What in the World?

Smer, which won 22.9 percent of the vote, is led by Robert Fico, a pro-Russian former prime minister who has promised to stop aid to Ukraine. Even with a victory, though, Fico will have to work hard to secure a government, Amanda Coakley wrote last month.

he election was, in part, seen as a referendum on great-power competition between China and India, Foreign Policy’s Michael Kugelman wrote in South Asia Brief last month.

The pledge came a day before the deadline for renewing an investigation into human rights abuses during Ethiopia’s recent war in its Tigray region. Kate Hixon and Kehinde A. Togun argued in FP in July that reengagement with Ethiopia should not come at the expense of holding its government to account.

Braverman’s speech highlights a global turn toward isolationism, a phenomenon explored in a new book that was recently reviewed in FP by Jan-Werner Müller.

The pushback from Kenya’s political opposition comes after the United Nations approved the deployment of the multinational force, which FP’s Alexandra Sharp reports on in World Brief.

The encounter follows Iran’s parliament passing a bill seeking to enforce the mandatory hijab law more strictly, Sina Toossi wrote in September.

The early games in South America are a nod to the tournament’s earliest days, with Uruguay’s match slated to be played in the stadium that hosted the first-ever World Cup in 1930, FP’s Catherine Osborn writes in Latin America Brief.

The expected harvesting of plutonium comes alongside a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over weapons production and technology-sharing negotiations, FP’s Jack Detsch reported last month.

The glass panes can be dated from pre-medieval times, suggesting that Vikings were more advanced than previously thought, The Associated Press reports.

She attempted the record in the Red Sea off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, UPI reports. The effort was complicated by extreme heat, among other factors.