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The six countries included in the bill are China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, Warner said. "This competition with China around who dominates technology domains, that really is where the nexus of national security lies going forward," Warner said. Warner said the bill is not solely meant to address TikTok, and rather should create a "systemic approach" that prevents the need for one-off actions. "A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide. We hope that Congress will explore solutions to their national security concerns that won't have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans."

☆ China scoffs at FBI claim that Wuhan lab leak likely caused COVID pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - The FBI has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan likely caused the COVID pandemic, director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday, a claim China said had "no credibility whatsoever". "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News. His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported. The virus was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019 before spreading round the world and killing nearly 7 million people.

☆ 'Havana syndrome' not caused by foreign adversary, U.S. intel finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Jonathan Landay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The mysterious syndrome, first reported by U.S. officials in the Cuban capital Havana in 2016, has afflicted U.S. diplomats, intelligence officers and other U.S. personnel worldwide. The investigation also did not find common medical explanations for all of the different symptoms reported or common circumstances, according to intelligence officials. The declassified assessment said the seven U.S intelligence agencies that conducted the investigation had varying levels of confidence in the judgments. "We cannot tie a foreign adversary to any incident," said one of two U.S. intelligence officials who briefed reporters on the investigation. U.S intelligence agencies found confusion among foreign foes over the issue, according to the briefing.

☆ Fact Check-Altered clip of Joe Biden questioning whether media ‘bought’ his speech on aerial objects
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The clip appears to be digitally altered, however, as no such off-cam audio can be heard in the official White House stream. The original video comes from an address livestreamed by the White House via YouTube on Feb. 16, viewable (bit.ly/3IFx1x1). The White House footage shows Biden walking out to reporters’ questions, but no off-mic comments by the president can be heard. A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An official White House stream does not show Biden making an off-camera comment questioning whether reporters “bought” his remarks on recently downed aerial objects.

☆ Lawmakers Seek More Information on Biden, Trump Classified Documents Following Briefing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Sadie Gurman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Mark Warner (D., Va.) and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) said they still had questions following their Tuesday meeting with intelligence officials. WASHINGTON—Top lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee said they would continue to press for information about the classified documents that ended up in the personal possession of two presidents, after a Tuesday briefing from U.S. officials “left much to be desired.”The meeting with officials from the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and intelligence community “helped shed some light on these issues,” Chairman Mark Warner (D., Va.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), the panel’s vice chairman, said in a statement, adding that they would “continue to press for full answers to our questions.”

Wray's comments Tuesday came after Baier noted that the Energy Department had cited the FBI's earlier findings in its report. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said earlier Tuesday that China has "always been open and transparent" about Covid. In its assessment, the Energy Department also described the "likely" laboratory-related leak as an "accident," the official added. The Energy Department is one of 18 government departments and agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said, "China obviously is very threatened by this," but "the lab leak story is not anti-Chinese.

☆ US must push China to be honest about COVID origins, US envoy says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns on Monday said Washington must push Beijing to be more honest about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Burns' comments come after the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies. The Energy Department did not respond to a request for comment. Four other U.S. agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided, the Wall Street Journal reported. "Certain parties should stop rehashing the 'lab leak' narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the origins-tracing issue," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) - China must be more honest about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. ambassador to China said on Monday, after reports that the U.S. Energy Department concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak. The Wall Street Journal first reported on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies. The department made its judgment with "low confidence" in a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress, the Journal said, citing people who had read the intelligence report. President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday there were a "variety of views in the intelligence community" on the pandemic's origins. "Certain parties should stop rehashing the 'lab leak' narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the origins-tracing issue," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, on Sunday called for "extensive public hearings" if the U.S. intelligence community conclusively determines that Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese laboratory. The committee is "reviewing the classified information provided," the spokesperson said. "There is a variety of views in the intelligence community. Some elements of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other. "But right now, there is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question."

☆ A newly reported classified US government missive on the lab leak theory shows we still don't know where COVID-19 came from
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A memo suggested that the Energy Department has 'low confidence' the coronavirus came from a lab leak, per WSJ. Intelligence officials remain split on whether the virus occurred naturally or came from a lab. However, agencies have found that both theories about a natural occurrence and a lab leak remain possibilities, per the New York Times. Sullivan said there are a "variety of views in the intelligence community," but that several agencies have said they "just don't have enough information to be sure." But, right now, there is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question," Sullivan said.

☆ EU countries mull curbing Russia sanctions dodging via trade tools, access to EU market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Gabriela Baczynska | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BRUSSELS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Twelve EU countries are calling on the European Union to stop companies and third countries from circumventing EU sanctions on Russia by using trade and access to the European single market as leverage, a document showed on Tuesday. The provision of material support to Russia’s military and defense industrial base will have severe consequences regarding their access to the EU market," they added. "Special focus should be put on Western components that are crucial to the Russian military industry," the paper said. "These components are not easily replaced: changing an element in weapons production takes months, due to certification and design processes. A small disruption of these production chains therefore quickly has a significant impact in the Russian ability to produce weapons and military equipment," it said.

☆ How Putin's Russian goon squad used Mexican gig workers to troll an American election
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +25 min

Posting to social media sounded like an easy work-from-home gig, so he applied. This post from the Prigozhin-backed Social CMS network in Mexico referred to America as "we." He verified his account by providing chat transcripts, screenshots, contracts, and internal company documents. But just because Social CMS didn't yield an immediate, large-scale impact doesn't mean it should be ignored. "I didn't know who are you," wrote the person who is listed in the corporate directory as Prigozhin's media liaison.

☆ Blinken meets with senior Chinese diplomat in Munich amid tensions over suspected spy balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Andrea Mitchell | Christina Zhao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday met with a senior Chinese diplomat at a conference in Munich, a State Department spokesperson said. Diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and China have risen since the shooting down of the alleged Chinese spy balloon, which China has insisted was not intended for spying. Earlier Thursday, Biden delivered his first remarks about the Chinese balloon and three unidentified objects flying above North America that were downed by the U.S. military. One was shot down Feb. 10 over Alaska, another was shot down Feb. 11 over Canada, and a third was shot down over Lake Huron on Feb. 12. U.S. Northern Command said Friday it recommended an end to the search for debris from two objects shot down in United States airspace this month.

But U.S. and Canadian authorities also announced they had called off searches for three unidentified objects shot down over last weekend, without locating any debris. The last of the debris from the Chinese balloon, which was downed by a Sidewinder missile, is heading to an FBI laboratory in Virginia for analysis, the U.S. military's Northern Command said. Reuters was first to report the conclusion of the recovery efforts for the suspected Chinese spy balloon, which were halted on Thursday. Kirby said the United States had already learned a lot about the balloon by observing it as it flew over the United States. "We will maintain the perspective that we have in terms of what should be the relationship between China and the United States," she said.

☆ Mysterious object destroyed by a $400,000 Sidewinder missile may have been a $12 hobby group balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The mysterious objects shot down over the US may have been hobbyist or weather balloons. One balloonist club believes its $12 balloon may have been among the objects destroyed. The club said that it had been tracking the course of its silver pico balloon. A pico balloon can cost anywhere from $12 to $180. And they're going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down," Ron Meadows, whose California company designs pico balloons told Aviation Week.

☆ Relax, those objects in the sky are probably just from one of the 90 countries and 10,000 companies that make up the nearly $1 trillion space economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US shot down three unidentified objects over the weekend, following the downing of a Chinese balloon earlier this month. The space economy was valued at nearly $500 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to over $1 trillion by 2030. Over the weekend, the US shot down three unidentified objects over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron. These entities, none of which have claimed ownership of the objects, include the 90 countries and roughly 10,000 companies currently involved in the global space industry. But on Monday, the White House said President Biden will establish a team to analyze unidentified objects in the US airspace.

☆ Senator says U.S. should consider mandating transponders on high-altitude balloons
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Senator Mark Kelly says Congress should consider mandating transponders on high-altitude weather and research balloons to help the U.S. military differentiate between potential threats. The issue has drawn new attention in recent days after U.S. fighter jets shot down a Chinese balloon and three other objects. The United States has said the Chinese balloon was used for surveillance purposes while Beijing called it a weather balloon. Since an American fighter jet shot down the 200-foot Chinese balloon on Feb. 4, three other objects have been downed. The National Weather Service launches balloons at about 90 locations daily carrying an instrument tracked by specialized ground equipment.

☆ Biden aides briefed former Trump officials on the Chinese spy balloon intrusions the ex-president has claimed never happened
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Biden administration has briefed key former Trump administration officials on China's spy balloons. "It never happened with us under the Trump administration and if it did, we would have shot it down immediately," he said on Sunday. He referenced "recent balloon/"object" incidents," but nothing from the Trump administration. During a February 6 briefing, Kirby told reporters that the Chinese surveillance balloons transited US airspace "for brief periods of time" during the Trump administration. Biden officials reached out to key officials from the Trump administration to offer briefings on the forensics they did.

☆ Exclusive: British authorities surveilled FBI spy chief Charles McGonigal's secret 2018 meeting with a Russian contact
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

An FBI spy chief's secret meeting with a Russian contact was detected by UK officials. McGonigal should have realized that the London meeting would be noticed, one source said. During his years in New York, McGonigal oversaw 150 FBI agents tasked with shadowing foreign operatives and turning them into spies for the US. He would have had intimate knowledge of surveillance penetration in world capitals, which makes the London meeting all the more mystifying. McGonigal had investigated Russian operatives earlier in his career, but it is unclear whether he was involved with the FBI's Deripaska recruitment effort.

☆ The mystery objects shot down by US fighter jets were 'most likely' harmless civilian objects, Biden says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Three mysterious objects were shot down by the US military in North American airspace last weekend. The three unidentified objects are "most likely" just civilian objects, he said on Thursday. Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023. Biden on Thursday also said he's directed his team to create "sharper rules" for dealing with unidentified objects moving forward, distinguishing between those that pose a security risk and those that don't. In total, four objects — one Chinese surveillance balloon and the three smaller objects that remain unidentified — have been shot down over North American airspace since early February.

☆ What's up there? Possible explanations for mystery objects downed by U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Military officials say that until they are able to recover the debris, they are unlikely to know for sure what the objects were. Scientists use balloons to study wind patterns, air quality, and other aspects of Earth's atmosphere. STILL UNEXPLAINEDThe object downed over Canada on Saturday was described by Canada's defense minister as resembling a balloon. Senator Marco Rubio, leaving a classified briefing on the objects on Tuesday, told reporters that they are no different than the hundreds of benign objects cited in past intelligence reports. "We've never shot down anything in over 65 years of NORAD, and in one week they shot down three things," he said.

☆ Biden plans speech on balloon, unidentified objects -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Steve Holland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the speech was expected to be on Thursday. Biden has been under pressure from lawmakers to speak more extensively about the spate of flyovers by unidentified objects, which have baffled many Americans. The United States has said the Chinese balloon was used for surveillance purposes, while Beijing called it a weather balloon. He said the United States still had no firm grasp on the origin of the three objects. Biden has asked national security adviser Jake Sullivan to preside over a task force of related agencies to come up with a set of guidelines on how to address unidentified objects going forward.

☆ Biden plans speech on balloon, unidentified objects - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Steve Holland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden plans on Thursday to make his most extensive remarks yet about a high-altitude Chinese balloon and three other objects that were shot down by U.S. fighter jets, two sources familiar with the discussions said on Wednesday. Biden has been under pressure from lawmakers to speak more extensively about the spate of flyovers by unidentified objects, which have baffled many Americans. The United States has said the Chinese balloon was used for surveillance purposes, while Beijing called it a weather balloon. He said the United States still had no firm grasp on the origin of the three objects. Biden has asked national security adviser Jake Sullivan to preside over a task force of related agencies to come up with guidelines on how to address unidentified objects in future.

☆ The 3 Flying Objects the US Shot Down May Have Been Commercial or Research Craft, White House Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The White House said that three objects shot down over the weekend might have posed no threat. A leading explanation is that they were used for commercial or research purposes, a spokesperson said. US authorities have also found no evidence linking the objects to Chinese spying, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at a White House briefing. Kirby added that even though the US hadn't determined that the objects were used for spying, authorities couldn't rule that possibility out. Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

The Chinese balloon, which Beijing denies was a spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before President Joe Biden ordered it shot on Feb. 4. China says the balloon shot down on Feb. 4 was a civilian weather-monitoring aircraft. It has accused Washington of sending its own balloons into Chinese airspace, an allegation Beijing reiterated on Tuesday. 'COMMERCIAL OR BENIGN PURPOSE'The U.S. military said on Monday it had recovered critical electronics from the suspected Chinese spy balloon as well as large sections of the vessel itself. But it has not yet recovered debris from the most recent three objects shot down, with tough weather conditions making recovery operations difficult.

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