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The new US Annual Threat Assessment and what it writes about CBW threats: dni.gov/files/ODNI/doc…

#BiologicalWeapons #HybridWarfare #Biosecurity #China #USA Two Illegal Biolabs Reveal Gaps in U.S. Biosecurity lawfaremedia.org/article/two-il… Last month, law enforcement officials launched an investigation into a suspected biolab in the Las Vegas home of Chinese national Zhu Jia Bei. Two years prior, Zhu had been arrested and indicted for his involvement with a similarly unauthorized biolab in Reedley, California. He also maintains extensive connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Zhu may not be alone: CCP-linked biolabs on American soil raise serious concerns about foreign surveillance, intellectual property theft, and deliberate threats to public health and national security. Zhu’s story brings to light an uncomfortable truth: U.S. policymakers seem to have little understanding of how many unauthorized biolabs are operating in the United States. They are unprepared to counter the biological hazards such labs may produce, putting Americans’ safety at risk. Policymakers must take immediate action to protect Americans and strengthen federal oversight of unauthorized biological research activity. [...]

New book about Canada's contribution to BW research in the Second World War labibleurbaine.com/litterature/le…

#ChemicalWeapons #BiologicalWeapons #Toxins #Epibatidine #Navalny Toxins Are Not an Escalating Global Threat almauroni.substack.com/p/toxins-are-n… [...] Here’s my problem with the panel and their fishing expedition on describing the imminent threat of toxins. There’s no question that nation-states and sub-state groups can use toxins to advance their political objectives. We can agree to disagree as to the scale and impact of that threat, but certainly there are many other colorful ways through which authoritarian nations or radical groups can coerce, injure, or kill political targets or public figures. This should not lead to the conclusion that the U.S. government lacks particular capabilities or is at high risk because of this unique weapon type. [...] You won’t get that perspective from the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense. For the most part, they didn’t ask any interesting or penetrating questions to identify policy issues, because they already knew what they wanted to say. They told us days before the panel met, as I mentioned above. This was a public demonstration meant to demonstrate concern but not to develop serious policy initiatives that could actually reduce the risk of toxin use. That’s because between the intelligence community, law enforcement, and the military services, the U.S. government can already address adversaries who cause deliberate biological attacks through current processes. Funding the CDC to better perform health surveillance is not a mystery. It would be an easy win for Congress to better fund the FDA and USDA to regulate food and crop industries, but they haven’t done that. That’s why I find this Commission frustrating, because given its membership and their past association with Congress, they already know this. So why the security theater? Because Big Pharma needs a public show? [...]

🚨Out now! The new research article in Defense & Security Analysis by @DrAlexKelle and Malcolm R. Dando explores biodefence as a challenge to global norms against biological and toxin weapons and suggests a potential solution. Read the full paper here: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

'State-sponsored assassinations, like the case of Navalny, play a prominent role in international politics. Assassinations via poisonings are no different.' write @bwiedwards and Dr Luca Trenta in the latest #RUSICommentary. rusi.org/explore-our-re…

#BiologicalWeapons #ArtificialIntelligence #Governance The Continued Overreaction to AI and Biotech almauroni.substack.com/p/the-continue… Here we go again. There seems to be no end of articles warning as to the impending use of artificial intelligence by disgruntled loners or violent groups to create the next pandemic or a novel bioengineered weapon using equipment bought on Amazon in their garage. I’m generally a skeptic at this point in time, after reviewing many stories as to the inadequacy of AI-generated products. Sure, these AI tools can do some pretty wild deep fakes and videos of things that never happened. But will they be the source for someone to unleash a new biological weapon? If so, what do we do about it? [...]

Countering Iran’s Covert Chemical Weapons Program share.google/w6bh7mEiqsppTL…

#BiologicalWeapons #Navalny #Poisoning #Russia #Toxin #Epibatidine Why Russia may have turned to dart‑frog toxin epibatidine to poison Navalny france24.com/en/europe/2026… [...] Mark Galeotti, a Russia security expert and director of the London-based think tank Mayak Intelligence, said that for Russia, the alleged poisoning would also have been a way of reminding the world that "they have had a laboratory working on poisons for decades”, and that it is capable of producing “new and more interesting and more complex toxins and venoms". Galeotti said the Russians may have had dual motives in opting for such an unusual poison as epibatidine. “On the one hand they're happy for people to think that Navalny was poisoned because that sends out a warning,” showing not only what the Kremlin is capable of, but the lengths to which it is swilling to go. “But on the other hand, by using something more exotic, maybe they hoped the details would never actually come to light.” [...]

Genetic data classified - Putin blocks access to Russians’ DNA records | RBC-Ukraine share.google/CIcTcPHcVa9YxL…

Russia calls it the ‘nonsense with a frog.’ The Navalny assassination is actually another chemical weapons violation thebulletin.org/?p=129486 via @BulletinAtomic

#BiologicalWeapon #ChemicalWeapon #Toxin #Assassination #Russia #OPCW What is epibatidine, and how did it kill Navalny? A guide to the frog neurotoxin that five countries say poisoned Russia’s opposition leader. meduza.io/en/cards/what-… [...] Epibatidine is a potent neurotoxin that disrupts nerve cell function. Epibatidine accumulates in the skin of Epipedobates frogs, which are native to Ecuador and Peru, protecting the animals from predators. Epibatidine is far more effective as a painkiller than morphine. However, the gap between an effective dose and a toxic one is so narrow that researchers abandoned it as a potential drug in the 1990s. Scientists — including some in Russia — have since explored safer derivatives. In animal studies, toxic doses of epibatidine have caused elevated blood pressure, convulsions, respiratory arrest, and death. Documented human exposure to epibatidine is extremely rare. The first known case occurred in 2010, when a laboratory worker who had handled the substance developed hives and sought medical attention. He survived after treatment with antihistamines. At higher doses, epibatidine poisoning would likely resemble nicotine poisoning, producing symptoms such as confusion, wheezing, vomiting, tremors, muscle twitching, impaired coordination, agitation, and lethargy. Death may occur before the full range of symptoms develops. [...]

#BiologicalWeapon #ChemicalWeapon #Toxin #Assassination #Russia #OPCW #Novichok #Armament Toxin used to poison Alexei Navalny was synthesized at the same institute that created the Novichok nerve agent theins.ru/en/news/289394 [...] GosNIIOKhT has previously figured in investigations related to the “Novichok” series of chemical nerve agents, military-grade poisons that were said to have been synthesized at the institute’s Saratov branch. Agents of the Novichok variety were used in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018 and of Navalny himself in Russia in August 2020. In 2020 and 2021, GosNIIOKhT was added to sanctions lists by the European Union, United Kingdom, and the United States. The news of epibatidine having been present in the opposition leader’s body broke during the Munich Security Conference. [...]

Why are safety concerns being raised inside Porton Down, Britain’s nerve centre of chemical and biological research? share.google/3u1eVqOeBqLNWG…

Notice how I have provided to timeline for this ? The bitter fruits of experience.

From the Norwegian Intelligence Service’s annual report Focus: etterretningstjenesten.no/publikasjoner/…

#Biodefence #DiseaseSurveillance #PublicHealth #USA Protecting Americans from Biological Threats csis.org/analysis/prote… [ #OpenSource - PDF available] Congress and the executive branch have a responsibility to defend the United States against a growing range of biological risks from natural, accidental, and deliberate origins. These threats can affect humans as well as U.S. agricultural industries. In the fall of 2025, the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security (CSIS Bipartisan Alliance) launched a working group to develop a prioritized list of critical, near-term policy solutions to address gaps in U.S. biodefense capabilities. The working group identified strategic risks that could be quickly mitigated, examined numerous preexisting biodefense reviews, and generated a prioritized set of practical recommendations for the U.S. government to modernize biosurveillance, ensure biosafety and biosecurity, reverse the decline of the biodefense enterprise, and strengthen response and recovery. Together, these commonsense, immediate actions provide a vision for a feasible and affordable bipartisan path forward to improve U.S. biopreparedness.

#BiologicalWeapons #Threat #Warfare #Preparedness #HealthSecurity #HybridWarfare #Disinformation Failing crops, mystery deaths and no warning: How a bioweapon attack would unfold inews.co.uk/opinion/failin… @FilippaLentzos [...] Unlike conventional attacks, a biological incident does not announce itself. An outbreak may be natural, accidental or deliberate, and early data rarely offer clarity. The difficulty of attribution slows political judgment, fragments intelligence assessments and limits credible retaliation. A state does not need to prove it has deployed a weapon; it only needs to create doubt. This feeds back into information warfare. Rumours of laboratory leaks, targeted infections or government concealment can spread faster than any pathogen. Disinformation exploits fear and uncertainty, undermining trust in institutions precisely when public co-operation is most needed. In such conditions, the informational impact of disease may outweigh its medical consequences. [...]