Six In The Morning Thursday 22 February 2024

 

Alexey Navalny’s mother says she has seen her son’s body

From CNN’s Seb Shukla and Anna Chernova

Alexey Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, says she has been shown her son’s body in the Russian town of Salekhard.

Speaking on Navalny’s YouTube channel, Navalnaya said Russian authorities claimed they knew his cause of death and had “all the medical and legal documents.”

She said that she was taken to the morgue to see his body on Wednesday and has signed his death certificate.

Navalnaya also claimed in the video that investigators were “threatening” her into agreeing to a secret funeral for her son, or “they will do something with my son’s body.”

 

US intelligence has ‘low confidence’ in some of Israel’s UNRWA claims, report says

Intelligence report says some accusations aid workers participated in Hamas attacks credible but could not be independently verified

A US intelligence assessment of Israel’s claims that UN aid agency staff members participated in the Hamas attack on 7 October said some of the accusations were credible but that the claims of wider links to militant groups could not be independently verified.

The assault precipitated a full-scale invasion by Israel of Gaza that has killed upwards of 30,000 Palestinians. Earlier this year, Israel accused 12 employees of the United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency (UNRWA) of participating in the 7 October attacks alongside Hamas. It also said 10% of all UNRWA workers were affiliated with Hamas.

Germany’s Bundestag votes against Taurus missiles to Ukraine

Lawmakers have rejected an opposition motion to deliver cruise missiles to Ukraine, but backed another motion to send Kyiv “necessary long-range weapons systems.”

Bundestag votes for delivering ‘long-range weapons’ to Ukraine

The German parliament has voted in favor of a motion put forward by the country’s ruling coalition, which called for providing “additional, necessary long-range weapons systems and ammunition” to Ukraine.

The measure, however, did not explicitly mention the delivery of the Taurus cruise missile system to Kyiv.

While 382 lawmakers voted for the motion, 284 rejected it and 2 abstained.

There are differences in views among the parties of the ruling coalition as to whether the wording also allows for the delivery of Taurus missiles.

France under pressure to suspend military sales to Israel as war in Gaza grinds on

NGOs and leftist members of the opposition have increased the pressure on France’s government to reconsider arms sales to Israel in the wake of the war in Gaza and follow in the footsteps of other European nations that made moves to suspend military exports over concerns about the humanitarian situation on the ground.

It was Ramadan, and another war was raging in Gaza.

In July 2014, 8-year-old Afnan Shuheibar, her 16-year-old brother Oday, and her three cousins Basel, Jihad and Wassim – ages 8 to 11 – went up to the roof of the Shuheibar home in Gaza City to feed the pigeons when they were struck by a missile.

It was fired by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), but what helped guide it to the Shuheibars’ home was a small black position sensor around 2 centimetres long lodged deep inside the missile. On it were three words, with some letters partially erased: “EUROFARAD PARIS FRANCE”.

Daughter of Chinese activist Tang Jitian dies in Japan

By SOTARO HATA/ Correspondent

February 22, 2024 at 18:04 JST

After almost three years in a coma, Tang Zhengqi, the daughter of prominent Chinese human rights activist Tang Jitian, died of pneumonia at her home in Tokyo on Feb. 20 without her father by her side.

Chinese authorities had banned Jitian from leaving the country to visit her.

The death of Zhengqi, 27, was confirmed by Tomoko Ako, professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Tokyo, who had been supporting the family.

According to Ako, Zhengqi had been studying in Tokyo since 2019 with the goal of attending a university in the capital until she suddenly collapsed, unconscious, at home in April 2021.

She was diagnosed with meningitis.

Whale song mystery solved by scientists

By Helen Briggs and Victoria Gill

Science correspondents, BBC News

Scientists have worked out how some of the largest whales in the ocean produce their haunting and complex songs.

Humpbacks and other baleen whales have evolved a specialised “voice box” that enables them to sing underwater.

The discovery, published in the journal Nature, has also revealed why the noise we make in the ocean is so disruptive for these ocean giants.

Whale song is restricted to a narrow frequency that overlaps with the noise produced by ships.

“Sound is absolutely crucial for their survival, because it’s the only way they can find each other to mate in the ocean,” explained Prof Coen Elemans, of the University of Southern Denmark, who led the study.