But even if Mr. Trump declassified the information before he left office, none of the three potential crimes cited by the department in seeking the warrant depend on whether a mishandled document has been deemed classified.

The warrant said the agents would be searching for material as they investigated potential violations of the Espionage Act, which outlaws the unauthorized retention of defense-related information that could harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary — a standard that was written by Congress before the creation of the modern classification system.

It also cited a federal law that makes it a crime to destroy or conceal a document to obstruct a government investigation, and another statute that bars the unlawful taking or destruction of government records or documents.

“What you find is there’s a very, very strong clustering around the market,” he said.

“Not just the people who worked at, or visited, the market, but all those early cases, even with no link to the market, they all cluster around that market.

“That’s the epicentre, that’s where the virus definitely started spreading.”

By contrast, the Wuhan Institute of Virology is more than 30 kilometres from the midpoint of the early cases, making it unlikely to be the origin.

“You wouldn’t expect it to be in a relatively obscure market so far from the lab if that’s where it actually began,” Holmes said.

Aside from the geographic clustering, he also points to the fact that two different strands emerged almost simultaneously in humans, something that is much more likely if the virus had already been mutating in animals.

“If you look at the sequence itself, that tells you that there were probably two jumps from animals to humans and that tells you this happened around November 2019,” he said.

“They’re sufficiently far apart that they were probably independent jumps.

“It means there was a pool of infected animals in the market and it’s mutated amongst them before it jumped to humans.”

All of this has led Holmes to conclude that the question of how Covid-19 emerged is settled.

“I’m extremely confident that the virus is not from a laboratory. I think that’s just a nonsensical theory,” he said.

Source: Covid-19 lab-leak theory debunked by Australian professor | RNZ News

Source: A look at the Rose Bowl’s 100 year history – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Source: National Archives counters Trump baseless claims about Obama records – The Washington Post

In a statement on Friday, Trump claimed that the documents seized by agents at his Florida club were “all declassified,” and argued that he would have turned over the documents to the Justice Department if asked.

While incumbent presidents have the power to declassify information, that authority lapses as soon as they leave office and it was not clear if the documents in question have ever been declassified.

Trump also kept possession of the documents despite multiple requests from agencies, including the National Archives, to turn over presidential records in accordance with federal law. 

Source: FBI seized ‘top secret’ documents from Trump home, says US Justice Department | Euronews

Among the most contaminated surfaces they found were door knobs, cabinet door handles, faucets, and light switches

Viral DNA may be detected, even when the virus is no longer viable, or in concentrations too low to be infectious. But these researchers were able to successfully isolate viable virus from 3 of the samples, suggesting transmission of the Monkeypox virus by fomite was at least possible.

Yesterday the CDC’s EID Journal published a research article on the environmental sampling at the home of last summer’s imported case in Texas, which like the above study, found extensive MPXV-WA DNA contamination on both porous (e.g., bedding, clothing) and non-porous (e.g., metal, plastic) surfaces throughout the home.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: EID Journal: Environmental Persistence of Monkeypox Virus on Surfaces in A Household

Source: 17.1 million stuffed ballots The elected officials who paved the way for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine weren’t really elected, according to video records obtained by Meduza — Meduza

Source: ‘We had no moral right to attack another country’ Russian paratrooper pens memoir condemning February invasion of Ukraine — Meduza

Source: Reliability of cats depends on biological aspects, study reveals – Mágica Mistura を