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Some 150 people protesting mask orders and other coronavirus restrictions in Winnipeg, Canada this evening... the case against Pastor Tim Stephens of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta dropped... A "mask off" student walkout at Prairie High School in Vancouver, Washington today over the school order to wear masks... Tonight vaccination in the US reaching new milestones with "partial vaccination" reaching just over 50 percent of the nation's population and the "full vaccinated" moving over the 40 percent... The biggest vaccination lottery yet announced in California... "When the Democrat Party is applauding your actions, especially in a state like Idaho,...

The private-equity tycoon Stephen A. Schwarzman, backed by an array of mostly western blue-chip companies with interests in China, is creating a $300 million scholarship for study in China that he hopes will rival the Rhodes scholarship in prestige and influence. The programme, whose endowment represents one of the largest single gifts to education in the world and one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever in China, was announced by Mr. Schwarzman in Beijing on Sunday. The Schwarzman Scholars programme will pay all expenses for 200 students each year from around the world for a one-year master’s programme at Tsinghua...

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has asked the government to nominate him for the United Nations top job, the foreign minister said on Monday. Julie Bishop said Rudd wanted the government’s endorsement to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, whose second five-year term ends Dec. 31. That decision would be made by Australia’s next cabinet, which will be named Monday following July 2 elections. …

Australia's PM-elect Tony Abbott has said his top priorities are to abolish a tax on carbon emissions and to stop asylum-seekers arriving by boat. His government would "swiftly implement Operation Soverign Borders" aimed at "intercepting vessels and turning them around", Mr. Abbott told the Herald Sun. Outgoing PM Kevin Rudd has said he will not stand again in for Labor leadership. The Australian Election Commission confirmed on its website that the Liberal-National coalition had won 88 seats in the House of Representatives and Labor 57...

Today is a great day not only in Australian history, but also in world history. It marks the day when people of character and sensibility pushed back against an overwrought and pointless green agenda, and pushed back in a big way. They’ve had enough, and they’ve scraped the Krudd off their shoes and are moving forward. Tony Abbot has won the Australian election in a landslide, and vows to abolish the carbon tax as a first order of business. Abbott has declared Australia is “once more open for business” in claiming victory in Saturday’s election. It is a huge blow...

Australia’s conservative opposition swept to power Saturday, ending six years of Labor Party rule and winning over a disenchanted public by promising to end a hated tax on carbon emissions, boost a flagging economy and bring about political stability after years of Labor infighting. “I know that Labor hearts are heavy across the nation tonight, and as your prime minister and as your parliamentary leader of the great Australian Labor Party, I accept responsibility,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in a speech to supporters, after calling opposition leader Tony Abbott to concede defeat. “I gave it my all, but it...

We have had Live Threads here at Freerepublic for the count for the last three Australian Federal elections - in 2004 which ended in conservative victory, then again in 2007 which ended in defeat for the conservatives and a Labor government, and then again in 2010 which gave us a hung Parliament, where Labor continued governing with the support of the Greens and independents. This is the live thread for 2013 - polls close and the count begins in about 10 minutes. Polls and exit polls indicate a victory for the conservative coalition under Tony Abbott is highly likely. A...

LABOR won power in 2007 on a Ruddslide, but looks like losing power in 2013 in a Ruddbath. The popularity of Kevin Rudd, which won Labor a swathe of seats in Queensland, is turning into voter retribution that has the ALP facing a worse result on Saturday than Paul Keating's loss to John Howard in 1996. The "unelectable" Tony Abbott is now preferred prime minister, and the great campaigning "comeback kid" Prime Minister is more unpopular than he ever has been. With a primary vote of just 33 per cent in the last week of the election campaign, the legitimate...

THE second week of the federal campaign is under way, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd facing accusations that he cheated in last night's debate by referring to notes. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott goes into the second week of the campaign in a promising position, with most commentators declaring him the stronger performer in the debate and the latest Newspoll, published in The Australian today, showing he has narrowed Mr Rudd's lead as preferred Prime Minister from 14 points to nine points.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/kevin-rudd-to-send-asylum-seekers-who-arrive-by-boat-to-papua-new-guinea-20130719-2q9fa.htmlcan be read at the source  (cannot post it here)

KEVIN Rudd has been sworn in as the nation's 28th Prime Minister, alongside Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and new Treasurer Chris Bowen. Governor-General Quentin Bryce confirmed the Labor caucus' decision last night to reinstall Mr Rudd in the post it removed him from just over three years ago. Mr Rudd’s wife Therese Rein, daughter Jessica and granddaughter Josephine were at Government House for the ceremony. Mr Albanese’s wife, former NSW deputy premier Carmel Tebutt, accompanied her husband. Mr Rudd will make a statement to parliament at noon, asserting his authority as Prime Minister and challenging Tony Abbott to bring...

Kevin Rudd has been elected unopposed, according to reports.

JULIA Gillard has called for a Labor leadership ballot to be held at 7pm tonight. ''Anyone who believes they should be Labor leader should put themselves forward for this ballot,'' the Prime Minister said. She said anyone who entered the ballot should commit, in the interests of the party, to resigning from parliament if they lost. The move forces the Rudd camp to bring forward their preferred timetable for a challenge. They had hoped to engineer a special caucus meeting tomorrow and a challenge on Friday. “I am asking my political party to endorse me as a leader and Prime...

KEVIN Rudd will challenge Julia Gillard for the Labor leadership tomorrow morning. A petition for a ballot circulated among Labor MPs is believed to now have the required numbers for a spill of the PM.

ON Tuesday, Kevin Rudd declared himself in support of same-sex marriage. He told us that, after deep reflection, he found he was able to reconcile his religious faith with his secular ethical principles. His last line of argument was that: "30 years of research has seen the Australian Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association acknowledge that same-sex families do not compromise children's development". But Rudd hasn't kept up to date with recent research and his claim is misleading. Last July, in the journal Social Science Research, Mark Regnerus published a large-scale study comparing children...

LABOR is now a rabble in a panic in what seems to be Julia Gillard’s last weeks - maybe even days - as Prime Minister. It has finally woken up to its deadly choice. It can either have a leader loathed by voters, or one loathed by its MPs. It can stick with the incompetent and scandal-ridden Gillard, and suffer humiliating defeat. Or it can surrender to the popular Kevin Rudd, and risk tearing itself apart again under a self-obsessed power freak. Labor can dream of other options - Regional Australia Minister Simon Crean, Workplace Minister Bill Shorten or Defence...

Right now in Australia, there are political machinations at the highest level, The Prime Minster, Kevin Rudd has lurched from one problem to the next, failing to get his point across. When elected, he was immensely popular and is not so popular now. Tonight, his deputy had discussions with him, and there will be a vote for Party Leader 9 hours from now. If Rudd loses this internal Party vote, Australia will have its first female prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

THERE are senior and experienced federal Labor MPs who say quietly and privately that they can see the possibility "that we could lose the election". This is incredible not only because the people are not newcomers unused to dealing with falls in polling and tough periods of politics, but also because no Labor MP at all would have even thought it possible six months ago. The incredible nature of this situation is heightened for Labor because where there was once certainty about how to defeat the Coalition there is now tension within the ranks about what should be done. ........

IS there anything Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will not sacrifice to his manic vanity? Take his decision this week to expel an Israeli diplomat - a reckless over-reaction that has privately outraged key figures of the Labor Right. And see who, in capitals around the Middle East, is cheering Rudd most, having dangled before him the bribe of a vote his ego craves, but which this country cannot afford. It is beyond serious doubt that it was Israeli spies who used forged Australian passports in Dubai in January when assassinating the leading weapons buyer of Hamas and co-founder of the...

RETAIL chains were reporting an unprecedented rush on cigarettes last night ahead of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's 25 per cent price rise, with some doubling their daily sales within a matter of hours. One woman was refused service at a Woolworths in the Canberra suburb of Belconnen after trying to buy $5000 worth of cigarettes before the midnight deadline. She was knocked back because Woolworths imposes a limit of five cartons per person. Another Canberra Woolworths store reported sales of $23,000 by 6.30pm yesterday - the supermarket's average daily tobacco turnover is $10,000.