In a setback for Europe’s surging nationalist forces, Nicusor Dan, a centrist mayor and former mathematics professor, on Sunday won the presidential election in Romania, defeating a hard-right candidate who is aligned with President Trump and has opposed military aid to Ukraine.
With more than 98 percent of ballots counted, preliminary official results gave 54 percent of the vote in the presidential runoff to Mr. Dan, 55, the mayor of Romania’s capital, Bucharest. His opponent, George Simion, a nationalist and fervent admirer of Mr. Trump who had been widely seen as the front-runner, drew only 46 percent.
As he slipped behind Mr. Dan in early counting, Mr. Simion told supporters that “we are the clear winners of these elections.” He called for national protests should the final count show him as the loser, railing against what he said was an attempt “to steal the victory of the Romanian people.”
Mr. Dan’s victory will likely calm fears in Europe’s political mainstream that Romania, which borders Ukraine and plays a vital role in defending NATO’s eastern flank against Russia, might join Hungary and Slovakia in opposing help for Ukraine and in cozying up to Moscow.
But it will likely inflame Romania’s nationalist camp and its supporters abroad, including Vice President JD Vance, and stoke accusations that the system is rigged. Last year, a Romanian court ordered a last-minute cancellation of a presidential election that an ultranationalist appeared well positioned to win...
Defeating the nationalist fascists anywhere is a victory to be savored. Defeating this Putin puppet in an important NATO country bordering Ukraine is especially gratifying. But expect continued turmoil -- much of it underwritten by Moscow -- seeking to destabilize the new government. The Malignant Fascist and his bellhop VP can also be counted on to favor the "stop the steal" Romanian fascists, so it will be up to NATO -- specifically, France, Britain, Germany, and Poland -- to be on alert.
Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his personal office announced Sunday.
“Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,” his personal office said in a statement. “On Friday he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.”
Metastasis means the cancer has spread from its primary site (in Biden’s cancer, the prostate) to other tissue in the body.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” the statement continued. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
A spokesperson for Biden’s office did not have any additional comment.
Biden and his family are meeting with doctors and considering "multiple treatment options," including hormone treatment, according to a source familiar with Biden's and his family's thinking...
We hope the treatments are effective and can stave off further spread of the cancer. For someone who has done so much to advance cancer research and who lost his beloved son Beau to cancer, this is a particularly tough diagnosis to hear.
The US retail giant Walmart will “eat some of the tariffs” in line with Donald Trump’s demands, the president’s treasury secretary Scott Bessent insisted on Sunday, claiming he received the assurance in a personal phone call with the company’s chief executive, Doug McMillon.
A spokesperson for Walmart said the company would not comment on conversations between its executives and administration officials. However, a source familiar with the conversation said the phone call between Bessent and McMillon was arranged many days prior to Trump’s post – and that the company’s position had not changed.
Walmart said this week it had no alternative to raising prices for consumers beginning later this month because it could not absorb the cost of the president’s tariffs on international trade, which have caused turmoil in international markets.
The statement provoked an angry response from Trump, who posted a rant to his Truth Social network on Saturday saying the company should “eat the tariffs and not charge valued customers anything”.
According to Bessent, speaking on Sunday to NBC’s Meet the Press, Walmart is now promising exactly that.
“I was on the phone with Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart, yesterday. And Walmart is, in fact, going to, as you describe it, eat some of the tariffs, just as they did in ‘18, ‘19, and ‘20,” Bessent said after host Kristen Welker asked if the president was asking American companies to be less profitable...
Walmart may be joining Amazon in succumbing to the Malignant Fascist's unprecedented threats and bullying, instead of providing consumers the truth about the Trump Tariffs. But, we wouldn't trust Bessent or his boss to tell the truth even if their lives depended on it. They've been lying about those "tariff deals" with other countries for months as they backpedal away. So we'll have to see how Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, will respond in the real world. Meanwhile small businesses, who represent the bulk of retail sales, can't "eat" the cost of tariffs (and can't be individually threatened for noting the added costs of the Trump Tariffs to their customers).
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