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.”
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of
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