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Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Boss of NYC’s ‘secret Chinese police station’ convicted of acting as illegal ‘agent’

A local Chinatown community leader who the feds say ran a secret Chinese “police station” out of a nondescript Manhattan office building was found guilty Wednesday of acting as an illegal foreign agent.

“Harry” Lu Jianwang was convicted after evidence revealed his dealings with China’s Ministry of Public Security — which ordered him to hang a banner inside the glass-clad building at 107 East Broadway proudly announcing that the site was a “Police Overseas Service Station” for China’s Fujian province.

Wearing a dark suit with an American flag pin affixed to its lapel, Lu betrayed no emotion when the jury’s verdict was read aloud in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday afternoon, after eight hours of deliberations.

Lu, who is currently out on $250,000 bail, faces up to 10 years in prison after being convicted of acting as illegal foreign agent of China. He was separately convicted of obstructing justice by deleting some of his messages with Chinese officials when approached by the feds, and was acquitted of a third charge of “conspiring” with others to act as a Chinese agent.

Trial evidence revealed that a Chinese security official urged Lu, 64, to help track a prominent US-based pro-democracy dissident in March 2022, just a month after Lu established the “station” inside the Manhattan headquarters of the America Changle Association, which advocates for Fujian immigrants.

“Just help me verify if this person exists,” wrote Liu Rongyan, a Fujian security officer, of Xu Jie, a longtime critic of China’s government who fled the country in 2013 and lives in California.

“A friend is looking for him for a personal matter,” Rongyan added — punctuating her text with a sheepish grin emoji — in a chat with Lu on the Chinese messaging platform WeChat.

Lu, a naturalized US citizen living in the Bronx, then messaged Keith Cheng, the leader of a separate Big Apple-based Fujian group, asking for details about the outspoken Beijing regime critic.

“When you get a chance, please see if anyone there knows him well… anyone knows him well who can help me with this, alright?” Lu texted, in an exchange recovered by the FBI.

Jurors delivered Wednesday’s verdict after getting a glimpse inside the drab six-story building at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, where the feds claimed Lu opened the “station” in February 2022 after attending a ceremony in China where officials announced they would open 30 such outposts at sites across the globe.

Jurors saw evidence of Officer Rongyan instructing Lu on how to hang the blue “police station” banner, which was displayed above a conference table in the site’s drab office. Lu also had more than 50 contacts in his phone for officials in Chinese political and security officials, according to trial testimony.

But Brooklyn federal prosecutors did not reveal any further details on Lu or his partner, Chen Jinping, using the site to surveil enemies of the Chinese government.

Trial evidence instead largely showed that the “station” — where the FBI discovered a handful of computer monitors, the conference table and banner, and a ping-pong table covered in a red tablecloth — helped Fujian natives renew their Chinese driver’s licenses remotely.

Lu’s lawyer, John Carman, described the license setup — which prosecutors dismissed as a “front” — as evidence that Lu answered more to his neighbors than the Chinese government.

“If Harry Lu is an ‘agent,’ he is the worst agent ever,” Carman told jurors in his closing statement.

Lu was arrested at his Bronx home in 2023, along with Jinping, in what the US government had touted as part of a sweeping crackdown on China’s efforts to silence regime dissenters across the globe.

“A police station operating in New York City at the direction of the Chinese government has been exposed, its sinister purpose disrupted, and its founder held accountable for blatantly disregarding the law and our country’s sovereignty,” US Attorney for the Eastern District Joe Nocella said in a statement Wednesday.

Lu declined to comment on the verdict outside the courthouse, but Carman, his lawyer, said he was “disappointed” in the outcome.

“There was some traction on our arguments, but the cautionary tale is that if you’re a member of a community that originated in another country you have to be very, very, very careful in how you deal with people in your home country…most especially if you’re from a Chinese American community,” Carman told reporters.

Lu’s purported partner Chen pleaded guilty in December 2024 to a charge of conspiring to act on China’s behalf without telling US authorities. He’s out on bond and will be sentenced at a later date.

https://nypost.com/2026/05/13/us-news/boss-of-nycs-secret-chinese-police-station-convicted-of-acting-as-illegal-agent/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_medium=referral

KUDLOW: Ironically, Trump at Beijing plans the final blows to finish off the scourge of Iran

April was a bad month for inflation. No doubt about it. Both the consumer price index and the producer price index ran hotter than expected. There’s a lot of hand-wringing among the legacy press and the Democratic party. Yet financial markets, which are smarter than the lefty press and the Democrats, hardly reacted to it at all. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit new record highs. The Dow Jones was basically flat. Bond rates are still in their year-long range. World oil prices actually fell slightly.

There is no catastrophe. I’m sure the Federal Reserve and its new chairman, Kevin Warsh, will be keeping a close eye on prices. Yet I doubt if they’ll take any particular actions. The best thing they can probably do right now is nothing. Shrink the balance sheet if possible. Start working on new economic models that show that low unemployment does not cause high inflation. Nor does strong economic growth.

Inflation is running hot right now because President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are working hard to finish off Iran once and for all. A temporary bulge in gasoline and other prices is a small price to pay to destroy a country that is the world’s enemy. Like the Nazis of almost 100 years ago. Developing nuclear bombs that will destroy America, Israel, and the rest of the civilized world — if those crazies get a chance to do it. Yet they must never get a chance to do it.

That’s why a couple of months of inflation is a small price to pay. Mr. Trump has of course given middle-class America all kinds of tax cuts that are offsetting most of the $4.50 gasoline. Call it a push. The American economy is strong and resilient. It grew at 2 percent plus in the first quarter. And may grow as much as 4 percent in the second quarter. Unemployment is a low 4.3 percent. Americans are working. That’s a wonderful thing. Yet if we ever backed off Mr. Trump’s commitment to destroy the Iranian regime and their nuclear capabilities, we’d lose everything, including our whole economy. And this must never happen. I’m sure Mr. Trump will tell this to President Xi when they meet tomorrow.

America will not give up. Iran must not have any nuclear capabilities. Look, Mr. Xi helped make Iran the monster that it is today by arming them to the teeth and, through the purchase of 90 percent of Iran’s oil, they financed those arms. Mr. Xi gave them weaponry through a space satellite system. Mr. Xi gave them money denominated in Chinese yuan. Now he’s unhappy because the Strait of Hormuz is closed and the oil has disappeared. Yet don’t expect Mr. Xi to give us much help with Iran. As I said, it was their creation in the first place.

America will take care of Iran. I think the big news today is not so much hotter than expected inflation. It’s that Mr. Trump is meeting with his top military and national security advisers to plan a reopening of project freedom that will reopen the Strait and to complete the combat bombing missions.

Scott Bessent’s Treasury, meanwhile, has apparently turned the lights off at Kharg Island. Bombing could be next. Any of this would destroy what’s left of Iran’s economy. How ironic that Mr. Trump is planning the finishing touches that will end the scourge of Iran, even while he’s meeting at Beijing with Iran’s principal sponsor. Think of that.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/larry-kudlow-ironically-trump-beijing-plans-final-blows-finish-off-scourge-iran

Not All Fiber Is Equal: What Clinicians Need to Know

How often do we hear recommendations to increase our fiber intake and reminders of its health benefits? Yet many of us may not fully understand why fiber is so beneficial or which types are most important for overall health.

Fiber, found primarily in fruits, vegetables, and grains, has been associated with lower risks of coronary artery disease, stroke, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and even colorectal, gastric, and breast cancers.

However, not all fiber is the same. Depending on its composition, different types of fiber confer distinct health benefits and influence the gut microbiota in different ways. These effects translate into a range of physiologic outcomes, from increasing stool bulk to reducing inflammation and lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Soluble fiber tends to support cardiovascular health by improving blood glucose and cholesterol levels, whereas insoluble fiber promotes digestive function and helps prevent constipation.

In clinical practice, gastroenterologists often focus on the bulking and laxative properties of fiber. As a result, the “fiber” commonly emphasized in this context is typically insoluble fiber. When advising patients to increase fiber intake for constipation, it is therefore not sufficient to provide a general recommendation. Instead, guidance should clearly specify the type of fiber to prioritize. Offering patients practical examples of foods rich in insoluble fiber can further enhance patient understanding and adherence. Though many foods cross over into both types of fiber, the table below outlines the common sources of soluble and insoluble fiber.

Common Sources of Dietary Fiber

Soluble fibers: cardiovascular health	Insoluble fibers: digestive health
Oat bran Nuts Barley Seeds (chia seeds, flaxseeds) Beans Citrus fruits Peas Psyllium fiber supplements Methylcellulose (may cause less bloating than psyllium)	Wheat bran Whole grains Celery Kale Grapes Tomatoes Potatoes Fruit skins

Regardless of the subtype, adequate fiber intake is essential and provides significant health benefits. Current recommendations suggest a daily intake of approximately 25-30 grams of fiber from all sources. Unfortunately, more than 90% of individuals in the United States fall short of this target, with similar patterns observed globally. One contributing factor is limited awareness of how much daily fiber is actually required. For example, a tablespoon of a popular fiber supplement only provides 3 grams of fiber. While beneficial, this may create a false sense of adequacy when in reality only a fraction of the recommended daily intake is being consumed.

Whenever possible, it is preferable to obtain dietary fiber from whole food sources rather than supplements. For instance, an apple contains about 4.4 grams of fiber, nearly 20% of the recommended daily intake. Because apples provide both insoluble and soluble fiber, they can meaningfully contribute to overall health when consumed regularly. In that sense, the adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” has more scientific grounding than we realize.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/not-all-fiber-equal-what-clinicians-need-know-2026a1000eer

Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Risk Factors Identified in Two Studies

Two new studies have identified risk factors that may be associated with the increasing incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) among younger Americans.

“The majority of cases are sporadic, suggesting modifiable, nongenetic factors may play an important role,” said Mohamed Eldesouki, MD, internal medicine resident at New York Medical College at Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey, at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2026.

In the first study, Eldesouki and colleagues identified a distinct phenotype, based on multiple factors, associated with an elevated risk in people aged 18-49 years. In addition, they found that inflammatory bowel disease, family history of CRC, severe obesity, and obesity were independent predictors that increased the risk for early-onset vs late-onset CRC more than twofold.

In the second study, a history of oral antibiotic exposure was associated with an increased risk for colorectal adenomas, especially among people with a greater or longer history of using these agents.

Metabolic, Inflammatory Disease Drivers

“Growing evidence links early-onset CRC with obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes,” but the predictors of the disease “remain poorly defined,” Eldesouki told Medscape Medical News.To find out more, he and his colleagues evaluated 46,099 people with CRC and matched control individuals from the TriNetX US Collaborative Network database from 2010 to 2023. The researchers compared three groups: 2584 people with early-onset CRC vs 5168 people with late-onset CRC; 3217 people with early-onset CRC vs 6434 control individuals; and 12,112 people with late-onset vs 24,336 control individuals.

They identified a number of factors predicting early-onset CRC, including inflammatory bowel disease (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.52), family history (aOR, 2.44), obesity (aOR, 2.14), severe obesity (aOR, 2.61), metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and hepatic steatosis within 24 months before diagnosis.

Also, microcytosis (aOR, 2.29), low ferritin (aOR, 2.11), elevated C-reactive protein (aOR, 1.87), increased red cell distribution width (aOR, 1.72), low high-density lipoprotein, hypertriglyceridemia, diabetes-range glycated hemoglobin, and thrombocytosis were laboratory predictors of early-onset CRC. The discrimination in this model was high (area under the curve [AUC], 0.86).

In contrast, similar risk factors emerged for late-onset CRC, but with 25%-40% weaker associations and lower discrimination (AUC, 0.77).

African Americans, Hispanics, and those without prior screening had the strongest associations with risk in the study.

Rectal tumors were more common in patients with early-onset CRC than in those with late-onset CRC (37% vs 27%). At the same time, proximal colon tumors were more common in patients with late-onset CRC than in those with early-onset CRC (34% vs 23%).

In a multivariate analysis, severe obesity, microcytosis, and low ferritin levels were the strongest independent signals in the early-onset group. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease remained a significant risk factor among younger patients but became nonsignificant in the late-onset group.

“Early colorectal cancer may present a distinct metabolic, inflammatory, and hematologic phenotype,” Eldesouki said. Abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, weight loss, iron-deficiency anemia, tenesmus, and diarrhea were more common in patients with early-onset CRC, whereas constipation was more common among patients with late-onset CRC.

Future studies should validate these risk factors for early-onset CRC and help develop risk-stratified models by age, he added.

Tailoring Screening Strategies to Age

The study was “really interesting. I think it’s really important for us to start to understand risk factors for individuals developing early age-onset cancer and how they might be different from older adults,” Swati Patel, MD, session co-moderator and director of the Hereditary Gastrointestinal Cancer Center and associate professor of medicine-gastroenterology at the University of Colorado Anschutz in Aurora, Colorado, told Medscape Medical News when asked to comment.

“We understand established risk factors in older adults like metabolic syndrome, diabetes, fatty liver disease, and obesity. We’re also actually seeing similar trends in younger individuals, and this moves the needle towards personalizing screening a little bit more,” she added.

“Understanding these risk factors for early-onset disease helps us think about tailoring the strategies to improve screening. But I think it’s not enough data at this point to lower the screening age [below 45 years],” Patel said.

Oral Antibiotic Risk

In the second study presented at DDW 2026, researchers examined whether a history of oral antibiotic exposure elevated the risk for colorectal adenomas among people aged 50 years or younger.

“Studies have shown that patients with CRC have an altered colonic microbial profile compared to controls, including reduced microbial diversity and enrichment of potentially pathogenic microbes,” said Amanat Bal, MD, an internal medicine resident at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center in San Francisco.

“Interestingly, recent studies have also shown that precancerous adenomas with high-grade dysplasia also show enrichment of fusobacteria, so that’s suggesting that perhaps gut bacteria are playing a role in early tumorigenesis,” she added.

The investigators compared 6936 people with early-onset colorectal adenomas to 16,900 matched control individuals identified from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2023, using electronic health records. The study population for this nested, case-control study included members of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California healthcare system.

Bal and colleagues noted oral antibiotic use 2 years or more before the detection of adenoma. They evaluated antibiotic exposure as a binary yes or no, as cumulative use over time, and based on specific time intervals (2 years to less than 5 years; 5 years to less than 8 years; or more than 8 years) prior to early onset of colorectal adenomas.

All participants had at least 10 years of follow-up. Control individuals had normal colonoscopies.

Risk Increases With Increased Exposure

Overall, Bal and colleagues linked oral antibiotic use to an increased risk for early-onset colorectal adenomas in both unadjusted (OR, 1.59) and adjusted calculations (aOR, 1.45) vs control individuals. The findings included an increased risk regardless of antibiotic class, such as broad- or narrow-spectrum agents.

“As the number of dispensings increase, you see a modest increase in the significance of the association as well,” Bal said. Risk grew steadily with an increasing history of oral antibiotic use, peaking at seven to nine courses (aOR, 1.60).

The risk for colorectal adenoma increased with time since antibiotic exposure, peaking from 5 years to less than 8 years (aOR, 1.71).

People who developed colorectal adenomas were more likely to have obesity than control individuals and had higher family history rates of CRC (29%) than control individuals (18%).

Strengths of the study included a large number of early-onset cases and control individuals in a diverse and socioeconomically representative population, Bal said. In addition, all controls had negative colonoscopies, and Kaiser Permanente electronic pharmacy records allowed for including oral antibiotic use 8 years or longer.

Limitations of the observational study include an inability to account for any childhood or adolescent antibiotic use, “which might represent an important window of exposure,” she said. Also, 98% of members obtain their medications through Kaiser, so some participants might have picked up antibiotics outside the system as well.

Additional studies looking at earlier-life exposures to antimicrobials are warranted, Bal said, “and further elucidation of the mechanisms of which specific antibiotics and antibiotic classes alter the microbiome is needed in order to inform antibiotic prescription choices.”

Hypothesis-Generating

Patel also offered perspective on this study. “It’s really, really interesting data. There’s a lot of emerging data on modulation with gut microbiome as a potential longitudinal risk factor.”

However, she added, “It’s hard to interpret it without adjusting for all the other factors that influence cancer.”

“The study found associations that I think are hypothesis-generating. But I don’t walk away with a clinically actionable conclusion,” Patel said, noting that she is already very conservative in her use of antibiotics in her practice.

The studies were independently supported. Eldesouki, Bal, and Patel reported having no relevant financial disclosures.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/early-onset-colorectal-cancer-risk-factors-identified-two-2026a1000ffn

At-Home, Mail-In Finger-Stick Test Flags Alzheimer’s Biomarkers Linked to Cognitive Decline

A self-administered, in-home, finger-stick blood test detected Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers that correlated with cognitive performance in older adults — a finding that could open the door to large-scale dementia risk screening outside of clinical settings.

The cross-sectional observational validation study of 174 participants (mean age, 66 years; 54% female) showed capillary blood levels of p-tau217 correlated with episodic memory, attention, and executive function, while glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) correlated with working memory and executive function, as measured by computerized cognitive tests.

When researchers combined the p-tau217 results with composite memory scores, they identified a high-risk group — about 9% of participants — who performed significantly worse across cognitive and functional measures.

The approach is designed to move AD biomarker testing out of specialist clinics and into the community, where most people with early cognitive concerns are never evaluated.

"This is the whole reason for doing the capillary blood sampling — to allow it to be scalable, to allow it to be done at a community level, which is where it's likely to be most usefully employed," study investigator Anne Corbett, PhD, professor in dementia research at the University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, England, told Medscape Medical News.

The study was published online May 6 in Nature Communications.

Building on the DROP-AD Foundation

The study builds on the DROP-AD trial, which validated capillary blood sampling for AD biomarkers in 337 participants.

As reported previously by Medscape Medical News, that study demonstrated strong concordance between capillary and venous samples — but collection was still supervised in clinical settings. In the current study, participants collected samples entirely at home and returned them by mail.

In the UK, only 1 in 1000 people with early cognitive decline receive a specialist evaluation. Corbett said the study deliberately set its memory threshold at 1 SD below age-matched norms — milder than the 1.5 SD cutoff for mild cognitive impairment — to catch people earlier in the disease course.

"When you look at the new generation of disease-targeted treatments, they are looking for preclinical mild cognitive impairment with biomarkers," she said. "That's even more relevant in the US, where some of these drugs are already in use."

Participants were either cognitively normal (n = 146) or had mild to moderate dementia (n = 28). Each collected 70 μL of capillary blood using a Capitainer dried blood spot device. Cards were dried at room temperature and mailed without cooling.

Capillary p-tau217 correlated with episodic memory (r = 0.299; P < .001), attention (r = 0.197; P = .019), and executive function (r = 0.191; P = .021). GFAP correlated with working memory (r = 0.183; P = .034) and executive function (r = 0.182; P = .046).

Both biomarkers discriminated between participants with and without dementia, though with modest accuracy (p-tau217 AUC = 0.656, P = .012; GFAP AUC = 0.688, P < .001). The high-risk group identified through the dual-threshold approach showed large effect sizes across cognitive and functional domains (Cohen d > 1.0).

In a subgroup of 40 participants with paired venous samples, capillary-venous correlations were strong (p-tau217: r = 0.711-0.743; GFAP: r = 0.700-0.790).

An unexpected finding was that only 6% of participants were positive for both biomarkers. GFAP-positive participants were nearly five times more likely to report a history of heart disease (odds ratio, 4.14; P = .016), while p-tau217 positivity had no cardiovascular association, suggesting the two markers may identify distinct at-risk populations.

"We didn't expect quite such a separation," Corbett said. She described the finding as exploratory and said her group planned to examine whether the two groups showed different cognitive trajectories.

Corbett estimated a timeline of 4 to 5 years before the approach could enter clinical pathways and said her group was launching a study this summer to prototype the technology in a real-world NHS context.

Foundational Research

Commenting for Medscape Medical News, Suzanne Schindler, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, said the study addressed a real problem but that the data supported feasibility, not clinical readiness.

"This isn’t ready for clinical practice, but it's laying groundwork for future studies," Schindler said.

She noted the cohort lacked a dedicated mild cognitive impairment (MCI) group, making it difficult to assess the tool's effectiveness in a population it seemed designed to reach. "They likely will be able to identify some of the individuals at highest risk and lowest risk, but there's going to be a lot of people that aren't stratified," said Schindler, who was not involved in the study. "It has value for the extremes, but for those folks in the middle, it's not going to stratify them."

Schindler differentiated this approach from a previous direct-to-consumer blood biomarker test by Quest Diagnostics that drew criticism for high false-positive rates. That test used the amyloid-beta 42-to-40 ratio, which was less specific, and was framed as a clinical tool. The current study's higher-specificity cutoff and triaging framing made it less concerning, she said.

She noted that blood biomarker testing is recommended only for symptomatic individuals, in part because approved treatments target people who already have cognitive impairment. But trials are underway testing anti-amyloid therapies in people with no symptoms.

"If that happens, we will then have a need to screen people who are cognitively unimpaired," she said, a scenario that would make scalable, home-based testing far more urgent.

Marwan Sabbagh, MD, professor of neurology and Moreno Family Chair for Alzheimer's Research at the Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, who was also not involved in the research, said the sample needed to be much larger and more diverse. "You need a bigger spread. … You need more MCI," Sabbagh told Medscape Medical News.

But Sabbagh did see major potential in getting at-risk individuals into the clinical pathway more quickly than what’s traditionally done.

"A typical 70-year-old goes to primary care, and primary care may or may not screen them, may or may not evaluate them, and may or may not refer them," he said. Capillary testing could compress that timeline dramatically — flagging at-risk individuals through an online cognitive test, sending a kit in the mail, and returning a result in days rather than months.

He added that capillary testing could eventually replace venous plasma testing as a gating mechanism before PET scans, but he said the field was not ready for a direct-to-consumer model.

"This could become part of the annual Medicare wellness visit," Sabbagh said. "I'm not sure we're ready to jump to a direct-to-consumer model."

The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Invention for Innovation program and the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre. Disclosure information for study authors is available in the original study publication. Schindler reported no relevant financial relationships.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/home-mail-finger-stick-test-flags-alzheimers-biomarkers-2026a1000fid

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