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May 16, 2024
NEWS: Twitter has started 302 redirecting all URLs to use http://x.com/ as the default.
Twitter is now fully changing to url x.com so unless the DU software's updated, tweets may soon no longer display on DU
https://twitter.com/xDaily/status/1791160647213797480NEWS: Twitter has started 302 redirecting all URLs to use http://x.com/ as the default.
May 16, 2024
Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and their peers on the court understand the ethic of the powerful, writes Noah Berlatsky.
https://www.editorialboard.com/debt-frees-the-powerful-and-crushes-the-powerless/
Kavanaugh and Thomas join hands to crush poor Black students
Before being appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 2018, Kavanaugh racked up $60,000 to $200,000 in debt, supposedly on baseball tickets for himself and colleagues. Kavanaugh, as a federal judge, does not make enough money to pay down debts like that. But by the time of his nomination, the debts were gone. So how did he do it? Liberals and leftists suggested the debt payoff is a sign of corruption; Kavanaugh, they insinuate, is in the pocket of corporate and far-right interests. Kavanaugh certainly is a lickspittle for corporate and far-right interests, but not because they’ve paid him off. Kavanaugh’s debts were retired entirely legitimately, through the useful mechanism of white generational wealth. Conspiracy theories about Kavanaugh’s debts distract from the actual mechanisms of white capitalist power and help to erase the hypocrisy and cruelty of the Supreme Court’s defense of hierarchy at the expense of the poor, students and Black people.
Generational wealth for Kavanaugh, but not for Thomas
Kavanaugh’s been somewhat secretive about his finances, probably because he finds his luxury expenses and the way he is able to afford them somewhat embarrassing. “Embarrassing,” though, is not the same as illegal. Mother Jones, after an extensive investigation, concluded that “while he was maddeningly obtuse in admitting it, Kavanaugh seems to have gotten lots of money from his parents.” Kavanaugh has mostly worked in the public sector and his take-home pay has generally been modest. But his family is wealthy; his father, also a lawyer, was a muckety-muck with the US Chamber of Commerce and served as president of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association for 20 years. That means Kavanaugh can live well beyond his means and afford large debts in the sure knowledge that his family can pay them off. He isn’t corrupt, in the usual sense. He’s just rich.
The difference here with Clarence Thomas is instructive. Thomas was born in Jim Crow Georgia to an impoverished family; the shack where he grew up was insulated with newspapers and his family shared an outhouse with neighbors. (Kavanaugh’s family, needless to say, did not share an outhouse with neighbors.) Thomas’ family has less money than Kavanaugh’s for straightforward reasons. Black people were targeted for systematic theft and dispossession in the south and countrywide. They could not build up cash reserves or resources. That’s why there’s a $240,120 discrepancy today in wealth between the median white household and the median Black household.
Thomas, like Kavanaugh, is an extremely ambitious man, who wants the political power that comes with a government position, but also wants to live like a private-sector elite. Kavanaugh could do this easily with a boost from his white wealthy family. Thomas, however, struggled. In 2000, he complained to influential Republicans that his salary of $173,600 a year was so low that he might quit the court. Thomas’ efforts to legislate salary increases didn’t work. But there was a workaround. Republican donors began lavishing Thomas and his wife with gifts in order to ensure that he wouldn’t leave the bench. Billionaire Harlan Crow provided Thomas with yacht vacations and private school tuition for Thomas’ nephew. He also renovated the property where Thomas’ mother lives. Donors also appear to have helped Thomas pay down extensive debts contracted through purchases of a home and of a private RV.
snip
Debt frees the powerful and crushes the powerless
Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and their peers on the court understand the ethic of the powerful, writes Noah Berlatsky.
https://www.editorialboard.com/debt-frees-the-powerful-and-crushes-the-powerless/
Kavanaugh and Thomas join hands to crush poor Black students
Before being appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 2018, Kavanaugh racked up $60,000 to $200,000 in debt, supposedly on baseball tickets for himself and colleagues. Kavanaugh, as a federal judge, does not make enough money to pay down debts like that. But by the time of his nomination, the debts were gone. So how did he do it? Liberals and leftists suggested the debt payoff is a sign of corruption; Kavanaugh, they insinuate, is in the pocket of corporate and far-right interests. Kavanaugh certainly is a lickspittle for corporate and far-right interests, but not because they’ve paid him off. Kavanaugh’s debts were retired entirely legitimately, through the useful mechanism of white generational wealth. Conspiracy theories about Kavanaugh’s debts distract from the actual mechanisms of white capitalist power and help to erase the hypocrisy and cruelty of the Supreme Court’s defense of hierarchy at the expense of the poor, students and Black people.
Generational wealth for Kavanaugh, but not for Thomas
Kavanaugh’s been somewhat secretive about his finances, probably because he finds his luxury expenses and the way he is able to afford them somewhat embarrassing. “Embarrassing,” though, is not the same as illegal. Mother Jones, after an extensive investigation, concluded that “while he was maddeningly obtuse in admitting it, Kavanaugh seems to have gotten lots of money from his parents.” Kavanaugh has mostly worked in the public sector and his take-home pay has generally been modest. But his family is wealthy; his father, also a lawyer, was a muckety-muck with the US Chamber of Commerce and served as president of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association for 20 years. That means Kavanaugh can live well beyond his means and afford large debts in the sure knowledge that his family can pay them off. He isn’t corrupt, in the usual sense. He’s just rich.
The difference here with Clarence Thomas is instructive. Thomas was born in Jim Crow Georgia to an impoverished family; the shack where he grew up was insulated with newspapers and his family shared an outhouse with neighbors. (Kavanaugh’s family, needless to say, did not share an outhouse with neighbors.) Thomas’ family has less money than Kavanaugh’s for straightforward reasons. Black people were targeted for systematic theft and dispossession in the south and countrywide. They could not build up cash reserves or resources. That’s why there’s a $240,120 discrepancy today in wealth between the median white household and the median Black household.
Thomas, like Kavanaugh, is an extremely ambitious man, who wants the political power that comes with a government position, but also wants to live like a private-sector elite. Kavanaugh could do this easily with a boost from his white wealthy family. Thomas, however, struggled. In 2000, he complained to influential Republicans that his salary of $173,600 a year was so low that he might quit the court. Thomas’ efforts to legislate salary increases didn’t work. But there was a workaround. Republican donors began lavishing Thomas and his wife with gifts in order to ensure that he wouldn’t leave the bench. Billionaire Harlan Crow provided Thomas with yacht vacations and private school tuition for Thomas’ nephew. He also renovated the property where Thomas’ mother lives. Donors also appear to have helped Thomas pay down extensive debts contracted through purchases of a home and of a private RV.
snip
May 16, 2024
On hot days, try a pitcher of switchel, using vinegar, ginger, sweetener and water.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/05/16/switchel-history/
https://archive.ph/hQUsX
In pitchers from left: apple, plain and peach switchels. (Scott Suchman for The Washington Post/food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post)
It’s not surprising that on sweltering days, we turn to lemons for refreshment. A perfect lemon is a work of art, with its taste, aroma and spectacular good looks glowing as brightly as the sun against a brilliantly blue sky. Mix some of that sunshine with sugar and water, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a beverage. Apple cider vinegar, on the other hand, is a murky brown puddle swirling with moldy flecks that tastes like it wants you dead. I can understand why it’s not something most people reach for when they’re thirsty. Maybe this is why we’ve all but forgotten about switchel, which is unfortunate. Sure, vinegar might not have the sex appeal of lemons, but it’s tart and tasty just the same. Plus it doesn’t require you to squeeze a whole sack of fruit on the road to refreshment — if you can open a bottle, you can have a pitcher of switchel ready to go in mere minutes.
Also known as harvest drink, harvest beer, haymakers punch and – my personal favorite – “swanky,” switchel is a New World take on a basic beverage that’s been around for millennia. Ancient Greeks mixed vinegar, honey and water to make oxymel; ancient Romans did the same to make posca, as did ancient Persians to make sikanjabîn. As a byproduct of spoiled food, vinegar has always been cheap and plentiful in every corner of the world, and its usefulness went far beyond flavor. “Water of the time was often undrinkable, spoiled by dangerous bacteria,” writes Michael Dietch in his book “Shrubs.” “Spiking water with soured wine was a way to sterilize the water while reusing wine that would otherwise be wasted.” What makes switchel unique in the pantheon of vinegar-based beverages is its use of ginger, which balances the aggressive tartness and sugary sweetness with a surprising, spicy kick. (Shrubs, on the other hand, tend to rely on fruit for their flavoring.)
As is the case with most informal “recipes” of antiquity, no one can state its origins with 100 percent certainty, but it’s believed that the basic combination of water, vinegar, ginger and sweetener most likely originated on West Indian sugar cane plantations, where it was made with molasses. Through the sugar cane trade, sailors brought the drink from the Caribbean to the rum-distilling capital of the colonies — Boston — where it quickly became popular with farmers, laborers and anyone else doing backbreaking work under summer sun. As switchel crept across the country, people adapted the recipe with whatever sweetener was cheap and plentiful: maple syrup to the north, sorghum to the south and honey to the west.
Early America’s infatuation with switchel wasn’t just because of its flavor – it was also “science.” Back in the colonial era, people believed that it was dangerous to drink water to cool off on a hot day, and not because of bacteria or pathogens (of which there were plenty). If the body was hot outside, it made sense for it to be hot inside as well, or else who knows what could happen? Hysteria? Demonic possession? Spontaneous combustion? Even if switchel was cool, it tasted fiery enough to keep the body and its humors in balance. Prior to its existence, farmhands working the fields would “hydrate” with rum which, while cheap enough at the time, was bad for productivity. Bosses loved that switchel kept their beverage budget down, and kept their employees from hootin’, hollerin’ and whatever else goes down when you mix 100-proof spirits with heat and farming equipment.
snip
Switchel, a drink dating to antiquity, is a refreshing way to cool off
On hot days, try a pitcher of switchel, using vinegar, ginger, sweetener and water.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/05/16/switchel-history/
https://archive.ph/hQUsX
In pitchers from left: apple, plain and peach switchels. (Scott Suchman for The Washington Post/food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post)
It’s not surprising that on sweltering days, we turn to lemons for refreshment. A perfect lemon is a work of art, with its taste, aroma and spectacular good looks glowing as brightly as the sun against a brilliantly blue sky. Mix some of that sunshine with sugar and water, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a beverage. Apple cider vinegar, on the other hand, is a murky brown puddle swirling with moldy flecks that tastes like it wants you dead. I can understand why it’s not something most people reach for when they’re thirsty. Maybe this is why we’ve all but forgotten about switchel, which is unfortunate. Sure, vinegar might not have the sex appeal of lemons, but it’s tart and tasty just the same. Plus it doesn’t require you to squeeze a whole sack of fruit on the road to refreshment — if you can open a bottle, you can have a pitcher of switchel ready to go in mere minutes.
Also known as harvest drink, harvest beer, haymakers punch and – my personal favorite – “swanky,” switchel is a New World take on a basic beverage that’s been around for millennia. Ancient Greeks mixed vinegar, honey and water to make oxymel; ancient Romans did the same to make posca, as did ancient Persians to make sikanjabîn. As a byproduct of spoiled food, vinegar has always been cheap and plentiful in every corner of the world, and its usefulness went far beyond flavor. “Water of the time was often undrinkable, spoiled by dangerous bacteria,” writes Michael Dietch in his book “Shrubs.” “Spiking water with soured wine was a way to sterilize the water while reusing wine that would otherwise be wasted.” What makes switchel unique in the pantheon of vinegar-based beverages is its use of ginger, which balances the aggressive tartness and sugary sweetness with a surprising, spicy kick. (Shrubs, on the other hand, tend to rely on fruit for their flavoring.)
As is the case with most informal “recipes” of antiquity, no one can state its origins with 100 percent certainty, but it’s believed that the basic combination of water, vinegar, ginger and sweetener most likely originated on West Indian sugar cane plantations, where it was made with molasses. Through the sugar cane trade, sailors brought the drink from the Caribbean to the rum-distilling capital of the colonies — Boston — where it quickly became popular with farmers, laborers and anyone else doing backbreaking work under summer sun. As switchel crept across the country, people adapted the recipe with whatever sweetener was cheap and plentiful: maple syrup to the north, sorghum to the south and honey to the west.
Early America’s infatuation with switchel wasn’t just because of its flavor – it was also “science.” Back in the colonial era, people believed that it was dangerous to drink water to cool off on a hot day, and not because of bacteria or pathogens (of which there were plenty). If the body was hot outside, it made sense for it to be hot inside as well, or else who knows what could happen? Hysteria? Demonic possession? Spontaneous combustion? Even if switchel was cool, it tasted fiery enough to keep the body and its humors in balance. Prior to its existence, farmhands working the fields would “hydrate” with rum which, while cheap enough at the time, was bad for productivity. Bosses loved that switchel kept their beverage budget down, and kept their employees from hootin’, hollerin’ and whatever else goes down when you mix 100-proof spirits with heat and farming equipment.
snip
Switchel
https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/switchel/
https://archive.ph/wip/rNQ86
Sweet and tart, switchel, also known as haymaker’s punch, is essentially lemonade’s half-sibling, without all the squeezing. Made with fresh ginger and cider vinegar instead of freshly squeezed fruit, this nonalcoholic beverage comes together in a fraction of the time and is just as customizable. Use this recipe as a guideline, adding more sweetener, vinegar or water to taste. We have included two fruity options in the Variations, below.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/switchel/
https://archive.ph/wip/rNQ86
Sweet and tart, switchel, also known as haymaker’s punch, is essentially lemonade’s half-sibling, without all the squeezing. Made with fresh ginger and cider vinegar instead of freshly squeezed fruit, this nonalcoholic beverage comes together in a fraction of the time and is just as customizable. Use this recipe as a guideline, adding more sweetener, vinegar or water to taste. We have included two fruity options in the Variations, below.
May 16, 2024
The MAGA lawmaker weighed in within hours of the assassination attempt.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/marjorie-taylor-greenes-conspiracy-theory-on-slovakia-pm-robert-ficos-attack
Marjorie Taylor Greene wasted no time in suggesting that the shooting of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico Wednesday could be linked to his position on COVID vaccines. The MAGA lawmaker shared a post on X Wednesday which contained a video with English subtitles in which Fico purportedly rails against the treatment of those who opposed vaccination and other government measures to manage the pandemic (The Daily Beast has not verified the translation provided in the clip).
https://twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1790763619388428377
https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1790771908054483380
“This is great and courageous,” Greene wrote in her own tweet sharing the video. “No wonder they shot him.” The original post, which was made by an X user who self-describes as a “Conspiracy Realist” with the handle “@BGatesIsaPsycho,” claimed that Fico had said that his party “WILL NOT support strengthening the Powers” of the World Health Organization and that multiple studies have confirmed “the scandalous consequences of mass vaccination with experimental untested vaccines.” “Today he has been shot in public ‼️‼️,” the post read. “As of yet no motive for the attack has been given…”
Doctors in Slovakia said Thursday that Fico remains in a stable but serious condition after being shot multiple times in the attack in the town of Handlova, according to the BBC. Tomas Taraba, Slovakia’s deputy prime minister, had said earlier that Fico’s surgery had gone well and that he guessed Fico “will survive.”
Juraj Cintula, a 71-year-old man arrested at the scene of the attack, was charged Thursday with attempted murder. Local media reports claim that Cintula, a poet and former security guard, told police he’d planned the attack a few days before it unfolded, and that he was motivated by disagreement with government policies. Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok said Wednesday that early information indicated the assassination attempt was “politically motivated,” though he did not give a precise motive.
snip
'No Wonder They Shot Him': Marjorie Taylor Greene Shares Wild Conspiracy Theory
The MAGA lawmaker weighed in within hours of the assassination attempt.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/marjorie-taylor-greenes-conspiracy-theory-on-slovakia-pm-robert-ficos-attack
Marjorie Taylor Greene wasted no time in suggesting that the shooting of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico Wednesday could be linked to his position on COVID vaccines. The MAGA lawmaker shared a post on X Wednesday which contained a video with English subtitles in which Fico purportedly rails against the treatment of those who opposed vaccination and other government measures to manage the pandemic (The Daily Beast has not verified the translation provided in the clip).
https://twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1790763619388428377
https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1790771908054483380
“This is great and courageous,” Greene wrote in her own tweet sharing the video. “No wonder they shot him.” The original post, which was made by an X user who self-describes as a “Conspiracy Realist” with the handle “@BGatesIsaPsycho,” claimed that Fico had said that his party “WILL NOT support strengthening the Powers” of the World Health Organization and that multiple studies have confirmed “the scandalous consequences of mass vaccination with experimental untested vaccines.” “Today he has been shot in public ‼️‼️,” the post read. “As of yet no motive for the attack has been given…”
Doctors in Slovakia said Thursday that Fico remains in a stable but serious condition after being shot multiple times in the attack in the town of Handlova, according to the BBC. Tomas Taraba, Slovakia’s deputy prime minister, had said earlier that Fico’s surgery had gone well and that he guessed Fico “will survive.”
Juraj Cintula, a 71-year-old man arrested at the scene of the attack, was charged Thursday with attempted murder. Local media reports claim that Cintula, a poet and former security guard, told police he’d planned the attack a few days before it unfolded, and that he was motivated by disagreement with government policies. Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok said Wednesday that early information indicated the assassination attempt was “politically motivated,” though he did not give a precise motive.
snip
May 16, 2024
Hogan faces Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, who would be Maryland’s first Black senator, in his bid to flip a reliably blue U.S. Senate seat red. The matchup is one of a few expected to determine the balance of power in the chamber.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/15/maryland-senate-larry-hogan/
https://archive.ph/nys5D
Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan and his wife, Yumi Hogan, walk into the polling station at Davidsonville Elementary School on Tuesday in Davidsonville. (Wesley Lapointe for The Washington Post)
Republican Larry Hogan proved he can win statewide in deep-blue Maryland, but he has never faced a campaign like the one he is about to undertake. The former governor has not had to run with Donald Trump atop the ballot or with control of the U.S. Senate on the line. Nor has Hogan had to run against a Democrat who has a chance to make history — a Black woman backed by a nationwide coalition eager to defeat him. As he seeks to become Maryland’s next senator against the Democratic nominee, Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, Hogan also faces a far different electorate and political climate than when he won his first gubernatorial race a decade ago. After eight years in Annapolis, he will be forced to defend his record against Democrats no longer willing to celebrate him as a symbol of bipartisan leadership.
One target, they say, is his 2022 veto of legislation to expand abortion access in Maryland. “We can do it because he has got a bad record,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown (D), who lost the 2014 gubernatorial race to Hogan. “We were afraid that if we criticized the governor, we would be viewed as overly partisan.” They’re not afraid of that anymore, he said. Democrats who have voted for Hogan in the past may be more reluctant now that his victory could help Republicans capture control of the Senate — a possibility of pointed concern for voters worried about issues such as abortion rights. Hogan, at his victory party Tuesday night, sought to allay those fears, promising not to be “just another Republican on Capitol Hill” but to “stand up to the current president, the former president, to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.”
Hogan greets supporters Tuesday after he won the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in the Maryland primary election. (Wesley Lapointe for The Washington Post)
He also made a point of addressing concerns about his position on abortion, saying, “Let me set the record straight: To the women of Maryland, you have my word that I will continue to protect your right to make your own reproductive choices.” Democrats began pressing their anti-Hogan case soon after the primary ended. Alsobrooks, at her own celebration Tuesday, seized the opportunity to cast Hogan as an ally of the current GOP leadership, labeling him as the “BFF” (best friend forever) of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and saying, “Donald Trump’s Republican Party wants to flip this seat.” “Let’s be extremely clear about who Larry Hogan is,” said Alsobrooks, before reminding her audience of his abortion access veto and that he canceled a $2.9 billion transit line that would have traversed Baltimore. Hogan’s cross-party appeal buoyed his 2018 reelection campaign, with one voter survey showing he captured 31 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
He still has Democratic allies
Bobby Zirkin, a former Maryland state lawmaker who co-chairs Democrats for Hogan, said Wednesday that he is supporting the Republican despite pressure from friends who are “yelling at me” for not backing Alsobrooks. “I’ll give you one word: Israel,” said Zirkin by way of explanation, referring to Hogan’s promise to be Maryland’s “pro-Israel champion” in the Senate. “It has made this decision for me very easy.” Zirkin, a moderate who represented Baltimore County, also praised the former governor for helping to ban fracking and expand the list of crimes that can be expunged from records. “The most progressive things I ever did, Larry Hogan was involved in,” Zirkin said.
snip
Larry Hogan has won statewide twice. But now everything is different.
Hogan faces Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, who would be Maryland’s first Black senator, in his bid to flip a reliably blue U.S. Senate seat red. The matchup is one of a few expected to determine the balance of power in the chamber.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/15/maryland-senate-larry-hogan/
https://archive.ph/nys5D
Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan and his wife, Yumi Hogan, walk into the polling station at Davidsonville Elementary School on Tuesday in Davidsonville. (Wesley Lapointe for The Washington Post)
Republican Larry Hogan proved he can win statewide in deep-blue Maryland, but he has never faced a campaign like the one he is about to undertake. The former governor has not had to run with Donald Trump atop the ballot or with control of the U.S. Senate on the line. Nor has Hogan had to run against a Democrat who has a chance to make history — a Black woman backed by a nationwide coalition eager to defeat him. As he seeks to become Maryland’s next senator against the Democratic nominee, Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, Hogan also faces a far different electorate and political climate than when he won his first gubernatorial race a decade ago. After eight years in Annapolis, he will be forced to defend his record against Democrats no longer willing to celebrate him as a symbol of bipartisan leadership.
One target, they say, is his 2022 veto of legislation to expand abortion access in Maryland. “We can do it because he has got a bad record,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown (D), who lost the 2014 gubernatorial race to Hogan. “We were afraid that if we criticized the governor, we would be viewed as overly partisan.” They’re not afraid of that anymore, he said. Democrats who have voted for Hogan in the past may be more reluctant now that his victory could help Republicans capture control of the Senate — a possibility of pointed concern for voters worried about issues such as abortion rights. Hogan, at his victory party Tuesday night, sought to allay those fears, promising not to be “just another Republican on Capitol Hill” but to “stand up to the current president, the former president, to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.”
Hogan greets supporters Tuesday after he won the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in the Maryland primary election. (Wesley Lapointe for The Washington Post)
He also made a point of addressing concerns about his position on abortion, saying, “Let me set the record straight: To the women of Maryland, you have my word that I will continue to protect your right to make your own reproductive choices.” Democrats began pressing their anti-Hogan case soon after the primary ended. Alsobrooks, at her own celebration Tuesday, seized the opportunity to cast Hogan as an ally of the current GOP leadership, labeling him as the “BFF” (best friend forever) of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and saying, “Donald Trump’s Republican Party wants to flip this seat.” “Let’s be extremely clear about who Larry Hogan is,” said Alsobrooks, before reminding her audience of his abortion access veto and that he canceled a $2.9 billion transit line that would have traversed Baltimore. Hogan’s cross-party appeal buoyed his 2018 reelection campaign, with one voter survey showing he captured 31 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
He still has Democratic allies
Bobby Zirkin, a former Maryland state lawmaker who co-chairs Democrats for Hogan, said Wednesday that he is supporting the Republican despite pressure from friends who are “yelling at me” for not backing Alsobrooks. “I’ll give you one word: Israel,” said Zirkin by way of explanation, referring to Hogan’s promise to be Maryland’s “pro-Israel champion” in the Senate. “It has made this decision for me very easy.” Zirkin, a moderate who represented Baltimore County, also praised the former governor for helping to ban fracking and expand the list of crimes that can be expunged from records. “The most progressive things I ever did, Larry Hogan was involved in,” Zirkin said.
snip
May 16, 2024
American and Israeli officials are offering increasingly blunt assessments about Hamas’s resilience and Netanyahu’s failure to plan for postwar Gaza.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/15/israel-hamas-gaza-rafah-jabalya/
https://archive.ph/26kIN
Three rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the Gaza border at the southern city of Sderot on Tuesday. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
JERUSALEM — It was last December when the Israeli military declared victory in the Jabalya refugee camp, saying it had broken Hamas’s grip on its traditional stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip. “Jabalya is not the Jabalya it used to be,” Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, commander of Division 162, said at the time, adding that “hundreds of terrorists” had been killed and 500 suspects arrested. Five months later, Israeli forces are back in Jabalya. Ground troops are pushing into the densely packed camp, backed by artillery and airstrikes — one in a string of recent “re-clearing” operations launched by the Israel Defense Forces against Hamas, whose fighters have rapidly regrouped in areas vacated by the IDF.
Israel’s fast-moving offensive in Gaza has given way to a grinding battle of attrition, highlighting how far it remains from its chief military aim — the complete dismantling of Hamas. As an adaptable militant organization that has easy access to recruits, an expansive tunnel network and is deeply embedded in the fabric of Gaza, Hamas has shown it can weather a protracted and devastating war. The resumption of heavy fighting in the north comes as the IDF presses ahead with its heavily criticized campaign in the southern city of Rafah — long framed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a final battle against Hamas’s last intact battalions. Now, American officials and some of the prime minister’s fellow cabinet members are offering increasingly blunt assessments about the resilience of the militant group and Netanyahu’s failure to plan for postwar Gaza.
In striking remarks Wednesday night, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on Netanyahu to make a public commitment that Israel will not end up governing Gaza after the war, amid mounting fears in the IDF that its mission is creeping toward reoccupation of the territory. “Hamas might regain its strength as long as it maintains civilian control,” Gallant said. Failure to create an “alternative governing authority,” he said, “is equivalent to choosing between the two worst alternatives: Hamas rule or Israeli control of Gaza.”
Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of the Jabalya refugee camp on Nov. 1, 2023, one day after an Israeli airstrike hit the area. (Mohammed Saber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan sounded a similar note on Monday: “Military pressure is necessary but not sufficient to fully defeat Hamas,” he told reporters. “If Israel’s efforts are not accompanied by a political plan for the future of Gaza, and the Palestinian people, the terrorists will keep coming back.” Netanyahu said last week that Israel has killed 14,000 Hamas militants; the IDF put its estimate at 13,000 last month. The numbers are not possible to independently verify — and no evidence has been offered to support them — but even the high-end figure would amount to less than half of Hamas’s estimated fighting force before the war. Thousands of other militants belong to smaller groups that vie with Hamas for local influence.
snip
As Hamas returns to the north, Israel's Gaza endgame is nowhere in sight
American and Israeli officials are offering increasingly blunt assessments about Hamas’s resilience and Netanyahu’s failure to plan for postwar Gaza.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/15/israel-hamas-gaza-rafah-jabalya/
https://archive.ph/26kIN
Three rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the Gaza border at the southern city of Sderot on Tuesday. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
JERUSALEM — It was last December when the Israeli military declared victory in the Jabalya refugee camp, saying it had broken Hamas’s grip on its traditional stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip. “Jabalya is not the Jabalya it used to be,” Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, commander of Division 162, said at the time, adding that “hundreds of terrorists” had been killed and 500 suspects arrested. Five months later, Israeli forces are back in Jabalya. Ground troops are pushing into the densely packed camp, backed by artillery and airstrikes — one in a string of recent “re-clearing” operations launched by the Israel Defense Forces against Hamas, whose fighters have rapidly regrouped in areas vacated by the IDF.
Israel’s fast-moving offensive in Gaza has given way to a grinding battle of attrition, highlighting how far it remains from its chief military aim — the complete dismantling of Hamas. As an adaptable militant organization that has easy access to recruits, an expansive tunnel network and is deeply embedded in the fabric of Gaza, Hamas has shown it can weather a protracted and devastating war. The resumption of heavy fighting in the north comes as the IDF presses ahead with its heavily criticized campaign in the southern city of Rafah — long framed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a final battle against Hamas’s last intact battalions. Now, American officials and some of the prime minister’s fellow cabinet members are offering increasingly blunt assessments about the resilience of the militant group and Netanyahu’s failure to plan for postwar Gaza.
In striking remarks Wednesday night, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on Netanyahu to make a public commitment that Israel will not end up governing Gaza after the war, amid mounting fears in the IDF that its mission is creeping toward reoccupation of the territory. “Hamas might regain its strength as long as it maintains civilian control,” Gallant said. Failure to create an “alternative governing authority,” he said, “is equivalent to choosing between the two worst alternatives: Hamas rule or Israeli control of Gaza.”
Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of the Jabalya refugee camp on Nov. 1, 2023, one day after an Israeli airstrike hit the area. (Mohammed Saber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan sounded a similar note on Monday: “Military pressure is necessary but not sufficient to fully defeat Hamas,” he told reporters. “If Israel’s efforts are not accompanied by a political plan for the future of Gaza, and the Palestinian people, the terrorists will keep coming back.” Netanyahu said last week that Israel has killed 14,000 Hamas militants; the IDF put its estimate at 13,000 last month. The numbers are not possible to independently verify — and no evidence has been offered to support them — but even the high-end figure would amount to less than half of Hamas’s estimated fighting force before the war. Thousands of other militants belong to smaller groups that vie with Hamas for local influence.
snip
May 16, 2024
Multiple factors are helping Russia’s military advance, including a delay in American weaponry and Moscow’s technological innovations on the battlefield.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/us/politics/russia-momentum-ukraine-war.html
https://archive.ph/DchiK
In recent days, Moscow’s troops have opened a new push against the country’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, forcing Ukraine to divert its already thinned-out troops to defend an area that it took back from Russian forces in a stunning victory in the fall of 2022. Credit...Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times
Just 18 months ago, White House and Pentagon officials debated whether Russia’s forces in Ukraine might collapse and be pushed out of the country entirely. Now, after months of slow Russian ground advances and technological leaps in countering American-provided arms, the Biden administration is increasingly concerned that President Vladimir V. Putin is gathering enough momentum to change the trajectory of the war, and perhaps reverse his once-bleak prospects. In recent days, Moscow’s troops have opened a new push near the country’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, forcing Ukraine to divert its already thinned-out troops to defend an area that it took back from Russian forces in a stunning victory in the fall of 2022.
Artillery and drones provided by the United States and NATO have been taken out by Russian electronic warfare techniques, which came to the battlefield late but have proven surprisingly effective. And a monthslong debate in Washington about whether to send Ukraine a $61 billion package of arms and ammunition created an opening that Russia has clearly exploited, even though Congress ultimately passed the legislation. In interviews, American officials express confidence that many of these Russian gains are reversible once the spigot of new arms is fully opened, most likely sometime in July, and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine finds ways to bring more — and younger — troops to the front lines. But they are hesitant to offer predictions of where the battle lines may stand even a few months from now, or whether Mr. Zelensky will be able to mount his long-delayed counteroffensive next year, after one last spring fizzled.
American and allied officials interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity, in order to discuss intelligence reports and sensitive battlefield assessments. But some of the concerns have spilled out in public comments. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said with some understatement on Sunday that “there’s no doubt there’s been a cost” to the long delays in sending arms. He insisted, in his appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” that “we’re doing everything we can to rush this assistance out there.” But American officials say President Biden continues to reject the suggestion from President Emmanuel Macron of France that deployment of Western troops in Ukraine may be necessary, an assessment that Mr. Macron’s office said recently he “stands by absolutely.”
Ukrainian soldiers in March. Because of the delay in U.S. funding, Russia has been able to achieve a huge artillery advantage over Ukraine. Currently the Russians are firing 10 shells for every one the Ukrainians fire. Credit...Nicole Tung for The New York Times
In private, some of Mr. Biden’s aides worry that just as the United States has learned key lessons from the war — about technologies that work and those that do not — so has Mr. Putin. And their biggest concern is that as Russia replaces weaponry wiped out in the first 27 months of the war, Mr. Putin may be regaining ground just as Mr. Biden prepares to meet his closest allies at a Group of 7 meeting in Italy next month. It is unclear whether Mr. Biden will be able to repeat the claim he made in Finland last summer, that Mr. Putin “has already lost that war.” Some veterans of dealing with Mr. Putin’s serial confrontations are unsurprised at this turn in events. “Russia oftentimes starts its wars poorly and finishes strong,” Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser under President George W. Bush, said at a Harvard conference on Friday. Now, he said, Russia has “brought its mass” — a far larger population to draw troops from, and a “huge military infrastructure” — to mount a comeback.
snip
related:
Mapping Russia’s Sudden Push Across Ukrainian Lines
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/15/world/europe/russia-offensive-ukraine-maps.html
https://archive.ph/2HHmU
All of a sudden, Russian forces are making progress in many directions at once. In recent days, Russian troops have surged across the border from the north and opened a new line of attack near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, capturing settlements and villages and forcing thousands of civilians to flee.
It may be a feint. The real goal may be to divert already-weakened Ukrainian forces from critical battles elsewhere. But one thing is clear: The map of battle in Ukraine looks a lot different today than it did only a week ago. Ukraine is more vulnerable than at any time since the harrowing first weeks of the 2022 invasion, a range of soldiers and commanders have said in interviews. It is too soon to know if the war in Ukraine has hit a turning point. But Russia’s progress isn’t just in the northeast. Russia has been making small but geographically broad gains across the eastern front. And what started as a modest Russian advance near Avdiivka has grown in recent weeks into a roughly 15-square-mile bulge that is complicating the defense of the Donetsk region.
Months of delays in American assistance, a spiraling number of casualties and severe shortages of ammunition have taken a deep toll, evident in the exhausted expressions and weary voices of soldiers engaged in daily combat. Whether Russia will succeed in weakening Ukraine’s defenses in other parts of the front line remains to be seen. A big objective, according to Franz-Stefan Gady, a Vienna-based military analyst, appears to be to draw Ukrainian forces away from Chasiv Yar, a town on strategic high ground where Ukrainians have fought for weeks to stave off an attack.
Russia’s broad range of attacks appears to be stretching Ukrainian forces thin. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, said in an interview from a bunker in Kharkiv this week that it has been difficult to find the personnel to shore up defenses in the northeast. “All of our forces are either here or in Chasiv Yar,” he said. “I’ve used everything we have. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone else in the reserves.”
snip
White House Worries Russia's Momentum Is Changing Trajectory of Ukraine War
Multiple factors are helping Russia’s military advance, including a delay in American weaponry and Moscow’s technological innovations on the battlefield.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/us/politics/russia-momentum-ukraine-war.html
https://archive.ph/DchiK
In recent days, Moscow’s troops have opened a new push against the country’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, forcing Ukraine to divert its already thinned-out troops to defend an area that it took back from Russian forces in a stunning victory in the fall of 2022. Credit...Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times
Just 18 months ago, White House and Pentagon officials debated whether Russia’s forces in Ukraine might collapse and be pushed out of the country entirely. Now, after months of slow Russian ground advances and technological leaps in countering American-provided arms, the Biden administration is increasingly concerned that President Vladimir V. Putin is gathering enough momentum to change the trajectory of the war, and perhaps reverse his once-bleak prospects. In recent days, Moscow’s troops have opened a new push near the country’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, forcing Ukraine to divert its already thinned-out troops to defend an area that it took back from Russian forces in a stunning victory in the fall of 2022.
Artillery and drones provided by the United States and NATO have been taken out by Russian electronic warfare techniques, which came to the battlefield late but have proven surprisingly effective. And a monthslong debate in Washington about whether to send Ukraine a $61 billion package of arms and ammunition created an opening that Russia has clearly exploited, even though Congress ultimately passed the legislation. In interviews, American officials express confidence that many of these Russian gains are reversible once the spigot of new arms is fully opened, most likely sometime in July, and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine finds ways to bring more — and younger — troops to the front lines. But they are hesitant to offer predictions of where the battle lines may stand even a few months from now, or whether Mr. Zelensky will be able to mount his long-delayed counteroffensive next year, after one last spring fizzled.
American and allied officials interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity, in order to discuss intelligence reports and sensitive battlefield assessments. But some of the concerns have spilled out in public comments. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said with some understatement on Sunday that “there’s no doubt there’s been a cost” to the long delays in sending arms. He insisted, in his appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” that “we’re doing everything we can to rush this assistance out there.” But American officials say President Biden continues to reject the suggestion from President Emmanuel Macron of France that deployment of Western troops in Ukraine may be necessary, an assessment that Mr. Macron’s office said recently he “stands by absolutely.”
Ukrainian soldiers in March. Because of the delay in U.S. funding, Russia has been able to achieve a huge artillery advantage over Ukraine. Currently the Russians are firing 10 shells for every one the Ukrainians fire. Credit...Nicole Tung for The New York Times
In private, some of Mr. Biden’s aides worry that just as the United States has learned key lessons from the war — about technologies that work and those that do not — so has Mr. Putin. And their biggest concern is that as Russia replaces weaponry wiped out in the first 27 months of the war, Mr. Putin may be regaining ground just as Mr. Biden prepares to meet his closest allies at a Group of 7 meeting in Italy next month. It is unclear whether Mr. Biden will be able to repeat the claim he made in Finland last summer, that Mr. Putin “has already lost that war.” Some veterans of dealing with Mr. Putin’s serial confrontations are unsurprised at this turn in events. “Russia oftentimes starts its wars poorly and finishes strong,” Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser under President George W. Bush, said at a Harvard conference on Friday. Now, he said, Russia has “brought its mass” — a far larger population to draw troops from, and a “huge military infrastructure” — to mount a comeback.
snip
related:
Mapping Russia’s Sudden Push Across Ukrainian Lines
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/15/world/europe/russia-offensive-ukraine-maps.html
https://archive.ph/2HHmU
All of a sudden, Russian forces are making progress in many directions at once. In recent days, Russian troops have surged across the border from the north and opened a new line of attack near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, capturing settlements and villages and forcing thousands of civilians to flee.
It may be a feint. The real goal may be to divert already-weakened Ukrainian forces from critical battles elsewhere. But one thing is clear: The map of battle in Ukraine looks a lot different today than it did only a week ago. Ukraine is more vulnerable than at any time since the harrowing first weeks of the 2022 invasion, a range of soldiers and commanders have said in interviews. It is too soon to know if the war in Ukraine has hit a turning point. But Russia’s progress isn’t just in the northeast. Russia has been making small but geographically broad gains across the eastern front. And what started as a modest Russian advance near Avdiivka has grown in recent weeks into a roughly 15-square-mile bulge that is complicating the defense of the Donetsk region.
Months of delays in American assistance, a spiraling number of casualties and severe shortages of ammunition have taken a deep toll, evident in the exhausted expressions and weary voices of soldiers engaged in daily combat. Whether Russia will succeed in weakening Ukraine’s defenses in other parts of the front line remains to be seen. A big objective, according to Franz-Stefan Gady, a Vienna-based military analyst, appears to be to draw Ukrainian forces away from Chasiv Yar, a town on strategic high ground where Ukrainians have fought for weeks to stave off an attack.
Russia’s broad range of attacks appears to be stretching Ukrainian forces thin. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, said in an interview from a bunker in Kharkiv this week that it has been difficult to find the personnel to shore up defenses in the northeast. “All of our forces are either here or in Chasiv Yar,” he said. “I’ve used everything we have. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone else in the reserves.”
snip
May 16, 2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/16/biden-rafah-strategy-israel-gaza-netanyahu/
https://archive.ph/YrJa1
Israeli tanks are seen in southern Israel after leaving the Gaza Strip near Rafah on May 11. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post).
Last week, President Biden held back a single shipment of arms to Israel when, despite consistent and long-standing U.S. objections, Israel was planning an expanded assault on the city of Rafah. The Israeli government and its defenders in the United States (including members of Congress and Jewish organizations) hollered. Abandoning Israel! Helping Hamas! Nonsense. Indeed, developments suggest Biden’s reaction was well calibrated, considering Israel apparently lacks a strategic plan for victory. If Israel has no plan to hold and govern territory, and Hamas simply backfills areas that are vacated, Israel’s tactical moves and resulting casualties become highly objectionable. That would mean Israel is killing civilians, putting its own soldiers at risk and perpetuating a humanitarian catastrophe for no permanent gain in security.
That seems to be what’s happening, according to a CNN article this week: “The Israeli military has renewed its fighting in northern Gaza where it previously claimed to have dismantled Hamas’ command structure.” As that report notes, Hamas’s reentry in “pockets [Israel] had supposedly cleared … renews questions about its long-term military strategy.” Veteran Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross tweeted, “One thing is clear: the fact that the IDF has had to go back into Jabalya, Zeitoun, and soon Khan Younis is a reminder that no plan existed for what would replace Hamas.” He added: “Yes, Hamas is weakened but without an alternative to it, it will fill the vacuum. And Israel needs an answer.”
https://twitter.com/AmbDennisRoss/status/1789851694676726009
The White House had presciently warned about exactly this problem. “The Biden administration does not see it likely or possible that Israel will achieve ‘total victory’ in defeating Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Monday,” Reuters reported. “While U.S. officials have urged Israel to help devise a clear plan for the governance post-war Gaza, Campbell’s comments are the clearest to date from a top U.S. official effectively admitting that Israel’s current military strategy won’t bring the result that it is aiming for.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has become more explicitly critical of Israel in public. “One, you have to have a clear, credible plan to protect civilians, which we haven’t seen,” he told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Second, we also need to see a plan for what happens after this conflict in Gaza ... is over.” With Hamas returning to places Israel had previously cleared, Israel might “have some initial success, but potentially at an incredibly high cost to civilians,” Blinken said, and that success is “one that is not durable, one that’s not sustainable.” Moreover, Israel “will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency, because a lot of armed Hamas will be left no matter what they do in Rafah,” the secretary said, leaving behind “a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos, by anarchy, and ultimately by Hamas again.” So far, Blinken added, the administration has seen no credible plan to address this dilemma.
snip
Jennifer Rubin: Gaza - The U.S. must stand up to the strategic stupidity that is creating a humanitarian disaster.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/16/biden-rafah-strategy-israel-gaza-netanyahu/
https://archive.ph/YrJa1
Israeli tanks are seen in southern Israel after leaving the Gaza Strip near Rafah on May 11. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post).
Last week, President Biden held back a single shipment of arms to Israel when, despite consistent and long-standing U.S. objections, Israel was planning an expanded assault on the city of Rafah. The Israeli government and its defenders in the United States (including members of Congress and Jewish organizations) hollered. Abandoning Israel! Helping Hamas! Nonsense. Indeed, developments suggest Biden’s reaction was well calibrated, considering Israel apparently lacks a strategic plan for victory. If Israel has no plan to hold and govern territory, and Hamas simply backfills areas that are vacated, Israel’s tactical moves and resulting casualties become highly objectionable. That would mean Israel is killing civilians, putting its own soldiers at risk and perpetuating a humanitarian catastrophe for no permanent gain in security.
That seems to be what’s happening, according to a CNN article this week: “The Israeli military has renewed its fighting in northern Gaza where it previously claimed to have dismantled Hamas’ command structure.” As that report notes, Hamas’s reentry in “pockets [Israel] had supposedly cleared … renews questions about its long-term military strategy.” Veteran Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross tweeted, “One thing is clear: the fact that the IDF has had to go back into Jabalya, Zeitoun, and soon Khan Younis is a reminder that no plan existed for what would replace Hamas.” He added: “Yes, Hamas is weakened but without an alternative to it, it will fill the vacuum. And Israel needs an answer.”
https://twitter.com/AmbDennisRoss/status/1789851694676726009
The White House had presciently warned about exactly this problem. “The Biden administration does not see it likely or possible that Israel will achieve ‘total victory’ in defeating Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Monday,” Reuters reported. “While U.S. officials have urged Israel to help devise a clear plan for the governance post-war Gaza, Campbell’s comments are the clearest to date from a top U.S. official effectively admitting that Israel’s current military strategy won’t bring the result that it is aiming for.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has become more explicitly critical of Israel in public. “One, you have to have a clear, credible plan to protect civilians, which we haven’t seen,” he told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Second, we also need to see a plan for what happens after this conflict in Gaza ... is over.” With Hamas returning to places Israel had previously cleared, Israel might “have some initial success, but potentially at an incredibly high cost to civilians,” Blinken said, and that success is “one that is not durable, one that’s not sustainable.” Moreover, Israel “will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency, because a lot of armed Hamas will be left no matter what they do in Rafah,” the secretary said, leaving behind “a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos, by anarchy, and ultimately by Hamas again.” So far, Blinken added, the administration has seen no credible plan to address this dilemma.
snip
May 16, 2024
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in a life-threatening condition after he was shot in an assassination attempt when leaving a government meeting on Wednesday, a government minister said. The gunman shot Fico, 59, five times, initially leaving the prime minister in critical condition and undergoing surgery hours later on Wednesday evening.
"I was very shocked ... fortunately as far as I know the operation went well - and I guess in the end he will survive ... he's not in a life-threatening situation at this moment," Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister Tomas Taraba told the BBC's Newshour.
Taraba said one bullet went through Fico's stomach and a second hit a joint. News outlet Aktuality.sk cited an unnamed source saying Fico was out of surgery and in stable condition. Defence Minister Robert Kalinak told a news briefing hours earlier that Fico had suffered "serious polytrauma" after several shot wounds.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok had said earlier that Fico was in a life-threatening condition while he remained in the operating room. "This assassination (attempt) was politically motivated and the perpetrator's decision was born closely after the presidential election," Sutaj Estok said, referring to an April election won by a Fico ally, Peter Pellegrini.
snip
Slovakia's Prime Minister Fico expected to survive after being shot
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240516-slovakia-s-prime-minister-fico-expected-to-survive-after-being-shotSlovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in a life-threatening condition after he was shot in an assassination attempt when leaving a government meeting on Wednesday, a government minister said. The gunman shot Fico, 59, five times, initially leaving the prime minister in critical condition and undergoing surgery hours later on Wednesday evening.
"I was very shocked ... fortunately as far as I know the operation went well - and I guess in the end he will survive ... he's not in a life-threatening situation at this moment," Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister Tomas Taraba told the BBC's Newshour.
Taraba said one bullet went through Fico's stomach and a second hit a joint. News outlet Aktuality.sk cited an unnamed source saying Fico was out of surgery and in stable condition. Defence Minister Robert Kalinak told a news briefing hours earlier that Fico had suffered "serious polytrauma" after several shot wounds.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok had said earlier that Fico was in a life-threatening condition while he remained in the operating room. "This assassination (attempt) was politically motivated and the perpetrator's decision was born closely after the presidential election," Sutaj Estok said, referring to an April election won by a Fico ally, Peter Pellegrini.
snip
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