Senior Trump official faked Time cover, gilded resumé: report

MANILA — A senior Trump administration official, who was falsely reported as the next US envoy to the Philippines, created a fake Time magazine cover with her face on it and exaggerated her professional background in her resumé, NBC News reported Wednesday. 

Mina Chang, the deputy assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Conflict and Stability Operations, brought a Time magazine cover with her face to a 2017 interview where she described her work in disaster response, said the report. 

The cover is "not authentic," Time magazine spokesperson Kristin Matzen was quoted as saying by the broadcaster. 

Chang, who assumed her post in April, also "inflated her educational achievements and exaggerated the scope of her nonprofit's work," the report said. 

The 35-year-old Chang "invented a role on a UN panel, claimed she had addressed both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and implied she had testified before Congress," NBC News said. 

In her official biography, Chang said she is an "alumna" of Harvard Business School. The university said Chang attended a 7-week course in 2016, and does not hold a degree from the institution, the report added. 

Chang helps oversee efforts to prevent conflicts from erupting in politically unstable countries in her current post, earning a "6-figure salary in a bureau with a $6 million budget", said NBC News. 

The report said Chang was considered for an even higher government post in which she would have overseen the US Agency for International Development's work in Asia. 

Her nomination to the job, which had a budget of more than $1 billion, was withdrawn on Sept. 9 without public explanation after senators asked her for more documents and details about her nonprofit organization and work experience, NBC News said. 

It said Chang, the State Department and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. 

The Philippine Star and political news website Politiko in July reported that Chang was going to be America's next representative in the Philippines, which the US Embassy belied. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

13-year-old rescued after dozen hours in LA sewer

LOS ANGELES - A 13-year-old boy has been rescued after spending 12 hours trapped in a maze of sewer tunnels in Los Angeles.

"I was just praying to God to help me and to not die," Jesse Hernandez told NBC News. "You could just hear the water running through. You couldn't see anything."

Jesse was on an Easter Sunday outing with his family at Griffith Park, one of the largest urban parks in the United States, when he and his cousins went to explore an abandoned building, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The boys were jumping on wooden boards when a plank broke, sending Jesse plunging 25 feet (8 meters) down a sewer pipe around 4:30 pm, the newspaper said.

A massive rescue effort was launched involving more than 100 firefighters, police and sanitation workers.

At 4 am Monday morning, sanitation workers lifted up a manhole cover and found Jesse looking up at them, the Times said.

He had traveled about two-thirds of a mile (over 1 kilometer) from where he fell into the sewer.

"This young man rose like Jesus," Bryant Jones, a city sanitation manager, was quoted as saying by the Times.

Jesse was taken to hospital, decontaminated and released.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

NBC News launches new broadcast on Snapchat

NEW YORK - NBC News launched a news show Wednesday on Snapchat, a first-of-its- kind broadcast aimed at wooing a younger audience.

The program "Stay Tuned," produced by a 30-person team, resembles a regular news broadcast in that it is presented by a journalist seen on-screen. But it lasts just three minutes and consists of a rapid-fire series of video clips, none lasting even 10 seconds.


Like other news organizations that broadcast content on social media, mainly Facebook, NBC News uses subtitles on "Stay Tuned" so people can watch videos without sound.

NBC News will run the program live twice daily during the week and once a day on weekends. Recorded versions can be seen on Snapchat's Discover platform.

NBC will sell ad space for the program and share the revenue with Snapchat, CNBC reported. NBC News did not respond to an AFP request for confirmation of this.

NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC and a unit of cable operator Comcast, invested $500 million in Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, when it went public in March.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump within reach of shock White House win

NEW YORK - Billionaire populist Donald Trump was poised for a possible shock victory over Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's historic US presidential election, as a string of swing state victories for the Republican jolted world markets and stunned her supporters.

As polls closed and media called state races one-by-one, giving the key battleground states of Ohio, Florida and North Carolina to the Republican maverick, pollsters scrambled to update their forecasts and point to an improbable upset.

Clinton -- the 69-year-old Democratic former first lady, senator and secretary of state -- began the day as the narrow favorite to win the White House and become America's first female president.

But Trump's string of successes reflected how deeply divided the American electorate has become, and showcased his ability to tap into white blue-collar voters' resentment of cultural change linked to immigration and the loss of manufacturing jobs at home.

World markets plunged as US observers awaited results from the Rust Belt state of Pennsylvania, the northeastern state of New Hampshire, and the northern states of Michigan and Wisconsin -- all now vital to Clinton's hopes.

Mexico's peso plummeted over fears that Trump will make good on his vow to wall off America's neighbor to the south.

Safe haven assets rallied, with the yen and gold rushing higher, and Wall Street futures fell 3.7 percent in after-hours trade. Asian markets were in turmoil, with Indian stocks dropping six percent.

Clinton supporters who had gathered at a glittering reception in New York expecting to hear a victory speech from Clinton fell quiet and jabbed nervously at their phones.

Major donors had tears in their eyes as they stared stupefied at the screens, and an audible gasp filled the room when North Carolina went into Trump's win column.

"Not great," muttered railroad retiree Joan Divenuti, who came all the way from Massachusetts to cheer her heroine. "Florida was always a problem," she added.

Across town at the Trump election party, the 70-year-old property tycoon's supporters -- a more well-heeled crowd than the blue-collar Midwesterners he is counting on for victory -- cheered and pumped their fists at each advance.

"I think we're going to win," said 22-year-old Brendon Pena, who works for a company that leases office space in the soaring Trump Tower.

"I was always positive. I think Donald Trump is a really smart guy. He knows what we're going to do and we're going to win the election."

At 11:30 pm (0430 GMT), Trump was projected to win 24 states worth 229 electoral college votes, within striking distance of the 270 he needs.

Clinton stood at a projected 209 electoral votes.

- 'Whatever happens, thank you' -

This team has so much to be proud of. Whatever happens tonight, thank you for everything. pic.twitter.com/x13iWOzILL

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 9, 2016

On the legislative side, the Republicans were on course to retain their majority in the US House of Representatives, according to network projections -- a situation that has been a thorn in the side of incumbent President Barack Obama.

Clinton tweeted: "This team has so much to be proud of. Whatever happens tonight, thank you for everything."

She and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, huddled in a hotel near the venue to prepare a victory -- or concession -- speech.

Earlier, the Clintons voted near their home in Chappaqua, before emerging to shake hands and chat with the crowd.

An exit poll by CNN found that only four in 10 voters were optimistic that Obama's successor would do any better than he has during his two terms in office.

Trump, 70, cast his ballot alongside his wife Melania in a Manhattan school gymnasium.

"Right now it's looking very good," he told reporters -- paying no heed to protesters who welcomed him with chants of "New York hates you!"

- Tough contest -

The 2016 race was the most bruising in modern memory.

Obama's election eight years ago as the nation's first black president had raised hopes of uniting Americans, but the current contest has only highlighted the country's divisions -- and the fact that voters are not necessarily happy with their options.

Exit polls by ABC News and NBC News found that both Clinton and Trump are seen as untrustworthy by majorities of voters, while most find Trump's temperament unpresidential.

But his supporters flocked to the polls.

"It's unbelievable. I didn't know Trump was really going to pull it off," said Glenn Ruti, a New Yorker who works in telecommunications.

"I think he's going to go all the way. The country wants change."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Gay Americans are shaken, unbowed by nightclub attack

NEW YORK - For many Americans, gay bars and nightclubs have long served as a place of refuge, a carefree place filled with like-minded souls away from the relatives, employers or anyone else who might judge them disapprovingly, or worse.

The massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida was seen as a jarring reminder of the discrimination they can still face, giving some renewed cause to march through city streets on Sunday in the Gay Pride events that fill the June calendar.

What compelled Omar Mateen to kill people dancing and mingling at Orlando's Pulse nightclub in the early hours of Sunday in the deadliest shooting spree in U.S. history is still being investigated. But the killer's father told NBC News his son had become angry after seeing two men kissing in Miami recently.

President Barack Obama, gay-rights groups and parade goers at Gay Pride events on Sunday cast the killings as an affront to the civil liberties of gay people after a string of hard-fought legal successes, including the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling a year ago that all 50 states must allow same-sex marriage.

"An incident like this brings the hatred that does exist out there to the forefront," Craig Baldwin said as he joined hundreds of people gathering in Washington, D.C., for the annual Gay Pride festival on Sunday, where people were by turns somber and defiant. A 39-year-old director for the Shakespeare Theater Company, Baldwin was handing out stickers that said "Shakespeare - Boys Kissing Boys Since 1592."

"It is a reminder of what we have to do to spread love, not hate," he said.

Julie Sibbing, 53, choked back tears as she discussed the shooting, saying it was important for her not to skip the parade.

"There is risk in this life and we're not going to let hate win," she said. "We've got to be amongst the family today. Everybody is suffering. I think we all kind of want to be together today."

In Orlando, leaders of groups that service LGBT residents announced an effort to raise money for the victims of the shooting had amassed more than $430,000 within hours.

"We will love and support the victims even as we join to eradicate the hatred that lies at the core of this violence," said Mary Meeks, a prominent Florida civil rights lawyer.

FLOWERS AT STONEWALL

Gay Pride parades in cities across the United States have grown out of the marches in 1969 protesting the police raids at the Stonewall Inn, a long-standing New York City bar that served gay people who were otherwise ostracized from society.

Rebecca Triglianos and Nicole Martin, a couple from Irvington, New York, contemplated the growing pile of flowers on Sunday outside the bar, a designated National Historic Landmark for its role in the gay-rights movement.

"This is a meeting space, we came here to celebrate marriage equality so we would come here to mourn a loss as well," said Triglianos, referring to the jubilant crowds that spontaneously gathered at the Greenwich Village bar a year ago to celebrate the Supreme Court's marriage decision.

Obama evoked the important role that bars and nightclubs have played in gay American life in his somber remarks on the attack at Pulse.

"The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub," he said. "It is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds, and to advocate for their civil rights."

Some older Americans recalled the widespread public indifference that greeted the early years of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, in which thousands of gay men died, and saw in the outpouring of sympathy following Sunday's attack a welcome sign of changed times.

"The younger gay community has never really witnessed anything as devastating on the community as the older community did with HIV," said Raymond Michael Sharpe, 55, a bartender at another Orlando gay club. "This time, we have the support of the whole world behind us, thank God."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Disgraced NBC anchor demoted; black successor makes history

Disgraced US television news anchor Brian Williams was dumped from NBC's nightly news program Thursday, and replaced by the first African American to helm a weekday network evening newscast.

The 56-year-old Williams -- whose embellishment of an Iraq war story led to his suspension -- has been shifted to sister cable network MSNBC, where he will take over as anchor of breaking news and special reports in mid-August.

Lester Holt -- who has been filling in for Williams -- will permanently take over as anchor of NBC Nightly News, in a breakthrough for black journalists.

Williams was suspended in February for six months and saw his work investigated after he admitted changing a tale about coming under fire and amid accusations that he stretched the truth on other occasions.

NBC said Williams "made a number of inaccurate statements about his own role and experiences covering events in the field" following a probe into more than 10 years of his reporting.

"The statements in question did not for the most part occur on NBC News platforms or in the immediate aftermath of the news events, but rather on late-night programs and during public appearances, usually years after the news events in question," it said in a statement.

Andrew Lack, chairman of NBC News and MSNBC, said Williams now had the chance to earn back everyone's trust.

"His excellent work over 22 years at NBC News has earned him that opportunity," he said.

Williams, who reportedly earned $10 million a year and drew in an audience of an estimated nine million people as host of NBC Nightly News, apologized in the same statement.

"I'm sorry. I said things that weren't true. I let down my NBC colleagues and our viewers, and I'm determined to earn back their trust," he said, promising to support his successor "100 percent."

Holt, who is also 56, has been a television reporter for 34 years, and joined the network in 2000.

The National Association of Black Journalists hailed his appointment.

"It is thrilling to see that an African-American will for the first time in television history be the solo anchor of an network evening newscast," said NABJ Vice President-Broadcast Dedrick Russell.

In 1978, Max Robinson became America's first black television network news anchor when he was made part of a three-anchor team at ABC's World News Tonight, the association said.

A decade later, Carole Simpson took over as weekend anchor of the same program.

Lack, the NBC News and MSNBC chairman, praised Holt for his "outstanding work" and for performing "remarkably well over the last few months under very tough circumstances" as Williams' stand-in.

"In many ways, television news stands at a crossroads, and Lester is the perfect person to meet the moment," he said.

Holt said he was "very proud and grateful to be part of such an unflappable and dedicated team of professionals as we move forward together."

Williams admitted that a story about his helicopter coming under fire in Iraq was not true, after criticism from troops there at the time.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

NBC's Brian Williams suspended 6 months over Iraq claims

Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC's top-rated "Nightly News" program, has been suspended without pay for six months after admitting last week that a story he told about coming under fire on a helicopter during the Iraq war was not true, the network said on Tuesday.

As one of America's most prominent journalists, Williams' suspension and sudden downfall casts a pall over the Comcast Corp-owned network and its reputation as one of the most authoritative sources for news in the United States.

"By his actions, Brian has jeopardized the trust millions of Americans place in NBC News," NBC Universal chief executive Steve Burke said in a statement from the network. "His actions are inexcusable and this suspension is severe and appropriate."

Williams, 55, a star anchor who has led "Nightly News" since 2004, has told different versions of a tale in which a U.S. military helicopter he was riding in during the first days of the Iraq war in 2003 was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

His suspension comes after he voluntarily took himself off the air on Saturday and five days after NBC News launched an inquiry into his story of the event.

NBC News president Deborah Turness said in a memo to staff that the inquiry is still ongoing.

Backlash against Williams, who also served as managing editor of the newscast, swiftly gained steam from soldiers on social media after a Jan. 30 "Nightly News" segment in which Williams retold a version of the story.

'Completely inappropriate'

U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes first reported on a number of soldiers who disputed Williams' claims, saying he was not on or near the helicopter that was hit.

"This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian's position," Turness said in the memo.

Williams' fall from grace has also sparked a wider debate about the role of the news anchor at a time when the influence and relevance of the nightly network broadcast has waned in the Internet age.

Williams' apology last week, in which he said he misremembered the event, was widely mocked and criticized. He also struggled to explain himself in an interview with Stars and Stripes on how he misrepresented the story.

"Because I knew we had all come under fire, I guess I had assumed that all of the airframes took some damage because we all went down," Williams told the newspaper in a Feb. 4 interview that was published on Monday.

Lester Holt, the weekend anchor of "Nightly News," will continue to fill in for Williams, the memo said.

Williams built on his celebrity as an anchor by frequently appearing elsewhere on television such as late night talk shows and hosting NBC's sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live."

The newscast, which averaged about 10.2 million viewers for the week ended Feb. 2, pulled in an estimated $148 million in advertising revenue during the third quarter, according to Kantar Media.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

NBC to investigate anchor Williams' Iraq war reporting

NEW YORK - NBC launched an internal probe on Friday into top-rated "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams' debunked claim that he was aboard a helicopter that was downed by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In an internal memo, NBC News President Deborah Turness told staffers that a team would gather the facts about the incident in which Williams, 55, falsely said he was in a U.S. Army helicopter that was hit and forced down by an RPG.

"This has been a difficult few days for all of us at NBC News," she said. "As you would expect, we have a team dedicated to gathering the facts to help us make sense of all that has transpired."

Williams apologized on TV on Wednesday for "making a mistake" after veterans complained about the claim he made during a broadcast last week, saying it was not true.

But the lie threatens his credibility as the anchor and managing editor of NBC's flagship evening news program.

"I was instead in a following aircraft. We all landed after the ground fire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a sandstorm in the Iraq desert," Williams said in his apology.

He blamed it on repeatedly watching a video of himself looking at the impact damage and "the fog of memory over 12 years" that he said made him misremember.

The probe by the network's investigative unit is being headed by Richard Esposito, who was formerly the editor of Daily News newspaper of New York, according to media reports.

The apology by Williams did little to quell the uproar and cast doubt about whether he would be able to continue in his role at NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp.

"We're working on what the best next steps are," Turness added in the memo.

NBC did not respond to requests for comment, and Williams appeared on his evening news show on Friday.

But the Emmy-winning anchor was ridiculed on social media and in the press for his "lame apology."

"Now Williams is under fire," read a banner headline in the New York Post, which listed other interviews and news segments in which he spoke about his helicopter being forced down.

Williams is also facing scrutiny about his remarks about covering Hurricane Katrina. In an interview he spoke about seeing a deceased man float face down from his hotel window in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

But a former city health director, Dr. Brobson Lutz, told the New Orleans Advocate he questioned Williams' account because the historic district did not experience as much flooding as other parts of the city.

Lutz was also dubious about comments Williams made in another interview when he said he suffered from dysentery after mistakenly drinking flood water while covering Katrina.

"I saw a lot of people with cuts and bruises and such, but I don't recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or the whole month afterwards," said Lutz.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Who shot bin Laden? Former US Navy SEALS make rival claims

WASHINGTON - Members of the U.S. Navy Seal commando team that killed Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan hideout in May, 2011 are making conflicting claims as to who actually shot the al Qaeda leader.

The Washington Post published a story on Thursday quoting Rob O'Neill, a former SEAL, as claiming to have fired the fatal shot that hit bin Laden in the forehead after O'Neill stormed into a room in bin Laden's house in Abbottabad.

The claim by O'Neill, who travels the country giving motivational speeches, was countered by a source close to another SEAL team member.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the team member told him the fatal shot was fired by one of two other men who entered the room before O'Neill.

The Post said O'Neill acknowledged shots were fired at bin Laden by at least two other Seal team members, including Matt Bissonnette, a former Seal who wrote a 2012 book about the raid entitled "No Easy Day."

The book did not identify the person who shot bin Laden.

NBC News quoted Bissonnette on Thursday as saying: "Two different people telling two different stories for two different reasons ... Whatever he (O'Neill) says, he says. I don't want to touch that."

Last year, after Esquire Magazine published an interview with an anonymous SEAL member, now widely reported to have been O'Neill, who claimed to have shot bin Laden, other media outlets questioned the account.

An article entitled "Who really killed bin Laden," by Peter Bergen, a CNN analyst and al Qaeda expert, quoted a then-serving SEAL team member saying the story as presented by Esquire was "complete B.S."

A representative of a speaker's organization which says it represents O'Neill said he was unavailable to comment. O'Neill's page on the website of the organization describes his career as a SEAL, but makes no mention of a role in killing bin Laden.

Bissonnette's lawyer, Robert Luskin, acknowledged Thursday that Bissonnette for some time had been under criminal investigation by both the Naval Criminal Investigation Service and the Justice Department for possible violations of a U.S. espionage law because he did not seek official clearance before publishing his book.

Bissonnette denies wrongdoing.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com