Intelligence community delivers report on COVID-19 origins to Biden
CBSN
Washington — The U.S. intelligence community has delivered findings from its 90-day investigation into the origins of COVID-19 to President Biden, a White House official said, acknowledging receipt of the report on Wednesday.
"The President was briefed on the classified report," the official said. "We look forward to having an unclassified summary of key judgments to share soon." But the highly anticipated conclusion of the inquiry may rekindle, rather than settle, debate about the virus' origins and whether a research facility in Wuhan, China, bears any responsibility for starting the pandemic. Intelligence officials have for weeks downplayed the likelihood that agencies would arrive at a definitive conclusion, citing the Chinese government's lack of cooperation and early obfuscation of relevant data.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.