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HONG KONG —Hong Kongpro-democracy activistJimmy Laiis set to be sentenced Monday after hisconviction in a landmark national security trialthat has drawn international attention and become a symbol of Beijing'scrackdown on dissentin the Chinese territory.

Lai, a 78-year-old media tycoon who was one of the most prominent critics of China's ruling Communist Party, faces possible life in prison. The case has been criticized by the U.S. and other governments as politically motivated and a sign of shrinking space for dissent in Hong Kong, a former British colony thatreturned to Chinese rulein 1997.

"The eyes of the world will be on Hong Kong," Aleksandra Bielakowska of Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom advocacy group, said in a statement Friday. "The outcome will resonate far beyond Jimmy Lai himself, sending a decisive signal about the future of press freedom in the territory."

Rights groups and members of Lai's family have also expressed concern about his health after he's spent more than 1,800 days in custody, much of it in solitary confinement. Hong Kong officials say Lai has received appropriate medical care and that he had requested to be kept separate from other prisoners.

Lai was arrested and charged in 2020, shortly after Beijing imposed asweeping national security lawin response to months of anti-government protests the previous year. Hong Kong authorities say the law was necessary to restore stability after the protests, which sometimes turned violent, and that Lai's case has nothing to do with press freedom.

The case has drawn scrutiny from foreign leaders including PresidentDonald Trump, who hadvowed to secure Lai's releaseand said he felt "so badly" after Lai was convicted in December on charges of sedition and colluding with foreign forces. British Prime MinisterKeir Starmer, who met with Chinese leaderXi Jinpingin Beijing last month, also said he had raised the issue of Lai, who is a British citizen.

Hong Kong officials have defended the independence of the local judicial system, which is separate from that of mainland China, and accused foreign governments of interfering in internal affairs. Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Hong Kong's top judge, said in a speech last month that calls for Lai's premature release "strike at the very heart of the rule of law itself."

Lai — the founder of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy tabloid that wasforced to shut downin 2021 — was convicted on one charge of conspiring to publish seditious articles and two charges of conspiring to lobby foreign governments to impose sanctions, blockades or other hostile measures againstChinaand Hong Kong.

In their 855-page verdict, the three handpicked judges cited Lai's interactions with senior U.S. government officials, including meetings he had at the height of the 2019 protests with Vice PresidentMike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton and multiple members of Congress.

Lai pleaded not guilty to all charges. Also being sentenced in the case on Monday are six former Apple Daily journalists and two activists, some of whom testified against Lai, and all of whom pleaded guilty in the hope of receiving reduced sentences.

Lai had already been convicted separately on a number of lesser charges including fraud and unlawful assembly. In December 2022, he was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison in the fraud case.

PARIS (AP) — France's former Culture Minister Jack Lang has resigned as head of a Paris cultural center over alleged past financial links to convicted sex offenderJeffrey Epsteinthat prompted a tax investigation.

He is the highest-profile figure in France impacted bythe release of Epstein fileson Jan. 30 by the U.S. Department of Justice. He is known for his role as a culture minister under Socialist President François Mitterrand in the 1980s and 1990s.

Lang, 86, was summoned to appear at the French Foreign Ministry, which oversees the Arab World Institute, on Sunday, but he submitted his resignation.

He "is very sad and deeply hurt to be leaving a position he loves," his lawyer Laurent Merlet said Sunday on RTL radio. "He put the interests of the Arab World Institute first," Merlet said, adding that his client denied the allegations and called them inaccurate.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed his resignation Saturday evening.

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The financial prosecutors' office said it had opened an investigation into Lang and his daughter, Caroline, over alleged "aggravated tax fraud laundering."

French investigative news website Mediapart reported last week on alleged financial and business ties between the Lang family and Jeffrey Epstein through an offshore company based in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea.

Jack Lang's name was mentioned more than 600 times in the Epstein files, showing intermittent correspondence between 2012 and 2019. His daughter was also in the released files.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has "taken note" of Lang's resignation and began the process to look for his successor, the foreign ministry said.

Lang headed the Arab World Institute since 2013.

Japan's ruling party, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, is projected to have won Sunday's snap election by a landslide.

An exit poll by public broadcaster NHK suggests the coalition led by Takaichi's Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) is set to win two-thirds of seats in Japan's House of Representatives. The LDP alone is forecast to have a majority of seats.

The country's first female prime minister had sought a clear public mandate by calling the election just four months after becoming party leader.

Her reported success is in marked contrast to her two predecessors, under whom the party lost its parliamentary majority due to corruption scandals and rising costs.

Takaichi previously pledged to step down if her party failed to secure a majority, and some called the snap election a big gamble.

The LDP lost its majority in both houses of parliament in 2024, and its decades-old coalition with the Komeito party collapsed.

But Takaichi's personal popularity appears to have helped the party, with approval ratings for her government mostly hovering above 70%.

The LDP and its current coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, could secure as many as 366 of the 465 seats in the House of Representatives, according to NHK projections as votes continue to be counted.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has already hailed a "big victory" for Takaichi, saying that "when Japan is strong, the US is strong in Asia".

People across Japan braved snow to vote in the country's first mid-winter poll in 36 years.

Japan's transport ministry said 37 train lines and 58 ferry routes were closed and 54 flights cancelled as of Sunday morning. There was rare snowfall in Tokyo as people headed out to vote.

"People want their lives to be better and more comfortable because we are so accustomed to not having inflation [costs rising]... so people are very worried. I think we need a long-term solution rather than short-term fixes," Ritsuko Ninomiya, a voter in Tokyo, told the BBC.

Takaichi's enthusiasm, populist spending promises and nationalist rhetoric appear to have energised voters.

Her social media presence has also cultivated new followers, particularly among young voters. She regularly shares clips of her daily life and political activities, and a video of her playing the drums with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is one of many clips to have gone viral.

"I think this election is more important for the younger generation, people like us," Daniel Hayama said, adding that the cold weather was not a hurdle for young people who want to vote.

Takaichi and the LDP faced a more unified opposition than before. LDP's former coalition partner Komeito has joined forces with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan to form the largest opposition bloc in the lower house.

Takaichi has pushed to toughen the immigration system, review rules around foreign ownership of Japanese land, and tackle any non-payments of tax and health insurance by foreign nationals.

But in a country where only 3% of the population are foreign nationals, critics have accused her of creating anxiety and division.

Critics, including businesses, are sceptical that her pledge to spend more and cut taxes can revive the sluggish Japanese economy. The country's government debt is already one of the highest among developed nations.

Relations with China - Japan's largest trading partner - have been strained as well, after Takaichi suggested last November that Japan could intervene militarily if China invaded Taiwan.

With a two-thirds majority, Takaichi would be a strong position to considering her long-held aim of changing Japan's pacifist constitution.

Takaichi has courted Donald Trump, who has publicly endorsed her - an unusual move by a US president - and they both seem to agree that Japan should spend more on defence.

That relationship too was on voters' minds as they headed to the polls on Sunday.

"I am concerned with what President Trump is doing as well as the national defence issues. I am not sure where the money is coming from to cover that. So balancing budget spending between defence and people's life is a major concern for me," Yuko Sakai says.

Additional reporting by Kelly Ng and Chika Nakayama

• Will Sunday's snap election gamble pay off for Japan's first female premier?

• Meet Japan's drum-playing, Thatcher-loving first female prime minister

North Carolina basketball stunnedDukein an upset so nice,it stormed the court twice.

On what looked to be the final possession of a 68-68 game, North Carolina guard Derek Dixon drove to the basket and kicked it out to Seth Trimble in the corner. Trimble hit what appeared to be a buzzer-beating 3 to give the Tar Heels a 71-68 win to hand Duke its second loss of the season,kicking off a party in Chapel Hillthat started with storming the court.

REQUIRED READING:Duke vs UNC basketball highlights: Tar Heels win on last-second shot

The problem is, that party kicked off a bit early. After review, officials found that there were still 0.4 seconds on the clock, sending UNC fans shambling back to their seats or the sidelines and kicking off a clean-up on the court. Luckily, the court clearing was handled expeditiously, and they were able to finish the game.

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No. 4 Duke fell to 21-2 on the year, whereas No. 18 North Carolina advanced to 19-4. North Carolina only led for the final 0.4 seconds of the game, and staved off its fourth straight loss to the Blue Devils.

While Trimble will go down as the hero, it was the efforts of Caleb Wilson that had the Tar Heels in a position to win. He had 23 points and played the full 40 for UNC, going toe-to-toe with Blue Devils star Cameron Boozer, who put up 24 points in 38 minutes despite some early foul trouble.

Duke and North Carolina will play again on March 7, undoubtedly with some more vitriol than usual coming in. The only emotion stronger than the love these teams have of beating each other is the hatred of losing to each other. Duke has a month to reckon with that feeling, which came in heartbreaking fashion.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:UNC basketball stuns Duke on late 3-pointer, court stormed early

CHICAGO (AP) — Nikola Jokic had 22 points, 17 assists and 14 rebounds for his second triple-double in as many games, Jamal Murray had 28 points and 11 assists and the Denver Nuggets ended a three-game skid with a 136-120 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night.

It was Jokic's 19th triple-double of the season. Tim Hardaway Jr. added 23 points for the Nuggets, who capped a three-game road trip with a win after losing at Detroit and New York.

Matas Buzelis scored 21 points and Collin Sexton added 17 for the Bulls, who have lost four straight.

The Bulls led 104-97 after closing the third period on a 16-2 run, but Denver started the final quarter on a 20-2 spurt to take the lead for good. Jokic and Julian Strawther capped the run with consecutive 3-pointers.

Chicago went the first six minutes of the fourth before making its first field goal and finished the final period 5 for 17 from the floor.

Jokic had nine points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in 17 first-half minutes, but the Bulls led 65-59 at the intermission.

Nuggets: Host Cleveland on Monday night.

Bulls: Visit Brooklyn on Monday night.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

No. 14 North Carolina came back from 13 points down, and Seth Trimbledrilled the 3-pointer of his life to defeat No. 4 Duke 71-68 on Saturday night in the Dean Smith Center.

What followed was mayhem: two court storms, one when Tar Heels fans thought the game was over, and the second after the final 0.4 seconds ticked off the clock.

For UNC, it was joyous.

For Duke, it was painful — emotionally and, according to Jon Scheyer, physically, too.

The Blue Devils' head coachtold reportersafter the loss that Duke staff members were punched in the face during the game-ending frenzy.

"It's hard to talk about the game when I was most concerned just for the safety of our players after the game,"Scheyer said in his postgame news conference, via The Field of 68. "I don't want to make it about that because Carolina, they played a great game to win, and that's a heartbreaking loss for our team.

"[But] I got staff members that got punched in the face. My family pushing people away, trying to not get trampled. That's not what this game is about. You give them all the credit in the world. It's not about the game, but obviously that was a scary ending — and this rivalry is not about that."

UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham publicly apologized and said that he personally apologized to Scheyer after the game.

"When they rushed the court, a number of people got knocked over," Cunningham said,per The Fayetteville Observer's Rodd Baxley. "But then we had to clear the court again. So when we normally have something like just rushing the court and the game is over, we do have a line by the benches to get people off safely.

"... Obviously, if somebody got injured, that's just really, really disappointing. We'll do the best we can to make sure that doesn't happen, but, again, my apologies to Duke for that."

This isn't the first time the 38-year-old Scheyer has been outspoken about a court storming.

In fact,he called for the celebration's ban just about two years ago.

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At the time, Scheyer was in the second season of his now-four-season tenure as the head coach of his alma mater, which he helped win a national title for as a guard in 2010.

Duke had just been upset by Wake Forest, and star forward Kyle Filipowski injured his knee amid the court storming chaos.

"When are we going to ban court stormings?" Scheyersaid postgameon Feb. 24, 2024.

"When I played, at least it was 10 seconds and then they would run on the floor," headded. "Now, the buzzer doesn't even go off and they're running on the floor. This has happened to us a bunch this year."

Scheyer was asked Saturday night if he still feels like court storming should be banned.

"I think court storming is fine, I don't have any issue with court storming," he said,per The Associated Press. "Just shouldn't have people getting punched in the face. Shouldn't put our players in position where they're face-to-face with people who can do anything at that time. It just takes one reaction. Even today, I had to push people away just to try to protect our players."

Scheyer added, according to the AP: "They won, they should celebrate. "They want to court storm, court storm. But just let's get our guys off safely, that's it. That's where I'm at with that."

While Saturday's double court storm caught the public's eye, given the grand stage Duke-UNC provides, it's happened before.

Actually, just last week,UCF's court storm took tries. The first time, fans were herded back to their seats after officials determined that then-No. 11 Texas Tech was due two free throws because of a last-second foul.

After those attempts, the buzzer sounded once more, and the pandemonium resumed.

NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI pored overJeffrey Epstein'sbank records and emails. It searched his homes. It spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world's most influential people.

But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein sexually abused underage girls, they found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.

Videos and photos seized from Epstein's homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands didn't depict victims being abused or implicate anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in one 2025 memo.

An examination of Epstein's financial records, including payments he made to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and global diplomacy, found no connection to criminal activity, said another internal memo in 2019.

While one Epstein victim made highly public claims that he "lent her" to his rich friends, agents couldn't confirm that and found no other victims telling a similar story, the records said.

Summarizing the investigation in an email last July, agents said "four or five" Epstein accusers claimed other men or women had sexually abused them. But, the agents said, there "was not enough evidence to federally charge these individuals, so the cases were referred to local law enforcement."

The AP and other media organizations are still reviewingmillions of pages of documents, many of them previously confidential, that the Justice Department released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and it is possible those records contain evidence overlooked by investigators.

But the documents, which include police reports, FBI interview notes and prosecutor emails, provide the clearest picture to date of the investigation — and why U.S. authorities ultimately decided to close it without additional charges.

Dozens of victims come forward

The Epstein investigation began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at the millionaire's home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Police would identify at least 35 girls with similar stories: Epstein was paying high school age students $200 or $300 to give him sexualized messages.

After the FBI joined the probe, federal prosecutors drafted indictments to charge Epstein and some personal assistants who had arranged the girls' visits and payments. But instead, then-Miami U.S. attorney Alexander Acostastruck a dealletting Epstein plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Sentenced to 18 months in jail, Epstein was free by mid-2009.

In 2018, a series of Miami Herald stories about the plea deal prompted New York federal prosecutors to take a fresh look at the accusations.

Epstein wasarrested in July of 2019. One month later, hekilled himselfin his jail cell.

A year later, prosecutors charged Epstein's longtime confidant,Ghislaine Maxwell, saying she'd recruited several of his victims and sometimes joined the sexual abuse. Convicted in 2021, Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term.

Prosecutors fail to find evidence backing most sensational claims

Prosecution memos, case summaries and other documents made public in the department's latest release of Epstein-related records show that FBI agents and federal prosecutors diligently pursued potential coconspirators. Even seemingly outlandish and incomprehensible claims, called in to tip lines, were examined.

Some allegations couldn't be verified, investigators wrote.

In 2011 and again in 2019, investigators interviewedVirginia Roberts Giuffre, who in lawsuits and news interviews had accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with numerous men, including Britain's formerPrince Andrew.

Investigators said they confirmed that Giuffre had been sexually abused by Epstein. But other parts of her story were problematic.

Two other Epstein victims who Giuffre had claimed were also "lent out" to powerful men told investigators they had no such experience, prosecutors wrote in a 2019 internal memo.

"No other victim has described being expressly directed by either Maxwell or Epstein to engage in sexual activity with other men," the memo said.

Giuffre acknowledged writing a partly fictionalized memoir of her time with Epstein containing descriptions of things that didn't take place. She had also offered shifting accounts in interviews with investigators, they wrote, and had "engaged in a continuous stream of public interviews about her allegations, many of which have included sensationalized if not demonstrably inaccurate characterizations of her experiences." Those inaccuracies included false accounts of her interactions with the FBI, they said.

Still, U.S. prosecutors attempted to arrange an interview with Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He refused to make himself available. Giuffresettled a lawsuitwith Mountbatten-Windsor in which she had accused him of sexual misconduct.

Ina memoirpublished after she killed herself last year, Giuffre wrote that prosecutors told her they didn't include her in the case against Maxwell because they didn't want her allegations to distract the jury. She insisted her accounts of being trafficked to elite men were true.

Prosecutors say photos and videos don't implicate others

Investigators seized a multitude of videos and photos from Epstein's electronic devices and homes in New York, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They found CDs, hard copy photographs and at least one videotape containing nude images of females, some of whom seemed as if they might be minors. One device contained 15 to 20 images depicting commercial child sex abuse material — pictures investigators said Epstein obtained on the internet.

No videos or photos showed Epstein victims being sexually abused, none showed any males with any of the nude females, and none contained evidence implicating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email for FBI officials last year.

Had they existed, the government "would have pursued any leads they generated," Comey wrote. "We did not, however, locate any such videos."

Investigators who scoured Epstein's bank records found payments to more than 25 women who appeared to be models — but no evidence that he was engaged in prostituting women to other men, prosecutors wrote.

Epstein's close associates go uncharged

In 2019, prosecutors weighed the possibility of charging one of Epstein's longtime assistants but decided against it.

Prosecutors concluded that while the assistant was involved in helping Epstein pay girls for sex and may have been aware that some were underage, she herself was a victim of his sexual abuse and manipulation.

Investigators examined Epstein's relationship with the French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who once was involved in an agency with Epstein in the U.S., and who was accused in a separate case of sexually assaulting women in Europe. Brunelkilled himself in jailwhile awaiting trial on a rape charge in France.

Prosecutors also weighed whether to charge one of Epstein's girlfriends who had participated in sexual acts with some of his victims. Investigators interviewed the girlfriend, who was 18 to 20 years old at the time, "but it was determined there was not enough evidence," according to a summary given toFBI Director Kash Patellast July.

Days before Epstein's July 2019 arrest, the FBI strategized about sending agents to serve grand jury subpoenas on people close to Epstein, including his pilots and longtime business client, retail mogul Les Wexner.

Wexner's lawyers told investigators that neither he nor his wife had knowledge of Epstein's sexual misconduct. Epstein had managed Wexner's finances, but the couple's lawyers said they cut him off in 2007 after learning he'd stolen from them.

"There is limited evidence regarding his involvement," an FBI agent wrote of Wexner in an Aug. 16, 2019, email.

In a statement to the AP, a legal representative for Wexner said prosecutors had informed him that he was "neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect," and that Wexner had cooperated with investigators.

Prosecutors also examined accounts from women who said they'd given massages at Epstein's home to guests who'd tried to make the encounters sexual. One woman accused private equity investor Leon Black of initiating sexual contact during a massage in 2011 or 2012, causing her to flee the room.

The Manhattan district attorney's office subsequently investigated, but no charges were filed.

Black's lawyer, Susan Estrich, said he had paid Epstein for estate planning and tax advice. She said in a statement that Black didn't engage in misconduct and had no awareness of Epstein's criminal activities. Lawsuits by two women who accused Black of sexual misconduct were dismissed or withdrawn. One is pending.

No client list

Attorney General Pam Bondi toldFox News in February 2025that Epstein's never-before-seen "client list" was "sitting on my desk right now." A few months later, sheclaimed the FBI was reviewing"tens of thousands of videos" of Epstein "with children or child porn."

But FBI agents wrote superiors saying the client list didn't exist.

On Dec. 30, 2024, about three weeks before President Joe Biden left office, then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate reached out through subordinates to ask "whether our investigation to date indicates the 'client list,' often referred to in the media, does or does not exist," according to an email summarizing his query.

A day later, an FBI official replied that the case agent had confirmed no client list existed.

On Feb. 19, 2025, two days before Bondi's Fox News appearance, an FBI supervisory special agent wrote: "While media coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein case references a 'client list,' investigators did not locate such a list during the course of the investigation."

Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.

___ The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.