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Chinese government propaganda newspaper China Daily has targeted an Australian journalist’s coverage of the contested origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in a slickly-produced video published on Twitter.

The Australian senior journalist Sharri Markson has played a key role in raising the profile of the so-called lab-leak theory, which centres on the assertion that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.

trump

I believe Michael R. Isikoff is a non-believer in conspiracy theories.

nsw

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state must learn to live with COVID-19 as the number of people in hospital with the virus doubled within a week and the nation’s chief medical officer called for a circuit-breaker to halt the spread across Sydney.

As NSW reported a record 291 new cases on Friday, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said low vaccination rates, non-compliance and the speed of diagnosis highlighted the need to reconsider the state’s strategy.

fishing

At the end of July US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin returned to Asia to resolve one of the key foreign policy challenges facing all the US administrations of the last 10 years – the continuous growth of China’s influence, both in the region and globally.

It is possible that the joint presence in the region of the heads of foreign policy and defense may be a concrete sign of what President Biden (as well as his predecessors) has referred to as the principle of providing “military support” for US foreign policy.

rats

Canberra researchers are tickling rats in a bid to boost their emotional wellbeing and improve their interactions with humans.

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parkrort

Scott Morrison has defended his government’s controversial car park grants program, saying the minister was authorised to make the decisions.

But the Prime Minister did not deny his office had worked on a list of marginal seats to focus on for funding during the 2019 election campaign.

sheepo

In a striking passage near the beginning of his contribution to the Penguin History of the Church, R.W. Southern writes:

covida

We are living simultaneously in two COVID worlds.

On one hand, we're talking about how life will be when 70 per cent or 80 per cent of eligible people are fully vaccinated.

assange

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange is slowly dying in a UK prison, as the US maintains its fight to have him die in theirs – but there is hope

“The goal is justice, the method is transparency. It’s important not to confuse the goal and the method.”

—Julian Assange

The sensational Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial resumed in Sydney this week, after a month- long delay caused by a serious Covid-19 outbreak that forced the city, together with large parts of Australia, into lockdown.

doll

Barbie maker Mattel has created a doll of the scientist who designed the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert.

Dame Sarah said she found the creation "very strange" at first - but she hoped it would inspire children.

"My wish is that my doll will show children careers they may not be aware of, like a vaccinologist," she said.

Her Barbie is one of five to honour women working in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem).

how good...

Australian of the Year Grace Tame has launched a withering attack on the Morrison government’s decision to return Christian Porter as leader of the House of Representatives.

Mr Porter, who was leader of the house until outing himself as the subject of historic rape allegations in March, has stepped back into the role temporarily this week.

He was replaced as leader of the house by Peter Dutton. But Mr Dutton is in mandatory quarantine in Queensland for a fortnight, due to his sons’ exposure to the coronavirus, and cannot attend Parliament.

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census

For the past 100 years Australians have been asked to identify their religion in the census.

Yet the seemingly simple question - what is the person’s religion? - is increasingly contentious.

Researchers know some respondents will answer based on their religious beliefs (or lack thereof), while others will answer based on cultural identity.