Two weeks after Kirk was shot and killed in Utah, several of the world leaders gathered for the U.N. General Assembly this week referenced the conservative activist’s slaying — and some of the divisive outpouring of reaction to it — as evidence of deeper fissures in global society.

Decrying the “sick expression of joy for the crime committed against an innocent person,” Serbian President Alexsandar Vucic told assembled leaders on Wednesday that reaction to Kirk’s death represents “the best confirmation of that.”

Social media lit up in the days after Kirk’s Sept. 10 death with people mourning his loss — some of whom said they disagreed with Kirk’s ideological stances but supported his right to voice them — as well as those celebrating it.

On Wednesday, Vucic said reaction to the conservative activist’s assassination was demarcated “less by ideological but much more by emotional hate driven differences.”

“Such a development devastates in a deepest and clearest way the world political community much more than conflicts with clear and visible actors,” Vucic said, remarking on how such a seemingly singular event can evoke such strong reactions across the globe.

“He was savagely assassinated just because his killer did not like his ideas,” Vucic said of Kirk, suggesting that some of the reaction in the slaying’s aftermath caused yet more damage in terms of the division it sowed. “He was shot even after death by the same ones who had prepared political and media grounds for his assassination.”

Kirk was assassinated during a Sept. 10 event at Utah Valley University. U.S. President Donald Trump and other administration leaders gathered Sunday at a memorial service, where other speakers noted the worldwide reaction to Kirk’s death, mentioning areas around the world where memorials had sprung up.

Paraguayan President Santiago Peña also mentioned Kirk in his speech Wednesday, saying in Spanish that he was “shaken, saddened, and distressed” by Kirk’s killing and arguing that the “macabre response must awaken us from our sleepy state of complacency.”

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Kirk, as well as last month’s stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail system, as representative of “headlines about violent attacks happening all around the world.”

“Sadly, his life was short by a bullet,” Zelenskyy said of Kirk. “Once again, violence with a rifle in hand.”

-AP

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Redford died “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah — the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” publicist Cindi Berger said in a statement. No cause of death was provided.

After rising to stardom in the 1960s, Redford was one of the biggest stars of the ’70s with such films as “The Candidate,” “All the President’s Men” and “The Way We Were,” capping that decade with the best director Oscar for 1980’s “Ordinary People,” which also won best picture in 1980.

His wavy blond hair and boyish grin made him the most desired of leading men, but he worked hard to transcend his looks — whether through his political advocacy, his willingness to take on unglamorous roles, or his dedication to providing a platform for low-budget movies.

His roles ranged from Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward to a mountain man in “Jeremiah Johnson” to a double agent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and his co-stars included Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise. But his most famous screen partner was his old friend and fellow activist and practical joker, Paul Newman, their films a variation of their warm, teasing relationship off-screen.

Redford played the wily outlaw opposite Newman in 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” a box-office smash from which Redford’s Sundance Institute and festival got its name.

He also teamed with Newman on 1973’s best picture Oscar winner, “The Sting,” which earned Redford a best-actor nomination as a young con artist in 1930s Chicago.

AP

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