Friday morning news: February 23, 2024

Navalny's mother » President Biden is set to announce new sanctions against Moscow today over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Nalvany. On Thursday, the president met with Navalny’s wife and daughter in California.

BIDEN: To state the obvious, he was a man of incredible courage, and it’s amazing how his wife and daughter are emulating that.

NAVALNAYA: [Speaking Russian]

Hours earlier, Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya said she was finally able to see her son’s body almost a week after his death at an Arctic penal colony.

NAVALNAYA: [Speaking Russian]

But she said the Russian government will not release his remains to his family. She added that authorities were pressuring her to agree to hold a funeral for her son in secret, and that if she did not agree, “they will do something to the body of my son."

For years, Alexei Navalny had galvanized mass protests against Vladimir Putin and won popularity with a series of investigations into state corruption.

Zelenskyy interview » This weekend will mark 2 years exactly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And in an interview last night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Fox News:

ZELENSKYY: We are asking now to support — this price is less than it will be in the future.

He said if Ukraine falls, it’s only a matter of time before Vladimir Putin looks to expand into NATO territory. And if that happens …

ZELENSKYY: They will pay much more, much more.

A group of House lawmakers is working to drum up support for a bill that would fund military aid to Ukraine and other allies.

Biden border exec order » That bill would also call on President Biden to reinstall the Trump-era remain in Mexico policy for asylum seekers at the border.

And while it’s unclear if the president is open to that, he is now reportedly considering an executive order that would suspend the legal right of anyone who crosses the border to seek asylum.

Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales called the news encouraging, but said he hopes the president will go further …

GONZALES: Deport those people who do not qualify for asylum. You do that by surging immigration judges to the border and giving ICE the resources they need for these repatriation flights. You also raise the credible fear standards. These are things the president can do today, and I hope they do it.

Polls suggest the border crisis is the president’s biggest political liability. A new Monmouth University poll this week shows three out of four Americans disapprove of his handling of the border.

Lunar lander touches down » For the first time in a half century, the U.S. has returned to the moon.

AUDIO: What we can confirm without a doubt is that our equipment is on the surface of the moon and we are transmitting.

That was the moment when engineers received the official call last night after a few tense minutes of waiting.

A private robot spacecraft built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines blasted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center last week en route to the south pole of the moon.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson described the voyage as …

NELSON: A new adventure in science, innovation, and American leadership in space.

It’s the first time ever that a private company has landed on the moon.

The Odysseus lunar lander is packing a half-dozen NASA experiments. But the exact state of the lander was not immediately clear, and it remains to be seen whether Odysseus can complete all of its objectives.

Houthis update » Iran-backed Houthi rebels continue to ramp up attacks on commercial ships in waters around Yemen.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh …

SINGH: We have certainly seen in the past 48 - 72 hours an increase in attacks from the Houthis, more consistency.

The Houthis have claimed responsibility for multiple new missile strikes against ships in a critical commercial shipping lane through the Gulf of Aden.

One strike set a British-owned ship on fire again demonstrating their ability to launch assaults despite facing U.S.-led airstrikes targeting their forces.

West Bank shooting » Top Israeli officials are calling for more roadblocks around Palestinian communities in the West Bank after gunmen opened fire near a highway checkpoint Thursday. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Three Palestinian gunmen killed one Israeli man and injured at least five others. Israeli security forces killed two of the gunmen and apprehended the third.

BEN-GVIR: [Speaking Hebrew]

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says the right to life for Jewish residents is more important than the freedom of movement for Palestinians. He has pushed for officials to supply Israelis in the territory with more guns.

The Hamas terrorist group reportedly issued a statement praising the shooting as a response to Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Cell service disruption » AT&T says a software update outage caused its massive outage of cellular service on Thursday.

Millions of AT&T mobile customers nationwide were unable to make phone calls, text or access the Internet for much of the day.

Even some 911 call centers were affected by the outage.

That initially sent federal authorities scrambling to determine whether a cyber attack had knocked the network offline.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, your listener feedback.

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