International
Robert Fico, Slovak Prime Minister, in serious condition after being shot
Slovakia is shocked by the attempted assassination of the prime minister, the populist Robert Fico, who is in a “critical” state after receiving several shots when he approached to greet a group of citizens in the town of Handlova, in the center of the country.
“He has been shot multiple times and currently his life is in danger,” says Fico’s Facebook account, which indicates that he was transferred by helicopter to the town of Banská Bystrica, about 65 kilometers from Handlová, where the attack took place.
The attack occurred at 13.00 GMT, after a council of ministers in the town of about 17,000 inhabitants, when Fico went to greet dozens of neighbors who were next to the Casa de la Cultural – where the government meeting was held – and who were behind a fence.
At that moment, when he had the politician very close, a 71-year-old man pulled out a gun and fired four or five times at Fico. The aggressor, who was arrested after the shooting, has a gun license and had previously shouted to Fico: “Robo (Robert), come closer.”
One of the bullets hit the politician in the abdominal cavity, although some witnesses claimed that he was hit on the sternum.
The prime minister was evacuated by his local bodyguards and transferred by helicopter to the hospital of Banská Bystrica, the regional capital. A statement from the Government points out that his condition is critical and that “the next few hours will be decisive.”
According to the Minister of Defense, Robert Kaliniak, the Prime Minister of Slovakia “fights for his life” in a “very complicated” operation at the Roosevelt Hospital in Banská Bystrica.
“His condition is extremely serious,” Kalinak added in an appearance before the press in which he indicated that the intervention lasted for three and a half hours.
Kalinak described the intervention as “very complicated” and added: “We all pray that the good constitution of the prime minister and modern medicine will do their job.”
Fico suffered a “polytrauma”, which affects two or more organs or that produces at least one wound that endangers the patient’s life, after being shot five times, and the politician continues to “fight for his life,” according to the head of Defense.
The police have identified the aggressor as Juraj C., from Levice, a city in the southwest of the country, and with a weapons license.
According to the Slovak press, the alleged attacker was a member of a literary club and in the past had worked as a security guard in a shopping center.
Eight years ago he announced on the internet that he was collecting signatures to create a political party called the Movement against Violence. “Violence is often a reaction of people, as a form of expression of discontent with the situation. We can be dissatisfied, but not violent!” he wrote then.
The acting president, Zuzana Caputová, strongly condemned the attack and called for calm and a stop to the rhetoric of hatred in the country, deeply polarized between supporters and opponents of the Government, formed by left-wing and far-right nationalists.
“I’m shocked. We are all shocked by the horrible attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico. A physical attack on the prime minister is first and foremost an attack on a person, but also an attack on democracy,” the president said.
“Any kind of violence is absolutely unacceptable. The rhetoric of hatred that we witness in society leads to acts of hatred. Please, let’s stop her!” he added.
Parliament suspended its sessions until May 21 and increased security measures.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, condemned on Wednesday the “vile attack” against the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, who was shot today.
“I strongly condemn the vile attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico. These acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good. My thoughts are with Prime Minister Fico and his family,” Von der Leyen published on social network X.
The president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, was also “horrified and outraged by the attack” against the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, and expressed Spain’s support for the politician, his family and that European country “in these extremely difficult times.”
“Nothing can justify violence,” Sánchez added in a message on the social network X published in Spanish and English.
“I am deeply moved by the news of the attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico. I strongly condemn this horrible act of violence. Our thoughts are with Prime Minister Fico, his family and the Slovak people,” said the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, on the social network X.
The head of the Slovenian government has also expressed his dismay at the attack. “I am dismayed by what has happened in Slovakia. I strongly condemn the attack on my Slovak colleague Fico and wish him a speedy recovery,” Robert Golob wrote on the X network.
The prime ministers of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, and Ireland, Simon Harris, were “impacted” after learning of the attack against their Slovak counterpart, Robert Fico.
“Impressed to hear this horrible news. All our thoughts are with Prime Minister Fico and his family,” Sunak wrote on his account on the social network X, a message that was reposted by the country’s head of Foreign Affairs, David Cameron.
Meloni expressed on behalf of the Italian Government the “strongest condemnation of all forms of violence and attack on the fundamental principles of democracy and freedom.”
Likewise, Russian President Vladimir Putin has also described the attack as a “horrible crime.”
International
85% of Haiti’s capital has fallen into the power of gangs, according to UN reports
The power of criminal gangs in Haiti continues to grow and at the moment they control about 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, according to “certain estimates” that this Monday were cited in the UN Security Council by Miroslav Jenca, Undersecretary General for Europe, Asia and the Americas in the UN Political Affairs Department.
The gangs have begun to attack the places of “relative security” that remained in the capital, such as the Petionville neighborhood, where UN offices, embassies and foreign personnel are located. There, an attack recorded last Tuesday left “dozens dead,” he said.
In response, spontaneous groups of neighbors have begun to organize armed patrols, to set up unofficial road controls “and to take justice into their hands,” Jenca lamented.
The number of displaced people reaches 700,000
In the vast areas where gangs have control, the security and human rights of their inhabitants are in danger, and especially those of women, since gang members resort to all forms of violence, often sexual violence, to subjugate neighbors.
This situation has caused 700,000 Haitians to flee their homes and are now in a situation of “internally displaced people.”
Despite this, neighboring countries continue to deport Haitians (170,000 so far), mainly from the Dominican Republic, although Jenca did not cite this country.
What is the situation of the Multinational Mission to contain gangs in Haiti?
The Multinational Security Mission that was supposed to train the Haitian police has so far received only 400 agents of the 2,500 that it must gather, mainly due to lack of funds, and the prospects are so pessimistic that the Government of Haiti has already asked that the MMS be transformed into a classic mission of “blue helmets”.
However, this will not be easy because so far Russia and China oppose the deployment of a peace mission in Haiti arguing that the last mission of this type left the country among very serious accusations of sexual abuse and having caused and spread in 2010 a cholera epidemic that was fatal for the country, leaving thousands dead.
International
One-week preventive detention for Princess Mette-Marit’s son of Norway for rape
An Oslo court issued this Wednesday preventive detention of one week with a ban on visits for Marius Borg Høiby, son of Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, for two cases of rape of two different women.
Høiby, 27 years old and the result of a previous relationship with the princess, had been arrested on Monday night for the third time since August for an alleged rape, but the Prosecutor’s Office revealed today at the end of the hearing, held behind closed doors, that another case had been discovered during the investigation.
The young man, who is not part of the Royal House, is also being investigated for injuries and damages against three of his ex-girlfriends and for threats to a man.
Prison for two cases of rape in Norway
The hearing began at 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and ended two hours later, but Judge Anne-Lene Åvangen Hødnebø did not issue her opinion until after 22:00.
According to public television NRK, the police used as evidence recordings found on Høiby’s phone.
In both cases it is sexual intercourse without penetration, reported the Prosecutor’s Office, which had requested two weeks in prison.
“The reason we asked for two weeks is that we discovered another violation last night. It is a case of sexual relationship without intercourse with a woman unable to resist the act. We are investigating two rape cases,” prosecutor Andreas Kruszewski said at the end of the hearing.
HØiby’s lawyer, Øyvind Bratlien, stated that his defendant denies the accusations and described the allegations as a “catastrophic” error of judgment.
Three arrests since August
Høiby was arrested on Monday night when he was driving with his ex-girlfriend, the protagonist of the incident that led to the first arrest and which he is forbidden to contact.
His home in Skaugum, on the same property where Crown Princes Haakon and Mette-Marit reside, was searched by police officers.
According to Norwegian media, the first alleged rape occurred at the young woman’s home in March of this year; the other, in her residence in Skaugum a few weeks ago.
It is the third arrest of Høiby, who was arrested a few hours ago in early August after an incident in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and was accused of injuries, damage and threats, in a case that was later expanded and that also includes two of his previous partners and another person.
Høiby admitted a few days after his arrest in August in a statement part of the accusations and admitted to having problems with alcohol and other drugs and suffering from mental problems.
The Royal House is reluctant to talk about the case
The Norwegian Royal House has been reluctant to comment on the case of the young Marius Borg Høiby, which has generated a lot of media attention in this Nordic country, and only Prince Haakon has made statements.
“I think Marius faces serious accusations. The judicial system must do its job,” Haakon said today from Jamaica, where he attended an event organized by the UN.
The heir to the Norwegian throne said that as “parents” they have tried to get the young man to receive “help.”
Høiby is the result of a previous relationship of Mette-Marit and has no official commitments to the Royal House, although he attends some celebrations such as the birthdays of his stepbrothers and has always maintained the relationship with both Haakon and Kings Harald V and Sonia.
International
The next attorney general Matt Gaetz manages to stop the report on his sex scandal
The Ethics Committee of the US House of Representatives did not make public this Wednesday due to lack of agreement the report of its investigation into Matt Gaetz, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, to be the next attorney general and investigated for inappropriate sexual behavior and drug use.
The president of that commission, Republican Michael Guest, told the press at the end of the nearly two-hour meeting at the Capitol that there was no consensus among the members when making that document public.
That body was going to put its decision to a vote last Friday, but Gaetz’s resignation from his seat two days earlier, after being appointed by Trump, delayed that scrutiny and effectively ended the investigations into him.
Although with the departure of the Florida representative of Congress, the commission was left without jurisdiction to investigate him, the publication of the conclusions of his investigation opened in 2021 for alleged inappropriate sexual conduct, irregular use of campaign funds, acceptance of bribes and drug use was still in the air.
Committee interviews
The committee interviewed two women who testified that Gaetz, nominated for attorney general, paid them for having sex at a party in Florida, where prostitution is illegal.
According to the women’s lawyer to the NBC News channel, Joel Leppard, one of them also testified that she saw Gaetz having sex with a minor, although he said that he did not think he knew that he was 17 years old at the time.
Gaetz has denied those accusations and Trump’s transition team considers them unfounded and recalls that the Department of Justice closed a parallel investigation without charges.
Review of the report
Several senators, both Republicans and Democrats, had said that they wanted to review that report before the Judicial Committee of the Upper House examines Gaetz’s nomination next year and then the plenary of that hemicycle validates or stops it.
The authorization of the positions of the future cabinet depends on the Senate, but until then Gaetz has the support of Trump, who has stated that he does not question his own decision, and also of the future vice president, JD Vance, who accompanied him to Congress this Wednesday.
Report on Gaetz next attorney general has had leaks
However, although the House Committee on the House of Representatives stopped the dissemination of the report, there have already been leaks in the national press.
The lawyer of the two women indicated that they provided that committee with numerous photos related to the time they spent with the Republican, who according to that lawyer paid 6,000 dollars to one and 4,000 to another to sleep with them.
The leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, had wanted to stay out of the committee’s decision, but at the same time he did not consider it appropriate for it to disseminate his investigation: “That would open Pandora’s box and I don’t think it’s something healthy for the institution,” he said.
85% of Haiti’s capital has fallen into the power of gangs, according to UN reports
One-week preventive detention for Princess Mette-Marit’s son of Norway for rape
The next attorney general Matt Gaetz manages to stop the report on his sex scandal
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