Alibaba Group (9988.HK) founder Jack Ma has been invited to be a visiting professor at Tokyo College, a new organization run by the University of Tokyo, the university said on Monday.

The appointment term for China’s best-known entrepreneur finishes at the end of October, but the contract is renewable on an annual basis, the university said.

At the college, Ma will be engaged in areas including advising on important research themes and giving lectures on management and business start-ups.

The announcement came after Ma returned to China in March, ending a stay overseas of more than a year that industry viewed as reflecting the sober mood of the country’s private businesses after a tough two-year regulatory crackdown.

The Tokyo College was founded in 2019 to serve as an interface between the University of Tokyo and overseas researchers and research institutions.

Burial from the excavation of Boulevard de Port-Royal in Paris, in 2023. The burials of a large necropolis, located south of Lutèce in the 2nd century AD, have been unearthed.

Nicolas Warmé, Inrap

• 2,000-year-old skeletons have been found in a graveyard near Notre Dame Cathedral.
• Remains of at least 50 men, women, and children were unearthed during excavation for a train line.
• About half of the burials had objects like cups, jugs, or dishes buried with them.

A 2,000-year-old necropolis — a city of the dead — has been found in an excavation near Notre Dame Cathedral. 

The remains of at least 50 men, women, and children were found in coffins discovered during a dig to expand an existing commuter train line in the former Gallo-Roman town of Lutetia, where the iconic Parisian cathedral stands today.

“What’s so exceptional about this is that we have a window into our past, which is quite rare in this city,” El Pais reported Dominique Garcia, president of France’s National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), which led the project, said.

In the 2nd century, the living kept their distance from the dead, burying their loved ones in elaborate sprawling tombs, called necropolises, built to honor those who had passed on — and kept them detached from the cities of the living.

General view of the excavation of Boulevard Port-Royal in Paris, in 2023. The burials of a large necropolis, located south of Lutèce in the 2nd century AD , have been unearthed.

Camille Colonna, Inrap

“Drawing on their funeral rites, we can reach a kind of general vision of the people who lived in Paris in the second century,” Garcia added.

At least half of the burial sites contained artifacts like cups, dishes, and other pieces of glass, according to a press release from INRAP. Others contained clothing, jewelry, pins, and belts. 

“At that time, the feeling was that there was another life after death, so people placed things in the grave that would help the dead person to survive in the afterlife,” El Pais reported Garcia said. “That’s why objects from everyday life have been found, as well as pitchers that very likely contained food.”

Cross-checking of two burials from the excavation of the Boulevard de Port-Royal in Paris in 2023. The burials of a large necropolis, located south of Lutèce in the 2nd century AD, have been unearthed.

Camille Colonna, Inrap

In some coffins, the dead were buried with a coin placed in their coffin or in their mouth — “this practice, common in antiquity, is probably the obol of the ferryman of the underworld, Charon,” according to INRAP.

One pit unearthed by the researchers contained the skeleton of a whole pig, though it is unclear what purpose it may have served.

Representatives for INRAP did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. 

Ceramic goblet discovered in a burial on the excavation of the boulevard Port-royal in Paris, in 2023. The burials of a large necropolis, located south of Lutèce in the 2nd century of our era, have been brought to light.

Nicolas Warmé, Inrap

According to Smithsonian Magazine, this isn’t the first time the site, named the Saint-Jacques necropolis, has been unearthed by researchers.

In the 1800s, a portion of the ancient cemetery was unearthed by surveyors who were more concerned with the artifacts buried with the dead than the skeletons themselves. So they covered the site back up, only for it to be lost in time for two more centuries. 

After a 2019 fire caused damage to the historic structure, the area surrounding the Notre Dame Cathedral has been the subject of recent archaeological digs. Last year, researchers unearthed — and opened — a mysterious, human-shaped lead sarcophagus discovered underneath the cathedral.

Inside were human remains, later identified as belonging to Antoine de la Porte, 83, a high priest who died in 1710. According to Smithsonian Magazine, archaeologists learned the man’s identity and age from writing discovered on his coffin. 

When the appeals court cleared Mike Pence to testify to the grand jury against Donald Trump, and DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith had Pence on the stand just hours later, it was a clear indicator that Smith was very near the end of the indictment process. After all, Pence is the highest ranking witness, and they tend to testify last, or near to last.

That leaves the question of just how close Smith is. It’s still possible he could bring back other witnesses for followup testimony to provide additional context to the testimony that Pence just gave. And it’s also theoretically possible that Smith’s strategy could involve having someone else, such as Mark Meadows, or a Trump family member, be the final witness (although it’s possible such people have already testified and the media just didn’t pick up on it).

But legal expert Neal Katyal made an interesting point on Jen Psaki’s MSNBC show. He pointed out that even though Mike Pence ended up testifying semi-voluntarily in the end, there is no reason for Jack Smith to expect that he’ll be able to bring Pence back to the stand again. Pence testified because he knew he was going to end up having to. But would he come back for followup questions without a new court order? Probably not.

So when Jack Smith decided to put Mike Pence on the stand immediately after the courts cleared it, this likely meant that Smith had already completed every single aspect of the indictment process that could even remotely possibly churn up new questions to ask Pence on the stand. In other words, this investigation and indictment process really does have to be just about 99.9% done by now.

Katyal is now predicting that we’ll see Jack Smith acting “officially” in this investigation in the “next couple weeks.” He didn’t define what he meant by “officially,” but there’s very little that could refer to other than having the grand jury bring the first round of criminal indictments.

I won’t dare predict a specific timeframe of my own. But Katyal is onto something when he suggests that Jack Smith just tipped his own timetable for Trump’s indictment when he put Mike Pence on the stand the minute he was allowed to do so, rather than doing any additional cleanup work first. It suggests all the cleanup work was already done before Pence was even cleared to testify.

I will say this. Don’t be shocked if you simply get a news alert out of nowhere sometime soon – could be tomorrow or three weeks from now or four days from now – saying that Jack Smith and the DOJ have criminally indicted Donald Trump. There’s a good chance it’ll just come out of nowhere, with no media leaks beforehand. We’re close enough now that we can potentially expect an indictment at any time.

The post Jack Smith may have just tipped his timetable for indicting Donald Trump appeared first on Palmer Report.