UNITED STATES
Phil Donahue dies at 88
Phil Donahue, who changed the face of daytime television with a long-running syndicated talk show that highlighted topical and often provocative social and political issues, has died at age 88, NBC’s Today show reported on Monday, citing a statement from his family. Donahue died surrounded by his family on Sunday following an illness, it said. Debuting in 1970 when daytime television offered its mostly female viewers a diet of soap operas, game shows and homemaking programs, Donahue’s show tackled subject matter once considered taboo for television — including abortion, the sexual revolution and race relations. With his boyish charm, irrepressible energy and thick white hair, Donahue was known for aggressively questioning his guests and bounding through the studio to give his audience a chance to be heard. The success of his show paved the way for other daytime talk-show hosts, most notably Oprah Winfrey, whose program eventually eclipsed Donahue’s in the ratings. “If it weren’t for Phil Donahue, there never would have been an Oprah show,” Winfrey has said.
PHILIPPINES
Ex-mayor seen in Indonesia
A former local official embroiled in alleged money laundering through China-centric online casinos has left the country, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission said. Dismissed mayor Alice Guo arrived in Kuala Lumpur from Denpasar, Indonesia, on July 18 then flew to Singapore after three days, commission spokesman Winston Casio said in a message to reporters late on Monday, citing immigration records from these countries. Guo arrived in Batam, Indonesia, from Singapore via a ferry boat on Sunday, he added. Her lawyer, Stephen David, said in a phone call yesterday that Guo told him she was still in the Philippines. The ex-mayor’s bank accounts were earlier frozen over suspected money laundering, human trafficking and fraud. The Department of Justice yesterday said it would investigate how Guo was able to exit the country, despite an immigration lookout bulletin order that directs authorities to closely monitor her movements.
JAPAN
PM election on Sept. 27
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) yesterday said it would select a new leader — and by extension the likely next prime minister — on Sept. 27. Following plummeting approval ratings, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week announced that he would step down next month. Campaigning to become the next LDP president is to begin on Sept. 12 with a vote two weeks later, an internal committee decided early yesterday, a party official said. A hodgepodge of candidates, from party veterans to rising young stars and three women, are reportedly weighing their chances and seeking to rally intraparty support.
JAPAN
Fuji barrier taken down
A barrier erected to block a popular view of Mount Fuji has been taken down — for now — after succeeding in discouraging unruly tourists, a town official said yesterday. Fujikawaguchiko put up the large screen in May after residents complained about streams of mostly foreign visitors causing problems while trying to snap photos of the famous volcano. The town on Thursday lowered the screen ahead of a typhoon and has decided not to put it back up. “We wanted to see what would happen,” the town official said. “There are still some people who come to the place. But we no longer find many people suddenly rushing out into the traffic to cross the road.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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