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CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Defense lawyers say the former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch may have dementia, and a competency hearing is necessary to determine if he can face sex charges.
Lawyers for Michael Jeffries said in court papers unsealed this week that a neuropsychologist who examined Jeffries in October concluded he likely has dementia with behavioral disturbance, Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. The lawyers wrote that the neuropsychologist concluded that cognitive impairments, including impaired memory, diminished attention, processing speed slowness, and ease of confusion means Jeffries would not be capable of assisting his attorneys. In a letter to the judge, defense lawyers and prosecutors suggested that experts who have evaluated Jeffries testify at a hearing in June so that a ruling on competency can follow.
Jeffries, 80, is free on $10 million bond after pleading not guilty in October to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges. Prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man lured men into drug-fueled sex parties by dangling the promise of modeling. Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after more than two decades as CEO.
An attorney representing alleged victims expressed skepticism about his dementia in a report in USA Today. BANGKOK — China's economy grew a bit more in 2023 than earlier thought, but the revision has not affected forecasts for "about 5 percent" growth in the GDP this year, the government said Dec. 26.
The estimate for total economic activity, or gross domestic product, in 2023 for the world's second largest economy was increased by about 2.7 percent to 129.4 trillion yuan, or $17.
7 trillion, based on an economic census conducted once every five years. Earlier this year, the government said the GDP was 126.06 trillion yuan.
The exact impact on China's annual economic growth in 2023 was not given. Officials said further details would be released later. The economy grew at a 5.
2 percent annual pace in 2023, according to the earlier estimate, up from 3 percent in 2022. The size of the U.S.
economy last year was $27.36 trillion. WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits held steady last week, though continuing claims rose to the highest level in three years.
The U.S. Labor Department reported Dec.
26 that jobless claim applications ticked down by 1,000 to 219,000 for the week of Dec. 21. That's fewer than the 223,000 that analysts predicted.
Continuing claims, the total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits, climbed by 46,000 to 1.91 million for the week of Dec. 14.
That's more than analysts projected and the most since the week of Nov. 13, 2021. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of U.
S. layoffs. TOKYO — Japan Airlines has been hit by a cyberattack that caused delays to 24 domestic flights, but it managed to restore its systems within hours.
The carrier said there was no impact on flight safety. JAL said the problem started Dec. 26 when the company's network connecting internal and external systems began malfunctioning.
The airline said the cyberattack delayed the affected domestic flights for more than 30 minutes. JAL temporarily suspended ticket sales for both domestic and international service scheduled for departure on Thursday but they resumed a few hours later. BANGKOK — A spokesperson for Chinese automaker BYD has objected to reports about poor conditions at a construction site in Brazil where it is building a factory, saying the allegations were aimed at "smearing" China and Chinese brands.
Earlier in the week, a task force led by Brazilian prosecutors said it had rescued 163 Chinese nationals it said were working in "slavery-like" conditions at the site. A video from the Labor Prosecutor's Office of dorms housing the workers showed beds with no mattresses and rudimentary cooking facilities. A BYD spokesperson, Li Yunfei, vehemently objected in a statement posted Thursday on his Weibo social media site.
BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, is one of the world's largest producers of electric cars. The company said this week it would "immediately terminate the contract" with the factory contractor, the Jinjiang Group, and was "studying other appropriate measures." BYD said the workers would be housed in nearby hotels and would not suffer from the decision to stop work at the site.
The company said that over the past few weeks it had been changing working conditions at the plant site and had told its contractors that "adjustments" had to be made..
