“During his decade as Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico flashed all the moves of the strongman autocrats now so in vogue the world over … Then something extraordinary happened: An investigative reporter hot on the trail of Fico’s finances was murdered, and tens of thousands of people in the once apathetic nation cared enough to take to the streets. Rather than be intimidated by the killing, journalists dug deeper. Grassroots opposition movements sprang from nowhere. Constitutional checks kicked in. Under pressure from all sides, Fico resigned.” WaPo’s Griff Witte with a remarkably important story for Europe and the world: How Slovakia stood up to a journalist’s murder and kicked out its prime minister.

+ Things in Poland (and Europe in general) are a lot different from the days before WWII. But some things are a little too reminiscent, like these numbers from Pew: “Almost one-in-five Poles (18%) say they would not be willing to accept Jews as citizens of their country, and a similar share (20%) say they would not want Jewish neighbors. Nearly a third of Polish adults (30%) say they would not accept a Jewish person as a member of their family.”