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.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
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