August 2021

    Australia continued Thursday to struggle against the delta variant of the coronavirus, with its largest city, Sydney, reporting a record daily number of new cases and the state of Victoria announcing a one-week lockdown. Sydney, which is near the seventh week of a nine-week lockdown, reported 262 cases and five deaths in the past 24 hours. So far, the country as a whole has seen relatively few cases and deaths, but vaccination rates are low, with only about 20% of people over 16 fully vaccinated. Victoria’s lockdown was triggered by eight new cases. “Nothing about this is optional.

Computer giant Microsoft became the latest large employer to require workers to provide proof of a coronavirus vaccination before entering its offices in the United States. The Seattle Times reported the Redmond, Washington, company sent an email to its employees Tuesday, saying it would have a process to accommodate those employees who have medical conditions or other reasons that might prevent them from getting vaccinated. The company also said it was pushing back the return of employees to the office by nearly a month, to October. 4. It said caregivers of people who are immunosuppressed or parents of children who are

WASHINGTON – The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing proponents of America’s libertarian movement to question just what their philosophy demands of them. Many libertarians, who champion individual freedom and are generally skeptical of government authority, have been outspoken in denouncing vaccine mandates and social distancing measures as an unwarranted intrusion on personal liberty. But others are just as voluble in defending the measures, arguing that libertarian principles prohibit reckless behavior – such as going maskless in a crowded room – that puts innocent others at risk. “There’s been a real split among libertarians about how to respond to the pandemic,” said

A report by U.S. Republican lawmakers says a “preponderance of evidence” proves the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic leaked from a Chinese research facility — a conclusion that U.S. intelligence agencies have not reached. The report, released Monday, also cited “ample evidence” that Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists — aided by U.S. experts and Chinese and U.S. government funds — were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans, and such manipulation could be hidden.   Representative Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the report by the panel’s Republican staff. It urged a

The U.S. space agency, NASA, and aerospace company Boeing said they have scrubbed the launch of the company’s Starliner spacecraft for the second time in a week. In a release, Boeing said the launch of the Starliner crew capsule onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket was scrubbed after a prelaunch check indicated an “unexpected valve position” in the propulsion system. Liftoff had been scheduled for 1:20 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The capsule, designed to carry up to seven crew and passengers, was to be test-launched unmanned to the International Space Station (ISS). The Boeing crew capsule had first been