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Fire at Sinopec Shanghai Petchem Plant Kills One

This aerial photo taken on June 18, 2022 shows a large fire at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical plant in outlying Jinshan district of Shanghai. (AFP)
This aerial photo taken on June 18, 2022 shows a large fire at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical plant in outlying Jinshan district of Shanghai. (AFP)
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Fire at Sinopec Shanghai Petchem Plant Kills One

This aerial photo taken on June 18, 2022 shows a large fire at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical plant in outlying Jinshan district of Shanghai. (AFP)
This aerial photo taken on June 18, 2022 shows a large fire at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical plant in outlying Jinshan district of Shanghai. (AFP)

A fire broke out at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co Ltd plant in Shanghai early on Saturday, killing one person, the company said.

Roaring fire was seen engulfing part of a sprawling factory, emitting columns of thick black smoke, in a video posted on Twitter by the state-backed Shanghai Daily.

The fire at one of China's biggest refining and petrochemicals plants started around 4 a.m. (2000 GMT on Friday) and had been brought under control by 9 a.m. but "was difficult to handle", state media Xinhua reported, citing fire officials.

It was expected to continue burning for some time.

The driver of a third-party transport vehicle died and a company employee suffered a minor injury, said a Sinopec representative.

He said the fire affected the ethylene glycol facility at the plant in Jinshan, a southwestern suburb of China's financial capital.

State-owned Sinopec said on its official Weibo account it was monitoring volatile organic compounds and impact to rainwater outlets, and no impact on the surrounding water environment had been found.

Sinopec Shanghai has processing capacity for 16 million tons of crude oil a year and 700,000 tons of ethylene, according to its website.

It is building a 3.5 billion yuan ($520 million) carbon fiber project as it seeks to diversify away from refining, and focus on resin and fibers.

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CIA Believes COVID Most Likely Originated from a Lab but Has Low Confidence in its Own Finding

(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
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CIA Believes COVID Most Likely Originated from a Lab but Has Low Confidence in its Own Finding

(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
(FILES) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seal is displayed in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on August 14, 2008. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most 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.
The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on the orders of President Donald Trump's pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director, The Associated Press reported.
The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency's assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.
Earlier reports on the origins of COVID-19 have split over whether the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, potentially by mistake, or whether it arose naturally. The new assessment is not likely to settle the debate. In fact, intelligence officials say it may never be resolved, due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities.
The CIA "continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” the agency wrote in a statement about its new assessment.
Instead of new evidence, the conclusion was based on fresh analyses of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific properties and the work and conditions of China's virology labs.
Lawmakers have pressured America's spy agencies for more information about the origins of the virus, which led to lockdowns, economic upheaval and millions of deaths. It's a question with significant domestic and geopolitical implications as the world continues to grapple with the pandemic's legacy.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Saturday he was “pleased the CIA concluded in the final days of the Biden administration that the lab-leak theory is the most plausible explanation" and he commended Ratcliffe for declassifying the assessment.
“Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,” Cotton said in a statement.
Chinese authorities have dismissed speculation about COVID's origins as unhelpful and motivated by politics. On Saturday, a spokesperson for China's US embassy said the CIA report has no credibility.
“We firmly oppose the politicization and stigmatization of the source of the virus, and once again call on everyone to respect science and stay away from conspiracy theories,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.
While the origin of the virus remains unknown, scientists think the most likely hypothesis is that it circulated in bats, like many coronaviruses, before infecting another species, probably racoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats. In turn, the infection spread to humans handling or butchering those animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019.
Some official investigations, however, have raised the the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Two years ago a report by the Energy Department concluded a lab leak was the most likely origin, though that report also expressed low confidence in the finding.
The same year then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency believed the virus “most likely” spread after escaping from a lab.
Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump's first term, has said he favors the lab leak scenario, too.
“The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense,” Ratcliffe said in 2023.