Trump Says He'll Discuss Possible Plague Case With Putin

President Trump on Tuesday said he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a possible case of plague at a Siberian research institute. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he would be talking with Putin about the case "very soon," the AP reports. Health authorities are investigating after the death of an employee at an anti-plague institute, which authorities attributed to pneumonia with an unknown cause. Asked what the US intelligence community was saying about the case, Trump said the US is in "very deep discussions" on the topic. "We'll be able to report about it, probably tomorrow," Trump said.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters during a visit to Iceland, said the US is watching the situation closely but Russia needs to be transparent, Politico reports. "It would would be irresponsible for me here to sit and speculate because we just don't have all the information yet," he said. "I think it's incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world. That's what they should do. That's what we hope they will do. And the more we can learn about what happened, the better all of us can be in a position of responding."
• The World Health Organization on Tuesday said the case presents a "very low" risk outside Russia. The United Nations agency said it was in contact with Russian authorities following reports of the death last week of a woman who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. Russia says there was no accident at the lab and no plague cases have been confirmed.

• On Monday, Trump said the US would be willing to help Russia with the situation. "It's a rough disease. You know, that's a disease we used to be able to control, but somehow those microbes have gotten stronger and smarter. They're like an army," Trump told reporters at the White House.
• The Putin call also comes as the Trump administration faces an Oct. 18 deadline to decide which Russian entities, if any, it will sanction under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which Trump signed into law on Sept. 18. Ukraine has given the administration and Congress a wish list of Russian companies, vessels and individuals it would like to see hit with US sanctions under that law.