A plot to sell nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign country has been thwarted by the FBI. A Navy nuclear engineer and his wife were both charged in the attempt. In one instance, Jonathan Toebbe, who had top-secret clearance and conducted a “dead drop” where he placed an SD card with gigs of sensitive data inside a peanut butter sandwich for what he thought was an agent of a foreign country. Devlin Barrett, reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for espionage plot.
Next, pharmaceutical company Merck is seeking emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 pill. If approved, it would be the first oral antiviral for Covid. Other treatments such as remdesivir and monoclonal antibody treatments both require an intravenous infusion. The pill reduces risk of hospitalization by 50%. Riley Griffin, healthcare reporter at Bloomberg News, joins us for more on this pill that directly targets the virus.
Finally, Southwest Airlines was a mess this past weekend as it cancelled over 2,000 flights. The airline blamed air traffic control, bad weather, and staffing shortages for the delays. There was speculation that many employees, including pilots were calling out sick in response to vaccine mandates, but the company said those reports were inaccurate. Leslie Josephs, airline reporter at CNBC, joins us for Southwest’s problems.
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