Inside Russia’s ‘plague zone’: Putin’s five lockdown areas amid ‘pneumonic plague outbreak’ as countries tighten border controls
Russia is believed to have imposed a lockdown on hospitals and medical centres in a 30-square-mile area following a feared plague outbreak.
Panic broke out when a female laboratory technician died and hundreds of people she came into contact with were placed in quarantine.
Darya Shipilova, 28, was said to be working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia when she was exposed to pneumonic plague.
Ms Shipilova told medical staff she had accidentally broken a test tube holding live bacteria, according to the news outlet Lyudi Baikala.
Other countries have tightened border health controls despite Russia’s insistence that the plague researcher died from ‘unidentified pneumonia‘, rather than the suspected ‘Black Death’ bacterium.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that Washington was monitoring reports of a plague infection, but that it was not a ’cause for alarm’.
‘There’s very limited travel between the US and Russia, obviously, but like anything else, something like that gets out, it could quickly spread,’ Mr Rubio told reporters before taking off on a visit to Iceland.
‘So we’re watching and monitoring it closely. I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it. And we’re doing that.’
Vladimir Putin‘s regime is seeking to downplay Ms Shipilova’s death on October 1, yet widespread suspicion of a state cover-up is rapidly spreading.
It was revealed today that more than 60 colleagues of the young scientist will remain locked inside her Siberian research institute for days, sleeping on floors and chairs despite none testing positive for the plague.
Up to five hospitals in the Irkutsk area are in ‘epidemic’ mode, according to reports, with hundreds of staff and patients barred from leaving.
City Clinical Hospitals No1, No3, and No10 and the Ivano-Matreninskaya Children’s Hospital have been closed for a three-week quarantine, according to Lyudi Baikala.
Relatives of a woman giving birth at one of Irkutsk’s maternity hospitals also reported to the outlet that it had imposed a quarantine.
A source in the healthcare sector told the publication that Irkutsk doctors are ‘openly talking about plague’.
Ms Shipilova became unwell while on a field expedition with colleagues in Buryatia, beside Russia’s eastern border with Mongolia.
She was admitted to hospital on September 29 and placed on a ventilator but died two days later in Shelekhov, a satellite city of Irkutsk.
She came into contact with roughly 200 people, who are now being monitored over fears of an outbreak.
Regional authorities are implementing a ‘comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures’, according to Maxim Modin, the mayor of the Shelekhovsky district in eastern Russia, near the Mongolian border. ….
Devastating wildfires add to 400 million acres of scorched earth in amazon rainforest
More than four million acres of the Brazilian Amazon have burned so far in 2026, as firefighters battle a fresh wave of wildfires near Manaus in the northern state of Amazonas.
Crews are working in forested areas of Iranduba, a municipality close to the state capital, where flames have spread through sections of rainforest that are typically too wet to catch fire easily.
Local officials say the situation escalated sharply in recent weeks.
Amazonas state’s fire department reported a more than 300% increase in registered fires in September compared with the same month last year, signaling a rapid deterioration at the start of the region’s peak fire season.
Authorities and researchers say most of the outbreaks are linked to human activity rather than natural causes.
Common triggers include slash-and-burn land clearing, discarded cigarettes and small agricultural fires that escape control and move into surrounding forest.
Putin accused of plague cover up as only country with ‘100% effective’ vaccine named’
Russia has been accused of a “cover up” regarding a potential leak of pneumonic plague from a laboratory in Irkutsk, a year after one country announced successful results for a potential vaccine – though it has never been tested on people and is not available for use yet.
Russian authorities have quarantined a hospital and are monitoring contacts of an employee at a plague research institute in Siberia who contracted pneumonia of an “unknown” cause.
Local state TV said the woman died last week.
Russian authorities said they found no evidence that her illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with.
But the case has raised alarm in Russia after unconfirmed media reports suggested she might have died of pneumonic plague — a less common but severe form of plague that can spread from person to person.
Meanwhile, there is no commercial vaccine available anywhere in the world for pneumonic plague.
No vaccines really exist for modern, common, human plague because outbreaks are rare globally, and the disease can be effectively treated with a prompt 7-day course of common preventive or therapeutic antibiotics (such as streptomycin, gentamycin, or ciprofloxacin).
There is little commercial market incentive to fund, test, and license a widespread public vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
However, in 2025, Israeli scientists developed a new vaccine that’s “100% effective” against the pneumonic plague.
Tel Aviv University partnered with the Israel Institute for Biological Research to create an mRNA-based shot, the first mRNA vaccine designed to protect against a bacterial infection. …
As bombers leave UK, Hegseth eyes shifting more troops from Europe
U.S. bombers being moved back to the U.S. from the UK are the latest in American military assets being shifted in Europe, as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told The Center Square that he expects more troops to be moved back to the Western Hemisphere from Europe.
The Pentagon confirmed all the bombers have been moved from the Royal Air Force Base in Fairford, UK, following an alleged foiled attack on the base last weekend.
The move comes hours after Hegseth told The Center Square the U.S. is expanding its “footprint in Central and South America with partners.”
The secretary added that as relationships with Central and South American countries progress, the U.S. wants “more burden sharing in Europe,” while focusing more on the U.S. and its own backyard.
“As we do that, a lot of those capabilities are going to move elsewhere, either back home to the big, beautiful base that we’re going to build…or to a different posture in the Western Hemisphere as we can get after these designated terrorist organizations. We are at war with the drug cartels, with DTOs,” Hegseth told The Center Square. The president’s been clear about that, so we’re going to posture and base as necessary to ensure that we have our foot on the pedal and are taking the fight to those ISIS and Al Qaeda in our hemisphere.”
The potential shift comes as the Trump administration has sought to dominate power in the Western Hemisphere, being called the Donroe Doctrine, a play on the Monroe Doctrine.
In the past year, there has been a major political shift in Central and South America, as nations have begun to move away from Marxist-aligned leadership and toward open-market candidates.
Last week, The Center Square asked President Donald Trump whether he had plans to build a military base in South America, including Venezuela, as there are currently no military bases in the region.
Trump appeared to leave the door open for the possibility of military bases in Venezuela or South America. …
Troops repositioned to Rio Grande Valley after gunfire at Coast Guard
Hundreds of U.S. troops are being repositioned to the Rio Grande Valley after Coast Guard crew in Starr County encountered gunfire from across the Mexican border Sept. 26..
In a statement issued by the Coast Guard, Coast Guard Forces Rio Grande personnel “encountered gunfire,” shot from across the Mexican border into the vicinity of Garceno, Texas, in Starr County, on Sept. 26. No USCG personnel were injured.
“Threats to Coast Guard members and our partners are taken extremely seriously. The circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation,” it said.
Since then, hundreds of U.S. troops are being deployed to south Texas, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) said.
USNORTHCOM has been leading border security efforts in response to an executive order President Donald Trump issued on his first day in office.
In it, he declared a national emergency and invasion at the southwest border and directed USNORTHCOM to “seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”
He also surged Coast Guard resources to augment border security efforts.
Through Joint Task Force-Southern Border and Operation Unified Response, by last March, 10,000 troops were surged to the southwest border.
In one year, 20,000 troops had been deployed there and conducted tens of thousands of detection, monitoring and security site missions, The Center Square reported. Throughout this time, USCG crew have partnered with the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol and others.
This is not the first time federal agents have faced gunfire. Last January, Border Patrol agents were fired upon in the Rio Grande Valley.
This was after Texas border security efforts through Operation Lone Start expanded and the Texas General Land Office took control of Fronton Island.
Texas DPS and OLS officers were deployed to combat cartel activity and potential Tren de Aragua criminal activity as Venezuelans poured into the country.
They also replaced an erected Venezuelan flag on the island with a Texas flag, The Center Square reported. ….
Report: Biden White House Drove DOJ Targeting Of Parents Who Protested CRT, Covid Mandates
his is what weaponization looks like.
The FBI investigating a mom because she is a gun owner and belonged to a “right-wing mom’s group.” Federal agents harassing a dad because he “rail[ed] against the government.”
Five years ago today, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland released his memorandum laying out what his corrupt Department of Justice could do to assist in investigating and prosecuting the parents accused of being “domestic terrorists” for speaking out against far-left initiatives and draconian Covid policies at school board meetings.
The Democrat AG’s memo followed a National School Boards Association (NSBA) letter begging President Joe Biden and his politically-driven Department of Justice to recognize the “immediate threat” these parents posed to America’s public schools and their leaders.
The letter urged Biden to treat the parents’ confrontational behavior like it was “equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism.”
We know that the NSBA, after a wave of criticism from affiliates, was forced to apologize for the letter from School Boards Association President Viola Garcia and interim CEO Chip Slaven.
The association acknowledged “there was no justification for some of the language included in the letter” and that the executive office had not consulted with state affiliates.
Despite the NSBA’s admission, Garland stubbornly refused to rescind his memo, and federal law enforcement officials opened 25 preliminary assessment files — Guardian assessments — into spurious “school board threats.”
Six of the assessments operated out of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, 17 involved the Criminal Investigations Division, and two involved the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. It appears not a one of the targets was prosecuted.
Now, thanks to a new DOJ report, we know that the Biden White House was squarely behind Garland’s effort to find a federal “hook” to prosecute parents and school policy protesters with federal crimes.
That finding contradicts a National School Boards Association independent review that found no collusion with the Biden administration. …
Big Law Is Backing The Climate Adversaries Of Their Energy Clients
Massive energy companies are funding both sides of multibillion-dollar climate litigation because the high-dollar law firms conducting their defense also support their legal adversaries.
Major litigation using climate activists’ strategy reaches the Supreme Court Monday morning in Suncor v. Boulder.
That case concerns whether climate activists can use anti-Constitution courts as a national superlegislature to decommission the reliable energy that undergirds the U.S. economy.
The plaintiffs seek to pillage reliable energy companies by blaming them for alleged global emissions that allegedly damage the far-left city of Boulder, Colorado.
Even climate alarmists admit China is the world’s top source of energy emissions, annually releasing a claimed three times as much as the United States.
Climate “science” is notoriously unreliable and politicized.
“Adverse verdicts could extract tens of billions of dollars from the energy sector and effectively impose a national carbon tax on American consumers.
Gas prices and utility bills would soar, left-wing activists and green advocates would cheer, and working families would bear the cost,” writes consumer protection lawyer and former Arizona Attorney General O.H. Skinner.
Massive energy firms such as ExxonMobil, Suncor, BP, Conoco Philipps, Philipps 66, and others face similar litigation in numerous cases that will increase if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Boulder.
The damages demanded are so large they could end the companies and transform them into another massive money pot fueling even more leftist aggression against private property and limited government.
Yet these same companies are effectively funding their would-be destroyers through the Big Law firms these companies have hired to defend themselves from ruin. …
Thought Crimes, Cults, and Propaganda: The System’s Evolution Into Nazi Totalitarianism
Report: CA’s ‘Shadow Welfare System’ Offers Illegal Alien Families Up to $100K a Year
The City Journal, a public policy magazine published by the right-leaning Manhattan Institute, recently investigated the striking array of entitlements available to illegal alien families in California. What they uncovered was staggering.
Perhaps their most disturbing discovery was that an illegal alien couple with two U.S.-born children and one illegal alien grandparent is eligible to receive benefits worth up to $100,000 in a single calendar year.
The authors, Christopher F. Rufo, Kenneth Schrupp, and Austen Hufford, call this extensive safety net California’s “Shadow Welfare System.”
It includes “health care, rental assistance, college grants, tax credits, low-cost car insurance, and even smartphones.” And they’ve estimated the annual cost to California taxpayers to be nearly $11 billion.
It’s no mystery why more than 25% of California residents are foreign-born. With perks like these, the state is a magnet for illegal immigrants.
EXCLUSIVE: California has created a shadow welfare system for illegal aliens. Free housing, cash, healthcare, food, phones, college tuition, even car insurance—costing taxpayers more than $10 billion per year.
We went inside the system and exposed it all. pic.twitter.com/oJh0mpstzN
— Christopher Rufo (@christopherrufo) September 23, 2026
The authors reported [Emphasis added]:
We visited four public-services offices in Southern California, each of which admitted that illegal aliens can enroll in public-welfare programs or receive benefits on their children’s behalf.
…
Local officials were remarkably transparent. In Glendale, we spoke to a welfare officer about California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), a state-funded alternative to Supplemental Security Income that provides monthly cash assistance to low-income noncitizens who are elderly or disabled.
“If [you are] a citizen, you cannot get CAPI,” he said. “I don’t care about legal or not. Not being [a] citizen [is the key].”
In Los Angeles, we heard more of the same. We asked another welfare officer about the benefits available to illegal immigrants and their children. While some state programs are closed to illegals, we learned, they are open to those aliens’ U.S.-born children.
Moreover, state leaders are very proud of their largesse to illegal residents.
The authors reported that Gov. Gavin Newsom recently boasted about “his ‘controversial’ decision to extend Medi-Cal coverage to illegal immigrants.”
His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, “encouraged people to sign up for the California Earned Income Tax Credit, a program whose promotional materials assure applicants that ‘no Social Security number’ is ‘no problem.’” ….
Maricopa County says vendor ‘mistakenly’ mail out over 3K midterm ballots prematurely
Maricopa County Recorder’s Office acknowledged Sunday that a third-party vendor “mistakenly” mailed out 3,126 ballots prematurely but said the incident affected “only the timing of the mailing.”
“The correct ballots were mailed to the correct voters,” the office said on social media.
“Upon consultation with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, it was determined that the ballots remain valid and do not need to be voided or reissued.”
The office said it was notified Friday of the incident, which occurred Thursday. The vendor has been identified as Runbeck Election Services.
The mailing occurred six days before the scheduled Oct. 7 mail out date. Midterm Election Day is Tues., Nov. 3.
“Voters may complete and return them normally,” the Recorder’s office also said in a social media post.
Any ballots received before early voting begins will remain unopened and securely stored until processing begins and
no voters were adversely affected, the office also said.
Israel remembers October 7 victims; Trump vows to end Iran war – TV7 Israel News – 5 Oct.
Ø 1) Israel marks a day of remembrance for the victims of the atrocities that were committed by the Islamist Hamas terror organization against its southern communities on October 7, 2023.
Ø 2) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserts Israel’s resolve to bolster its Naval capabilities – to face off any threat to Israel’s maritime security and interests.
Ø 3) President Donald Trump reiterates his resolve to end the war in Iran – one way or another.
All U.S. B-1 Bombers Return to U.S. From British Terrorism Alert Air Base
The Royal Air Force base at Fairford, Gloucestershire, England, which has been a de facto U.S. Air Force forward operating base since the dawn of the Cold War, hit the headlines in the past week over an apparently foiled terror plot against it, has now been emptied of bombers.
All 12 of the remaining B-1 ‘Lancer’ heavy bombers that were forward-deployed to strike Iran abruptly flew out of England on Sunday.
Their departure was observed by the keen plane-spotting community active around Fairford.
While Fairford has not hosted American bomber wings full-time since the Cold War, it is very much equipped to do so and has a long, reinforced runway capable of handling the largest and most heavily laden aircraft.
This, and its strategic location, makes Fairford invaluable to the U.S. Air Force as a place to forward-deploy U.S.-based aircraft when geopolitical necessity makes having bombers closer to targets in the Middle East valuable.
Given its importance to Washington, the de facto U.S. base RAF Fairford is considered one of the most important military sites in the United Kingdom. …
France: 500+ Schools Closed as Nation Braces for More Leftist Violence
Per AFP, Education Minister Édouard Geffray detailed on Sunday that the shuttered schools do not presently meet the safety conditions that can warrant their reopening after a series of violent protests incited by far-left groups plunged France into total chaos last week.
Geffray reportedly detailed on Sunday some 24 schools across France were either set on fire or ransacked during the violent protests.
At least 78 members of the French Ministry of National Education were injured.
The lack of proper security conditions, the minister stressed, is what led to the closure of the hundreds of schools on Monday — a precautionary measure that comes amid calls from student unions for more protests on Tuesday, October 6.
“Clearly, this poses a risk to both our staff and our students,” Geffray said.
Subsequent Paris Police reports published in the aftermath of the violent riots indicate that the protests were indeed instigated by the far-left organizations such as the La France Insoumise party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the Young Revolutionary Communists.
The protests left over 5,000 individuals detained, with an overwhelming 85 percent of the detainees being minors under the age of 18.
The ongoing student protests began on September 17. At the time, students allegedly protested in a peaceful manner calling for better conditions and resources for French schools.
However, the protests rapidly turned violent last week, leading to the uncontrolled violence that engulfed Paris and numerous other French cities, leading to hundreds of reported acts of arson, vandalism, assaults against law enforcement and civilians, and blockades of school facilities. …
Florida TikTok creator lands in jail after allegedly turning women’s private data into posts
A Florida TikTok creator who calls himself a “demonologist” and “Grey Hat Hacker” is back behind bars after allegedly exposing women’s private information online and boasting that he could track their movements through their phones.
Mark Stephen Asea, 36, of Port St. Lucie, was booked into the St. Lucie County Jail Sept. 30 on a felony charge of offense against computer users. His bond was set at $35,000, according to sheriff’s office records.
The arrest revived a criminal case that had been closed months earlier.
Asea was first arrested in April on stalking and computer-related allegations, but prosecutors dropped those charges in May before bringing a computer-access charge in September, court records show.
The police affidavit describes two women who said their private information surfaced in Asea’s TikTok posts, including one who had trusted him to help with a computer problem.
In a video reviewed by a detective, Asea allegedly rattled off details about one woman’s devices and claimed to know her recent spending.
“Let’s talk about your actual password,” he said, according to a transcript in the affidavit.
“How about we talk about the last 10 purchases you made online?”
The woman told investigators the password had been shared only in a closed TikTok group chat.
Asea was not a member, she said, although she suspected he might have joined through a fake account.
Nobody in the chat had permission to share it outside the group, she told police. She also said she did not know how he would have obtained her phone identification number or banking information. …
12-year-old girl killed in crossfire during youth football game in Baltimore; 4 adults injured
Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said officers were called around 6:15 p.m. Saturday to Leon Day Park on North Franklintown Road.
Worley said officers arrived and found a woman and the 12-year-old girl suffering from gunshot wounds. Worley said officers rendered aid and the victims were taken to taken to hospitals, where the girl died.
“A 12-year-old little girl, who was probably down there watching football, was shot and killed,” Worley said. “My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and the community and our city. Our officers are following multiple leads, but we’re urging anyone who may have seen anything to call 911 or Metro Crime Stoppers.”
“Two grown men got into an argument, and now a 12-year-old is gone,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said. “What happened out here today, is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen in my life because that baby was just out here, at homecoming for this youth football league is out here every single day, trying to keep young people safe, trying to keep young men and young women on the right path.
The commissioner said two men also walked into hospitals, seeking treatment. All adult victims are believed to have suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Parents and coaches tell WBAL-TV 11 News it happened during a youth football game.
Baltimore Police say it happened around 6:15 Saturday at the Leon Day Park. They believe two men were fighting over a parking space when they began shooting at each other.
Police say three adults were shot and a fourth adult had a graze wound to the back. The incident hits close to home for Bridgeford. …
Mass shooting at Georgia block party leaves 2 dead, 35 injured
More than 1,000 people were gathered as more than 50 shots were fired in at least two locations about a block apart in Vienna, Georgia, according to Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy.
Deputies were on patrol at a neighborhood block party around 1:25 a.m. when shots were fired on the 900 block of Pine Street, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
The sheriff’s office had requested the assistance of the GBI.
Two people were pronounced dead at the scene from gunshot wounds.
Most of the 35 injured victims suffered gunshot wounds, while several others were hit by cars or suffered other injuries as people fled the scene. The 35 injured victims were transported to hospitals for treatment.
Peavy said people were “going every direction” and, even as officers were on the scene, more gunfire erupted about a block away.
“We don’t know if it’s coming at us or someone else,” he said at a press conference on Sunday. “You just have to keep doing what you’re doing and hope you don’t get hit by gunfire.”
The GBI said the ages of the injured victims range from 14 to 51 and their conditions range from stable to critical.
The victims killed in the shooting were identified as Jaquevion Jackson, 21, of Cordele, and Macaleb Jackson, 23, of Hawkinsville, the agency said.
The incident happened over homecoming weekend for Dooly County High School. ….
U.S. Services Growth Hits Five-Year High as Expansion Spreads Across Economy
U.S. service-sector activity expanded in September at the fastest pace in more than five years, with technology businesses leading a broad advance as stronger demand encouraged companies to increase hiring, according to a survey released Monday by S&P Global.
The Services PMI Business Activity Index rose to 58.8 from 56.5 in August, marking its fourth consecutive monthly increase and the strongest expansion since July 2021. Readings above 50 indicate growth compared with the previous month.
Activity increased across all five broad services sectors covered by the survey for the first time in ten months.
Information and communication businesses reported by far the strongest expansion, while transportation and storage returned to growth.
“Tech companies are reporting by far the strongest growth but the rising tide is now lifting all boats as far as the major sectors are concerned,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Williamson said growth was also accelerating among consumer-facing businesses, industrials, and healthcare companies, while financial services continued to record solid growth.
The report showed a sharp strengthening in demand.
New orders increased at the fastest pace in four-and-a-half years, with respondents reporting particular strength in domestic business.
France Ramps Up Citizenship Removal Orders for Islamist Terrorists
According to figures obtained by French paper of record Le Figaro, over 70 decrees revoking citizenship from convicted terrorists have been issued by the Ministry of Interior, and around 100 have been handed down since 2015.
This compares with just 13 during the entire period between 1979 and 2015. The paper reported that 15 have been issued so far this year, while 19 were issued in 2025, 37 in 2024, and 12 in 2023.
A senior official at the Hôtel de Beauvau told the paper that there are “several hundred” more cases that are set to be dealt with over the next five years as convicted terrorists are released from prison.
The Interior Ministry source said that around 45 per cent of those stripped of their citizenship have been French-Moroccan dual nationals, followed by French-Algerians, French-Tunisians, and French-Turks, all of whom represent around 10 per cent of cases.
The official credited the increase to former Interior Minsiter Gérald Darmanin, who is now serving as Justice Minister.
“[President] Emmanuel Macron was initially rather hostile to them, and it was his minister who, following his appointment to the Interior Ministry in 2020, made the State more confident on this issue… The minister had become aware that many dual nationals sentenced to three to five years in prison in France for having gone to jihadist zones—the so-called returnees—were going to be released en masse, according to a cohort effect, particularly from 2022 onwards, which had to be anticipated at all costs.”
While there has been a significant increase in the government’s willingness to strip citizenship from convicted terrorists, the effort still pales in comparison to the number of terrorists released from prison in recent years, with 339 jihadis being released since 2021.
A key impediment cited by the report is that for the Ministry of the Interior to issue such a decree, a convicted terrorist needs to have a second nationality, as French law does not allow the stripping of citizenship from those who would become stateless.
In addition to those who have lost their previous citizenship, this also means that terrorists who were born in France are typically exempt from such a process.
Other complications arise in the case of a dual-national terrorist who was a minor at the time they went abroad to fight for a jihadi group like ISIS, with the left-leaning Council of State needing to be consulted in such cases. …
Turkish grain ship sinks in Black Sea after deadly drone attack
A Turkish-owned cargo ship carrying grain in the Black Sea was attacked by at least one drone and ultimately sank after catching fire on Monday, reportedly killing two crew members, wounding three others, while one is still missing, Romanian authorities said, as quoted by Euronews Romania.
11 crew members were rescued by Romanian vessels and helicopters in a major rescue operation after the ship caught fire from the blasts, while the search continues for the missing crew member, some 20 miles from the Romanian shore.
According to Euronews Romania, the stricken cargo ship was identified as the Royad Mammadov, owned by Turkish company MG Shipping 5 and sailing under a Saint Kitts and Nevis flag.
It was last monitored about three hours before the attack, when it left the Ukrainian port of Ismail in the Odesa region, according to a maritime traffic monitoring service, navigating towards Ravenna, Italy.
Monday’s incident occurred within Romania’s exclusive economic zone, about 9 nautical miles from the Pescăruș offshore platform.
The head of Romania’s Free Navigators Union Adrian Mihalcioiu told Euronews Romania that, according to information made available to him, the ship was attacked with aerial and sea drones and that it was a commercial ship “which had nothing to do with the war.”
Three wounded sailors aged between 22 and 50 were airlifted to hospital in Romania’s largest port city of Constanta with multiple traumas but were stable and conscious, and were being cared for accordingly, a hospital spokesperson said.
Romanian authorities are yet to name a suspect for the attack, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russia for what he called a “horrific strike by two Russian drones on a civilian vessel in neutral waters carrying corn.”
In a statement on X, Zelenskyy said that Azerbaijani and Indian citizens were onboard the ship.
“Ukraine has repeatedly proposed concrete steps to de-escalate the situation and ensure security in the Black Sea. There have also been relevant proposals from third countries,” Zelenskyy said. …
October 4, 2026 – Cover Story: Cell Phone Towers
Execution fail: Christa Pike’s attorney urges commutation of death sentence
Christa Pike’s lawyer is calling for her death-row sentence to be commuted, saying that her “tortuous” failed execution is punishment enough even for her “awful crime.”
Steve Ferrell joined LiveNOW from FOX’s Josh Breslow to provide the latest updates on his client and discuss the outcomes he’s hoping to achieve.
California realtor, 34, busted at LAX on Chinese espionage charges as creepy texts to Beijing handlers revealed: feds
A California realtor has been arrested at LAX after being accused of spying for China.
Wanying Zhang, also known as “Heather,” was busted at the airport Sunday as she tried to board a flight to Shanghai.
The 34-year-old, who lives in Irvine, Orange County, is accused of working with handlers from the People’s Republic of China to surveil the son of Taiwan’s president Ching-Te Lai.
‘We have a problem with Beijing using Chinese-Americans for their own purposes in California,” AG Bill Essayli said. “They are using them for their own foreign affairs because they are playing the long game to get a competitive advantage over us. She wasn’t spying against us, she was allegedly conducting a campaign on behalf of Beijing.”
A criminal complaint released by the FBI Sunday shows texts between her and other alleged agents about tracking Ting-Yu Lai in Seattle, Washington, where he works for electronics giant Philips.
Surveillance camera photographs also allegedly caught Zhang sitting in a car with an accomplice taking pictures of his house and close relatives.
It is the latest Chinese spying scandal to rock California, months after the mayor of Arcadia was snared in a secret propaganda and fake news campaign for the PRC.
And it comes as tensions between China and Taiwan remain high, with US officials fearing Beijing will try to invade the island at some point next year. …
Supreme Court starts term with PIVOTAL cases
Fox News’ David Spunt reports the latest on the upcoming cases involving climate change, gun rights, religion, voting and more.
John Yoo, who served Justice Thomas as a law clerk, also weighs in on the docket during ‘America’s Newsroom.
Trey Yingst: This could be a NEW reality
Fox News’ Trey Yingst reports the latest on the conflict with Iran as the regime doubles down on the Strait of Hormuz. Victoria Coates also provides her analysis on the escalation during ‘Fox News Live.
DOJ Report Reveals Biden Officials Sought to Prosecute Protesting Parents
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Weaponization Working Group released ‘The 2026 Report to Expose the Weaponization of Government Against Parents in Schools,’ exposing how Biden administration officials coordinated with the National School Boards Association and the White House to issue a 2021 memo from then-Attorney General Merrick Garland. The memo directed the FBI and U.S. Attorneys to seek federal charges against parents protesting COVID policies and curriculum issues, despite career staff calling it ‘stupid,’ ‘ridiculous,’ and a First Amendment risk; the FBI opened 25 assessments, but none led to prosecutions. The report highlights a chilling effect on parental speech, with current DOJ now offering file reviews, apologies, and $1.5 million in training for school resource officers on parental rights.
This story is a summary of posts on X and may evolve over time. Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs.
DOJ Charges 16 Green Card Holders with Illegal Voting Across Four States
The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against 16 non-citizens from 14 countries for illegal voting in federal elections, false citizenship claims, and fraudulent registrations in Florida, Louisiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. All held green cards; cases include voting in the 2024 general election, 2022 contests, and a recent primary, with defendants aged 40s to 70s. Federal agents have made arrests, and the cases stem from investigations by Homeland Security Investigations and local police.
This story is a summary of posts on X and may evolve over time. Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs.
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