Zeitgeist Magazine, April 22th, 301 AP

Zeitgeist Magazine's Utania This Week
April 22th, 301 AP

Protests

The addition of the name of Phillip Stanton to an open letter to the Zartanian government last week regarding the cruel "execution by torture" of three mutinous sailors was noted as the Minister for Health's first foray into his self-appointed role as "conscience of the government".

The letter was received with some surprise by Zartanian authorities, as were three other protests from friendly governments to the Empire.

President Okarvits this week announced the division of the Navy into two services: the Utanian Naval Defence Force (UNDF) and the Utanian Coast Guard (UCG). While the UNDF will have frontline responsibility for the defence of Utanian interests at sea, the UCG will not be a "toothless tiger", instead having "significant defensive capability as well as extended responsibilities limited to the 200nm economic zone around Utania." Details are yet to be announced.

Preparing for the Presidential Elections

The Conservative and Cruistian Democratic parties this week agreed to join forces in their fight for the Presidency in January next year, and will hold a final preselection conference in August. They will run with an electoral college-style voting system to select their candidate, and already three candidates have emerged: opposition leader Thomas Kemp, former-President, now-Governor Hope, and recently-reelected Governor Cryer of the CDP. The battle is fierce between the former two candidates, with Cryer running a convincing second-place.

The Utanian Electoral Commission has released its final draft of the new electoral boundaries that serve the revised population figures for Utania. The new boundaries abolish some electorates, but create some new ones, and increase the number of urban electorates from five to eight, and debate has been strong in Parliament so far.

A leak from within the Utanian Football Association has revealed that the UFA and federal government are planning for the construction of a massive stadium to hold sufficient people for a Vexillium Cup or Vexgames in Utan Krysaror in the future. The design leaked could hold as many as 190,000 people, making it the undisputed largest in the world.

The last of the ships bought by the Utanian government from the Lendosan Confederation arrived in Utania this week without fanfare. Utania has so far received fifty of the one-hundred Espectro II jet fighters it leased from the Confederation. Government officials confirmed that the ships, thirteen in all, would be employed in the newly formed Utanian Coast Guard.

Easter was celebrated by millions of Utanians with shops, factories and businesses closed for the three days of Easter. Some complained of the inconvenience, but in a stump-poll, 94% said they agreed with the compulsory three days off.

The Vexnobel committee is said to be evaluating several possibly new categories for awards in the greatest change to the awards since their inception three years ago. The awards are expected to be handed out by June.