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Epoch Times
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Independent MP Dai Le Set to Hold Fowler Despite Labor's Strong Challenge
With over 80 percent of the vote now counted, independent MP Dai Le is set to hold the key Sydney southwest seat of Fowler against a strong challenge from Labor's Tu Le. Both Les have achieved swings in their favour at the expense of the Liberal Party and most minor parties, with Dai Le gaining a 1.3 primary swing and Tu Le 6.2 percent. But that won't be enough to secure the seat for the Australian Labor Party (ALP), with Dai Le holding a lead of 4,836 votes and predicted to hold the seat—ahead on 52.8 percent against Tu Le's 47.2 percent. Labor were keen to re-take what had been a solidly red seat since Fowler was first created in 1984. It was even named after an ALP luminary, Lilian Fowler, Australia's first female mayor and later state MP for the seat of Newtown in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1944 to 1950. Fowler is also one of Sydney's most ethnically diverse electorates, and the centre of the city's Vietnamese community. Former ALP MP Chris Hayes had suggested a Vietnamese-Australian member of his staff, Tu Le, as the Labor candidate when he retired in 2022. Related Stories 4/20/2025 4/29/2024 Fowler is also comprised of mostly lower socio-economic voters (median weekly household income is $1,403). Perhaps because they had held Fowler through 13 elections, Labor instead parachuted then-senator and former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally as its candidate. American-born Keneally had no connection to the electorate or understanding of its voters, having represented the eastern Sydney seat of Heffron in state parliament. When nominated for Fowler, she lived in northern Sydney, on Scotland Island. In contrast, Tu Le is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who have long lived in the local community, works at a community legal centre, and lives locally at Mount Pritchard. Dai Le was a former Liberal candidate and local councillor who won Fowler boosted by preferences from the Liberals, United Australia, and One Nation. She won and became the first Vietnamese Australian elected to the House of Representatives. She achieved a 1.1 margin after a first preference swing of 29.5 percent toward her, versus one of 18.5 percent away from Keneally. Although Labor chose more carefully this time, and took Hayes' recommendation, it seems that wasn't enough to sway voters. Dai Le is a former journalist who has worked for community newspapers in western Sydney and for ABC. She was named one of the 100 most influential Australian women in 2014. She was suspended from the Liberal Party for 10 years in 2016, in retribution for her bid to become mayor against an endorsed Liberal, despite having twice been the party's candidate in Cabramatta.
Los Angeles Times
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Step inside the rainbow realm of Sandita's World with this new local cookbook
Sandy Ho's color-splattered cooking is like fine art, and now, with her self-published cookbook series, you can not only look at it but taste it in your own home. The visual artist-turned-cook behind the pop-up series and catering company Sandita's World serves curries, noodle bowls, salads and pastries full of vibrancy and texture, flavor and color. Her dishes can appear sculptural — tall peaks of radicchio jutting from a salad or long-stemmed flowers sprouting from a cake — while her signature dumplings and fortune cookies weave psychedelic colorways into the dough. Her new zine-like cookbook, 'Sandita's Cooking Notes Vol. 1,' contains a handful of recipes from the Vietnamese Australian chef who's been cooking across L.A. for the last seven years: green, herby congee with chicken salad; almond sesame lemon cake adorned with flowers, raspberry jam and a cloud of whipped cream; large folded discs of salty-crunchy bacon bánh xèo. It sold out in two days, to Ho's shock, but she's planning a second run, and many more volumes to come: Volume two is slated for late July or early August, and will explore seafood and the links between Australia and Los Angeles. The new series of cookbooks, Ho said, could run to as many as 12 volumes. 'It's just a constant train of thought, of creativity and inspiration,' she said of her new series, 'and all of it brings me back to nostalgia — which is such an important word for me and to my practice and what I do.' The first volume is, in large part, an ode to one of the chef's most cherished ingredients and one that holds a key to all of the vibrant, funky flavors found in her food: Fish sauce, an overlooked and even avoided item in her childhood, is now a backbone for much of what she creates today. Her parents fled Vietnam in the wake of the Vietnam War, beginning anew in Australia but holding tight to their own cuisine so far from home. They stored bottles of their favorite fish-sauce brand — Viet Huong Three Crabs — as if they were vintages of fine wine and aged them in the dark accordingly. Ho grew up embarrassed by her parents' boasting of their collection to guests but would come to embrace it later. 'It's just a flavor that is in my blood,' she said. 'I can be 1,000% sure that out of the womb my mom fed me a spoon of fish sauce. I think for Southeast Asians and Vietnamese people, fish sauce is such a core of so much. It's part of what makes things taste good for me.' In elementary school her packed lunches were never sandwiches; the other children couldn't understand the smell of her meals, like the unctuous beauty of pork belly simmered in fish sauce and sugar. 'For a time,' Ho said, 'I really rejected it and I wanted to be a white kid. It was easier on the playground to just ask my mom to make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.' But at 10 or 11 she began cooking with her mom at home, and she began to appreciate it, learning to decipher the nuances between those 'vintages' in her parents' fish sauce collection. In her 20s as she began cooking in professional kitchens — first in Sydney, then in Melbourne and eventually across the U.S. — she wondered why these Western cuisines and French restaurants wouldn't integrate a bit of that amber-tinted umami bomb. By the time she moved to L.A. in 2018 she yearned for the taste of it, and for her parents' cooking. Out of that nostalgia she began Sandita's World as a pop-up in her Venice backyard, utilizing shrimp paste, fish sauce and pork. These dinners evolved into pop-ups across the city and a catering business, and while her private clients often request bright, health-minded items, her own hand gravitates toward comforting, nostalgic recipes and fish sauce in her own kitchen. Her new series of cookbooks is a blend of both, offering familiar dishes done in Ho's signature, colorful style, packing dishes with textures and freshness. Ho had been asked to write cookbooks before but didn't want to add to the cacophony unless she was saying something unique. Then she began to feel that stylistically and in trends, cooking, social media and other forms of ingesting with our eyes as well as our stomachs were becoming uniform. 'I was kind of feeling like everything was just one-dimensional, particularly in terms of cookbooks,' she said, 'and so that was really the first urge to do it.' To bring her punchy, rainbow-hued food to print, she knew she wanted to pen something that felt a little like a diary; handwritten text can be found throughout, as if Ho left margin notes personally in each copy. She sought to create a tactile experience, with various paper textures and translucent pages and inserts, and Mexico City-based creative agency BonTemps helped her bring it all to life. Ho hopes the new self-published series will bridge the gap between how people know her — through Instagram, where she has tens of thousands of followers across her personal and Sandita's World accounts — and who she is and how she creates behind the scenes. 'My North Star is cooking and continuing to be creative, and finding outlets to express what I want to express — in any format I want to express it,' Ho said. Whether you're waiting for another printing of Ho's first cookbook volume (follow Ho on Instagram for updates) or you're hoping to sample her culinary style before volume two releases this summer, here are two recipes from 'Sandita's Cooking Notes Vol. 1' to get you started: both funky, fresh and fragrant with fish sauce. Eating out this week? Sign up for Tasting Notes to get our restaurant experts' insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they're dining right now. This is a dish that chef-creator Sandy Ho always likes to keep stocked in her fridge. Bright, salty, funky and spicy, it's a salad that runs the gamut and is worth roasting a chicken for, although it's just as effective with a store-bought rotisserie chicken. It's also a recipe that's flexible when it comes to greens; if napa cabbage is difficult to source, savoy works just as well. Ho serves this salad atop green congee in her cookbook, but it's delicious as a standalone salad as well. (And if you're wondering how Ho roasts a chicken — that's in the cookbook too.)Get the recipe. Cook time: 20 minutes. Serves 2. Ho can appreciate a classic mignonette of red wine and shallots, but her own version amps up the funk with a fish-sauce base that's punctuated by spicy pops from Thai chiles, tart-sweet citrus via orange and lime, and brightening herbs, all with an earthy finish thanks to a garnish of ground peanuts. Try your hand at this recipe for one of Ho's event and at-home staples, and you might never return to basic mignonettes the recipe. Prep time: 30 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.
Korea Herald
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Parents of NewJeans confirm Hanni's new visa, criticize media over privacy breaches
Parents denounce media's handling of personal information The parents of girl group NJZ, formerly known as NewJeans, announced Wednesday via a joint social media account that Vietnamese Australian member Hanni had obtained a new visa on Tuesday through 'proper legal procedures.' They also raised concerns over speculative reports published by local media outlets regarding Hanni's residency status in South Korea, criticizing a lack of verification and fact-checking. 'There has been a flood of speculative reports about Hanni's residency status in Korea yesterday and today, leading to the spread of false information. We would like to clarify the facts to prevent further misinformation,' the NJZ parents said. 'Hanni obtained a new visa yesterday (Feb. 11) through proper legal procedures.' On Jan. 31, the parents created a temporary Instagram account to clarify facts and express their stance on NJZ's ongoing dispute with Ador, a music subsidiary of Hybe, claiming their position had been misrepresented or negatively cited in previous coverage. Ador is NJZ's former agency. The parents further argued that Ador pressured them by using Hanni's visa status as leverage, a particularly sensitive issue for foreign residents in Korea. The agency reportedly emailed them a warning that if they refused to sign a visa extension consent form listing Ador as the affiliated company, Hanni could risk illegal residency. Hanni's E-6 visa, which allows foreign entertainers to work in South Korea, reportedly expired early this month. The issue has been at the center of controversy, as it would directly affect NJZ's planned musical activities over the coming months. Without an extension, Hanni would have been unable to continue working as a K-pop singer here, raising concerns about the group's future promotions and scheduling. The parents also expressed regret over the excessive use of the term 'illegal resident' in local media reports based on unverified information, arguing it fueled false rumors and had even triggered unnecessary public complaints. Hanni, who holds dual Australian and Vietnamese citizenship, was reported as an illegal resident in a complaint filed via the government's online petition service 'e-People,' run by the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission, on Jan. 10. This followed the unilateral termination of NJZ's exclusive contract with Ador in November, which had initially secured her visa since her debut in 2022. 'Over the past two days alone, nearly 70 articles have been published speculating on Hanni's visa type and expiration date -- private details with no obligation to be disclosed -- resulting in a serious infringement of her rights,' the NJZ parents said. 'It is deeply regrettable that such sensitive personal information, which could only have been provided by Ador apart from the individual herself, has been indiscriminately spread through the media.'
Korea Herald
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Ruling party, government to push for law after death of MBC weathercastser
The ruling People Power Party and the government agreed to introduce a new bill to tackle workplace harassment, in the wake of MBC weathercaster Oh Yo-anna's suicide last year that prompted a backlash against the broadcaster. Rep. Kim Sang-hoon, policy chief of the ruling party, told reporters after his meeting with the government officials to review the national policy direction, that the party will float a special bill to prevent freelancers and on-demand workers from being harassed regardless of their employment status. South Korea had over 4 million freelancers as of 2022, according to the Korea Worker Institute, and a separate government estimate suggested Korea had over 880,000 on-demand workers as of 2023. The party and the government "agreed that it is highly concerning that (MBC) did not take any action after learning that a young worker's death was due to the conflict with colleagues," Kim said. He urged MBC to reveal the truth behind the incident and warning it would ask the Labor Ministry to launch a special probe into MBC. The move follows a recent revelation that late Oh, who was a freelance weathercaster of MBC, had expressed frustration from her colleagues' workplace harassment in a note discovered after she died and mobile phone messages indicated her suffering. Oh was 28 when she died in September. Employees in South Korea are already protected from workplace harassment under the Labor Standards Act, but the act doesn't cover freelancers and other workers who are not considered employees. The current setting stirred a debate as the law precluded an investigation into workplace harassment that Hanni, a Vietnamese Australian member of K-pop girl group NewJeans, claimed she suffered because she could not be considered a worker.
