Free Republic

In President Trump’s absence, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took punishing comedic ridicule Saturday night. Comedian Michelle Wolf delivered a brutal roasting of the president, his administration, and particularly Sanders at the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, as the press secretary sat awkwardly near the podium. For the second consecutive year, Trump, who’s at war with the media (except conservative Fox News), did not attend the prestigious annual dinner for White House correspondents. Previous presidents regularly attended the event, where a comedian traditionally throws sharp jabs at the commander-in-chief. Wolf began her set up by saying she really likes...

The search consists of a 65-man vessel Seabed Constructor equipped geared to scouring the depths of the Indian Ocean for any sight of plane debris from the MH370 aircraft. But, four years after the plane went missing, the latest searches through the Indian Ocean has revealed nothing -- after 16,000sq km of the planned 25,000sq km area was combed through. The search location was pinpointed by an Australian Oceanographer as the most likely spot the plane would be. The Malaysian government paid Ocean Infinity $20 million for 5,000 square km of a successful search, $30 million for 15,000 square km,...

CHINA is waging a “campaign of psychological warfare” against Australia, an Aussie academic has warned. Professor Clive Hamilton, author of the controversial book Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, gave a talk to US Congress overnight in which he warned of dire consequences if Australia gives too much leeway to the rising superpower. “Beijing knows that it cannot bully the United States — in the current environment the consequences would be unpredictable and probably counter-productive — so it is instead pressuring its allies,” Prof Hamilton said. “Last week the PLA Navy challenged three Australian warships sailing through the South China...

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull says US President Donald Trump “absolutely” deserves credit for bringing about historic talks between the leaders of North and South Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have engaged in a historic meeting in the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, seeking an agreement to establish peace on the peninsula. “I’ve given him that credit because Donald Trump has taken a very, very strong, hard line on the denuclearisation issue and he has been able to bring in the support of the global community and, in particular, China,” Mr Turnbull told...

More than 1,500 United States Marines have slipped quietly into Darwin for their latest Australian deployment and are about to make a lot of noise. Elements of the 2018 Marine Rotational Force - Darwin (MRF-D) began arriving in the Top End without publicity earlier this month as the wet season in the Northern Territory ended. This year the force will include 1,587 Marines, eight MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, an artillery battery of six M777 howitzers and a number of fearsome UH-1Y Venom helicopters. Most of the troops have come from bases in Okinawa and California. All of them noticed the...

An Afghanistan War veteran has savaged the Chief of Army's directive that all 'death iconology' be banned from use in the Australian Army. Lieutenant General Angus John Campbell said icons like the skull mask and Grim Reaper were 'arrogant and ill-considered' and 'eroded the ethos of the Army'. However former 2RAR Platoon Sergeant Justin Huggett has written an open letter to General Campbell after learning about the new directive and ban. Mr Huggett is a veteran of the Afghanistan War where he was awarded the Army's Medal of Gallantry. 'As a soldier that served under you at the 2nd Battalion,...

Three Australian warships were challenged by the Chinese military as they travelled through the disputed South China Sea earlier this month, the ABC can reveal. The confrontations with the People's Liberation Army are believed to have occurred as China was conducting its largest ever naval exercises in the hotly contested waters. Defence sources have confirmed HMAS Anzac, HMAS Toowoomba and HMAS Success were challenged by the PLA Navy as they were transiting towards Vietnam where they are now conducting a three-day goodwill visit in Ho Chi Minh City. One official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, insists the exchanges with...

Australia is laying the legislative groundwork necessary to welcome persecuted South African farmers who face a targeted campaign of violence at home, the country’s top legal officer said. Attorney-General Christian Porter pledged Wednesday to help at-risk farmers applying for visas, telling the Australian newspaper “the more South Africans in our local community the better.”

HEADHUNTER Josh Harrison made headlines after he branded unemployed young people “lazy little s***s” online — but he’s standing by his controversial comments. Mr Harrison, a headhunter from UK firm Harrison Allwood, made the comments in response to a LinkedIn post penned by entrepreneur Jack Parsons earlier this month. Mr Parsons, 24, had shared his own story of unemployment and rejection, and said the UK’s job market was “broken” for young people. But Mr Harrison, who is a millennial himself, responded by “calling bulls***” on Mr Parsons’ “poor us attitude”. “I’ll tell you right now that it has never been...

<p>If someone had told me a few months ago that I’d be writing a piece for Front Page on this theme, I would’ve dismissed him as a lunatic. After all, then I was supporting the positions expected from those on the so-called antiwar right. I was harshly critical of Israeli defense initiatives, more willing to talk up for Noam Chomsky than the sitting President, and insistent upon baiting “neo-conservative” Michael Ledeen of National Review into admitting that he sought to see the regime in Tehran overthrown by any means necessary, including US Military involvement.</p>

A young man who died in a suspected suicide at a Sydney university was a hero during an alleged terrorist attack and a 'good man', his family said. Allice Ah Fa, 20, was found dead at Western Sydney University's Bankstown campus on Tuesday. Mr Ah Fa and his relatives bravely confronted an alleged terrorist who was trying to stab a Minto man in broad daylight in September 2016. Allice was enrolled at the university, studying to become a police officer, when he died this week. 'He was a good boy,' said his uncle Sivei Ah Chong. 'It's very hard. Everybody's...

(CNN)Scientists in Australia have voiced concern about an apparent outbreak of Buruli ulcer, a flesh-eating disease that usually occurs in West and central Africa. The infectious disease has seen a spike in cases in recent years in several parts of Australia but particularly in the state of Victoria. In a study published Monday in the Medical Journal of Australia, the authors caution that the outbreak of the ulcers, described as an "epidemic" in the study, requires an "urgent scientific response." They report that Victoria is facing a worsening epidemic "defined by cases rapidly increasing in number, becoming more severe in...

MANILA, Philippines – About 300 Filipino government officials, military officers, businessmen, diplomats, and journalists boarded a massive US aircraft carrier in Manila Bay Friday night, April 13, for a reception hosted by US ambassador Sung Kim. The USS Theodore Roosevelt, the flagship of US Navy Carrier Strike Group 9, arrived in Manila on April 11, the same day China began drills in the South China Sea. The reception aboard the carrier was held only hours after China ended the drills with a large naval parade that Chinese President Xi Jinping himself witnessed. Two Australian warships and a Japanese destroyer also...

An out-of-control bushfire blazing through south-west Sydney could hit the nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, and spot fires have broken out at the Holsworthy military barracks. The bushfire, which jumped Heathcote Road and has already burnt through 980 hectares of land, is still out of control and being spread by strong winds. Greg Allan, a spokesman for NSW Rural Fire Service, told Daily Mail Australia suburbs in the north-east of the fire were their current concern, with residents in Pleasure Point, Sandy Point, Illawong, Menai and Bangor expected to be hit by an ember attack. 'We are advising residents in...

The Redbank Power Station in Australia was shut down in 2014, but it’s being reactivated for the sole purpose of providing power to cryptocurrency mining. Local power company Hunter Energy agreed to reactivate the plant for the Australian tech company IOT Group and sell it power at wholesale prices for blockchain applications, CNET reported. Cryptocurrency such as bitcoin uses blockchain to secure transactions and mine new coins. However, cryptocurrency mining uses huge amounts of power, with current estimates indicated it uses as much power as the entire country of Singapore.IOT plans to offer the power to other companies using blockchain...

VLADIMIR Putin has belittled British sailors as his foreign office blasted Theresa May over reports the UK has sent submarines to move within striking distance of Syria as tensions escalate with Moscow. Last night it emerged Theresa May had ordered British submarines within range of Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian forces as the Prime Minister moves ever-closer to military intervention, following the sick chemical attack in Douma last week. But Assad's ally Russia has lashed out at the reports and belittled the UK as Moscow declared Mrs May may regret it. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “These are young men...

CONTROVERSIAL Australian author and activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied claims she is being held by US customs officials trying to deport her ahead of a speaking engagement in New York City. Ms Abdel-Magied revealed the unfolding situation in a series of tweets this morning. “I’m currently at the border and they’ve said I’m being deported,” she wrote. “This should be fun. What are my rights?” Just before 10am she posted an update claiming officials had seized her phone and cancelled her visa. She said she was “currently at the border” but did not specify exactly where. The former engineer and Queensland Young...

Enzymatic liquid membrane design and mechanism of carbon dioxide capture and separation. The Sandia/University of New Mexico membrane is fabricated by formation of 8-nanometer diameter mesopores. Using atomic layer deposition and oxygen plasma processing, the silica mesopores are engineered to be hydrophobic except for an 18-nm-deep region at the pore surface which is hydrophilic. Through capillary condensation, carbonic anhydrase enzymes and water spontaneously fill the hydrophilic mesopores to form an array of stabilized enzymes with an effective concentration greater than 10 times of that achievable in solution. These catalyze the capture and dissolution of carbon dioxide at the upstream surface...

The largest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook, that features more than 700,000 followers, is actually run by a white man from Australia, a CNN investigation has found. The page, titled simply "Black Lives Matter," had almost 700,000 followers on Facebook, more than twice as many as the official Black Lives Matter page. It was tied to online fundraisers that brought in at least $100,000 that supposedly went to Black Lives Matter causes in the U.S. At least some of the money, however, was transferred to Australian bank accounts, CNN has learned. Fundraising campaigns associated with the Facebook page...

There is a furore in Australia over concerns China is aiming to make a huge wharf it has built at Luganville in Vanuatu a naval base. According to Fairfax media in Australia there have been reports that China has discussed with Vanuatu using the new 360 metre wharf at Luganville as a naval base. The wharf was built by a Chinese company funded by a soft loan from China. Don Wiseman spoke with the director of the Lowy Institute's Pacific programme, Jonathan Pryke, and began by asking him if there is any credence in the report that China is chasing...