SOUTH KOREA
Opposition leader sentenced
The Seoul Central District Court yesterday handed Lee Jae-myung, the country’s opposition leader, a suspended prison sentence for contravening election laws — a ruling that might prevent him from running in the next presidential election. The court ruled that Lee, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, was guilty of making false statements in violation of the Public Official Election Act. It handed him a one-year jail term, suspended for two years, a court spokesperson said. Lee called the ruling a dark day in history and vowed to appeal. “The verdict is very difficult to accept,” he said. “I believe that our people, using common sense and a sense of justice, can come to their own conclusions.”
FRANCE
Dengue hits Guadeloupe
The overseas territory of Guadeloupe on Thursday declared a dengue epidemic, with authorities saying the outbreak was being driven by the dengue 3 serotype, a less common strain of the mosquito-borne disease. “Dengue fever has entered the epidemic phase,” officials said in a statement.
VENEZUELA
Jailed activist dies
An opposition activist who was arrested during a post-election crackdown died on Thursday in custody, his party said. Jesus Martinez, 36, died in a hospital in the eastern city of Barcelona from a heart problem associated with complications from type II diabetes. On Wednesday, his family had reported that one of his legs would have to be amputated due to necrosis, the death of body tissue. Martinez was a member of the Vente Venezuela party of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has called President Nicolas Maduro’s election to a third term as fraudulent. Machado, commenting on Martinez’s death, told reporters: “This is a crime, this is murder.” She said that Martinez’s fellow prisoners and mother had for days begged prison guards to transfer him to a hospital. “When he arrived at the hospital ... he was practically beyond saving,” she said.
UNITED STATES
Onion buys Infowars
Satirical news publication The Onion on Thursday was named the winning bidder for Alex Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than US$1 billion in defamation judgements for calling the massacre a hoax. However, the judge in Jones’ bankruptcy case said that he had concerns about how the auction was conducted and ordered a hearing for next week after complaints by lawyers for Jones and a company affiliated with Jones that put in a US$3.5 million bid. The purchase would turn over Jones’ company to a humor Web site that plans to relaunch the Infowars platform in January as a parody.
UNITED STATES
Kennedy tapped for health
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr as his secretary of health. “We want you to come up with things and ideas and what you’ve been talking about for a long time and I think you’re going to do some unbelievable things,” Trump told Kennedy during an event at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Kennedy, a scion of the famous US political family, is an environmental campaigner who abandoned a bid for the presidency to endorse Trump. If approved by the Senate, Kennedy would take over the Health and Human Services Department, which has a budget of close to US$2 trillion.
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
The Chinese public maintains relatively warm sentiments toward Taiwan and strongly prefers non-military paths to improving cross-strait relations, a recent survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University showed. The “China Pulse” research project, which polled 2,506 adults between Oct. 27 last year and Jan. 1 this year, found that 86 percent of respondents support strengthening cultural ties, while 81 percent favor deepening economic interaction. The report, co-authored by political scientists at Emory University and advisors at the Carter Center, indicates that the Chinese public views Taiwan’s importance through a lens of shared history and culture rather than geopolitical
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
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