By Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – Slovakia’s leftist former Prime Minister Robert Fico beat his progressive rival in a parliamentary election after campaigning to end military aid to Ukraine, but he will need to win over allies to form the next government, nearly complete results showed on Sunday. With 98% of voting districts reporting in the Saturday election, Fico’s SMER-SSD party led with 23.37% of the vote. […]

By Jan Lopatka BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – Robert Fico, who won Slovakia’s parliamentary election on Saturday by appealing to anti-western and pro-Russian sentiment, may lead the European Union nation for the fourth time after once again shifting political gears to appeal to a changing electorate. During a three-decade career, Fico, 59, has skilfully weaved between pro-European mainstream and nationalistic anti-Brussels and anti-American positions while showing a willingness to change course depending […]

(Reuters) – California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday vetoed a bill that would have paid unemployment benefits to striking workers, and had drawn strong support from labor unions and from his fellow Democrats in the state legislature. In rejecting the bill, Newsom noted that the state’s unemployment trust fund is already nearing $20 billion in debt. “Now is not the time to increase costs or incur this sizable debt,” he […]