The populist government has blamed the 2024 attack on ‘hatred’ spread by opposition and critical media.
A Slovak court has convicted the pensioner who shot Prime Minister Robert Fico last year of a “terror attack” and sentenced him to 21 years in prison.
The Specialised Criminal Court in Banska Bystrica convicted and sentenced 72-year-old Juraj Cintula on Tuesday, saying he had acted “with a motivation to stop a proper functioning of the government” in a “particularly serious” crime.
Cintula, a poet from Levice in western Slovakia, shot Fico four times at close range on May 15, 2024 as the premier left a government meeting in central Slovakia.
He later claimed he was driven by “moral despair”. Fico was left seriously wounded but returned to work two months later.
The shooting and subsequent trial have shaken the small NATO-member country.
Now serving his fourth term as prime minister, Fico has repeatedly accused the liberal opposition and media of fuelling the assassination attempt, without presenting evidence.
Prosecutors originally charged Cintula with premeditated murder, but they later reclassified the shooting as a “terror attack”, citing his political motivation.
Critics have said that since the shooting, the populist Fico has become increasingly divisive, accelerating his alignment of Slovakia’s foreign policy with Russia, increasing criticism of the European Union, and implementing authoritarian and hardline conservative policy.
‘Most likely appeal’
“It was worth it,” local media quoted Cintula as shouting as he left court earlier this month after giving his closing trial statement.
After the shooting, Cintula had told police he wanted to protest against steps taken by Fico’s government, including the halting of military aid to war-ravaged Ukraine, according to a leaked video.
He claimed he had sought to hurt, but not kill, the prime minister.
In his final trial statement, a visibly emotional Cintula told the court he had been overcome with “moral despair”, accusing the prime minister of being “drunk with power” and making “irrational decisions that damage this country”.
He called his defence “a manifesto … for all those who feel that the arrogance of power, corruption and lies has no place in the country where our children will grow up”.
“The premier … embodied years of accumulated frustration and despair,” Cintula said.
Cintula’s lawyer, Namir Alyasry, told reporters after the hearing that he would “most likely appeal” the verdict.
Juraj Cintula (R) listens to his lawyer, Namir Alyasry, after the verdict, October 21, 2025 [Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters]
The prime minister was not present at the trial and did not immediately comment on the verdict.
He previously said he forgave the attacker, whom he described as merely a “messenger of evil and political hatred” developed by the “politically unsuccessful and frustrated opposition”.
Since his return to office in 2023, Fico’s government has launched a crackdown on nonprofit organisations, cultural institutions and some media outlets it deems “hostile”, prompting mass protests.
Fico has also angered the opposition by calling for an end to Slovakia’s support for Ukraine, criticising EU sanctions targeting Russia and saying he would not allow Ukraine to join NATO.
Last month, the Slovak parliament approved a constitutional amendment to limit the rights of same-sex couples as part of a sweeping change that also states that national law takes precedence over EU law.
LOVE foreplay but have a lazy partner? Then Christmas has come early — ahem.
Meet The Poet by Smile Makers. Made with clever air-suction technology, this toy is no ordinary vibrator.
The Poet is “designed for earth-shattering clitoral orgasms”Credit: Olivia West
The Poet, £79.95 £55.95 from Smile Makers
It’s designed for earth-shattering clitoral orgasms. Add a bit of lube, and it practically mimics real oral sex — a godsend for those of us whose partners skip foreplay… or are single.
As a devoted fan of oral, I like to make it the main course — who needs guys anyway?
Its silky-smooth silicone material feels amazing against the skin, and with three interchangeable heads, you can find your perfect fit.
It’s already racking up glowing reviews and boasts a 4.7-star rating online — so guys, consider yourselves warned!
Who’s it best for? It’s been designed specifically for women, though you can use the clever tip on your partner’s nipples if you fancy spicing things up — trust me, men love it! That said, this toy really shines for women, solo play and anyone who loves oral sex.
What I loved: All Smile Makers products are made from silky-smooth silicone that moulds to your body. The clitoral suction vibrator comes with three interchangeable heads, so you can find your perfect fit for maximum pleasure. Plus, the clever air-suction technology keeps it whisper-quiet — ideal if you’re heading home for Christmas or staying with the in-laws.
What I didn’t: Honestly? It’s hard to find a flaw with this product. If anything, the packaging could be a little sexier — though perhaps that’s a clever marketing move to make it look more discreet.
How I tested The Poet
As The Sun’s Sexpert, I’ve tried my fair share of vibratorsCredit: Olivia West
The Poet, £79.95 £55.95 from Smile Makers
As The Sun’s Sexpert, I’ve tried my fair share of vibrators over the years — you can read my round-up of the best sex toys for women.
Where possible, I test the toys by myself, and then my partner is usually roped in for a test drive (not that he ever minds!).
The Nitty Gritty
First impressions
Okay, so the packaging could be a little more enticing, but once opened, the toy itself is very pretty and female-friendly.
Its purple-rose design is elegant enough to sit on your bedside table — no need to hide it away in a drawer.
The instructions are simple to follow, and the toy is easy to use.
Does it… Deliver?
This is one of the best suction toys I’ve triedCredit: Olivia West
The Poet, £79.95 £55.95 from Smile Makers
As someone who loves oral sex, I can honestly say this is one of the best air-suction toys I’ve tried.
I actually prefer it to toys from Womanizer, one of the first brands to use this kind of clitoral stimulation technology.
It’s more comfortable to use, gentler yet somehow more powerful, and much prettier too.
Add plenty of lube and it really can feel as good — if not better — than the real thing.
It really can feel as good — if not better — than the real thing.
And yes, lads, you might want to be a little worried about that!
It’s also waterproof, so you can elevate your bathroom game with a cheeky solo session in the shower or bath.
Plus, it’s rechargeable (no more faffing about with batteries) and comes with a cute satin bag to tuck it away in.
How much is The Poet?
At £79.95, it’s cheaper than its racy rival, the Womanizer, as well as Lelo’s Sona 2, which, until trying this, was the best I’d tried.
Plus, it’s currently on sale for £55.95.
Lelo’s Sona 2 is pricier at £100.62 (currently on sale).
So, while this toy is a little up there in price, it’s still more affordable than many other premium brands — and it comes with a two-year guarantee.
Orgasms that are insured — what’s not to love?
Where to buy The Poet
Thanks to the sale, the best place to buy The Poet is probably the Smile Makers website.
It also uses clever air-tech suction technology and is waterproof, but it’s not as comfortable to hold as The Poet, which seems to mould perfectly to the body.
Christopher Soto, the founder of the Center for California Literature.
Los Angeles is, historically, a haven for writers and poets. In its city sprawl and California light, L.A. has fostered legendary writers from Joan Didion to Octavia E. Butler, created countercultural literary communities like the Watts Writers Workshop, and inspired Raymond Chandler’s “The Long Goodbye” and Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.”
Despite Los Angeles’ contributions to a rich literary history, the literary community struggles to stay rooted in place as writers’ spaces and financial support move elsewhere.
Take the National Endowment for the Humanities, which canceled over $10.2 million in humanities and arts funding to already-awarded projects in California. Or the devastating Pasadena and Altadena wildfires that decimated historic libraries and cultural archives.
For writers across the city, L.A. can feel like shaky literary ground. That’s where Christopher Soto has stepped in.
The Center for California Literature is Soto’s hopeful initiative for connecting writers across L.A. through readings, conversations and advocacy. In a period in which writers feel unsupported and concerned about the state of the arts, Soto says that the center is needed in L.A. more than ever.
The inspiration came about after Soto was commissioned by the L.A. Times to write a piece titled “Writers on Loving and Leaving Los Angeles,” about writers having to move out of L.A. due to a lack of opportunities. He says right as he was working on the article, it was decommissioned. The reason? The books editor who would have worked on it was laid off and subsequently had to leave L.A.
“It was so ironic. That article and the research I did for it really led me to see that there is a need for a structural solution. People shouldn’t have to choose between having a thriving arts life and having to leave their home,” Soto says.
Soto knew that waiting would only exacerbate the literary loss; if he wanted change, he said he needed to make it. He reached out to inspiring writers in his community for their support and found that people were searching for a place to gather and organize themselves. Roxane Gay, renowned author of the New York Times bestselling novels “Bad Feminist” and “Hunger,” is one of the center’s biggest supporters.
“There’s a lot of stories that literature is dead, or that literary communities are dying, but clearly they’re not. They’re alive and they’re well and we have to remember that,” Gay says. “Writing is a very solitary endeavor, but while we might write alone, we don’t exist as writers in the public sphere alone. We need community, whether it’s people to share our work with, people who understand our frustrations, or having people who will read our work.”
Soto and Gay imagine a future where the center is shaped by writers’ needs. With community as a centerpoint, the organization aims to serve poets and authors by giving them a platform to share their work, attend workshops and create connections among peers.
Gay joined a collective of notable speakers the night of the center’s official launch, which took place at Central L.A. start-up gallery Giovanni’s Room and was co-hosted with the Los Angeles Review of Books. Outside the launch, pupusas were sizzling and poets and book nerds stood in line for a bite or a read from a nearby Libros con Alma pop-up book cart.
The long line approaching the door was full of chatter and reunited friends, who stepped into the lobby and talked closely over the music mixed by DJ Izla. Although the gallery itself filled up quickly, growing warm and pupusa-scented, the energy was one of excitement and anticipation for people’s favorite authors and for a new beginning in the L.A. writers world.
In a corner of the gallery, in front of a paper backdrop and lush potted plants, Grammy-nominated contemporary poet aja monet stepped before the mic to open the night. She was assertive the moment she spoke, clarifying the pronunciation of her name (ah-ja) and simply introducing poems from her time as a political organizer in Florida.
As monet delved into her work, her voice was serious, contained and bursting with emotion. With every stanza, she settled into a musical rhythm that was satiric and bitingly honest. Her poems ranged from swampy oppressive memories of Florida to the nature of poetry to musings on hypocritical activists.
“A poem can rinse, reflect and reveal us / I give thanks for the intimacy of planting poems / the living that brings poems into being,” monet read.
The crowd hummed and swayed in agreement and cheered in recognition of the feelings that she captured. After her moving set, Viet Thanh Nguyen picked up right where she left off. Nguyen is best known for his debut Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Sympathizer,” which discusses the Vietnam War’s impact on the U.S. through the lens of a Vietnamese American immigrant who navigates Hollywood social politics, integration and racial tension.
In the section Nguyen read that night, the main character challenges stereotypes of Vietnamese characters in a film, an attempt that is quickly shut down by a Hollywood executive. Nguyen chuckled as he finished — “The Sympathizer” was adapted into an HBO show, placing Nguyen into the very Hollywood spaces he criticized. He acknowledges this and affirmed that “after spending a lot of time in Hollywood, nobody has disputed this characterization.”
Author, actor and television writer Ryan O’Connell added to the conversation with a lengthy reading of “The Slut Diaries,” explorations of rediscovering sexuality in his 30s as a gay man with cerebral palsy. His reflections on sex and dating through the lens of gay and disabled identity, and the hilariously vulgar encounters that ensued, drew hoots and hollers from the crowd.
Camille Hernandez, a writer and poet laureate of Anaheim, was among O’Connell’s laughing audience.
“I love being from here, and I want to lift up the literature from here. It is really beautiful that you could be from some place with such a rich literary heritage, but it’s such a travesty that not many people know about it, so efforts like this are so important to uplifting writers like us, who can be funny and honest like Ryan O’Connell or inspiring like Roxane Gay once they have the community to support them,” Hernandez says. “We deserve this.”
As Gay closed the night, her brief statement encapsulated the promising energy of the center’s first gathering.
“We deserve the material and creative resources to practice our craft. We deserve an abundant community that is mindful of the past and active and engaging the present and able to imagine a radical and expansive future,” Gay said. “And so I hope that everyone here will join us in that work.”
As authors, poets and hopeful writers filtered out into the crisp night, conversations abounded about what was next. Some were excited for an afterparty rumored to feature Erykah Badu. Others projected a next reading presided by an even bigger crowd, feeding the hunger for the literary arts that the center aims to feed. Whatever comes next, the literary community of L.A. has a new home to gather in.
At a time when its leadership is in question and its mission challenged, the Library of Congress has named a new U.S. poet laureate, the much-honored author and translator Arthur Sze.
The library announced Monday that the 74-year-old Sze had been appointed to a one-year term, starting this fall. The author of 12 poetry collections and recipient last year of a lifetime achievement award from the library, he succeeds Ada Limón, who had served for three years. Previous laureates also include Joy Harjo, Louise Glück and Billy Collins.
Speaking during a recent Zoom interview with the Associated Press, Sze acknowledged some misgivings when Rob Casper, who heads the library’s poetry and literature center, called him in June about becoming the next laureate.
He wondered about the level of responsibilities and worried about the upheaval since President Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in May. After thinking about it overnight, he called Casper back and happily accepted.
“I think it was the opportunity to give something back to poetry, to something that I’ve spent my life doing,” he explained, speaking from his home in Santa Fe, N.M. “So many people have helped me along the way. Poetry has just helped me grow so much, in every way.”
Sze’s new job begins during a tumultuous year for the library, a 200-year-old, nonpartisan institution that holds a massive archive of books published in the United States. Trump abruptly fired Hayden after conservative activists accused her of imposing a “woke” agenda, criticism that Trump has expressed often as he seeks sweeping changes at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian museums and other cultural institutions.
Hayden’s ouster was sharply criticized by congressional Democrats, leaders in the library and scholarly community and such former laureates as Limón and Harjo.
Although the White House announced that it had named Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche as the acting librarian, daily operations are being run by a longtime official at the library, Robert Randolph Newlen. Events such as the annual National Book Festival have continued without interruption or revision.
Laureates are forbidden to take political positions, although the tradition was breached in 2003 when Collins publicly stated his objections to President George W. Bush’s push for war against Iraq.
Newlen is identified in Monday’s announcement as acting librarian, a position he was in line for according to the institution’s guidelines. He praised Sze, whose influences range from ancient Chinese poets to Wallace Stevens, for his “distinctly American” portraits of the Southwest landscapes and for his “great formal innovation.”
“Like Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Sze forges something new from a range of traditions and influences — and the result is a poetry that moves freely throughout time and space,” his statement reads in part.
Sze’s official title is poet laureate consultant in poetry, a 1985 renaming of a position established in 1937 as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. The mission is loosely defined as a kind of literary ambassador, to “raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry.”
Sze wants to focus on a passion going back more than a half-century to his undergraduate years at UC Berkeley — translation.
He remembers reading some English-language editions of Chinese poetry, finding the work “antiquated and dated” and deciding to translate some of it himself, writing out the Chinese characters and engaging with them “on a much deeper level” than he had expected. Besides his own poetry, he has published “The Silk Dragon: Translations From the Chinese.”
“I personally learned my own craft of writing poetry through translating poetry,” he says. “I often think that people think of poetry as intimidating, or difficult, which isn’t necessarily true. And I think one way to deepen the appreciation of poetry is to approach it through translation.”
Sze is a New York City native and son of Chinese immigrants who in such collections as “Sight Lines” and “Compass Rose” explores themes of cultural and environmental diversity and what he calls “coexisting.”
In a given poem, he might shift from rocks above a pond to people begging in a subway, from a firing squad in China to Thomas Jefferson’s plantation in Virginia. His many prizes include the National Book Award for “Sight Lines.”
He loves poetry from around the world but feels at home writing in English, if only for the “richness of the vocabulary” and the wonders of its origins.
“I was just looking at the word ‘ketchup,’ which started from southern China, went to Malaysia, was taken to England, where it became a tomato-based sauce, and then, of course, to America,” he says. “And I was just thinking days ago, that’s a word we use every day without recognizing its ancestry, how it’s crossed borders, how it’s entered into the English language and enriched it.”
Vivian Ayers Allen, a Pulitzer-nominated poet who foreshadowed the country’s journeys into space and was mother to Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad, has died, the family announced on Allen’s social media. She was 102.
“Mommie you have transformed into that cosmic bird Hawk that lives and breathes Freedom,” said the message, posted Wednesday. “We will follow your trail of golden dust and continue to climb higher. We promise ‘to be true … be beautiful … be Free.’”
It was signed with much love — literally five “loves” and dozens of red hearts — by “Norman, Debbie, Lish, Tex, Hugh, Vivi, Thump, Condola, Billy, Oliver, Gel, Tracey, Carmen, Shiloh, Aviah, Eillie, Gia, and all the Turks in our family.” A carousel’s worth of family photos was shared, set to Stevie Wonder’s song “Golden Lady.”
The family celebrated Ayers’ 102nd birthday just over three weeks ago, at the end of July. The festivities, attended by four generations of family, included a jazz concert put together by Andrew “Tex” Allen Jr., a jazz musician and the eldest of Ayers’ four children with dentist Andrew Allen. Ayers and Allen, who died in 1984, got divorced in 1954 after nine years of marriage that also yielded children Debbie, Hugh and Phylicia. All but Hugh would go into the performing arts.
Debbie Allen, 75, spoke about her mother in 2018 at an event honoring the “Grey’s Anatomy” star and her sister, Rashad, 77.
“We grew up with not a lot of money. We grew up with racial segregation. We grew up not being able to go to ballet class or downtown to a restaurant or to a movie,” Allen said. “And so my mother, Vivian Ayers, always made us believe that we were part of a universe that welcomed us and wanted our creativity and was waiting for us to do something good. And so we’ve been doing that forever.”
Ayers told Rashad that acting made her one of the “magic” people.
“I said, ‘What do you mean, Mama?’” the star of “The Cosby Show” told The Times in 2015. “She said, ‘You create so much out of nothing.’”
Born in 1923 in Chester, S.C., Ayers graduated in 1939 from the Brainerd Institute high school, established in 1866 for the children of freed slaves in her hometown. It was the final year the school was in operation. She then went on to study at Barber-Scotia College in Concord, N.C., and Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C., eventually getting an honorary doctorate from the latter of the two HBCUs.
Ayers flourished at a time ripe with talent. “Spice of Dawns,” her 1952 book of poetry, earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 1953, the year Ernest Hemingway won the fiction prize for “The Old Man and the Sea” and William Inge won the drama prize for “Picnic.” Archibald MacLeish won the poetry award that year, one of his three Pulitzers, while two North Carolina weekly newspapers brought home the public service journalism prize for their campaign against the Ku Klux Klan, which resulted in the arrests of more than 100 Klansmen.
“Hawk,” a book-length poem set in a century in the future, was self-published by Ayers in 1957 and linked the freedom of flight with the possibility of space travel. It foreshadowed what was to come: 11 weeks later, the USSR launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth. Clemson University officially published “Hawk” in 2023.
NASA in 2024 celebrated Ayers’ work — she had been an editor and typist at the space agency — as it dedicated the Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo, some of whom were immortalized in the movie “Hidden Figures.” Rashad read “Hawk” at the July 19 ceremony, which honored all the women who worked, unheralded, to make the Apollo mission to the moon possible.
Ayers worked as a librarian at Rice University and in 1965 became the school’s first full-time Black faculty member. While there, she started the Adept Quarterly literary magazine in 1971. She was a playwright, with works including “Bow Boly” and “The Marriage Ceremony.”
She nurtured the artistic talents of her children — and did it for other children through Workshops in Open Fields, a program teaching literacy through the arts that Ayers founded in Houston and later brought to Brainerd Institute. She also founded a museum, the Adept New American Folk Center, focusing on arts of the American Southwest.
“Don’t wait for them to ask for something, just playfully take them into something they have never thought about and charm them into taking the disciplines,” Ayers told the Rock Hill Herald in 2018 about teaching children. “You have to do that. It takes a little urging when they are young to make them stay with the disciplines. They will bless you forever.”
Ayers moved with her children to Mexico for a time, where they learned Spanish and she studied Greek literature and the Mayan culture.
Rashad recalled her childhood in a conversation with The Times in 2012.
“There were a lot of books, and artists frequented our home. And as children we were privy to great intellectual and artistic debates,” she said. “My mother included us in everything that she did, and I mean everything. I remember as a child collating pages for her second book. It was wonderful.”
Ayers was there for dancer-actor Debbie Allen as well.
“My mother took the handrail off the staircase and put it on the wall in what should have been the dining room to create a ballet studio for Debbie to study with a dance instructor privately when she could not be admitted to the best schools that were on the other side of town in Houston,” Rashad explained. “And eventually Debbie was admitted to the Houston Ballet Foundation, but that was because of the private training she received in our home.
“My mother would do things like that. … She was always teaching us.”
