MEXICO
Lopez Obrador takes lead
Presidential contender Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has stretched his lead over rivals ahead of a July 1 election, a new voter survey by polling firm Mitofsky showed late on Thursday. Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, garnered 29.5 percent support in the poll conducted from Friday to Sunday last week, up from 27.1 percent in a previous Mitofsky survey last month. Running second was former National Action Party chairman Ricardo Anaya, who heads a right-left alliance, although his support slipped 1.1 percentage points to 21.2 percent. In third place was Jose Antonio Meade of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, who slipped by 1.6 percentage points to 16.4 percent, the poll showed.
RUSSIA
Weapon named after bird
The winners of an online contest to name three of the county’s recently announced advanced weapons honor a renowned medieval warrior, a seabird and the mythical Greek god of the sea. The weapons are among an array of fearsome new armaments announced by President Vladimir Putin on March 1. He invited people to take part in a Ministry of Defence contest to name them. The ministry on Thursday said that “Poseidon” received the most votes for the name of an underwater nuclear drone. A nuclear-powered cruise missile is to be called “Burevestnik,” which is Russian for petrel. A high-powered laser weapon system was named “Peresvet,” after a Russian warrior monk who died in the 1380 Battle of Kulikovo. Some of the names suggested in the contest showed distinctly mordant humor, including “Sanction” and “Thaw.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Wedding invitations sent
Kensington Palace on Thursday said that invitations for the wedding between Prince Harry and his fiancee, Meghan Markle, have been dispatched. About 600 people have been invited to the May 19 nuptials at noon at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. All 600 have also been invited to a lunchtime reception given by Queen Elizabeth II at St George’s Hall. Harry and Markle are also to celebrate with about 200 guests at a private evening reception given by Prince Charles at Frogmore House, a royal mansion near Windsor Castle. The palace declined to comment on who is on the list. The invitations, which are beveled and gilded along the edges, feature Charles’ three-feather badge embossed in gold. They feature italic writing on thick white card and are issued under the name of Charles, father of the groom. The invitations revealed the dress code for wedding guests: Uniform, morning coat or lounge suit for men, or day dress with a hat for ladies. The stationery was made by Barnard & Westwood, which has held the Royal Warrant for printing and bookbinding since 1985.
UNITED STATES
Tillerson laments Washington
Fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is lamenting the “mean-spirited” nature of Washington, as he bids good-bye to the US diplomatic corps. In a brief final farewell address to Department of State employees on Thursday, Tillerson urged them to protect their personal integrity and to strive to respect one another. “This can be a very mean-spirited town,” he said to laughter from a crowd of several hundred people gathered in the main lobby of the building. “But you don’t have to choose to participate in that.” Tillerson had been the subject of months of negative reports and speculation before President Donald Trump abruptly fired him last week.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
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