A few years after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, known as the “velvet divorce”, the newly independent Slovakian state to the south was already a cause of concern. The US secretary of state at the time, Madeleine Albright, called it “the black hole” of Europe.

Eventually, in 2004 Slovakia joined the EU and Nato. The assumption then in the west was that the country, finally, had a settled identity and a settled set of alliances.

At the spot where a man tried to kill a prime minister there is a bullet hole and a small bloodstain.

Faint traces of a giant moment that has shocked Slovakia deeply. But the gunman’s target had seen this coming.

A month earlier, Robert Fico, Slovakia’s populist leader, was filmed predicting political tensions were so acute "a leading government politician" would end up getting murdered.

Then, the prime minister himself was shot. Hit four times in the stomach and arm at close range as he greeted supporters in a small former mining town.

The assassination attempt on Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister, is unprecedented in the country’s history. 

But the attack, which the premier is likely to survive, speaks to an increasingly poisonous atmosphere in the central European nation of 5.5 million people.

In response to the attack, Zuzana Caputova, the country’s liberal outgoing president, and her successor Peter Pellegrini, an ally of the prime minister, have jointly called for calm. 

In a recent piece in the New York Times, New York University historian Steven Hahn contextualizes Donald Trump’s illiberal tendencies. Trump’s illiberalism, argues Hahn, is not so un-American after all: “That Mr. Trump continues to lead in polls should make plain that he and his MAGA movement are more than noxious weeds in otherwise liberal democratic soil.” Hahn proceeds to document a host of illiberal episodes and strains of thought from American history, from racism to anti-Catholic bigotry. He concludes: “Illiberalism’s history is America’s history.”

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday swiftly and overwhelmingly defeated an effort by firebrand Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene to remove Speaker Mike Johnson, a fellow Republican, from his leadership role.

Democrats joined Republicans in a 359-43 vote to protect Johnson's speakership, in a bid to avoid a replay of the chaos that occurred in October when Republicans ousted his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.

The House voted swiftly Wednesday evening to kill Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson from his leadership post.

The resounding vote in Johnson’s favor – which came with the help of Democrats – brings to an end the most serious challenge to the speakership the Louisiana Republican has faced, at least for now.

As he navigates a razor-thin majority, the failed ouster effort gives Johnson the opportunity to argue it is time to move on to other issues, though support from Democrats may open him up to more criticism from his right flank.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) voted to table ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) ouster of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), though for an unexpected reason.

Gaetz said in a post on X that he “voted to table the motion for one principal reason – with a two seat majority in an election year I believe 2-3 Republicans could be susceptible to bribes to resign or even vote for a Democrat.”

IN THE EARLY hours of April 30, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced that negotiations with student protesters had failed. She ordered the students, who were demanding that the school divest from Israel, to disband their encampments and end their protests.

Instead, students occupied Hamilton Hall. They renamed the building — which has a long history of occupations — Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces after calling for help in January.

The clashes between police officers and pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses have seized national attention, putting a spotlight on modern-day campus activism, law enforcement tactics and the contentious debate over Israel’s war in Gaza. In the last three weeks, more than 2,000 people have been arrested across the U.S., according to a tally compiled by NBC News.

On April 29, a man agitated a group of Jewish students and a Hillel staff member standing near the University of Wisconsin-Madison pro-Palestine encampment and did a raised-hand Nazi salute toward them, but did not shout "Heil Hitler." AllSides highlights content from Gigafact, a network of newsrooms that respond to online claims. View the full fact brief on Wisconsin Watch.