US'watching closely' after plague researcher dies in Russia, Rubio says To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The US says it is closely monitoring the case of a Russian lab technician who died at a plague research centre in Siberia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was concern the incident could have led to the spread of pneumonic plague, but that there was no cause for alarm. Announcing the cause of death as pneumonia of undetermined etiology, Irkutsk's governor said that no micro-organisms linked to the woman's work had been found in her biological samples. Unconfirmed reports had suggested the woman fell ill either after breaking a test tube containing the pathogen or following a field trip to a region where plague is found naturally among wild rodents. No other cases of staff from the plague institute seeking medical attention since her death had been reported, Irkutsk governor Igor Kobzev said, quoting Russia's consumer and health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor.

Sen. Chris Murphy met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, pushing for an end to the war with Iran and a pathway to a Palestinian state during a Middle East trip.

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What prompted the US bombers to leave RAF Fairford? The unexpected mass withdrawal of America's heavy bombers happened so suddenly on Sunday that it has got everyone wondering what prompted it. An abundance of caution, says US Vice-President JD Vance, adding that Washington felt Iran was doing what it has done for 49 years... which is engage in acts of terrorism against the US and against a lot of other people. An abundance of panic is how others have seen it. For the last seven months, America's B-1 Lancer bombers and other aircraft have been operating out of Fairford to strike the Iranian missile launch sites.

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Former "American Idol" contestant Caleb Flynn faces sentencing in Miami County, Ohio, after a jury convicted him on all nine charges in wife Ashley Flynn's murder.

Image caption, Defence secretary Pete Hegseth has publicly criticised Anthropic's boss Dario Amodei The US Department of Defence is no longer using Anthropic's AI tools, an official has told the BBC, months after it designated the company a supply chain risk on national security grounds. The Pentagon has ceased the use of Anthropic products, the department official said in a statement. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth labelled Anthropic a supply chain risk in February, and announced that the Pentagon would stop using it by late August. But multiple people familiar with the matter told the BBC that as recently as last week Anthopic's Claude model was still used by the department in research, analysis and intelligence gathering as well as in military operations against Iran. It was viewed as a critical tool for sorting through vast quantities of information, the people said.

Zelensky condemns'horrific' Russian strike on boat carrying corn in Black Sea Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned a horrific Russian attack on a vessel carrying corn in the Black Sea. The ship's captain was killed in the strike involving two drones, Zelensky said, and another sailor was unaccounted for. Eleven crew members - nationals of Azerbaijan and India - have been rescued. Romania said it had mounted a rescue mission after a fire on the ship Royad Mammadov outside the country's territorial waters. It said two people had died.

Twelve men have been arrested in Vietnam after allegedly confessing to stealing and selling around 2,700 cats, Ho Chi Minh City police have said. Cat traps, fur removal machines and measuring scales were among the items seized during the investigation. The men are suspected of taking the pets to be slaughtered for food. Police allege the suspects roamed through residential areas in small groups on motorbikes at night to steal the cats. The men reportedly used pieces of fish as bait, placing traps outside houses where they knew cats were kept, state media reported.

Tensions exposed among Greens by'Zionism is racism' conference vote It is not exactly typical for a British party conference, let alone that of one of the smaller parties, to elicit international condemnation. Yet that is the position the Green Party of England and Wales is in today after Israel's foreign ministry said it was banning their leader, Zack Polanski, from entering the country. The cause was the motion proposed by party members and adopted by the conference on Sunday, declaring Zionism, which is the belief in the right to a Jewish homeland, to be racism. The Green motion describes Zionism as an ideology supporting an ethnonationalist Jewish state, and supports instead a single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine. It's hardly likely that Polanski or indeed many Greens are going to be much troubled by Israel's condemnation of the motion.