WORLD BRIEFING: February 15, 2024

The head of the House Intelligence Committee disclosed Wednesday that members of Congress had access to information about an unspecified "serious national security threat," issuing a vague warning that prompted other lawmakers to downplay the urgency of the situation and urge the public to remain calm. The revelation from Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican and the chairman of the House Intelligence panel, came in a cryptic statement issued by the committee, in which he encouraged President Biden to declassify all information relating to the threat. It did not contain any details, except to announce that the committee "has made available to all members of Congress information concerning a serious national security threat….I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat," Turner said. One U.S. official told CBS News that the intelligence in question relates to Russian capabilities in space. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the information publicly, pointed to a series of Russian space launches known as Cosmos, many of which carry classified Ministry of Defense payloads. 

A big Russian amphibious ship, the Caesar Kunikov, has been sunk off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Ukraine's armed forces. Powerful explosions were heard early on Wednesday, according to local social media, which suggested the landing ship was hit south of the town of Yalta. Ukraine's intelligence directorate released video of what it said were Magura V5 sea drones striking the ship. There was no confirmation from Russia's navy that the Caesar Kunikov had been sunk in the Black Sea, merely that six Ukrainian drones had been destroyed. The Kremlin has also refused to comment on the incident. Video appearing to show the aftermath of the Ukrainian attack was uploaded only recently, BBC Verify confirmed. "The Caesar Kunikov suffered critical holes in its port side and began to sink," Ukraine's main intelligence directorate said on the Telegram messaging site, adding that it had been destroyed off the Crimean coastal town of Alupka in Ukrainian territorial waters by a unit called Group 13 - BBC

‪There was a massive overnight Russian rocket attack on Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday. In Lviv, 19 apartment buildings were damaged as well as 2 schools & 1 kindergarten and 1 business center, says Mayor Andriy Sadovyi. Six injured in Zaporizhzhia, one seriously. It’s believed some of the rockets were manufactured by North Korea.

International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas suffered a setback on Wednesday as Israel reportedly recalled its negotiating team and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of hobbling the high-stakes negotiations by sticking to “delusional” demands. Netanyahu’s remarks came hours after local media reported that the Israeli leader had ordered an Israeli delegation not to continue talks in Cairo, raising concerns over the fate of the negotiations and sparking criticism from the families of the roughly 130 remaining captives, about a fourth of whom are said to be dead. The relatives of the hostages said Netanyahu’s decision amounted to a “death sentence” for their loved ones - AP

Two years into the full-scale invasion, families of the roughly 6,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war are facing a near-total information blackout about the status of their loved ones, which Ukrainian officials say is part of an effort to sow discord in Ukrainian society. Human-rights workers say they’re being denied access to POW camps where Ukrainians are held. When prisoners are returned to Ukraine, they arrive home gaunt, complaining of starvation and torture in Russian custody. Under the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war must be treated humanely and with respect. According to United Nations human-rights monitors, Ukrainian prisoners’ lack of contact with the outside world is unusual, even in wartime.

The Lviv region in Ukraine claims to be the first to topple all its Soviet monuments in a nationwide ouster of symbols glorifying Kremlin rule. However, in cities such as Odesa these symbols remain commonplace

This review is reprinted with the author’s permission from his World Briefing blog. See the original here.