Jimmy Lai, fierce critic of Beijing, receives 20-year sentence
The World
PRX
4.6 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hong Kong authorities today sentenced pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai to 20 years behind bars. And the Milan Cortina Olympics are the first to feature a ban on ski wax containing PFAS, the forever chemicals linked to a range of health problems and diseases. Also, Japan’s Sanae Takaichi took a huge risk calling for a snap election just 110 days into her first term as prime minister. Today, she won big. Plus, in a large archive building in Tirana, Albania’s capital, a team recently began reviewing 45 years of films produced at the behest of former dictator Enver Hoxha.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coming up today on the world in Hong Kong, pro-democracy journalist Jimmy Lai just got 20 more years in prison. He is 78. |
| 0:13.0 | It does seem likely that lie may not be coming out. |
| 0:17.0 | I'm Marco Werman today what that sentence means for freedom of the press in Hong Kong going forward. |
| 0:22.6 | Also four years of war in Ukraine and the fight to tell this story has already begun. |
| 0:28.6 | History is not what happened, is what we remember collectively and what was recorded. |
| 0:35.6 | Plus, Olympic skiers competing for the first time without a wax that made their skis go fast, |
| 0:41.3 | the chemicals in it were banned to protect the environment. |
| 0:44.3 | We need winter. We are a snow sport and we want to protect our winters. |
| 0:48.3 | Those stories and much more, all coming up today here on the world. |
| 0:53.3 | This is the world. |
| 1:00.8 | This is the World. I'm Marco Wurman. Thank you for coming along this Monday. |
| 1:06.6 | Carolyn Beeler is on assignment. We begin our week in Hong Kong, where a much-anticipated court sentence has just come down. Pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai now faces 20 years behind bars. |
| 1:13.3 | Lai was the owner of Hong Kong's now defunct opposition newspaper and a fierce critic of Beijing. |
| 1:18.9 | In the wake of anti-government protests in 2019, China cracked down on dissent and Lai was charged |
| 1:24.6 | with conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publish seditious material. |
| 1:29.6 | He's already spent five years in prison, so today's sentence brings the time served to 25 years in all. |
| 1:35.5 | When Lai heard the sentence, he smiled. |
| 1:38.2 | That's according to his son, Sebastian, who explains a smile this way. |
| 1:42.4 | An act of rebellion to say that they might have his body, but they don't have his spirit. |
| 1:47.7 | Sebastian Lai sent us this voice memo today. |
| 1:50.7 | I think it shows not just how strong my father is, but how important the freedoms that he's fighting for. |
| 1:56.2 | To get a handle on the significance of all this, we reached out to Tom Grundy. He's the editor-in-chief |
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