6
Number of degrees by which everyone in the world was thought to be separated, according to a famous 1967 study; hence the phrase, "six degrees of separation"

4.7
Number of degrees by which everyone in the world is actually separated, according to a new study of 721 million active Facebook users

 Sources: GigaOM, NY Times 

  The Week Staff

A former NBC News correspondent has told The Washington Post that during the 1990s, former anchor Tom Brokaw made unwanted sexual advances toward her, once forcibly trying to kiss her after inviting himself into her hotel room.

Linda Vester was in her 20s at the time, and said she did not file a complaint because she was worried about retribution. "I am speaking out now because NBC has failed to hire outside counsel to investigate a genuine, long-standing problem of sexual misconduct in the news division," she told the Post. Another woman, a former production assistant who asked to remain anonymous, told the Post Brokaw acted inappropriately with her in the 1990s, grabbing her hands and putting them under his jacket and against his chest.

Brokaw denied the allegations, telling the Post, "The meetings were brief, cordial, and appropriate, and despite Linda's allegations, I made no romantic overtures towards her, at that time or any other." Late last year, NBC fired Today co-host Matt Lauer after he was accused of sexual misconduct. The Post spoke to 12 female NBC staffers who said they were sexually harassed but never reported it, with three claiming that the harassment came from Lauer — one women said he exposed himself in his office, another said she had sex with him in his office in the middle of the day, and a third said he gave her a sex toy.

Three of Lauer's supporters told the Post the relationships were consensual, and in a statement, Lauer told the Post, "I fully acknowledge that I acted inappropriately as a husband, father, and principal at NBC. However, I want to make it perfectly clear that any allegations or reports of coercive, aggressive, or abusive actions on my part, at any time, are absolutely false." For more on how NBC News has handled sexual misconduct allegations and the warning Ann Curry says she gave that was ignored, visit The Washington Post. Catherine Garcia

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Friday in the demilitarized zone between their countries, and held hands as they crossed into South Korea.

When Kim crossed the demarcation line, he became the first North Korean leader to enter South Korea since the Korean War, and Moon was also invited to step over to the North Korea side. This is the first meeting of Korean leaders in more than a decade.

During their summit, meant to ease tensions between the Koreas, they are expected to discuss denuclearization and will plant a memorial tree in the border village of Panmunjom. They will also likely release a joint statement late Friday, which could touch on peace and the improvement of relations between the two countries. Because the Korean War ended in a truce and not a peace treaty, the countries are still considered to be at war. Catherine Garcia

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed their third child, a boy, on Monday, and while they've revealed his weight and the time he was born, they've remained mum about one very important detail: the little prince's name.

Not content with waiting for an official announcement, internet sleuths turned to the royal family's website for some clues. They found that most members of the family have their own pages, including Queen Elizabeth and Prince Harry, which follow the same pattern: royal.uk/their-name. On Prince George and Princess Charlotte's pages, it says "access denied," and that same message popped up when people tried to visit royal.uk/prince-albert. Type in other names, like prince-james and prince-arthur, and it merely says the page cannot be found.

Since this was discovered, the royal web developer made a change — now, royal.uk/prince-albert redirects to the website's home page. Albert is a name that runs in the royal family — there was Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, and it was also King George VI's birth name and one of Prince Andrew and Prince Harry's middle names. Albert was rumored to be one of the names under consideration, with British bookmakers at one point having the odds at 5-1, so for those who thought the baby might be named Prince Brayden Jayden Kayden, sorry. Catherine Garcia

Subway plans on closing about 500 locations in the United States, but will open more than 1,000 restaurants in Mexico, China, India, and the United Kingdom, CNBC reports.

The sandwich chain has more than 40,000 locations around the world, and counts Panera Bread and Chipotle as competitors. In 2017, 800 restaurants were closed, and a spokesman told CNBC "looking out over the next decade, we anticipate having a slightly smaller but more profitable footprint in North America and a significantly larger footprint in the rest of the world."

Subways are owned by franchisees, and the company is working on a new loyalty program and a modern concept store featuring ordering kiosks and fresh menu items. Catherine Garcia

More than two decades after the Rwandan genocide, four new mass graves have been found in Kigali Province, containing 2,000 to 3,000 bodies.

The first bodies were found Sunday, Rwanda's The New Times reports, and the excavation is ongoing. An old photo album was found in one of the graves, and relatives of people who have been missing since the genocide have flocked to the area, hoping to find out if their relatives are buried there.

More than 800,000 people, Tutsi and moderate Hutus, were murdered during the 1994 genocide. Survivors want to know why it took so long for the graves to be discovered, with one telling The Associated Press, "Those who participated in the killing of our relatives don't want to tell us where they buried them. How can you reconcile with such people?" Catherine Garcia

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) has been publicly admonished.

The Senate Ethics Committee has issued a public letter of admonition to the senator after he refused to disclose gifts from Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen and allegedly used his job in the Senate to advance Melgen's interests.

Melgen was sentenced to 17 years in prison after swindling $73 million from Medicare, per the Sun Sentinel. Menendez accepted flights and hotel stays from the doctor, and intervened when Medicare discovered it had been overbilled by Melgen, per the letter. A federal judge acquitted Menendez and Melgen on several charges of bribery earlier this year, though the Justice Department said it intends to retry the pair.

Menendez has denied all charges against him and so far, he has escaped severe punishment — until now, with the Senate's stern warning letter. The activist group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington notes that Thursday's note from the Ethics Committee is actually the "harshest thing they've done in years."

It even finishes with this stinger: "Finally, by this letter, you are hereby severely admonished." Kathryn Krawczyk

The FBI warned the White House of former Staff Secretary Rob Porter's abuse allegations in three separate reports months before he resigned, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Porter resigned in February after two of his former wives publicly alleged that he had physically abused them. The White House claimed that no senior officials knew about the allegations until the week of his departure, but documents reviewed by the Times show that the FBI gave White House Counsel Don McGahn a report that "contained derogatory information" back in March 2017.

A former federal law enforcement official said that the abuse allegations were included in the report, which the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is reviewing in order to determine how Porter was given high-level security clearance despite abuse claims. The FBI reportedly reached out to the White House about Porter a second time, in July 2017, and a third time in November 2017.

The Times report casts doubt on the previous explanation from the White House about Porter's employment. At the time of Porter's resignation, officials claimed that the report they received in March didn't include anything about spousal abuse. One White House official insisted to the Times that McGahn never saw the July report and explained that lower-level staffers must have failed to pass it along to the "right people." Read more at The New York Times. Summer Meza