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Wild conspiracy theory emerges over leaked horse cruelty video

<p>The equestrian world continues to reel after <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/finance/legal/leaked-footage-shows-olympic-star-s-horrific-animal-abuse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a controversial video surfaced</a> showing British dressage star Charlotte Dujardin whipping a horse 24 times, described by critics as "like a circus elephant".</p> <p>However, the timing of the video's release, just days before the Olympics, has led to allegations of sabotage from within the British dressage community.</p> <p>In a statement to members, British Dressage Chief Jason Brautigam condemned Dujardin's actions as "completely unacceptable" but expressed skepticism about the motives behind the leak. "I do find claims that this was done to 'save dressage' somewhat disingenuous, given that it was timed to cause maximum damage to our sport," Brautigam wrote. He urged members to be kind to Dujardin, acknowledging the human element in the controversy.</p> <p>Madeline Hall, a former dressage correspondent for <em>Horse & Hound</em> magazine, echoed Brautigam's sentiments. Speaking to <em>The Daily Mail</em>, Hall remarked, "The timing of this video days before the Olympics smells of sabotage. To me, it is suspect."</p> <p>The video's release has led to significant fallout for Dujardin, including the loss of sponsorships and a tarnished reputation, jeopardising her chance to become Britain's most decorated female Olympian.</p> <p>The identity of the individual who leaked the video remains unknown, though the complainant's lawyer, Stephan Wensing from the Netherlands, has refused to comment on the matter. Wensing's involvement has fuelled speculation, given the historic rivalry between the British and Dutch equestrian teams.</p> <p>The Dutch team, which Dujardin defeated at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, have quickly distanced themselves from the incident. A spokesperson for the Netherlands team stated, "We regret the expulsion of our fellow athlete but also condemn the training method used by Dujardin in the video. This has no place in our equestrian sports, where the welfare of the horse comes first."</p> <p>As the dressage community grapples with the scandal, Brautigam reminded people of the need for a compassionate response. "Charlotte Dujardin has done the right thing by <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/travel/travel-trouble/no-excuse-olympic-legend-quits-days-before-paris-games-commence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accepting responsibility and expressing remorse</a>," he said. "While we do not condone her behaviour, we must remember that there is also a human element to this – and, regardless of what has happened, she still deserves our understanding."</p> <p>Dujardin, who was a favourite for a Damehood if she secured a medal in Paris, now faces an uncertain future in her sport. The dressage community continues to debate the ethical and competitive implications of the video, with calls for increased focus on the welfare of horses and the integrity of the sport.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram / Good Morning Britain</em></p>

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Princess Kate filmed in public for the first time since Christmas

<p>The Princess of Wales has been filmed for the first time since Christmas, after her absence sparked wild global <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/health/caring/kate-middleton-s-disappearance-sparks-bizarre-conspiracy-theories" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speculation</a> on her whereabouts. </p> <p>Kate Middleton looked happy and relaxed in <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/royals/26766840/princess-kate-middleton-shopping-trip-video-william/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently published footage </a>of her shopping trip with her husband, Prince William. </p> <p>In footage exclusively obtained by <em>TMZ</em> and <em>The Sun, </em>the royal was filmed dressed comfortably in a hoodie and dark leggings, as she carried her shopping and walked alongside Prince William on their way to the car park. </p> <p>This is the first time the royal has been filmed in public since her <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/health/caring/two-senior-royals-undergo-surgery" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"planned abdominal surgery"</a>, aside from two blurry <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/finance/legal/kate-middleton-spotted-for-the-first-time-since-surgery" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paparazzi pictures</a> of her in the backseat of a car, and reports that she was spotted <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/health/caring/princess-kate-spotted-in-public-amid-wild-speculations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">out with her kids </a>on Saturday morning. </p> <p>Witnesses at Princess Kate's favourite farm shop reportedly said that she looked “happy, relaxed and healthy” as she ventured from her home in Windsor to the nearby store. </p> <p>“Kate was out shopping with William and she looked happy and she looked well," witnesses said at the time. </p> <p>“The kids weren’t with them but it’s such a good sign she was healthy enough to pop down to the shops.”</p> <p>The Princess' whereabouts has been the topic of speculation for weeks, with the Palace having to <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/health/caring/palace-responds-to-bizarre-conspiracy-theories-about-kate-s-whereabouts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speak out</a> against the wild conspiracy theories on social media. </p> <p>Her last public appearance was on December 25 during the royal family’s traditional walk to the Christmas morning service in Sandringham.</p> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p> <p> </p>

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Princess Kate's post-surgery pic ignites even wilder conspiracy theories

<p>In a recent revelation that has the internet buzzing, Kensington Palace released a brand new photo of the Princess of Wales alongside her adorable brood, but it seems like the royal family might be playing with more than just thrones and crowns.</p> <p>The picture, meant to express gratitude to the public for their support during Catherine's recovery from abdominal surgery, quickly became a subject of speculation, leaving royal enthusiasts scratching their heads and raising eyebrows faster than you can say "corgi".</p> <p>The image, which features Catherine sitting and embracing her children – Prince Louis, Prince George and Princess Charlotte – in the scenic backdrop of Windsor, seems like a wholesome Mother's Day tribute at first glance. However, upon closer inspection, the cracks in this picture-perfect façade begin to show.</p> <p>Social media erupted with theories faster than a racehorse at Ascot. Some eagle-eyed observers speculated that the photo might have been the handiwork of artificial intelligence, citing suspiciously green grass and leaves in the dead of winter, a rarity even in England where the weather is as unpredictable as a teenage royal's romantic interests.</p> <p>"AI is that you?" asked one astute commentator on Instagram, voicing the suspicions of many.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/C4U_IqTNaqU/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C4U_IqTNaqU/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>"Ummmmm, this photo looks doctored…" wrote another astute reader. "Catherine’s right hand around Louis is entirely blurry but the left hand around Charlotte, at the same distance to the camera, is not, and either is Louis’ jumper around the hand blurry. Also Charlotte’s dress, which is clothing her torso behind her arm, impedes on the sleeve at the wrist… the cardigan sleeve shows the dress in front of it, when it should only be behind. And Louis’ middle finger must be awfully long to be entirely wrapped around the next finger without being able to see the finger nail… it’s also blurry. I’m a keen photographer, and those are not true elements of a photo as taken."</p> <p>But wait, there's more! The absence of Catherine's wedding ring did not escape the notice of keen observers, prompting questions about the state of her marriage. "WHERE'S YOUR RING??!" demanded one fan, while another pondered, "no ring, tree in full bloom in winter, jeans after major abdominal surgery, face shape completely different from car photo."</p> <p>And if that wasn't enough to fuel the royal gossip mill, Prince Louis's peculiar finger-crossing gesture sent conspiracy theorists into overdrive. Is he sending secret messages? Or is it just further evidence that we're all living in a simulation run by an eccentric royal fan with a knack for Photoshop?</p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Additionally, a subtle misalignment in Princess Charlotte's hand compared to her jumper sleeve raised clear suspicions of digital manipulation. As the speculation grew louder, four of the world's largest photo agencies – The Associated Press, AFP, Getty Images and Reuters – issued a "mandatory kill notice", on the image, effectively retracting it from circulation.</span></p> <p>The reasons cited varied slightly among the agencies, with mentions of "editorial issues" and inconsistencies in the photograph's details. The decision to retract the photo wasn't taken lightly; it's a standard protocol for picture agencies to withdraw images that have been significantly altered.</p> <p>The reaction on social media was swift, with royal watchers and media personalities dissecting the image for clues. Chris Ship, ITV News's royal editor, shared close-up sections of the photo, highlighting apparent discrepancies in Charlotte's sleeve, Prince Louis's jumper, and the background behind him. His commentary underscored the seriousness of the situation, questioning Kensington Palace – the source of the photo – about the authenticity of the image.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">I’ve never been much of a conspiracy theorist but if <a href="https://twitter.com/AP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/AFP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AFP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Reuters</a> &amp; other picture agencies are concerned enough to remove it and ask clients to delete it, there are serious questions for Kensington Palace - which was the source of the photo.<br />These appears to be the issues 👇 <a href="https://t.co/ifcSB9mUzu">https://t.co/ifcSB9mUzu</a> <a href="https://t.co/bH5gN9fJtJ">pic.twitter.com/bH5gN9fJtJ</a></p> <p>— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisshipitv/status/1766947758529822803?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <p>Amidst the fervent speculation, Kensington Palace remained silent, neither confirming nor denying the allegations of photo manipulation. The lack of clarity has only fuelled the fire, leading to further conjecture about the intentions behind the controversial image.</p> <p>In a world where every pixel is scrutinised and every detail dissected, the royal family's attempt at a heartwarming family photo has turned into a comedic saga worthy of a Shakespearean farce.</p> <p>As the internet continues to buzz with speculation, one thing is for certain: when it comes to the royals, truth is often stranger than fiction. Or in this case, more digitally manipulated than reality TV.</p> <p><em>Image: Instagram</em></p>

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Palace responds to bizarre conspiracy theories about Kate's whereabouts

<p>Kensington Palace has spoken out after a wave of unhinged conspiracy theories flooded social media to speculate on Kate Middleton's whereabouts. </p> <p>It's been several days since "Where is Kate Middleton?" first started trending worldwide on social media, as concerned royal fans were quick to notice the Princess of Wales hasn't been seen in public since Christmas Day. </p> <p>The 42-year-old royal underwent a “planned abdominal surgery” in January, and while Kensington Palace said at the time that she would be out of action until “at least Easter”, social media users have continued to share their <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/health/caring/kate-middleton-s-disappearance-sparks-bizarre-conspiracy-theories" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bizarre theories</a> about where she is.</p> <p>Now, as the insane theories have gained massive traction, Kensington Palace has shared a statement to advise royal fans that the Princess is simply recovering after her operation. </p> <p>The Palace reiterated their original statement, writing,  “We were very clear from the outset that the Princess of Wales was out until after Easter and Kensington Palace would only be providing updates when something was significant.”</p> <p>"That guidance stands."</p> <p>The Palace also added that Kate is well on the road to recovery as she is "doing well", and with all things going to plan with her health, she can be expected to be seen in public after Easter, as they originally made clear. </p> <p>Prince William has also spoken about his wife's recovery journey, as he met with 94-year-old Holocaust survivor Renee Salt during an emotional meeting at a synagogue in London. </p> <p>"I'm sure that if your wife would've been well, she would've been here," Salt told Prince William, before offering her "best wishes" to the Princess. </p> <p>While holding her hand, Prince William said Salt's words were "very sweet" and promised to pass on her regards to his wife.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p>

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Kate Middleton's "disappearance" sparks bizarre conspiracy theories

<p dir="ltr">Social media is alight with wild conspiracy theories about Kate Middleton's whereabouts, after many royal fans noticed it has been several weeks since she has been seen. </p> <p dir="ltr">The last time the Princess of Wales was photographed was on Christmas Day as she attended a morning church service with her family in tow. </p> <p dir="ltr">Now, six weeks after Kate was <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/health/caring/two-senior-royals-undergo-surgery" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted to hospital</a> for a “planned abdominal surgery”, concerned royal fans have speculated about the state of her health, despite Kensington Palace saying they would only be providing updates when there is "significant new information to share." </p> <p dir="ltr">After the Princess was released from hospital, the Palace went on to say that she would be recovering at home and would not be returning to official royal duties until “after Easter”. </p> <p dir="ltr">However, when Prince William cancelled a royal engagement earlier this week due to a “personal matter”, many were quick to assume he was tending to his wife and her poor health. </p> <p dir="ltr">Social media users were quick to jump on this theory, only fuelling the fire of the “Where’s Kate?” question by adding in their own unhinged theories about why she has gone unseen for all of 2024 so far.</p> <p dir="ltr">Speculation on X, formerly Twitter, ranged from serious concern for Kate's wellbeing to hilarious theories, with one user writing, "I have fallen down the ‘Where is Kate Middleton’ rabbit hole and I need someone to come take me out immediately. It’s wild down here."</p> <p dir="ltr">Most were lighthearted in their claims, with one popular conspiracy being that Kate was in hiding to grow out a bad haircut, while others shared that she is simply seeking solace in a hidden corner of the Palace away from her three kids. </p> <p dir="ltr">With “Where is Kate Middleton” in the number one trending spot on X, others adding their own equally hilarious and insane theories.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">My favorite Kate Middleton theory so far is that she got bangs and is waiting for them to grow out 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭</p> <p>— Taylor 🌻 (@itsmet_19) <a href="https://twitter.com/itsmet_19/status/1762651824840958230?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">The Kate Middleton reveal on Masked Singer is going to make all of us look silly.</p> <p>— Catherine Tinker (@catherinetinker) <a href="https://twitter.com/catherinetinker/status/1762639775406731413?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Of all the "Where is Kate Middleton?" conspiracy theories, "she's Banksy" is my favorite</p> <p>— Cooper Lawrence (@CooperLawrence) <a href="https://twitter.com/CooperLawrence/status/1762674163309748417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">My three kids are roughly the same age as Kate Middleton’s so I can say pretty confidently that she is hiding in the bathroom pretending to pee for a really long time.</p> <p>— Kristen Mulrooney (@missmulrooney) <a href="https://twitter.com/missmulrooney/status/1762840727069831673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Kate Middleton’s disappearance can only mean one thing.. she’s gonna show up on Celebrity Big Brother in a few days and gag us all</p> <p>— Mustafa Farooq (@MustafaFar67649) <a href="https://twitter.com/MustafaFar67649/status/1762647448194052498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Some believe that Kate’s operation was actually plastic surgery that has been “botched” and explains her hiding away, while others claimed she is actually elusive street artist Banksy, and is away working on a new piece, or is hauled up in a studio somewhere recording her debut album.</p> <p dir="ltr">Others shared their thoughts on who could find the Princess, with social media users nominating fictional <em>Law & Order: SVU</em> detective Olivia Benson for the job, while others put forward Jo Frost, also known as Super Nanny, and others believe Detectives Mulder and Scully from<em> The X Files</em> could crack the conspiracy. </p> <p dir="ltr">Despite all the theories, one X user summed up the conspiracy perfectly, writing,”The Kate Middleton drama is hard because I don't care about the royal family or conspiracy theories, however, I do care about being in everyone's business.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

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Out of the rabbit hole: new research shows people can change their minds about conspiracy theories

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matt-williams-666794">Matt Williams</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/massey-university-806">Massey University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-kerr-1073102">John Kerr</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-otago-1304">University of Otago</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mathew-marques-14884">Mathew Marques</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a></em></p> <p>Many people <a href="https://theconversation.com/was-phar-lap-killed-by-gangsters-new-research-shows-which-conspiracies-people-believe-in-and-why-158610">believe at least one</a> conspiracy theory. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing – conspiracies <em>do</em> happen.</p> <p>To take just one example, the CIA really did engage in <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/13/cia-mind-control-1266649">illegal experiments</a> in the 1950s to identify drugs and procedures that might produce confessions from captured spies.</p> <p>However, many conspiracy theories are not supported by evidence, yet still attract believers.</p> <p>For example, in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12746">previous study</a>, we found about 7% of New Zealanders and Australians agreed with the theory that <a href="https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-planet/on-the-trail-of-contrails">visible trails behind aircraft</a> are “chemtrails” of chemical agents sprayed as part of a secret government program. That’s despite the theory being <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/8/084011">roundly rejected</a> by the scientific community.</p> <p>The fact that conspiracy theories attract believers despite a lack of credible evidence remains a puzzle for researchers in psychology and other academic disciplines.</p> <p>Indeed, there has been a great deal of research on conspiracy theories published in the past few years. We now know more about how many people believe them, as well as the psychological and political factors that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-25617-0">correlate with that belief</a>.</p> <p>But we know much less about how often people change their minds. Do they do so frequently, or do they to stick tenaciously to their beliefs, regardless of what evidence they come across?</p> <h2>From 9/11 to COVID</h2> <p>We set out to answer this question using a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51653-z">longitudinal survey</a>. We recruited 498 Australians and New Zealanders (using the <a href="http://prolific.com">Prolific</a> website, which recruits people to take part in paid research).</p> <p>Each month from March to September 2021, we presented our sample group with a survey, including ten conspiracy theories, and asked them how much they agreed with each one.</p> <p>All of these theories related to claims about events that are either ongoing, or occurred this millennium: the September 11 attacks, the rollout of 5G telecommunications technology, and COVID-19, among others.</p> <p>While there were definitely some believers in our sample, most participants disagreed with each of the theories.</p> <p>The most popular theory was that “pharmaceutical companies (‘Big Pharma’) have suppressed a cure for cancer to protect their profits”. Some 18% of the sample group agreed when first asked.</p> <p>The least popular was the theory that “COVID-19 ‘vaccines’ contain microchips to monitor and control people”. Only 2% agreed.</p> <h2>Conspiracy beliefs probably aren’t increasing</h2> <p>Despite contemporary concerns about a “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7320252/">pandemic of misinformation</a>” or “<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30461-X/fulltext">infodemic</a>”, we found no evidence that individual beliefs in conspiracy theories increased on average over time.</p> <p>This was despite our data collection happening during the tumultuous second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns were still happening occasionally in both <a href="https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/things-to-do/a-timeline-of-covid-19-in-australia-two-years-on">Australia</a> and <a href="https://covid19.govt.nz/about-our-covid-19-response/history-of-the-covid-19-alert-system/">New Zealand</a>, and anti-government sentiment was building.</p> <p>While we only tracked participants for six months, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0270429">other studies</a> over much longer time frames have also found little evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories are increasing over time.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe class="flourish-embed-iframe" style="width: 100%; height: 600px;" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/16665395/embed" width="100%" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe></p> <div style="width: 100%!; margin-top: 4px!important; text-align: right!important;"><a class="flourish-credit" href="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/16665395/?utm_source=embed&amp;utm_campaign=visualisation/16665395" target="_top"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/made_with_flourish.svg" alt="Made with Flourish" /></a></div> <hr /> <p>Finally, we found that beliefs (or non-beliefs) in conspiracy theories were stable – but not completely fixed. For any given theory, the vast majority of participants were “consistent sceptics” – not agreeing with the theory at any point.</p> <p>There were also some “consistent believers” who agreed at every point in the survey they responded to. For most theories, this was the second-largest group.</p> <p>Yet for every conspiracy theory, there was also a small proportion of converts. They disagreed with the theory at the start of the study, but agreed with it by the end. There was also a small proportion of “apostates” who agreed with the theory at the start, but disagreed by the end.</p> <p>Nevertheless, the percentages of converts and apostates tended to balance each other pretty closely, leaving the percentage of believers fairly stable over time.</p> <h2>Inside the ‘rabbit hole’</h2> <p>This relative stability is interesting, because <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2564659">one criticism</a> of conspiracy theories is that they may not be “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/criterion-of-falsifiability">falsifiable</a>”: what seems like evidence against a conspiracy theory can just be written off by believers as part of the cover up.</p> <p>Yet people clearly <em>do</em> sometimes decide to reject conspiracy theories they previously believed.</p> <p>Our findings bring into question the popular notion of the “rabbit hole” – that people rapidly develop beliefs in a succession of conspiracy theories, much as Alice tumbles down into Wonderland in Lewis Carroll’s <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11">famous story</a>.</p> <p>While it’s possible this does happen for a small number of people, our results suggest it isn’t a typical experience.</p> <p>For most, the <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2023/opinion/how-to-talk-to-someone-about-conspiracy-theories">journey into</a> conspiracy theory belief might involve a more gradual slope – a bit like a <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1985.tb05649.x">real rabbit burrow</a>, from which one can also emerge.</p> <hr /> <p><em>Mathew Ling (<a href="https://www.neaminational.org.au/">Neami National</a>), Stephen Hill (Massey University) and Edward Clarke (Philipps-Universität Marburg) contributed to the research referred to in this article.</em><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222507/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <hr /> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matt-williams-666794">Matt Williams</a>, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/massey-university-806">Massey University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-kerr-1073102">John Kerr</a>, Senior Research Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-otago-1304">University of Otago</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mathew-marques-14884">Mathew Marques</a>, Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/out-of-the-rabbit-hole-new-research-shows-people-can-change-their-minds-about-conspiracy-theories-222507">original article</a>.</em></p>

Mind

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Kyle Sandilands' wild Logies conspiracy theory

<p>Kyle Sandilands has share his wild Logies conspiracy theory, after he was forced to pull out from presenting an award, before being replaced by a famous rival. </p> <p>The radio shock jock was asked to present the award for Most Outstanding Children's Program while holding his 11-month-old son Otto, but decided against it at the last minute. </p> <p>On Friday, Kyle told listeners of The Kyle and Jackie O Show he had pulled the pin on the presenting duties after he learned how late the ceremony would go. </p> <p>"I've had to pull the pin. I've told them to shove it in their a**e, my exact words yesterday," he said. </p> <p>"My thing was, I had to bring my child out, he's not even one, and it was supposed to be at ten past eight. But they can't guarantee it won't be before 9PM."</p> <p>"I've got a baby, I can't be waiting around with a baby," he added. </p> <p>Kyle then said his wife Tegan was not thrilled about him presenting either.</p> <p>"My wife said, 'What does Otto get out of it? He's just a bit of arm candy for you to get on TV.' And I couldn't agree against it so I told them I'm not going."</p> <p>After pulling out of the ceremony at the last minute, the Logies gave Kyle's presenting role to his rival Dave Hughes. </p> <p>On Monday morning, Kyle shared that he thought the Logies were conspiring against him by giving the hosting gig to Hughesy, given their years of rivalry. </p> <p>"It was a big FU to me from producers to bring Hughesy on," Sandilands said.</p> <p>"I don't think there was an FU from producers," argued his co-host Jackie O. " I think they were just trying to replace you in time [for the show]."</p> <p>Hughesy later explained he thought Kyle would take his joke in good humour and that he even considered telling him about his material beforehand.</p> <p>He said, "I saw him before the show and I was almost going to tell him what I was going to say but I didn't. I should have because he wasn't happy."</p> <p>Although even Sandilands had some kind words for his radio rival on Monday morning, conceding Hughes "was quite funny" during his presenting stint at Sunday night's award show. </p> <p><em>Image credits: KIISFM</em></p>

TV

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"This is absurd": PM mocks bizarre Higgins conspiracy

<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied claims Senator Katy Gallagher misled Parliament over what she knew about <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/news/news/lisa-wilkinson-denies-turning-to-senior-politicians-over-higgins-rape-allegations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations</a>, dubbing it a “bizarre conspiracy”.</p> <p>Amid the Coalition preparing to target the Finance Minister and Labor during question time, Albanese is backing the Senator completely.</p> <p>He said the real questions were around how the Morrison Government mishandled the issue and not about how Higgins’ boyfriend tipped off Senator Gallagher.</p> <p>“This is absurd,” Albanese declared.</p> <p>“It’s a bizarre conspiracy theory – this concocted issue by what is a desperate Liberal opposition looking for any issue.</p> <p>“Katy Gallagher has been transparent.”</p> <p>The uproar follows the leaking of a six-hour audio tape that hears Higgins’ partner David Sharaz bragging to The Project that he had a connection with Senator Gallagher and in turn, she would drive the story forward in Senate estimates.</p> <p>Network Ten has lodged a police complaint over the leak after a tape of Lisa Wilkinson and Brittany Higgins was seen on a rival channel.</p> <p>Thomson Geer law firm partner Marlia Saunders, who is currently acting for Network Ten in the defamation proceedings, has confirmed she has filed a complaint to Australian Capital Territory Policing.</p> <p>Ten has complained that the material used was obtained via coercive subpoenas for the criminal trial and should have remained under wraps.</p> <p>“Last Wednesday, Ten made a complaint to the AFP requesting they investigate an apparent contempt of court,” Saunders told news.com.au.</p> <p>It relates to material produced under an AFP warrant and a subpoena issued in the ACT Supreme Court which Saunders said “appears to have been disclosed to the media in breach of the implied undertaking.”</p> <p>“The AFP yesterday confirmed the complaint has been received for consideration,” she said.</p> <p>The leaked audio tape first aired on Channel Seven during a televised interview on the Spotlight program, it has since been leaked to <em>The Daily Mail</em>,<em> The Australian</em> and <em>Sky News</em>.</p> <p>The ACT Supreme Court did not release the entire audio at the trial, but parts of it were played to the jury.</p> <p>The audio hears Wilkinson describing former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds as “a nobody” and an “idiot”, and saying “who is this f***king woman”.</p> <p>It also recorded the group war gaming the story and suggested Albanese would “definitely” raise the issue in time. Wilkinson has confirmed she never contacted him to do so.</p> <p>The leaked texts show private discussions with Wilkinson’s husband Peter Fitz-Simons regarding a $325,000 book deal and Sharaz describing then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a “c***t”.</p> <p>Higgins’ private text messages were provided to the police and lawyers during the criminal trials, and have since been leaked by sources unknown to media outlets.</p> <p>In the text messages, Sharaz suggested he had forwarded the entire transcript of Higgins’ interview with Lisa Wilkinson to Senator Gallagher before the story aired.</p> <p>Channel 10 were seemingly unaware that Sharaz had forwarded the transcript, which was also a signed statutory declaration, to other parties before the broadcast.</p> <p>In June 2021, Senator Gallagher was in a state of fury when the then-Defence Minister Linda Reynolds proposed she “knew where this started”, adding she had been tipped off by a Labor Senator before the story broke about what the ALP was planning.</p> <p>“No one had any knowledge. How dare you! It’s all about protecting yourself,” Senator Gallagher said at the time.</p> <p>Speaking at an ALP conference in Fremantle, Senator Gallagher was asked if she would stand aside or resign.</p> <p>“Why would I?" she said.</p> <p>“I was responding to an assertion that was being made by the minister Reynolds at the time that we had known about this for weeks and had made a decision to weaponise it,” she continued.</p> <p>“That is not true. It was never true. I explained that to Senator Reynolds that night and she accepted that explanation.”</p> <p>“Mr Sharaz provided me with information, I think we’ve seen that in the paper in the last couple of days,” she said.</p> <p>“I did nothing with that information. And I was clear about that at the time.</p> <p>“There’s absolutely no issue here at all,” she insisted.</p> <p>“I’ve been clear, I’ve been honest. And at all times, I’ve been guided by the bravery and courage of a young woman who chose to speak up about her workplace. And from that we have had massive changes to that workplace because of the problem.”</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty</em></p>

Legal

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“Putrid cookers”: Anti-vaxxers slammed for spreading lies about Jock Zonfrillo’s death

<p dir="ltr">Just hours after MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo’s sudden death, heartless anti-vaxxers took to social media to spread disinformation.</p> <p dir="ltr">Zonfrillo died in Melbourne on May 1. While the cause of death has not been publicly announced, police said that his death was not being treated as suspicious, and a report was made for the coroner.</p> <p dir="ltr">The anti-vaxxers took this as a chance to spread disinformation online, implying that his death was linked to the Covid vaccine.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Did Jock Zonfrillo get the Pfizer or Moderna RNA vaccine?” one person tweeted the day after his death.</p> <p dir="ltr">Another commented on the way that his death was described as “sudden” with no confirmed cause- completely ignoring the fact that Zonfrillo’s family have not released that information.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The mainstream media has been reporting countless such ‘sudden deaths’ with ‘no cause of death given’,” wrote the anti-vaxxer on Facebook on May 2.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Since when are death reports being provided with no cause given?</p> <p dir="ltr">“I know since when: since they rolled out those experimental Covid vaccines, which are dropping people faster than they can clue in that it is murdering them. The mainstream media and medical establishment will never admit it – they omit the REAL reason someone died by saying ‘no immediate cause of death was given’,” wrote another.</p> <p dir="ltr">The ill-informed comments have attracted significant backlash from Aussies who slammed the “cookers” for taking advantage of the tragedy to spread disinformation.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Of course the putrid cookers have already come out, saying it was the Covid vaccine that killed Jock Zonfrillo. They really are opportunistic scum. RIP Jock,” one person tweeted in response to the lies.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Of course the putrid cookers have already come out, saying it was the covid vaccine that killed Jock Zonfrillo. <br />They really are opportunistic scum.<br />RIP Jock. <a href="https://t.co/t7jxe9QX1P">pic.twitter.com/t7jxe9QX1P</a></p> <p>— JayJay (@JayJay91341991) <a href="https://twitter.com/JayJay91341991/status/1653215630768865281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“I’m always unsurprised at the amount of cookers that come out of the woodwork when a celebrity dies. Shame on anyone who is using Jock Zonfrillo’s death to push their anti-vax vile rhetoric,” tweeted another.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">I’m always unsurprised at the amount of cookers that come out of the woodwork when a celebrity dies. Shame on anyone who is using Jock Zonfrillo’s death to push their anti-vax vile rhetoric.</p> <p>— MrDreeps (@MrDreepy) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrDreepy/status/1652947746419281921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“Distance yourself from people who impulsively attribute the death of a celebrity to the Covid-19 Vaccine.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It demonstrates extreme congruence bias, and a profound lack of empathy. #jockzonfrillo,” wrote a third.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Distance yourself from people who impulsively attribute the death of a celebrity to the Covid-19 Vaccine. </p> <p>It demonstrates extreme congruence bias, and a profound lack of empathy. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/jockzonfrillo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#jockzonfrillo</a></p> <p>— Nick Holt (@realnickholt) <a href="https://twitter.com/realnickholt/status/1652919969926254592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Instagram</em></p> <p dir="ltr"> </p>

News

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Tim Tam slammed over biscuit blunder

<p>A bemused shopper has caused a stir online with their side-by-side comparison of Tim Tam packets. </p> <p>In a photo posted to Reddit, biscuit fans were met with the horrifying discovery that unless they were buying Tim Tam’s Original line, they were receiving significantly less biscuit for their buck. </p> <p>Two packets had been placed side by side - one Tim Tam’s Original biscuits, the other their Deluxe Dark Choc Mint - to make the disparity in Tim Tam to plastic ratio clear for all to see.</p> <p>In the deluxe pack, eight biscuits could be nestled in the plastic with large gaps between them, typically weighing in at 175g when full. Meanwhile, in the original, 11 could be sandwiched into the packaging, and weighed 200g before any were eaten. </p> <p>Most importantly, both packs - from the outside - appeared to be exactly the same size. </p> <p>“Australia’s biggest scam unwrapped,” <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/12tws3i/australias_biggest_scam_unwrapped/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the post was titled</a>, drawing in over 600 comments, and over 7,000 ‘upvotes’ - the Reddit equivalent of telling fellow users that something is worth a look at. </p> <p>As one put it, “that’s gotta be the most un-Australian Australian thing I’ve ever seen.”</p> <p>“As an American looking at this, it actually bothers me how inefficient the packaging is. You can get so much more in there,” another pointed out.</p> <p>“Stupid amount of plastic for eight biscuits,” one noted. </p> <p>“Honestly just make the packet smaller,” someone suggested, before adding that “this only increases plastic waste. At least a smaller expensive product ‘feels’ more premium.”</p> <p>There were those that could see the funny side, of course, taking to the comments to try and lighten the situation for those mourning the loss of their beloved biccies. </p> <p>“11 Tim Tams. Why 11? Not divisible by anything. I can’t eat 1/4 of the packet, or 1/2, so looks like I’m eating the lot,” one wrote. </p> <p>“And here I was, thinking I was just eating them too quickly,” joked another.</p> <p>“Duh, that's why they're called ‘Deluxe’, cause they're rarer and way harder to capture in the wild to put in packs,” one expert on the matter explained. </p> <p>And while the original poster went on to respond to many that they were only having some fun, and it really wasn’t that serious, there were those that simply wanted to rain on their parade, repeatedly pointing out that the weight and quantity of biscuits was clearly displayed on the packaging itself.</p> <p>In response to one such comment, the poster said that they were “literally having a laugh, I’m not a victim having a cry. It’s biscuits. The photo shows the spacing of the deluxe which is wasteful and the packet sizes are the same length, which is deceiving.”</p> <p>And, as they also later explained, the packaging information simply wasn’t a factor because “I’m a professional Tim Tam eater so I pick based on flavours.”</p> <p><em>Images: Reddit</em></p>

Food & Wine

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Waleed Aly halts co-host Kate Langbroek’s wild conspiracy take

<p>Waleed Aly is no stranger to making headlines for his work on <em>The Project</em>, but a debate with co-host Kate Langbroek has brought him back for perhaps the most bizarre reason yet. </p> <p>On Tuesday night, Langbroek argued the merits of those who believe that walkable 15-minute cities are, as described by those deepest in the conspiracy, “a cynical ploy by climate obsessed autocracies bent on control”.</p> <p>Conspiracy theorists are under the impression that the concept of a 15-minute city is actually a ploy for government control, and though that couldn’t be further from the truth, Kate Langbroek had plenty to say about it. </p> <p>As RMIT’s Associate Professional in International Planning Marco Amati explained, “the 15 minute city is actually about getting people to - or enabling basically - walking and active travel to shops, schools, and basically places that they want to go. </p> <p>“Many Australian cities face a challenge of how to create community, how to build walkable suburbs really quickly, so that they are as liveable and as enjoyable as inner-city areas.”</p> <p>As the show’s summary on the topic came to an end, Langbroek mused, “mm, you know I love a conspiracy.”</p> <p>When asked if the panel believed in this one, she said “I don’t know about you, but I have been locked down by governments recently.” </p> <p>Langbroek was likely referencing the COVID-19 lockdowns across Australia in recent years, something that experts worldwide may have something to do with the traction this particular conspiracy has gained across the globe. </p> <p>“So, I’m like, it’s kind of an easy thing to go ‘oh, conspiracy theorists’, however, let us just remember that in the 16 hundreds, a guy called Galileo was put in jail and I think died in jail because he said the Earth went around the sun,” she went on. </p> <p>“Oh, well, that’s that then!” Aly responded. </p> <p>“Okay,” Langbroek said, “well, because that at the time was considered to be heresy, and now we know it to be the truth.” </p> <p>“That’s not a conspiracy,” Waleed pointed out. </p> <p>“It was then, Waleed!” Langbroek argued. </p> <p>“What was the conspiracy?” </p> <p>“The conspiracy was that what he believed was wrong, what he was telling people was wrong.” </p> <p>While Aly acknowledged that he heard what she was saying and could see where she was coming from with that point, Langbroek had more to say on the matter, cutting him off before he could finish his thought. </p> <p>“I just feel increasingly like there’s a battle for control of people,” she said. “Clearly. Everywhere you go, there are cameras. Everywhere you go.</p> <p>“I just don’t think that conspiracy theorists in some cases are that crazy.” </p> <p>In a desperate bid to defuse the situation, co-host Sarah Harris tried to inject some humour, saying, “but that bird thing’s pretty crazy, right? All birds are robots?” </p> <p>“I don’t know about all of them, Sarah,” Langbroek powered on, “but I do know birds have got tiny little brains capable of anything.”</p> <p>“Easily influenced like the sheep,” she said, before emitting an uncanny bleat. </p> <p>“I guess the case has been made,” Aly answered, before Langbroek went on to ask the panel if they understood why conspiracy theorists are feeling the way they are. </p> <p>“I get the idea that people are losing trust in the government,” Aly allowed, striving to bring an end to the bizarre conversation. “But the problem is, the logical extension of that, is that any time someone comes up with something that might be a good idea, we’ll just want to kill it because we’ll decide it’s a conspiracy somehow.” </p> <p>“You agree with me then?” Langbroek asked.</p> <p>“No,” Aly didn’t miss a beat in stating, “I don’t.” </p> <p><em>Images: Network Ten</em></p>

TV

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The one person Elon Musk won't allow back on Twitter

<p>Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will not be making a return to Twitter and will remain banned from the platform, according to new owner Elon Musk.</p> <p>The declaration was made on Friday that Jones’ account will not be restored, regardless of requests. Elon then spent the weekend defending the decision, even after restoring multiple other suspended accounts including former US president Donald Trump.</p> <p>"No," Musk tweeted flatly in response to one user's call for Jones to be reinstated on Twitter.</p> <p>Musk elaborated on his decision, citing Bible scripture and his own personal experience with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome to explain his opposition to Jones.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven</p> <p>— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1594529035622965248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p>Alex Jones was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for spreading lies and misinformation about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.</p> <p>"My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat," Musk tweeted.</p> <p>"I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame."</p> <p>The announcement prompted a flood of replies. Some Twitter users commended Musk for continuing to deny Jones a platform while others, including some of Jones' own self-professed supporters, said it showed Musk's inconsistent and arbitrary support for free speech.</p> <p>In a response video Jones posted Friday to alternative video site Rumble, he said he didn't care if he was allowed back on Twitter, and listed various other platforms where his content remains accessible.</p> <p>"Don't blame Musk at the end of the day because he didn't bring me back," Jones urged his followers.</p> <p>"I'm the most controversial figure in the world because I'm the most threatening to the new world order.</p> <p>"So don't expect him to bring me back on day one."</p> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

Technology

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Covid’s origin found

<p dir="ltr">Amid accusations of it being made in a lab or purposefully made more infectious and fracturing faith in science, scientists say they have finally determined the origin of COVID-19.</p> <p dir="ltr">A team of scientists who have been investigating the virus’ origin have published their findings in two separate articles in <em>Science </em>(available to read <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8715" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8337" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>) and said they are at the end of their search.</p> <p dir="ltr">COVID-19 almost-certainly jumped from animals to humans in Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, with the researchers even pinpointing the most likely section of the market where it occurred.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The siren has definitely sounded on the lab leak theory,” Professor Edward Holmes, a world-leading expert on virus evolution and co-author of both papers, told the <em>Sydney Morning Herald</em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“In terms of what we can reasonably do, with the available science and the science we’ll get in the foreseeable future, I think we’re at the end of the road frankly. There’s not a lot more to mine.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Professor Dwyer, the director of public health pathology in NSW and a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) team who travelled to Wuhan to investigate Covid’s origins, agrees with the findings.</p> <p dir="ltr">“That’s what we thought originally back when we did the first report,” he said.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-de65d200-7fff-e4d3-3c8b-fb40bc3f2502"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“This is yet another brick added to the wall of information around zoonotic infection.”</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Analysis of spatial distributions of early <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a> cases and environmental samples from the Huanan market point to the market as the epicenter of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SARSCoV2?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SARSCoV2</a> emergence, from activities associated with wildlife trade. <a href="https://t.co/tykjmEOGxW">https://t.co/tykjmEOGxW</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelWorobey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MichaelWorobey</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/K_G_Andersen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@K_G_Andersen</a> <a href="https://t.co/THYDkLualC">pic.twitter.com/THYDkLualC</a></p> <p>— Science Magazine (@ScienceMagazine) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScienceMagazine/status/1551931253179514880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Using Chinese and WHO data, as well as public online maps, photos, business registries, and official reports, the scientists reconstructed a map of the market, including human cases and Covid-postive environmental samples from late 2019.</p> <p dir="ltr">The market wildlife section was found to have COVID-19 all over it, with eight of the earliest human cases working nearby.</p> <p dir="ltr">A stall where COVID-19 was found on a metal cage, a machine used to remove hair and feathers from animals, two carts used for moving animal cages, and a nearby water drain, was also visited by Professor Holmes on a trip to Wuhan in 2014 - where he snapped a photo of caged racoon dogs stacked on top of caged birds.</p> <p dir="ltr">“We can’t prove it is this exact stall but the data is very suggestive,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">Racoon dogs, along with badgers, hares, rats and foxes are among several species of animals that Covid moves easily among, all of which were being sold in the market in 2019.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fad47587-7fff-0e06-efe8-1cddecca3178"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">The racoon dogs supplied to the market came from farms in western Hubei, the <em>Science </em>papers note, which is an area known for extensive networks of caves filled with Rhinolophus bats that carry coronaviruses similar to the one that causes COVID-19.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/08/wuhan-racoon-dogs.jpg" alt="" width="601" height="533" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Professor Edward Holmes photographed racoon dogs being sold in the Huanan Wildlife Market in 2014. Image: Edward Holmes</em></p> <p dir="ltr">“Raccoon dogs are a suspect,” Professor Holmes added.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I think, strongly, there are a whole bunch of animals out there who have viruses like this that we have not sampled yet.”</p> <p dir="ltr">In their second paper, the team even determined the two viral lineages that were detected a week apart in December 2019, and which one was the most likely one to have been transmitted from animals to humans.</p> <p dir="ltr">Using computers to simulate the most likely sequence of events that would produce the two strains, which differ by two small changes in their genetic codes, they found it exceedingly unlikely that the virus would jump into humans and then split into two strains.</p> <p dir="ltr">Instead, they found that it would be far more likely that multiple strains of Covid had already been circulating in animals, with two strains separately jumping to humans.</p> <p dir="ltr">As for the theory that Covid originated in a lab, you would expect it to be introduced into humans just once - rather than as two distinct lineages - with samples taken from the Huanan market also containing both strains.</p> <p dir="ltr">“That, I think, is pretty good evidence,” Professor Dwyer said.</p> <p dir="ltr">Though supporters of the lab leak theory argue that the market is a perfect super-spreader site, introduced by scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the scientists found that it isn’t the perfect spreader site that people may think it is.</p> <p dir="ltr">The scientists found that 155 cases in December 2019 were strongly clustered in the suburbs around the market, but that it is a small and rather obscure shopping spot and was among the least-visited of 430 identified possible super-spreader sites in Wuhan.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s like going to Coles in Bendigo on a wet Wednesday afternoon. It’s not a thriving mass of humanity,” Professor Holmes said.</p> <p dir="ltr">No-one has proved COVID-19 - or even a twin strain - has been at the Wuhan Institute of Virology either, with no epidemiological evidence showing the virus spreading near the institute.</p> <p dir="ltr">“There’s no emails. There’s no evidence in any of the science. There’s absolutely nothing,” Professor Holmes said.</p> <p dir="ltr">On top of that, Covid wasn’t detected in any of the tens of thousands of blood donations in Wuhan between September and December 2019, nor in thousands of samples taken from patients hospitalised with flu-like symptoms between October and December.</p> <p dir="ltr">“What are the odds that two lineages escape from the lab and both make their way into the market and both cause superspreader events?” Professor Holmes said.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-d9a32911-7fff-345d-3948-858a5f899ba8"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s ridiculous. There is no way that can happen.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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Stuff-up or conspiracy? Whistleblowers claim Facebook deliberately let important non-news pages go down in news blackout

<p>On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published information from Facebook whistleblowers, alleging Facebook (which is owned by Meta) deliberately caused havoc in Australia last year <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-deliberately-caused-havoc-in-australia-to-influence-new-law-whistleblowers-say-11651768302">to influence the News Media Bargaining Code</a> before it was passed as law.</p> <p>During Facebook’s news blackout in February 2021, thousands of non-news pages were also blocked – including important emergency, health, charity and government pages.</p> <p>Meta has continued to argue the takedown of not-for-profit and government pages was a technical error. It remains to be seen whether the whistleblower revelations will lead to Facebook being taken to court.</p> <p><strong>The effects of Facebook’s “error”</strong></p> <p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-world-first-australia-plans-to-force-facebook-and-google-to-pay-for-news-but-abc-and-sbs-miss-out-143740">News Media Bargaining Code</a> was first published in July 2020, with a goal to have Facebook and Google pay Australian news publishers for the content they provide to the platforms.</p> <p>It was passed by the House of Representatives (Australia’s lower house) on February 17 2021. That same day, Facebook retaliated by issuing a <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/02/changes-to-sharing-and-viewing-news-on-facebook-in-australia/">statement</a> saying it would remove access to news media business pages on its platform – a threat it had first made in August 2020.</p> <p>It was arguably a reasonable threat of capital strike by a foreign direct investor, in respect to new regulation it regarded as “harmful” – and which it believed fundamentally “misunderstands the relationship between [its] platform and publishers who use it to share news content”.</p> <p>However, the range of pages blocked was extensive.</p> <p>Facebook has a label called the “News Page Index” which can be applied to its pages. News media pages, such as those of the ABC and SBS, are included in the index. All Australian pages on this index were taken down during Facebook’s news blackout.</p> <p>But Facebook also blocked access to other pages, such as the page of the satirical website <a href="https://www.betootaadvocate.com">The Betoota Advocate</a>. The broadness of Facebook’s approach was also evidenced by the blocking of its own corporate page.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/18/time-to-reactivate-myspace-the-day-australia-woke-up-to-a-facebook-news-blackout">most major harm</a>, however, came from blocks to not-for-profit pages, including cancer charities, the Bureau of Meteorology and a variety of state health department pages – at a time when they were delivering crucial information about COVID-19 and vaccines.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Whistleblowers emerge</strong></p> <p>The whistleblower material published by the Wall Street Journal, which was also filed to the US Department of Justice and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), includes several email chains that show Facebook decided to implement its blocking threat through a broad strategy.</p> <p>The argument for its broad approach was based on an anti-avoidance clause in the News Media Bargaining Code. The effect of the clause was to ensure Facebook didn’t attempt to avoid the rules of the code by simply substituting Australian news with international news for Australian users. In other words, it would have to be all or nothing.</p> <p>As a consequence, Facebook did not use its News Page Index. It instead classified a domain as “news” if “60% [or] more of a domain’s content shared on Facebook is classified as news”. One product manager wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>Hey everyone – the [proposed Australian law] we are responding to is extremely broad, so guidance from the policy and legal team has been to be over-inclusive and refine as we get more information.</p> </blockquote> <p>The blocking approach was algorithmic and based on these rules. There were some exceptions, that included not blocking “.gov” – but no such exclusion for “.gov.au”. The effect of this was the taking down of many charity and government pages.</p> <p>The whistleblower material makes it clear a number of Facebook employees offered solutions to the perceived overreach. This included one employee proposal that Facebook should “proactively find all the affected pages and restore them”. However, the documents show these calls were ignored.</p> <p>According to the Wall Street Journal:</p> <blockquote> <p>The whistleblower documents show Facebook did attempt to exclude government and education pages. But people familiar with Facebook’s response said some of these lists malfunctioned at rollout, while other whitelists didn’t cover enough pages to avoid widespread improper blocking.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Amendments following the blackout</strong></p> <p>Following Facebook’s news blackout, there were last-minute amendments to the draft legislation before it was passed through the Senate.</p> <p>The main change was that the News Media Bargaining Code would only apply to Facebook if deals were not struck with a range of key news businesses (which so far has not included SBS or <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationEDU/status/1440562209206128653?s=20&amp;t=FsviAWBLX7mKumr80Qiwzg">The Conversation</a>).</p> <p>It’s not clear whether the amendment was as a result of Facebook’s actions, or if it would have been introduced in the Senate anyway. In either case, Facebook said it was “<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/02/changes-to-sharing-and-viewing-news-on-facebook-in-australia/">satisfied</a>” with the outcome, and ended its news blackout.</p> <p><strong>Facebook denies the accusations</strong></p> <p>The definitions of “core news content” and “news source” in the News Media Bargaining Code were reasonably narrow. So Facebook’s decision to block pages so broadly seems problematic – especially from the perspective of reputational risk.</p> <p>But as soon as that risk crystallised, Facebook denied intent to cause any harm. A Meta spokesperson said the removal of non-news pages was a “mistake” and “any suggestion to the contrary is categorically and obviously false”. Referring to the whistleblower documents, the spokesperson said:</p> <blockquote> <p>The documents in question clearly show that we intended to exempt Australian government pages from restrictions in an effort to minimise the impact of this misguided and harmful legislation. When we were unable to do so as intended due to a technical error, we apologised and worked to correct it.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Possible legal action</strong></p> <p>In the immediate aftermath of Facebook’s broad news takedown, former ACCC chair Allan Fels <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/facebook-could-face-lawsuits-for-unconscionable-conduct-over-nonnews-wipe-out/news-story/b312cef33b8e2261e8b5743f9bf87ca6">suggested</a> there could be a series of class actions against Facebook.</p> <p>His basis was that Facebook’s action was unconscionable under the <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/caca2010265/toc-sch2.html">Australian Consumer Law</a>. We have not seen these actions taken.</p> <p>It’s not clear whether the whistleblower material changes the likelihood of legal action against Facebook. If legal action is taken, it’s more likely to be a civil case taken by an organisation that has been harmed, rather than a criminal case.</p> <p>On the other hand, one reading of the material is Facebook did indeed overreach out of caution, and then reduced the scope of its blocking over a short period.</p> <p>Facebook suffered reputational harm as a result of its actions and apologised. However, if it engaged in similar actions in other countries, the balance between its actions being a stuff up, versus conspiracy, changes.</p> <p>The Wall Street Journal described Facebook’s approach as an “overly broad and sloppy process”. Such a process isn’t good practice, but done once, it’s unlikely to be criminal. On the other hand, repeating it would create a completely different set of potential liabilities and causes of action.</p> <hr /> <p><em>Disclosure: Facebook has refused to negotiate a deal with The Conversation under the News Media Bargaining Code. In response, The Conversation has called for Facebook to be “designated” by the Treasurer under the Code. This means Facebook would be forced to pay for content published by The Conversation on its platform.</em><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182673/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rob-nicholls-91073" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rob Nicholls</a>, Associate professor in regulation and governance, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UNSW Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stuff-up-or-conspiracy-whistleblowers-claim-facebook-deliberately-let-important-non-news-pages-go-down-in-news-blackout-182673" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

Technology

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Man who threatened to kill Jacinda Ardern causes stir in court

<p dir="ltr">A man who threatened to kill New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made claims he had been “kidnapped” by police and illegally detained during an outburst in court.</p> <p dir="ltr">Richard Trevor Sivell was arrested at a rural property in Te Puke, in the Western Bay of Plenty on the North Island, which is owned by the Ministry of Education.</p> <p dir="ltr">He claimed he owned the property through “allodial title”, an archaic law meaning that the property had no owner.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-6b8bee9d-7fff-7c87-37f0-e54c94043c08"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">His arrest was filmed by his supporters and shared online and later re-shared by anti-conspiracy theorist groups on social media.</p> <p><iframe style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=315&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDebunkingConspiraciesAotearoa%2Fvideos%2F381405037137867%2F&show_text=true&width=560&t=0" width="560" height="430" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p dir="ltr">He was later charged with three offences, including intentionally obstructing a police officer during the arrest, failing to comply with police, and threatening to kill.</p> <p dir="ltr">The details of the threatening to kill charge have been suppressed and cannot be reported, per the <em><a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/court-outburst-richard-sivell-charged-with-threatening-to-kill-pm-forced-by-police-into-dock/JFTRYCT6MOCWOC5FGRQDAZH5Y4/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NZ Herald</a></em>. </p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Sivell went on to appear before the Tauranga District Court on Monday, where he repeatedly chose to stand in the public gallery and refused to enter the dock when instructed by Judge Thomas Ingram.</p> <p dir="ltr">Prior to his appearance in the courtroom, Mr Sivell arrived with a Bible and a one-page document which he called a “counterclaim”, as reported by <em><a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300557520/man-who-threatened-to-kill-pm-dragged-into-dock-by-police-after-refusal-to-move?fbclid=IwAR2-VkhHDyZXBR1xATPr33YsTvYHoBQcFcS6QGMvfMtTaizRX0na0GmrYOg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stuff</a></em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">After presenting the document to the court office, he sat in the courtroom, maskless, and asked to be referred to by his first name rather than his last name by the judge.</p> <p dir="ltr">When he still refused to go beyond the public gallery, two police officers and a court security officer forcibly moved him to the dock - a distance of about 10 metres - and even carried him by the arms and legs at one stage. After continuing to resist the officers, Mr Sivell was pinned to the ground and handcuffed, at which point he accused the officers of assaulting him.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’m a man of peace, stop assaulting me, I haven’t done anything, I haven’t broken the law. You guys are traumatising me again,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">When he was in the dock, Judge Ingram asked if he wanted a few minutes to catch his breath.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I appreciate this is not a lot of fun for you,” the judge said. “You certainly will be somewhat traumatised … by what’s occurred.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Sivell then asked if the judge had received “the data”, to which Judge Ingram replied, “I’ve seen a piece of paper from you, yes.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Without receiving the data we can’t proceed, your honour,” Mr Sivell replied.</p> <p dir="ltr">Judge Ingram said: "You can parrot that as much as you want Mr Sivell, but I'm going to proceed with the matter on the basis that the law of the land applies to you as it applies to everybody else."</p> <p dir="ltr">After refusing to acknowledge the judge's questions, the case was adjourned for half an hour. </p> <p dir="ltr">When he reappeared, he continued to refuse to speak, even when asked whether he wanted legal representation.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I'm a man of peace, I'm here under duress. I've been assaulted and kidnapped," Mr Sivell said.</p> <p dir="ltr">The case was then adjourned for two weeks, and Mr Sivell was remanded on bail on the condition that he made no contact with Ms Ardern or used a device capable of connecting to the internet.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Threats appeared on Telegram</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Sivell tracked the arrival of police through a series of posts on Telegram - the encrypted messaging app which has become home to conspiracy theorists and Nazi sympathisers.</p> <p dir="ltr">According to the <em><a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/police-stand-off-with-richard-sivell-who-allegedly-made-death-threats-against-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern/VUJLWAJCY3LWQZBMMIE3ANMBG4/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NZHerald</a></em>, Mr Sivell used the same account to post what could be considered as threats to kill Ms Ardern and several journalists.</p> <p dir="ltr">“They are going to die. We are not going to allow them to share this world with us anymore,” Mr Sivell said in an audio message posted to the Counterspin channel on Telegram. “Same as Jacinda. She is going to die. Execute these motherf***ers. I look forward to hearing their necks snap.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Fake journalists and accusations of communism</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Outside the court, Mr Sivell was met by his supporters, as well as members of the public posing as journalists.</p> <p dir="ltr">One of the 'journalists' interviewed Mr Sivell, who said New Zealand was becoming a "communist police state" and accused Ms Ardern of being a communist.</p> <p dir="ltr">He said those responsible for the vaccination program, which he described as a "bioweapon", should be held accountable under "Nuremberg law".</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-84b0bc66-7fff-ac97-d899-173ef54700fd"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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China doubles down on bizarre Russia conspiracy theory

<p>China has doubled down on a bizarre conspiracy that is believed to be part of an elaborate ploy to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine. </p> <p>Earlier this week, a senior Chinese official accused the United States of running a series of biolabs in Russia, claiming the situation was “dangerous” and that the “safety” of the alleged labs were at risk.</p> <p>“Under the current circumstances, for the sake of the health and safety of people in Ukraine, the surrounding region and the whole world, we call on all relevant parties to ensure the safety of these laboratories,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian during a recent press conference.</p> <p>“In particular, the US, as the party with the best knowledge of these laboratories, should release relevant details as soon as possible, including what viruses are stored and what research has been conducted."</p> <p>“What is the real intention of the US? What exactly did it do?”</p> <p>Mr Zhao went on to claim that America's biological military activities in Ukraine were just the "tip of the iceberg", following a series of Russian reports that claim over 30 biolabs were in operation in Ukraine at the request of a US government agency. </p> <p>However, the bizarre conspiracy theory seems to have originated from Russia back in April 2020.</p> <p>At the time, the US embassy in Ukraine was forced to denounce the wild rumours, slamming them as “Russian disinformation regarding the strong US-Ukrainian partnership to reduce biological threats”.</p> <p>“The US Department of Defence’s Biological Threat Reduction Program works with the Ukrainian government to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern in Ukrainian government facilities, while allowing for peaceful research and vaccine development,” the statement reads.</p> <p>“We also work with our Ukrainian partners to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats."</p> <p>“Our joint efforts help to ensure that dangerous pathogens do not fall into the wrong hands.”</p> <p>The misinformation about the alleged biolabs has become so widespread that Britain's Defence Ministry has also weighed in. </p> <p>“Since the end of February there has been a notable intensification of Russian accusations that Ukraine is developing nuclear or biological weapons,” the ministry said in a tweet yesterday.</p> <p>“These narratives are long standing but are currently likely being amplified as part of a retrospective justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”</p> <p>While the US confirmed it was working with Ukraine, they went on to say the were fearful of any biological research material getting into the wrong hands. </p> <p>“Ukraine has biological research facilities, which in fact we are now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to gain control of,” senior State Department official Victoria Nuland said during a recent hearing, according to AFP.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

News

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Feeling paranoid? You might be more susceptible to conspiracy theories

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/paranoid-people-may-be-more-susceptible-to-believing-conspiracy-theories" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">new study</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> suggests that people who are paranoid are more likely to believe conspiracy theories than those who are not paranoid.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">UK scientists surveyed 1000 people in an online survey to determine whether there was a relationship between </span><a href="https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/paranoia"><span style="font-weight: 400;">paranoia</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> - the irrational and persistent feeling that people are ‘out to get you’ - and different components of conspiracy theories.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The main survey tested participants’ agreement with conspiracies that affected them or wider society, as well as whether the events the theories referred to were incidental or intentional.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For instance, participants were asked to score how much they agreed or disagreed with statements surrounding vaccination. These included theories describing intentional events that affected the individual - e.g. “Some of the vaccines I have received have been designed to be harmful to me, but I was unaware of this at the time” - and some describing events that affected society that were incidental - e.g. “Vaccines given to the public have unintended harmful side effects and the public are unaware of this”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After analysing their results, the researchers found that people who were more paranoid were more likely to believe theories that affected them as individuals, as well as those that described events that were intentional.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7847128/antivax1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/1ea59529e70a4056af956bcb4ad8ce34" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The study found that paranoid people were more likely to endorse beliefs, such as anti-vaccination beliefs, than those who are not. Image: Getty Images</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Counter to their initial predictions, the team found people were more likely to believe theories they thought people similar to them would also believe, whether they were paranoid or not.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As for the overall group of participants, they found people were more likely to believe theories that suggested the event or harm it referred to was accidental, rather than intentional. People were also more likely to believe theories that affected the whole of society rather than just themselves.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Overall, we show that the believability of conspiracy theories may depend on the level of intentional harm implied, and who is specified as the target of the harm described,” the scientists wrote.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They argue that these results could also impact our understanding of belief revision - the process by which we change our beliefs after receiving new information.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Particularly, they suggest that paranoia may affect a person’s ability to update their beliefs in conspiracies, and the features of different theories may have a role to play too.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Their findings were published in the journal </span><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211555" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Royal Society Open Science</span></a></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Getty Images</span></em></p>

Mind

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“Rubbish”: Family friend blasts missing boy conspiracy theories

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With their three-year-old son returned to them three days after disappearing, the Elfalek family has called out those doubting their story.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“No one could understand what this is like, what happened and what we went through,” Alan Hashem, AJ’s godfather and the family’s neighbour, told </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">7NEWS</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There’s nothing, people saying ‘crocodile tears, you guys aren’t showing emotion, the best friend is very suss with Anthony’s (AJ’s father’s) wife’. Like, just rubbish.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Three-year-old Anthony ‘AJ’ Elfalek’s disappearance consumed the country over the weekend, after the non-verbal autistic toddler went missing on Friday.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After NSW Police deployed an extensive search around his family’s 650-acre property in Putty, in the NSW Hunter Valley.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At 11.30am on Monday, it was announced that the toddler had been found about 470 metres from his home in a creek bed by a rescue helicopter.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">A three-year-old child missing on a rural property in the Hunter region since Friday has been located following a large-scale search.<a href="https://t.co/VrlVwL4sYW">https://t.co/VrlVwL4sYW</a> <a href="https://t.co/byOXFCiD1j">pic.twitter.com/byOXFCiD1j</a></p> — NSW Police Force (@nswpolice) <a href="https://twitter.com/nswpolice/status/1434739398130606081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Polair1 was flying over a ridge with a creek bed in it and they notice some movement. They were able to clearly identify a small boy in a puddle in a creek bed. That was the movement to alert Polair there was someone there,” Superintendent Tracy Chapman said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There were emotional scenes on the property following the news, with family members and friends seen cheering and celebrating.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7843804/discovery.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/0ea217ed427145c6998ec05229fd3d1e" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Channel 9</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the boy has been found, Ms Chapman said the police investigation surrounding his initial disappearance would continue.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“From a policing perspective we will still be continuing our inquiry to understand what has occurred over the past three days and how he came to be found after three days but certainly what occurred over the course of those three days,” she said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">AJ’s family said they would continue to search for answers too.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We still need to find out what happened. We need answers. This is our little fortress. Did he leave? Who did he leave with? Did anything sinister happen?” Mr Hashem said, according to the ABC.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“You know, these questions that need to still be answered. You know, and we will not stop until we actually find the truth.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">AJ suffered minor scratches and nappy rash, but was otherwise determined to be in a healthy condition.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Facebook</span></em></p>

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Scott Morrison slams Four Corners over “baseless conspiracy theories

<p>The Prime Minister has categorically denied the ABC’s “baseless conspiracy theories” after it was suggested he was influenced by old family friends who are allegedly part of the <em>QAnon</em> cult.</p> <p>ABC’s<em> Four Corners</em> examined the <em>QAnon</em> cult on Monday night, along with Sydney man Tim Stewart’s involvement.</p> <p>Reports say Stewart's own sister felt compelled to dob in her sibling to the national terror hotline after his activities began to worry her.</p> <p>Mr Morrison and his wife Jenny have been friends with Mr Stewart and his wife Lynelle since the 1990s.</p> <p>Jenny had employed Lynelle Stewart at Kirribilli House in a taxpayer-funded job, and both women were bridesmaids at each others’ weddings.</p> <p>Mr Stewart has even posted pictures of himself at Kirribilli House on social media.</p> <p>The Stewart family also told Mr Stewart’s mother that they planned to holiday in Hawaii with the Morrison family in 2019, <em>Four Corners</em> alleged.</p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7841792/scomo-qanon-2.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/bae39c1884a14651ba1f34f04b24fe12" /></p> <p><em>Image: Instagram</em></p> <p>“Tim and Lynelle were just sharing that there was a holiday planned in Hawaii, and my impression was that there was a holiday planned in Hawaii, and my impression was it was going to be quite a few families, which would include many who’ve been going to Hawaii for years,’’ Val Stewart said.</p> <p>“Scott and Jenny were going to go as well. That was … that was mentioned. Scott and Jenny were going to go.”</p> <p>The Prime Minister was compelled to cut short his trip after public backlash to him holidaying during a disastrous spate of bushfires, which was the same day Tim Stewart’s family flew to Hawaii.</p> <p>A spokesman for the Prime Minister said he did not plan to answer questions raised by the ABC program, after their office was contacted.</p> <p>“The Government will not be responding to the baseless conspiracy theories being peddled by Four Corners,’’ the Prime Minister’s spokesman told news.com.au.</p> <p>The old family friend also allegedly boasted to <em>QAnon</em> supporters that he could get the Prime Minister to include the term “ritual sex abuse” in a major speech.</p> <p>Mr Morrison would then go on to use the term “ritual sex abuse” in a formal apology to sex abuse victims.</p> <p>Four Corners said the Prime Minister had refused to confirm on the record if he had been influenced by Mr Stewart to include the reference.</p> <p>“Despite being asked repeatedly, the Prime Minister has not answered Four Corners’ questions on the record about whether Tim Stewart passed on information to him about the wording of the apology,’’ the report stated.</p> <p>Mr Stewart told Four Corners any suggestion he supported violence like the US Capitol riots were “nonsense”.</p> <p>“I am too busy to read questions relating to the nonsense that’s been put out there, which are just hit pieces,” he said.</p> <p>He has previously told The Guardian newspaper that it was completely incorrect to assume he had any influence over the Prime Minister.</p> <p>“I have never spoken to Scott about anything of a political nature. I’m not an adviser. The idea of me talking to him about this … it’s just not true,” he said.</p> <p>Mr Stewart’s estranged sister Karen Stewart, has been outspoken about her concerns regarding her brothers’ views on social media for years.</p> <p>“Tim believes that the world has really been taken over by satanic paedophiles, or Luciferian paedophiles,” she told Four Corners.</p> <p>The Prime Minister also criticised the ABC for pursuing the story, in a recent press conference.</p> <p>He went on to say that he wanted to make it explicitly clear that he had no links with the cult whatsoever.</p> <p>“I find it deeply offensive that there would be any suggestion that I would have any involvement or support for such a dangerous organisation,” Mr Morrison said.</p> <p>“I clearly do not.”</p>

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