New Westminster and the capitals of the realmsTuesday, 31 October 2028New
The last of the realms gave effect to Ernest V's abdication this morning, when Parliament passed the bill before midday and Queen Christina gave the Royal Assent as Regent at Columbia Palace. At two o'clock, six in London, the reign ended in every realm at once, and his son became King George V, with his mother as Regent until his sixteenth birthday. He was at school, and stayed there. The Privy Council proclaimed him at the palace this evening. A coronation in Great Britain will follow the King's birthday in May.
London and the capitals of the realmsMonday, 30 October 2028New
King Ernest V has decided to give up the Crown, and told the peoples of his realms so in a short written message published by Columbia Palace: "I cannot do the work as it must be done, and you should not have to wait for me." At the same hour the thirteen governments of the Interrealm Succession Compact adopted common terms drafted in London. The abdication takes effect in every realm on the day the last of them gives it effect. Prince Frederick will reign as King George V. The age at which a sovereign reigns in his own right becomes sixteen in every realm, and Queen Christina will act as Regent for her son until his sixteenth birthday on 2 May 2029. The King is to be created Duke of Cumberland. Malaya follows Britain. In the Commons the Father of the House, Harold Penhallow, has introduced the Realm's bill as a private member.
The Ministry of Defence, New WestminsterSunday, 29 October 2028New
The Minister of Defence has told the House of Commons that the government will not abolish the Board of Admiralty, as the defence review proposed, but will give it powers of its own. The Board will decide the Navy's appointments to flag rank, its shipbuilding programme and its estimates by majority, with its civil members voting and their dissents recorded, and the First Naval Lord remains its senior member. The change will be made by new letters patent, which need no Act of Parliament.
CanterburySaturday, 28 October 2028Before the chambers
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Dr Thomas Aldous, has written to the primates of East Africa, the Philippines and the West Indies, the three provinces that walked out of the Lambeth Conference in the summer, inviting them to private talks at Canterbury before the end of the year. He said that receiving the Declaration would not be a condition of attending. None of the three provinces has replied, and none has said whether it will come.
Dar es SalaamFriday, 27 October 2028New
The four constituent states that share Lake Victoria have signed an agreement that would give the basin authority a binding standard for the effluent discharged into the lake, the first power it would have to bind them. The federal government at Dar es Salaam, whose competence over the lake extends only to navigation, was not a party and welcomed the agreement. It takes effect when all four state legislatures have ratified it, and none has yet done so.
St. PetersburgThursday, 26 October 2028New
The European Concert's special envoy, Tomasz Wierzbicki, a former Foreign Minister of Poland-Lithuania, opened talks at St. Petersburg this evening on Russia becoming an associate of the Concert, attending its Council without a vote on energy, on trade and the major economic rules, and on cross-border transport and frontiers. That goes further than the association agreement offered in the spring. Emperor Paul II opened the session with a few words of welcome and withdrew, and Russia's side is led by its new Foreign Minister, Irina Volkova, a Moscow professor of international law. Every seat on the Council agreed the envoy's mandate without conditions. Poland-Lithuania, the Baltic Duchy and Finland welcomed the opening. No timetable has been set.
The Post Office, across the RealmThursday, 26 October 2028New
The postal workers' union has called a strike of all counter and delivery staff over the annual pay award, which it says is below the rise in the cost of living. As the Post Office's custom requires, delivery continues and nothing is charged for it while the strike lasts. Lord Whitlock's government said that the Post Office, as a Crown corporation, must settle with its own workers. The union replied that the Post Office is also a department of state, and that the government cannot be a bystander to its own department.
MoscowWednesday, 25 October 2028New
Dmitri Gromov, freed from prison the morning before, has been elected President of the Russian Republic outright, with a clear majority on a high turnout, in the first free election since 1922. The Constitutional Crown Party's votes went to him, and his first promise was the one it had asked for: a constituent assembly within months to write a new constitution, with the question of the crown put to the people in a referendum. The League's observers called the vote free and the count honest, and said that twenty-four hours was no way to hold an election. The Chief of the General Staff said the army serves the elected President. The judges certified the count overnight, Gromov was sworn in this afternoon, and his first decree brought the referendum forward: the question of the crown went to the people this evening, alone, before the assembly sits.
Moscow and St. PetersburgWednesday, 25 October 2028New
More than three in four Russians voted this evening for a constitutional monarchy under the House of Romanov, on a high turnout, in the referendum President Gromov called within hours of his swearing-in, counted by the same commission of judges. Grand Duke Paul accepted the result from Richmond, flew from London alone, landed quietly at St. Petersburg and was proclaimed Paul II, Emperor of All Russia, at the Tauride Palace shortly before midnight, in the presence of the presiding officers of the National Assembly, with no crown and no procession. Russia is the Russian Empire from tonight. Gromov remains President until a constituent assembly writes a constitution on the British model, which will abolish the presidency, and the government stays at Moscow. The director of the security service resigned without a statement. The European Concert's Council said its offer of association stands; Finland received the news coolly. King Ernest V sent his congratulations by a personal message from his bed, on advice, and the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Renwick, recognised the Emperor tonight.
Columbia PalaceWednesday, 25 October 2028New
Prince Frederick, the Prince of Columbia, told the Realm this afternoon from Columbia Palace that King Ernest V has asked his Private Secretary to find out, in each of his fourteen realms, what it would require for him to abdicate. The King has not decided anything. The Prince, who is fifteen, read the statement alone and quoted his father: "I cannot speak for them now." The Queen is at the King's bedside. The King's physicians certified that he understands the question and can give the instruction, and said that the regency stands. Lord Whitlock told the Lords that if the question is answered it will be answered in fourteen realms together. The British Prime Minister said that Britain will act with the other realms and not before them. No sovereign of the Realm has ever abdicated.
The Royal American Supreme CourtWednesday, 25 October 2028New
All seven Justices of the Royal American Supreme Court have held the five seats of the Territory of Loreto in the House of Commons valid under the Treaty of La Paz, as received into the Realm's law by Act of Parliament, on the census the Treaty named. The seats stand until Parliament changes them, and the enumeration does not unseat anybody by itself. The Court held that every vote cast from them was lawfully cast, naming the division of 26 July that brought down the Valdez ministry. Alternative for the Realm, which brought the case, accepted the judgment and said it would take the question to Parliament. The five members said nothing.
Suffolk, EnglandWednesday, 25 October 2028New
A man searching a ploughed field in Suffolk with a metal detector has reported a hoard of Anglo-Saxon silver coin and gold fittings, found in a lead-lined chest just below the surface. Archaeologists who excavated the site say that the coins are of the eighth century and that the chest was buried in haste. The find is in the care of the museum authorities and will be valued before any claim is heard. It is the largest hoard of its kind found in England in a generation.
MoscowTuesday, 24 October 2028New
President Pavel Yermolov of the Russian Republic went on the air shortly after midnight, with the army and the security troops already confined to their barracks on his order, and said that the managed system could no longer be managed. By decree he has ended the security service's part in counting the vote, freed the political prisoners, lifted the restrictions on the press and on registering parties, and called an early presidential election to be held within twenty-four hours, counted by judges with League observers invited. He said Russia would open talks on the European Concert's offer of association, and that he would not stand. Dmitri Gromov, freed before dawn, said at the prison gate that he will. Finland was the first to welcome the decree. The Concert's Council meets this morning.
New Westminster General HospitalTuesday, 24 October 2028Before the chambers
The King's physicians said in a bulletin that his speech and parts of his memory may not recover fully, and that they cannot yet say whether he will be able to resume the functions of the Crown. He is awake for longer each day and knows those around him. Answering at his weekly questions in the House of Lords, the Prime Minister, Lord Whitlock, said that the declaration of 30 September stands, that the regency will continue for as long as the physicians' evidence requires it, and that nobody would hurry the King.
House of CommonsMonday, 23 October 2028New
Rosa Delgado, a Labour and Social Democratic member from Illinois, has introduced a private member's bill for a Fifteenth Amendment that would move the American Rights Act into the Charter, so that a court could void an Act that breached it instead of only declaring it incompatible. Members of four other parties have signed it. The Heads of Agreement confine the ministry's business, and the ministry has said that it cannot take the bill up but will support a motion sending the question to a select committee. The Charter has not been amended since 1989.
Yellowknife and OttawaSunday, 22 October 2028New
The Dene and Métis governments of Mackenzie Territory and the government of New Albion have announced a draft agreement under which a provincial legislature would reserve seats for both peoples, as a condition of their support for provincehood. The draft does not deal with the veto over land, which both governments say will be put to the territory in the referendum of 2029, and it does not touch the territory's share of the Athabasca oil sands, which Rupert's Land still disputes.
The Court of the Union, QuitoSaturday, 21 October 2028New
The Court of the Union at Quito has ordered the revenue that Venezuela has withheld under the Oil Compact of 1936 to be paid into an escrow account held by its registrar while it hears the case. The order does not decide whether the Compact binds the state. Venezuela's governor said that an order of the Court cannot compel a state to pay, and the President said that the Union will abide by the Court and expects every state to do the same. No date has been set for the hearing.
New Westminster General HospitalFriday, 20 October 2028New
The King's physicians issued a bulletin at eight in the morning: His Majesty woke in the small hours, knew the Queen, and spoke a few words. The Governor-General, the Queen and Prince Frederick were sent for and have been with him. The physicians say that it is too early to say how complete his recovery will be, and that he is not to receive Ministers or perform any function of the Crown. The five officers of the Regency Act met the same morning and resolved that the declaration of 30 September stands until the physicians certify that he is capable, and the Queen continues as Regent in every realm until then.
Columbia Palace, New WestminsterThursday, 19 October 2028New
Prince Frederick sat the first of his autumn examinations at Ellicott High School with the rest of his year, a little over three weeks after the loss of his father's aircraft. The school had offered to let him sit them later, and he declined. He went in by the ordinary door, and the Household has asked photographers to leave him alone.
The Constitutional Court, PotsdamWednesday, 18 October 2028Before the chambers
Thirty-one members of the dissolved Abgeordnetenhaus, drawn from the parties of the right, have lodged a petition asking the Prussian Constitutional Court to hold unlawful the Princess Regent's dissolution on the advice of a Minister-President who could not command the House. The petition does not ask the Court to move the election of 3 December, and the Court has not said when it will sit. The Zentrum was not among the petitioners.
CheyenneTuesday, 17 October 2028New
Premier Caleb Mercer and Dr Naomi Chen, Director-General of the Royal Parks Service, met at Cheyenne for the first time since the hearings closed and agreed to open talks on the voluntary replacement for the Greater Yellowstone Wildlife Migration Compact: easements, purchase, compensation and crossings, without compulsory external controls. Neither government has asked the Supreme Court to adjourn. Judgment is still reserved, and the King's pause on broad culling and permanent corridor construction stays in force. Montana and Idaho were not at the table, and the intertribal council has asked to be.
Kingston and the Windward IslandsMonday, 16 October 2028New
A hurricane made landfall on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the early hours and crossed Saint Lucia by midday, and Prime Minister Villanueva has declared a federal emergency. The Cabinet has opened the federal disaster reserve, and the states of Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia and Grenada have asked for engineers and medical teams. The Federation has not yet counted its dead.
