Our daily cruise around the world

🇷🇺 The family of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is pressuring Moscow over his death. Navalny’s mother released a video yesterday saying Russian officials had shown her son’s body in a morgue, though they wouldn’t release it to her. She also said authorities demanded Navalny be buried in secret – but she refused. At roughly the same time the video was released, Navalny’s wife and daughter met with President Biden in San Francisco, during which they discussed US sanctions against Russia over Navalny’s death (set to be announced today).

🇭🇳 Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH) went on trial in the US for drug trafficking. The former president was once seen by the US as an ally in fighting the drug trade – but in 2022, JOH was arrested on drug trafficking charges and extradited to the US shortly after leaving office. Prosecutors say JOH accepted ~$2.6 million from El Chapo and other cartel bosses over two decades, in exchange for safe passage of at least 500 tons of cocaine into America through Honduras. The Manhattan trial of JOH, who denies all charges, is expected to last 2-3 weeks.

🇨🇳 Chinese government hacking strategies were revealed in a leaked cache of documents. The files revealed various hacking tools used by Chinese state agents to uncover the identities of social media users outside China, break into email accounts, and hide the online activity of overseas government agents. A couple examples: devices disguised as power strips and batteries that can compromise Wi-Fi networks. Separately, panda diplomacy is back – China announced plans to send two giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo this year, reversing a recent trend of Beijing reclaiming nearly all pandas loaned to US zoos as relations soured between the two nations.