World


Finland, One Happy Place


F


Tug-of-War Cuban Boy Now a Politician E


lián Gonzalez, the 5-year-old boy at the center of an international custody


battle that rocked the Clinton administra- tion, has become a member of the Cuban parliament, the Miami Herald reports. Gonzalez, now 29, was elected to the


unpaid, rubber-stamp assembly in March. In 1999, Miami’s Cuban exile commu-


nity fought to keep Gonzalez in the U.S., after he fled Cuba on a dilapidated fishing boat with his mother and 12 others. The mother drowned when the boat


capsized, but Gonzalez was found floating on an inner tube off Fort Lauderdale on Thanksgiving Day. An emotional international custody


battle between the boy’s father in Cuba and his relatives in Miami followed.


After several months of high-level nego-


tiations and street-level protests, the saga ended when Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a federal raid on Easter Sunday at the home of Gonzalez’s Little Havana rela- tives. Gonzalez was returned to his father in Cuba.


Gonzalez, who is married with a 2-year-


old daughter, worked for a food import company owned by the Cuban military. Some observers have speculated that the


Clinton administration’s return of Gonza- lez to Cuba may have cost Vice President Al Gore his chance of winning the White House in 2000 because it infuriated the predominately Republican Cuban commu- nity and gave George W. Bush a razor-thin yet decisive victory in Florida.


Netanyahu Pauses Court Overhaul I


srael’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused a controversial judicial overhaul plan that triggered unprecedented street protests in late March. But compromise seemed


elusive and Netanyahu’s legacy is still on the line in a standoff over the fundamental issue of what kind of country Israel should be — and positions only appear to have hardened. Netanyahu acknowledged the divisions roiling the nation


54 NEWSMAX | MAY 2023


and announced a month-long delay for the legislation. In a TV address, the premier


said he wanted “to avoid civil war” and would seek a compromise with political opponents. But it failed to address the underlying issues that have polarized Israelis. The overhaul would give


Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges, and his allies the final say in appointing the nation’s judges. It would also give parliament, which


or the sixth year in a row, Finland


is the world’s happiest country, according to World Happiness Report rankings from the Gallup World Poll. The Nordic country


and its neighbors all score very well on the measures the report uses to explain its findings: healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support, low corruption, generosity in a community where people look after each other, and freedom to make key life decisions. At the very bottom of


the list are Afghanistan and Lebanon. World’s happiest


countries for 2023:


is controlled by his allies, authority to overturn Supreme Court decisions and limit the court’s ability to review laws. Netanyahu leads the most


conservative government in Israeli history, and his allies have vowed to enact the legislation. The country’s figurehead


president, Isaac Herzog, said pausing the legislative blitz was “the right thing” and offered to oversee the negotiating teams.


1 Finland 2 Denmark 3 Iceland 4 Israel 5 Netherlands 6 Sweden 7 Norway 8 Switzerland 9 Luxembourg 10 New Zealand 11 Austria 12 Australia 13 Canada 14 Ireland 15 United States 16 Germany 17 Belgium 18 Czech Republic 19 United Kingdom 20 Lithuania


CUBA/AP IMAGES / FINLAND/ALEKSANDRA SUZI/SHUTTERSTOCK


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