Free Republic

A newly-uncovered trove of documents detailing plans to create a Covid-like virus in China months before the pandemic make the 'lab leak almost certain', experts say. The records - obtained now by FOIA requests - lay out a plan to 'engineer spike proteins' to infect human cells that would then be 'inserted into SARS-Covid backbones' at the infamous Wuhan virology lab from December 2018. Just a year later, in late 2019, the Covid-19 virus emerged with a uniquely adept ability to infect humans, going on to cause a global pandemic. The proposal was made by the now-notorious EcoHealth Alliance, a...

The Oscar-winning screenwriter who led the calls for Gone With The Wind to be removed from a streaming service has criticised Quentin Tarantino for his “painful and infuriating” use of the n-word. John Ridley, who wrote 2013 period drama 12 Years A Slave, successfully called on WarnerMedia to temporarily take down 1939 classic Gone With The Wind from its HBO Max platform. He argued its depiction of slavery in the pre-Civil War American South reinforced harmful stereotypes of people of colour.

Star of the upcoming film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Daisy Ridley asserted that "everyone has an issue with Trump — every sane person anyway." Speaking with The Guardian in an interview published over the weekend, the English actress took aim at both President Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. When asked if she finds it difficult to speak out about politics given that the Star Wars franchise is owned by family-friendly Disney, Ridley said, "No. I don’t feel I have to edit what I say — the things that make me angry are the things that make...

Now come climate scientists’ implausible explanations for why the ‘hiatus’ has passed the 15-year mark.By MATT RIDLEY On Sept. 23 the United Nations will host a party for world leaders in New York to pledge urgent action against climate change. Yet leaders from China, India and Germany have already announced that they won’t attend the summit and others are likely to follow, leaving President Obama looking a bit lonely. Could it be that they no longer regard it as an urgent threat that some time later in this century the air may get a bit warmer? In effect, this is...

Video showing that the Earth is getting greener BECAUSE of more co2 in the atmosphere and that the use of fossil fuels is preserving nature, not destroying it.

In presenting his new film, Prometheus, at Comic-Con, Ridley Scott was torn between building excitement for the presumed Alien prequel and keeping the project shrouded in secrecy. “Ridley has been sort of very cryptically obtuse about everything, and he will probably kill us if we say too much about the movie,” screenwriter Damon Lindelof said. “If you were looking for answers, you came to the wrong place.” Theron was equally circumspect. When asked if she could share any details about her character, Meredith Vickers, she replied, “No, I can’t, sorry. I’m just here to be pretty.” One thing Lindelof did...

NOTE: THIS IS THE NEW FLOTILLA/CONVOY/"HUMANITARIAN AID"/"HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS" THREAD. SNIPPET: "While the debate over mosque development in New York continues to dominate the news cycle, opposing sides in the Israeli blockade on Gaza are gearing up for a new round of confrontations that could take place as soon as next month. Although the list of items restricted from entering Gaza has been dramatically reduced, George Galloway, the ex-British MP who runs the group Viva Palestina, promises a new land convoy leaving from London, Casablanca and Doha September 18. Galloway has made it clear his mission has more to do...

A prominent Muslim scholar banned from the United States for six years returned Wednesday for visits to four cities... "In the name of your fear or mistrust of Muslim-majority countries, you may end up betraying your own values," Tariq Ramadan ... Ramadan said he was happy to be in the U.S. ...to speak on a panel Thursday at The Cooper Union college. "My name has been cleared," he said. The 47-year-old professor at Oxford University in England was permitted to return to the United States after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in January signed orders enabling re-entry for him...

But that doesn't mean Scott is through with making pictures about war and brutality along the lines of "Black Hawk Down," revealing he plans to return soon to the Middle East, the subject of his last period epic "Kingdom of Heaven." He then launched into a treatise on how Hollywood has such great potential to deliver messages about learning from history. "In wars, no one wins, everyone loses. There are no heroes, there's only dead people," he said, referring to what he called the chaos and craziness in the Middle East today. While he conceded Michael Moore has had successes...

SO it wasn't a political stunt. It isn't about Iraq. And the threat of Islamist terror right here is more real than many pretend. How real? If the police are right, they have saved scores of you from being blown up -- as people in Madrid and London were blown up. As NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney put it, the arrest yesterday of 17 Muslim men disrupted "the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack". He said explosive material had already been collected. Yet only last week, Prime Minister John Howard was pilloried by many for having warned of an...

...Beginning today, Amazon plans to feature one original short film each week in a prominent spot on its home page for the next five weeks -- all commissioned by Amazon and available for free downloading by the site's visitors. The four-to-seven minute movies will star a variety of Hollywood actors in fictional stories fashioned loosely around a theme Amazon describes as "karmic balance;" characters, in essence, learn valuable life lessons.... Instead of a traditional advertising hard sell, the movies mark the escalation of an effort by Amazon to provide unique online content free of charge to its customers, some of...

CHICAGO, August 27 (IslamOnline) - British journalist Yvonne Ridley has announced that she plans to convert to Islam. IslamOnline talked to Ridley about her religious background, her encounters with the Taliban, and her decision to convert to Islam. Ridley made international headlines last year when she entered Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban. She was eventually released and went on to write about her experiences in a book entitled In The Hands of the Taliban published by Robson Books in the U.K. Ridley told IslamOnline, “I was brought up a Protestant, in the Church of England. I sang...