Reuters World News - Slovak PM shooting, Dutch far right, Jordan’s balancing act and Trump’s defiance

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Europe is on edge after an assassination attempt on Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico. Netherlands agrees a deal for a right-wing coalition government. Jordan is caught between Iran and Israel, as it thwarts an Iranian-backed sabotage plot. And former president Donald Trump lays the groundwork for contesting any November election loss. Follow the Reuters Econ World podcast. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Europe is on edge after an assassination attempt on Slovakia's prime minister, as a deal is reached with the far right for a coalition government in the Netherlands. Jordan towards an Iranian-backed sabotage plot at a moment when the kingdom is caught between Iran and Israel. And the groundwork Trump is laying to contest a potential 2024 election loss. It's Thursday, May 16th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything. you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. A gunman targeting Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fizzo outside a government meeting. Fizzo's condition

is stabilized but remains serious. Slovakia, a member of NATO and the European Union, has little history of political violence. Rachel Armstrong is our Europe editor. So, Rachel, what sort of a figure is FIzzo. FItsa is a veteran, Slovakian politics. He's in his fourth stint as prime minister. He's a populist, a bit of a shapeshifter. But it's really what's been going on inside Slovakia since he became prime minister again that has created a really feebrile atmosphere. He's embarked on the campaign to strengthen government control of the main public broadcaster. And he's trying to enact a law that would see non-governmental organisations classified as foreign agents if they receive funding from abroad. And it's those reforms which have got a lot of support, but have also sparked huge protests

against them. And what does this assassination attempt tell us about the current state of European politics? This is the first assassination attempt on a major European political leader for more than 20 years. So it's quite a remarkable moment for Europe. However, beneath the surface, people would say that there is growing cases of political violence around Europe. We've seen a number of attacks so far in Germany this year, and people are blaming that on the increasing polarization in politics. Politics for the past 20 plus years in Europe was really dominated by the centrist parties, but we've seen the far right gaining a lot of ground, also some parties on the far left. That's creating increasingly extreme debate.

And speaking of the far right, in the Netherlands, Sir Gietvildes, with his peroxide blonde hair, is one of the most recognisable figures and will now be part of the furthest right-wing government that the Dutch have had for many years, right? Wilters returning to Paris quite a moment, and he's done so in a coalition of parties in the Netherlands who, several years ago, it would have been thought unthinkable that they would have done deals with him. Wilders won the election on an anti-immigration ticket, and he is going to be bringing in tighter curbs on migration. And people might say this is kind of a reflection of the reality across much of Europe right now, that centrist parties are having to look at ways of doing deals and working with parties further to the right

if they're to maintain an influence. Some rare dissent from within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet. Defense minister Joav Gallant publicly challenging Netanyahu's post-war plans for the Gaza Strip, saying he would oppose any long-term military rule by Israel. In televised remarks, Galant said after dismantling Hamas, Israel should establish a governing alternative in Gaza. Vladimir Putin has touched down in Beijing. The Russian president is on a two-day visit for talks with his most powerful political backer,

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has pledged to deepen their partnership. The pair declared a quote, no-limits partnership in 2022, just days before Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. So let's pick the dates, Donald. I hear you're free on Wednesdays. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to go head to head on the the debate stage ahead of November's election. And they pick the dates. They'll first face each other on CNN on June 27th, and then again on September 10th on ABC. Inflation relief for investors on markets.

Travelling through our own audio portal to Dublin, here's Carmel Crimmons with more. Yes, the market is back to betting squarely on two quarter point interest rate cuts this year, after official data showed price pressures eased slightly in April. That's giving investors the confidence to snap up stocks and riskier currencies at the expense of the dollar. Wall Street's three top indices choked up record closes. And while I have your attention, a reminder that we'll be launching our new economics podcast, Econ World and Newsletter next week. You can sign up for the newsletter on roiders.com, and the pod will be available on your

favorite podcast player and the Reuters app. Reuters is reporting details of a foiled plot to undermine the stability of Jordan's monarchy. Two sources inside Jordan say Iran-backed militias sent weapons to a cell of the Muslim Brotherhood to create acts of sabotage. The Muslim Brotherhood denies any involvement. This comes at a time of sky-high tension in the region, with Jordan at risk of becoming a regional flashpoint in the Gaza crisis. Global Foreign Policy Editor Samia Nakul is reporting on those tensions. Samya, what can you tell us about this alleged plot. There has been smuggling of weapons into Jordan

to Islamist groups, and some of them have Hamas affiliated members. The Muslim Brotherhood is trying to deny any role in this. They said whoever acted, acted individually. Officials who have knowledge of security matters that say that there has been weapons smuggled to the West Bank, but some weapons stayed in Jordan, and they believe that this group was trying

to do some sabotage acts in Jordan. So who are the Muslim Brotherhood? And what has been their relationship with Jordan's rulers? The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the biggest Islamist groups, movements that was founded decades ago. I mean, there exists in many Arab countries, in Egypt, in Jordan, they are in Gaza. And from that, Hamas was born. It is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and it adopted a military wing. They have been tolerated in Jordan.

They existed there. They have their net. They have their media, they have their TV. They're not outlawed in Jordan. But there is tension between them and the Jordanian government. Why is Jordan at so much risk of becoming a flashpoint over Gaza? The majority of Jordan is of Palestinian origin. Jordan took many refugees during the 1967 war with Israel.

So there is always this fear that Jordan could become a flash mode because, number one, any acts that would undermine any attack against Israel or any smuggling of weapons would trigger probably an Israeli retaliation against Jordan. At the same time, Jordan does not want to be a battleground between Iran and Israel or pro-Iranian groups fighting Israel, including Hamas or Shi'ad militants. Jordan shares borders with Syria, where Iran has influence and carry attacks against Israel and shares border with Iraq. Again, we have Iranian-backed militias who carry attack against Israel. And on the other side, it shares border with the West Bank. So it is in the middle of all these hostile environment. Donald Trump is ahead in the polls

in many battleground states. Yet, it appears to form a president, is laying the groundwork to deny election results again if he loses. Reporter Nathan Lane is covering Trump on the campaign trail. Nathan, how is Trump learning to contest a loss as a citizen? Well, I think his rhetoric is very similar to what we saw in the run-up to the election in 2020, in the sense that he is very much trying to sow distrust in the electoral process. But what is different is he has instructed the Republican National Committee to prepare, and assemble a solid, well-organized, legal and poll-watching operation to be ready for what they say could be irregularities. And so if you think back to 2020, Trump, of course, was screaming fraud,

and it was chaotic, but his legal response was also chaotic. I think it's very fair to say that the response was haphazard, it was not well-organized, and it's more likely that they'll be better at at this time around. What are the dangers in this approach? The dangers are that we could see a repeat of the kind of political upheaval and even political violence that we saw on January 6th. I think we're not going to see January 6th. But what a lot of experts are saying is that a lot of that pressure, those pressure points will be at the state level, state officials, state legislators to kind of gum up the certification process at the state level. That's it for Thursday.

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