Noam Chomsky’s wife, Valeria Wasserman Chomsky, says reports that the famed linguist and activist had died are untrue.

Linguist and activist Noam Chomsky is hospitalized in his wife’s native country of Brazil after suffering a massive stroke a year ago.

Josu Urrutikoetxea, a former leader of Basque separatist militant group ETA, speaks in Paris, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. Survivors of violent attacks and relatives of ETA’s victims say the campaign humiliates them. ETA’s cause was politically and socially divisive inside Spain’s Basque society and widely rejected across the rest of Spain. Once the French trials end, France has agreed to extradite Urrutikoetxea to Spain, although his defense has appealed. What I do want is to see him taking the stand in court,” she said, standing at the site of ETA's attack on the Civil Guard.

The letter comes amid a debate over so-called cancel culture where prominent people face attack for sharing controversial opinions. The forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who represents a real threat to democracy, the letter said. But resistance must not be allowed to harden into its own brand of dogma or coercionwhich right-wing demagogues are already exploiting. In a series of tweets, Rowling said she supported transgender rights but did not believe in erasing the concept of biological sex. The letter criticized the state of public debate and the swift and severe retribution dealt out to any perceived wrongs.