Russian Attack Kills One, Causes Fire in West Ukrainian City of Lviv 

Black smoke billows over the city after drone strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on September 19, 2023, amid Russia's military invasion on Ukraine. (AFP)
Black smoke billows over the city after drone strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on September 19, 2023, amid Russia's military invasion on Ukraine. (AFP)
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Russian Attack Kills One, Causes Fire in West Ukrainian City of Lviv 

Black smoke billows over the city after drone strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on September 19, 2023, amid Russia's military invasion on Ukraine. (AFP)
Black smoke billows over the city after drone strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on September 19, 2023, amid Russia's military invasion on Ukraine. (AFP)

Russia struck three industrial warehouses in a drone strike on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early on Tuesday, causing a huge fire and killing at least one person, local officials said.

Lviv governor Maxim Kozitsky said firefighters were tackling the blaze and that a 26-year-old man had been taken to hospital. City mayor Andriy Sadovyi later said the body of a man who worked at one of the warehouses had been found under the rubble.

Emergency services said the fire had spread over an area of 9,450 square meters (11,300 square yards) after an attack at around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT).

"I want to emphasize that these are ordinary industrial warehouses. Nothing military was stored there," Kozitsky said on the Telegram messaging app.

He said Russian forces had launched 18 drones in the attack and that 15 had been shot down, including seven that were directly over the Lviv region.

Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched a total of 30 drones and one Iskander ballistic missile in attacks on Ukraine overnight, and that 27 of the drones had been shot down.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Moscow, which has carried out frequent air strikes on Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Russia has repeatedly attacked infrastructure critical to Ukraine's defense, energy system and agriculture but many civilians have also been killed. At least seven people were killed in July when a Russian missile slammed into a residential building in Lviv, which is far from front lines.

Moscow has denied deliberately targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.



Mexico’s President Amused by Trump’s Order to Rename the Gulf of Mexico

 Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Mexico’s President Amused by Trump’s Order to Rename the Gulf of Mexico

 Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech at the National Palace, in Mexico City, Mexico January 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has an answer for US President Donald Trump about his idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”: he can call it whatever he wants on the American part of it.

Sheinbaum on Tuesday had been working through the raft of executive orders from Trump that relate to Mexico, emphasizing Mexico’s sovereignty and the need for dialogue, but when she got to the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“He says that he will call it the Gulf of America on its continental shelf,” Sheinbaum said. “For us it is still the Gulf of Mexico, and for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico.”

Trump said in his inaugural address Monday that he will change the name, an idea he first brought up earlier this month during a news conference.

“A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” he said. Hours later he signed an Executive Order to do it.

Sheinbaum projected on a large screen at her daily press briefing Trump’s order called “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.”

The order says that within 30 days, the US secretary of the interior will rename “the US Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba.”

Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.

The first time Trump mentioned the idea of changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, Sheinbaum responded sarcastically suggesting instead renaming North America as “América Mexicana” or “Mexican America.”

This time, she just briefly insisted: “For us and for the entire world it will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico.”