A virus research center in Russia — one of two places in the world that houses the smallpox virus — exploded on Monday, officials said.
The blast at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, or "Vector," left one employee injured and the building, located in Koltsovo, near the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, survived without structural damage, according to a statement from the facility.
The suspected gas explosion happened on the fifth floor of the 6-floor concrete building during scheduled repairs, Russian-owned news agency TASS reported.
Nikolai Krasnikov, the head of Koltsovo — which is known as a science city — said no biohazardous material was being stored where the blast occurred, and that there's no threat to the population. He added the worker who was injured suffered burns and is in intensive care.
The facility in Russia, created in 1974, is one of two places that stores the variola virus, otherwise known as the deadly infectious smallpox disease. The other location is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga.
Described as "one of the world's most devastating diseases known to humanity," smallpox was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980 following a worldwide immunization campaign.
Read More...
Explosion at Russian research lab that stores smallpox virus
Current News
The Man Running America’s Biggest City Just Threatened to Arrest an Israeli PM. Let That Sink In.
Zohran Mamdani, who took office as New York City’s mayor earlier this year, told reporters he was in “active conversation” with the city’s Law Department about whether to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister sets foot in New York. No federal charges. Read more
The Vandals Are Here, and They Came From Within
A recent Gallup survey found American pride at a record low. Not a polling artifact, not a margin-of-error quirk — a historic nadir in the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as “extremely proud” of their country. Read more
Degrees Without Merit: How the Long March Through Institutions Is Producing Frauds in Lab Coats
Trump Told You Iran Doesn’t Keep Deals. The Burning Tankers Prove It
Pentagon-DOJ Task Force to Hunt and Prosecute National Security Leakers ‘With the Full Force of the Law’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday that the Pentagon has established a joint task force with the Department of Justice to identify and criminally prosecute government officials who leak sensitive national security information to journalists, according to a statement from the Defense Department. Read more
Fire on the Water: Thucydides, the Hormuz Strait, and America’s Test of Will
Thucydides, writing of the protracted struggle between Athens and Sparta in the fifth century before Christ, observed that nations go to war not for the stated reasons of justice or grievance, but because of fear, honor, and interest — Read more