“I can’t do my job without News Items.” — Jim Cramer, CNBC.
1. The Pentagon instructed U.S. Central Command several days ago to conclude preparations for resuming major combat operations in Iran, U.S. officials said. The directive didn’t include a specific date for launching strikes, and President Trump hasn’t made any final decisions. But U.S. and Israeli sources say it could happen before the U.S. midterm elections and possibly the Israeli elections a week earlier. If major combat operations resume, they’re expected to include massive bombing of Iranian energy, infrastructure and nuclear targets, sources say. (Source: axios.com)
2. Attacks on tankers sailing through the Strait of Hormuz hit their highest last week of any week since the Iran war began, according to maritime security sources tracking incidents, amid a bigger export push by Gulf producers. In the week of September 28-October 5, there had been at least 12 attacks on oil, liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas tankers around the Strait of Hormuz, according to data from three maritime security sources who analyzed incidents based on information received from the area. That was the highest number of attacks in a single week since the US war with Iran began on February 28, the sources said. (Source: reuters.com)
3. Russian authorities yesterday said a researcher at a Siberian anti-plague institute who died from a mysterious pneumonia had been vaccinated against the pathogens she worked with and that no “emergency situations” had occurred at the lab. Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian health regulator, issued the statement after the United States urged Moscow to be more forthcoming about the possible public health incident and the World Health Organization asked for more information to make an accurate assessment of any threat. The paucity of details in Russian official statements and the absence of international health officials on the scene have led to questions about the Russian government’s insistence that it has the situation under control. (Source: nytimes.com)
4. The New York Times:
Lab accidents can and do happen, even when researchers are following safety protocols. But the lack of transparency surrounding the death and the number of people potentially exposed is unusual, other experts said.
“Something is not adding up about this situation,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Brown University.
After an unusual infection like this, health officials often provide the genome sequence of the virus or bacterium involved. This helps researchers pinpoint exactly which pathogen is to blame and how to fight it.
Public health experts suspect that Russian officials have already sequenced the pathogen involved in Ms. Shipilova’s death, and they wonder why that information has not been made public.
“Without that, the risk is uncertain, and I think we should be putting pressure on Russia to share the genome sequence,” said Dr. Raj Panjabi, a physician and former Biden White House biosecurity official.
If officials identify the cause of infection, they will be better able to answer other crucial questions, including how the exposure happened. (Sources: nytimes.com, vivo.brown.edu, rajpanjabi.com/about)
5. Kevin Esvelt asks: What is the best benign explanation for the tragic death of the Irkutsk plague researcher of a 'pneumonia of unknown etiology' and Russian containment measures? His answer is worth reading in full. (Sources: x.com, sculptingevolution.org)
