Without providing evidence, the Kremlin is pressing allegations that the U.S. operates labs in Ukraine and beyond. This week, it has called an investigative session in Geneva.
The United States secretly manufactured biological weapons in Ukraine. It trained birds to carry pathogens into Russia. It created Covid-19. It operated laboratories in Nigeria that engineered this year’s outbreak of monkeypox.
Of the many falsehoods that the Kremlin has spread since the war in Ukraine began more than six months ago, some of the most outlandish and yet enduring have been those accusing the United States of operating clandestine biological research programs to wreak havoc around the globe.
The United States and others have dismissed the accusations as preposterous, and Russia has offered no proof. Yet the claims continue to circulate. Backed at times by China’s diplomats and state media, they have ebbed and flowed in international news reports, fueling conspiracy theories that linger online.
In Geneva this week, Russia has commanded an international forum to air its unsupported assertions again. The Biological Weapons Convention, the international treaty that since 1975 has barred the development and use of weapons made of biological toxins or pathogens, gives member nations the authority to request a formal hearing of violations, and Russia has invoked the first one in a quarter-century.
“This is the military biological Pandora’s box, which the United States has opened and filled...
Who: Plaintiff John Gay filed a class action lawsuit against SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Inc. Why: Gay claims SeaWorld sent emails that contained misleading subject lines to Washington r...