International
Candidates in Mexico face the last debate without mobilizing the undecided and between insults
The candidates for the Presidency of the opposition in Mexico, Xóchitl Gálvez and Jorge Álvarez Máynez, will have in the third and last presidential debate on Sunday their last chance to shorten the distance with the ruling party, Claudia Sheinbaum, who has led all the polls from the beginning.
This is portrayed by the specialists consulted this Saturday by EFE, Palmira Tapia and Miguel Tovar, who agree to mention, a day before the last confrontation, the bulk of people undecided about who to vote, a figure that, according to the Poligrama survey at the end of April, reaches 6.9%.
“There may be more discussion sessions and the compass still does not move is because something important in terms of information and how it is presented is still not forceful,” the political scientist acknowledges.
In addition, he points out that some polling houses are not treating the situation “neither professionally nor as a democratic exercise.”
In his opinion, some companies “redined” the representation of the undecided in their polls, in a context of urgency on the part of the candidacies to “have data very quickly and at hand.”
The analyst warns that, at this point, “it is difficult to think” that there are “very expectant” layers of population for knowing the proposals of the candidacies: “A good part of these undecided are people who, in plain, are not going to vote.”
Therefore, and since “not being a competitive choice” due to the wide distance in the polls between the two main candidates, he considers that the parties will not be dedicated to mobilizing these people.
Tapia predicts a Gálvez, standard-bearer of the coalition between the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution (PRD), “even more combative”, because the strategy “worked” in the previous debate and “misplaced” Sheinbaum.
“The second debate was more interesting than the first because we saw more contrast of ideas, but also more personal disqualifications, which this is something that attracts the media,” he says.
He believes that this last confrontation, which will be held at the Tlatelolco University Cultural Center, “will be more of this type,” since it is the “last chance” of the opponent to win votes, an opinion that Tovar shares.
Although it clarifies: “Hardly, we will see a different sphin from the one we have seen with ‘you have no heart.’”
The political scientist speculates about the possibility that the applicant of the also opposition Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), Jorge Álvarez Máynez, will depose Gálvez in the second position on June 2.
“The novelty we have is that (…) it seems that it is being attractive to younger people,” he says.
For this last debate, he could combine “some blows” towards his opponents with the image of “candidate of proposals.”
In this sense, Tovar calls it a “meme of politics,” for his song “Presidente Máynez” and “the occurrences” that he has offered in the campaign, and predicts him “a filling profile.”
Despite the climate of apparent tranquility, Tapia recalls that the topics that the debate will address, such as violence and organized crime, are of high tension.
“It is so important that Gálvez has tried to take the issue of security as a flag for his campaign,” he says, and recalls the proposal for a mega-prison that the candidate launched at the start of the electoral race.
“On the side of Sheinbaum, it seems to me that she also has a challenge before her: to defend the position of the president (Andrés Manuel López Obrador) in this matter, (…) but also honoring what she did in Mexico City as Head of Government,” he analyzes.
And, in the lectern of Máynez, he predicts some “very progressive” proposals in this area, since he has positioned himself “against the alleged militarization” of Mexico.
For Tovar, one of the few “more or less different” things left by the triad of debates is MC’s ability to articulate communication campaigns.
“The gentlemen and ladies of MC are great for marketing, to make these yingles so sticky,” he smiles.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
International
Seven inmates dead, 11 injured after violent riot in Veracruz prison
Seven inmates were killed and eleven others injured in a violent riot and clash inside a penitentiary in the Mexican state of Veracruz, local authorities reported on Sunday.
The disturbance began on Saturday afternoon at the Social Reintegration Center in the port city of Tuxpan, in northern Veracruz, when inmates staged a protest over extortion and assaults allegedly carried out by members of the criminal group known as Grupo Sombra.
The protesting prisoners clashed with another group of inmates and set fires inside and outside the facility, seizing control of the prison for more than 12 hours.
During the takeover, the rioters released several videos, including one showing four prisoners —believed to be members of Grupo Sombra— accusing them of being behind the violence and extortion inside the prison.
It wasn’t until Sunday morning that elements of the Mexican Army, the National Guard, and local police forces managed to enter the prison and regain control. The state’s Public Security Secretariat confirmed that around 9:00 a.m. local time a coordinated operation restored full order and reestablished control of the facility.
Authorities also reported that the fires set by inmates were fully extinguished.
Official figures confirmed the “tragic” deaths of seven inmates and injuries to eleven people, who are now receiving medical treatment in various regional hospitals.
This is the second deadliest riot in Veracruz in the past eight years. In 2018, a violent uprising at the La Toma medium-security prison left seven people dead (six police officers and one unidentified man) and at least 22 injured (15 officers and seven inmates).
The riot follows the kidnapping and killing of retired teacher and taxi driver Irma Hernández, a case that shocked the entire country and was attributed to Grupo Sombra. Images of Hernández kneeling, surrounded by armed men in the municipality of Álamo, sparked nationwide outrage. She was murdered after refusing to pay extortion demands from the criminal organization.
Despite these incidents, Veracruz has not seen a spike in the daily homicide average. In fact, there has been a 1.6% decrease in homicides in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, according to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.
In 2023, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) reported 3,094 incidents in Mexican prisons —an 18.5% increase from the previous year— resulting in 100 deaths and 892 injuries.
International
Study finds COVID-19 vaccines prevented 2.5 million deaths worldwide
COVID-19 vaccines prevented an estimated 2,533,000 deaths worldwide between 2020 and 2024, according to an international study led by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy and Stanford University in the United States, published in the journal JAMA Health Forum. Researchers calculated that one death was prevented for every 5,400 doses administered.
The analysis also found that the vaccines saved 14.8 million years of life, equivalent to one year of life gained for every 900 doses given.
The study, coordinated by Professor Stefania Boccia, revealed that 82% of the lives saved were people vaccinated before becoming infected with the virus, and 57% of deaths avoided occurred during the Omicron wave. In addition, 90% of the beneficiaries were adults over 60 years old.
“This is the most comprehensive analysis to date, based on global data and fewer assumptions about the evolution of the pandemic,” explained Boccia and researcher Angelo Maria Pezzullo.
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