Newly confirmed CIA director John Ratcliffe previewed what the agency will look like going forward under his leadership, including preventing it from becoming partisan toward specific candidates. Ratcliffe was confirmed on Thursday as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency,

The Central Intelligence Agency said the COVID-19 pandemic “more likely” originated from a lab leak than a natural source, shifting its stance after previously saying both scenarios were

Critics immediately tore into the former intel boss, with one calling him a “pathetic liar” about the laptop’s provenance.

Ratcliffe, 59, is the first person to have served as both director of national intelligence and chief of the CIA.

An ex-CIA analyst pleaded guilty to leaking top secret documents about Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran last year, forcing the attack to be delayed.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said one of his first priorities was getting his agency to make a public assessment on the pandemic's origins. "That's a day-one thing for me," he said .

The CIA shifts its stance, suggesting a lab leak is more likely the cause of COVID-19 than natural origins. The reassessment has significant international implications.

The intelligence agency says it has ‘low confidence’ in assessment and will continue to evaluate credible information.

John Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during Trump's first term and is the first person to have held that position and the top post at the CIA.

No one would ever refer to CIA Director William J. Burns as “Wild Bill,” the nickname of William J. Donovan, who led the OSS, the agency’s swashbuckling predecessor, during World War II. But the self-effacing Burns has bravely commanded a CIA force in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion nearly three years ago.

The US spy agency points the finger at China while acknowledging it has "low confidence" in its own conclusion, which is based on fresh analysis of intelligence about the spread of the virus.