Free Republic

A group of Chinese virologists released a strange new paper on Monday that claims the new coronavirus was engineered in a Chinese lab. One of the virologists, Li-Meng Yan, told the Fox News host Tucker Carlson it was a "man-made virus" that the Chinese government released "intentionally." Yan and her coauthors work for groups cofounded by the former Trump strategist Steve Bannon. He directed the groups before his arrest in August. Some members of the Trump administration have pushed a fringe theory that the virus accidentally leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, but there's no evidence of this.

Although Twitter CEO Elon Musk and former Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon tend to sit on the same side of the political aisle, the two men don't seem to like each other very much. Tim Pool, a right-wing podcaster, recently asked Bannon to comment on the CEO of Razer, Min-Liang Tan, encouraging Mr Musk to buy the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank. The tech-focused lender crumbled on Friday, making it the second-largest bank failure in US history. Mr Musk replied that he was "open to the idea”. Mr Bannon scoffed at the idea, which Mr Pool called "a bit silly”, and...