LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - Russian military forces have been enhancing defensive positions in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine in recent weeks, four witnesses said, ahead of an expected counteroffensive in the region.

New trenches have been dug around the city and more mines have been laid. Surveillance cameras at the plant are pointing north across a wide reservoir towards Ukrainian-controlled territory.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, May 19 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was given a warm welcome at an Arab summit on Friday, winning a hug from Saudi Arabia's crown prince at a meeting of leaders who had shunned him for years, in a policy shift opposed by the U.S. and other Western powers.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shook hands with a beaming Assad as the summit got underway in Jeddah, turning the page on enmity towards a leader who drew on support from Shi'ite Iran and Russia to beat back his foes in Syria's civil war.

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans and President Joe Biden's Democratic administration on Friday paused talks on raising the federal government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, rattling financial markets as the deadline to avoid default ticked closer.

Republicans are pushing for sharp spending cuts in exchange for the increase in the government's self-imposed borrowing limit, a move needed regularly to cover costs of spending and tax cuts previously approved by lawmakers.

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - A team led by Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin won a coveted NASA contract to build a spacecraft that will send astronauts to and from the moon's surface, NASA's chief announced on Friday, capping a high-stakes contest.

NASA's decision will give the agency a second ride to the moon under its Artemis program, after it awarded Elon Musk's SpaceX $3 billion in 2021 to land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972.

May 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a case in which Republicans sought to keep in place a policy introduced under former President Donald Trump that had let American officials quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants at the U.S.-Mexican border.

The policy, known as Title 42, was implemented by Trump's administration in March 2020 - early in the COVID-19 pandemic - as a measure tied to a public health emergency. President Joe Biden's administration allowed the policy to expire last week, with new asylum restrictions taking effect.

19 May 2023; AA: The US on Thursday condemned the racist language that some fanatical Jewish groups used during a "flag day" march by extremist Jewish settlers. 

"The United States unequivocally opposes racist language of any form. We condemn the hateful chants such as 'Death to Arabs' during today’s marches in Jerusalem," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Twitter.

19 May 2023; AA: The funeral and associated events honoring Queen Elizabeth II, which took place during a period of national mourning, incurred an estimated cost of £162 million (nearly $200 million) to the government, the Treasury said Thursday. 

The state funeral was held on Sept. 19 last year, 11 days after the Queen's passing.

During this period, hundreds of thousands of people visited Westminster to pay their respects as she lay in state.

UNITED NATIONS, May 19. /TASS/: Russia reserves its right to take all necessary measures to neutralize security threats originating from Ukraine, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said during a Security Council meeting.

"Russia reserves the right to take all necessary measures to neutralize the security threat. The goals of the special military operation will be achieved," he stressed.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Videos released Thursday of this week’s deadly rampage in northwest New Mexico recorded a voice said to be the shooter urging police to “kill me” and officers rushing toward the 18-year-old gunman before fatally shooting him outside a church.

“He is yelling on the Ring footage, ‘Come kill me,’” Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said of Beau Wilson, the high school senior who authorities say killed three older women during the attack.

SYKTYVKAR, May 19. /TASS/: The destruction of depleted uranium munitions supplied by the West to Ukraine has caused a radioactive cloud that is drifting towards Europe, Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said at a conference in Syktyvkar on Friday.

He drew attention to the fact that US President Joe Biden arrived in Japan on Thursday to attend the G7 summit.

"Including to uphold, as the Americans believe, ‘common democratic values.’ The heads of Western countries under US pressure will also discuss aid to Ukraine," Patrushev pointed out.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon on Friday received an Interpol notice for the country’s embattled central bank governor who failed to show up in Paris earlier in the week for questioning in a key corruption case, officials said.

France, Germany, and Luxembourg are investigating the governor, Riad Salameh, and his associates over myriad financial crimes, including illicit enrichment and the laundering of $330 million. A French investigative judge on Tuesday issued an international arrest warrant for Salameh after he did not answer summons for questioning in Paris.

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies vowed Friday to tighten punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, days before President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joins the Group of Seven summit in person on Sunday.

“Our support for Ukraine will not waver,” the G7 leaders said in a statement released after closed-door meetings, vowing “to stand together against Russia’s illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.”

“Russia started this war and can end this war,” they said.