When a gunman shot Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico this week, shock rippled across the Central European country — even though the pro-Russia leader himself warned that the country was so divided that an assassination attempt was possible. Slovaks have long been divided over the path their nation should take; should it retain traditional ways and a friendly relationship with Moscow or embrace liberal values and press ever closer to the West. But recently that polarization over the country’s future, fueled by vitriolic rhetoric from politicians, has deepened. The country has been beset by large protests deriding Fico’s policies since he returned to power in September, after campaigning on a nationalist and EU-skeptic platform.

There’s been slight drop in reported violence across New Caledonia Friday, a day after France imposed a state of emergency in the French Pacific territory as 1,000 promised reinforcements for security services were deployed to boost security forces’ powers to quell unrest in the archipelago that has long sought independence. The territory’s top French official, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, announced stringent measures Friday under the state of emergency declared by President Emmanuel Macron. A curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. is now in effect across the territory. French military forces have been deployed to protect ports and airports and free up police troops.

Cartel violence haunted the central Mexican town of Huitzilac days after a mass shooting claimed the lives of eight men. The shooting coincides with a larger wave of violence leading up to Mexico's June 2 elections. Experts say criminal groups use violence as a tool to make power grabs in the lead-up to elections. While they pick off local candidates, they also war for turf and sow fear among civilians. At the same time, Mexico's conflict has grown more complex in recent years, leaving the country's incoming leader with a puzzle of warring factions.

The government of South Sudan and rebel opposition groups have signed a “commitment declaration” for peace during high-level mediation talks in Kenya, described as key step in efforts to end the conflict in South Sudan that has long crippled its economy. The content of the agreement signed on Thursday was not made public. The rebel opposition groups were not part of the 2018 agreement that ended South Sudan’s five-year civil war that left 400,000 people dead and millions displaced. Kenya’s foreign office said the agreement was a “first milestone” in the ongoing talks in which warring sides pledged their commitment to end the violence and hostilities.

As soaring violence and political turmoil grip neighboring Haiti, the Dominican Republic will hold elections Sunday that have been defined by calls for more crackdowns on migrants and finishing a border wall dividing the countries. Politics in the two Caribbean nations sharing the island of Hispaniola have long been intertwined. Haiti’s spiral into chaos in recent years has coincided with a harsh crackdown by its Dominican neighbor. President Luis Abinader, a clear frontrunner in the race as he seeks reelection, has begun to build a Trump-like border wall along Haiti’s border and carried out mass deportations of 175,000 Haitians just last year.

In an increasingly vitriolic political climate, the last thing needed in the runup to the June European Union elections was an assassination attempt on one of the bloc’s most controversial figures. The sheer violence of five shots targeted at Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico merely for doing his job had a whole continent worried ahead of the June 6-9 polls. The EU's political landscape is becoming increasingly polarized, with no holds barred between mainstream parties on the one hand and the bellicose populists and extremists on the other.

Violence has raged across New Caledonia for the third consecutive day, hours after France imposed a state of emergency in the French Pacific territory. Authorities boosted security forces’ powers to quell deadly unrest in the archipelago, where some residents have long sought independence from France. French authorities in New Caledonia and the interior ministry in Paris reported four people, including a police officer, have been killed in the violence. The unrest came after protests earlier this week over voting reforms pushed by President Emmanuel Macron’s government turned deadly. At least sixty members of the security forces were injured and 214 people were arrested in Thursday's clashes with police, arson and looting, according to the territory’s top French official.