4 entries tagged russia. All writing.
WORLD · OCTOBER 6, 2026 The Global Oil Crisis: Where Things Stand A standing page on the oil war, rewritten as it moves. As of October 10: Gulf crude exports recovered to around pre-war levels in September, by pipeline and by shuttle tanker rather than through an open strait, but tanker attacks hit a wartime high in early October; Brent settled at $104.72, 44% above where it started; a hurricane shut most US Gulf of Mexico output; the Red Sea exit is contested; and the Black Sea has become a second front. WORLD · OCTOBER 5, 2026 Siberia Plague Death: What We Know, What's Disputed, What Would Change the Picture A standing page on the death of an Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute lab worker, rewritten as the story moves. As of October 10 the story has gone quiet: Irkutsk lifted its quarantine on October 8 after nearly 5,000 negative lab tests, no second case has been confirmed and Russia calls the second-case reports incorrect, but the official cause is still "pneumonia of unknown origin" and the WHO is still asking which pathogen killed her. WORLD · OCTOBER 2, 2026 The Institute Built to Prevent This Had the Accident A 28-year-old lab worker at Russia's Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute died October 1 of suspected pneumonic plague, and nearly 200 people who had contact with her are now under medical observation. Officials haven't settled on how she was exposed — a broken test tube in the lab, or a recent trip near an active natural outbreak on the Mongolian border — and that gap matters more than the headline. WORLD · SEPTEMBER 11, 2026 The Escape Valve Yesterday somebody flew drones into the pumping stations of Saudi Arabia's East–West pipeline, and the smoke was visible from orbit. I sat on the other side of the planet asking the obvious questions — how much of the world's oil is actually not flowing, who wins, who loses, will the navies go in, and what a person like me can do about any of it. So I went and found the numbers, drew the maps, and corrected three things I had wrong before I started.