President Joe Biden is calling for more transparency in the effort to find the origins of COVID-19.
Earlier this month the House of Representatives approved the COVID-19 Origins Act in a 419-0 vote. It was signed by Biden on Monday.
"I shared the Congress' goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of Coronavirus Disease 2019," he put out in a statement. "My administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID-19's origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
Last month, a report from the Energy Department on the origins of the virus added to the split on findings between multiple agencies. It posited, with low confidence, that the outbreak likely originated from a lab in China. The Wall Street Journal was first to report.
China disagreed with the report, and the country's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, "Certain parties should stop rehashing the 'lab leak' narrative, stop smearing China, and stop politicizing origins-tracing."
The UN, which had been coordinating a global health response to the pandemic and implementing policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and future viruses, said that its own investigation was ongoing.
And in the U.S. the FBI had for some time speculated that the outbreak started in a Wuhan lab, while the CIA had not reached a conclusion on the matter.
"We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19's origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics," Biden added in his statement.
Former President Donald Trump was fined $5,000 on Friday after a disparaging social media post about a key court staffer in his New York civil fraud case was allowed to linger on his campaign website after the judge ordered it deleted.
Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony on Friday just as jury selection was getting underway in his trial on charges accusing him of participating in efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia.
Republicans dropped Rep. Jim Jordan on Friday as their nominee for House speaker, making the decision during a closed-door session after the hard-edged ally of Donald Trump failed badly on a third ballot for the gavel.
Canada has removed 41 of its diplomats from India as tensions rise between the two nations.
Mitt Romney said he believes right-wing media is the reason for the radicalization of the GOP party.
An Army private who fled to North Korea before being returned home to the United States last month has been detained by the U.S. military, two officials said Thursday night, and is facing charges including desertion and possessing sexual images of a child.
Israel bombarded Gaza early Friday, hitting areas in the south where Palestinians had been told to seek safety, and it began evacuating a sizable Israeli town in the north near the Lebanese border, the latest sign of a potential ground invasion of Gaza that could trigger regional turmoil.
The Justice Department has secured a $9 million settlement with Ameris Bank over allegations that it avoided underwriting mortgages in predominately Black and Latino communities in Jacksonville, Florida, and discouraged people there from getting home loans.
Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes on Thursday, including in the south where Palestinians were told to take refuge, and the country's defense minister told ground troops to “be ready” to invade, though he didn’t say when.
Addressing the nation from the Oval Office, President Joe Biden has made his case for major U.S. backing of Ukraine and Israel in a time of war.
