World
FBI director says China laboratory leak was likely COVID source
FBI Director Christopher Wray accuses China of thwarting efforts to determine the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak.
FBI Director Christopher Wray says his company has assessed {that a} leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the doubtless reason behind the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wray’s feedback comply with a Wall Avenue Journal report on Sunday that the US Power Division had assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.
“The FBI has for fairly a while now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most certainly a possible lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray instructed Fox Information on Tuesday.
4 different US companies, together with a nationwide intelligence panel, consider that the pandemic was doubtless the results of pure transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported.
White Home nationwide safety spokesman John Kirby additionally stated on Monday that the US authorities had not reached a definitive conclusion and consensus on the pandemic’s origins.
Wray additionally instructed Fox Information that China had thwarted efforts to determine the origin of the virus. However investigations had been nonetheless ongoing, he stated, including that he was at the moment unable to share “a complete lot of particulars which are categorised”.
“I’ll simply make the commentary that the Chinese language authorities … has been doing its finest to attempt to thwart and obfuscate the work right here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our US authorities and shut overseas companions are doing,” he stated.
The FBI later tweeted the director’s feedback.
As we speak, #FBI Director Christopher Wray sat down with FOX Information for a wide-ranging interview, discussing threats and Bureau’s dedication to defending the American individuals. pic.twitter.com/l0D0yYeCpR
— FBI (@FBI) March 1, 2023
China’s overseas ministry, requested to touch upon the Wall Avenue Journal report, referred to a joint report by the World Well being Group and China that pointed in direction of a pure origin for the pandemic somewhat than a lab leak.
“On the origins-tracing of SARS-CoV-2, China has been open and clear, and shared info and information on COVID-19 with the worldwide group in a well timed method,” China’s overseas ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated on Tuesday.
“China is the one nation that has invited greater than as soon as WHO knowledgeable teams to come back into the nation to conduct joint origins examine. China has shared extra information and analysis findings on SARS-CoV-2 origins examine than another nation,” she stated.
Mao additionally stated the US ought to have a look at its personal organic laboratories scattered internationally.
“It’s the US who ought to reply to the world’s questions and considerations over Fort Detrick and its army and organic labs internationally,” she stated.
“By politicising the difficulty, the US won’t reach discrediting China. As a substitute, it can solely damage the US’s personal credibility.”
The WHO’s world COVID-19 trackers reported that, as of February 21, there had been greater than 757 million virus infections and 6.85 million associated deaths.
World
Police charge three people with death of One Direction star Liam Payne
Toxicology tests show One Direction star had cocaine, prescription drugs and alcohol in his system.
Three people have been charged over the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne’s death, according to the Argentine prosecutor’s office.
Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he died, authorities said in a statement.
They have charged someone close to Payne, a hotel employee, and a suspected drug dealer, it was announced on Thursday.
All three are accused of playing a role in giving Payne the drugs. The person who was visiting with Payne is also charged with “abandonment of a person followed by death”, authorities said. They are not naming those who have been charged.
Fall from balcony
Payne, who had a child, died at the age of 31 after falling from a third-floor balcony on October 16 in Buenos Aires. He died from multiple injuries caused by the fall. His body was found in the hotel’s internal courtyard.
Payne was a member of the popular boy band One Direction, formed in 2010 after its members, Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, had auditioned as solo acts for the television show The X-Factor.
The band was created by the show’s judge, Simon Cowell and shot to international fame. The group had been on hiatus since 2016 as the band members pursued solo careers.
‘Breakdown’
Initial police investigations showed Payne was alone in his room and experiencing a “breakdown”.
Following his death, police found substances in his hotel room, such as packs of clonazepam, a central nervous system depressant, energy supplements and other over-the-counter drugs strewn among his belongings.
Authorities also recovered a whiskey bottle, lighter and mobile phone from the internal courtyard where Payne’s body was found.
In recent years, Payne had acknowledged struggling with alcoholism, saying in a YouTube video posted in July 2023 that he had been sober for six months after receiving treatment.
Payne’s death sparked an outpouring of grief from his fans and fellow band members.
The Casa Sur hotel in Buenos Aires, where he died, has become a place for Payne’s fans to pay their respects. They have left flowers, candles and photos of the singer in a makeshift shrine around a tree at the hotel’s entrance.
Payne had travelled to Argentina to see former One Direction bandmate Niall Horan in concert two weeks before he died.
World
French Watchdog Probes Polymarket, Where Trader Won Big on Trump Bet
World
Israel takes hard line against terrorists, allowing deportation of family members
A new law in Israel allows for the deportation of family members of Palestinian attackers, including Israelis, to the Gaza Strip or another location.
Passed by Israel’s parliament, known officially as Knesset, early on Thursday with a 61-41 vote, the law was championed by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his far-right allies. Deportation of a terrorist’s immediate family member could be ordered by the interior minister authority following a hearing, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Family members who had advance knowledge of an attack and failed to report it to police or “expressed support or identification with an act of terrorism or published words of praise, sympathy or encouragement for an act of terrorism or a terrorist organization” would be subject to the law, The Times of Israel reports.
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They would be deported for a period of seven to 20 years. The Israel-Hamas war is still raging in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed and most of the population has been internally displaced, often multiple times.
Legal experts believe that any attempt to implement the law would likely lead to it being struck down by Israeli courts.
“The bottom line is this is completely nonconstitutional and a clear conflict to Israel’s core values,” Eran Shamir-Borer, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former international law expert for the Israeli military, told the Associated Press.
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It is unclear if the law will apply in the occupied West Bank, where Israel already has a long-standing policy of demolishing the family homes of attackers. Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years.
Palestinians living in Israel make up around 20% of the country’s population. They have citizenship and the right to vote but face widespread discrimination. Many also have close family ties to those in the territories and most sympathize with the Palestinian cause.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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