As C.I.A. director, William J. Burns was deeply focused on China and Russia when the Middle East conflict plunged him back into his old life.

While the United States tries to spy on one of the hardest targets, Burns has also tried to reopen a dialogue with Beijing, including via his counterpart, Chen Yixin, the security minister. (The head of the China Mission Center, a career CIA officer fluent in Mandarin, accompanied Burns on one of his trips to Beijing.)

On Saturday, new CIA Director john Ratcliffe made public the CIA’s reassessment that shifts from an inconclusive position to now believing the lab-leak was most likely despite a low level of confidence.

WASHINGTON — The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.

In a fresh analysis, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said it believes that the Covid-19 virus ‘more likely’ leaked from a Chinese lab than transmitted by animals. The US intelligence agency has released the ’low confidence’ assessment under Trump-appointed CIA director John Ratcliffe,

During President Trump’s first term, demanding personal loyalty didn’t always work; stocking top jobs with loyalists is the tack now. At the F.B.I., this entails bucking its institutional history.

New CIA Director John Ratcliffe ordered the covid origins analysis declassified, which a spokesperson described as a “low-confidence” assessment.

The new assessment came after John Ratcliffe was confirmed on Thursday as the CIA director under the second White House administration of Trump

Federal workers are facing fresh anxieties with President Donald Trump’s first week of actions targeting agencies, including those that lead the federal government’s health policies.

Trump proposes getting rid of FEMA on disaster tours before heading to Vegas to talk ‘no tax on tips’: Live - President is highly critical of FEMA response in North Carolina arguing states are best placed to deal with disaster response,

Do you think that you would be remembered 229 years after you died, especially after passing at the tender age of 37, not even living out the full potential of a long life?

Former U.S. Ambassador to China R. Nicholas Burns will return to the Harvard Kennedy School as a professor this April, joining the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the University announced earlier this week.