China dismisses FBI statement on COVID-19 lab leak theory: Wednesday, March 1

 For the second day in a row, China on Wednesday dismissed U.S. suggestions that the COVID-19 pandemic may have been triggered by a virus that leaked from a Chinese laboratory.Responding to comments by FBI Director Christopher Wray, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the involvement of the U.S. intelligence community was evidence enough of the “politicization of origin tracing.”“By rehashing the lab-leak theory, the U.S. will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead, it will only hurt its own credibility,” Mao said.“We urge the U.S. to respect science and facts ... stop turning origin tracing into something about politics and intelligence, and stop disrupting social solidarity and origins cooperation,” she said.In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday, Wray said, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in (central China’s) Wuhan.”READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/nation-world/china-on-covid-19-lab-leak-theory/507-e0abdb45-d321-4f2d-94a8-a67aa02e4224The North Carolina Senate on Tuesday passed a medical marijuana legalization bill 36-10.Tuesday’s voting came at 4 p.m. The bill is largely — but not entirely — the same as the bill that passed last year, when it received ‘Yes’ votes from every Democrat and most Republicans in the Senate.The bill never moved forward in the House last year, despite the broad bipartisan support it received in the Senate. House GOP leaders weren’t convinced to make it law. Sen. Bill Rabon, a top legislative leader, believes there's more support in the House GOP than last year.READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/politics/north-carolina-politics/north-carolina-politics-senate-vote-medical-marijuana-legalization/275-15e7e26e-5d0d-4953-92e0-653f74e70b80Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT!