The Week - USA (2021-02-26)

8 NEWS The world at a glance ...

Copenhagen

Terrorist attack foiled: Danish authorities have

arrested 13 people on suspicion of planning a

terrorist attack, saying the suspects had guns,

bomb-making ingredients, and an ISIS flag.

Among the arrested were two brothers iden-

tified as Syrian; a third brother was detained

in Germany, where police found fuses and

22 pounds of black powder at a property

linked to the suspects. “Unfortunately, the

case shows that the terrorist threat against

Denmark remains serious,” Justice Minister Nick Haekkerup

said. Denmark has been a focus of jihadist anger since 2005,

when the center-right newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12

cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed, sparking protests

across the Muslim world.

Brasília

Guns for everyone: Brazil’s far-

right president, Jair Bolsonaro,

issued four decrees this week mak-

ing it much easier for people to buy

guns and ammunition. The decrees

increase the number of firearms and

the amount of ammunition citizens can

legally buy— hunters can now have 30 guns each and sport shoot-

ers 60—and reduce police oversight of gun ownership. Bolsonaro

had already relaxed restrictions on semiautomatic weapons, and

gun sales have soared since he took office in 2019. Critics fear that

Bolsonaro is encouraging his supporters to form militias. He wants

“a society where a coup d’état can be carried out with guns,” said

leftist lawmaker Marcelo Freixo. Polls show that two-thirds of

Brazilians oppose making it easier to buy firearms and that most

believe Brazil, one of the world’s most violent countries, should

have stricter gun control.

Barcelona

Free-speech protests: Thousands of people took to the streets

of Barcelona and other cities across Spain’s Catalonia region this

week, burning trash cans and erecting roadblocks, to demand the

release of a prominent rapper jailed for criticizing the Spanish

monarchy and praising Basque terrorists in his tweets and song

lyrics. Pablo Hasél was convicted of libel and of supporting ter-

rorism in 2018, and after an appeals process, he was told to

report to prison last week. He

didn’t, and instead barricaded

himself in a room at the University

of Lleida, retweeting the offend-

ing lyrics until police broke in and

took him into custody. Spain’s

ruling Socialist party now says it

will reform the previous conserva-

tive government’s law banning the

“glorification” of armed groups.

Havana

Coronavirus crisis: Covid-19 has swept Cuba since international flights

resumed in November, and the country is running out of personal pro-

tective equipment and tests. The Communist nation registered 15,

cases in January, more than the total for all of 2020, and hospitals are

reaching capacity. Many doctors and nurses are sick. “We’re collapsing

under the weight of patients, and almost without tools to work appro-

priately,” one doctor, who did not want to be named for fear of govern-

ment reprisal, told the Miami Herald. The government says the surge

is the result of people failing to wear masks and keep their distance,

but Cubans say they have to wait in long food lines where distancing

is impossible. The government is placing its hopes in Cuba’s home-

grown vaccine, Soberana 2, which will soon begin human trials.

London

Assange still wanted: The Biden administration is continuing its

predecessor’s attempts to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian

Assange, last week appealing to a British court to overturn a rul-

ing that blocked his extradition to the U.S. A British

judge ruled in January that because Assange suffers

from mental health problems, he would be at risk of

suicide if he were sent to the U.S., where he is wanted

for publishing thousands of secret U.S. military and

diplomatic documents in 2009. The Obama admin-

istration declined to prosecute, saying Assange was

effectively a journalist. But in 2019, President Donald

Trump’s Justice Department charged Assange under

the Espionage Act. If found guilty, Assange could be

sentenced to 175 years in prison.

Montreal

Joke trial: A Canadian comedian went to the

Supreme Court this week to defend his right

to mock a disabled person. In a 2010

stand-up routine, Mike Ward took

aim at various Canadian personalities,

including Jérémy Gabriel, a then–13-

year-old who was born with facial

deformities and became a minor celebrity in Quebec after he sang

for Pope Benedict XVI. Ward joked that he had assumed people

were only nice to the boy because he would soon die, adding that

when he found out Gabriel’s illness wasn’t fatal, he tried to drown

him. Gabriel’s family sued, saying the jokes had led to bullying,

and in 2016 a tribunal awarded Gabriel $27,500 in damages.

Backed by free-speech activists, Ward appealed the case to the

Supreme Court. If the verdict stands, his lawyer told the justices,

“the whole notion of a stand-up comic becomes questionable.”

Wi

kip

ed

ia,^

AP,

Re

ute

rs^

(^2 )

,^ A

P

Facing life in prison

Ward: Laughing matter?

Collecting evidence

Set ablaze during a demonstration

A pro-gun campaigner