UNITED STATES
NBC sacks TV host Lauer
Matt Lauer, the host of NBC television’s Today show on Wednesday was fired for what NBC called “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a colleague and was promptly confronted with a published report accusing him of crude and habitual misconduct with other women around the office. Network news boss Andrew Lack said in a memo to the staff that NBC received a complaint about Lauer’s behavior on Monday and determined he violated company standards. NBC said the misconduct started when Lauer and a network employee were at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and continued beyond that assignment. Lack said it was the first complaint lodged against Lauer in his 20 years at NBC, but “we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.” In other developments, former Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor was cut loose by Minnesota Public Radio over an allegation of “inappropriate behavior.” It gave no details, but the 75-year-old Keillor said he inadvertently put his hand on a woman’s bare back in an attempt to console her.
AUSTRALIA
Lawmaker quits party posts
Federal Senator Sam Dastyari yesterday resigned from his Labor Party leadership roles over scandals involving wealthy Chinese businessman and political donor Huang Xiangmo (黃向墨) that have raised accusations of China buying influence. Dastyari had been deputy Labor whip and chairman of a parliamentary committee examining the future of journalism. Fairfax Media reported this week that Dastyari gave the Chinese Communist Party-linked businessman countersurveillance advice when they met at Huang’s Sydney mansion in October last year. Dastyari has not denied the reports, but yesterday said he had no knowledge about whether Huang was under government surveillance at the time.
BANGLADESH
Pope to meet Rohingya
Pope Francis landed in Dhaka yesterday after wrapping up a diplomatically sensitive trip to Myanmar with a Mass for young people. The government is hoping that the pontiff’s three-day visit, during which he is to meet a group of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Dhaka, will help pressure the international community to find a lasting solution to the influx of Muslim Rohingya fleeing their homes in Myanmar amid what the UN has said is a textbook case of ethnic cleansing.
GAZA STRIP
Power transfer delayed
Fatah and Hamas on Wednesday agreed to delay final transfer of power of the Gaza Strip from Hamas to the Western-backed Palestinian government from today to Dec. 10 to allow time to “complete arrangements,” officials said. The factions signed a reconciliation deal last month that said Hamas would complete the handover by today, but disputes over the transfer process have emerged in recent days.
UNITED STATES
Chinese actress picked
It took a year of searching and nearly 1,000 candidates, but Walt Disney Studios has found its Mulan (花木蘭). The studio on Wednesday said Chinese actress Liu Yifei (劉亦菲, Crystal Liu) is to play the warrior in a live-action epic from director Niki Caro. The 30-year-old actress is well known in China as a model, actress and singer. She started in television and has appeared in more than a dozen films. Liu speaks fluent English and spent part of her teens in New York City. Caro’s film is expected to be released in 2019.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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