The shooting of Robert Fico and protests in Georgia make for a dramatic week in Europe

Slovakia was already a country in tumult before the attack on prime minister Robert Fico on Wednesday. The brazen assassination attempt has united figures from across the political spectrum in condemnation, and led to a sense of dread across Europe about what happens next. As our editorial noted on Thursday, the shooting was not only an attack on the prime minister but, as his domestic opponents stressed, an attack on democracy.

Since the populist politician began his third premiership in late 2023, fears have grown that Slovakia is following its neighbour Hungary down a path away from the rule of law. There have been growing attacks on the media, an erosion of checks and balances on power, and a notably friendlier stance towards Russia. Reporters Ashifa Kassam and Pjotr Sauer covered the aftermath of the attack while, in a profile of Fico, Jason Burke and Lili Bayer wrote that he had been “borrowing from the Trump playbook”. There are now fears that the shooting will make this worse, with leading politicians quickly blaming the media for the attack. As Slovak writer Monika Kompaníková put it in an opinion column: nothing that can be done now, from saving Fico’s life to punishing the accused, “can calm the escalating crisis in which Slovakia finds itself”.

Further east, Georgia is also in a state of political peril. This week its parliament passed a controversial “foreign agents law”. The bill has been the subject of weeks of public protest by citizens who see it as a “Kremlin-inspired” tool to hound independent media and opposition voices, as well as tilting the country back towards Russia, just 16 years after the two countries were at war.

One of the key players in pushing the bill is Bidzina Ivanishvili, an oligarch and former premier seen by many Georgians as the man really pulling the strings in the country. Pjotr Sauer and Shaun Walker wrote a brilliant profile of Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in the post-Soviet era and who now, according to one former minister: “runs the country as his dollhouse”. Daniel Boffey, the Guardian’s chief reporter, has been in Georgia throughout the week. He met the gen Z protesters desperately pushing back against the law, and, on our Today in Focus podcast, he explained how an innocuous-sounding bill has caused such uproar.

With the European parliamentary elections less than three weeks away and many polls suggesting that far-right parties will make significant gains, a dramatic shift is likely in the next European parliament. We’ve been able to focus on all the major stories across the continent thanks to our much-expanded coverage of Europe; in September we launched a new European digital edition of the Guardian and introduced a range of new specialist correspondents and columnists. (If you’re in Europe, you will be receiving that edition; otherwise, take a look here). Europe has always been important to the Guardian, but after Brexit we care more about it than ever.

A Guardian US investigation led by Lucy Osborne and Stephanie Kirchgaessner revealed that the celebrated American magician David Copperfield has been accused by 16 women of engaging in sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour over the span of four decades, from the late 1980s to 2014. The allegations against him – denied by illusionist – include claims that he drugged three women before he had sexual relations with them, which they felt they were unable to consent to. The Guardian is examining these allegations as part of a series of stories that has drawn on interviews with more than 100 people and analysis of court and police records obtained through freedom of information requests.

Jonathan Freedland continued to focus on the hush money trial of Donald Trump for Politics Weekly America, looking at Michael Cohen’s crucial testimony with Politico’s Ankush Kardori. Meanwhile, environment reporters Oliver Milman and Dharna Noor looked at how a “deal” allegedly offered by Trump to big oil executives as he sought $1bn in campaign donations could save the industry $110bn in tax breaks if he wins.

Guardian Australia delivered a comprehensive analysis of the Labor government’s budget announcement. A $300 energy rebate, rent assistance and cheaper medicines are all part of the budget package, which Anthony Albanese and his treasurer Jim Chalmers will be hoping creates enough winners to persuade voters to stick with Labor after what could be the last budget before the next election. Political editor Karen Middleton wrote about Labor’s chances of that being be the case, Peter Hannam explored what the budget meant across the generations, and our data analysts Nick Evershed, Andy Ball and Josh Nicholas created a tool for readers to find out how their income and wealth compared to the Australian average.

As hundreds of women in Britain shared harrowing stories of their experience of birth trauma as part of an MPs’ inquiry covered by our health and community reporters, our team in the UK analysed how and why this part of the health service remains in such a dire state. Jamie Grierson wrote a powerful account of the woman helping families to find where their stillborn children are buried.

The growing global threat posed by superbugs resistant to existing drugs will make the Covid pandemic “look minor”, the UK’s special envoy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), Prof Dame Sally Davies, told global health correspondent Kat Lay.

The biggest election in the world started on 19 April, and it is only halfway through. Victory in India for the ruling BJP and Narendra Modi remains the likely outcome. This week opposition politicians accused the BJP of using the police to harass candidates to not contest their elections. A long read by Atul Dev profiling Modi’s right-hand man, Amit Shah, provided a riveting portrait of the man who strikes fear into Indian politics, judiciary and media.

In a joint investigation with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Guardian’s football reporter Jacob Steinberg uncovered documents revealing that the owner of Dutch football club Vitesse Arnhem had virtually all of his funding provided by loans from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who is under sanction from the EU and UK. Jacob also noted what the impact of successive associates of Abramovich have had on the club.

Raffaella Spone is an American “cheer mom” who was accused of sending deepfaked images of her daughter’s team rivals — but the truth of what really happened, as Jenny Kleeman discovered, turned out to be even stranger.

I loved our feature on the bubble tea phenomenon, by Hilary Osborne, and marvelled at how a sugary drink filled with tapioca balls could have possibly ensnared so many.

Our coverage of the Eurovision song contest pivoted expertly from the joyful silliness of the performances to the serious issues behind the protests against Israel’s participation. Our European culture editor, Philip Oltermann, filed fascinating stories from Malmö about the eventual winner and the disqualification of the Dutch entry, plus some trenchant analysis of why the UK’s Olly Alexander got nul points in the public vote. It was all to do with geopolitics, naturally.

One more thing … I recently attended the funeral of a beloved friend and wonderful woman, Catherine Herman. At the event a friend of hers read a poem by Maya Angelou, When Great Trees Fall, which was written to mark the death of James Baldwin. It was beautiful. It ends:

“They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.”

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