intended for use by people.
Iran and the US had been in talks with one another about a new deal until recently, but that agreement was voided when Israel launched surprise bombings across Iran on June 13 that targeted both military installations and nuclear sites.
Before a ceasefire began on June 24, more than 900 people died in Iran, and at least 28 died in Israel.
The US later claimed that the Iranian nuclear program had been hampered by Israeli nuclear weapons by one to two years as Israel did by attacking Iranian nuclear facilities.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) will “soon inform” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of its findings, according to Araghchi on Monday.
He claimed that any request for the IAEA to send inspectors would be “carefully considered.”
He asserted that “we have not abandoned our partnership with the agency.”
After Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian ratified a law limiting cooperation with the IAEA earlier this month, IAEA inspectors fled Iran.
A June 12 board resolution accusing Tehran of breaking its nuclear obligations had harshly criticized Tehran and its leader, Rafael Grossi.
According to Iranian officials, the resolution was one of the “excuses” that Israel used as a pretext to launch its attacks, which started on June 13 and lasted for 12 days.
According to Stephane Dujarric, the UN secretary-general’s representative, the UN welcomed renewed “dialogue between the Europeans and the Iranians,” according to reports earlier on Monday.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, the third son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, may now face arrest for his online activities. Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has ordered the former president’s third son’s accounts and assets frozen.
Eduardo, a congressman from Brazil who has been active in Washington, DC, sparked by his father’s court battle, described the decision as “an additional arbitrary and criminal decision” by Moraes.
Moraes “relies on deceptive decisions to shield himself from the repercussions of his crimes. Like every dictator, Eduardo Bolsonaro stated in a post on X on Tuesday.
I make it clear that I will not be intimidated and not be silenced if he believes this will prompt me to stop. He said, “I made myself available for this situation.”
He continued, “This is just another example of abuse of power that confirms everything I have been criticizing in Washington and throughout the world.”
The decision in the confidential court case was made on Saturday as part of an investigation into Eduardo Bolsonaro’s behavior in the US, according to CNN Brasil’s first report.
Moraes, the prosecutor in the criminal case where the former president is accused of plotting a coup to overturn the results of the 2022 election, issued a separate ruling on Monday, warning that any attempt to evade a court order enforcing a ban on Jair Bolsonaro’s use of social media, could lead to his arrest.
According to G1 in Brazil, Moraes called Bolsonaro’s attorneys to explain why their client allegedly disregarded his order restricting use of social media.
Moraes, according to G1, gave the lawyers 24 hours to provide an explanation, adding that he may order Bolsonaro’s ex-president’s immediate arrest if the defense fails to adequately justify his online behavior.
Bolsonaro said he would continue to work with the media to make sure his voice was heard after Moraes made the decision to ban his use of social media.
Vera Chemim, a constitutional lawyer based in Sao Paulo, told the Reuters news agency that she thought Bolsonaro’s arrest was a blip. She also noted that even though the court order did not specifically address the country’s former leader, media interviews could still be used to support the arrest.
Bolsonaro has been “fully silenced” since then, she claimed. Any error could lead to preventive arrest, the author says.
Following US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that Brazilian court officials, and more specifically Justice Moraes, were “politically witch-hunting” the former president, the tightening restrictions on Bolsonaro are in effect. In consequence, the US changed their travel visas for “Moraes and his allies on the court, as well as their immediate family members,” according to Rubio.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula quickly criticized Washington’s decision to impose visa restrictions on court officials as “arbitrary” and “baseless,” calling any foreign interference in Brazilian law “unacceptable.”
As he demanded that Lula drop the charges against Bolsonaro earlier this month, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods starting on August 1.
