That a biological laboratory can leak viruses is undisputed. So why the frantic resistance to any discussion that Covid-19 may have originated in a Chinese research lab (that was partially U.S.-funded)? In Unherd, Ian Birrell looks at how scientists, social media and governments suppressed a crucial debate by crying “conspiracy theory.”
Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.