Police in Brazil said on Sunday that two people have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a free Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro. <\/p>\n
The Rio event on Saturday was the biggest show of the pop star\u2019s career that attracted more than 2 million fans to Copacabana Beach and had crowds screaming and dancing along. <\/p>\n
Even as Brazilian authorities said they arrested suspects in the hours before Lady Gaga\u2019s show, the event went ahead without disruption \u2014 leading some to question the seriousness of the threat. Serious security concerns typically lead organizers to cancel such massive events \u2014 as happened with Taylor Swift\u2019s concerts in Vienna last year. <\/p>\n
Police said said nothing about the alleged plot at the time to in an effort to \u201cavoid panic\u201d and \u201cthe distortion of information.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Sunday, a spokesperson for Lady Gaga said the pop star and her team \u201clearned about this alleged threat via media reports this morning. Prior to and during the show, there were no known safety concerns, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Lady Gaga regarding any potential risks.\u201d <\/p>\n
The statement added: \u201cHer team worked closely with law enforcement throughout the planning and execution of the concert and all parties were confident in the safety measures in place.\u201d <\/p>\n
Security was tight at Saturday\u2019s concert, with 5,200 military and police officers deployed to the beach where fans were reveling in the pop singer\u2019s classic hits like \u201cBorn This Way,\u201d which became something of an LGBTQ anthem after its 2011 release. <\/p>\n
Rio de Janeiro\u2019s state police and Brazil\u2019s Justice Ministry presented the bare outlines of a plot that they said involved a group that promoted hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community, among others, and had planned to detonate homemade explosive devices at the event. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan was treated as a \u2018collective challenge\u2019 with the aim of gaining notoriety on social media,\u201d the police said. The group, it added, disseminated violent content to teenagers online as \u201ca form of belonging.\u201d <\/p>\n
Authorities arrested two people in connection with the alleged plot \u2013 a man described as the group\u2019s leader in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul on illegal weapons possession charges, and a teenager in Rio on child pornography charges. Police did not elaborate on their exact roles in the plot or on how the group came to target Lady Gaga\u2019s free concert. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose involved were recruiting participants, including teenagers, to carry out integrated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails,\u201d police said. <\/p>\n
The Justice Ministry said that it determined the group posed a \u201crisk to public order.\u201d It said the group falsely presented themselves online as \u201cLittle Monsters\u201d \u2013 Lady Gaga\u2019s nickname for her fans \u2013 in order to reach teenagers and lure them into \u201cnetworks with violent and self-destructive content.\u201d <\/p>\n
The ministry said there was no impact on those attending the open-air concert. <\/p>\n
During a series of raids on the homes of 15 suspects across several Brazilian states, authorities confiscated phones and other electronic devices. Although police said they believed homemade bombs were intended for use in the planned attack, there was no mention of the raids turning up any weapons or explosive material. <\/p>\n
Lady Gaga has expressed gratitude for the enormous crowd in an Instagram post that said nothing of the alleged plot. <\/p>\n
\u201cNothing could prepare me for the feeling I had during last night\u2019s show \u2013 the absolute pride and joy I felt singing for the people of Brazil,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe sight of the crowd during my opening songs took my breath away. Your heart shines so bright, your culture is so vibrant and special, I hope you know how grateful I am to have shared this historical moment with you.\u201d <\/p>\n
Her free beach concert stood out at a time of surging ticket prices for live music around the world as concert-goers pay budget-busting costs to see their favorite artists. <\/p>\n
Rio has done this before \u2013 last May, superstar Madonna performed the finale to her latest world tower for some 1.6 million fans on the sprawling sands of Copacabana Beach. <\/p>\n\n
Police in Brazil said on Sunday that two people have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a free Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro. The Rio event on Saturday was the biggest show of the pop star\u2019s career that attracted more than 2 million fans to Copacabana Beach <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":34687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}