“One candidate is mired in a land development corruption scandal. Another was tied to a self-professed anal acupuncturist who claimed to heal nerve damage. And both of these leading contenders to be South Korea’s next president have come under fire for having shamans, or fortunetellers, as campaign advisers,” the Washington Post reports.

“The drama extends to their families. One candidate’s wife threatened to put critical journalists ‘in prison’ and disparaged sexual harassment victims, while her mother was convicted of forging a financial document. Another candidate’s wife used her husband’s aides to run her personal errands, while her son is under investigation regarding illegal gambling.”

“Marine Le Pen, the nationalist candidate for the French presidency, received an €11 million campaign loan from a Hungarian bank that is assumed to have had support from Viktor Orban, the country’s authoritarian leader,” the Times of London reports.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he wants to stay in office until 2029 amid growing calls for him to resign over “partygate,” the Telegraph reports.

Meanwhile, three more Tory MPs withdrew their support of Johnson yesterday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki accused Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and other conservatives of “parroting Russian talking points” amid the looming threat of conflict between Russia and Ukraine, The Hill reports.

Said Psaki: “If you are digesting Russian misinformation and parroting Russian talking points you are not aligned with longstanding bipartisan American values, which is to stand up for the sovereignty of countries like Ukraine, but others.”

The Economist’s new election forecast suggests that French President Emmanuel Macron’s chance of re-election is 79%.

A new poll in France shows Emmanuel Macron leading the presidential field with 24%, followed by Marine LePen and Valerie Pécresse tied at 17%. Eric Zemmour trails at 13% with others in single digits.

The top two finishers go to a run off.

“Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has abandoned his bid to be elected as Italy’s next head of state, despite claiming to have enough votes to win and amid reports he has been admitted to hospital,” Politico reports.

CNBC: Italy votes for new president in a race that could spark political upheaval.

Far-right French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has been fined €10,000 by a Paris court for hate speech, the BBC reports.

The case was launched over a TV appearance, where he described unaccompanied migrant children as “thieves”, “rapists” and “murderers.”

“For years, U.S. officials have tiptoed around the question of how much military support to provide to Ukraine, for fear of provoking Russia,” the New York Times reports.

“Now, in what would be a major turnaround, senior Biden administration officials are warning that the United States could throw its weight behind a Ukrainian insurgency should President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia invade Ukraine.”

“April’s presidential election in France was supposed to pit Emmanuel Macron against the far-right, with the fairly unpopular incumbent facing his 2021 challenger Marine Le Pen or Éric Zemmour, the insurgent TV pundit whose rhetoric is even more radical,” Axios reports.

“With Le Pen and Zemmour splitting the far-right vote, a much trickier scenario looms for Macron, with Valérie Pécresse of the center-right Republicans now the favorite to break through to the second-round runoff.”

“Chileans on Sunday elected Gabriel Boric as their next president, entrusting the young leftist lawmaker with helping to shape the future of a nation that has been roiled by protests and is now drafting a new Constitution,” the New York Times reports.

“Boris Johnson suffered a seismic political upset as his ruling Conservatives lost a key parliamentary election, a result that will heap intense pressure on the U.K. prime minister and may even call his position into question,” Bloomberg reports.

“The Liberal Democrats capitalized on weeks of turmoil and plummeting poll ratings for Johnson and his Conservative party to overturn a huge Tory majority and take the North Shropshire seat in the West Midlands that the ruling party has held for almost two centuries.”

“The German-born father of Chilean presidential frontrunner José Antonio Kast was a member of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party, revelations that appear at odds with the far-right candidate’s own statements about his father’s military service during World War II,” the AP reports.

“The ID card’s emergence adds a new twist to a highly charged presidential runoff billed on both side as a battle of extremes — between communism and right-wing authoritarianism — and marked by a steady flow of disinformation that has distorted the record and campaign pledges of Kast’s opponent.”

“Angela Merkel was assured of a place in the history books as soon as she became Germany’s first female chancellor Nov. 22, 2005,” the AP reports.

“Over the next 16 years, she was credited with raising Germany’s profile and influence, working to hold a fractious European Union together, managing a string of crises and being a role model for women.”

“Now that near-record tenure is ending with her leaving office at age 67 to praise from abroad and enduring popularity at home. Her designated successor, Olaf Scholz, is expected to take office Wednesday.”

“President Macron denounced his detractors as demagogues as he teed up his re-election campaign with a claim that he needed more time to complete the transformation of France,” the Times of London reports.

“With far-right extremists like Eric Zemmour, 63, the anti-Islam pundit, and Marine Le Pen, 53, the leader of the National Rally, setting their agendas around immigration and crime, Macron painted himself as a pragmatic, common-sense centrist bent on unifying a fractured nation. Polls suggest Macron is in a strong position, comfortably ahead of Zemmour and Le Pen, his closest rivals, in both the first and second rounds of the election.”

“Sweden’s populist anti-immigration party is talking openly about ways to join or support a potential conservative government and end a decade of political ostracism,” the Financial Times reports.