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The legislation has cleared another hurdle on its way to passing the Senate. With multiple Republicans joining Democrats in the effort, the bipartisan infrastructure bill cleared another hurdle on its way to passing the Senate on Saturday afternoon. By a vote of 67-27, the Senate voted to advance the bill toward final passage. It's not yet clear when the bill will receive a final vote, but Saturday's vote makes all but certain that it will pass the Senate. At least 60 votes were necessary to move forward on Saturday, a hurdle easily cleared with 18 Republicans joining all Democrats. The bill, worth $550 billion in new spending, will address core infrastructure needs. It includes $110 billion in new funds for roads and bridges, $66 billion for rail, $7.5 billion to build out electric vehicle charging stations, $17 billion for ports, $25 billion for airports, $55 billion for clean drinking water, a $65 billion investment in high-speed internet and more. Passage of the bill will prove a huge success for President Joe Biden, who campaigned on a promise to work across the aisle, and for the lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, who huddled for weeks in an effort to craft the bill. The Senate has been working through the weekends to try to finish up this bipartisan bill and move on to work on a second, larger budget bill that Democrats hope will include the remainder of Biden's American Families Plan priorities. A news conference after a procedural vote for the bipartisan infrastructure framework at Dirksen Senate Office Building July 28, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. That bill, set to include funding for housing, health care, child care and more, will likely need to be forced through along party lines. Democratic leadership in both chambers has insisted that both the bipartisan bill and the budget bill must move together. Once the Senate finishes work on the bipartisan bill, it will head to the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi has threatened to postpone a vote on it until the budget bill is sent her way. Democrats hold a razor-thin margin in the House, and some progressive Democrats, underwhelmed by the scope of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, have threatened to withhold their support for the bill without a robust budget bill in tandem. "ABC"

A beloved owl who became a well-known resident in New York's Central Park has died. Barry the barred owl was flying low in search of a meal when it collided with one of the park's maintenance vans on Friday morning, park authorities said. The owl's death has prompted bird lovers across the world to share their photos and memories of Barry. A Twitter page dedicated to birds in the park said they would miss Barry's "wondrous and beautiful presence". The owl had become a po[CENSORED]r sight for visitors to Central Park, especially last year when the pandemic hit, and many bird watchers would visit to try and photograph the park's star resident. According to Central Park Conservancy, the incident happened at 02:30 local time, when the owl "made contact" with the vehicle. "It's with a heavy heart we share that a barred owl, a beloved Central Park resident, passed away early this morning," it said on Twitter. "The barred owl's presence in Central Park brought so much joy, reminding all of us that the Park is a vital greenspace for all New Yorkers, including the wildlife that call it home." Becoming quite the icon for bird watchers in Central park, Barry even had a Twitter fanpage. "Words cannot express our devastation at the loss of our bea-hoot-iful Barry," an emotional post said, adding: "We are utterly heartbroken, frankly, angry, and we are mourning with you." Many bird lovers shared similar feelings of anger, demanding to know how fast the maintenance vehicle was driving and why it was driving around at a time when many nocturnal creatures hunt. The Central Park Conservancy has been contacted for comment. Since the creation of the park, more than 280 bird species have been recorded there. In 2018 a mandarin duck became a social media superstar as photos of his stunning multi-coloured feathers made every online influencer swoon. "BBC"

A man attacked fellow passengers with a knife on a Tokyo commuter train late on Friday, injuring 10. The suspect, 36, allegedly told police he became angry when he saw women who "looked happy" and wanted to kill them, according to local media reports. One victim, a female student, is said to be seriously injured, while the others suffered less severe injuries. Violent crime is rare in Japan and tight security measures are in place in Tokyo, which is hosting the Olympics. The man attacked passengers on a train near Seijogakuen station at about 20:40 (11:40 BST) on Friday. The train was brought to an emergency stop by the driver after they heard noises coming from inside the carriages. According to investigators, the suspect jumped onto the tracks and fled. Train crew guided the passengers along the tracks to the nearest station. One witness, who was on the train, told NHK news that people suddenly started running towards him, fleeing from one car to another. The suspect later walked into a convenience store and told staff that he was "the suspect in the incident reported by news media" and was tired of fleeing. Tokyo Metropolitan Police confirmed early on Saturday they had seized a man in his 30s but did not confirm reports of his arrest or give any further details. Nine out of the 10 injured were taken to hospital while the other walked away from the scene. Despite Japan being one of the safest countries in the world, there have been a number of knife attacks in recent years. In 2019, a man attacked a group of schoolchildren waiting for a bus in Kawasaki. Two people were killed and at least 18 were injured. "BBC"

Name of the game: Far Cry ® 5 Price: $59.99 $8.99 Link Store: Far Cry ® 5 on Steam Offer ends up after X hours: August 9. Requirements: MÍNIMO: Requiere un procesador y un sistema operativo de 64 bits SO: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only) Procesador: Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz or AMD FX-6300 @ 3.5 GHz or equivalent Memoria: 8 GB de RAM Gráficos: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 or AMD R9 270 (2GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better) DirectX: Versión 9.0c Red: Conexión de banda ancha a Internet Almacenamiento: 40 GB de espacio disponible RECOMENDADO: Requiere un procesador y un sistema operativo de 64 bits SO: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only) Procesador: Intel Core i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 @ 3.2 GHz or equivalent Memoria: 8 GB de RAM Gráficos: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD R9 290X (4GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better) DirectX: Versión 9.0c Red: Conexión de banda ancha a Internet Almacenamiento: 40 GB de espacio disponible

The flashy free-to-play shooter Ghost Recon Online front-loads the fun, despite some inconsistencies. When you wind up on a well-rounded team that works together cohesively and uses each class's abilities intelligently, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online's brutal multiplayer firefights are among the most satisfying you'll find in a free-to-play game. Matches don't always click though, and since the fun in each encounter hinges on how well your team works together, getting stuck with a bunch of meathead bullet sponges can spoil your killing groove. However, a great cover system, balanced class perks, and some cool high-tech gadgets make the moments where it all comes together feel immensely satisfying. Ghost Recon Online ditches the high military plot setups of its predecessors and explores a wild what-if scenario that pits dueling teams of ghost operatives against one another. There's no rhyme or reason to it story-wise, but that doesn't matter. With 16 soldiers thrown into the fray sporting the latest futuristic tech, things get crazy in a hurry, and that's a big part of what makes this online shooter feel unique. The balance of power constantly tips back and forth as each side one-ups the other with sneaky moves aided by some powerful but nicely counterbalanced unit abilities. When you're diving in and out of cover under sniper fire, scrambling to get behind a teammate's temporary force field bubble as you push forward to take a position, and lurching around corners to shoot unsuspecting foes in the back, it's easy to appreciate the high level of strategic flexibility you're given to play around with. Three dynamic character classes offer a broad array of tactical options on the battlefield. It's great that you can eventually deck out any class with the full range of guns and armament goodies you unlock from playing and amassing points for buying gear, but it's their special abilities that really make classes stand out. Far from a generic run-and-gunner, the assault class is perfect for pushing the front line into enemy territory. The blitz shield lets you charge forward at high speeds right into incoming fire, bludgeon enemies into a prone position, and then take them out with a few quick shots before they even know what happened. Or you can nuke foes with area-of-effect microwaves that blind them and cook them with radiation damage. Sniping is a favorite pastime among players. Meanwhile, specialists can trigger EMP devices to short-circuit enemy tech or engage a limited portable force field bubble that affects bullet trajectories. Recon sniper units are favorites for their cloaking ability and a radar-like ping device that reveals enemy positions and invisible units to all teammates. Each unit's special perks are useful in countering another class's abilities too, which makes balancing your team important. Putting all of these skills into play on the battlefield at once is deliciously chaotic, and it keeps matches fluid and engaging. Tight gameplay lets you focus on enjoying the flow of battle and capitalizing on your team's strengths. When you're running around and dodging behind cover, Ghost Recon Online is mostly a third-person affair, but anytime you look down the sights of whatever weapon you're wielding, the action kicks into a first-person perspective. It's a great blend that you barely notice because it just feels right, thanks to fast and smooth transitions. The excellent cover system itself is equally fluid. An awesome sliding move lets you zip behind barriers even when you're about to eat lead, and once you're behind cover, there's a lot of maneuverability for lining up shots and popping out quickly to surprise the enemy. Ghost Recon Online feels great, from the responsive controls to the way you move around the battlefield. Both of the two available modes, Onslaught and Conquest, emphasize the need for teamwork with slight variations on point-capturing and defense matches. Running around on your own gunning down enemies boosts your own character growth to an extent, but you won't win rounds and earn much-needed bonus experience without working with your squadmates to put together more orchestrated battle plans. This is where the matchmaking system can be problematic, making for a wildly inconsistent experience from one battle to the next. It's possible to form your own fire teams composed of online friends, but there's no way to limit the class makeup of your group, which sometimes puts you at a serious disadvantage. Recon units are a po[CENSORED]r player pick, for example, and it's not uncommon to wind up being the lone assault soldier on a team of snipers. Nothing sucks more than getting stuck on a wildly imbalanced team with players who don't cooperate. Otherwise, hotly contested matches played with a good group of comrades can be a real blast. The four sprawling maps you battle across are rife with sniping hotspots, cover points, and pathways weaving throughout. They're a fun playground for strategic mayhem, though the visual designs fall a bit short flavor-wise. It's not that these areas look bad; they just blur into one another in terms of their visual design. Despite the limited play modes and environments to fight in, Ghost Recon Online's class-specific progression system keeps you in the game even during moments of aggravation. Gaining experience and leveling up lets you unlock tons of abilities, weapons, and gear to deck your soldiers out with, but most importantly, it also earns you requisition points--one of the game's two currencies--that can be used to buy everything from special skills and guns to upgrades for individual weapon components. RP doesn't cost you anything; it's earned simply from playing. The better you perform, the more you can get, and taking on daily missions or earning achievements also nets you sweet bonuses. For those on the fast track, ghost points can be purchased instantly with real-world cash and spent on everything available in-game as well as experience boosts. What's great about Ghost Recon Online's model is that you truly don't have to spend a dime to enjoy the game. Spending money is optional, and the pricing model isn't as heinous as other "freemium" games. RP is doled out generously, and amassing a bunch of it in one fell swoop feels like a substantive reward for pushing hard and ranking in the top tier of your squad in a match. Out of the starting gates, four large maps, three distinct classes, and two game modes doesn't seem like a lot of content. It isn't, but what's here plays smoothly. Even without considering what's coming down the pike in terms of additions and updates, the currently limited scope delivers a lot of mileage and high replayability. While it's an option to speed things along, purchasing gear and perks via microtransactions isn't necessary, and there's a lot of fun to be had just working your way up the ranks with each class to unlock things as you go. Both Ghost Recon Online and its burgeoning player community may still be in their infancy, but this addictive, high-end multiplayer shooter is already a force to be reckoned with in the free-to-play space. PC

Dealing with data broker companies is about to get a whole lot easier Cybersecurity company and VPN provider Surfshark has announced its plans to develop a new digital privacy product designed to wipe broker-owned personal data on behalf of a user. The tool, called Incogni, will be able to identify and communicate with data brokers around the world that are in a possession of a user's personal information in order to have it removed from their databases. There are currently over 4,000 data broker companies worldwide and the leading names in the industry own data on hundreds of millions of consumers with some boasting up to 1,500 data points per consumer. We've built a list of the best VPN services available These are best proxy services on the market Also check out our roundup of the best privacy apps Surfshark CEO Vytautas Kaziukonis explained in a press release how data brokers are often overlooked during discussions on data privacy, saying: “In the discourse of personal data protection, data brokers are often left overlooked despite the massive scale of sensitive information they possess. Essentially, these companies collect information such as public records, online activity, and purchase history, aggregate that data and later resell it to other entities. Witnessing exponential growth in data privacy misuse, we seek to empower privacy-minded people to oversee their digital presence better than ever before.” Automated data removal According to a study from Surfshark released back in May, 30 out of the 491 largest data brokers reviewed have been affected by data breaches in the past either once or multiple times which resulted in an average loss of 125m data points and this leaked information often includes full names, phone numbers, emails and even social security numbers. Despite the fact that many data broker companies guarantee an option to opt out from data collection, manually contacting hundreds of firms can be a very time-consuming and tedious process. For this reason, Incogni will automate this process by handling the research, follow-up requests and even the unjustifiable rejections of appeals to make the process hassle-free. Surfshark's new tool is set to be released by the end of this summer and it will also include built-in real-time status updates so that users can track the progress of the removal process.

Embracing hybrid computing After recently launching the Intel NUC 11 Extreme (Beast Canyon), Intel reportedly working on its next NUC. A Weibo user has shared alleged specifications for the NUC 12 Enthusiast, which may contend for a spot on the list of best gaming PCs. The leaked slide cuts off right before the codename for the NUC 12 Enthusiast is visible. From what we can see, it appears to say Serpent, so the NUC may be internally known as Serpent Canyon, but we can't be sure. The information clearly states that the Federal Communications Commission hasn't signed off on the NUC 12 Enthusiast, so the final design and specifications could vary. In fact, the Intel document doesn't even specify dimensions of the system. Most interesting is the possibility of Intel slapping its upcoming Xe-HPG DG2 discrete graphics cards into the NUC 12 Enthusiast. The document lists the Core i5 and two Core i7 with graphics card with 8GB, 12GB and 16GB of GDDR6 memory, respectively. The memory configurations align with the rumored specifications for the DG2. The specification table shared via Weibo points to information not yet shared about the DG2: the design of the display outputs. According to the slide, the DG2 will offer HDMI 2.0 port, a full-size DisplayPort 2.0 output and Mini DisplayPort. Neither AMD nor Nvidia graphics cards come with DisplayPort 2.0 outputs, which further supports our theory that mysterious graphics cards are in fact the Xe HPG DG2. Additionally, the slide points to the NUC 12 Enthusiast using next-generation Intel processors, which we assume to be the 12th Generation Alder Lake hybrid chips. As always, it looks like Intel will offer the NUC with different CPU options, including Core i5 and Core i7 SKUs. Surprisingly, there was no mention of a Core i9 alternative. Alder Lake has been rumored to support both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM. It appears that Intel will opt for the former with the NUC 12 Enthusiast. The device is equipped with two SO-DIMM DDR4 memory slots to support up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 memory at 1.2V. The storage options don't look bad either. Apparently, there are two PCIe 4.0 x4 and one PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 2280 slots. Optane Memory M10 and H10 support is also present. The NUC 12 Enthusiast will reportedly also offer 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet networking, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5 connectivity, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports and six standard USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports. We're expecting Intel to launch Alder Lake later this year or early 2022. In either case, we'd expect the NUC 12 Enthusiast to come out at around the same time as the 12th Gen chips or shortly after.

"I'm standing in your way," Ron DeSantis had responded to President Joe Biden The White House on Thursday hit back at Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis after he told President Joe Biden he will stand "in his way" while the country experiences an alarming surge of COVID-19 cases, with press secretary Jen Psaki saying the "facts" about hospitalizations in Florida speak for themselves. At Thursday's briefing with reporters, ABC News Correspondent Stephanie Ramos raised DeSantis’ latest fundraising push using the president’s comments from Tuesday urging DeSantis to help or "get out of the way," and she asked whether Biden is considering reaching out to DeSantis. "Well, first, from Day One, we've approached this not as a political issue but a public health issue," Psaki began. "We remain in touch with officials in Florida, just like we're in touch with officials from around the country about how we can provide assistance from the federal level to help address this public health crisis." Then, she turned up the heat. "It is a fact -- and data that you all are aware of -- that 25% of hospitalizations in the country are in Florida. It is also a fact that the governor has taken steps that are counter to public health recommendations. So, we're here to state the facts," she said. "Frankly our view is that this is too serious, deadly serious to be doing partisan name-calling," she continued. "We're focused on providing public health data information to the people of Florida to make sure they understand what steps they should be taking, even if those are not steps taken at the top of the leadership in that state." At least four school districts in Florida say they are pushing back against the governor’s mask ban. In the last 24 hours, the country has seen 864,000 vaccinations in the last 24 hours, the highest daily number since July 3, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said Thursday. Florida is among the seven states officials named that have some of the lowest vaccination rates and "account for about half of new cases and hospitalizations in the past week, despite making up less than a quarter of the U.S. po[CENSORED]tion," Zients said. "ABC"

Chinese electric car maker Li Auto has said it plans to raise as much as $1.9bn (£1.4bn) in a secondary listing of its shares in Hong Kong. Shares in the Tesla rival are already traded on the Nasdaq stock market in New York. Li Auto is the latest Chinese company to raise money closer to its home country in recent months. The move comes as Chinese firms listed in the US face increasing scrutiny by Beijing and Washington. The six-year old Chinese start-up said it would issue 100 million shares in the Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) at a maximum price of HK$150 (£13.85; $19.30) per share. The firm, which is also known as Li Xiang, said it will offer 10 million shares to Hong Kong investors, with the balance made available to people around the world. Final pricing of the shares is due to be announced before the end of this week. The Beijing-based company raised almost $1.1bn through its Nasdaq listing a year ago. On Sunday, Li Auto said it delivered 8,589 of its Li One vehicles in July, a monthly record for the firm. The Li One is the company's only model currently on the market. It is a plug-in hybrid which has a fuel tank to charge the battery and extend its range although the petrol engine does not directly drive the car's wheels. The strong sales numbers come even as a recovery in vehicle sales is threatened by the global chip shortage that has forced many car makers around the world to suspend production. Secondary listings in Hong Kong are becoming increasingly po[CENSORED]r amongst Chinese companies as they try to protect themselves from the fallout of the friction between Beijing and Washington. On Friday, Wall Street regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission said it will now require extra information from Chinese companies aiming to sell shares in the US. The announcement came as Beijing intensified oversight of Chinese companies with share listings in the US, as well as tightening its grip on technology and education firms at home. In recent weeks, shares in ride-hailing app Didi have slumped after China announced a probe into the company and barred it from signing up new customers just days after its New York Stock Exchange debut. Several Chinese technology giants including Alibaba, NetEase and JD.com have opted to take out secondary listings in recent years. Last month, one of Li Auto's competitors Xpeng raised about $1.8bn with a secondary listing of its shares in Hong Kong. "BBC"

Found frozen deep in the Siberian Arctic, the cave lion cub looks like she's asleep and one touch might awaken her. The cub's golden fur is matted with mud but otherwise undamaged. Her teeth, skin, soft tissue and organs are mummified but all intact. Some 28,000 years since she last closed her eyes, her claws are still sharp enough to prick the finger of one of the scientists who are studying this remarkable -- and unprecedented -- permafrost-preserved specimen. The Siberian Simba, nicknamed Sparta, was one of two baby cave lions -- extinct big cats that used to roam widely across the northern hemisphere -- found in 2017 and 2018 by mammoth tusk hunters on the banks of the Semyuelyakh River in Russia's Far East. Initially, it was thought the two cubs were siblings, as they were found just 15 meters (49 feet) apart, but a new study found that they differ in age by around 15,000 years. Boris, as the second cub is known, is 43,448 years old, according to radio carbon dating. "Sparta is probably the best preserved Ice Age animal ever found, and is more or less undamaged apart from the fur being a bit ruffled. She even had the whiskers preserved. Boris is a bit more damaged, but still pretty good," said Love Dalen, a professor of evolutionary genetics at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, Sweden, and an author of a new study on the cubs. Both cubs were just 1 or 2 months old when they perished, the study said. It's not clear how they died, but Dalen and the research team -- which includes Russian and Japanese scientists -- said there were no signs of them being killed by a predator. A frozen cave lion cub found in Siberia with whiskers still intact is more than 28,000 years old Computed tomography scans showed skull damage, dislocation of ribs, and other distortions in their skeletons. "Given their preservation they must have been buried very quickly. So maybe they died in a mudslide, or fell into a crack in the permafrost," Dalen said. "Permafrost forms large cracks due to seasonal thawing and freezing." During the last Ice Age, Siberia wasn't the empty place it is today. Mammoths, tundra wolves, bears, woolly rhinoceroses, bison and saiga antelopes roamed, along with cave lions -- a slightly bigger relative of African lions that live today. It's not known how the cave lion adapted to life in the harsh high latitudes, with its rapid changes of season, strong winds and cold, dark winters. The study, published in the journal Quaternary, found that the cave lions' coat was similar but not identical to that of an African lion cub. The Ice Age cubs had a long thick fur undercoat that might have helped them adapt to the cold climate. The mummified remains of a number of extinct animals -- a woolly rhino, a lark, a cave bear, a canine puppy -- that once roamed the Russia steppe have been found in recent years, often by hunters, who blast tunnels using high-pressure water hoses into the permafrost primarily in search of long curvy mammoth tusks. There is a lucrative -- if controversial -- trade in the tusks, which are prized by ivory carvers and collectors as an alternative to elephant ivory. Russian scientists like Valery Plotnikov, a co-author of the study and a researcher at the Academy of Sciences in Yakutsk, Siberia's main city, have accompanied and developed working relationships with the tusk hunters, who unearth astonishing finds from the permafrost's mud and ice. "In 2017, ... I worked with them in the hole, the ice cave," Plotnikov said on a podcast produced by the Natural History Museum in London that was released last month. "It's very cold, very dangerous and very hard to work, terrible conditions, many mosquitoes," he added, saying he lost 10 kilos (22 pounds) in the month he spent with the tusk hunters. But the relationships he forged have generated a scientific bonanza, with Plotnikov saying he's come across the cave lion cubs, a wolf head and a family of mummified mammoths. Love Dalén measuring Sparta, a cave lion cub found frozen in the Siberian permafrost. The climate crisis has also played a role. Warmer summers -- the Arctic is warming two times faster than the global average -- have weakened the permafrost layer and lengthened the tusk-hunting season. "There are definitely more finds being made these days. The main reason is the increased demand for mammoth ivory, meaning more people are out searching in the permafrost. But climate change also contributes, making the melting (and thus field work) season longer," Dalen explained via email. The scientists have to test the frozen remains for infectious diseases, such as anthrax, that can lay dormant before they examine them in detail, although Dalen said that it was unlikely that the remains harbor ancient pathogens. The sex of the cubs was confirmed by CT scan and genetic-based sex determination. Dalen said that the next step would be to sequence the DNA of Sparta, which could reveal the evolutionary history of the cave lion, the po[CENSORED]tion size and its unique genetic features. "CNN"

US intelligence agencies are digging through a treasure trove of genetic data that could be key to uncovering the origins of the coronavirus -- as soon as they can decipher it. This giant catalog of information contains genetic blueprints drawn from virus samples studied at the lab in Wuhan, China which some officials believe may have been the source of the Covid-19 outbreak, multiple people familiar with the matter tell CNN. It's unclear exactly how or when US intelligence agencies gained access to the information, but the machines involved in creating and processing this kind of genetic data from viruses are typically connected to external cloud-based servers -- leaving open the possibility they were hacked, sources said. Still, translating this mountain of raw data into usable information -- which is only one part of the intelligence community's 90-day push to uncover the pandemic's origins -- presents a range of challenges, including harnessing enough computing power to process it all. To do that, intelligence agencies are relying on supercomputers at the Department of Energy's National Labs, a collection of 17 elite government research institutions. There's also a manpower issue. Not only do intelligence agencies need government scientists skilled enough to interpret complex genetic sequencing data and who have the proper security clearance, they also need to speak Mandarin, since the information is written in Chinese with a specialized vocabulary. "Obviously there are scientists who are (security) cleared," one source familiar with the intelligence told CNN. "But Mandarin-speaking ones who are cleared? That's a very small pool. And not just any scientists, but ones who specialize in bio? So you can see how this quickly becomes difficult." Officials conducting the 90-day review hope this information will help answer the question of how the virus jumped from animals to humans. Unlocking that mystery is essential to ultimately determining whether Covid-19 leaked from the lab or was transmitted to humans from animals in the wild, multiple sources told CNN. Investigators both inside and outside the government have long sought genetic data from 22,000 virus samples that were being studied at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That data was removed from the internet by Chinese officials in September 2019, and China has since refused to turn over this and other raw data on early coronavirus cases to the World Health Organization and the US. The question for investigators is whether the WIV or other labs in China possessed virus samples or other contextual information that could help them trace the coronavirus' evolutionary history. Two scientists who study coronaviruses told CNN they are skeptical that there is any genetic data either in the tranche of 22,000 samples or any other database from the WIV that scientists don't already know about. "Basically in [a 2020 research paper published in Nature], the WIV talked about all the sequences they had up until a certain point in time -- it's what most scientists virologists believe, that's pretty much what they had," said Dr. Robert Garry, a virologist at the Tulane University School of Medicine. A source familiar with the US investigation would neither confirm nor deny that any of the data pertaining to those 22,000 samples is among what US intelligence agencies are currently analyzing. No 'smoking gun' Sources familiar with the effort say filling in that missing genetic link won't be enough to definitively prove whether the virus originated in the lab at Wuhan or first emerged naturally. Officials will still need to piece together other contextual clues to determine the true origins of the pandemic. But it is a critical puzzle piece that the Biden administration has been prioritizing. "The most prized technical data in this context are genetic sequences, database entries and contextual information about the provenance of the samples and the time and context in which they were acquired -- information people would use to place them in a narrative of the origins of SARS, Covid," one source familiar with the investigation told CNN. For now, senior intelligence officials still say that they are genuinely split between the two prevailing theories on the pandemic's origins, or some combination of both scenarios. CNN reported last month that senior Biden administration officials overseeing the 90-day review now believe the theory that the virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan is at least as credible as the possibility that it emerged naturally in the wild -- a dramatic shift from a year ago, when Democrats publicly downplayed the so-called lab leak theory. Multiple sources told CNN that absent an unexpected windfall of new information, officials don't expect to uncover a "smoking gun" -- like intercepted communications, for example -- that would offer definitive proof for either theory. The Biden administration's 90-day push is predicated on the expectation that science, not intelligence will be the key. Intelligence officials are tasked with addressing several "scientific knowledge gaps" about the virus' evolution, according to the collection guidance governing the 90-day push, distributed to more than a dozen agencies on June 11 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and obtained by CNN. The memo instructs the intelligence community to "expand its collection" and consider data already in its possession to identify both the initial host of the coronavirus and any species that it may have passed through as it adapted to humans -- or to find as "any progenitor virus and/or virus that could serve as backbone for genetic engineering purposes." But former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told CNN that the US intelligence community already had sufficient collection on the topic of Covid origins. "Obviously the more, the better. But we've had extraordinary insight into this topic for many months, much more than has been declassified. Pretending we didn't is political theater and a classic example of a politician trying to buy time by using the IC as a scapegoat," he told CNN in a statement. Digging into the science That's where the genomic data from the Wuhan lab could come in. The genetic code of a given virus is the signature that allows scientists to tell the difference between the Delta and Beta variants of the coronavirus, for example. It can also offer clues as to how the virus has adapted or mutated over time, including whether it shows signs of human mani[CENSORED]tion -- a kind of genetic history. Many scientists continue to believe that the most likely scenario is that the virus jumped from animals to humans naturally. But despite testing thousands of animals, researchers still haven't identified the intermediate host through which the virus passed as it adapted to humans. But some researchers, intelligence officials and Republican lawmakers believe that researchers at the WIV might have genetically altered a virus in the lab, using a controversial kind of research known as "gain of function" that could have infected researchers who then spread it in their community. It's also plausible that the initial infection took place naturally outside of the lab, perhaps while a scientist was collecting a sample from an animal in the wild, and that scientist then spread the virus unknowingly when he returned to the lab with the samples, multiple sources familiar with the intelligence explained. "If it was the latter, it was likely brought into a lab to study because someone got sick ... which means there were an unknowable number of other people who were already sick," the source familiar with the probe said. Understanding exactly which viruses researchers at the WIV were working on could provide important evidence for any one of these theories. It's one of the reasons that investigators on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have been keenly focused on the database that was taken offline in 2019. But it might not prove anything definitively, sources familiar with the intelligence say. Even if scientists in the intelligence community are able to use the data from the lab to stitch together a complete genetic history that shows how the virus mutated, they might not have enough information about how it was handled by the Chinese lab to determine with a high level of confidence that it leaked. "Despite having that complete history of variants, [officials might] lack the contextual information to make sense of it in a narrative way," the source familiar with the investigation explained. "Even a complete sequence history is difficult to obtain. And doesn't really tell us anything about the origins of the pandemic itself without the context," this person added. Some Republicans on Capitol Hill have jumped into the uncertainty with their own report claiming that "the preponderance of evidence suggests" the coronavirus was "accidentally" released from a lab in Wuhan in 2019 -- an assertion that goes far beyond the intelligence community's current view of the matter. Exclusive: Intel agencies scour reams of genetic data from Wuhan lab in Covid origins hunt By Katie Bo Williams, Zachary Cohen and Natasha Bertrand, CNN Updated 1302 GMT (2102 HKT) August 5, 2021 Wuhan takes drastic action to stop Delta outbreak. See what city looks like 'Wouldn't want my worst enemy to go through this': Unvaccinated man fights Covid-19 louisiana hospital coronavirus hotspot delta marquez pkg lead vpx_00015728 Nurse: Some Covid-19 patients think I'm lying about diagnosis See what this former vaccine skeptic credits for changing her mind Arkansas Children's Hospital Arkansas' hospitals filling up with unvaccinated adults and children See why this restaurant owner has been targeted by Marjorie Taylor Greene Sara Holton Gard wants officials to set a mask rule for all that would make it easier to enforce. Debate escalates over masks as the start of school year approaches 'Pure nonsense': Deconstructing common myths about the vaccine Dr. Michael Bolding vpx Hear doctor's emotional plea for people to get vaccinated China's spiraling Delta variant outbreak has reached Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic, prompting citywide coronavirus testing as authorities scramble to contain the city's first reported local infections in more than a year. CNN's David Culver reports from Wuhan. Wuhan takes drastic action to stop Delta outbreak. See what city looks like CNN tracked down a super-spreader of Covid-19 misinformation. See how he reacted Lila Hartley 12-year-old sends letter to county school board about mask mandate 'They couldn't take it anymore': Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job Arkansas governor regrets approving ban on mask mandates Doctor: GOP governors' anti-mask mandates' 'wrong thing to do' Closed retail stores line the usually crowded Commercial Street, Monday, May 25, 2020, in Provincetown, Mass. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer). What this 'canary in the coal mine' Covid-19 outbreak shows us about the virus coronavirus vaccinated frustrated delta variant simon dnt lead vpx_00003601 'There's been enough time': Frustration builds among the vaccinated 'Wouldn't want my worst enemy to go through this': Unvaccinated man fights Covid-19 louisiana hospital coronavirus hotspot delta marquez pkg lead vpx_00015728 Nurse: Some Covid-19 patients think I'm lying about diagnosis See what this former vaccine skeptic credits for changing her mind Arkansas Children Hospital Arkansas' hospitals filling up with unvaccinated adults and children See why this restaurant owner has been targeted by Marjorie Taylor Greene Sara Holton Gard wants officials to set a mask rule for all that would make it easier to enforce. Debate escalates over masks as the start of school year approaches 'Pure nonsense': Deconstructing common myths about the vaccine Dr. Michael Bolding vpx Hear doctor's emotional plea for people to get vaccinated China's spiraling Delta variant outbreak has reached Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic, prompting citywide coronavirus testing as authorities scramble to contain the city first reported local infections in more than a year. CNN David Culver reports from Wuhan. Wuhan takes drastic action to stop Delta outbreak. See what city looks like CNN tracked down a super-spreader of Covid-19 misinformation. See how he reacted Lila Hartley 12-year-old sends letter to county school board about mask mandate 'They couldn't take it anymore': Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job Arkansas governor regrets approving ban on mask mandates Doctor: GOP governors' anti-mask mandates' 'wrong thing to do' Closed retail stores line the usually crowded Commercial Street, Monday, May 25, 2020, in Provincetown, Mass. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) What this 'canary in the coal mine' Covid-19 outbreak shows us about the virus coronavirus vaccinated frustrated delta variant simon dnt lead vpx_00003601 'There's been enough time': Frustration builds among the vaccinated Washington (CNN)US intelligence agencies are digging through a treasure trove of genetic data that could be key to uncovering the origins of the coronavirus -- as soon as they can decipher it. This giant catalog of information contains genetic blueprints drawn from virus samples studied at the lab in Wuhan, China which some officials believe may have been the source of the Covid-19 outbreak, multiple people familiar with the matter tell CNN. It's unclear exactly how or when US intelligence agencies gained access to the information, but the machines involved in creating and processing this kind of genetic data from viruses are typically connected to external cloud-based servers -- leaving open the possibility they were hacked, sources said. Still, translating this mountain of raw data into usable information -- which is only one part of the intelligence community's 90-day push to uncover the pandemic's origins -- presents a range of challenges, including harnessing enough computing power to process it all. To do that, intelligence agencies are relying on supercomputers at the Department of Energy's National Labs, a collection of 17 elite government research institutions. There's also a manpower issue. Not only do intelligence agencies need government scientists skilled enough to interpret complex genetic sequencing data and who have the proper security clearance, they also need to speak Mandarin, since the information is written in Chinese with a specialized vocabulary. "Obviously there are scientists who are (security) cleared," one source familiar with the intelligence told CNN. "But Mandarin-speaking ones who are cleared? That's a very small pool. And not just any scientists, but ones who specialize in bio? So you can see how this quickly becomes difficult." Officials conducting the 90-day review hope this information will help answer the question of how the virus jumped from animals to humans. Unlocking that mystery is essential to ultimately determining whether Covid-19 leaked from the lab or was transmitted to humans from animals in the wild, multiple sources told CNN. Coronavirus Outbreak Timeline Fast Facts Coronavirus Outbreak Timeline Fast Facts Investigators both inside and outside the government have long sought genetic data from 22,000 virus samples that were being studied at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That data was removed from the internet by Chinese officials in September 2019, and China has since refused to turn over this and other raw data on early coronavirus cases to the World Health Organization and the US. The question for investigators is whether the WIV or other labs in China possessed virus samples or other contextual information that could help them trace the coronavirus' evolutionary history. Two scientists who study coronaviruses told CNN they are skeptical that there is any genetic data either in the tranche of 22,000 samples or any other database from the WIV that scientists don't already know about. "Basically in [a 2020 research paper published in Nature], the WIV talked about all the sequences they had up until a certain point in time -- it's what most scientists virologists believe, that's pretty much what they had," said Dr. Robert Garry, a virologist at the Tulane University School of Medicine. A source familiar with the US investigation would neither confirm nor deny that any of the data pertaining to those 22,000 samples is among what US intelligence agencies are currently analyzing. No 'smoking gun' Sources familiar with the effort say filling in that missing genetic link won't be enough to definitively prove whether the virus originated in the lab at Wuhan or first emerged naturally. Officials will still need to piece together other contextual clues to determine the true origins of the pandemic. But it is a critical puzzle piece that the Biden administration has been prioritizing. "The most prized technical data in this context are genetic sequences, database entries and contextual information about the provenance of the samples and the time and context in which they were acquired -- information people would use to place them in a narrative of the origins of SARS, Covid," one source familiar with the investigation told CNN. For now, senior intelligence officials still say that they are genuinely split between the two prevailing theories on the pandemic's origins, or some combination of both scenarios. CNN reported last month that senior Biden administration officials overseeing the 90-day review now believe the theory that the virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan is at least as credible as the possibility that it emerged naturally in the wild -- a dramatic shift from a year ago, when Democrats publicly downplayed the so-called lab leak theory. China's spiraling Delta variant outbreak hits Wuhan, as country introduces mass travel restrictions China's spiraling Delta variant outbreak hits Wuhan, as country introduces mass travel restrictions Multiple sources told CNN that absent an unexpected windfall of new information, officials don't expect to uncover a "smoking gun" -- like intercepted communications, for example -- that would offer definitive proof for either theory. The Biden administration's 90-day push is predicated on the expectation that science, not intelligence will be the key. Intelligence officials are tasked with addressing several "scientific knowledge gaps" about the virus' evolution, according to the collection guidance governing the 90-day push, distributed to more than a dozen agencies on June 11 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and obtained by CNN. The memo instructs the intelligence community to "expand its collection" and consider data already in its possession to identify both the initial host of the coronavirus and any species that it may have passed through as it adapted to humans -- or to find as "any progenitor virus and/or virus that could serve as backbone for genetic engineering purposes." But former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told CNN that the US intelligence community already had sufficient collection on the topic of Covid origins. "Obviously the more, the better. But we've had extraordinary insight into this topic for many months, much more than has been declassified. Pretending we didn't is political theater and a classic example of a politician trying to buy time by using the IC as a scapegoat," he told CNN in a statement. But it might not prove anything definitively, sources familiar with the intelligence say. Even if scientists in the intelligence community are able to use the data from the lab to stitch together a complete genetic history that shows how the virus mutated, they might not have enough information about how it was handled by the Chinese lab to determine with a high level of confidence that it leaked. "Despite having that complete history of variants, [officials might] lack the contextual information to make sense of it in a narrative way," the source familiar with the investigation explained. "Even a complete sequence history is difficult to obtain. And doesn't really tell us anything about the origins of the pandemic itself without the context," this person added. Some Republicans on Capitol Hill have jumped into the uncertainty with their own report claiming that "the preponderance of evidence suggests" the coronavirus was "accidentally" released from a lab in Wuhan in 2019 -- an assertion that goes far beyond the intelligence community's current view of the matter. 90 days - and then what? It's possible that at the end of Biden's 90-day push, the intelligence community won't have reached what's known as a "high-confidence" assessment as to the pandemic's origins. Administration officials have previously suggested to CNN that it's possible a second review could be ordered at the end of the 90 days. A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committees earlier this week sent a letter urging the administration to continue to prioritize the hunt until such a judgment can be made in order to prevent future pandemics. But the lawmakers also zeroed in on a related focus for intelligence officials probing the pandemic's origins: China's "efforts to conceal the severity and scope of the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic." "We also believe that the investigation should address PRC efforts to prevent international inquiries into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and other actions PRC authorities have taken to obscure the nature of the virus and its transmission," the lawmakers said. Republican lawmakers in the House, meanwhile, have latched onto the theory that the virus escaped from a lab. GOP lawmakers in a report released Monday by Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas have claimed that "the preponderance of evidence suggests" the coronavirus was "accidentally" released from a lab in Wuhan in 2019. "CNN"

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President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he believes New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign after a report by the New York attorney general's office found that Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women. "I think he should resign. I understand that the state legislature may decide to impeach. I don't know that for a fact," Biden said in response to a question from CNN's Kaitlan Collins. The call from the nation's most powerful Democrat for Cuomo's resignation amounts to one of the most significant rebukes yet for a governor who had been among Biden's political allies up until a series of sexual harassment allegations were made public earlier this year. Biden had said in March that he believed Cuomo should resign if New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation substantiated the allegations. The New York attorney general's investigation into sexual harassment allegations found that Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, James announced Tuesday. The office found that Cuomo harassed current and former state employees, as well as a number of women outside of state government, James said, as the office released a lengthy report on the investigation. James said Tuesday that her investigation found that Cuomo engaged in "unwelcome and nonconsensual touching," and made comments of a "suggestive" sexual nature. James said that the conduct created a "hostile work environment for women." In a speech made after the report was released, Cuomo denied all the allegations against him. "I want you to know directly from me that I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances," Cuomo said. Following the report's release, a series of powerful Democrats in New York and Washington, in addition to Biden, called on Cuomo to resign. When asked if he believed Cuomo should be impeached, Biden said to "take one thing at a time." The President was also asked if he condoned Cuomo's office using a photo of him embracing other officials and citizens in the past as part of the governor's defense. During Cuomo's remarks, he played a slideshow of himself physically embracing a myriad of people and a defense brief posted on his website included photos of other politicians hugging or otherwise physically touching people. Biden said he's sure there are "some embraces that were totally innocent, but apparently the attorney general decided there were things that weren't." Biden said he had not spoken to Cuomo on Tuesday. White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier called the sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo "abhorrent." "I don't know that anyone could've watched this morning and not found the allegations to be abhorrent. I know I certainly did," Psaki said when asked about New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation. Psaki said there have been no conversations Tuesday between the White House and the governor's office. She added that the message from the White House to the women who came forward with their accounts is that "all women who have lived through ... this type of experience -- whether it is harassment or abuse or in the worst case, assault -- deserve to have their voices heard, deserve to be treated with respect and with dignity." "CNN Politics"