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JERUSALEM — Israel said Saturday it rescued four hostages who were kidnapped in a Hamas-led attack on October 7, in the largest such hostage recovery operation since the war with Hamas began in the Gaza Strip. The army said it rescued Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40, in a complex special daytime operation in Nuseirat. The hostages were rescued in two locations in the heart of Nuseirat, it said. Hamas kidnapped some 250 hostages during its terror attack on southern Israel on October 7, which triggered the Israel-Hamas war. About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November. Israel says more than 130 hostages remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead, and divisions are deepening in the country over the best way to bring them home. The rescue comes as international pressure mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday. Seeking a breakthrough in the apparently stalled cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week. Israel’s offensive has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures. Saturday’s operation is the largest recovery of living hostages since the war erupted, bringing the total of rescued captives to seven. Two men were rescued in February when troops stormed a heavily guarded apartment in a densely packed town, and another hostage, a woman, was rescued in the aftermath of October's attack. Israeli troops have so far recovered at least 16 bodies of hostages from Gaza, according to the government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing pressure to end the fighting in Gaza, with many Israelis urging him to embrace a deal announced last month by U.S. President Joe Biden, but far-right allies threaten to collapse his government if he does. One of those rescued on Saturday, Argamani, has been one of the most widely recognized hostages since she was abducted from a music festival. The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, images of her horrified face widely shared — Argamani detained between two men on a motorcycle, one arm outstretched and the other held down as she screams “Don’t kill me!” Her mother, Liora, has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies.

Bangkok — Authorities in Vietnam have arrested a leading independent journalist for "abusing democratic freedoms" to undermine the state by posting articles on Facebook, police announced on Saturday. Huy Duc was detained for investigation for posts that "violate the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals," the Ministry of Public Security said. The 62-year-old former senior lieutenant worked for several influential newspapers in Vietnam before being fired in 2009 for criticizing the country's former communist ally the Soviet Union. Shortly before his arrest, Duc took aim at Vietnam's new president, To Lam, as well as Nguyen Phu Trong, the communist party general secretary and most powerful individual in the country's political system. Lawyer Tran Dinh Trien was held along with Duc on the same charges. Communist one-party Vietnam has strict curbs on freedom of expression, and Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, ranks it 174th out of 180 countries for press freedom, describing it as one of the world's worst jailers of journalists. Duc's blog, one of the most popular in authoritarian Vietnam, was highly critical of government responses on issues including control of the media, relations with China and corruption. Duc, whose real name is Truong Huy San, spent a year at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship in 2012. During his time abroad, his account of life in Vietnam after the end of the war with the United States, "The Winning Side," was published. RSF called for his release. "The articles of independent journalist Huy Duc are an invaluable source of information enabling the Vietnamese public to access censored information by the Hanoi regime," RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau Director Cedric Alviani said in a statement. Rights campaigners say the government has in recent years stepped up a crackdown on civil society, while thousands of people, including several senior government and business leaders, have been caught up in a massive anti-graft campaign. "No country can develop sustainably based on fear," Duc wrote on Facebook in May.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

GAZA STRIP — Israel pressed its bombardment of Gaza on Saturday as a war Cabinet minister looked set to carry through on his threat to quit a government under mounting pressure over its conduct of the military campaign. Strikes rattled various parts of the Gaza Strip and appeared to be focused on central areas of the Palestinian territory, witnesses and AFP journalists reported. The onslaught persisted, despite scrutiny on Israel after its warplanes carried out an attack Thursday on a U.N.-run school that a Gaza hospital said killed 37 people. The Israeli military acknowledged it conducted the strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, saying it targeted a base of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas and killed 17 "terrorists." Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, accused the army of providing "false information." The group said three people Israel listed as dead were actually still alive. UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees that ran the school, condemned Israel for striking a facility it said had been housing 6,000 displaced people. In a post on social media platform X, the agency said the "school turned shelter" had been hit "without prior warning." "Targeting U.N. premises or using for military purposes cannot become the new norm. This must stop and all those responsible be held accountable," it said. Israel accuses Hamas and its allies in Gaza of using civilian infrastructure, including U.N.-run facilities, as operational centers -- charges the militants deny. 'Defenseless' The war, now in its ninth month, has brought widespread devastation to Gaza, with one in 20 people dead or wounded, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. Most of Gaza's 2.4 million inhabitants are displaced. This grim reality was underscored by a strike whose aftermath, depicted in an AFP video, saw men salvaging what they could from a bombed-out Gaza City building and carrying away a shrouded body in a debris-strewn alley. Maher al-Mughair, who lives nearby, recounted the attack Friday, saying: "We heard what sounded like a drone firing a missile, followed by another coming from an F-16 fighter jet." "So we checked and found women and children in pieces. What did the children and women do wrong? They are defenseless people, merely civilians," he told AFPTV. In the same city Saturday, five people were killed and seven wounded when an Israeli warplane bombed the Mhana family's home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, Gaza emergency services said. Elsewhere, medics at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said six people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli rocket attack on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where witnesses said gun battles raged. The Israeli army said it struck "dozens of terrorist cells and infrastructures" in Deir al-Balah and Bureij in the past day. Troops were also carrying out operations in Rafah. The war was sparked by Hamas' October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Militants from Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups also took 251 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 36,731 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. Political fallout Israel faced growing diplomatic isolation, with international court cases accusing it of war crimes and several European countries recognizing a Palestinian state. Israel's U.N. envoy, Gilad Erdan, said Friday he was "disgusted" that the Israeli military would be on an upcoming United Nations list of countries and armed forces that fail to protect children during war. A diplomatic source later told AFP that Hamas as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad would also be included in the annual U.N. report, which highlights human rights violations against children in conflict zones and is expected by the end of June. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad are designated as terrorist organizations by several countries, including the United States and the European Union. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to address the U.S. Congress next month, also faces pressure from within his right-wing government. The office of war Cabinet member Benny Gantz has announced a news conference for Saturday, the deadline he gave Netanyahu last month to approve a post-war plan for Gaza. Israeli media have speculated that Gantz, a centrist former military chief who had been one of Netanyahu's main rivals before joining the war Cabinet, was likely to carry through on a threat to resign. However, any such move is not expected to affect the stability of Netanyahu's government, a coalition of his right-wing Likud with far-right and ultra-orthodox Jewish parties. US diplomacy Latest efforts to mediate the first cease-fire in the conflict since a weeklong pause in November appear to have stalled a week after U.S. President Joe Biden offered a new road map. Biden, under pressure for the war to end ahead of a November presidential election, said the plan was to halt the fighting for six weeks while hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The plan would also involve the stepped-up delivery of aid into Gaza. The G7 group of world powers, and Arab states, have backed the proposal, with 16 world leaders joining Biden's call for Hamas to accept the deal. Hamas has yet to respond to Biden's proposal. Israel has expressed openness to discussions but remains committed to destroying the Islamist group. Major sticking points include Hamas insisting on a permanent truce and full Israeli withdrawal -- demands Israel has rejected. In a new diplomatic push, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Israel and key regional partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar from Monday on his eighth Middle East trip since the war began. The top U.S. diplomat would "emphasize the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table" which "would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians," said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A man accused of assaulting the Danish Prime Minister in central Copenhagen will appear in a pre-trial custody hearing on Saturday, authorities said. Police confirmed "there has been an incident" with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Friday and that a 39-year-old man was arrested. They didn't provide further details and it wasn't clear if Frederiksen was hurt. The man is expected to arrive at 1100 GMT at the Copenhagen District Court in Frederiksberg, a municipality enclave within the Danish capital. The prime minister's office told the Danish state broadcaster DR on Friday that Frederiksen was "shocked" by what happened. Two eyewitnesses, Anna Ravn and Marie Adrian, told the daily BT that they saw a man walking toward Frederiksen and then "pushing her hard on the shoulder so she was shoved aside." They stressed that the premier did not fall down. Another witness, Kasper Jørgensen, told the Ekstra Bladet tabloid that a well-dressed man, who seemed part of Frederiksen's protection unit, and a police officer took down the alleged assailant. Søren Kjærgaard who was working at a local bar on Kultorvet Square where the incident happened told the BT that he saw Frederiksen after the incident and she had no visible injuries to her face but walked away quickly. Politicians in the Scandinavian country and abroad condemned the reported assault. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general, said he was shocked to hear what happened to Frederiksen, whom he called a friend. "NATO allies stand together to protect our values, freedom, democracy and our rule of law," Stoltenberg wrote on the social media platform, X, on Saturday. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that "an attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy." Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he strongly condemned "all forms of violence against the democratically elected leaders of our free societies." Charles Michel, president of the European Council, condemned on X what he called a "cowardly act of aggression." European Union parliamentary elections are currently underway in Denmark and the rest of the 27-nation bloc and will conclude Sunday. Frederiksen has been campaigning with the Social Democrats' EU lead candidate, Christel Schaldemose. Media reports said the attack was not linked to a campaign event. Violence against politicians has become a theme in the run-up to the EU elections. In May, a candidate from Germany's center-left Social Democrats was beaten and seriously injured while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament. In Slovakia, the election campaign was overshadowed by an attempt to assassinate populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, sending shockwaves through the nation of 5.4 million and reverberating throughout Europe. Frederiksen, 46, is the leader of the Social Democratic Party and has been Denmark's prime minister since 2019. She has steered Denmark through the global COVID-19 pandemic and a controversial 2020 decision to wipe out Denmark's entire captive mink population to minimize the risk of the small mammals retransmitting the virus. Assaults on politicians in Denmark are rare. On March 23, 2003, two activists threw red paint on then-Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen inside the parliament and were immediately arrested. Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller also suffered some splashes that day.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

PHOENIX — The season's first heat wave is already baking the Southwest with triple-digit temperatures as firefighters in Phoenix — America's hottest big city — employ new tactics in hopes of saving more lives in a county that saw 645 heat-related deaths last year.   Starting this season, the Phoenix Fire Department is immersing heatstroke victims in ice on the way to area hospitals. The medical technique, known as cold water immersion, is familiar to marathon runners and military service members and has also recently been adopted by Phoenix hospitals as a go-to protocol, said Fire Capt. John Prato.   Prato demonstrated the method earlier this week outside the emergency department of Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix, packing ice cubes inside an impermeable blue bag around a medical dummy representing a patient. He said the technique could dramatically lower body temperature in minutes.   “Just last week we had a critical patient that we were able to bring back before we walked through the emergency room doors,” Prato said. “That's our goal — to improve patient survivability.”   The heatstroke treatment has made ice and human-sized immersion bags standard equipment on all Phoenix fire department emergency vehicles. It is among measures the city adopted this year as temperatures and their human toll soar ever higher. Phoenix for the first time is also keeping two cooling stations open overnight this season.   Emergency responders in much of an area stretching from southeast California to central Arizona are preparing for what the National Weather Service said would be “easily their hottest” weather since last September.   Excessive heat warnings were issued for Wednesday morning through Friday evening for parts of southern Nevada and Arizona, with highs expected to top 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) in Las Vegas and Phoenix. The unseasonably hot weather was expected to spread northward and make its way into parts of the Pacific Northwest by the weekend.   Officials in Maricopa County were stunned earlier this year when final numbers showed 645 heat-related deaths in Arizona's largest county, a majority of them in Phoenix. The most brutal period was a heat wave with 31 subsequent days of temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.4 Celsius) or higher, which claimed more than 400 lives.   “We’ve been seeing a severe uptick in the past three years in cases of severe heat illness,” said Dr. Paul Pugsley, medical director of emergency medicine with Valleywise Health. Of those, about 40% do not survive.  Cooling down patients long before they get to the emergency department could change the equation, he said.   The technique “is not very widely spread in non-military hospitals in the U.S., nor in the prehospital setting among fire departments or first responders,” Pugsley said. He said part of that may be a longstanding perception that the technique's use for all cases of heatstroke by first responders or even hospitals was impractical or impossible.  Pugsley said he was aware of limited use of the technique in some places in California, including Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto and Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, and by the San Antonio Fire Department in Texas.  Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix embraced the protocol last summer, said Dr. Aneesh Narang, assistant medical director of emergency medicine there.   “This cold water immersion therapy is really the standard of care to treat heatstroke patients,” he said. 

MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Parts of the north side of Montgomery are defined by what it has lost: restaurants, grocery stores and a convenient pharmacy, the latter of which closed five years ago. People who still live in the historically Black neighborhood of Newtown, like Sharon Harris, are frustrated. She goes to a different location of the same pharmacy chain, which is four miles from her home. "You have to come back sometimes," she said, "and then they wait so long to fill the prescription." In cities across the U.S., major retail pharmacies have closed hundreds of stores over the past few years and independents can't always afford to stay open. That can leave residents of color without easy access to a business that provides not only prescriptions but also fundamental public health services like vaccinations, over-the-counter medicines and even food. Closures create "a situation where there's not just (a lack of) investment in terms of pharmacy development and expansion, but there's no incentive to stay in those neighborhoods," said Dima Qato, a professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California who has studied pharmacy access. And an Associated Press analysis of licensing data from 44 states, data from the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs and the American Community Survey shows residents of neighborhoods that are majority Black and Hispanic have fewer pharmacies per capita than people who live in mostly white neighborhoods. MAC Pharmacy is the only one serving about 20,000 people in a majority Black ZIP code in Cleveland. George Tadross, the part-owner and pharmacy manager, said he is adamant about making things as as easy as possible for his mostly older customers — sometimes by organizing their medications by day for them. "You have to have a pharmacist to talk to," he said. "My philosophy in the pharmacy business is you know your doctor, he knows everything about you. You need to know your pharmacist as well (because) the pharmacist is the only one that sees the whole medical treatment plan you have." Pharmacists play a role in managing chronic diseases like diabetes and heart-related issues, which Black and Hispanic people are more likely to be diagnosed with. And when pharmacists or pharmacy technicians reflect their customer base — by speaking the same language or understanding the community — it can be easier to build a strong rapport and trust, said Jasmine Gonzalvo, who teaches at Purdue University's College of Pharmacy and has researched the needs of Spanish-speaking patients at pharmacies. She noted that if people don't feel comfortable asking questions about the medication, then it might mean they don't take it or don't take it correctly. "You don't get a refill," Gonzalvo said, "simply because there were barriers in the way of your communicating and feeling safe in that relationship with your pharmacist." That's why Bert's Pharmacy in Elizabeth, New Jersey, has "Spanish- and English-speaking staff all the time," said owner and pharmacist Prakash Patel said. His business is located in an ZIP code where nearly 70% of the residents are Hispanic. "We want to make sure, too, they understood everything," Patel said. "We have Spanish-language labels for them, we print all the instructions in Spanish for them." In Montgomery, where Harris lives, the city is working on a development plan for the north side. A retail analysis in the plan shows a small pharmacy could generate $1.5 million in sales a year. "There's an opportunity there because you have what I call a captive market," said Bob Gibbs, the director of Gibbs Planning Group, which did the analysis. "People that live in a lot of these neighborhoods have limited access to transportation … and they're very loyal to local businesses that will treat them with respect. "They will go out of their way just to go there. And they just don't like having to drive … two miles to go to a drugstore. That's unfair." Harris, though, doesn't have much hope a new pharmacy will open. "I don't see it," she said. "As long as they have (that CVS) they think it's OK. … Everybody is waiting for them to do something on this side."

tokyo — Called "Tokyo Futari Story," the City Hall's new initiative is just that: an effort to create couples, "futari," in a country where it is increasingly common to be "hitori," or alone.  While a site offering counsel and general information for potential lovebirds is online, a dating app is also in development. City Hall hopes to offer it later this year, accessible through phone or web, a city official said Thursday.  Details were still undecided. City Hall declined to comment on Japanese media reports that said the app would require a confirmation of identity, such as a driver's license, your tax records to prove income and a signed form that says you are ready to get married.  Marriage is on the decline in Japan as the country's birth rate fell to an all-time low, according to health ministry data Wednesday. Last year there were 474,717 marriages, down from 504,930 in 2022, while births totaled 727,277, down from 770,759.  The reports also said the app may ask for your height, job and education, but the official denied anything was decided.  On the national level, the government has been trying to solve a serious labor shortage by promising cash payments for families with children and supporting child-care facilities. It's also relaxed immigration policy over the years to encourage an influx of foreign workers.  During the so-called "baby boom" era of the 1970s, Japan recorded more than 2 million births a year. Like many young adults around the world today, fewer Japanese are interested in traditional marriage or having children.  There are concerns that Japanese workplace norms tend to lead to extremely long hours and rarely meeting people outside work. Some say raising children is expensive.  Tokyo City Hall is also sponsoring events where singles can meet, couples can get counseling on marriage and lovers can have their stories of how they first met turned into comics or songs.

DAKAR, Senegal — Russia's top diplomat pledged help and military assistance while on a whirlwind tour of several countries in Africa's sub-Saharan region of Sahel this week, as Moscow seeks to grow its influence in the restive, mineral-rich section of the continent. Russia is emerging as the security partner of choice for a growing number of African governments in the region, displacing traditional allies like France and the United States. Sergey Lavrov, who has made several trips to Africa in recent years, this week stopped in Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and Chad. Moscow has aggressively expanded its military cooperation with African nations by using the private security company Wagner and its likely successor, Africa Corps, with Russian mercenaries taking up roles from protecting African leaders to helping states fight extremists. The Polish Institute of International Affairs said in a study this month that in "creating the Africa Corps, Russia took an assertive approach to expand its military presence in Africa. Moscow is also seeking political support, or at least neutrality, from many of Africa's 54 countries over its invasion of Ukraine. African nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations and have been more divided than any other group on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia's actions in Ukraine. Russia-linked entities also spread disinformation to undermine ties between African states and the West, the Africa Center For Strategic Studies, an academic institution within the U.S. Department of Defense, wrote in a March report. Moscow has been "sponsoring 80 documented campaigns, targeting more than 22 countries," it said. Here's a look at how Russia is expanding its influence in Africa.  Why are African nations turning to Russia? Russia has taken advantage of political unrest and discontent in coup-hit nations, capitalizing on popular frustration and anger with former colonial power France. Military coups have ousted governments seen close to France and the West and doing little to alleviate grinding poverty, unemployment and other hardships. Russia offers security assistance without interfering in politics, making it an appealing partner in places like Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, all ruled by military juntas that seized power in recent years. In return, Moscow seeks access to minerals and other contracts. Violence linked to extremists allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group has been on the rise in Sahel for years, despite efforts by France, the U.S. and other Western allies to help fight the jihadi groups there. In 2013, France launched a near decade long operation in Mali to help fight militants, which expanded to Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad. The operation ended nine years later but the conflict did not, contributing to anger with the West. The U.S. has further lost its footing with key allies for forcing issues — including democracy or human rights — that many African states see as hypocrisy, given Washington's close ties to some autocratic leaders elsewhere. While the West may pressure African coup leaders over democracy and other issues, Russia doesn't meddle in domestic affairs, Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, told The Associated Press. What is Russia's interest in African countries? Africa is rich in minerals, oil and other resources, which come with political and legal challenges. Its resources are increasingly central to economic and national security, such as cobalt, which is used in electronics like mobile phones, or lithium, which is used in batteries. Russia has thrived in countries where governance is limited, and has signing mining deals through companies it controls. An EU parliament study showed that Russia secured access to gold and diamonds in the Central African Republic, cobalt in Congo, gold and oil in Sudan, chromite in Madagascar, platinum and diamonds in Zimbabwe, and uranium in Namibia. The U.S. based non-profit Democracy 21 group said in an analysis last December that Wagner and Russia may have made about $2.5 billion through the African gold trade alone since invading Ukraine in February 2022. Though Russia is increasingly a partner to African countries in the oil and mining sector, it lags far behind as an overall trading partner. For example, data by the International Monetary shows less than 1% of Africa's exports go to Russia, compared with 33% to the European Union. Where do Russian contractors operate in Africa? The first reports of Wagner mercenaries in Africa emerged in late 2017, when the group was deployed to Sudan to provide support to then-President Omar al-Bashir, in exchange for gold mining concessions. Wagner's presence soon expanded to other African countries. In 2018, Russian contractors showed up to back powerful commander Khalifa Hifter in eastern Libya who was battling militants. They also helped Hifter in his failed attempt to seize the capital of Tripoli a year later. In the Central African Republic, Russian mercenaries have been providing security since in 2018 and in return have gained access to some of the country's gold and diamond mines. Coups in Mali in 2020 and 2021, in Burkina Faso in 2022 and in Niger in 2023, brought military juntas critical of the West to power. All three eventually ordered French and other Western forces out, and instead turned to Russia for military support. Niger ordered the U.S. to withdraw its troops and close its multimillion dollar flagship investment in a sprawling military and spy base in Agadez earlier this year, after a meeting with a U.S. delegation ended poorly. The decision has upended U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Africa's Sahel. Weeks later, Russian trainers arrived in Niger with new defense equipment.

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PRAGUE — Voters in Slovakia, Italy and other European Union nations are casting their ballots Saturday on the third day of elections for the European Parliament, with populist and far-right parties looking to make gains across the 27-member bloc. In Slovakia, the election was overshadowed by an attempt to assassinate populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, sending shockwaves through the nation of 5.4 million and reverberating throughout Europe. Analysts say the attack could boost the chances of the premier's leftist Smer (Direction) party, the senior partner in the governing coalition, to win the vote. Fico, who took office last fall after campaigning on a pro-Russian and anti-American platform, has been recovering from multiple wounds after being shot in the abdomen as he greeted supporters in the town of Handlova. He recovered in time to address the nation in a prerecorded video, his first public statement since the attack, just hours before the start of the preelection silence period on Wednesday. Although Fico didn’t talk directly about the vote, he attacked the European Union, suggesting he was a victim because of his views that differ sharply from the European mainstream. Fico strongly opposes support for Ukraine in its war against Russia's full-scale invasion. He ended Slovakia's military aid for Ukraine after his coalition government was sworn in on October 25. He also opposes EU sanctions on Russia and wants to block Ukraine from joining NATO. Mainstream media, non-governmental organizations and the liberal opposition were also to blame for the assassination attempt, according to Fico, an allegation repeated by politicians in his governing coalition. Soňa Szomolányi, a political science professor at Comenius University in Bratislava, said the timing of Fico’s message was "no coincidence." "It only confirms that the ruling coalition has been using the assassination (attempt) expediently and apparently effectively," Szomolányi said. As a result, "a mobilization of the supporters of Smer (at the election) can be expected," she said. In Italy, citizens aged 18 and above are casting ballots over two days to fill 76 European parliamentary seats, starting Saturday. Premier Giorgia Meloni is expected to be the big winner, reflecting her far-right Brothers of Italy’s growth, mostly at the expense of her coalition partners, the populist, anti-migrant League and the center-right Forza Italia. While the vote is not expected to affect the balance in the governing coalition, the result could expand Meloni’s influence in the European Union, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has not ruled out a coalition with her group. Capitalizing on her popularity, Meloni is running as the preferential candidate, even though she has no intention of taking a European parliamentary seat. Voters in Latvia, Malta, and the Czech Republic were also casting ballots Saturday. Final results will not be released until Sunday night, once every country has voted. The main voting day is Sunday, with citizens in 20 European countries, including Germany, France and Poland, casting their ballots for the 720-seat European Parliament. Seats are allocated based on population, ranging from six in Malta or Luxembourg to 96 in Germany. In Slovakia, Fico’s Smer party is in a close race against the main opposition Progressive Slovakia, a pro-Western liberal party. Fico's government has made efforts to overhaul public broadcasting — a move critics said would give the government full control of public television and radio. That, along with his plans to amend the penal code to eliminate a special anti-graft prosecutor, has led opponents to worry that he would lead Slovakia down a more autocratic path, following the direction of neighboring Hungary under populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Thousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital and across Slovakia to protest Fico’s policies. Aneta Vilagi, an analyst from Comenius University, said that Smer’s possible victory "will be interpreted by the coalition parties as evidence that a majority of voters still agree with the direction they’re offering to the country."

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PARIS — Fresh from commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day, French President Emmanuel Macron will host U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday for a state visit marked by pomp and a parade as well as talks on trade, Israel and  Ukraine. The two men, who share a warm relationship despite past tensions over a submarine deal with Australia, will participate in a welcoming ceremony with their wives at the iconic Arc de Triomphe and a parade down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees before holding a meeting about policy issues and then attending dinner. Biden hosted Macron for a state visit at the White House in 2022. "France is ... our oldest and one of our deepest allies. And this will be an important moment to affirm that alliance and also look to the future and what we have to accomplish together," U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters earlier this week. Sullivan said talks between the two men would touch on Russia's war with Ukraine, Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza, cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, and policy issues ranging from climate change to artificial intelligence to supply chains. White House spokesperson John Kirby said the countries would announce a plan to work together on maritime law enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard and French navy would discuss increased cooperation. Biden and Macron are also expected to discuss strengthening NATO, and both have pledged their countries' support for Ukraine, though they have not agreed yet on a plan to use frozen Russian assets to help Kiev. A U.S. Treasury official said on Tuesday the United States and its G7 partners were making progress on that. Biden met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Friday, apologizing for a months-long delay by the U.S. Congress in approving the latest package of aid, and Zelenskyy addressed France's National Assembly. During a speech at the American Cemetery in Normandy on Thursday, the anniversary of the allied assault against Nazi German occupiers on French beaches in World War II, Biden called on Western powers to stay the course with Ukraine. Macron and Biden will also confer on the situation in the Middle East. Biden has been a staunch supporter of Israel, which is pursuing Hamas after it attacked the country in October, but tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths have soured Biden's left-leaning political base on Israel, hurting him as he runs against Republican Donald Trump for reelection in November. Beyond Ukraine, trade issues between the two sides of the Atlantic are likely to loom large. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law in August 2022, has incensed European officials; they see it as a protectionist move that siphons off investments from EU companies. Macron said during his state visit to Washington in 2022 that the package of subsidies could "fragment the West" and weaken the post-COVID European recovery at a time Washington is seeking allies against China and both sides confront Russia. He and European allies have won little concessions from Washington since, however, and French officials say their aim for this visit is still to try to "re-synchronize" the U.S. and EU economic agendas.