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Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting after a political event Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile. Reports on TA3, a Slovakian TV station, said that Fico, 59, was hit in the stomach after four shots were fired outside the House of Culture in the town of Handlova, some 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of the capital, where the leader was meeting with supporters. A suspect has been detained, it said. A message posted to Fico's Facebook account said that the leader "has been shot multiple times and is currently in life-threatening condition. At this moment he is transported by helicopter to Banská Bystrica, because it would take too long to get to Bratislava due to the necessity of an acute procedure. The next few hours will decide.” The shooting in Slovakia comes three weeks ahead of crucial European Parliament elections, in which populist and hard-right parties in the 27-nation bloc appear poised to make gains. Deputy speaker of parliament Lubos Blaha confirmed the incident during a session of Slovakia's Parliament and adjourned it until further notice, the Slovak TASR news agency said. Slovakia’s major opposition parties, Progressive Slovakia and Freedom and Solidarity, canceled a planned protest against a controversial government plan to overhaul public broadcasting that they say would give the government full control of public radio and television. “We absolutely and strongly condemn violence and today's shooting of Premier Robert Fico," said Progressive Slovakia leader Michal Simecka. “At the same time we call on all politicians to refrain from any expressions and steps which could contribute to further increasing the tension.” President Zuzana Caputova condemned “a brutal and ruthless” attack on the premier. “I’m shocked,” Caputova said. “I wish Robert Fico a lot of strength in this critical moment and a quick recovery from this attack.” Fico, a third-time premier, and his leftist Smer, or Direction, party, won Slovakia’s Sept. 30 parliamentary elections, staging a political comeback after campaigning on a pro-Russian and anti-American message. Critics worried Slovakia under Fico would abandon the country’s pro-Western course and follow the direction of Hungary under populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Thousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital and across Slovakia to protest Fico’s policies. Condemnations of political violence quickly came from leaders across Europe, although no motive for the attack was immediately apparent. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned what she described as a “vile attack.” “Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good,” von der Leyen said in a post on X. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the incident “shocking,” adding “I wish the premier to get well soon. We cannot tolerate violence, there’s no place for it in society.” The Czech Republic and Slovakia formed Czechoslovakia till 1992. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on the social media network X: “Shocking news from Slovakia. Robert, my thoughts are with you in this very difficult moment.”

President Emmanuel Macron convened a meeting of top ministers to discuss spiraling violence in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia after at least two people were killed and four others were seriously injured, including a gendarme, according to officials there and French media reports on Wednesday. It was the third day of violent unrest over a constitutional reform pushed by Paris that has roiled the archipelago, which has long sought independence. Macron’s office said that the president also canceled a trip he had been planning to northwest France on Wednesday while he focused on the crisis. French authorities in the territory said that more than 130 people have been arrested an more than 300 have been injured since Monday in the violence that has raged across the archipelago, where there have been decades of tensions between Indigenous Kanaks seeking independence and descendants of colonizers who want to remain part of France. The special defense and security council meeting called by Macron typically brings together a limited group of officials, including Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and the ministers for defense, interior, economy and foreign affairs. Minister of Interior and Overseas Territories Gérald Darmanin said that 100 gendarmes were evacuated during violence overnight following “an attack on their station with an ax and live ammunition.” “Calm must absolutely be restored," Darmanin said in an interview with French broadcaster RTL. On Tuesday, the French Interior Ministry sent police reinforcements to New Caledonia, which long served as a prison colony and now hosts a French military base. About 1,000 gendarmes and 700 police officers have been deployed and a dozen professionals from a specialized police intervention and riot control unit have also been mobilized, the territory’s top French official, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, said at a news conference in New Caledonia. The territory's political parties appealed for “calm and reason” with people who support independence and those who want the island to remain part of France. “We have to continue to live together,” the rival parties said in a joint statement on Wednesday. "Only with dialogue and resilience (we will) get through this situation,” they added. Two people were killed and three seriously injured in the unrest overnight, Le Franc said in an interview with France Info broadcaster. A fourth person, a member of the gendarmes, was also seriously injured in the unrest Wednesday near the southern town of Plum, according to France Info broadcaster. He was evacuated in critical condition to the medical unit of the Pacific Marine Infantry Regiment, French broadcaster BFM reported. Earlier Wednesday, Le Franc warned that if calm isn't restored, there will be “many deaths” in the area of the capital, Noumea, where protests over the voting rights turned violent on Tuesday. Local authorities extended a curfew until Thursday morning. Clashes between police and protesters have continued in and around Noumea despite a curfew and ban on gatherings. Schools have been closed “until further notice” and the main airport, La Tontoura, “remains closed to commercial flights.” “The situation is not serious, it is very serious," Le Franc said. “We have entered a dangerous spiral, a deadly spiral.” He said some residents of the capital have formed “self-defense groups” to protect their homes and businesses. The unrest started on Monday with a protest over France’s efforts to expand voter lists that would benefit pro-France politicians on New Caledonia and further marginalize the Kanak people, who once suffered from strict segregation policies and widespread discrimination. Early Wednesday, France’s National Assembly adopted a constitutional revision reforming the electoral body in the territory in a 351-153 vote. Pro-independence representatives appealed to supporters for calm and condemned the vote in the National Assembly, France’s most influential house of parliament. Macron also appealed for calm after the vote and condemned “unworthy violence” in a letter to Caledonian representatives and political parties. He called on all local politicians to engage in dialogue and submit suggestions for changes to the bill. Macron said he would convene the Congress, a joint session of lawmakers from both houses of the French parliament, by the end of June to amend the constitution and make it law in the absence of a meaningful dialogue with local representatives. The bill would allow residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years to cast ballots in provincial elections. People of European descent in New Caledonia distinguish between descendants of colonizers and descendants of the many prisoners sent to the territory by force. The vast archipelago of about 270,000 people east of Australia is 10 time zones ahead of Paris. New Caledonia became French in 1853 under Emperor Napoleon III, Napoleon’s nephew and heir. It became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957. A peace deal between rival factions was reached in 1988. A decade later, France promised to grant New Caledonia political power and broad autonomy and hold up to three successive referendums. The three referendums were organized between 2018 to 2021 and a majority of voters chose to remain part of France instead of backing independence. The pro-independence Kanak people rejected the results of the last referendum in 2021, which they boycotted because it was held at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conflicts and natural disasters left a record nearly 76 million people displaced within their countries last year, with violence in Sudan, Congo and the Middle East driving two-thirds of new movement, a top migration monitoring group said Tuesday. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center report found that the number of internally displaced people, or IDPs, has jumped by 50% over the past five years and roughly doubled in the past decade. It doesn’t cover refugees — displaced people who fled to another country. The report tracks two major sets of information. It counted 46.9 million physical movements of people in 2023 — sometimes more than once. In most of those cases, such as after natural disasters like floods, people eventually return home. It also compiles the cumulative number of people who were living away from their homes in 2023, including those still displaced from previous years. Some 75.9 million people were living in internal displacement at the end of last year, the report said, with half of those in sub-Saharan African countries. Almost 90% of the total displacement was attributed to conflict and violence, while some 10% stemmed from the impact of natural disasters. The displacement of more than 9 million people in Sudan at the end of 2023 was a record for a single country since the center started tracking such figures 16 years ago. That was an increase of nearly 6 million from the end of 2022. Sudan’s conflict erupted in April 2023 as soaring tensions between the leaders of the military and the rival Rapid Support Forces broke out into open fighting across the country. The group reported a total of 3.4 million movements within Gaza in the last quarter of 2023 amid the Israeli military response to the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. That means that many people moved more than once within the territory of some 2.2 million. At the end of the year, 1.7 million people were displaced in Gaza. Group director Alexandra Bilak said the millions of people forced to flee in 2023 were the “tip of the iceberg,” on top of tens of millions displaced from earlier and continuing conflicts, violence and disasters. The figures offer a different window into the impact of conflict, climate change and other factors on human movement. The U.N. refugee agency monitors displacement across borders but not within countries, while the U.N. migration agency tracks all movements of people, including for economic or lifestyle reasons.

Thousands of protesters in Armenia angered by the government's decision to hand over control of some border villages to Azerbaijan demonstrated on Friday in the center of the Armenian capital for a second day to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The rally in Yerevan ended in the evening without incident, but the high-ranking Armenian Apostolic Church cleric who is leading the protests vowed that they would continue. Armenia said in April that it would cede control of some border areas to Azerbaijan. That decision followed the lightning military campaign in September in which Azerbaijan's military forced ethnic Armenian separatist authorities in the Karabakh region to capitulate. After Azerbaijan took full control of Karabakh, about 120,000 people fled the region, almost all of its ethnic Armenian population. Ethnic Armenian fighters backed by Armenian forces had taken control of Karabakh in 1994 at the end of a six-year war. Azerbaijan regained some of the territory in fighting in 2020 that ended in an armistice that brought a Russian peacekeeper force into the region. Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the protests' leader, has called on them to "engage in peaceful acts of disobedience." Pashinyan has said Armenia needs to quickly define the border with Azerbaijan to avoid a new round of hostilities. Many residents of Armenia's border regions have resisted the demarcation effort, seeing it as Azerbaijan's encroachment on areas they consider their own.  

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reappointed Mikhail Mishustin as prime minister for the lower house’s approval. Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said the house, the State Duma, will hold a session later Friday to consider Mishustin’s candidacy. Mishustin’s approval is a mere proforma in the Kremlin-controlled parliament. In line with Russian law, Mishustin, 58, who held the job for the past four years, submitted his Cabinet’s resignation on Tuesday when Putin began his fifth presidential term at a glittering Kremlin inauguration. Mishustin’s reappointment was widely expected by political observers, who noted that Putin values his skills and the lack of political ambition. Mishustin, the former head of Russia’s tax service, has kept a low profile, steering clear of political statements and avoiding media interviews.

Russian forces unleashed a nighttime barrage of more than 50 cruise missiles and explosive drones at Ukraine’s power grid Wednesday, targeting a wide area in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a “massive” attack. The bombardment blasted targets in seven Ukrainian regions, including the Kyiv area and parts of the south and west, damaging homes and the country's rail network, authorities said. Three people, including an 8-year-old girl, were injured, according to officials. Russia has repeatedly pounded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the war that is stretching into its third year and has claimed thousands of lives. By taking out the power, the Kremlin’s forces aim to rob Ukrainian manufacturing of its energy supply, especially military plants, and crush public morale. The mass barrages also drain Ukrainian air defenses of ammunition as Kyiv’s depleted forces await delivery of the latest batch of promised Western military support. Ukrainian officials have been pleading for more NATO-standard air defense systems, such as Patriots. Russia pummeled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the “blackout winter” of 2022-23. In March, it launched a new wave of attacks, one of which completely destroyed the Trypilska power plant near Kyiv, one of the country’s biggest. Russian President Vladimir Putin has framed the attacks as retaliation for Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries. On Wednesday, a Ukrainian attack hit an oil terminal, injuring five workers and starting a fire, Russia-appointed authorities in the partially occupied Luhansk region said. Russian bombardments, though frequent, have become less regular in recent weeks, and Ukrainian officials suspect Moscow is stockpiling resources ahead of a major battlefield offensive that could come within weeks. The 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line has changed little since the early months of the war, but Russia has recently made small but steady gains in some areas as Ukraine battles with a lack of manpower and a shortage of weapons. In a social media post, Zelenskyy noted that Wednesday’s attacks occurred on the day that Ukraine observes the end of European fighting in World War II and equated Ukraine's current struggle with that conflict. National electrical grid operator Ukrenergo said facilities were hit in the Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, Poltava and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Two energy facilities were hit in the Lviv region, which is in the country’s far west and distant from the fighting’s front lines, according to regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi. DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest private energy supplier, said the attack “seriously damaged” equipment at three of its thermal power plants. The attack was the fifth in the last six weeks targeting the company’s facilities, DTEK said. Overall, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the company’s assets have come under attack nearly 180 times, injuring 51 workers and killing three, it said. Russia launched 55 missiles and 21 Shahed drones overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. Air defenses downed 39 of the missiles and 20 of the drones, Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said. Russian forces also damaged the railway station building and train tracks in Kherson, national railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said.

Police arrested about 125 activists as they broke up a pro-Palestinian demonstration camp at the University of Amsterdam early Tuesday, as protests that have roiled campuses in the United States spread into Europe. Police in the Dutch capital said in a statement on the social media platform X that their action was “necessary to restore order” after protests turned violent. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Israeli forces take control of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt Video from the scene aired by national broadcaster NOS showed police using a mechanical digger to push down barricades and officers wielding batons and shields moving in to end the demonstration, beating some of the protesters and pulling down tents. Protesters formed barricades from wooden pallets and bicycles, NOS reported. Scores of demonstrators occupied a small island at the university on Monday, urging Amsterdam universities to break academic ties with Israel because of its offensive in Gaza in the aftermath of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants in southern Israel. There have also been demonstrations in recent days at campuses in France and the United Kingdom. Photos from the Amsterdam campus Tuesday morning showed tents, banners and food along with piles of cobblestones that had been pulled up from the street. Before police moved in, scuffles broke out Monday night between two rival groups of activists. Police said in a statement that they cleared the makeshift camp after the protesters refused repeated orders to leave. Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza's Rafah before an expected assault “The protest in this form created a very unsafe situation, partly due to the barricades that prevented emergency services from entering the site. In the event of a disaster, the activists themselves could possibly become stuck on the site,” police said. They said the campus was calm Tuesday morning, but that officers remained present in the area. Calls to the university went unanswered early Tuesday and the university did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. In Finland, dozens of protesters from the Students for Palestine solidarity group set up an encampment outside the main building at the University of Helsinki. Demonstrators said they would stay at the site in central Helsinki until the university, which is Finland’s largest academic institution, cuts academic ties with Israeli universities. In Denmark, students set up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Copenhagen. About 45 tents were erected on the lawn outside the campus of the Faculty of Social Sciences, known as CSS. The faculty sits in an old municipal hospital in the heart of the Danish capital. The university's administration said students can protest on campus but called on them to respect the rules on its grounds. "Seek dialogue, not conflict and make room for perspectives other than your own,” the administrators said in a statement posted on X. Israeli army tells Palestinians to evacuate parts of Gaza's Rafah ahead of an expected assault It said the administration "cannot and must not express an opinion on behalf of university employees and students about political matters, including about the ongoing conflict” in Israel and the Palestinian territories. On their Facebook page, members of the activist group Students Against the Occupation said their attempts to talk to the administration over the past two years about withdrawing the school's investments in companies with ties to activities in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have been in vain. "We can no longer be satisfied with cautious dialogue that does not lead to concrete action,” the group said. In Paris, student groups called for gatherings in solidarity with Palestinians later Tuesday. On Friday, French police peacefully removed dozens of students from a building at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, after they had gathered in support of Palestinians. On Tuesday, students at the prestigious institution, which counts French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and President Emmanuel Macron among its alumni, were seen entering the campus unobstructed to take exams as police stood at the entrances. Protests took place last week at some other universities across the country, including in Lille and Lyon. The Prime Minister’s Office said police had been requested to remove students from 23 sites on French campuses.

A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a east London suburb early Tuesday, killing a 13-year-old boy and injuring four others, authorities said. A 36-year-old man was arrested in a residential area near Hainault underground station, police said. The incident is not being treated as terror-related or a “targeted attack.” Two police officers were in hospital being treated for stab wounds. Two other people were also injured. Chief Supt. Stuart Bell described the incident as “truly horrific.” “I cannot even begin to imagine how those affected must be feeling,” he said outside the homes in east London where the crime happened. The Metropolitan Police said they were called early Tuesday to reports of a vehicle being driven into a house in a residential street and people being stabbed close to the Hainault underground station. No other details were immediately available. Video on British media showed a man in a yellow hoodie holding a long sword or knife walking near houses in the area. Witnesses say they heard police shouting to the suspect urging him to put down the weapon as they chased after him. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the incident was “shocking," adding: “Such violence has no place on our streets.” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said police do not believe there is a threat to the wider community. “We are not looking for more suspects,'' he said. ”This incident does not appear to be terror-related." Transport for London said Hainault underground station was closed due to a police investigation in the area.

The European Union said Tuesday that it's scrutinizing Facebook and Instagram over a range of suspected violations of the bloc's digital rulebook, including not doing enough to protect users from foreign disinformation ahead of EU-wide elections. The EU's Executive Commission said it's opening formal proceedings into whether parent company Meta Platforms breached the Digital Services Act, a sweepting set of regulations designed to protect internet users and clean up social media platforms. Brussels has been cracking down on tech companies since the DSA took effect last year, opening investigations into social media sites TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter, and ecommerce platform AliExpress. TikTok last week bowed to EU pressure last week and halted a reward feature on its new app after the Commission started demanding answerse about it. “We have a well established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms," Meta said in a statement. "We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.” The Commission said it's looking into whether Meta is doing enough to curb the spread of “deceptive advertisements, disinformation campaigns and coordinated inauthentic behaviour” that could pose a risk to “electoral processes” and consumer protection. Officials said it didn't appear that the company has an effective mechanism for content moderation, including for advertisments made with generative AI, including deepfakes - a shortcoming that they said appears to have been exploited by malicious actors for foreign interference. The EU also suspects that Facebook and Instagram might be reducing the visibility in recommendation feeds of political content from accounts that pump out a lot of it - a practice known as shadowbanning - and not being transparent about it with users, which would be in violation of the DSA. A third concern is that Meta is phasing out the use of Crowdtangle, a tool used for real-time election-monitoring used by researchers, journalists and civil society. The Commission is giving Meta five days to respond with information on any “remedial measures” it's taking to make up for its loss. EU officials are taking measures to safeguard elections as citizens of the bloc's 27 nations prepare to vote for lawmakers in June. The Commission is also investigating whether Meta's mechanism for users to flag illegal content is good enough under the DSA, because it suspects that method isn't easy to access and user-friendly.

Scotland's first minister, Humza Yousaf, resigned on Monday rather than face a no-confidence vote just days after he torpedoed a coalition with the Green Party by ditching a target for fighting climate change. Yousaf, whose Scottish National Party has been weakened by a campaign finance scandal and divisions over transgender rights, stepped down after failing to strike a deal with a breakaway nationalist party whose single seat could have given him a majority in Scotland's devolved regional parliament. With no prospect of victory, Yousaf quit rather than face defeat later this week when Scottish lawmakers were scheduled to vote on motions of no confidence in Yousaf and his government. "After spending the weekend reflecting on what is best for my party, for the government and for the country I lead, I've concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm,'' he told reporters. "I have therefore informed the SNP's national secretary of my intention to stand down as party leader." The debacle in Scotland adds to the fevered political climate in the broader United Kingdom, where concerns about immigration, health care and government spending have undermined support for the ruling Conservative Party. The Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party had proposed separate no-confidence motions as they sought to weaken the SNP before a U.K.-wide parliamentary election expected to take place later this year. The SNP has been the dominant party in Scottish politics for almost two decades and currently holds 43 of the country's 59 seats in the U.K. parliament. On Thursday, England and Wales will hold local elections that are seen as barometer of support for the government. In an effort to save his government, Yousaf had written to all of the party leaders asking for separate meetings to discuss their concerns "in a hopefully constructive spirit." With all the other parties lined up against him, the tight electoral math in Scotland meant that Yousaf's fate hinged on the upstart Alba Party, which holds just one seat in the Scottish parliament. The SNP has 63 of the 128 voting lawmakers, leaving Yousaf one vote short of what he needed to eke out a victory.