Alexei Navalny was killed by Russia with dart frog toxin, 5 European countries say
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny attends a rally in support of political prisoners in Prospekt Sakharova Street in Moscow, Russia on September 29, 2019. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a rare lethal toxin found in poison dart frogs from South America, according to a joint statement from the UK, France, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.
The European partners said they are confident in their determination based on analyses of samples from Navalny which confirmed the presence of the lethal toxin, Epibatidine.
“Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him,” the statement read.
Alexei Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said in a social media post she “was certain from the first day that my husband had been poisoned, but now there is proof: Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapon.”
Navalnaya said she is grateful to the countries who have worked on the investigation.
“Vladimir Putin is a murderer. He must be held accountable for all his crimes,” she said.
Russian officials did not immediately comment on the report.
(SEOUL) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung sought to ease international concerns over the country’s nuclear ambitions on Monday, drawing a clear line between pursuing nuclear-powered submarines and any intent to develop nuclear weapons during a foreign press briefing at the presidential office in Seoul.
The briefing marked the one-year anniversary of South Korea’s return to democratic rule after former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law attempt last year.
Lee and U.S. President Donald Trump reached a $350 billion investment and security agreement last month that included U.S. approval for South Korea to build nuclear-powered submarines.
Reflecting on the negotiations, Lee described Trump as “interesting and entertaining” and called the deal a “remarkable outcome” that provides South Korea with greater strategic flexibility.
Asked by ABC News whether he is aware of nuclear proliferation concerns in Washington, Lee said “nuclear nonproliferation is an international principle we must respect,” stressing that the treaty restricts the spread of nuclear weapons but not all nuclear technologies.
Any move toward nuclear armament would be “unrealistic and unwise,” Lee continued, adding that uranium enrichment for power generation and spent fuel reprocessing are “not directly related to nonproliferation.”
Meanwhile, Trump has praised the agreement as a boost for American shipbuilding, saying it would create jobs in the United States. “South Korea will build the nuclear-powered submarines right here, at the Philly Shipyard in the United States. The U.S. shipbuilding industry will soon regain its vigor,” Trump wrote Oct. 30 on X.
But Lee pushed back on that characterization, saying South Korea — which has one of the world’s most efficient shipbuilding industries — intends to build the submarines domestically using homegrown technology.
“We’re not asking for construction or tech transfer. Just approval for fuel supply,” he said.
(LONDON) — The death toll following a massive fire that ripped through several Hong Kong high-rises has climbed to 146 people, the Hong Kong police on Sunday.
Speaking at a news conference, the police said they are not ruling out the possibility that the number of dead from the fire would increase.
With an “optimistic” estimation, the police added that the time for the search and operations is three to four weeks.
The massive fire engulfed the Wang Fuk Court, a residential apartment complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district, on Wednesday afternoon, officials said. Within hours it was upgraded to a No. 5 alarm, city officials said.
Three men associated with the construction firm in charge of the renovation at the housing complex were arrested and were under investigation in connection with the fire, Hong Kong police said during a press conference on Thursday morning.
Officials in Hong Kong announced Friday there would be three days of mourning for the victims.
From Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, national flags will be flown at half-mast and there will be a three-minute moment of silence on Nov. 29 at 8 a.m. Citizens will also have the opportunity to sign condolence books for the victims.
“During this period, government officials will not attend non-essential public activities. All entertainment and celebration activities organized or funded by the government will be cancelled or postponed as appropriate,” officials said.
Kyiv residents shelter at the Dorohozhychi subway station amid a Russian drone-and-missile strike on February 3, 2026 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ihor Kuznietsov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged “maximum pressure” on Russia from the international community after Moscow fired hundreds of drones and missiles into Ukraine overnight into Tuesday morning, in a major attack that Zelenskyy said focused on the country’s critical energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 71 missiles and 450 drones into the country overnight, of which 38 missiles and 412 drones were shot down or suppressed. Twenty-seven missiles and 31 drones impacted across 27 locations, the air force said.
The strike was the largest reported by the Ukrainian air force of the year so far, and the largest overall number of munitions launched in a single night since the night of Dec. 27.
The number of missiles fired on Monday night was also unusually high, and the largest total for a single night since April 24, according to air force data analyzed by ABC News.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a post to Telegram that its forces “carried out a massive strike” on “Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and energy facilities used in their interests, as well as places of storage and assembly of long-range unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that the regions of Sumy, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa and Vinnytsia were attacked, with energy infrastructure and residential buildings among those hit. At least nine people have so far been confirmed injured, the president said.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than resorting to diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said. “This clearly demonstrates what is needed from partners and what can help. Timely delivery of missiles for air defense systems and protection of normal life is our priority. Without pressure on Russia, there will be no end to this war.”
“Right now, Moscow is choosing terror and escalation, and that is why maximum pressure is needed,” Zelenskyy added.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said that thermal power plants powering parts of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro were among the targets of the strike. “The targets were not military. They were exclusively civilian,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, said Russian strikes inflicted “significant” damage on its power plants, in what it said was “the ninth massive attack on the company’s thermal power stations since October 2025.”
Emergency power outages were implemented in Kyiv’s Dnieper and Darnytsia districts, DTEK said. Energy infrastructure was also damaged in Odesa, DTEK added.
Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo reported “a significant number of power outages in Kyiv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia and Odesa regions,” which it attributed to the “massive” overnight attack. “There are also damaged energy facilities in several regions,” Ukrenergo wrote on Telegram.
Moscow’s latest strikes came after the expiry of a brief pause in attacks on energy infrastructure agreed to by both Moscow and Kyiv following a request from U.S. President Donald Trump. Russia said that the pause expired on Sunday.
This winter — the fourth of Russia’s full-scale invasion — has seen Moscow intensively target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, wreaking havoc on the national grid and precipitating rolling and extended blackouts for millions of Ukrainians.
Monday night saw temperatures drop as low as -14 F in some parts of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha suggested on X that Russian President Vladimir Putin “waited for the temperatures to drop and stockpiled drones and missiles to continue his genocidal attacks against the Ukrainian people.”
Zelenskyy later made the same allegation in a post to Telegram. “The Russian army took advantage of the American proposal to pause the strikes for a short period, not to support diplomacy, but simply to stockpile missiles and wait for the coldest days of the year,” he said.
Russia launched its latest major strike despite an upcoming round of trilateral peace talks with U.S. and Ukrainian representatives in the United Arab Emirates, which are due to resume on Wednesday and continue into Thursday.
“Every such strike by Russia confirms that the attitude in Moscow has not changed: they are still counting on war and the destruction of Ukraine, and they do not take diplomacy seriously,” Zelenskyy said. “The work of our negotiating team will be adjusted accordingly.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte visited Kyiv on Tuesday to meet with Zelenskyy and address the Ukrainian parliament. Rutte told Ukrainian representatives that “important progress has been made” in trilateral U.S.-Ukraine-Russia talks.
“But Russia continues to attack, as it did last night,” Rutte added. “This demonstrates their lack of seriousness about peace.”
Monday night’s attack prompted the scrambling of NATO fighter jets in Poland, which borders Ukraine to the country’s west. Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command Operational Command said that no violation of the nation’s airspace was recorded.
German fighter jets and Dutch anti-air defense systems were among the assets put on alert, the command said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed at least 10 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed in a post to Telegram that it struck several targets on Russian-held territory overnight into Tuesday.
Ukraine’s targets included a drone training and production site in occupied Zaporizhzhia, a concentration of Russian forces in the western Russian border region of Belgorod and an electronic warfare site in occupied Donetsk, the General Staff said.
