David Poulson, 65 — who served as a priest for four decades in the Diocese of Erie — had entered a guilty plea in October after being accused of sexual assault and attempted sexual assault of two boys, aged eight and 15, in the 2000s.

“Poulson assaulted one of his victims more than 20 times in church rectories,” state Attorney General Josh Shapiro told reporters, according to a statement from his office.

“He made that victim go to confession and confess the abuse — to Poulson.”

The specific charges against Poulson were corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children. His sentence could be as short as 2.5 years or as long as 14 years, the maximum under state law.

The priest — who was only suspended in 2018, eight years after the diocese first learned of allegations against him — also assaulted the same boy and repeatedly attempted to assault another victim at his remote hunting cabin.

Poulson was named in a sweeping Pennsylvania grand jury report released in August that revealed credible allegations against more than 300 suspected predator priests and identified over 1,000 victims of child sex abuse.

In many cases, the abuse was covered up by the Catholic Church for decades.

In 2010, when the church first learned of the claims against Poulson, he admitted to then bishop Donald Trautman that he was “aroused by boys,” the attorney general’s office said.

But Trautman, who retired in 2012, simply assigned him to a different parish.

While most of the cases cited in the grand jury report could not be brought to trial due to a statute of limitations, Poulson and John Sweeney were charged and jailed.

Last month, Sweeney was sentenced to 11.5 months to five years in prison for abusing a 10-year-old in the 1990s.

The Pennsylvania grand jury report, which slammed the American Catholic Church for turning a blind eye, or actively covering up abuse allegations, sparked similar inquiries in other US states.

In December, the Illinois attorney general published a report saying that nearly 700 clergymen had been accused of child sexual assault, a far greater number than had been previously disclosed by Church authorities.

These reports have prompted activists to campaign for statutes of limitations on sex abuse charges to be eliminated. So far, those efforts have been unsuccessful.

Officials have warned they expect this weekend’s anti-government demonstrations to be bigger and more violent than a week ago, as a movement which had shown signs of fatigue appeared to gain new momentum.

Armoured vehicles and 5,000 officers will be deployed in Paris, where images of burning cars, smashed shops and daylong clashes between protesters and police have made global headlines since November.

“Blue-chip companies, the media, are all in Paris, we’ll be more visible,” Arnaud, a 48-year-old yellow vest organiser for the Seine-et-Marne region near the capital, told AFP.

Others have called on protesters to converge on the central city of Bourges, which could potentially attract more people from cities farther from Paris.

“I hope that in a city where there’s been no incidents since the start of the movement, the mobilisation will be strong and peaceful,” one of the organisers said, asking for anonymity.

But Bourges city officials weren’t taking any chances, outlawing all gatherings in the historic city centre, removing parking metres, benches and other urban furniture, and closing public buildings and gardens.

Mayor Pascal Blanc told AFP that residents were “worried,” with banks and other businesses boarding up windows.

Nationwide some 80,000 security forces will be on hand.

‘Tempted by violence’ 

It was unclear if the Paris protests would again focus on the Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe, or begin in the La Defense business district west of the city.

The city’s chamber of commerce estimates that nearly 500 shops have been damaged since the protests began, and many shops are likely to be boarded up and closed again on Saturday.

Paris police chief Michel Delpuech said he expected demonstrators to surpass the roughly 3,500 that attempted to march on the National Assembly last week, and predicted they would be “more tempted by violence”.

“Those who are calling to demonstrate tomorrow know there will be violence, and therefore they are in part responsible,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said in a Facebook interview Friday with Brut, a digital news site favoured by many yellow vests.

“Those who think that, a few thousand people, can make us question our institutions, are wrong,” Castaner added later Friday.

Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, who has presented her party as the longstanding expression of many yellow vest demands, condemned the government’s reaction as “disturbing”.

“To accuse all protesters of ‘complicity’ with the thugs: here is a new verbal provocation and legal ineptitude waiting to undermine our rule of law,” she wrote on Twitter.

Last Saturday around 50,000 people wearing the movement’s trademark high-visibility vests took part in protests nationwide, though that was far below the nearly 300,000 that turned out for the inaugural protest in mid-November.

But authorities have vowed to crack down on the violence that has marred the demonstrations, which began over high fuel taxes but ballooned into a wholesale rejection of President Emmanuel Macron and his policies.

Last week demonstrators rammed a forklift truck into the doors of the ministry of government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, while a former professional boxer battered two police officers, in scenes widely spread on social media.

‘A real debate’

Macron has called for a national debate on voters’ grievances, beginning next week, hoping to sate demands for more of a say in national law-making and tamp down the protesters’ anger.

But the process risks being hobbled by record levels of distrust towards politicians and representatives of the state.

A poll by the respected Cevipof political sciences institute released Friday showed 77 percent of respondents thought politicians inspired “distrust”, “disgust” or “boredom”.

And it’s uncertain if the public consultations will be enough, with many protesters calling for Macron’s resignation or an immediate referendum on his presidency.

“I had some hope with this ‘great debate’, but it’s not looking good because they don’t want to talk about taxes, and they’re the ones who are deciding the subjects,” said Patrick Lerest, a 62-year-old protester in Nemours, southeast of Paris.

“I want us to have a real debate,” he said.

The investigation — a dual counterintelligence and criminal probe — was launched after the president fired FBI director James Comey in May 2017, the Times said, citing anonymous sources.

The counterintelligence aspect consisted of determining whether Trump was knowingly or unknowingly working for Moscow and whether he was a threat to national security, the newspaper reported.

It added the criminal portion related to Trump’s firing of Comey.

The FBI investigation was soon folded into Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 vote and possible collusion between his campaign and Moscow, it said, adding that it was unclear if the counterintelligence aspect was still being pursued.

The Times said that the FBI had been suspicious of Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign.

But it held off on opening an investigation until the president sacked Comey, who refused to swear his allegiance and roll back the nascent Russia investigation, which is now being spearheaded by Mueller.

A ‘witch hunt’?

Trump has repeatedly criticized the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt” and views it as a stain on the legitimacy of his presidency.

But while Trump has slammed the probe as baseless, Mueller has issued dozens of indictments and steadily chalked up convictions of some of the president’s close associates — including his former national security advisor, his former personal lawyer, and his ex-campaign chief.

The ex-national security advisor, Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his Moscow ties.

The lawyer, Michael Cohen, has been sentenced to three years in prison for multiple crimes, including felony violations of campaign finance laws he undertook, prosecutors alleged, under Trump’s direction.

And Trump’s former presidential campaign chair, Paul Manafort, has been convicted in one case brought by Mueller and pleaded guilty in another, over financial crimes related to his work in Ukraine before the 2016 campaign, and for witness tampering.

Cell phone records show that Cohen was near Prague during the summer of 2016, supporting claims that he met there with Russian officials during the presidential election campaign, McClatchy news service has reported.

Cohen, who will testify in Congress on February 7, insists that he has never been to Prague, but added in a tweet: “#Mueller knows everything!”

As for Manafort, two pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchs were the intended recipients of US polling data that Manafort admitted to sharing with a Russian during the 2016 presidential race, CNN reported.

Manafort admitted in a court filing to sharing the data with Russian political consultant Konstantin Kilimnik, who reportedly has intelligence ties, but denied lying about these dealings, claiming that he merely forgot details during the hectic campaign.

The specifics of the Mueller allegations were not previously known publicly, having been blacked out in a heavily redacted December 7 filing by the prosecutor’s team.

But in Manafort’s response, the electronic formatting for the redaction could easily be bypassed, revealing exactly what he was accused of lying about.

The Mueller investigation is set to continue to cast a cloud over the White House: a judge has given an extension to the secret grand jury empanelled in the probe, extending its original 18-month mandate.

Castro would become the most high-profile Democrat to date to officially enter the 2020 race, which is expected to include a diverse field of candidates eager to challenge President Donald Trump.

But the 44-year-old would be among the underdogs in a political showdown that may well feature heavyweights like former vice president Joe Biden, US senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, and perhaps even billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a progressive Democrat, said Friday she will officially announce her presidential run in the coming days.

Castro’s strong oratory skills, experience as Barack Obama’s housing secretary and as mayor of the nation’s seventh largest city, not to mention his telegenic charisma, could help propel the Texas native into the top tier.

He would also become the third prominent Latino presidential candidate in four years, after Republican senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio fought Trump for their party’s nomination in 2016.

Castro’s candidacy could also help revive Democratic enthusiasm among Latino voters, who supported Hillary Clinton but at a lower rate than Obama.

Trump made immigration a flashpoint of that race, and it remains among the nation’s most contentious issues. The US government remains locked in a partial shutdown, soon to begin its fourth week, over Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in border wall funding.

– A “great guy” –

Castro’s national profile took off in 2012 when he became the first Latino to give a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

Four years later he was a finalist to be Clinton’s running mate.

Castro, a fierce Trump critic, is a third generation American. Last year he said he probably would not be in the United States if today’s strict immigration policies were in place when Castro’s grandmother crossed the border as a young girl in 1922.

In his convention speech Castro highlighted “an unlikely journey” that he has lived, including growing up with twin brother Joaquin, who is a US congressman. The phrase became the title of his new memoir that was published last month.

He has kept the contents of his announcement secret, but he is widely expected to reveal his White House ambitions.

“I’ll tell you and I’ll tell the world what I’m going to do,” he said this week on MSNBC.

Castro does not yet have the national recognition of luminaries Biden, Sanders and Warren.

Dena Grayson, a Democratic strategist, said Castro is a “great guy” and “phenomenal public speaker” who has potential broad appeal in states with large numbers of Hispanic voters, like California, Texas and Florida.

But standing out in a crowded field will be “difficult,” Grayson added.

Citing China’s foreign ministry of affairs, state broadcaster CCTV said Beijing is “closely following” the detention of Wang Weijing and has asked to arrange a consular visit “as soon as possible”.

The Chinese embassy in Poland has also asked Warsaw to “effectively ensure the legitimate rights and interests, and humanitarian and safe treatment of the person involved.”

A Polish man was also arrested for alleged espionage along with Wang on Tuesday. Both men are suspected of having “worked for Chinese services and to the detriment of Poland,” said Polish special services spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn.

He said their apartments and workplaces were searched, adding that the Polish suspect had worked “for several state institutions”.

According to the LinkedIn profile of “Stanislaw Wang” — Wang’s Polish name, according to Polish media TVP — the detained Huawei employee worked at the Chinese consulate in Gdansk, Poland prior to his tenure at the Chinese tech firm.

At Huawei, Wang worked as a public relations director for more than five years before moving into his current role as sales director in 2017.

He is a graduate of the Beijing University of Foreign Studies.

The arrest of Wang is the latest setback for Huawei.

The firm’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada last month on request from the United States, who have accused her of violating Iranian sanctions.

Following her arrest two Canadians were detained in China on grounds of national security, in what has largely been seen as retaliation for the case.

The incident has also sparked a surge of patriotism in China with companies encouraging staff to buy Huawei smartphones — and several companies even offering employee subsidies to buy phones from the home-grown company.

Huawei in December said it expects to see a 21 percent rise in revenue for 2018 despite what it called “unfair treatment” around the world, as several countries have banned Huawei telecommunications technology.

Last month, Britain’s largest mobile provider BT said that it would remove Huawei equipment from its cellular network after the foreign intelligence service called the company a security risk.

Australia and New Zealand have also enacted similar bans, leaving Canada the only country in the “Five Eyes” intelligence network not to take steps against the Chinese firm.

Pattaya police chief Pol Col Apichai Krobphet held a press conference on Saturday to announce the arrest of Chen Hung Cheng, 27, a Taiwanese, and Wang Fuhui, 30, a Chinese.

The two were arrested following a tip-off at their rented house at the Seagull Village housing estate near Jomtien Beach on Friday. Police found 17 fake credit cards, three computers and a card writer and reader.

The two said the stolen information on the credit cards belonged to card holders overseas. They said they made the fake cards and sent them to an accomplice in Laos to buy goods as they dared not use the fake cards in Thailand.

Apichai said the immigration police would inform their counterparts in Laos to arrest the accomplice.

The subject of a nationwide search since her parents were found murdered in their home in rural Wisconsin in October, Closs made a seemingly miraculous escape Thursday afternoon, seeking help from a neighbor who alerted authorities.

Minutes later, police arrested the man she identified as her captor, Jake Thomas Patterson, and have charged him with abducting Closs and fatally shooting her parents.

“Jayme was taken against her will and escaped from the residence in which she was being held and found help,” Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald told reporters.

The teen was said to be in good health and was to be reunited with her extended family late Friday. She was cleared to leave the hospital and has been talking to investigators.

“She is doing as well as circumstances will allow,” Fitzgerald said.

Patterson, who had no previous criminal record in Wisconsin, is accused of carefully planning his attack — specifically targeting the young teen for reasons that remained unclear.

He was to appear in court Monday.

Crying teen sought neighbor’s help

Closs was being held in a rural home approximately 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of her home in Barron, Wisconsin.

She escaped and ran to a vacation cabin where Jeanne Nutter was just returning from walking her dog at around 4:30 pm Thursday.

“She said she was lost, she didn’t know where she was,” Nutter told AFP.

“I didn’t know the situation until she got near me, and then she told me her name, and I knew who she was because I’d seen her picture everywhere.”

The 66-year-old took the teen to a neighbor’s home, where they called police.

Nutter said Closs appeared traumatized but in good physical condition, wearing an oversized sweatshirt and large shoes that were clearly not her own.

“She was crying when I first met her, but once I grabbed hold of her and held her as she walked, then she was calm,” she said.

Trail had gone cold

Detectives have not yet established what had happened to the teen over the last three months, the motive for the kidnapping, or how she escaped.

Patterson was the authorities’ only suspect, described as unemployed and a long-time resident of rural Gordon.

He was arrested Thursday without resistance while driving in his car. Police believe he had been searching for Jayme.

The sheriff said they found a number of weapons at his home, including a shotgun that resembled the one used to shoot open the Closs’s front door in the middle of the night on October 15 and kill Jayme’s parents James Closs, 56, and Denise Closs, 46.

A nationwide search for Jayme had left law enforcement frustrated with few clues and a trail that had gone cold.

“The suspect had specific intentions to kidnap Jayme and went to great lengths to prepare to take her,” the sheriff said, such as shaving his head to avoid leaving traces of identifying evidence behind.

There were no immediate links that explained how or why Patterson allegedly targeted Jayme Closs.

While the young man worked at the same meat processing plant as Jayme’s parents nearly three years ago, he did so for only one day and police said there is no evidence that there was any contact between them.

“At this time, nothing in this case shows the suspect knew anyone at the Closs home or at any time had contact with anyone in the Closs family,” Fitzgerald said.

’88 days of prayers’

Closs’s extended family and community in Barron were jubilant at her recovery.

Police said they sent three teams to tell family members at various locations that she had been found, including one group that was attending a basketball game.

“When we said she was found safe and alive, (there were) tears and lots of hugs,” Fitzgerald said.

Speaking to Fox News, Jayme’s aunt Kelly Engelhardt said, “We are beyond words. My family cannot express how happy we are.”

Asked if there would be a community celebration in her honor, the superintendent of the Barron Area School District that Jayme attended, said, “You better believe it.”

“There is so much love and hugs in our district today,” Diane Tremblay said.

“It has been 88 days of hope for her safe return, 88 days of prayers.”