JURY DECIDES SMILEY MUST PAY PBS

WASHINGTON» A jury decided Wednesday that former television talk show host Tavis Smiley, who was fired amid allegations of workplace sexual misconduct at the height of the #MeToo movement, must pay about $1.5 million to his former employer, the Public Broadcasting Service.

Smiley was suspended in December 2017 and fired from PBS after the network said it received credible allegations of misconduct by Smiley on his late-night interview show.

He was on air with PBS for more than a decade, broadcast to more than 200 stations nationwide.

Smiley, who is black, was the only minority to have served as the solo host in the history of the network, according to his lawsuit.

He was fired amid the wave of #MeToo reports of sexual misconduct in the workplace by powerful figures in movies, media and politics that began with allegations against Harvey Weinstein and led to the departure of Smiley’s fellow PBS talk-show host Charlie Rose. Weinstein has been convicted in New York City of rape and sexual assault against two women and will be sentenced next week.

Syrian, Turkish armies engage in new deadly clashes in Idlib.

A NK A R A, Two more Turkish T U RKE Y soldiers were killed Wednesday in a Syrian government attack in Syria’s northwest, the country’s Defense Ministry

said, as steady clashes between the two armies continued to rack up casualties.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops into the area to support Syrian insurgents holed up there but hasn’t been able to stop a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive to retake the province of Idlib.

A Syrian opposition war monitor said nine Syrian soldiers were killed in Turkish drone attacks in the area.

The Turkish Defense Ministry’s statement said the latest Syrian attack on its troops also wounded six soldiers.

Netanyahu still short of majority after Israel’s election. LEM»

JER U S A

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fallen short of capturing the majority needed to form a government, near-final election results showed Wednesday, deepening a year of political deadlock and appearing to dash the long-serving leader’s hopes for a decisive victory as his trial on corruption charges nears.

In an angry tirade, Netanyahu conceded that he did not have the parliamentary support to form a new government right away. But he still tried to claim victory as he lashed out at his main opponent and disparaged the leading Arab party — the third-largest in parliament — as irrelevant.

“This is what the nation decided,” he said. “The public gave me more votes than any other candidate for prime minister in the nation’s history.”

Climate change affected Australia’s wildfires, scientists say. Confirming what had been suspected, researchers have found that human-caused climate change had an impact on Australia’s recent devastating wildfires, making the extremely high-risk conditions that led to widespread burning at least 30% more likely than in a world without global warming.

The researchers said the full influence of climate change on the fires probably was much greater but that climate simulations, which form the basis of this type of study, underestimate trends in extreme heat in Australia compared with realworld observational data.

“We’re very sure that is a definite number we can scientifically defend,” said the lead author of the study, Geert Jan van Oldenborgh of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, referring to the 30% figure.

Airline mechanic gets three years for sabotaging jetliner. MI» An

MI A airline mechanic was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for sabotaging an American Airlines jetliner with 150 people aboard in a bid to earn overtime fixing the plane.

In sentencing 60-yearold Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said she found no evidence to support allegations that Alani had links to the Islamic State extremist group or any terrorist organization. Those allegations had surfaced in previous hearings.

“The indictment doesn’t charge anything related to terrorism or terrorist activity,” Cooke said. “I don’t see anything.”