Russian scientists and hospital patients are in quarantine after a laboratory researcher has died from suspected plague, amid reports she caught the illness from her workplace.
The plague bacterium has high fatality rates if untreated – in the past it caused deadly epidemics throughout the world, including the “Black Death” of the 1300s, which killed half of Europe.
While Russian citizens in Irkutsk and the wider Siberian region have been wearing masks and cancelling travel, UK experts have said there is no reason to expect global spread. Here’s what we do and don’t know.
BT agrees deal to save TalkTalk from administration
BT has agreed to buy TalkTalk’s consumer and wholesale businesses to save the company from collapse, ending months of speculation over the operator’s future.
Deal provides ‘safety net’ for millions
BT chief executive Alison Kirkby said the £400m deal provided “a safety net” not only for TalkTalk’s 2.5 million customers, but also the company’s 900 staff.
However, rival operator Virgin Media has called the deal a “stitch up” which allows BT – the UK’s largest broadband provider – to “tighten its grip” over the market.
- BT said it stepped in amid a “”.
- The Government said it took urgent action to intervene after TalkTalk had failed to find a buyer.
- TalkTalk’s customers include , as well as connections that support across several sectors.
Takeover not yet approved
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) must approve the takeover, taking into account what would happen if TalkTalk was forced to exit the market. The regulator has until 19 October to deliver its verdict.
The Government has given itself the power to have the final say, though, citing TalkTalk’s importance to critical public services.
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Phone and broadband services are vital national infrastructure. If TalkTalk services fail, there is a genuine risk to life and public services – including to hospitals, schools and emergency care. These are unprecedented circumstances that require action now.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy
What to know amid Russian plague outbreak fears
A laboratory worker at an institute in Siberia dedicated to researching the plague has died of a mysterious illness, prompting
Russian authorities to impose “anti-epidemic measures” in the local area.
Here’s what we know so far…
- Darya Shipilova was exposed to a pathogen after accidentally breaking a test tube at the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, local media reported.
- Shipilova was hospitalised on 29 September with severe pneumonia of “unknown origin,” according to Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s infectious disease agency.
- She was placed on a ventilator but died shortly after.
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Three-week quarantine imposed
Hospitals close
Several hospitals in the city of Irkutsk have closed for a three-week quarantine, local outlet reported.
Medical isolation
About 200 people suspected of having direct or indirect contact with Shipilova are said to be in medical isolation.
Closely monitored
Over 100 individuals are being monitored in hospital wards.
Irkutsk governor Igor Kobzev urged residents to remain calm, writing on Telegram that an anti-epidemic commission had met to address a “suspected case of a particularly dangerous infection”.
The White House is also monitoring the situation, a US official told Axios.
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Criminal investigation opened
The Anti-Plague Institute is a major research and public health facility responsible for monitoring and preventing outbreaks of high-risk bacterial and viral infections across Siberia and Russia’s Far East. It employs around 95 researchers, per its website.
Russian law enforcement agencies have reportedly opened a criminal investigation into potential workplace health and safety violations resulting in the lab worker’s death.
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No signs of ‘spread’
- Kobzev said none of the deceased woman’s contacts were showing any signs of illness and testing had come back negative.
- Gennady Onishchenko, a former head of Rospotrebnadzor, said on Friday the infection was “most likely not the plague, but even if confirmed, there will be no spread of this disease”.
Easily transferable
There are no plague outbreaks.
Alexei Tsydenov, head of the neighbouring republic of Buryatia, said the employee died “possibly from the plague” but noted that “there are no plague outbreaks” in Buryatia.
Pneumonic plague, one of the three types of plagues caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, can be transmitted between people through respiratory particles.
Andrew taking legal action over police search warrants
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is taking legal action against Thames Valley Police in a bid to quash search warrants which led to his arrest. Here’s what we know.
Police investigation
Mountbatten-Windsor has been accused of sharing sensitive information with Jeffrey Epstein.
- The former prince, who denies any wrongdoing, was detained on his 66th birthday in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
- He was interviewed under caution and released under investigation after being held in custody for around 11 hours.
- It came after emails appeared to show him sharing official documents with Epstein and others while serving as the UK’s trade envoy from 2001 to 2011.
- Police searched Mountbatten-Windsor’s property at Marsh Farm in Sandringham and his former Windsor home, Royal Lodge, for days after his arrest.
Andrew requests judge examine lawfulness of search warrants
Thames Valley Police is continuing its investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor, who is now taking legal action against the force.
He has requested that a judge examine the lawfulness of the search warrants, which were issued by an Old Bailey judge.
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Hearing to begin this week
- A hearing into Mountbatten-Windsor’s legal claim will take place at the High Court at 2pm on Thursday, a judicial spokesperson confirmed on Monday.
- The spokesperson said it will feature a bid by Thames Valley Police to restrict access to court documents, with the hearing to begin in private.
It is currently not known whether Andrew will attend the hearing.
First public pushback since arrest
Mountbatten-Windsor’s legal action against the police is his first public pushback against his arrest.
Mountbatten-Windsor has already been stripped of his home and titles by King Charles, after emails showed he continued his relationship with Epstein beyond when he publicly said such links had been severed.
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What to remember when asking AI about your pension savings
While AI can be a “great tool” for research, pension savers have been warned they could lose money if they rely on chatbots to answer financial questions.
Here’s what you should remember when asking AI about your nest egg…
Leaving out crucial details
UK-based online provider PensionBee has warned that an AI bot’s answers to common questions about retirement savings could leave out crucial details.
It found issues around questions about significant life events, and those enquiries where the user’s location was unclear.
AI also might not recognise that the person asking the question may be in vulnerable circumstances, PensionBee said.
An answer can contain correct information and still leave you with the wrong impression because something important is missing. This is one of the biggest risks with using AI for financial questions. Consumers need to look beyond whether an answer sounds right and check whether it gives them the full picture before acting.
Becky O’Connor, head of at PensionBee
Free AI advice may be wrong
Someone in a genuinely difficult financial situation may turn to an AI chatbot because they don’t want or can’t afford to pay for advice, says Becky O’Connor
She added that free AI advice was “exactly when recognising the wider circumstances matters most”, and people should understand a clear, confident answer from a chatbot might still be incomplete or wrong.
If you want AI advice:
- That includes age, pension type, and whether you are going through a major life event.
- Do not share personal details, such as passwords and account numbers, with AI.
- Ask neutral questions and verify sources and information before acting.
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What we know about US bombers withdrawal from RAF Fairford
The United States has withdrawn all of its
B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers from RAF Fairford, despite Downing Street insisting the airbase is safe following the arrest and bailing of six individuals over the past week in connection with a suspected terror plot.
Warplanes sent back to US
According to and , the warplanes were removed due to a new potential threat against the airbase in Gloucestershire.
At least three of the bombers had returned to the US, landing in South Dakota, by Sunday, the reported.
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New Fairford threats?
One US official, speaking anonymously to the , said the new threats were part of the same warnings from three weeks ago, but that more specific details had emerged in the past 24 hours. The report claimed some planes left so urgently that refuelling aircraft were still being arranged to support the journeys.
The UK Ministry of Defence has not commented, while US secretary of state Marco Rubio said he would not link the aircrafts’ departures to the recent suspected terror plot targeting the base.
US plays down concerns
We’ve documented what happened last week. I wouldn’t directly tie that to the move that was made. It’s not unusual to see movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments, people changing out and new people coming in, new planes coming in and old planes going out.
marco rubio, us secretary of state
PM: Iran may be responsible
- It follows the five arrests just over a week ago, after three suspicious vans were spotted near the base.
- Andy Burnham has said there were “strong indications” that Iran played a part in that incident.
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Senior Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP)
co-ordinator Vicki Evans said a “hugely complex” investigation into the suspected terror plot was ongoing.
- On Saturday, CTP said a sixth man arrested in connection with events at RAF Fairford had been released on bail.
- The 25-year-old, a dual UK-Iranian national, was held on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.
- Five British nationals, all in their mid-20s, were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and terrorism and then bailed.
Speculation over new strikes
The departure of the bombers has renewed speculation the US could begin fresh strikes on Iran after next month’s midterm elections. US forces have used Fairford as a base for Middle East operations and had been granted permission to launch “defensive” strikes on Iran from there. But Fairford-based bombers would have been unable to take part in new, aggressive measures.
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Pentagon statement
We can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF have redeployed to their home stations in the United States. The airmen that operate America’s bomber force… remain ready to deliver precision global strike capabilities – including through operations that launch and recover from the continental United States – anywhere, anytime.
A Pentagon official
Why Israel has banned Greens leader Polanski
Israel’s foreign ministry has banned Green Party leader Zack Polanski from entering the country after a motion on the definition of Zionism was adopted by the Greens at the party’s conference over the weekend.
What does the motion say?
The motion defines Zionism as supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state”.
A democratic Palestine
It backs a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”.
It has divided senior party figures, with deputy leader Rachel Millward calling the wording “problematic”.
Zionism motion is a ‘stain’ on UK history, says Israel
Polanski did not take part in the vote at the Greens’ conference in Brighton on Sunday, but members endorsed the policy motion by 1,022 votes to 813.
Israel’s foreign ministry described it as a “clear antisemitic text” and “a stain on the history of the United Kingdom”.
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Polanski calls for changes to motion
Asked about the motion on Friday, Polanski told the BBC: “If your Zionism is the displacement of the Palestinian people then that is clearly racist, and I say that as a Jewish leader of a British political party.”
Polanski did not vote in the debate, as
he left the Greens’ conference early to campaign for a seat in this week’s Holborn and St Pancras by-election.
However, the Green Party leader called for some amendments to the motion.
Amendments rejected
- Polanski said he wanted to see reference to a single Palestinian state changed, arguing that the UK should not be “deciding what the future settlement looks like”.
- He also wanted an amendment to specify that it should not be used
to discipline Jewish members attending synagogues that consider themselves Zionist. - However, both amendments were rejected by Green members.
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Watch more from The i Paper
Jewish groups speak out
Zionism is anti-racism, creating a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution outside it. Branding most British Jews and Jewish institutions ‘racist’ stokes
Board of Deputies of British Jews and
anti-Jewish hatred.
the Jewish Leadership Council
Watch more from The i Paper
Could this cause a new pandemic?
It’s extremely unlikely, because conditions are very different today from when the Black Death stalked the Earth. Then, the disease was mainly caused by bites from fleas living on infected rats, which in wealthy countries like the UK people rarely get close to.
That hard-to-spread form of the disease is called bubonic plague. But if untreated, it can reach the lungs to cause pneumonia, which can then spread through droplets in the air between people in close contact.
The suspected victim in Russia, Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, died from pneumonia. This suggests she had pneumonic plague, hence the quarantining of her contacts. But even if a few people did catch it from her, modern medicine means we could stop the outbreak from spreading further. For all its fearsome reputation, the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, can be treated and prevented with simple antibiotics.
“There aren’t as many rats about today and people are a lot healthier and cleaner than they were,” said Dr Simon Clarke, microbiologist at the University of Reading.
Could this be a mutated version of the plague?
There is speculation online that the bacterium that killed Shipilova could have been genetically tweaked to be deadlier or more transmissible. Some strains of the plague are resistant to some antibiotics, but there is no reason to think this is the case here – and many antibiotics work against the plague.
It also seems unlikely that the Russian government would deliberately create a deadly version of the plague even to use against its worst enemies. The Covid pandemic showed that infectious diseases have no respect for international borders, and so Russian citizens would be just as likely to succumb.
Was this a lab leak?
Shipilova’s job certainly makes it a possibility, and there are reports that she told doctors she had broken a test-tube at work. But other researchers say this sounds implausible. Labs studying dangerous pathogens usually employ several layers of protection, such as researchers wearing gloves and masks and handling containers of the bugs inside cabinets with ventilation systems, said Clarke. “We also don’t tend to use test-tubes very much.”
Another possibility is that Shipilova caught the infection from wild animals. Plague bacteria are naturally present in many species of small rodents, such as marmots, in that part of Russia as well as Africa, Asia and the Americas.
How sure are we that she had the plague?
That’s uncertain. The latest statements from Russian authorities say that Shipilova’s pneumonia was of unknown origin. However, “given the potential exposure risk, then the screening and quarantining potential contacts appears proportionate”, said Dr Malick Gibani, vaccinologist at Imperial College London.
How long before we know if it is spreading?
Pneumonic plague has a short incubation period of one to three days. Shipilova was admitted to hospital on 29 September and died on 2 October, so if anyone had caught the infection from her, they should have started showing symptoms by now.
The good news is that so far, no one else seems to have become sick, suggesting this is not the start of a wider outbreak.
Have there been lab leaks before?
In 2009, a biology professor at the University of Chicago called Malcolm Casadaban died after being exposed to the plague bacterium in his lab. Researchers have also been exposed to polio, Ebola and Zika virus – although none of these incidents led to wider outbreaks in the community.
The global Covid pandemic may have started after a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was studying coronaviruses – a claim denied by the laboratory. The other main idea is that it passed from animal hosts to humans at a large food market. At this stage, we may never find out which theory is right.
Is it time to panic?
Most experts say this isolated Russian case is not something to worry about. The bacterium doesn’t spread easily through the air, like Covid or flu, only through close face-to-face contact, when people are coughing and sneezing. Plus, there are good supplies of antibiotics that can treat it.
“The public health risk from plague to the wider UK population currently remains very low,” said Chris Lewis, director of global health protection at UK Health Security Agency. “We are seeking information through the international health regulations channels to further understand the circumstances and verify the accuracy of these reports.”