Russia Plague Mystery Grows, Fort Hood Killer Gets Firing Squad, Major France Unrest: AM Update 10/7

Good morning everyone, I'm Tom Bevin, co-host of RealClear Politics on the Megan Kelly Channel. It's Wednesday, October 7, 2026, and this is your AM update. Any time you hear that there's some disease that infected someone in a lab anywhere in the world, you're going to be concerned about it. New questions surrounding Russia's mysterious plague scare as US officials press Moscow for answers about what happened inside a Siberian research lab. President Trump approving a firing squad for the Fort Hood killer, setting up the US military first execution in 65 years. France rocked by its biggest student protests in decades, hundreds of thousands in the streets, schools set on fire, thousands arrested, and growing questions over whether the far left is hijacking the unrest. And NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens hit with a federal defamation lawsuit related to Nolan Wells, all that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update. 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The midterms are going to be here before you know it. So try to do it sooner rather than later. Text MK to 989898 today. A new and still unconfirmed report raising more questions about the possible plague scare in Russia has local media claiming a second person has died in the Irkutsk region. The Daily Mail report citing Russian media saying the unidentified person died at an Irkutsk district hospital after allegedly contracting plague. A claim Russian authorities have not confirmed. It comes four days after 28-year-old researcher Daria Sheepalova died after working at Siberia's anti-plague institute. Russian officials insisting her death was caused by pneumonia of unknown origin and that no plague has been detected. Still, nearly 200 people who may have come into contact with Sheepalova have reportedly been placed under medical observation or quarantine. Even as Moscow maintains there is no confirmed plague cases. At the same time, some Russian news organizations reporting about the suspected outbreak has been disappearing. Independent Russian outlet The Insider reporting federal network REN-TV deleted all five of its posts about plague in the region. Al-Khamersont removed a both a telegram post and an online article referring to US concerns about a possible outbreak. CNN meanwhile reporting on new disease control measures at a maternity hospital in the region. A 29-year-old woman telling the outlet she was forced to switch hospitals at 40 weeks pregnant after new quarantine restrictions prevented her husband from being with her during labor. She says staff checked her temperature, examined her tongue, required a mask and hand sanitizer and gave her a questionnaire titled "checklist for suspected highly dangerous infectious disease plague." Now, international pressure mounts on Russia to explain exactly what happened at that laboratory. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking Tuesday during a press event in Iceland. Any time you hear that there's some disease that infected someone in a lab anywhere in the world, you're going to be concerned about it, especially given recent events not so long ago. That said, it would be irresponsible for me to sit and speculate because we just don't have all the information yet. I think it's incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world and the more we can learn about what happened, then the better all of us can be in a position of responding. But I think it would be reckless at this moment, given the limit information we still have, to speculate about what this might or might not be or what this is or what this isn't. Secretary Rubio's call for more transparency coming as the specific facility where she beloved worked draws scrutiny of its own. Senator journalist Annie Jacobson, author of Biological War a Scenario, and a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist, telling PBS NewsHour on Monday, the Institute has a history extending well-beyond ordinary public health research. This is an anti-plague institute, so they're supposed to be studying medical countermeasures to plague, like vaccines, antibiotics. But this particular institute we know from Soviet defector scientists was used for biological weapons engineering during their illegal program. We also know the State Department believes that that illegal biological weapons program has continued, and so what they're really worried about is what is going on. I mean, look, the facility has six foot high fences around it. It's got concertina wire on top of that. It's controlled in and out. The idea that this worker broke a test tube and suddenly contracted pneumonic plague, which is inhalation plague, that does not entirely add up for somebody like me. What I would be most concerned about is that they're kind of one idea is that they could be milling the pathogen, making it aerosolized. That gets you right into the world of biological weapons engineering. Neumonic plague infects the lungs and spreads through respiratory droplets. The World Health Organization warning the disease can become deadly quickly without treatment. Naturally, he's raising questions about how easily he can spread compared with COVID. Jacobson explaining the difference and why a modified pathogen could behave differently. COVID was airborne. It was aerosolized. You could catch it in the air if you were in the room with someone that had COVID. Neumonic plague, again, mother nature's variant, that is, pneumonic plague in the wild, is what's called droplet transmissible. So, excuse the graphics here, but you have to actually kind of spit on someone or cough loudly at them. And you would also have to be very sick to be doing that, which would make the likelihood of your close proximity without some kind of PPE unusual. But if genetic modifications are going on, all bets are off as to how transmissible it could potentially be. For now, the World Health Organization saying there's no sign of a wider outbreak. Russia telling the WHO no plague cases have been confirmed, while none of Shipolova's identified contacts have developed symptoms according to Reuters. The WHO assessing the risk as "moderate to low" in the region and "low elsewhere" in Russia and "very low" for Europe. Russian authorities saying about 60% of Shipolova's contacts have been tested so far, finding two cases of COVID and two Rhinovirus infections but no plague. The CDC, meanwhile, saying it is closely monitoring the situation, but sees no broader threat to the United States at this time. President Trump approving death by firing squad for the former Army psychiatrist who murdered 13 people at Ford Hood in Texas in 2009, setting the stage for what would be the US military's first execution in 65 years. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommending the firing squad for former Army Major Nadal Hassan, President Trump now giving his approval. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announcing the decision Monday, saying the Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Parnell writing, quote, "judgment day for Hassan has finally come." Hassan opening fire inside Ford Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center on November 5, 2009, targeting soldiers preparing for deployment overseas. This is saying Hassan shattered Alu Akbar before beginning the attack, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others. Hassan then following fleeing soldiers outside where civilian Ford Hood police officers Kimberly Munley and Mark Todd confronted him. Munley wounded during an exchange of gunfire, Todd shooting Hassan and bringing the rampage to an end. Investigators later testifying that Hassan still had 177 un-fired rounds in his weapons and extra magazines when he was captured, along with the second handgun he never used. Hassan left paralyzed from the waist down when he was subdued, now using a wheelchair. The Army psychiatrist had been preparing for his own deployment to Afghanistan later that month. Hassan later acknowledging in court that he carried out the attack, saying he believed he had been on the wrong side of a war against Islam and wanted to protect Taliban fighters from the U.S. military. A military panel convicting Hassan in August 2013 on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, then unanimously sentencing him to death. His case spending more than a decade moving through the military appeals process. The Supreme Court declining last year to hear his challenge to the conviction. Under military law, however, a death sentence cannot be carried out until it's personally approved by the President. That approval now coming from President Trump, beginning a process the military has not completed since the Kennedy administration. The last U.S. service member executed by the military was Army Private John Bennett, hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on April 13, 1961, after being convicted of rape and attempted murder. The military's last known execution by firing squad going back even further, to November 1945, when an execution was carried out by what military records described as "musketry". Thanks, Quads. Also, remember to subscribe to the channel. And don't forget to click the bell icon to get notifications of all the latest updates. remaining exceedingly rare outside the military. South Carolina carrying out three firing squad executions last year, the first anywhere in the United States since Utah used the method in 2010. The SON can still pursue a federal habeas challenge and seek a stay of execution. Coming up, France's student unrest spiraling, thousands arrested, schools damaged, and questions growing over the far-left role in the protests, and NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens facing a federal defamation lawsuit after publicly calling for the arrest of three young men already cleared of criminal wrongdoing in the Nolan Wells case. I want to talk to you about Cozy Earth. This is the most luxurious thing you can do for yourself. Just go on their website, search around, and buy anything. The quality is that good. I am telling you this from my own personal experience. This thing's been a game changer in my life. When it comes to making the bed and the couch, infinitely more comfortable, my sleepwear, everything. They're towels like these guys. 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With their 100-night sleep trial, not to mention a 10-year warranty, okay, so you can sleep on this thing for 100 nights. And if you don't want it after that, and you think it hasn't worked out, send it back in for a full refund. Go to Cozy Earth.com, use the code Megan-AM for up to 20% off home and sleepwear. That's Cozy Earth.com, the code Megan-AM. And when they ask you where you heard about them at checkout, tell them you heard about them on AM update. France now dealing with its biggest student protest movement in decades. Hundreds of thousands taking to the streets Tuesday as demonstrations that began at a single high school outside Paris spread across the country in barely two weeks. France is an interior ministry estimating 256,000 people joining demonstrations nationwide, including 56,000 in Paris. And organizers claiming the number was even higher at roughly 450,000. The unrest reportedly beginning September 17 at a high school in the Paris suburb of Critey. Students joining striking teachers demanding more staff and resources. The school eventually getting additional workers ending its strike, but similar protests already beginning to erupt at other schools around Paris before spreading nationwide. More than 1,200 schools becoming involved at the height of the unrest. This complaining of teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, crumbling buildings, and classes cancelled because absent teachers are not being replaced according to Reuters. Here in Translated Footage, French students telling Fox News why they're protesting. Enough is enough. We can't just sit back and take it anymore, and that we truly want to demand certain essential things that are absolutely necessary in a high school. The demonstration is increasingly spilling far beyond peaceful school protests. Traskans, desks, and barricades set on fire. Police confronting groups of protesters with tear gas, batons, and riot control weapons. The school partially burned in Nantes, another damage by fire in La Javra. While protesters outside Marseille High School reportedly forcing firefighters from their truck before setting the vehicle ablaze, Reuters reporting approximately 6,100 people arrested since the unrest began. Most of them teenagers, while at least 215 young people, 85 school employees, and more than 700 police officers have been injured. The explosion of violence feeling questions of whether the student movement is being hijacked by outside political groups. Minister Sebastian Lakornu, accusing France unbound or LFI of what he called its far-left proxies of helping orchestrate the unrest. His office pointing to French intelligence reporting to make the case. LFIs, the country's main hard-left party, led by presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is reportedly strong support among young voters. LFI denying it orchestrated the protests, insisting it supports peaceful demonstrations and accusing the government of trying to discredit students rather than address their complaints. President Trump now weighing in, rejecting the premise that the unrest is fundamentally about France's schools. The President writing on true social yesterday quote, "What's happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration. This isn't about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great country." NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens facing a federal defamation lawsuit from three young men who were investigated but never charged in connection with the death of Nolan Wells. Wells disappearing during a fourth of July boat trip to Horn Island in Mississippi. His body found in the water two days later. According to the complaint, about 30 friends traveling to Horn Island by boat on that day. Wells staying behind telling his friends he wanted to talk to a girl at the end of the outing. Three of the friends in the group, Warren Hudson, Jack Spitalo, and Morgan Seymour, who are all under the age of 21, later becoming the focus of online accusations surrounding Wells's death. The young men say they left Wells's phone on one of the boats, calling authorities once they realized he had not returned. All three deny ever touching or tampering with Wells's phone. A Jackson County grand jury clearing the three young men and all others of any criminal wrongdoing on September 21st. Five days later Owens posting a link on X to an Instagram video by social media producer Trent Out Loud accusing the three of murder and of deleting messages from Wells's phone. Along with a video, Owens writing in all caps quote, "Arrest them immediately like yesterday." The post containing a picture of the three young men. The suit filed Monday in the Southern District of Mississippi by the fathers of Hudson, Pitalo, and Seymour, arguing Owens went further than just sharing that video, saying his call for immediate arrest was his own independent statement. The complaint was filed by the fathers because under Mississippi law, minors are anyone under the age of 21. On the suit, quote, "Defident Owens excels at attracting attention to himself, often for the wrong reasons. He is best known for his flamboyant celebrations after scoring touchdowns and divisive locker-room behavior during his pro football career. Owens has once again attracted attention to himself for all the wrong reasons. Here, the three friends telling Fox News last week the number of threats they've received since the beginning of this case is in the thousands. Thousands. I mean, not just me, but my stepmom's a chance for court judge and she goes to her office every day and there's boys, males, hundreds, thousands. Not just my stepmom, but my mom, my dad, my step-dad, my entire family. Like I said, it's okay to talk about me, but they've dragged my family into this. They've dragged my closest friends into this and they've dragged amazing people all across the board into this that do not deserve this at all." Jack, have you received threats? Yes, ma'am. I've received plenty, plenty, plenty of death threats, like bomb threats in the mail, like I said, every day we're getting death threats. Morgan. Seven. All three. All three. Death threats. Owens has yet to respond publicly to the lawsuit. The three men are seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial. One of their attorneys, Ed Paltzick, writing on X quote, "This important moment marks the milestone first of many suits that we will file on behalf of completely innocent young men." That'll do it for your AM update. I'm Tom Bevin of Rookler Politics. Catch the Megan Kelly Show today. Live on Series XM's The Megan Kelly Channel 111 at Noon East. 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