Former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, new senior vice chairman of the presidential Peaceful Unification Advisory Council, speaks dung a ceremony at the council’s secretariat in Seoul, South Korea, 03 November 2025. Former South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan died 25 January 2026 while on a trip to Vietnam, a government advisory body said. He was 73. File. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
Jan. 25 (Asia Today) — Former South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan died Sunday while on a trip to Vietnam, a government advisory body said. He was 73.
The Secretariat of the National Unification Advisory Council said Lee died in Ho Chi Minh City at 2:48 p.m. local time.
The council said Lee was hospitalized Friday after his health deteriorated during the trip. He was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction and underwent a cardiac stent procedure but did not regain consciousness, it said.
Lee was born in 1952 in Cheongyang County, South Chungcheong Province. He served seven terms in the National Assembly and held senior roles in the Democratic Party, including leadership posts in 2012 and from 2019 to 2020.
He served as education minister under the Kim Dae-jung administration and later became prime minister under President Roh Moo-hyun, described as the first former activist to hold the post.
Lee also served as a standing adviser to President Lee Jae-myung’s election strategy committee during the 21st presidential election and was appointed senior vice chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council in October, the council said.
Transitional Presidential Council says plans to remove Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, flouting warnings from US.
Members of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) have announced plans to remove Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, flouting warnings from the United States against doing so.
The announcement on Friday further deepens a standoff with Washington over the leadership of the crisis-wracked Caribbean country, which has repeatedly delayed elections due to spiralling gang crime and instability.
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“We are the ones who appointed Didier Fils-Aime in November 2024,” council member Leslie Voltaire said at a news conference. “We are the ones who worked with him for a year, and it is up to us to issue a new decree naming a new prime minister, a new government and a new presidency.”
Five of the nine-member panel had voted in favour of removing Fils-Aime and replacing him within a 30-day period, several members said. However, the vote had yet to be published in the country’s official gazette as of late Friday, a necessary step before the decision becomes legally valid.
The TPC was established in 2024 as the country’s top executive body, a response to a political crisis stretching back to the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. It quickly devolved into infighting, questions over its membership and allegations of corruption.
The council ousted Prime Minister Garry Conille just six months after being formed, selecting Fils-Aime as his replacement.
Despite being tasked with developing a framework for federal elections, the council ended up postponing a planned series of votes that would have selected a new president by February.
Instead, tiered federal elections are now expected to start in August. Meanwhile, the council’s mandate is set to dissolve on February 7.
On Friday, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that he had spoken to Fils-Aime and “emphasised the importance of his continued tenure as Haiti’s Prime Minister to combat terrorist gangs and stabilise the island”.
Rubio added that the TPC “must be dissolved by February 7 without corrupt actors seeking to interfere in Haiti’s path to elected governance for their own gains”.
In addition, on social media, the US embassy in Haiti issued several statements in both French and Haitian Creole, warning that the politicians could face a steep cost.
“To the corrupt politicians who support gangs and sow trouble in the country: the United States will ensure they pay a heavy price,” the statement said, though some social media users interpreted the Creole phrase “pri final” or “final price” to imply even more dire consequences.
The volley of stark statements is being seen as a reflection of US President Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive actions in Latin America.
The heightened tensions come one day after the US embassy in Haiti warned that Washington would “regard any effort to change the composition of the government by the non-elected Transitional Presidential Council” as an “effort to undermine” Haiti’s security.
The US has not clearly articulated its issues with the council, but it had previously imposed visa restrictions on an unnamed Haitian official for “supporting gangs and other criminal organizations, and obstructing the government of Haiti’s fight against terrorist gangs designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations”.
TPC member and economist Fritz Alphonse Jean later revealed he had been the one targeted with the visa restrictions.
Jean, however, denied the US allegations and claimed the council was being pressured to acquiesce to the wishes of both the US and Canada.
The latest back-and-forth comes as more than 1.4 million Haitians remain internally displaced due to gang violence, with millions suffering from a lack of access to sufficient food as transport routes remain constricted.
Earlier this week, a United Nations report said that an estimated 8,100 people were killed in violence in the country between January and November of last year, a major uptick from 5,600 killed overall in 2024.
In a statement, Carlos Ruiz-Massieu, who leads the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), said the country had entered a “critical phase” in the push to restore democratic institutions that can properly respond to the nation’s woes.
“Let us be clear: The country no longer has time to waste on prolonged internal struggles,” he said.
For most of his adult life, Rafiul Alam did not believe that voting was worth the walk to the polling station. He is 27, grew up in a middle-class neighbourhood of Dhaka, and became eligible to vote nearly a decade ago. He never did – not in Bangladesh’s national elections in 2018, nor in the 2024 vote.
“My vote had no real value,” he said.
Like many Bangladeshis in his age group, Alam’s political consciousness formed under former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s long period of government, when opposition parties and election watchdogs repeatedly questioned the credibility of polls.
Over time, he said, disengagement with politics became normal, even rational, for a generation. “You grow up knowing elections exist, but believing they actually don’t have the power to decide anything. So you put your energy elsewhere… studies, work, even trying to leave the country,” he said.
This calculation began to shift for him in July 2024, when student protests over a government job reservation system favouring certain groups spiralled into a nationwide uprising. Alam joined marches in Dhaka’s Mirpur area and helped coordinate logistics for protests, as Hasina’s security forces launched a brutal crackdown.
The United Nations Human Rights Office later estimated that up to 1,400 people – most of them young – may have been killed before Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024, ending nearly 15 years in power.
When Hasina left, Alam said the moment felt like something that had appeared permanent had broken. “For the first time, it felt like ordinary people could push for a change,” he said. “Once you experience that, you feel responsible for what comes next.”
Bangladesh is now heading for a national election on February 12, the first since the uprising. European Union observers have described the upcoming vote as the “biggest democratic process in 2026, anywhere”. And Alam plans to vote for the first time.
“I’m thrilled to exercise my lost right as a citizen,” he said.
He is not alone. Bangladesh has about 127 million registered voters, nearly 56 million of them between the ages of 18 and 37, according to the Election Commission. They constitute about 44 percent of the electorate, and are a demographic widely seen as the driving force behind Hasina’s downfall.
“Practically speaking, anyone who turned 18 after the 2008 parliamentary election has never had the chance to vote in a competitive poll,” said Humayun Kabir, director general of the Election Commission’s national identity registration wing.
“That means people who have been unable to vote for the last 17 years are now in their mid-30s… and especially eager to cast their ballots.”
This eagerness comes after three post-2008 elections that “were not considered credible”, Ivars Ijabs, the EU’s chief observer, said.
The 2014 polls saw a mass opposition boycott, and dozens of seats where Hasina’s Awami League party faced no contest. The 2018 vote, though contested, became widely known as the “night’s vote”, after allegations that ballot boxes had been filled before polling day.
The 2024 election, meanwhile, again went ahead amid a major boycott by opposition parties, with critics arguing that conditions for a “fair contest did not exist”.
Protesters shout slogans as they celebrate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, August 5, 2024 [Rajib Dhar/AP]
A pivotal electorate
Fragmented by class, geography, religion and experience, Bangladesh’s young voters are united less by ideology than by a shared suspicion of institutions, which, for most of their adult lives, have failed to represent them, say analysts.
“There is a significant age gap between pre–Hasina regime voters and new voters,” said Fahmidul Haq, a writer and faculty member at Bard College in New York and a former professor at the University of Dhaka. “Because of the nature of elections under the Hasina administration, we do not know the actual level of public acceptance of the political parties.”
As a result, he said, the current cohort of first-time voters will play a decisive role in shaping the future direction of politics in Bangladesh. Haq described the upcoming election as a psychological release valve after years of repression, during which young people “could not hold their representatives accountable; rather, those representatives appeared to them as oppressors”.
Many young people still do not trust the existing system, Haq argued, and some remain sceptical of the democratic transition itself.
Umama Fatema, a Dhaka University student who emerged as a prominent leader during the 2024 protests, said the uprising generated powerful expectations among young people: promises of “no corruption, no manipulation, equality of opportunity and political reform”.
But translating these aspirations into institutions has proven far more difficult. As the transition unfolded, Fatema said the reform process, led by the interim administration of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, alongside manoeuvring by political parties – including those born out of 2024’s protests – became increasingly complex.
“Very few people and their aspirations have been meaningfully involved and incorporated,” she said.
Leader of National Citizen Party (NCP), Nahid Islam, addresses supporters during a political rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, August 3, 2025 [Mahmud Hossain Opu/ AP Photo]
A fraught alliance
With the Awami League barred from political activity by the interim Yunus government, the election has turned into a battle between two rival coalitions: one led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and the other by Jamaat-e-Islami.
For many young protesters, this outcome cuts against the spirit of 2024.
Pantho Saha, a 22-year-old student from the Cumilla district in the country’s southeast, said many with whom he protested in 2024 had hoped the leaders who emerged from the uprising would break what he described as the “same old dynastic” patterns.
That expectation began to fracture, he said, when the National Citizen Party (NCP), a youth-led formation born out of the protest movement, moved towards an electoral alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami. A far-right Islamist party, the Jamaat’s opposition to Bangladesh’s independence during the 1971 war has long limited its mainstream appeal.
“Historically, those who rule us come to power with big promises,” Saha said. “But after a few years, power blinds them, and the same abuses repeat.”
The NCP, he said, initially felt different. “We thought of the NCP as a beacon of light. But seeing it align with a party that carries so much historical baggage made many of us lose hope.”
Fatema, who led the protests alongside several figures who later founded the NCP, said the party’s alignment with the Jamaat risks shrinking the significance of the July 2024 uprising. “Over time, it could seriously damage how this uprising is remembered in history,” he warned.
The NCP positioned itself at its launch as a generational alternative to Bangladesh’s traditional parties, promising what it called a “new political settlement” rooted in the 2024 July movement. But as talks advanced over the electoral alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami, the party saw a wave of resignations, including from several senior figures and women leaders who had been expected to contest parliamentary seats. Many of them have since announced independent bids, saying the party was “drifting from its founding commitments”.
Nahid Islam, the NCP’s chief, has defended the alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami, describing it as a “strategic electoral arrangement aimed at greater unity”, rather than an ideological alignment.
People watch Bangladesh’s Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin’s address to the nation on a television, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, December 11, 2025 [Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP Photo]
Between hope and politics
Even so, the February 12 ballot carries particular weight for many younger Bangladeshis who helped drive last year’s uprising.
Moumita Akter, 24, a master’s student at Chittagong University who took part in the anti-Hasina protests, described the vote as “the first step to restore at least the most basic democratic practices”.
“I don’t expect miracles from a single vote. But I want to see whether the system can at least function properly. That alone would be a major change,” she said.
For others, like Sakibur Rahman, 23, a voter from the eastern Brahmanbaria district who studies philosophy at the University of Dhaka, the appeal of democracy remains conditional.
“You can talk about democracy all day, but if people don’t feel safe, can’t speak freely and can’t earn a living, democracy feels abstract, he told Al Jazeera.
Rahman said he would support whichever party could credibly guarantee public safety, freedom of expression, religious freedom, and minorities living without fear.
For many women voters, the calculation is sharper still. Women make up nearly half of Bangladesh’s electorate, but young women say questions of dignity and everyday security will shape their ballot.
“We hear promises of women’s rights, but the lived reality is far from ideal. That will shape how many of my female friends will vote,” Akter, the master’s student, said.
Yet the political field they are being asked to choose from remains overwhelmingly male. Election Commission data shows that only 109 of the 2,568 candidates contesting the election, or about 4.24 percent, are women.
Fatema said the political space for women has narrowed rather than expanded since the uprising. “After August 5, women who speak about their agency, their contributions, and their right to representation have been suppressed in many ways,” she said.
“Harassment, from online abuse to sexual threats, has become routine in political spaces.” These pressures are pushing women out of visible political roles, just as the country enters a critical political transition, she added.
Mubashar Hasan, a political observer and adjunct researcher at Western Sydney University’s Humanitarian and Development Research Initiative, said the disconnect between women’s prominence in protest movements and their marginalisation in formal politics raises doubts about the depth of reform.
“No structural change is possible without women’s political representation, and participation at the highest levels… both in parliament and in policymaking,” he said. “Without that, promises of any new political order remain incomplete.”
Fahmidul Haq of Bard College said political parties would have to approach young voters differently than in the past, by addressing “their traumas, desires, and demands sincerely”, and by campaigning with honesty and transparency.
“Young people are deeply sceptical of absurd promises,” he said, adding that those may in fact alienate them.
Still, something fundamental has changed. For Alam, the first-time voter from Dhaka’s Mirpur, July 2024 permanently altered how his generation relates to power.
“We now dare to question everyone,” he said. “Whoever comes to power, that habit won’t disappear.”
Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday said she will dissolve the parliament this week ahead of snap elections in February, a move to gain a mandate from voters for her economic goals. Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Pool/EPA
Jan. 19 (UPI) — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday called for a snap election three months after being elected to office in pursuit of a mandate to fuel what she said is major changes to policy there.
Takaichi said she plans to dissolve the lower house country’s parliament, the Diet, on Friday ahead of a snap election on Feb. 8 aimed at gaining a mandate from voters and a majority in the 465-seat House of Representatives, The Guardian and the Financial Times reported.
The prime minister also announced that she plans to suspend sales tax on food there for two years, reduce the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio and strengthen social security, among other moves to stimulate the country’s economy.
“I am putting my future as prime minister on the line,” Takaichi told reporters at a press conference. “I want the people to decide directly whether they can entrust the management of the country to me.”
Japan’s first female prime minister had been considering dissolving the parliament for at least a couple of weeks as her advisors urged her to take advantage of high approval ratings to gain a majority for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The conservative, nationalist LDP has held rule in the parliament for decades, but has under-performed in recent elections and relied on a coalition with the populist Japan Innovation Party to hold a thin majority.
Of the lower house’s 465 seats, the LDP-JIP coalition has 233.
Since Takaichi became prime minister last October, she has pursued aggressive spending to revitalize the Japanese economy, including by abolishing the provisional gasoline tax rate and increasing the nontaxable income there.
New England Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte catches a 32-yard pass for a touchdown as Houston Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. defends in the fourth quarter of an NFL Divisional round playoff game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., on January 18, 2026. The Patriots defeated the Texans 28-16 to reach the AFC Championship Game. Photo by CJ Gunther/UPI | License Photo
BEIJING — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Beijing on Wednesday night, beginning a four-day visit designed to repair foundering relations between the two nations as Canada looks to develop ties with countries other than the United States.
It’s the first visit of a Canadian leader to China in nearly a decade. Carney will meet with Premier Li Qiang, his counterpart as head of government, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We will double non-U.S. trade over the 10 years. That means we are cognizant of that fact that the global economic environment has fundamentally changed and that Canada must diversify its trading partners,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said in Beijing after she arrived with Carney for the visit.
China’s state media has been calling on the Canadian government to set a foreign policy path independent of the United States — what it calls “strategic autonomy.”
Canada has long been one of America’s closest allies, geographically and otherwise. But Beijing is hoping that President Donald Trump’s economic aggression — and, now, military action — against other countries will erode that long-standing relationship. Trump has said, among other things, that Canada could become the 51st U.S. state.
Carney has focused on trade, describing the trip to China as part of a move to forge new partnerships around the world to end Canada’s economic reliance on the American market. Trump has hit Canada with tariffs on its exports to the United States and suggested the vast, resource-rich country could become America’s 51st state.
The Chinese government bristled at former President Biden’s efforts to strengthen relations with Europe, Australia, India, Canada and others to confront China. Now it sees an opportunity to try to loosen those ties, though it remains cautious about how far that will go.
The downturn in relations started with the arrest of a Chinese tech executive in late 2018 at American request and was fueled more recently by the government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which decided in 2024 to follow Biden’s lead in imposing a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles. China has retaliated for both that and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum with its own tariffs on Canadian exports including canola, seafood and pork.
“The conversation has been productive. The negotiations are continuing,” Anand said when asked if she was optimistic about a deal to reduce tariffs on canola. “Prime Minister Carney is here to recalibrate the Canada-China relationship.”
Carney met with Xi in October at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.
Anthony and Gillies write for the Associated Press. Gillies reported from Toronto.
Al Michaels has been making play-by-play calls for prime time NFL games for 40 years.
His next game will be Saturday, when the Chicago Bears host the Green Bay Packers in an NFC wild-card game on Amazon Prime Video.
It won’t be his last.
Michaels will return to call games for Prime Video’s NFL coverage next season, the streaming service confirmed Friday. The 81-year-old Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer has been the play-by-play announcer for “Thursday Night Football,” with color commentator Kirk Herbstreit, since Prime Video acquired the rights to those games starting in the 2022 season.
After initially receiving a three-year deal from Amazon, which expired after 2024, Michaels reportedly worked this season under a one-year deal. Michaels told Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina in November that he would be happy to return in 2026 if Amazon would have him.
“It’s a two-way street here,” Michaels said. “They could tell me, ‘We got to move on, it’s time to make a transition,’ all that. I don’t know, that could happen. But as of the moment as we sit here on this mid-November afternoon, I feel really good, still love what I do and, again, work with a tremendous crew. So, yeah, I think at this moment in time, I would like to continue, yes.”
One of Michaels’ first jobs out of college was a very brief stint with the legendary Chick Hearn on Lakers radio broadcasts in 1967. Since then, he has gone on to announce some of the biggest moments in sports history, including his signature “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” call of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team’s upset of the Soviet Union.
The 2021 thriller is said to have a perfect balance of scary and shocking moments
The 2021 thriller likely flew under your radar (Image: Quiver Distribution)
An ‘underrated’ 2021 thriller that you probably missed is now available to stream on Prime Video.
The Girl Who Got Away (or Mother) didn’t gain much traction when it premiered but it sounds perfect for weekend viewing.
Written and directed by Michael Morrissey, the psychological horror centres on serial kidnapper and murderer Elizabeth Caulfield, who is imprisoned for abducting and murdering young girls she pretended were her daughters.
She had five victims, but one called Christina managed to escape. Twenty years on from her crimes, Elizabeth breaks out of prison to hunt down her only liberated victim. But Christina’s own dark past starts to unravel as her kidnapper tracks her down.
American actress Lexi Johnson leads the cast as Christina, with Nigerian-British actor Chukwudi Iwuji as local police officer Jamie. They are joined by The Matrix alum Kaye Tuckerman who plays the story’s villain, Elizabeth.
Although the mystery thriller didn’t reach wide audiences upon its debut, it still earned impressive ratings from audiences. Rotten Tomatoes viewers awarded it an 87% score.
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TV lovers can get 30 days’ free access to tantalising TV like The Boys, Reacher and Clarkson’s Farm by signing up to Amazon Prime. Just remember to cancel at the end and you won’t be charged.
One Google reviewer shared their five-star verdict, writing: “A perfect dose of scary and shock. An interesting theme with a unique plot. Good strong acting. I felt the latter half slipped through quickly with so many revelations coming to light suddenly. But must say this is an underrated gem.”
For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new **Everything Gossip** website.
While an IMDb user praised: “Was pleasantly surprised that what I thought was happening was close but the twists left me guessing until the very end. A few jump scares but builds a good storyline and the thriller/psychological terror is more the backburn to that. Strong cast performances.”
And a third fan posted: “Me and my wifey really liked this movie and were never bored I recommend it and don’t understand the negative reviews.”
This moviegoer was responding to a barrage of brutal reviews that the thriller also suffered. While some dubbed it a ‘must-watch’ others were less than impressed.
“Predictable & bordering on ridiculous,” penned one, with another slamming: “Don’t bother [watching]. It’s not even bad enough to be good.”
Those keen to form their own opinions can stream The Girl Who Got Away now on Prime Video.
Bangladesh’s first female prime minister Khaleda Zia has died at the age of 80 after suffering from prolonged illness.
Zia became Bangladesh’s first female head of government in 1991 after leading her party to victory in the country’s first democratic election in 20 years.
Physicians had said on Monday said her condition was “extremely critical”. She was put on life support, but it was not possible to provide multiple treatments at the same time given her age and overall poor health, they said.
Despite her poor health, her party had earlier said that Zia would contest general elections expected in February, the first since a revolution which led to the ousting of Zia’s rival, Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladeshi politics had for decades been defined by the bitter feud between the two women, who alternated between government and opposition.
“Our favourite leader is no longer with us. She left us at 6am this morning,” Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) announced on Facebook on Monday.
Crowds gathered outside Evercare Hospital in Dhaka where Zia was warded after news of her death broke. Photographs show police officers trying to stop them from entering the hospital premises.
Zia first came into public attention as the wife of Bangladesh’s former president Ziaur Rahman. Following his assassination in a 1981 military coup, Zia entered politics and later rose to lead the BNP.
After a second term in 1996 that lasted just a few weeks, Zia returned to the post of prime minister in 2001, stepping down in October 2006 ahead of a general election.
Her political career had been marred by corruption allegations and a long-standing political rivalry with Awami League leader Hasina.
Zia was jailed for corruption in 2018, under Hasina’s administration. Zia denied wrongdoing and said the charges were politically motivated.
She was released from last year, shortly after mass anti-government protests in Bangladesh toppled Hasina, forcing her into exile. The BNP had said in November that Zia would campaign in the upcoming general elections.
The BNP is eyeing a return to power, and if that happens, Zia’s son Tarique Rahman is expected to become the country’s new leader.
Zia had been in hospital for the past month, receiving treatment for kidney damage, heart disease and pneumonia, among other conditions.
During her final days, interim leader Muhammad Yunus had called for the country to pray for Zia, calling her a “source of utmost inspiration for the nation”.
Her family members, including Rahman, his wife and his daughter, were by her side in her last moments, BNP said.
“We pray for the forgiveness of her soul and request everyone to offer prayers for her departed soul,” the party said in its statement on Tuesday.
Local newspapers paid tribute to the former leader, with Prothom Alo saying she had “earned the epithet of the ‘uncompromising leader'”
English-language paper The Daily Star called her a “defining figure of Bangladesh’s democratic struggle” and a leader who was “tenacious in political survival and grit”.
Bangladesh’s first female prime minister dies after a prolonged illness in Dhaka, her party says.
Published On 30 Dec 202530 Dec 2025
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Bangladesh’s first female prime minister, Khaleda Zia, has died at a hospital in the country’s capital, Dhaka, after a prolonged illness, according to her party and local media.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Bangladesh National Party said Khaleda died at 6am local time.
She was 80 years old.
“Our beloved national leader is no longer with us. She left us at 6am today” the BNP said in the statement posted on Facebook.
Khaleda had advanced cirrhosis of the liver, arthritis, diabetes, chest and heart problems, her doctors said.
She died at the Evercare Hospital in Dhaka, where she was admitted to on November 23 with symptoms of a lung infection, according to local media.
