Intelligence businesses discover no international adversary behind ‘Havana syndrome’: report
A overview by US intelligence businesses couldn’t conclude {that a} international adversary was behind “Havana syndrome,” a mysterious well being ailment that affected US authorities staff abroad, the Washington Post reports.
The dedication in a report authored by seven intelligence businesses clashes with a conclusion reached by a panel of skilled scientists final yr, which discovered pulsed electromagnetic power and ultrasound may very well be behind the mysterious signs that embrace complications, nausea and ringing within the ears – which in some circumstances has grown debilitating for these affected.
Right here’s extra on the most recent report, from the Submit:
Seven intelligence businesses participated within the overview of roughly 1,000 circumstances of “anomalous well being incidents,” the time period the federal government makes use of to explain a constellation of bodily signs together with ringing within the ears adopted by strain within the head and nausea, complications and acute discomfort.
5 of these businesses decided it was “impossible” {that a} international adversary was chargeable for the signs, both as the results of purposeful actions — reminiscent of a directed power weapon — or because the byproduct of another exercise, together with digital surveillance that unintentionally might have made folks sick, the officers stated. They spoke on the situation of anonymity to explain the findings of the evaluation, which had not but been made public.
One company, which the officers didn’t title, decided that it was “unlikely” {that a} international actor was at fault, a barely much less emphatic discovering that didn’t appreciably change the consensus. One company abstained in its conclusion concerning a international actor. However when requested, no company dissented from the conclusion {that a} international actor didn’t trigger the signs, one of many intelligence officers stated.
The signs had been first reported on the U.S. Embassy in Havana in 2016.
The officers stated that as analysts examined clusters of reported circumstances, together with at U.S. embassies, they discovered no sample or frequent set of situations that would hyperlink particular person circumstances. Additionally they discovered no proof, together with forensic data or geolocation information, that will recommend an adversary had used a type of directed power reminiscent of radio waves or ultrasonic beams. In some circumstances, there was no “direct line of sight” to affected personnel working at U.S. amenities, additional casting doubt on the likelihood {that a} hypothetical power weapon might have been the offender, one of many officers stated.
One of many officers stated that even in geographic areas the place U.S. intelligence successfully had complete capability to observe the atmosphere for indicators of malicious interference, analysts discovered no proof of an adversary concentrating on personnel.
“There was nothing,” the official stated. This particular person added that there was no intelligence that international leaders, together with in Russia, had any information of or had approved an assault on U.S. personnel that would clarify the signs.
The second official, who described a irritating “thriller” as to why longtime colleagues had change into in poor health, stated analysts spent months churning information, on the lookout for patterns and inventing new analytic methodologies, solely to provide you with no believable clarification.
Key occasions
Martin Pengelly
Donald Trump has responded to information of Rupert Murdoch’s extraordinary deposition in Dominion Voter Techniques’ billion-dollar defamation swimsuit towards Fox Information.
The deposition issues the repetition by Fox Information hosts of the lie unfold by Trump and his advisers and allies that Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was the results of voter fraud, particularly voter fraud supposedly carried out utilizing Dominion machines in terribly outlandish methods.
The Trump response is, predictably, livid and crammed with a attribute disregard for the reality:
If Rupert Murdoch actually believes that the Presidential Election of 2020, regardless of MASSIVE quantities of proof on the contrary, was not Rigged & Stolen, then he & his group of MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS ought to get out of the Information Enterprise as quickly as doable, as a result of they’re aiding & abetting the DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA with FAKE NEWS. Sure BRAVE & PATRIOTIC Fox Information Hosts, who he scorns and ridicules, acquired it proper. He acquired it unsuitable. THEY SHOULD BE ADMIRED & PRAISED, NOT REBUKED & FORSAKEN!!!
That was delivered, after all, through Reality Social, Trump’s social media platform which he arrange after being booted off Twitter for inciting the lethal January 6 assault on Congress.
For some additional and slightly extra temperate studying, right here’s Charles Kaiser’s take a look at why the Dominion swimsuit is such a significant issue for Murdoch and Fox Information:
And right here’s Ed Pilkington’s take a look at the Murdoch deposition … and why it’s such a significant issue too:
The day thus far
The thriller of “Havana syndrome” continues, with US intelligence businesses concluding no international adversary was behind the debilitating assaults on its authorities officers abroad, however in any other case developing with no solutions for what so harmed their well being. In the meantime on the White Home, Joe Biden launched Julie Su, who he nominated for a promotion to guide the labor division. If confirmed by the Senate, she could be the primary Asian American cupboard secretary to serve since he took workplace two years in the past.
Right here’s what else has occurred immediately thus far:
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FBI brokers in Washington tried to decelerate the investigation into Donald Trump’s possession of labeled paperwork at Mar-a-Lago.
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High Democrats need Fox Information to cease selling Trump’s lies in regards to the 2020 election.
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Lawyer basic Merrick Garland acquired into it with rightwing senator Ted Cruz over safety for supreme court docket justices.
Joe Biden is cheering information that drugmaker Eli Lilly will drop the worth of insulin:
Large information.
Final yr, we capped insulin costs for seniors on Medicare, however there was extra work to do.
I referred to as on Congress – and producers – to decrease insulin costs for everybody else.
Right now, Eli Lilly is heeding my name. Others ought to observe. https://t.co/Kv57KFATe9
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 1, 2023
As is Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic Nationwide Committee:
Because of the management of President Joe Biden, People throughout the nation will now not be compelled to pay astronomical costs for the life-saving insulin they want. Make no mistake: Eli Lilly’s determination to cap its insulin costs at $35 a month is a direct results of President Biden calling on drug producers to decrease insulin costs for everybody else, after Democrats handed the Inflation Discount Act to cap insulin prices for seniors on Medicare, which each and every single Republican in Congress voted towards. Whereas Democrats’ struggle to convey down prices for American households, MAGA Republicans have threatened to attempt to repeal the Inflation Discount Act and lift drug costs for hundreds of thousands of People.”
Lawyer basic Merrick Garland normally presents a placid facade in public, however in immediately’s Senate judiciary committee oversight listening to, Republican Ted Cruz managed to get the highest prosecutor’s again up.
The Texas lawmaker hammered Garland about why US Marshals didn’t cease protesters outdoors the houses of supreme court docket justices who voted final yr to overturn Roe v Wade. Republicans have used the arrest of California man who allegedly plotted to homicide conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh to argue that the demonstrators offered a menace to justices, and that the Biden administration did little to cease it.
Right here’s the trade:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and AG Garland travel over protesters outdoors SCOTUS justices’ houses.
Cruz: “How did you select to not implement this statute?”
Garland: “The marshals on scene …”
Cruz: “Marshals don’t make that call.”
Garland: “They do make the choice!” pic.twitter.com/FlPLy8etU3
— The Recount (@therecount) March 1, 2023
Intelligence businesses discover no international adversary behind ‘Havana syndrome’: report
A overview by US intelligence businesses couldn’t conclude {that a} international adversary was behind “Havana syndrome,” a mysterious well being ailment that affected US authorities staff abroad, the Washington Post reports.
The dedication in a report authored by seven intelligence businesses clashes with a conclusion reached by a panel of skilled scientists final yr, which discovered pulsed electromagnetic power and ultrasound may very well be behind the mysterious signs that embrace complications, nausea and ringing within the ears – which in some circumstances has grown debilitating for these affected.
Right here’s extra on the most recent report, from the Submit:
Seven intelligence businesses participated within the overview of roughly 1,000 circumstances of “anomalous well being incidents,” the time period the federal government makes use of to explain a constellation of bodily signs together with ringing within the ears adopted by strain within the head and nausea, complications and acute discomfort.
5 of these businesses decided it was “impossible” {that a} international adversary was chargeable for the signs, both as the results of purposeful actions — reminiscent of a directed power weapon — or because the byproduct of another exercise, together with digital surveillance that unintentionally might have made folks sick, the officers stated. They spoke on the situation of anonymity to explain the findings of the evaluation, which had not but been made public.
One company, which the officers didn’t title, decided that it was “unlikely” {that a} international actor was at fault, a barely much less emphatic discovering that didn’t appreciably change the consensus. One company abstained in its conclusion concerning a international actor. However when requested, no company dissented from the conclusion {that a} international actor didn’t trigger the signs, one of many intelligence officers stated.
The signs had been first reported on the U.S. Embassy in Havana in 2016.
The officers stated that as analysts examined clusters of reported circumstances, together with at U.S. embassies, they discovered no sample or frequent set of situations that would hyperlink particular person circumstances. Additionally they discovered no proof, together with forensic data or geolocation information, that will recommend an adversary had used a type of directed power reminiscent of radio waves or ultrasonic beams. In some circumstances, there was no “direct line of sight” to affected personnel working at U.S. amenities, additional casting doubt on the likelihood {that a} hypothetical power weapon might have been the offender, one of many officers stated.
One of many officers stated that even in geographic areas the place U.S. intelligence successfully had complete capability to observe the atmosphere for indicators of malicious interference, analysts discovered no proof of an adversary concentrating on personnel.
“There was nothing,” the official stated. This particular person added that there was no intelligence that international leaders, together with in Russia, had any information of or had approved an assault on U.S. personnel that would clarify the signs.
The second official, who described a irritating “thriller” as to why longtime colleagues had change into in poor health, stated analysts spent months churning information, on the lookout for patterns and inventing new analytic methodologies, solely to provide you with no believable clarification.
Democrats are cheering after a significant drugmaker introduced it will lower costs for insulin immediately, and calling on different corporations to observe swimsuit. Right here’s extra from Reuters:
Eli Lilly will lower listing costs by 70% for its mostly prescribed types of insulin, Humalog and Humulin, starting from the fourth quarter of this yr, the drugmaker stated on Wednesday.
The transfer comes amid criticism of healthcare corporations by US lawmakers over rising prices of insulin, with Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Discount Act together with a $35 cap on insulin for these enrolled in Medicare medical health insurance plans.
“Whereas we might await Congress to behave or the healthcare system typically to use that normal, we’re simply making use of it ourselves,” the corporate’s chief government, Dave Ricks, instructed CNN in an interview.
Right here’s extra from the Home’s prime Democrat Hakeem Jeffries on the letter he and Chuck Schumer despatched to Fox Information’s Rupert Murdoch, demanding an finish to its hosts’ spreading of election disinformation:
.@RepJeffries on letter to Fox Information: “Donald Trump perpetuated an enormous deceive the American folks…Maybe it is time for America to have the ability to transfer previous that massive lie, and an vital step could be those that understand it was an enormous lie, to publicly repudiate it.” pic.twitter.com/Rq7VjsZ716
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 1, 2023
High Democrats demand Rupert Murdoch cease Fox Information hosts from spreading 2020 election lies
The highest Democrats within the Home and Senate have written to Fox Information proprietor Rupert Murdoch, demanding he cease the community from perpetuating Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“As famous in your deposition launched yesterday, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and different Fox Information personalities knowingly, repeatedly, and dangerously endorsed and promoted the Large Lie that Donald Trump gained the 2020 presidential election. Although you’ve got acknowledged your remorse in permitting this grave propaganda to happen, your community hosts proceed to advertise, spew, and perpetuate election conspiracy theories to today,” reads the letter from Senate majority chief Chuck Schumer and Home minority chief Hakeem Jeffries.
They’re referring to testimony launched earlier this week exhibiting Murdoch knew some Fox Information hosts “endorsed” the misinformation in regards to the 2020 vote, during which Joe Biden was elected to the White Home.
“We demand that you just direct Tucker Carlson and different hosts in your community to cease spreading false election narratives and admit on the air that they had been unsuitable to interact in such negligent conduct,” Jeffries and Schumer write, referring to the conservative community’s hottest commentator who was not too long ago given greater than 40,000 hours of surveillance footage of the January 6 assault by Republican Home speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“As evidenced by the January 6 rebellion, spreading this false propaganda couldn’t solely embolden supporters of the Large Lie to interact in additional acts of political violence, but in addition deeply and broadly weakens religion in our democracy and hurts our nation in numerous different methods.”
You possibly can learn the complete letter here.
Turning our focus for a second from the president to individuals who want to be president, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly stories on the most recent crack within the rift between supporters of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis:
Ron DeSantis is a “tyrant”, the far-right activist Laura Loomer stated, after she and different Trump supporters had been barred from a ebook signing staged by the Florida governor.
“They instructed me to say anyone carrying Trump has to go proper now,” a uniformed officer stated in video posted online by Loomer, a failed congressional candidate, conspiracy theorist, Islamophobe and rightwing political gadfly.
“DeSantis persons are in there telling me to come back out to inform you guys to not be right here whereas he’s right here,” the officer stated.
Loomer stated: “Governor DeSantis, he at all times talks about how he’s in favour of free speech. So do now we have a primary modification proper to be right here, to rally in help of President Trump?”
“Proper you do,” stated the officer. “However not now.”
Loomer requested: “DeSantis’s folks instructed you that now we have to go away?”
The officer stated: “Sure.”
Later, Loomer told the Daily Beast: “Police confirmed up they usually instructed us that we had been going to be cited and arrested for trespassing if we didn’t depart as a result of DeSantis didn’t need us inside. It exhibits that he’s a tyrant.”
Biden broadcasts ‘American dream’ Julie Su as labor nominee
Calling her “the American dream,” Joe Biden launched his nominee to guide the labor division Julie Su, who might change into the primary Asian American to function a cupboard secretary in his administration.
“Julie is the American dream,” the president stated in a White Home ceremony. He famous how each of her mother and father immigrated to america from China, along with her mom holding a union job and her father proudly owning a small enterprise. “I feel much more importantly, she’s dedicated to creating certain that dream is inside attain of each American.”
In her deal with to a crowd of lawmakers and officers, Su remarked that, “60 years in the past, my mother got here to america on a cargo ship as a result of she couldn’t afford a passenger ticket. Just lately, she acquired a name from the President of america telling her that her daughter was going to be nominated to be US labor secretary.”
“I consider within the transformative energy of America, and I do know the transformative energy of a great job,” Su stated.
Lawmakers had pressured Biden for not having any cupboard secretaries of Asian American or Pacific Islander descent, although US Commerce Consultant Katherine Tai’s mother and father had been immigrants from Taiwan, and vp Kamala Harris’s mom was Indian. In a nod to that strain, Biden opened the ceremony by remarking, “If actually, you weren’t picked to be the following secretary of labor, I’d be run out of city.”
Su, who at present serves as deputy labor secretary, will take over from Marty Walsh, who’s departing as the pinnacle of the labor division to guide the Nationwide Hockey League participant’s union. Her nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, which is managed by Biden’s Democratic allies.
Arizona has change into a focus of rightwing efforts to disrupt elections, and the Guardian’s Rachel Leingang spoke with its new lawyer basic about how she plans to maintain ballot staff protected:
In lower than two months on the job, Arizona’s Democratic lawyer basic, Kris Mayes, reassigned a unit tasked with investigating election fraud to as an alternative give attention to defending voting rights. She then publicly took former lawyer basic Mark Brnovich, a Republican, to activity for hiding paperwork that confirmed the 2020 election was free from widespread fraud.
“Clearly, there are clear variations between me and my predecessor on these points,” Mayes stated.
In Arizona, the place a Democratic governor and Republican-controlled legislature are unlikely to agree on any main alterations to election legislation, the largest adjustments for democracy might as an alternative come from the lawyer basic’s workplace. Because the state’s prime prosecutor, Mayes has the ability to research voting crimes and convey costs towards those that break election legal guidelines.
Earlier than successful the lawyer basic’s workplace, Mayes was a reporter and an lawyer and a member of former Democratic governor Janet Napolitano’s administration. A Republican till 2019, Mayes stated she switched events as a result of the GOP’s embrace of Trumpism left her and different average Republicans behind.
Her perspective on elections differs tremendously from her predecessor. In his final two years in workplace, Brnovich tried to play each side of election points, in search of to appease the far-right flank of his social gathering in pursuit of a US Senate seat whereas not submitting costs for widespread fraud. At first, he defended Joe Biden’s victory within the state, however over time, cast doubt on Maricopa county’s elections.
Mayes additionally contrasted strongly along with her Republican challenger within the 2022 race, Abe Hamadeh, who she narrowly beat. Hamadeh embraced the falsehood that Trump gained the 2020 election and was one in all a number of election deniers who misplaced their statewide races within the more and more purple state.
Right here’s a topic you’ll be able to anticipate to listen to about when senators query Merrick Garland this morning. Yesterday, FBI director Christopher Wray revealed that the bureau believes Covid-19 began in a Chinese language lab, the Guardian’s Lois Beckett stories:
Christopher Wray, the FBI director, has weighed in on the talk over the origins of the Covid-19 virus, utilizing an look on Fox Information to endorse the idea that the virus probably originated from a leak in a Chinese language laboratory.
“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 News’ Brett Baier, including that the evaluation was based mostly on analysis the company’s analysts, together with scientists, had performed and that “our work associated to this continues”.
Wray’s high-profile public remark highlights the divide throughout the US intelligence group in regards to the origins of the pandemic, with some federal businesses, together with the FBI and the Division of Power, concluding that the Covid-19 virus in all probability originated from a lab leak in China, whereas others have concluded that it first unfold from contaminated animals to people.
Washington-based FBI brokers tried to gradual Mar-a-Lago investigation: report
As justice division legal professionals pressed the FBI to go looking Mar-a-Lago for labeled supplies they believed Donald Trump was holding there, they encountered resistance from brokers within the Washington subject workplace, the Washington Post reports.
Two prime brokers within the workplace that will be accountable for main the search rejected getting a warrant for the ex-president’s south Florida resort, as an alternative advocating to hunt permission from Trump’s lawyer earlier than exhibiting up on the property. The Submit stories that brokers so trusted statements from Trump’s legal professionals that each one the labeled supplies they had been on the lookout for had been turned over that in June, they advocated closing the inquiry altogether.
The Submit stories that the dispute culminated in a tense assembly in late July, during which the justice division’s legal professionals prevailed: FBI brokers obtained a search warrant and confirmed up unannounced at Mar-a-Lago days later, discovering extra secret paperwork that the previous president had been holding from the federal government.
The story paints an image of FBI brokers that appeared credulous of the previous president’s, as much as the purpose of attempting to stall the investigation, which has for the reason that August search emerged as one of many greatest authorized threats dealing with Trump.
Right here’s extra from the Submit’s report:
Some FBI subject brokers then argued to prosecutors that they had been inclined to consider Trump and his crew had delivered all the things the federal government sought to guard and stated the bureau ought to shut down its prison investigation, in keeping with some folks conversant in the discussions.
However they stated nationwide safety prosecutors pushed again and as an alternative urged FBI brokers to collect extra proof by conducting follow-up interviews with witnesses and acquiring Mar-a-Lago surveillance video from the Trump Group.
The federal government sought surveillance video footage by subpoena in late June. It confirmed somebody shifting containers from the realm the place data had been saved, not lengthy after Trump was placed on discover to return all such data, in keeping with folks conversant in the probe. That proof instructed it was seemingly extra labeled data remained at Mar-a-Lago, the folks stated, regardless of the declare of Trump’s legal professionals. It additionally painted for each side a much more worrisome image — one that will quickly construct the authorized justification for the August raid.
By mid-July, the prosecutors had been anticipating the FBI to scour the premises of Mar-a-Lago. They argued that the possible trigger for a search warrant was greater than stable, and the probability of discovering labeled data and proof of obstruction was excessive, in keeping with the 4 folks.
However the prosecutors discovered FBI brokers had been nonetheless loath to conduct a shock search. Additionally they heard from prime FBI officers that some brokers had been merely afraid: They apprehensive taking aggressive steps investigating Trump might blemish and even finish their careers, in keeping with some folks with information of the discussions. One official dubbed it “the hangover of Crossfire Hurricane,” a reference to the FBI investigation of Russia’s interference within the 2016 presidential election and doable connections to the Trump marketing campaign, the folks stated. As president, Trump repeatedly focused some FBI officers concerned within the Russia case.
Merrick Garland to face senators after report of tensions with FBI over Mar-a-Lago search
Good morning, US politics weblog readers. The lawyer basic, Merrick Garland, has been on the heart of a number of the greatest tales in American politics over the previous yr, together with the appointment of particular counsels to research Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s possession of labeled paperwork (to not point out the previous president’s try and overturn the 2020 election), the intelligence group’s inquiry into the origins of Covid-19 and the GOP’s efforts to research the Biden administration. This morning at 10am japanese time, he’ll be before the Senate judiciary committee for a daily oversight listening to, the place lawmakers from each events will little doubt press him for solutions on all these subjects and extra. Garland is tight-lipped and unlikely to say something unguarded, however don’t be stunned if he’s additionally requested about a Washington Post report from this morning that exposed prime FBI officers had been hesitant to go looking Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort final August, regardless of strain from justice division legal professionals.
Right here’s what else we are able to anticipate immediately:
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Biden will at 93.0am introduce Julie Su throughout a White Home occasion. She is his nominee to go the labor division, and would even be his first Asian American cupboard secretary.
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Home Democrats are holding a behind-closed-doors retreat in Baltimore, which Biden will deal with later immediately.
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The Home will think about a Republican invoice to make the White Home report on the inflationary impacts of each government order. Democrats don’t look like whipping towards this, at the very least not but.
