In a development that feels like a deleted scene from 2020, the Russian government is being characteristically opaque about a suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague at a Siberian research facility, and the rest of the world is responding with the weary anxiety of someone who's seen this movie before.
The U.S. has sent a formal diplomatic complaint - a demarche, for those keeping score - demanding more information about the death of a 28-year-old female lab worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia. She died last week after being hospitalized with a severe case of pneumonia, and Russian officials have declined to confirm the origin of her illness. About 200 people in Siberia are under medical observation, and unconfirmed reports suggest a possible second case. Nothing says "everything's under control" quite like refusing to explain what's happening.
"We are also in official communication with other countries around the world to share information," a State Department spokesperson said, presumably through gritted teeth.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X Tuesday that Russian health officials reported no cases of plague registered in the Irkutsk oblast. They claimed an epidemiological investigation was conducted, preventative and control measures implemented, and identified contacts placed under medical observation and tested. "They reported that no high-threat pathogens had been detected among the contacts and that medical observation of all identified contacts had been completed," Tedros said. The international community, still nursing its collective COVID-19 PTSD, has responded with the enthusiasm of someone being told their flight is only delayed "a little."
President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Russia said they "have it under control," but added that its information-sharing leaves more to be desired. "Russia is sharing a little bit with our people. I want them to share a lot with our people," he said, proving that even broken clocks occasionally demand transparency. Trump said Tuesday he planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation "very soon."
Secrecy is, of course, standard Kremlin practice, particularly as it has cracked down on free speech and other civil liberties under Putin. Any outbreak appears to have been an accident - reports indicate the worker broke a test tube containing live bacteria - but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) raised concerns that Russia might be conducting biological weapons research involving the plague. "We do know from defectors in the 1970s and '80s that they were weaponizing the plague," Paul told Fox News's Will Cain. "So, this is concerning." The bar for "concerning" has apparently been lowered to "Russia might be doing exactly what it has historically done."
The European Union is also on alert. European Commission spokesperson Eva Hrncirova told reporters the EU has "channels" for getting information. "We obviously would like to recall that timely and transparent reporting and access to reliable epidemiological and laboratory finding is essential," she said, using the diplomatic equivalent of "please stop lying to us." The European Commission's Health Security Committee met in Brussels on Wednesday morning - a meeting already scheduled, but with Russia added to the agenda, because nothing spices up a pre-existing calendar invite like a potential plague outbreak.
Tedros said WHO has requested further information to clarify the cause of the pneumonia, the pathogen that prompted the measures, and reports of a possible second case. "Timely, complete and transparent information sharing under the International Health Regulations is essential to clarify conflicting reports and enable an accurate assessment of potential public health risks," he said, which is international-organization-speak for "we're not mad, we're just disappointed - and also we have no idea what's happening."
Meanwhile, Trump continued his back-and-forth with Canada on Wednesday, saying in an Oval Office event that "we don't need Canada for anything." Rep. Pete Steuber (R-Minn.), whose district borders Canada, offered a slightly different take. "Canada is our best friend, a great ally, and the northern part of my district borders Canada," Steuber said. "I've worked with members of parliament, talked about a lot of things that we have in common, and we're talking about the USMCA, which is the best trade agreement with our three countries. I think we're going to have a review of the USMCA and sharpen our pencils. I'm confident that our best friend and ally, Canada, will come to a resolution that works for both countries." Minnesota, for example, receives a significant amount of natural gas from its northern neighbor, making the standoff an interesting conundrum for Republicans in northern border states whose economies have tight ties to Canada.
In other news, lawyers for CNN, MS NOW and Politico appeared in court Thursday for a hearing on Trump's efforts to revoke their credentialed press access to the White House. The three outlets won back temporary access after Trump moved in late September to bar them, claiming their reporting endangered U.S. national security. However, the White House has continued to bar CNN and Politico from carrying out press pool duties on Air Force One. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, is likely to extend his temporary injunction, as he previously ruled the White House must follow decades of precedent requiring news outlets get notice and a chance to respond before their press access is revoked. The administration's lawyers argued in a court filing late Friday that the outlets "have failed to maintain basic minimum 'standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex, including' by 'publishing sensitive or classified information.'" The defendants responded Monday, saying the White House offered no new evidence. "At every turn since, Defendants have sought to justify the President's 'ban on the free press' with a series of shifting rationales, lurching from unarticulated standards of professionalism to nebulous and pretextual concerns about protecting national security," they wrote. Once Kelly issues his final decision, the administration can take the case to the court of appeals.
A Tennessee judge ordered the state to preserve all evidence related to Christa Pike's botched execution last week. After a court appearance Wednesday, one of her lawyers, Luke Ihnen, said the legal team has not yet asked the state to turn over evidence but wants it preserved "so that her lawyers, experts, and the public can learn what really happened Wednesday night." "Today's hearing was just a first step of many to preserve and enforce Christa's constitutional rights after this unprecedented botched execution," Ihnen said at a news conference. Pike, 50, survived two lethal injections last week after she was scheduled to become the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years. She was unconscious and on a ventilator for six days and woke up Tuesday and was speaking, according to her lawyers. They said Pike has pneumonia and no function in her arms. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) has halted executions in the state after ordering a "comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred."
The Democratic National Committee sued the Trump administration Wednesday over its taxpayer-funded ads, arguing they misuse congressional appropriations. "The Trump Administration is using taxpayer dollars to air political advertisements, a blatant violation of the statutory ban on the use of appropriations for 'publicity or propaganda purposes.' President Trump personally directed this illegal activity," the DNC said in its complaint. Trump has faced backlash from both sides of the aisle over the ads, which denounce socialism and communism and tout his administration's achievements. He said Monday he would pay for them through his own funds and from his super PAC instead of government money. However, White House officials have clarified he does not intend to reimburse the government for those already aired. The DNC suit asks a judge to enjoin the government-funded ads, blocking them from airing.
Federal law enforcement thwarted a terror attack by an 18-year-old Minnesota man who allegedly plotted to "commit a mass casualty attack on behalf of ISIS at the Mall of America," Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday. The FBI had been investigating Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud for nearly two years. After months of exchanging text messages with a confidential informant for the FBI, Mohamud paid $600 for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition and was arrested on the spot, the FBI said. The undercover FBI official was posing as a member of ISIS, according to court documents. In the text messages, Mohamud repeatedly told the informant he intended to carry out an attack on non-Muslims at the mall on Oct. 24. "This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched," U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said, praising the FBI agents, who "were able to detect a threat, and disrupt it, before the defendant carried out his intention to kill, in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people."
The Hill's Ellen Mitchell reports on rising concerns about Iran's capabilities to attack far from its borders, following the security incident outside the U.S.-operated air base in the U.K. The threat prompted the U.S. to move its 12 Air Force B-1 bombers stationed at RAF Fairford to home stations this month.
The FBI's video labeling Democrats, including Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, as part of the "defund the police crowd" is raising complaints that the bureau has violated the Hatch Act. The video doesn't mention the election directly and credits FBI Director Kash Patel with arresting violent criminals and seizing fentanyl. But experts said the video clearly violates federal laws that prohibit federal employees from making overtly political statements in a government capacity, The Hill's Rebecca Beitsch reports. "Although the video does not direct viewers to vote for or against a candidate, its message that the candidates' policies 'failed' and 'Americans were left exposed' is advocacy against their election that violates the Hatch Act," Donald Sherman, president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), wrote on X.