‘Like a drill going into my eye’: why the mystery of Havana syndrome refuses to die

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@font-face { font-family: ‘Guardian Titlepiece’; src: url(‘https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.woff2’) format(‘woff2’), url(‘https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.woff’) format(‘woff’), url(‘https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.ttf’) format(‘truetype’); font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; }

@font-face { font-family: ‘Guardian Headline Full’; src: url(‘https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.woff2’) format(‘woff2’), url(‘https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.woff’) format(‘woff’), url(‘https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.ttf’) format(‘truetype’); font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; }@font-face { font-family: ‘Guardian Headline Full’; src: url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.woff2) format(‘woff2’), url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.woff) format(‘woff’), url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.ttf) format(‘truetype’); font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; }

@font-face { font-family: ‘Guardian Headline Full’; src: url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BlackItalic.woff2) format(‘woff2’), url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fo@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BlackItalic.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BlackItalic.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:900;font-style:italic}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Titlepiece;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:700;font-style:normal}#article-body>div .content–interactive-grid,.content–interactive>div .content–interactive-grid,#comment-body .content–interactive-grid,[data-gu-name=body] .content–interactive-grid,#feature-body .content–interactive-grid{grid-column-gap:0px;grid-template-columns:100%;grid-template-areas:”media” “title” “headline” “standfirst” “lines” “meta” “body”}@media (min-width: 30em){#article-body>div .content–interactive-grid figure.element–immersive figcaption,.content–interactive>div .content–interactive-grid figure.element–immersive figcaption,#comment-body .content–interactive-grid figure.element–immersive figcaption,[data-gu-name=body] .content–interactive-grid figure.element–immersive figcaption,#feature-body .content–interactive-grid figure.element–immersive figcaption{padding:0 20px;max-width:620px}}@media (min-width: 46.25em){#article-body>div .content–interactive-grid,.content–interactive>div .content–interactive-grid,#comment-body .content–interactive-grid,[data-gu-name=body] .content–interactive-grid,#feature-body .content–interactive-grid{grid-template-columns:100%;grid-column-gap:10px;grid-template-areas:”title” “headline” “standfirst” “media” “lines” “meta” “body”}#article-body>div .content–interactive-grid #maincontent,.content–interactive>div .content–interactive-grid #maincontent,#comment-body .content–interactive-grid #maincontent,[data-gu-name=body] .content–interactive-grid #maincontent,#feature-body .content–interactive-grid #maincontent{padding-right:80px}}@media (min-width: 61.25em){#article-body>div .content–interactive-grid,.content–interactive>div .content–interactive-grid,#comment-body .content–interactive-grid,[data-gu-name=body] .content–interactive-grid,#feature-body .content–interactive-grid{grid-template-columns:620px 300px;grid-template-areas:”title right-column” “headline right-column” “standfirst right-column” “media right-column” “lines right-column” “meta right-column” “body right-column” “. right-column”}#article-body>div .content–interactive-grid #maincontent,.content–interactive>div .content–interactive-grid #maincontent,#comment-body .content–interactive-grid #maincontent,[data-gu-name=body] .content–interactive-grid #maincontent,#feature-body .content–interactive-grid #maincontent{padding-right:unset}}@media (min-width: 71.25em){#article-body>div .content–interactive-grid,.content–interactive>div .content–interactive-grid,#comment-body .content–interactive-grid,[data-gu-name=body] .content–interactive-grid,#feature-body .content–interactive-grid{grid-template-columns:140px 1px 620px 300px;grid-template-areas:”title border headline right-column” “. border standfirst right-column” “. border media right-column” “. border body right-column” “. border . right-column”}#article-body>div .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst,.content–interactive>div .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst,#comment-body .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst,[data-gu-name=body] .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst,#feature-body .content–interactive-grid .content__standfirst{padding-bottom:0}#article-body>div .content–interactive-grid figure.element–immersive figcaption,.content–interactive>div .content–interactive-grid figure.element–immersive figcaption,#comment-body .contFor interactive grid figures with immersive captions, add 4px of padding at the top. In interactive grids, place the lines and meta sections in the second row, first column, spanning rows 2 through 4. The lines section should have a maximum height and a 5px top margin, while the meta section should have an 18px top margin. On screens at least 81.25em wide, interactive grids use five columns sized 219px, 1px, 620px, 80px, and 300px. On iOS and Android, standfirst paragraphs use Guardian Headline with a weight of 500, and the article kicker section is displayed as a block with its first letter capitalized. The keyline-4 element gets 12px of top padding, and byline authors use Guardian Headline with a weight of 700, including any links. Image figure inner elements have automatic height, and paragraphs following atom figures have no top margin. 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format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:400;font-style:italic}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Medium.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Medium.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Medium.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:500;font-style:normal}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-MediumItalic.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-MediumItalic.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-MediumItalic.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:500;font-style:italic}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Semibold.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Semibold.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Semibold.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:600;font-style:normal}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline 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Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BoldItalic.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BoldItalic.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BoldItalic.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:700;font-style:italic}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Ful@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Black.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Black.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Black.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:900;font-style:normal}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BlackItalic.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BlackItalic.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-BlackItalic.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:900;font-style:italic}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Titlepiece;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-titlepiece/noalts-not-hinted/GTGuardianTitlepiece-Bold.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:700;font-style:normal}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Light.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Light.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Light.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:300;font-style:normal}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-LightItalic.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-LightItalic.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-LightItalic.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:300;font-style:italic}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Regular.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Regular.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Regular.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:400;font-style:normal}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-RegularItalic.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:400;font-style:italic}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Medium.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Medium.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Medium.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:500;font-style:normal}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hintedThe Guardian Headline Full font family includes several weights and styles. The medium italic is available in WOFF2, WOFF, and TrueType formats at font-weight 500. The semibold comes in both normal and italic styles at font-weight 600. The bold is available in normal and italic at font-weight 700. The black weight, also in normal and italic, is at font-weight 900.

The Guardian Titlepiece font is available in bold at font-weight 700, in WOFF2, WOFF, and TrueType formats.

For screens at least 71.25em wide, the main content column for interactive pieces has a left margin of 160px. At 81.25em and wider, that margin increases to 240px.{max-width:620px}@media (max-width: 46.24em){.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom{max-width:100%}}.content__main-column–interactive .element-showcase{margin-left:0}@media (min-width: 46.25em){.content__main-column–interactive .element-showcase{max-width:620px}}@media (min-width: 71.25em){.content__main-column–interactive .element-showcase{max-width:860px}}.content__main-column–interactive .element-immersive{max-width:1100px}@media (max-width: 46.24em){.content__main-column–interactive .element-immersive{width:calc(100vw – var(–scrollbar-width, 0px));position:relative;left:50%;right:50%;margin-left:calc(-50vw + var(–half-scrollbar-width, 0px))!important;margin-right:calc(-50vw + var(–half-scrollbar-width, 0px))!important}}@media (min-width: 46.25em){.content__main-column–interactive .element-immersive{transform:translate(-20px);width:calc(100% + 60px)}}@media (max-width: 71.24em){.content__main-column–interactive .element-immersive{margin-left:0;margin-right:0}}@media (min-width: 71.25em){.content__main-column–interactive .element-immersive{transform:translate(0);width:auto}}@media (min-width: 81.25em){.content__main-column–interactive .element-immersive{max-width:1260px}}.content__main-column–interactive p,.content__main-column–interactive ul{max-width:620px}.content__main-column–interactive:before{position:absolute;top:0;height:calc(100% + 15px);min-height:100px;content:””}@media (min-width: 71.25em){.content__main-column–interactive:before{border-left:1px solid #dcdcdc;z-index:-1;left:-10px}}@media (min-width: 81.25em){.content__main-column–interactive:before{border-left:1px solid #dcdcdc;left:-11px}}.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom{margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-bottom:12px;padding-top:12px}.content__main-column–interactive p+.element-atom{padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0;margin-top:12px;margin-bottom:12px}.content__main-column–interactive .element-inline{max-width:620px}@media (min-width: 61.25em){figure[data-spacefinder-role=inline].element{max-width:620px}}[data-gu-name=media]:has(figure.loop) figure.loop figcaption:not(.hidden){z-index:6}[data-gu-name=media]:has(figure.loop) figure.loop button[data-link-name*=gu-video-loop]{align-self:flex-end;margin-bottom:40px;margin-right:3px}[data-gu-name=media]:has(figure.loop) figure.loop .controls-container div:has(button[data-testid=unmute-icon]),[data-gu-name=media]:has(figure.loop) figure.loop .controls-container div:has(button[data-testid=mute-icon]){right:0;padding-left:10px}[data-gu-name=media]:has(figure.loop) #caption-button{z-index:100}@media (min-width: 61.25em){[data-gu-name=media]:has(figure.loop) #caption-button{bottom:20px}}@media (min-width: 46.25em){[data-gu-name=media]:has(figure.cinemagraph) .cinemagraph>div{max-height:unset}}[data-gu-name=body] gu-island[name=SelfHostedVideo]{width:100%;max-width:620px;display:block;margin-top:12px;margin-bottom:12px}[data-gu-name=body] gu-island[name=SelfHostedVideo] figure.loop,[data-gu-name=body] gu-island[name=SelfHostedVideo] figure.loop video{width:100%;height:auto;max-width:620px;margin:0 auto}[data-gu-name=body] gu-island[name=SelfHostedVideo]:has(figure.loop.element-video-immersive){max-width:unset;margin:12px 0}[data-gu-name=body] gu-island[name=SelfHostedVideo]:has(figure.loop.element-video-immersive) figure.loop,[data-gu-name=body] gu-island[name=SelfHostedVideo]:has(figure.loop.element-video-immersive) figure.loop video{max-width:unset;margin:0}@media (min-width: 71.25em){[data-gu-name=body] gu-island[name=SelfHostedVideo]:has(figure.loop.element-video-immersive){width:1140px;margin-left:-180px}[data-gu-name=body] gu-island[name=SelfHostedVideo]:has(figure.loop.element-video-immersive) figure figcaption{margin-left:20px}}@media (min-width: 81.25em){[data-gu-name=body] gu-island[name=SelfHostedVideo]:has(figure.loop.element-video-immersive){width:1300px;margin-left:-260px}}:root{–dateline: #606060;–headerBorder: #dcdcdc;–captionText: #999;–captionBackground: hsla(0, 0%, 7%, .72);–feature: #c70000;–new-pillar-colour: var(–primary-pillar, var(–feature))}:root:root {
–subheading-text: var(–secondary-pillar);
–pullquote-text: var(–secondary-pillar);
–pullquote-icon: var(–secondary-pillar);
–block-quote-text: var(–article-text);
}

:root:root blockquote {
–block-quote-fill: var(–secondary-pillar);
}

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root:root:not([data-color-scheme=light]) {
–subheading-text: var(–darkmode-pillar);
–pullquote-text: var(–darkmode-pillar);
–pullquote-icon: var(–darkmode-pillar);
}

:root:root:not([data-color-scheme=light]) blockquote {
–block-quote-fill: var(–darkmode-pillar);
}
}

.content__main-column–interactive .element.element-atom,
.element.element-atom {
padding: 0;
}

.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + .element-atom + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content__main-column–interactive hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + p,
.content__main-column–interactive hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + .ad-slot-container + p,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + .element-atom + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#article-body > div hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + p,
#article-body > div hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + .ad-slot-container + p,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + .element-atom + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
.content–interactive > div hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + p,
.content–interactive > div hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + .ad-slot-container + p,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + .element-atom + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + .sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[name=UnsafeEmbedBlockComponent]) + #sign-in-gate + p:first-of-type,
#comment-body hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + p,
#comment-body hr:not(.last-horizontal-rule) + .ad-slot-container + p,
[data-gu-name=body] .element-atom:first-of-type + p:first-of-type,
[data-gu-name=body] .element-atom:first-of-type + figure:has(gu-island[naI’m sorry, but the text you’ve provided appears to be a block of CSS code rather than prose, so there’s no meaningful way to rewrite it as fluent, natural English without changing its meaning. If you’d like, I can help explain what this CSS does in plain English, or you can share a different piece of text for rewriting.The following CSS selectors apply a drop cap style to the first letter of the first paragraph that follows certain elements, such as a horizontal rule, an ad slot, or an element atom, within various content containers. The drop cap uses the Guardian Headline font family with a bold weight, a font size of 111 pixels, and a line height of 92 pixels. It floats to the left, is displayed in uppercase, and has an 8-pixel right margin. Its color is set by the `–drop-cap` variable, falling back to `–new-pillar-colour`.

Additionally, paragraphs that immediately follow a horizontal rule or an ad slot inside these content containers have their top padding removed. Pull quotes within these containers are limited to a maximum width of 620 pixels.When a showcase figure appears inside the main content, feature article, standard article, or comment article container, its caption should be static and span the full width, up to a maximum of 620px. On screens at least 71.25em wide, that caption should instead be absolutely positioned with a maximum width of 140px. On screens at least 81.25em wide, the maximum width increases to 220px.

An immersive element should be as wide as the viewport, minus any scrollbar width. On screens up to 71.24em wide, it should be no wider than 978px, and its caption should have 10px of inline padding. Between 30em and 71.24em wide, that caption padding increases to 20px. Between 46.25em and 61.24em wide, the immersive element should be no wider than 738px. On screens up to 46.24em wide, it should be shifted 10px to the left with no right margin and aligned to the left edge. Between 30em and 46.24em wide, that left shift becomes 20px, and the caption should have 20px of inline padding.

On screens at least 71.25em wide, showcase figures inside the body or an interactive main column should be shifted 160px to the left. On screens at least 81.25em wide, that shift becomes 240px.

On screens at least 61.25em wide, the furniture wrapper should use a grid layout with 20px column gaps and no row gaps. Its columns should be defined from title, headline, meta, and standfirst start through five equal columns to their end, then from portrait start through five equal columns to portrait end. Its rows should run from title and portrait start through a 0.25fr row to title end and headline start, then through a 1fr row to headline end and standfirst start, then through a 0.75fr row to standfirst end and meta start, and finally through an auto row to meta end and portrait end.

Within the furniture wrapper, the first child of the headline should have a 1px top border using the header border color. The meta should be relatively positioned with 2px of top padding and no right margin. The standfirst’s content should have a 4px bottom margin. List items in the standfirst should use a 20px font size. Links in the standfirst, including list item links, should have no bottom border or background image, and should be underlined with a 6px offset, using the header border color and a 1px thickness. When hovered, those links shoulda:hover{text-decoration-color:var(–new-pillar-colour)}.furniture-wrapper .standfirst p:first-of-type,.furniture-wrapper #standfirst p:first-of-type,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] p:first-of-type{border-top:1px solid var(–headerBorder);padding-bottom:0}}@media (min-width: 61.25em) and (min-width: 71.25em){.furniture-wrapper .standfirst p:first-of-type,.furniture-wrapper #standfirst p:first-of-type,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] p:first-of-type{border-top:unset}}@media (min-width: 61.25em){.furniture-wrapper figure{margin:0 0 0 -10px}.furniture-wrapper figure[data-spacefinder-role=inline].element{max-width:630px}}@media (min-width: 71.25em){.furniture-wrapper{grid-template-columns:[title-start headline-start meta-start] repeat(2,1fr) [meta-end standfirst-start] repeat(5,1fr) [title-end headline-end standfirst-end portrait-start] repeat(7,1fr) [portrait-end];grid-template-rows:[title-start portrait-start] 80px [title-end headline-start] auto [headline-end standfirst-start meta-start] auto [standfirst-end meta-end portrait-end]}.furniture-wrapper #meta:before,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta]:before{content:””;width:540px;position:absolute;top:0;background-color:var(–headerBorder);height:1px}.furniture-wrapper .standfirst p,.furniture-wrapper #standfirst p,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] p{border-top:unset}.furniture-wrapper .standfirst:before,.furniture-wrapper #standfirst:before,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst]:before{content:””;width:1px;background-color:var(–headerBorder);height:100%;position:absolute;top:0;left:.5px}}@media (min-width: 81.25em){.furniture-wrapper{grid-template-columns:[title-start headline-start meta-start] repeat(3,1fr) [meta-end standfirst-start] repeat(5,1fr) [title-end headline-end standfirst-end portrait-start] repeat(8,1fr) [portrait-end];grid-template-rows:[title-start portrait-start] .25fr [title-end headline-start] 1fr [headline-end standfirst-start meta-start] .75fr [standfirst-end meta-end portrait-end]}.furniture-wrapper #meta:before,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta]:before{width:620px}.furniture-wrapper .standfirst:before,.furniture-wrapper #standfirst:before,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst]:before{left:-.5px}}.furniture-wrapper .article-header .content__labels>div,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=title] .content__labels>div{padding-top:2px}.furniture-wrapper #headline h1,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=headline] h1,.furniture-wrapper .headline h1{font-weight:600;max-width:620px;font-size:32px}@media (min-width: 71.25em){.furniture-wrapper #headline h1,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=headline] h1,.furniture-wrapper .headline h1{max-width:540px;font-size:50px}}@media (min-width: 46.25em){.furniture-wrapper .keyline-4,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=lines]{margin-right:0}}@media (min-width: 61.25em){.furniture-wrapper .keyline-4,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=lines]{display:none}}.furniture-wrapper .keyline-4 svg,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=lines] svg{stroke:var(–headerBorder)}@media (min-width: 46.25em){.furniture-wrapper #meta,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta]{margin-right:0}}.furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social,.furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__social ul li a span,.furniture-wrapper #meta .meta__comment,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__social ul li a span,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .meta__comment{border-color:var(–headerBorder)}.furniture-wrapper #meta .content__meta-container_dcr>div>gu-island,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .content__meta-container_dcr>div>gu-island{display:none}.furniture-wrapper .standfirst,.furniture-wrapper #standfirst,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst]{margin-left:-10px;padding-left:10px;position:relative}@media (min-width: 46.25em){.furniture-wrapper .standfirst,.furniture-wrapper #standfirst,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst]{padding-top:2px}}.furniture-wrapper .standfirst p,.furniture-wrapper #standfirst p,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=stanp{font-weight:400;font-size:20px;padding-bottom:14px}.furniture-wrapper #main-media,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media]{position:relative;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:2px;grid-area:portrait}.furniture-wrapper #main-media div div,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] div div{width:100%;margin-inline:0}@media (min-width: 61.25em){.furniture-wrapper #main-media,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media]{margin-bottom:0}}@media (max-width: 46.24em){.furniture-wrapper #main-media,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media]{width:calc(100vw – var(–scrollbar-width, 0px));margin-left:-10px}}@media (max-width: 46.24em) and (min-width: 30em){.furniture-wrapper #main-media,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media]{margin-left:-20px}}.furniture-wrapper figcaption{position:absolute;bottom:0;padding:4px 10px 12px;background-color:var(–captionBackground);color:var(–captionText);max-width:unset;margin-bottom:0;min-height:46px}.furniture-wrapper figcaption span{color:var(–headerBorder)}.furniture-wrapper figcaption span svg{fill:var(–headerBorder)}.furniture-wrapper figcaption span:nth-of-type(1){display:none}.furniture-wrapper figcaption span:nth-of-type(2){display:inline;max-width:90%}@media (min-width: 30em){.furniture-wrapper figcaption{padding:4px 20px 12px}}.furniture-wrapper figcaption.hidden{opacity:0}.furniture-wrapper #caption-button{display:block;position:absolute;bottom:10px;right:8px;z-index:30;background-color:var(–captionBackground);border:none;border-radius:50%;padding:6px 5px 5px}.furniture-wrapper #caption-button svg{transform:scale(.85)}@media (min-width: 30em){.furniture-wrapper #caption-button{right:10px}}@media (min-width: 71.25em){.content__main-column–interactive:before{top:-12px!important;height:calc(100% + 24px)!important}}.content__main-column–interactive h2{max-width:620px}@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark){:root:root:not([data-color-scheme=light]){–follow-text: #dcdcdc;–follow-icon-fill: var(–darkmode-pillar);–standfirst-text: #dcdcdc;–standfirst-link-text: var(–darkmode-pillar);–standfirst-link-border: var(–darkmode-pillar);–byline: var(–darkmode-pillar)}}.furniture-wrapper #headline h1,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=headline] h1,.furniture-wrapper .headline h1,.furniture-wrapper .standfirst div p,.furniture-wrapper #standfirst div p,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=standfirst] div p{font-weight:500}:root body{–weekend-essay-bg: #fff4f2;background:var(–weekend-essay-bg, #fff4f2);–article-section-background: var(–weekend-essay-bg, #fff4f2);–sub-meta-background: var(–weekend-essay-bg, #fff4f2)}[data-gu-name=lines]{display:none}.furniture-wrapper{position:relative}@media (min-width: 81.25em){.furniture-wrapper{grid-template-rows:[title-start portrait-start] .25fr [title-end headline-start] 1fr [headline-end standfirst-start meta-start] .3fr [standfirst-end meta-end portrait-end]}}.furniture-wrapper .article-header,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=title]{position:relative;height:70px}.furniture-wrapper .article-header .content__labels,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=title] .content__labels{height:inherit}.furniture-wrapper .article-header .content__labels:after,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=title] .content__labels:after{content:””;display:block;width:70px;height:70px;background-image:url(https://interactive.guim.co.uk/atoms/2025/04/2025-weekend-essay-test/assets/v/1791480673/book.gif);background-size:contain;background-position:center;background-repeat:no-repeat;position:absolute;bottom:0;right:0}@media (min-width: 81.25em){.furniture-wrapper .article-header .content__labels:after,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=title] .content__labels:after{width:110px;height:110px}}.furniture-wrapper .article-header .content__labels>div,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=title] .content__labels>div{height:100%}.furniture-wrapper .article-header .content__labels>div:after,.furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=title] .content__labels>div:after{content:””;display:block;width:calc(100vw – var(–scrollbar-width, 0px));height:1px;background-color:#dcdcdc;position:absolute;bottom:0;left:-10px}@media (min-wAt widths of 46.25em and above, the article header and title labels get a pseudo-element positioned 20px to the left with a width of 738px. At 61.25em and above, this pseudo-element is hidden. At 71.25em and above, the article header and title have a height of 80px, increasing to 125px at 81.25em and above. Also at 81.25em and above, the headline gets a top margin of -2px. The inner div of the headline has no bottom padding. The portrait main media headline wrapper has full height, relative positioning, hidden overflow, and 24px bottom padding. Within it, the h1, links, and byline spans have no max-width restriction. On hover, they get a 2px underline thickness with a 6px offset. These elements use 115% line height, font weight 500, and a font size of 36px, which increases to 50px at 71.25em and above. The standfirst has relative positioning and 4px top padding, which becomes 0 at 61.25em and above, then 2px at 71.25em and above..content__meta-container_dcr gu-island[name=Branding], .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=meta] .content__meta-container_dcr gu-island[name=Branding] { display: block; }

.furniture-wrapper #main-media, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] { position: relative; }

@media (min-width: 61.25em) {
.furniture-wrapper #main-media, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] { grid-area: portrait; }
}

.furniture-wrapper #main-media > div, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] > div { position: relative; }

.furniture-wrapper #main-media div + span, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] div + span { display: block; }

.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure { height: 100%; margin-left: 10px; }

.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure picture img, .furniture-wrapper #main-media figure figcaption, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure picture img, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure figcaption { width: calc(100vw – 40px – var(–scrollbar-width, 0px)); height: auto; margin-left: 10px; padding: 10px 0; }

.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure figcaption, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure figcaption { margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 10px; }

.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure:before, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure:before { content: “”; display: block; width: calc(100vw – 20px – var(–scrollbar-width, 0px)); background-image: url(https://interactive.guim.co.uk/atoms/2025/04/2025-weekend-essay-test/assets/v/1791480673/frame.png); background-size: contain; background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 10px; height: inherit; }

.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure.cinemagraph div:first-of-type, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure.cinemagraph div:first-of-type { background: transparent; }

.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure.cinemagraph video, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure.cinemagraph video { width: 92%; margin: 16px 8px 0; }

.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure.cinemagraph figcaption, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure.cinemagraph figcaption { margin-bottom: 12px; width: 93%; margin-left: 2px; }

@media (min-width: 23.4375em) {
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure.cinemagraph video, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure.cinemagraph video { width: 94%; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure.cinemagraph figcaption, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure.cinemagraph figcaption { margin-bottom: 12px; width: 91%; margin-left: 9px; }
}

@media (min-width: 46.25em) {
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure { margin-left: 0; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure picture img, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure picture img { width: 670px; height: auto; margin-left: 5px; padding: 15px 10px; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure:before, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure:before { width: 700px; left: -10px; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure figcaption, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure figcaption { width: 650px; margin-left: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 15px 10px; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure.cinemagraph video, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure.cinemagraph video { width: 96%; margin: 18px 6px 0; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure.cinemagraph figcaption, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure.cinemagraph figcaption { width: 96%; margin-left: 6px; margin-bottom: 17px; }
}

@media (min-width: 61.25em) {
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure:before, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure:before { width: 470px; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure picture img, .furniture-wrapper #main-media figure figcaption, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure picture img, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure figcaption { width: 450px; margin-left: 0; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure picture img, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure picture img { padding: 10px 0; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure figcaption, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure figcaption { margin-bottom: 10px; }
.furniture-wrapper #main-media figure.cinemagraph video, .furniture-wrapper [data-gu-name=media] figure.cinemagraph video { margin: 10px 6px 0; }
}

.furniture-wraAt the smallest screen sizes, the caption for a cinemagraph inside the main media or media furniture wrapper has a left margin of 6px and a bottom margin of 12px.

From 71.25em wide, the figure’s pseudo-element is 550px wide. Images inside the figure are 520px wide with a 5px left margin and 10px vertical padding. The caption is 510px wide with a 10px left margin and a 10px bottom margin. For cinemagraphs, the video has a top margin of 12px and horizontal margins of 6px, while the caption has a 6px left margin and a 15px bottom margin.

From 81.25em wide, the figure’s pseudo-element is 630px wide. Images are 600px wide with 15px vertical padding. The caption is 600px wide with a 5px left margin and a 15px bottom margin. For cinemagraphs, the video has a top margin of 16px and horizontal margins of 8px, and the caption has an 8px left margin.

The caption button sits 15px from the right and 20px from the bottom. From 46.25em wide, it moves to 45px from the right and 30px from the bottom. From 61.25em wide, it returns to 15px from the right and 20px from the bottom. From 71.25em wide, it is 20px from the right. From 81.25em wide, it is 30px from the bottom.

When a cinemagraph is present, the caption button is 20px from the right. From 46.25em wide, it is 35px from the right and 25px from the bottom. From 61.25em wide, it is 25px from the right and 20px from the bottom. From 71.25em wide, it is 25px from the bottom.

The no-media div is centered with flexbox and takes full width. Its paragraph text is 24px, weight 500, line height 115%, colored with the byline anchor variable, weight 700, underlined, and displayed as a block.

From 71.25em wide, the interactive main column has no left margin and its pseudo-element is hidden.

A supporting aside inside the interactive main column that contains a blockquote gets a background color of #fff4f2, or the weekend essay background variable if set.

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The next day, at the meeting he had travelled for, the officer could not remember the names of colleagues in the room—people he knew well. As the meeting went on, he could barely follow the discussion. At first, he blamed it on a terrible, if rather strange, case of food poisoning. But over the following weeks, worrying symptoms continued: brain fog, loss of balance, and increasingly severe tinnitus.

By September, he had started to feel better and was on another work trip, this time to Poland. Asleep in his Warsaw hotel room, he was again woken by terrifying head pain, even worse than in London. He later described the feeling as “someone standing over me with a baseball bat and just repeatedly hitting me on the head.” It was a nine or 10 on the pain scale, he felt, worse than anything he could remember.

Two hours later, the same feeling returned, and he began to suspect that what was happening might not be an internal process but some kind of external attack. He dragged himself off the bed and curled up on the floor, where the intense pain eased somewhat. That was the last time he had the “attack” sensation, but he went on to suffer chronic nerve pain, fatigue, and other severe health problems for years.

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The incidents became known as Havana syndrome, after the Cuban city where mass reports of the phenomenon first emerged. Photograph: Manon Levet/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images

Sources described the man as a senior CIA officer who had recently been given an important job related to worldwide operations against Russia. At the time, he was only vaguely aware of the stories that had come out of Cuba two years earlier, about US diplomats who believed they may have been attacked with a sonic weapon.

These incidents, in which people reported a variety of unusual sounds, pressure, and pain, followed by residual symptoms that could last for years, became known as Havana syndrome, after the city where mass reports of the phenomenon first emerged.

Later, dozens of CIA officers around the world reported Havana syndrome episodes, which official documents called anomalous health incidents (AHIs). Many believed AHIs were the result of a Russian intelligence operation to wound or intimidate covert US operatives using a previously unknown weapon that delivered sonic or pulsed microwave energy.

There was sustained pushback against that theory. Some scientists insisted the idea of a portable weaponDelivering such injuries was once thought to belong to science fiction. They said a whole range of conditions could cause pain, dizziness, and cognitive problems. Various experts suggested that AHIs could be caused by environmental factors, toxins, or even the sound of chirping crickets. One explanation was that the symptoms were psychogenic and the result of “mass hysteria,” while some inside the CIA even accused those affected of faking their injuries in the hope of a medical payout. Disagreements over what was causing Havana syndrome led to bitter arguments and broken friendships at the spy agency. In 2022, a panel of scientific experts convened by the US government concluded that “the signs and symptoms of AHIs are genuine and compelling” and “could be due to external stimuli.” But the next year, a long-awaited report delivered the official assessment of the US intelligence community: “The available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of US adversaries in causing the reported incidents,” read an unclassified summary. It concluded that a sinister Russian campaign was “very unlikely” to be behind AHIs. World map showing locations of Havana syndrome incidents. Yet the mystery of Havana syndrome refuses to die. This summer, the “very unlikely” assessment from 2023 was rescinded by Donald Trump’s outgoing director of national intelligence, who claimed it was based on flawed analysis. Now, a decade after the first reports emerged from Havana, two CBS journalists who have covered the story from the start are to release a book that sets out the case for Russia being behind at least some of the episodes. It also accuses parts of the US government and intelligence community of covering up the evidence. This article is based on early access to their findings, as well as on the Guardian’s own interviews with intelligence sources, AHI patients, and scientists. David Relman, the Stanford professor who led the official scientific panel on Havana syndrome in 2022, told the Guardian he believed there was a subset of AHI cases that were “most plausibly explained by exposure to pulsed microwave energy.” His panel had access to patient records and to more than 1,000 classified documents on the topic. “To any reasonable person looking at all the evidence I was able to see, it inevitably leads to the conclusion that there may have been a cover-up,” he said. Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados are longstanding producers for the CBS programme 60 Minutes. In an interview at the programme’s studios in midtown Manhattan, the pair recounted how they first came across the story a decade ago. They covered the Obama administration’s policy of re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2015, so when reports emerged the next year of a mysterious new condition afflicting employees at the reopened embassy in Havana, they contacted a senior US diplomat who had been posted there. “I expected him to say: ‘This is all bullshit,'” said Zill. “But he said: ‘Oh no, this is completely true. And I can put you in touch with a bunch of people who were hit.'” The pair spoke to more than a dozen of them, off the record, but by the time they were ready to put a story together there were new reports of similar cases occurring among US diplomats stationed in China. Then there were whispers about it happening in other locations around the world. View image in fullscreen. Oriana Zill de Granados and Michael Rey, producers for 60 Minutes and authors of the forthcoming book The Havana Syndrome. Photograph: Pete Kiehart/The Guardian. Once the first 60 Minutes episodes devoted to the topic aired, victims started contacting the producers, keen to tell their stories. Many of these new sources were – or had been – undercover operatives for the CIA, meaning they could not speak openly as most details of their work were classified. But people stationed around the world who had not known each other told stories that seThey seemed remarkably similar. A pattern linked some of the key cases: the alleged victims were working, or had previously worked, on assignments where they dealt with Russian interests. In some cases, the location of the supposed attacks was notable in itself: allies of Moscow where parts of the elite wanted to improve relations with the West. This was true in Cuba, where the first cluster of cases occurred during the Obama-era thaw in relations with the US, which angered hardliners in the Cuban regime and their backers in Moscow. It was also true in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, and Vietnam. Several CIA officers stationed in Kyiv around the time of Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution—which Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced as a US-backed coup—later suffered AHIs in different locations around the world. “I went through years of doubting the story and all the crazy things we were hearing,” Zill said. But the more source meetings she and Rey had, the more they felt there was really something there. “We’re meeting these highly effective intelligence officers, and they’re all telling versions of the same story,” Rey said. The origins of Havana syndrome go back long before Cuba. A key case is that of Mike Beck, a counter-intelligence officer at the National Security Agency who fell ill while on temporary assignment to an undisclosed location in the 1990s to check a US diplomatic facility for bugs. Beck developed a rare form of Parkinson’s disease at 45 and died this year. A declassified NSA statement included in his 2014 workplace compensation claim noted that “there is intelligence information from 2012 associating the hostile country to which Mr Beck travelled in the late 1990s with a high-powered microwave system weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate or kill an enemy, over time, and without leaving evidence.” The unnamed “hostile country,” sources said, was Russia. View image in fullscreenMike Beck, pictured in 2017, died this year after developing a rare form of Parkinson’s disease at 45. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty ImagesThe first known AHIs in the contemporary batch of cases occurred in late 2014, when several US government employees at the consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, became ill. One was found unconscious in a consulate stairwell after feeling sudden, intense pressure on her chest and hearing a “high-pitched squeal,” Rey and Zill reported. The next year, a researcher at a US defence institute—who asked the Guardian not to use her name—was touring the Balkans, attending meetings with military officers from host nations alongside US defence attaches. Her itinerary included Montenegro, which was applying for Nato membership, and Serbia, a Russian ally that resented the US over the 1999 Nato bombing of Yugoslavia. On her final evening in Belgrade, as she walked through lively pedestrian streets to her hotel, the researcher was sure she spotted someone following her. Later, as she approached her hotel room, she felt “a sinking feeling, as though I was in a lift that was descending suddenly,” she recalled in a telephone interview. Inside her room, she continued to feel strange sensations. “I just had this falling sensation, a feeling of gravity pulling at me, and nausea.” At one point, she turned on her government laptop and found the screen flickering with blue static. The computer never worked again. She said she was able to continue her trip, but in the following weeks she felt weak, had difficulty speaking clearly, and developed pain that felt “like a drill was going into my eye.” She was unable to focus at work. “I used up all my vacation, then my sick leave, then colleagues donated their leave. Eventually, I had to leave my job,” she said. It was only much later that she connected what had happened to her with reports about Havana syndrome. View image in fMarc Polymeropoulos has symptoms linked to Havana syndrome. Photograph: Pete Kiehart/The Guardian

The next group of AHI patients included people at the center of a new CIA policy on Russia. In 2017, as Donald Trump began his first term, the agency launched an effort to push back against Moscow’s intelligence agencies, which were becoming increasingly bold around the world.

“They wanted us to bring the same tactics and spirit we used in the global war on terror to the Russians,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, who was made deputy chief of operations for Europe and Eurasia in 2017. Polymeropoulos, who had spent most of his career in the Middle East, was one of several war on terror veterans moved into senior roles focused on Russia. Even as Trump publicly denied that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election, the agency made plans to push back hard against Russian activity.

“Obviously, we didn’t have permission to run lethal operations against the Russians, but we could do things we hadn’t done as much before, like enlist the help of multiple friendly services and expose what the Russians were doing,” Polymeropoulos said in an interview at a restaurant just outside Washington.

In early December 2017, Polymeropoulos and another senior CIA executive made a liaison trip to Moscow to meet their counterparts in Russia’s SVR and FSB intelligence services. The official meetings were tense and produced little of substance. Late one night, Polymeropoulos woke up suddenly in his hotel room. “I had vertigo and a splitting headache. At first I thought it was food poisoning, I thought I was going to throw up and crap my brains out, and I remember thinking, holy shit, the room is spinning and my ears are ringing,” he said.

After returning to Washington, Polymeropoulos struggled with a migraine that would not go away, and with superiors who insisted his symptoms were unrelated to other AHIs. He saw various doctors on his own time, but because of the classified nature of his job, he could not share details of where he had been when he became ill.

He left the CIA in 2019. Frustrated at being stonewalled in his requests for a medical assessment, he became the first CIA officer to go public with a Havana syndrome story under his real name, telling journalist Julia Ioffe what happened in Moscow.

The resulting publicity prompted the CIA to send him to the Walter Reed military medical center, where he was diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury. In 2023 he was found eligible for compensation under the Havana Act, which authorized payments to “personnel who incur brain injuries from hostilities while on assignment.” The payout was modest, but he saw it as a moral victory after years of fighting for recognition.

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Marc Polymeropoulos struggled with a migraine that would not go away. Photograph: Pete Kiehart/The Guardian

One early theory was that AHIs could be the result of data collection attempts gone wrong — a machine designed to pull classified data from operatives’ electronic devices that had unfortunate side effects when turned up too high. Some still see that as a possibility, though even if intelligence collection was the original idea, the damaging health effects would have quickly become clear to the operators.

Some observers insisted the whole concept of “Havana syndrome” was invented. They asked why, if Russia had a brain-frying weapon, it was not using it on a wider range of its enemies. Why were there not more reports of collateral victims?

Sociologist Robert Bartholomew and neurologist Robert Baloh co-authored a book that declared the whole story a hoax — “a case study in the social construction of mass psychogenic illness” — born of high-stress work environments and spread by excitable journalists.

Douglas Fields, a cellular neuroscientist and author of several books about the brain, claimed in aA journal article argued that medical studies of patients showing cognitive changes had used flawed methods, and that theories of an energy weapon “defy the laws of physics.” Reports of Havana syndrome, it suggested, should be taken no more seriously than sightings of the Loch Ness monster.

Other scientists, including some who had reviewed patients’ medical records, strongly disagreed. “The early scepticism was perfectly appropriate, but over time we started to see an increase in the number of individuals who have gone through clinical evaluations that cannot be faked,” said James Giordano, a professor emeritus of neurology at Georgetown University Medical Center and the forensic neuroscientist on the original cohort of cases from Havana.

“We are talking about objective signs that are presenting with a very distinct pattern,” Giordano said. Key symptoms included “a profound tumbling or falling sensation” as well as pressure in the head, chest and throat, and cognitive effects. It was true that chemical or drug exposure could cause similar symptoms, he said, but this would be visible on blood tests. Another key factor was the sudden onset and the sense of a specific location where the apparent attack felt strongest.

When the Biden administration took office in 2021, the then CIA director, Bill Burns, and the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, vowed to get to the bottom of the issue. Burns met many of the AHI cohort, including Polymeropoulos, listening carefully to their stories and promising them a full investigation.

Burns also fired the CIA’s chief medical officer, who had infuriated some AHI patients by accusing them of faking their symptoms. The same year, more than 100 CIA operatives and other US government officials reported AHIs in locations around the world. In Vienna, there were so many hits that the work of the CIA station was essentially paralysed and the station chief recalled. A spate of government employees also reported incidents on US soil, including several who claimed to have been hit on the grounds of the White House. Was this an adversary stepping up its campaign, or was the increasing publicity about AHIs leading more people to misidentify other conditions or episodes as Havana syndrome?

Burns and Haines launched two investigations, one to re-examine intelligence on whether a foreign adversary was behind Havana syndrome, and another that convened a panel of scientists and physicians to determine whether it was even possible for a weapon to cause the symptoms.

David Relman said there were dozens of cases ‘that were unusual in the distinctness of their features’. Photograph: Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Getty Images

Relman, a Stanford professor who chaired the scientific panel, said its members were given access to open source and classified scientific studies into pulsed radio frequency energy, which suggested that the science behind there being a “device” that could cause AHI symptoms was plausible. Scientists who disagreed were simply unaware of the research into such technology that had been taking place for decades in several countries, especially in the Soviet Union and then Russia, he said.

Regarding the medical results, Relman conceded that plenty – perhaps the vast majority – of AHI claims could be explained by other factors. But there were dozens of cases “that were unusual in the distinctness of their features and the near impossibility of explaining them based on known medical and environmental conditions”. In short: the publicity around AHIs may have prompted a wave of false reporting, but a core subset of cases seemed real.

Determining who may have carried out such attacks was beyond Relman’s purview. That fell to the second expert group, which in 2023 issued the assessment that it was “very unlikely” to be caused by a foreign adversary, dismaying many AHI patients who had hoped to finally receive closure on what caused their heaHealth problems. Even people who have seen the intelligence on Havana syndrome can disagree about what it suggests. Two sources gave the Guardian very different interpretations of what the classified data shows about possible Russian involvement.

One pointed to the lack of a “smoking gun”—a piece of human intelligence or an intercept showing Russian operatives discussing a program to use directed energy against Americans. “Everyone has seen how strong our collection capabilities on Russia are,” the source said, referring to how US intelligence obtained Putin’s war plans before his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. “If this were really a large-scale Russian program, we would have expected to see something in some of these channels, but we didn’t.”

Another former intelligence official disagreed: “If you’re waiting for an intercept of someone saying, ‘My name is Igor and I’m going to press the button on my secret laser’ before you have confidence, that’s probably never going to happen. But for any reasonable person who has access to the intelligence and knows how to read it, the Russian fingerprints are clear.”

If that is the case, it raises the question of why the 2023 intelligence community assessment found it “very unlikely” that a foreign actor was involved. At the end of the Biden administration, a revised version said that while five US intelligence agencies still found it “very unlikely,” one agency now believed there was a “roughly even chance” that a foreign actor had used “a novel weapon or prototype device” in a number of attacks.

This summer, both of those Biden-era assessments were rescinded by Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, in a memo issued just before she left office. Gabbard said the earlier assessments were marred by “selective exclusion of evidence” and “mischaracterisation of sources,” though the statement did not release any new evidence or provide a revised assessment.

While Gabbard had a chequered reputation among the intelligence community, Mark Zaid, a lawyer who represents more than 30 AHI patients, welcomed her memo and said it was a first step toward overturning a CIA cover-up. When asked why the CIA might have perpetrated such a cover-up, Zaid suggested it could be to protect its reputation after prior negligence. “This has built up to a level that the agency can’t let the truth get out because it’s going to reflect so poorly on them,” he said.

Burns, in a comment for Rey and Zill’s book, said it was “simply not true that there was a ‘cover-up’ by the CIA” and described the earlier investigation as “a rigorous effort across the entire intelligence community.”

Rey and Zill believe the purported cover-up was a result of multiple factors over many years. “There’s not a single cigar-filled backroom meeting that led to decisions getting made,” said Rey. “There was a lot of, ‘This is a pain in the ass’ or ‘The president’s not going to want to hear this.’ There was bureaucratic dysfunction, careerism and things that just got in the way of proper investigation.”

One example he gave is the fact that the FBI sent criminal investigators, rather than counterintelligence investigators with access to classified information, to Havana after the attacks there. Another is a nascent investigation at CIA headquarters in late 2019 which reportedly found that, in some cases, phones linked to Russian intelligence operatives had been in the vicinity of suspected Havana syndrome incidents. These included the hits that year on the senior CIA officer in London and Warsaw.

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Rey and Zill believe the purported cover-up was a result of multiple factors over many years. Photograph: Pete Kiehart/The Guardian

In London, a suspicious phone had supposedly been just 10 metres (30ft) away from his hotel room. But when the then CIA director, Gina HaHaspel was briefed on these findings and allegedly complained that they were not solid enough to present to the president, given how sensitive he was about Russia-related matters. “The meeting abruptly ended after Haspel shouted that if she took reports like this to President Trump, she would be fired as director,” Rey and Zill write.

Outside the CIA, some have found intriguing leads about possible links between Russian operatives and AHIs. Christo Grozev, a journalist and investigator who has exposed several Russian intelligence operations, claimed that leaked travel data suggested at least four possible connections between suspected AHIs and travel by officers from Unit 29155 of Russia’s GRU military intelligence, known for its campaign of sabotage and assassinations in Western countries. He also said he had traced travel by “members of what appears to be a technical unit adjacent to 29155” to Cuba during the initial attacks.

Perhaps the most significant piece of evidence to emerge recently has been the alleged US government acquisition of a “Havana syndrome-style device” in an undercover operation. First reported this year by independent journalist Sasha Ingber, two sources confirmed to the Guardian that a device had been acquired and brought to the US in late 2024 for testing, after being purchased from a dark-web seller.

Rey and Zill’s book recounts a meeting with a person who claimed to be part of the undercover team that acquired the device. The source told them the device was “man-portable,” fired non-thermal pulsed microwaves, and was obtained from “a complex Russian illicit network.”

It is not believed to have been used in a Havana syndrome incident, but testing on animals has reportedly shown it may cause symptoms similar to AHIs, which could prove that building such a device is scientifically possible.

That would make the case for a weapon being involved in some incidents more plausible, and would also raise new and worrying questions. If such weapons have proliferated to the point that one can be bought on the dark web, how many devices could be out there, and who might have access to them? Could AHIs therefore have not one perpetrator, but many? And is there a future in which such weapons become a widespread element of warfare? “We know the technology has reached a level that enables it to be used in weaponisable ways,” said Giordano. “I see that as a clear and present threat.”

For those who have had symptoms for years, the acquisition of the device and the rescinded intelligence assessments offer some hope that one day they will receive official confirmation that they were targeted by a foreign adversary. For many of them, the lack of recognition at home has angered them more than the attack itself.

“The Russians are our enemy. I put them in the same bucket as al-Qaida or the Taliban, or any other groups I worked against,” said Polymeropoulos. “Do I want to see them held accountable? Of course. But I’m actually more upset and feel more betrayed by my own government.”

The Havana Syndrome by Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados is published by Crown Publishing in the US on 13 October and by WH Allen in the UK on 15 October.

Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs based on the article Like a drill going into my eye why the mystery of Havana syndrome refuses to die

The Basics

What is Havana Syndrome
It is a catchall term for a set of mysterious symptomslike dizziness headaches and hearing lossfirst reported by US diplomats in Havana Cuba in 2016

Why is it called a syndrome and not a specific disease
A syndrome is a collection of symptoms that occur together but dont have a single confirmed cause Doctors use this term when they see a pattern of illness but cant yet prove exactly what is making people sick

What does the drill in the eye description refer to
That is a specific vivid description used by some patients to explain the intense localized pain they felt during an attack It suggests a sudden sharp and physically invasive sensation

Is it contagious
No There is no evidence that Havana Syndrome spreads from person to person like a virus or bacteria

Who is affected by it
Initially it was US and Canadian diplomats in Cuba Since then reports have come from government officials spies and military personnel stationed in various countries including China Russia and even Washington DC

Symptoms and Causes

What are the most common symptoms
Patients often report
A sudden loud noise or pressure in one ear
Intense headaches or migraines
Dizziness or vertigo
Difficulty concentrating
Nausea and sleep problems

What is the leading theory for the cause
The most discussed theory is that it is caused by a directed energy weapon specifically pulsed microwave radiation This theory suggests a device beams energy at a target causing physical harm

Are there other theories
Yes Other explanations include
Mass Psychogenic Illness A psychological phenomenon where stress and anxiety cause physical symptoms in a group
Pesticides Exposure to neurotoxins used for mosquito control in Cuba
Unknown Environmental Factors Something in the local environment though this is less favored now

Why hasnt a cause been proven
It is incredibly difficult to prove Investigators rarely have access to the scene immediately after an attack and they dont know what device to look for

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