• Senate Committee Approves Ratcliffe as Intelligence Director, Setting up Confirmation Vote

    Senate Committee Approves Ratcliffe as Intelligence Director, Setting up Confirmation Vote

    The Senate Intelligence Committee approved President Trump’s appointment of Representative John Ratcliffe (R., Texas) as national intelligence director in a straight party-line vote Tuesday, setting up a confirmation vote on the Senate floor. The closed-door vote finished 8-7 in favor of Republicans. Ratcliffe, a close Trump ally, was initially chosen by the president to replace …
  • Marco Rubio Takes Over for Richard Burr as Senate Intel Chairman

    Marco Rubio Takes Over for Richard Burr as Senate Intel Chairman

    Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) announced Monday that Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) would assume the role of interim chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after Senator Richard Burr (R., N.C.) stepped down from the post last week. In a statement, McConnell called the temporary appointment of Rubio “the natural choice.” “His proven …
  • U.S. Intel Community Says COVID-19 ‘Not Manmade or Genetically Modified’

    U.S. Intel Community Says COVID-19 ‘Not Manmade or Genetically Modified’

    The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a Thursday statement that the U.S. intelligence community “concurs” with scientific assessments that coronavirus “was not manmade or genetically modified.” “As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security,” ODNI …
  • Senator Tom Cotton Suggests Denying Visas for Chinese Students to Study Science in U.S.

    Senator Tom Cotton Suggests Denying Visas for Chinese Students to Study Science in U.S.

    Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) suggested on Sunday that the government should deny visas to Chinese students who want to study science in the U.S. “It’s a scandal to me that we have trained so many of the Chinese Communist Party’s brightest minds to go back to China, to compete for our jobs, to take …
  • Apple to reportedly use its own chips for Macs instead of Intel’s next year

    Apple to reportedly use its own chips for Macs instead of Intel’s next year

    Apple’s next generation of Mac computers will reportedly be ditching Intel’s processors for the first time in 16 years. The laptops and desktops that Apple will put out in 2021 will have main processors based on the homemade chips it uses in its iPhones and iPads, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Apple is working on three different …
  • U.S. Intelligence Warned of Coronavirus Outbreak as Early as November: Report

    U.S. Intelligence Warned of Coronavirus Outbreak as Early as November: Report

    U.S. intelligence officials warned of an uncontrolled illness in the region of Wuhan, China, in late November, ABC News reported on Wednesday. The National Center for Medical Intelligence submitted a report based on satellite images and wire and computer intercepts showing a threat to the region’s population from the as-yet unidentified contagion, since dubbed the …
  • Chuck Grassley Demands Explanation for Trump’s Firing of IG Who Advanced Ukraine Whistleblower Report

    Chuck Grassley Demands Explanation for Trump’s Firing of IG Who Advanced Ukraine Whistleblower Report

    Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) is preparing a bipartisan letter to send to President Trump over the Friday-night firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. Grassley, a Trump ally who has an ongoing probe into the Department of Defense’s role in supporting Stefan Halper, who spied on the 2016 Trump campaign, …
  • DOJ Urges Federal Prosecutors to ‘Focus Their Resources’ on Pursuing Chinese Intellectual Property Cases

    DOJ Urges Federal Prosecutors to ‘Focus Their Resources’ on Pursuing Chinese Intellectual Property Cases

    John Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, at a DOJ news conference on November 1, 2018. The Justice Department is urging federal prosecutors across the country to focus on investigating and bringing cases related to Chinese efforts to steal American intellectual property. John Demers, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general for national security, said …