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Authorities are investigating after fake Chinese police cars were seen cropping up in major Australian cities amid pro-Hong Kong demonstrations across the nation over the weekend. Police in South Australia and Western Australia have in recent days confirmed reported sightings the cars, which have a Chinese Police logo and the word “police” written in Mandarin. It’s been suggested the vehicles, similar to the police cars stationed in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, are an attempt to intimidate local pro-democracy protesters. ... But Western Australia Police also noted that, while it is illegal to replicate the appearance of an Australian police vehicle,...

On Wednesday the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sexual abuse, Cardinal George Pell, will find out if his appeal has succeeded and if he will be released from custody. The 78-year-old has been in Melbourne assessment prison since being sentenced in March to six years in prison for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in 1996 when he was the archbishop of Melbourne. He was ordered to serve a non-parole period of three years and eight months. The jurors heard Pell sexually assaulted the two boys after Sunday solemn mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in...

A decision on Cardinal George Pell’s appeal against his conviction on historical child sex abuse charges will be handed down at 9.30am on Wednesday, August 21. Pell, 78, the former Vatican number three, was sentenced in March to six years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting two choirboys in the 1990s. He was ordered to serve at least three years and eight months for the rape of a 13-year-old choirboy and sexually molesting another in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne when he was newly-installed as archbishop. Pell appealed the conviction in early June and a...

Australia: Muslim who went on stabbing spree while screaming “Allahu akbar” was recent convert to Islam AUG 14, 2019 11:00 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER Yet another convert to Islam gets the impression that his new religion calls upon him to kill Infidels. Authorities the world over show absolutely no interest in this recurring phenomenon. “‘I didn’t think he’d go this far’: School friends of Sydney knifeman say he recently converted to Islam and was an ‘odd person with no friends,'” by Lauren Ferri, Charlie Coe, Hannah Moore and Daniel Piotrowski, Daily Mail Australia, August 13, 2019: Friends of the Sydney...

..... “My brother, he was the hero. He got a grip of him, along with another guy we don’t know, and put a crate on his head. He was just mumbling religious things,” he said. ..... NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the men were heroes “of the highest order”. “Three members of the public, who can only be described as heroes of the highest order, have engaged this 21-year-old man and have placed him essentially under arrest even though he was brandishing a large butchers knife and was clearly dangerous,” he told reporters on Tuesday night. Superintendent Gavin Wood...

At least one woman has been taken to hospital after a bloodied man with a knife went on a stabbing rampage in Sydney CBD, jumping on cars and taunting police. There is a heavy police presence on King St and Clarence St in Wynyard with the CBD in lockdown. The woman has been taken to St Vincent’s hospital in a stable condition. People are being warned to avoid the area. Footage of the incident, obtained by 7 News, shows a man armed with a large knife jumping on top of a car. Bystanders are seen rushing towards the man, with...

Here’s a chilling little account of an incident that could be a portent of ugly things to come. A priest was opening the outside sacristy door of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in preparation for a weekday evening Mass when a young man, well-dressed in a suit and to all appearances a respectable citizen, approached him from the cathedral grounds and asked if this was the sacristy. He asked if he could go in with the priest to see it. When told it was private premises and not shown to the public, the young man became aggressive and, taking out...

The Court of Appeal has been dealing with last-minute questions about the way George Pell’s jury was empanelled as it prepares to deliver its ruling on one of the ­nation’s biggest legal cases. The three judges have been ­examining the law around how Pell was arraigned when no jury panel members were physically present in the court. ... If the court were to rule in favour of Pell on the arraignment matter, it could potentially lead to a retrial, although the favoured outcome for the defence would be that the court finds the jury had erred by convicting Pell on...

New Zealand's Prime Minister has proposed extreme new controls on gun ownership for the country. They are explicitly designed to move gun ownership in New Zealand from a right to a privilege. The Prime Minister is attempting to follow the Australian playbook on imposing extreme restrictions on gun ownership. From stuff.co.nz: Firearm owners will have to register their guns amid the largest changes to gun laws in decades.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced details of the firearm law overhaul on Monday, saying it would come with a message ingrained in law: firearm ownership is a privilege and not a right....

A pro-Hong Kong rally at the University of Queensland in Australia last week turned ugly after a violent group of pro-Beijing students crashed the event and attacked the pro-democracy demonstrators. The incident blew up into a diplomatic crisis on Wednesday when the Chinese consul-general in Brisbane praised the “spontaneous patriotic behavior of the Chinese students” and lauded them for attacking the “anti-China separatists.” Australia has a sizable population of students from both mainland China and Hong Kong. The confrontation at the University of Queensland last Wednesday began after a group of students from Hong Kong organized a rally to show...

The move will see the European Commission blocking Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada and Singapore from accessing parts of the European Union's financial market, according to the Financial Times. The five countries are deemed as no longer regulating credit rating agencies as rigorously as the bloc — thereby removing them from a position which made it possible for European banks to rely on those ratings, reported the Financial Times, The European Commission will be blocking five countries from accessing parts of the European Union's financial markets — in a move that could hit the United Kingdom after it leaves the bloc,...

On Wednesday, LGBT campaigners won a partial victory in Bulgaria, where a court ruled to recognize the validity of the same-sex “marriage” of a pair of foreign women residing in the country. Bulgaria is one of the 22 countries in Europe that doesn’t recognize same-sex “marriage.” Wednesday’s ruling came after Austalian Kristina Palma “married” French citizen Mariama Dialo and the couple subsequently wanted Bulgaria to allow Palma to live and work there because her “wife” is an EU citizen. The court “affirmed Palma’s rights as the spouse of an EU citizen,” the Associated Press reported. The homosexual website Pink News...

As New Zealand gun owners seek to comply with their government's new ban on the ownership of semi-automatic centerfire rifles, an advocate for the ban says it is not enough. Nik Green goes so far as to say the attempt to comply with the ban renders the ban pointless. From newshub.com: Police are looking into whether kits designed to modify AR-15s from semi-automatic to pump-action would allow owners to keep the rifles, which are used in about half of all mass shootings in the US. Gun Control NZ co-founder Nik Green says allowing the modification kit would render the...

Existing gender categories in sport should perhaps be abandoned in favour of a more "nuanced" approach in the new transgender era, University of Otago researchers say. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines that allow male-to-female transgender athletes to compete in the women's category at the elite level has raised significant debate since being introduced in 2015. A recent case of New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, a transwomen competing in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, has polarised opinions about the inclusion of transwomen in women's sport. Bioethicist, Associate Professor Lynley Anderson, says that in discussing this topic we need to consider the...

Boris Johnson has been elected new Conservative leader in a ballot of party members and will become the next UK prime minister. He beat Jeremy Hunt comfortably, winning 92,153 votes to his rival's 46,656. The former London mayor takes over from Theresa May on Wednesday. In his victory speech, Mr Johnson promised he would "deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn". Speaking at the Queen Elizabeth II centre in London, he said: "We are going to energise the country. "We are going to get Brexit done on 31 October and take advantage of all the opportunities it will...

An Australian man has been caught with a $140 million methamphetamine haul hidden in boxes after he crashed into a parked police car. ... The man has been charged with large commercial drug supply and negligent driving.

Under Steyer’s watch, Farallon Capital invested in coal plants in China, Indonesia, even Australia, where a newly constructed plant in New South Wales is expected to churn out coal for the next 30 years. The mine’s 2014 groundbreaking, which occurred in an Australian state forest, inspired a veteran to stand in front of a bulldozer and a music teacher to chain himself to a piece of excavation equipment. All told, the coal mines increased their production by more than 70 million tons of coal since getting investment from Steyer. As the New York Times noted, that’s more than Britain consumes...

The role Australia played in relaying the first television images of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the Moon 50 years ago this July features in the popular movie The Dish. But that only tells part of the story (with some fictionalisation as well). What really happened is just as dramatic as the movie, and needed two Australian dishes. Australia actually played host to more NASA tracking stations than any other country outside the United States. Right place, right time Our geographical location was ideal as US spacecraft would pass over Australia during their first orbit, soon after launch. Tracking...

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been left stranded in Australia after her air force jet broke down. Stuff.co.nz reported Ms Ardern and her former TV fisherman husband Clarke Gayford will fly home on a commercial jet on Friday evening. .... The New Zealand Defence Force said that the dignitaries' aircraft had suffered a 'failure of its air data computer'. A replacement part will be shipped to Australia on Saturday, a statement said, but Ms Ardern was expected to return home on a commercial flight tonight. During her time in Melbourne, Ms Ardern confronted Mr Morrison about the Australian...

New Zealand attempted controls on firearms ownership from 1845 to 1885. It was not very effective.  From 1885 to 1912, the arms control law was generally a dead letter. From 1912 to 1945 arms control was again attempted, primarily as a means of preventing revolution. From 1945 to 1965, there was again a peaceful enjoyment of firearms with few controls in New Zealand. There were registration controls on the books, but they proved ineffective. Because of increasing crime rates, from the middle 1960's to 1983, the New Zealand police struggled with the ineffective registration system.  The information was obtained...