- Ten Hag bemoans Man Utd's lack of killer instinct in Palace stalemate
- France's Macron appoints new government in shift to right
- Cheika proud of Leicester grit after winning start as boss
- Profligate Man Utd pay price in 0-0 draw at Palace
- Kane, Olise run riot as Bayern thump Bremen
- Diaz fires Liverpool top of Premier League, Man Utd held at Palace
- LIV champion Rahm out of LIV Team semis with severe flu
- Slot surprised by tearful Nunez's moment of magic
- Title rivals Norris, Verstappen on 'cool' front row for Singapore GP
- Biden talks China with 'Quad' leaders in hometown summit
- Juve and Napoli play out goalless draw in early Serie A title tussle
- Alcaraz fears tennis tour grind will 'kill us'
- Carey sparks recovery as Australia thrash England in 2nd ODI
- Leclerc, Sainz lament 'disappointing' Saturday in Singapore
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- Beirut digs for victims at building flattened in Israeli strike
- Verstappen stages protest over 'ridiculous' swearing punishment
- Bayern boss Kompany lauds 'special talent' Olise
- Diaz fires Liverpool top of Premier League, Spurs bounce back
- Heavy fire over Israel-Lebanon border after deadly Beirut strike
- Ramos guides unbeaten Toulouse to Montpellier win despite Hogg scuffle
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- Chelsea owners 'happy' with win at West Ham amid rift report
- Kane and Olise run riot as Bayern thump Bremen
- Ramos guides unbeaten Toulouse to Montpellier win
- Norris pips Verstappen to dramatic Singapore pole after Sainz crash
- Carey takes Australia to 270 in 2nd ODI against England after collapse
- Two Hezbollah leaders killed in Israel's Beirut strike
- Hungary Danube waters reach decade high after Storm Boris
- Bagnaia cuts Martin's MotoGP lead with Emilia-Romagna sprint win
- Jackson double fires Chelsea to victory at woeful West Ham
- Fiji beat Japan to lift Pacific Nations Cup
- Kasatkina to face Haddad Maia in Korea Open final
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- Lawyers of women alleging Al-Fayed sex abuse receive over 150 new enquiries
- President Museveni's son backs Ugandan strongman for 7th term
- Norris quickest as Verstappen bounces back in Singapore practice
- Wallabies lament All Blacks' fast start
- Germany's Oktoberfest opens under tight security after attacks
- Environmental protesters block French cruise liner port
- Hezbollah in disarray after Israeli strike kills top commanders
- No place like home: Biden hosts 'Quad' leaders
- One dead, 7 missing as heavy rains trigger floods in central Japan
- Zelensky says no UK, US go-ahead to use long-range missiles
- New Zealand edge Australia 31-28 in Bledisloe Cup thriller
- Japan orders evacuations as heavy rains trigger floods in quake-hit area
- New Zealand pilot freed in Indonesia after 19 months in rebel captivity
- Hezbollah in disarray after Israeli air strike kills top commanders
- The BYD Seal Hybrid U DM-i AWD in a practical test by journalists
- Leading climate activist released from Vietnam jail
US lawmakers vote to declassify intel on Covid origins
The US House of Representatives voted unanimously on Friday to declassify information on potential links between the Covid-19 pandemic and a Chinese laboratory suspected of leaking the deadly virus.
The Senate had already voted last week to require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify the material, meaning the bill now goes to the White House for President Joe Biden's signature.
The Covid-19 outbreak began in 2019 in the eastern Chinese city of Wuhan, leading to almost seven million deaths worldwide so far, according to official counts, over a million of them in the United States.
But health officials and the US intelligence community remain divided over whether it was spread to humans from an infected animal or escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The US Energy Department concluded with "low confidence" that the virus probably escaped via a lab accident, agreeing with the assessment of the FBI but contradicting the conclusions of several other agencies.
Robert Redfield, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Protection, argued for the lab leak theory before senators on Wednesday, while the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institutes of Health identified an infected animal as the likely culprit.
"Basically there's a broad consensus in the intelligence community that the outbreak is not the result of a bioweapon or genetic engineering. What there isn't a consensus on is whether or not it's a lab leak," Haines added.
When the Senate version of the bill was introduced in February, its co-author Josh Hawley said anyone asking whether Covid-19 had originated in a lab was "silenced and branded as a conspiracy theorist."
"Now these prudent skeptics stand vindicated. The American people deserve to know the truth," he added.
In a separate effort, House Republicans reintroduced legislation Friday allowing US citizens the right to sue China -- which rejects the lab leak theory -- over its "large-scale misrepresentation campaign" during the outbreak.
"We must finally get to the truth about what happened and who was involved in this deception in order to bring justice to those who suffered profoundly from Covid-19," said New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith.
The commonsense appeal of the lab leak theory was articulated by US comedian Jon Stewart on late night TV in 2021.
"There's a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China," he said. "What do we do? Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab."
He went on to joke: "Oh my God, there’s been an outbreak of chocolatey goodness near Hershey, Pennsylvania. What do you think happened?'"
F.Schneider--AMWN