China is "unparalleled priority" among world threats, top U.S. intelligence officials say
CBSN
Top officials from the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities told a Senate panel on Wednesday that a "shifting landscape" of quick-moving and interconnected global threats – ranging from climate change to cyberattacks – would mean agencies will need to reframe some of their approach to issues of national security.
No threat, they said, looms larger or thornier than the one posed by China, which Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines called an "unparalleled priority" and a "formidable challenge." "China increasingly is a near-peer competitor challenging the United States in multiple arenas, while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favor the authoritarian Chinese system," Haines said in prepared opening remarks.President Joe Biden said France was America's "first friend" at its founding and is one of its closest allies more than two centuries later as he was honored with a state visit Saturday by French President Emmanuel Macron aimed at showing off their partnership on global security issues and easing past trade tensions.
The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau last week launched an inquiry into what the agency is calling "junk fees in mortgage closing costs." These additional fees, involving home appraisal, title insurance and other services, have spiked in recent years and can add thousands of dollars to the final cost of buying a home.
Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90.