Biden ‘contemplating’ steps to punish Moscow as world leaders blame ‘monster’ Putin for Navalny’s death
US President Joe Biden has said he is “contemplating” steps to punish Moscow after he blamed Vladimir Putin and his “thugs” for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mr Biden said he was “outraged” but “not surprised” by the death of the prominent Putin critic as he joined other world leaders in saying the Kremlin should be held accountable.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described Mr Navalny as the “fiercest advocate for Russian democracy”, while Canadian leader Justin Trudeau said his passing is a reminder of “exactly what a monster Putin is”.
Mr Navalny had been serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges in Russia’s Polar Wolf penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.
Russian prison authorities said he died after feeling unwell following a walk on Friday.
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Mourners arrested after Navalny’s death
‘Putin is responsible’
Speaking at the White House after the reports emerged, Mr Biden paid tribute to a man he said “bravely” stood up to the Russian president’s “corruption” and “violence”.
Mr Biden continued: “Russian authorities are going to tell their own story.
“But make no mistake. Make no mistake. Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”
He added: “We don’t know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death of Nalvany was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”
Joe Biden speaks after it was reported Alexei Navalny had died. Pic: Reuters
The White House is still seeking more information about Mr Navalny’s death, but the development has put a further chill into already frosty relations between Washington DC and Moscow.
Mr Biden had warned Mr Putin after they met in Geneva in June 2021 that Mr Navalny’s death would lead to devastating consequences for the Kremlin.
Asked what consequences Mr Putin will face, Mr Biden said at the White House on Friday: “That was three years ago, in the meantime they have faced a hell of a lot of consequences.”
He referenced sanctions Moscow has faced since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and the hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who have been killed in the conflict.
Read more:
How Navalny still posed a threat to Putin from prison
The extraordinary life of Navalny
Alexei Navalny makes a heart gesture to his wife during a court hearing in Moscow in 2021. Pic: AP
Mr Biden said he is “contemplating what else could be done”, but added that when he issued the warning in 2021 there were no sanctions already in place.
The US president also urged Republican hardliners in Congress to support additional funding to pay for more weaponry for Ukraine’s military nearly two years after the country was invaded by Russian forces.
He said: “History’s watching the House of Representatives. The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.”
The Russian president himself has not commented on Mr Navalny’s death, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin had been made aware of the development.
Mr Peskov, who said he could not reveal any details as to how Mr Navalny died, added that the reaction of Western leaders has been “unacceptable” and “absolutely rabid”.
Mr Putin chairs a meeting in Chelyabinsk on the day Mr Navalny’s death was reported. Pic: Reuters
Sunak, Macron and Scholz respond to ‘huge tragedy’
Among those world leaders was Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said the jailed dissident’s death was “terrible news”.
“My thoughts are with his wife and the people of Russia, for whom this is a huge tragedy,” Mr Sunak said.
“As the fiercest advocate for Russian democracy, Alexei Navalny demonstrated incredible courage throughout his life,” he added.
Lord Cameron, the UK’s foreign secretary, said that Mr Navanly had “fought bravely against corruption” throughout his life.
He continued: “Putin’s Russia fabricated charges against him, poisoned him, sent him to an Arctic penal colony and now he has tragically died.
“Putin should be accountable for what has happened – no one should doubt the dreadful nature of his regime.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was “obvious” Mr Putin was responsible, adding that the Russian leader doesn’t care who dies so long as his position is secure.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed “anger and indignation” over Mr Navalny’s death, adding that Russia is a place where “free spirits are put in the gulag and sentenced to death”.
He said the treatment of Mr Navalny shows the “weakness of the Kremlin and their fear of all opponents”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Mr Navalny’s death makes clear “what kind of regime this is” and that he had “probably now paid for (his) courage with his life”.
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The life and death of Alexei Navalny
EU says it will ‘spare no efforts’ to hold Kremlin to account
The European Union demanded Moscow immediately release all political prisoners after the death of Mr Navalny.
The Russian opposition leader was “slowly murdered” by Mr Putin, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and vice president Josep Borrell said in a joint statement.
“We will spare no efforts to hold the Russian political leadership and authorities to account,” they added.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the country’s CBC Radio that Mr Navalny was a “strong fighter for democracy, for freedoms for the Russian people”.
He added: “It really shows the extent to which Putin… will crack down on anyone who is fighting for freedom for the Russian people… It is a tragedy and it’s something that has the entire world being reminded of exactly what a monster Putin is.”
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Mr Navalny’s wife Yulia was at the Munich Security Conference in Germany when reports of her husband’s death emerged.
She said: “I don’t know whether to believe or not this terrible news that we only receive from Russian government sources… But if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around him to know that they will be held accountable for everything they did to our country, to my family. And this day will come very soon.”
Yulia Navalnaya, wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, at the Munich Security Conference. Pic: Reuters
Flowers were laid in Moscow for Alexei Navalny, where some protesters were arrested. Pic: AP
Meanwhile, flowers have been laid at vigils for Mr Navalny in Russia and across Europe.
People gathered at the Wall of Sorrow, in Moscow, a memorial to victims of political repression under Joseph Stalin, while others laid flowers at a memorial for victims of political repression in St Petersburg.
Protesters have also gathered outside the Russian Embassy in central London.
World
Videos show Iranian women being snatched from the streets by other women under the cover of war with Israel
In Tehran’s Revolution Square, two women clad in long black burqas approach another woman, dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and a hijab, or head scarf.
She tries to walk away, but one of the women in burqas grabs her by her sleeve and pulls her back, yanking her onto the ground. She is surrounded, wrapped in a blanket and bundled into a white van.
The scene is from one of many videos that have been circulating widely on social media in recent weeks, showing incidents of the latest crackdown by Iran’s so-called morality police.
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Source: Iran International
But this time, another enforcement group is more visibly working alongside the regime – and they are also women.
Sky News has analysed dozens of videos showing incidents of authorities’ renewed campaign targeting women for not properly wearing their hijab in accordance with the regime’s strict sharia law.
“Before this new wave of attacks started, I was planning to get rid of some of my longer clothes, because I don’t feel comfortable in them,” said Leila, an Iranian woman in her 20s living in Tehran. She spoke to Sky News on condition of anonymity.
“Now, I find myself wearing those even though I hate them, because I think I wouldn’t feel safe going out of my house wearing something that I could potentially lose my life over, or that I could get arrested for.”
‘Ambassadors of Kindness’
What’s notable about this recent spate of arrests is the increased presence of women in burqas, considered by Iranian leaders as the most modest form of dress, working with authorities.
They are part of a new enforcement group, dubbed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as “Ambassadors of Kindness”, who are helping enforce harsh regulations and silence dissent, one expert said.
Some young Iranians are calling them “bats”.
Leila was recently in the street when she spotted the police and stopped to cover her hair. She was then approached by a woman wearing a full hijab who told her she should “be afraid of God, not the police”.
“The truth is that when someone is wearing full hijab I am afraid that she might be with the police,” she said.
It’s not the first time the IRGC has employed women to help them. But Hadi Ghaemi, director of New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), says they’ve increased in number, as have the physical presence of morality police, white vans and police cars, which are used in the arrests of women on the street.
“They’re not armed, but they’re meant to go intimidate women by politely and kindly warning them. Then if the woman doesn’t listen, they call over security forces,” said Mr Ghaemi.
“What’s really scary is the way [authorities] are recommending citizens turn on citizens.”
War at home
As Iran launched its first ever attack on Israel, it intensified this less-noticed war at home.
Three days before it flew missiles into Israel, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, said that women in the Islamic Republic must obey the dress code, regardless of their beliefs.
Then on Saturday 13 April, Tehran’s police chief Abbas Ali Mohammadian said people who ignored prior warnings faced legal action.
Read the latest on the Israel-Hamas war here
Not long after his statement was released, videos showing white police vans on the streets of cities across Iran went viral.
Iranian authorities say their Nour (Persian for ‘light’) campaign targets businesses and individuals who defy hijab law and responds to demands from devout citizens who are angry about the growing number of unveiled women in public.
“The level of brutality is very, very high right now,” said Masih Alinejad, an Iranian American journalist and activist.
“This time they are more emboldened. You can see it on their faces and see it from the huge number of them.”
In one video analysed by Sky News, at least six officers wearing yellow vests appear to be arresting one woman outside a train station in Tehran. She resists but fails to break free, and is ushered into a white van.
In another video posted the same day authorities announced their campaign, footage shows a cluster of white police cars, vans, and men in uniform in Tehran’s Valiasr Square.
Sky News was able to verify the precise location of the videos and the date each clip first appeared online.
Women and girls arrested
Morality police vans had largely vanished from the streets of Iran since last year, when widespread protests erupted across the country in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman who died while being detained for improperly wearing her hijab.
Read more: Who was Mahsa Amini?
Mahsa Amini. Pic: Center for Human Rights in Iran
Police now appear to be back out in force, as a draconian ‘hijab and chastity’ bill is also currently making its way through the country’s parliament. One group of students reported new facial recognition software installed at a university dormitory.
But while street protests have died down, resistance to the regime’s hardline policies has not.
Iranian authorities released footage purporting to show members of the public being rude to, and lashing out at, morality police.
![A video from Iranian authorities, with the subtitle: 'The beating of the oppressed and powerful agents of Faraja [law enforcement] by the female beasts of the Women, Life, Freedom movement'](https://e3.365dm.com/24/04/768x432/skynews-iran-women_6537677.jpg?20240429173946)
A video from Iranian authorities, with the subtitle: ‘The beating of the oppressed and powerful agents of Faraja [law enforcement] by the female beasts of the Women, Life, Freedom movement.’
But this has backfired, said Ms Alinejad: “Now that video is going viral because people are so proud of the young women.”
Mina, another Iranian woman, had her car confiscated for three weeks last year because of her hijab. But she remains defiant.
Read more: Death sentence imposed on Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi
“We fight not only to have the right to choose coverage, but to have the right to choose a lifestyle,” she said.
Another video showed the arrest of a woman for allegedly not wearing her hijab in Haft Tir metro station in Tehran.
But a crowd surrounded her, chanting “free her” and calling the police “dishonoured.” Not long after the noise began, the police released the woman.
The ‘war against women’
As these videos went viral, so did talk about Iran’s “war on women”. Since 12 April there has been a steady rise in the number of times the Farsi for ‘mandatory hijab’ (حجاب اجباری) was used across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
On 11 April the phrase was used 585 times – but by 22 April it was mentioned in almost 10,000 posts, according to social listening platform Talkwalker.
The hashtag #IRGCTerrorists was also repeatedly used to accompany posts about discrimination against women. This peaked on 16 April, when more than 234,000 posts used this hashtag.
Farsi for ‘War against women’ (جنگ_علیه_زنان) then surged the following day and was used almost 30,000 times. Some 42% of these posts came from Iran itself.
What is next for the women of Iran?
“The anger among Iranians is much stronger and heavier than before,” Mina said.
“I don’t think they are going to give up that fight. The flame of revolution is still burning in Iran.”
Some women, she said, are willing to risk imprisonment: “They would rather get arrested but not live in humiliation and not live under these barbaric officers walking in the streets.”
Additional reporting by John Sparks, International correspondent, Sam Doak, OSINT producer
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling, we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Four police officers have been shot and killed, and another four wounded, as they served an arrest warrant in North Carolina.
The suspect was also killed during the shooting at a home in Charlotte, according to officials.
The man’s name was not released, but police said he was wanted for illegally possessing a weapon.
According to police, a second person fired shots from inside the house following the suspect’s death.
Police who rushed to the property to rescue the first wave of officers were wounded as the second person began firing on them, according to officials.
A police officer walks in the neighbourhood where a shooting took place in Charlotte. Pic: AP
A woman and a 17-year-old boy were found inside the property and arrested following the three-hour stand-off.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said at a press conference following the shooting: “Today is an absolute tragic day for the city of Charlotte and for the profession of law enforcement.
“Today we lost some heroes who were out simply trying to keep our community safe.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings speaks at a press conference following the shooting. Pic: AP Photo/Nell Redmond
The shooting took place on Tuesday as a US Marshals-led task force attended the property to carry out an arrest warrant for a felon wanted for possessing a firearm.
As officers approached the home, the suspect opened fire with a high-powered rifle. Officers returned fire, and the suspect was killed in the front garden of the property.
A second person then opened fire, injuring four Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers as they attempted to come to the aid of their police colleagues.
Another member of the task force was also shot and injured.
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Following a tense stand-off, a SWAT team cleared the house and arrested two people inside.
Mr Jennings said police believed at least one of those arrested had fired on the officers.
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The US Marshals Service confirmed one of its agents was killed. It is the first fatal shooting of a US Marshal in the line of duty since November 2018.
Three officers from the state Department of Adult Correction who were working with the task-force were also killed, according to North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting and spoke with Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles to express his condolences and support for the community.
World
Winner of $1.3bn Powerball jackpot revealed as cancer sufferer who plans to use money to ‘find a good doctor’
One of the winners of a $1.3bn (£1bn) Powerball jackpot has had cancer for eight years and wants to use the money to “find a good doctor”.
Father-of-two Cheng “Charlie” Saephan, from Portland, Oregon, was announced as the winner of the massive jackpot – the fourth largest in the lottery’s history – on Monday.
“I will be able to provide for my family and my health,” the 46-year-old said at a press conference.
“How am I going to have time to spend all of this money? How long will I live?”
Pic: AP
Mr Saephan, 46, entered the lottery with friend Laiza Chao, 55, who contributed $100 (£80) for them to buy a batch of shared tickets.
After they bought the tickets, Ms Chao sent a photo of the tickets to Mr Saephan and jokingly said: “We’re billionaires.”
The next day, they won.
Mr Saephan broke the news to Ms Chao as she travelled to work, telling her over the phone: “You don’t have to go anymore.”
In the weeks leading up to the draw, Mr Saephan said he wrote out numbers for the game on a piece of paper and slept with it under his pillow.
Pic: AP
He prayed that he would win, saying: “I need some help – I don’t want to die yet unless I have done something for my family first.”
Mr Saephan and his wife, 37-year-old wife, Duanpen, are taking half the money, and the rest is going to Ms Chao.
They are taking a lump sum payment of $422m (£336m) after taxes.
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Mr Saephan, a machinist for an aerospace company, said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987, before immigrating to the US in 1994.
He wore a sash at the news conference identifying himself as Iu Mien, a southeast Asian ethnic group with roots in southern China.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Many Iu Mein were subsistence farmers and assisted American forces during the Vietnam war.
After the conflict, thousands of Iu Mien families fled to Thailand to avoid retribution and eventually settled in the US, with a sizeable and active community in Portland.
The winning ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, ending a winless Powerball streak that had stretched more than three months.
Pic: AP
The $1.3bn (£1bn) prize is the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history, and the eighth largest among US jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.
The biggest US lottery jackpot won was $2.04bn (£1.69bn) in California in 2022.
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