Monday 16th February 2026. Navalny poisoning. Germany defence conference. Mexico Cuba aid. Norway record golds. Ethiopia RSF. Brazil beef...

Good morning. This is Send 7 World News in 7 Minutes. I'm Stephen Devyn Chenzee. Today is Monday the 16th of February, 2026. Starting in Europe today, Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was killed by the Russian state using a poison found in frogs from South America, according to a joint statement from the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The joint statement says that analyses of samples from Alexei Navalny show the presence of Epibattidine, which is only found in the poison dart frog from South America. And the statement repeated the claims that Russia also poisoned Navalny in 2020 using Novi Chok and killed the British civilian dawn Sturgis in the UK in 2018 when they were attempting to kill the former spy Sergei Skrypil. The statement says, quote, "Only the Russian state had the combined means motive and disregard for international law to carry out the attacks." In Germany, the Munich Security Conference was held this weekend. Last year, United States Vice President J.D. Vance spoke about how problems within Europe's governments and institutions were a bigger threat than Russia and China. However, this weekend, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to speak more softly about the US's traditional allies in Europe, saying that the US and Europe belong together. "The United States and Europe, we belong together. So in a time of headlines, heralding the end of the transatlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish." Denmark's Prime Minister, Meta Frederikson, said that she did not think that US President Donald Trump's desire to own Greenland was over, and Greenland Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen said that the first time that Greenland's people felt threatened was because of the US. "Everybody ask us to think it's over. No, we don't think it's over." "In terms of the threats in our region and the threats from Russia and China, the paradox is that the Greenland people have never felt threatened. And the first time they felt unsafe for real, one was an ally talked about acquiring them." During his speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a slave to war and said that Russia had damaged every power plant in Ukraine. United Kingdom Prime Minister Sergei Estarma said that the UK needed a closer defense relationship with Europe. Also in Munich, a protest against the Iranian government was attended by over 250,000 people. There were also protests in support of Iranian protesters in many other countries with significant populations of Iranians. In Italy, the Norwegian Skiha Johannes-Hosflut Klaibor has become the Winter Olympian who has won the most gold medals ever after winning four golds over the last week, making a total of 11 gold medals during his career. Africa, in Ethiopia, there is a secret camp where thousands of fighters for the Sudanese paramilitary group, the rapid support forces, are being trained according to an investigation by Reuters journalists. Reuters report says that the camp has been financed by the United Arab Emirates, who also provided military trainers and logistics. The United Arab Emirates has often denied supporting the RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese Army in Sudan's Civil War since 2023. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have said that the UAE is supporting the RSF. Since publishing this investigation a few days ago, Reuters has said that three of its journalists based in Ethiopia have had their journalistic accreditation revoked, and Reuters was denied access to cover the 39th African Union Summit, which took place this weekend. At the African Union Summit in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, said that Italy and African partner countries would introduce a debt suspension mechanism, which would allow countries that are hit by extreme climate events to have debt payments temporarily suspended. We've introduced specific debt suspension closes into our bilateral loans, allowing African nations affected by extreme weather events to free up fiscal space to help their population and rebuild the central infrastructures. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterrez said that Africa should have permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council. The absence of permanent African seats in the Security Council is indefensible. This is 2026, not 1946. America's two Mexican ships carrying humanitarian aid have arrived in Cuba. The aid included powdered milk, meat, fish, beans, rice, cooking oil and hygiene products. Mexico has said Cuba has an extreme shortage of fuel since the start of the year, as the United States has stopped Venezuelan oil from reaching Cuba. Brazil has overtaken the US to become the top producer of beef in the world, according to government data, with experts saying that the rise is largely being driven by exports to China. Asia and Oceania, in Palestine, officials in Gaza have said that 11 people were killed by Israeli air strikes and gunfire yesterday. Israel said that it was responding to Hamas breaking the ceasefire and said that they had targeted a senior member of the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In Australia, a man has been arrested and accused of stealing Egyptian artifacts from a museum near the city of Brisbane, a 2600-year-old wooden cat, a 3300-year-old necklace, and the mask of a mummy were among items found in a camper van after being stolen from the museum on Friday. And in China's Yanti River, the amount of fish has more than doubled since a fishing ban was put into place five years ago, researchers have said. Scientists say that in 2021, when the ban came into effect, the fish population had fallen by 85%. However, it has quickly rebounded after the ban. They also say that some endangered species have greatly benefited. A big thank you to Ugo in Italy and Ruben in the United States for becoming our newest supporters. Our incredible supporters keep this podcast running and they have access to our daily transcripts and vocabulary lists and our weekly worksheets and world news quizzes. You can become a supporter at send7.org. Tomorrow you will be with Nile Moore. Have a great day.