U.S. warns Americans in Russia over plague death as Trump sets Putin call; France shuts high schools; Navarro asks Supreme Court to hear contempt case
Evening: drones hit ships in NATO member Bulgaria’s waters; Qatar ferries new U.S.-Iran proposals; Lithuania moves toward hosting nuclear weapons; seventh Fairford arrest; ex-German spy chief held; Trump touts $6.6B sub plant, weighs gas tax holiday; FBI tracked Melania and Barron before raid; wrestler’s plea before Kagan.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a health alert Tuesday about press reports of suspected pneumonic plague in Russia’s Irkutsk region that killed one person, warning that the U.S. government has “limited ability to help” Americans in Russia and repeating its Level 4 advice that U.S. citizens there should depart immediately, the New York Post reported. The CDC said it is monitoring the death of Daria Shipilova, a 28-year-old lab technician at Russia’s Anti-Plague Institute who died of a “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” and that “there is no indication of a broader threat to the United States,” the Washington Examiner reported. The Examiner said nearly 200 Russians were placed in quarantine, while Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev said Monday the situation is “stable” and under control.
France’s Interior Ministry estimated 266,000 people joined demonstrations nationwide Tuesday, including 56,000 in Paris, as police fired tear gas and nearly 500 people were detained, the Washington Times reported, citing the AP; protesters are demanding more school funding. Al Jazeera reported that Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu suspended high school classes across France for the rest of the week and that the ministry says 6,100 people, most under 18, have been arrested since the protests began. President Trump wrote on Truth Social that “What’s happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration,” while students have cited overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and rundown buildings, Fox News reported.
Two civilian ships, the Able and the Alfa Watan, were hit by maritime and aerial drones overnight in Bulgaria’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone, Kyiv Post reported; Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said one ship sank and the other, carrying wheat, was damaged. All 18 people aboard the Able abandoned the burning ship and were picked up by a Bulgarian ferry, Kyiv Post said, citing Bulgarian public radio. President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed a Russian strike, while Radev said the drones were “either Russian or Ukrainian,” called the situation “extremely worrying” and ruled out invoking NATO’s Articles 4 and 5.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed Tuesday that his government is still carrying diplomatic messages between Iran and the United States, and Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said he delivered a message from President Masoud Pezeshkian to Qatar’s emir and received the latest proposal, the Washington Times reported. Momeni called the talks constructive but declined to say what the proposals contain. The Times reported the talks center on Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has kept effectively closed since March, with Washington demanding the strait return to international waters with no tolls or fees.
Lithuania’s parliament preliminarily approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday, 106-18 with six abstentions, that could allow nuclear weapons to be hosted on its territory, the Washington Examiner reported. A final vote is required after a three-month waiting period, tentatively Jan. 12, 2027, and needs at least 94 votes. “We are responding to Russia’s aggression,” Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said, and the Examiner reported Russia has warned of “escalation.”
British police arrested a 22-year-old British national in Westminster, London, on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts in the investigation into a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, which hosts U.S. bombers used against Iran, the Washington Examiner reported. It is the seventh arrest in the case; the sixth suspect, a dual U.K.-Iranian national, was arrested Thursday and released on bail Saturday, the Examiner said. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there are “strong indications that Iran played a part,” which Iran’s embassy in London has rejected.
August Hanning, 80, who led Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005, was arrested Tuesday with a former aide identified as Manfred D. on suspicion of treasonous espionage and attempted treason, the Washington Examiner reported. German federal prosecutors said Manfred D., chief of staff to several BND presidents from 2012 to 2026, gave Hanning about 2,000 documents, many classified, in exchange for payment. Prosecutors said Hanning passed political information to a representative of a foreign intelligence service for several years; that service was not identified.
President Trump said Tuesday at the White House that he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” about the death of a plague lab worker in Siberia, the New York Post reported. Asked what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling him, Trump said, “So far we are in very deep discussions. We will be able to report about it probably tomorrow.” The Post reported that lab technician Daria Shipilova, 28, died Friday near Irkutsk after reportedly breaking a test tube containing a deadly pathogen.
Anduril announced Tuesday it will build a two-million-square-foot facility called Arsenal-2 at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore County, Maryland, to make components such as torpedo tubes for Virginia-class submarines, putting in $3.7 billion of its own capital on top of a $2.9 billion Navy contract, the Washington Examiner reported. President Trump was scheduled to visit the site Tuesday afternoon, and the facility is expected to create 3,100 direct jobs, the Washington Times reported. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s spokesman said Moore was blocked from speaking at the event, while a White House official said Moore had been invited as a guest, the Times said.
President Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he is considering suspending the federal gas tax, saying “We’re thinking about that,” after four states already did so, the New York Post reported. The tax adds 18.4 cents a gallon to gasoline and 24.4 cents to diesel, and suspending it would require Congress, which is not scheduled to return until after the election, the Post said. Citing AAA, the Post reported gasoline averages $4.37 a gallon, up from $3.13 a year ago, and diesel $6.32.
Biden-era documents released this week by the White House show that FBI agents tracked the movements of Melania Trump and her son, Barron, in the weeks before the Aug. 8, 2022, raid on Mar-a-Lago, the Washington Times reported. A May 24, 2022, internal FBI memo listed as its first task to “Finalize FBI understanding of FPOTUS/FLOTUS/minor son’s travel,” and agents also tracked phone calls to top aide Susie Wiles, now White House chief of staff, the Times said. “Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to review his conviction for contempt of Congress, in a petition filed by America First Legal and Holtzman Vogel, the Washington Examiner reported. The petition asks the justices to require prosecutors to prove a witness knew defying a congressional subpoena was unlawful, arguing Navarro should have been allowed to show he believed executive privilege barred him from cooperating with the House Jan. 6 committee. Navarro served four months in federal prison in 2024 on two misdemeanor convictions, the Examiner said.
An emergency application filed by Alliance Defending Freedom asks Justice Elena Kagan for an injunction so Washington high school wrestler Kallie Keeler, listed in court as K.M.K., is not matched against a male athlete this season, or at least gets notice and a no-penalty opt-out, Fox News’ OutKick reported. The Puyallup School District said it has received the application and “If the Court requests a response, the district will respond,” while state school officials said they will keep following Washington’s gender-identity participation law. A federal judge denied a preliminary injunction Aug. 23 and the Ninth Circuit refused an injunction pending appeal Sept. 25; wrestling season opens in mid-November.
The Supreme Court’s calendar for Wednesday, Oct. 7, lists one hour of argument in Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guåhan, No. 25-579, with Assistant to the Solicitor General Sopan Joshi arguing for the government. The case asks whether the Air Force’s application to renew a hazardous-waste permit for open detonation of old munitions at Andersen Air Force Base’s Tarague Beach site in Guam is final agency action, and whether it must first go through National Environmental Policy Act review, according to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute. On Monday the justices heard Johnson v. United States Congress on which courts may hear constitutional challenges to veterans’ benefits laws, SCOTUSblog reported.
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