Free Republic

Australia is set to end its "covid zero" policy after Prime Minister Scott Morrison determined that the country’s approach is not "sustainable" in the face of the more infectious COVID-19 delta variant. Australia has maintained a strict policy of restrictions and lockdowns to stamp out any outbreak, but the government over the weekend laid out a new plan that marks a sharp change in policy. The government will drop most restrictions once 80% of adults are vaccinated, which the government believes could happen by the end of the year, The Economist reported. Any further action would occur only after hospitals...

[H/T Cathi]I've placed information about Dr. Malone's qualifications in post #1 below.Robert Malone: What is Antibody Dependent Enhancement? So it’s one of the spectrum of, it’s the easiest one to explain, of the spectrum of the effects that can occur with vaccines in which the vaccination actually makes the disease worse.The most notable example is what happened in the 60’s with Respiratory Syncytial Virus, a virus which kills young infants with fairly high frequency, and it was slated as being the next pediatric vaccine to be developed after the classical MMR series. It was found that as they deployed this,...

Former President of the U.S. Donald Trump on Monday issued a statement on Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.Donald Trump in his latest statement demands to get back all the US equipment left back in Afghanistan. “If it is not handed back, we should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it,” the former President said. FULL STATEMENT: Never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden Administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. In addition to the obvious, ALL EQUIPMENT should be demanded to be...

The Taliban's spokesman says the hardline Islamist group will crack down on Islamic State attacks and expects them to end once foreign forces leave the country. "We hope that those Afghans who are influenced by IS ... will give up their operations on seeing the formation of an Islamic government in the absence of foreigners," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP in a weekend interview. "If they create a situation for war and continue with their operations, the Islamic government ... we will deal with them," he added. A devastating suicide bomb attack claimed by IS outside Kabul airport on...

Illinois reinstituted its statewide mask mandate Monday under the direction of Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker, requiring that even those as young as two mask up in public indoor settings. Pritzker announced the mandate Thursday, requiring individuals to wear masks in certain indoor settings regardless of vaccination status. Indoor areas include public settings such as restaurants, bars, gyms, grocery stores, and residential common areas, as well as public transportation, schools, and healthcare settings.

The agency is investigating Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina,Tennessee and Utah. _________________________________________________________________________________ The Biden administration on Monday reportedly opened civil rights investigations into five GOP-led states for policies banning school districts from requiring COVID-19 masks. Officials in the five states – Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina,Tennessee and Utah – were informed about the probe in a letter from the Education Department, according to The Washington Post. Each of the states bars local school districts from mandating masks, intended to try to stop the spread of the reemerging virus. The letter allege the states may be preventing districts from meeting the needs of...

This guide is the second in a series of antiracism toolkits for scholarly publishing. The first, the Antiracism Toolkit for Allies, was published in August 2020 and includes an introduction that provides the foundation for this project. The third, the Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, is forthcoming as of the publication of this guide. Through a shared belief in the power of DE&I, C4DISC and our collaborators have created the Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations. We must work together to create the climate in which we want to live. Please dive into the toolkit and let’s get...

This should be very concerning for tech companies that operate in the Chinese market. 'It is not clear how much pressure was put on SoftBank to form the merger, but this looks like one of the most blatant examples of IP theft that we've seen. The Chinese arm of a company has gone rogue and refused to obey the ruling of its own board. The head of that company is essentially treating it as a personal fiefdom, and Chinese authorities do not appear to have taken meaningful action to reign in Mr. Wu.'

Scientists have debated the existence of Planet Nine since it was first introduced several years ago, but a new study has determined the orbit of the alleged celestial object. Caltech researchers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin have plotted the orbital path of the mystical planet, which has yet to be discovered. In a blog post, Brown detailed that the 'highest probability' of Planet Nine's location is near aphelion - the point at which it is furthest from the sun - around 60 degrees in Right Ascension, 'pretty close to the galactic plane.' If in fact Planet Nine were at the...

Trash heaps throughout the city, feces on sidewalks, and armed guards at every street corner to hand out beatings — welcome to the new Kabul. The once-modern capital of Afghanistan with a growing middle class has been plunged back into the Dark Ages, literally, as electricity is shut off at night, plunging 4 million people into darkness. This is life under the Taliban after their takeover two weeks ago.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told top Pentagon leaders to prepare for a potential 'mass casualty event' 24 hours before a suicide bomb rocked the hurried U.S. evacuation at the Kabul airport, new internal DOD documents reveal. The documents, which the Pentagon condemned as a leak of classified information and urged the media not to report, detail top military officials trying to sort out security in a situation they already deemed a major risk. 'I don't believe people get the incredible amount of risk on the ground,' Austin said on the call. Austin told more than a dozen leaders who joined...

[H/T Ymani Cricket] Fred Corbin begins by addressing the Chief Medical officer in Barbados.Fred Corbin: I’m a professional race car engineer. I have a background in nuclear biological and chemical weapons study, and I also have civil engineering, aerospace engineering, and marine biology as co-related subjects of study.I came here this afternoon not only to represent the people of Barbados, but to bring a certain educational perspective to what a tremendous amount of people have been asking me with the kind of background I have in understanding what is actually going on.So I have one question, which I don’t want...

In recent days, Twitter permanently banned independent journalist Alex Berenson, Google demonetized The Gateway Pundit from its ad network, and Chase Bank canceled the credit cards of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. __________________________________________________________________________________ With national attention riveted over the weekend on two major stories — the frantic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan amid its fall to the Taliban and category 4 Hurricane Ida slamming into the Louisiana coast — Big Tech and woke finance dramatically extended the reach of cancel culture with brazen moves to silence and harass three high-profile voices of political and scientific dissent: independent journalist Alex Berenson, popular...

A new report released this morning details how over 44,000 absentee ballots in Georgia’s Dekalb county were counted despite the state’s adoption of chain of custody standards last year: 43,907 of the 61,731 absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes in the November 2020 presidential election in DeKalb County, Georgia–72 percent–were counted in official tallies certified by the county and the state, despite violating chain of custody requirements set forward in Georgia Emergency Rule 183-1-14-1.8-.14 promulgated by the Georgia State Election Board at its July 1, 2020, meeting. That rule states absentee ballots placed in drop boxes, “shall be immediately transported...

Masitinib, an existing drug used to treat tumors in animals, may be an effective treatment against many types of coronaviruses, including the one that causes COVID-19. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Scientists using the Advanced Photon Source have discovered that a drug used to fight tumors in animals might be effective against many types of coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Scientists from the University of Chicago have found that the drug masitinib may be effective in treating COVID-19. The drug, which has undergone several clinical trials for human conditions but has not yet received approval to treat humans, inhibited the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that...

Jen Psaki’s press conference last Friday illustrated how she, and by extension, her boss, the president, have continued to destroy their credibility with the American people. The White House press secretary showed once again that the administration has misled us even about small things since the very beginning. And if they will lie to us about small things, then they will lie about big things. In common law, there is an expression, “Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.” It means “false in one thing, false in everything.” It is a principle judges have used for centuries to instruct juries on...

Right across the globe, countries which have traditionally relied on American backing are suddenly starting to wonder if they should get themselves some re-insurance. Taiwan, which is almost daily subject to threats of invasion from China, is particularly worried. South Korea, Japan, Western Europe, and Britain are all wondering if the American commitment to them could evaporate as fast as the commitment to Afghanistan has. Only four months ago, President Joe Biden sounded confident and reassuring: "We will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit. We'll do it responsibly, deliberately and safely. And we will do it in full...

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd dismissed 10 employees for publicising a female colleague's account of sexual assault allegations against a former manager, Bloomberg News reported on Monday (Aug 30), citing people familiar with the matter. The company fired the 10 employees for sharing screenshots of the woman's post in the public domain after removing watermarks that bore their IDs, the Bloomberg report said, citing an internal announcement from last week. The employees were fired for violating policies against exposing content on employee forums, Bloomberg reported, citing the people familiar. Three other employees have also been reprimanded for making inappropriate comments in...

Over 100 Republicans in the House are vowing in a new letter that they will not vote to increase the debt ceiling — calling the issue a “problem created by Democrat spending.” Citing trillions of dollars of government spending proposed by Democrats, the 103 House Republicans promised not to increase the debt ceiling under any circumstance, according to the letter obtained by Fox News. “Democrats have embarked on a massive and unprecedented deficit spending spree. Without a single Republican vote, they passed a $1.9 trillion ‘Covid relief’ bill in March even though $1 trillion was still unspent from previous bipartisan...

Moderna Inc's (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccine contamination woes in Japan have widened with another million doses being temporarily suspended, after foreign substances were found in more batches and two people died following shots from affected lots. The suspension of Moderna supplies, affecting more than 2.6 million does in total, comes as Japan battles its worst wave of COVID-19 yet, driven by the contagious Delta variant, with new daily infections exceeding 25,000 this month for the first time amid a slow vaccine rollout. The latest reports of vaccine contamination came from Gunma prefecture near Tokyo and the southern prefecture of Okinawa, prompting...