Free Republic

Donald Trump is intimidated by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's boyish good looks, according to former White House aide Anthony Scaramucci, who calls his former boss an 'orange fat blob' by comparison. The famously caustic investor who lasted just 11 days as White House communications director told Australia's ABC television network that Trump is a 'malignant narcissist' who 'needs the spotlight at all times.' Trudeau, 47, has parlayed a telegenic movie-star image and deft political softness into a quiet, steady global image – the polar opposite of Trump's bombast. Scaramucci, now on a one-man crusade to stop the U.S. president...

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has given his official aircraft a brand new name after the jet received a $250million taxpayer-funded upgrade. Named 'Shark One' after his beloved NRL team the Cronulla Sharks, the KC30-A tanker is a welcome improvement for the PM and his entourage and can now travel from Australia to Russia in a single voyage. The plane is a previous Qantas and Jetstar commercial A330, which was bought in 2015 by Airbus and modified by Airbus into a freighter and air-to-air refueller. Shark One has a customised interior, and can comfortably carry more than 100 passengers in a...

"In the same week as the awful attack on the mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand... more than two hundred Christians were killed in Nigeria. There was hardly any mention of the latter in the news. There were no marches for martyred Christians, no tolling of church bells ordered by governments, no 'Je suis Charlie' t-shirts... no public outrage at all." — Fr. Benedict Kiely, Crisis Magazine, September 4, 2019 NASA's satellites observed the Amazon fires, prompting world leaders to pledge to protect the rainforest. But the burning, chopping and murder of Christians is not tracked by satellites and their suffering...

Like Jordan Peterson’s reputation, Lionel Shriver’s conservative credentials were burnished by leftist idiocy. In Peterson’s case it was his interview on the UK’s Channel 4 by Cathy Newman. In Shriver’s case it was Yassmin Abdel-Magied walking out of the Brisbane Writers’ Festival in 2016 in protest at Shriver’s views on identity politics and cultural appropriation. Neither Peterson nor Shriver are my kind of conservatives and, to be fair, I am sure they would not claim to be or would want to be. That’s fine. What I would like to say is that conservative warriors are now needed more than ever.......

A vegan woman has filed a lawsuit against her neighbors, complaining about the smell of meat and fish coming from the barbecues wafting into her yard. Australia’s 9 News reports Cilla Carden took her case to the Supreme Court of Western Australia, citing her neighbors’ barbecuing, smoking and children playing basketball among other complaints. Carden is accusing her neighbors of doing it all on purpose. “It’s deliberate,” she said. “All I can smell is fish. I can’t enjoy my backyard.” Carden’s complaint was tossed out of court earlier this year and she filed an appeal.

How the Left validates Islam’s sexual fantasies and victimization of Western women. Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Western women are to blame for being raped by Muslim men.  Such is the latest position—the latest apologia—being offered by those Western elements dedicated to exonerating undesirable Muslim behavior, particularly in order to continue taking in more Muslim migrants. According to a August 9, 2019 report, “in the Swedish city of Uppsala … four women were raped in as many days….  Two ‘completed rapes’ took place last weekend, with another attempted rape on Saturday night, and another sexual...

..While it was once our most important export customer, the United Kingdom has become somewhat of a bit player ...According to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) figures from 2018, the UK was Australia’s 13th-largest export partner – just ahead of Thailand and a touch behind Vietnam. In 2018, the UK took just $5.033 billion worth of Australian goods, while Australia imported $7.24 billion worth of goods from the UK. And while the UK makes up a significant percentage of trade with Australia compared with the 27 European Union member countries, total trade with those 27 countries outweighs trade...

Thousands of people are roasting an Australian vegan who took her neighbors to court over the smell of meat and fish from their barbecue — by planning a massive cookout outside her home. Cilla Carden made headlines this week for her legal beef, in which she claimed the odors from her neighbors’ barbecues had destroyed her quality of life, 9News reported. Now more than 3,000 people are planning to attend a cookout outside her Perth home, organized on a Facebook page called “Community BBQ for Cilla Carden.” “Don’t let Cilla destroy a good old Aussie tradition, join us for a...

U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), negligible just three years ago, now amount to 10% of the global market and at 22 million tonnes so far this year are equal to the total volumes pumped out in 2018, Refinitiv data showed. The data, comprised of tracked individual journeys made by LNG tankers from supply source to destination, also showed LNG production hit an all-time high last month of 31 million tonnes. As global volumes grow, Qatar, for years the world’s largest LNG supplier, lost market share to Australia, which exported more LNG than any other country in the past...

As Cardinal Pell prepares his next and final legal move – an appeal to the High Court – from the discomfort of solitary confinement, amid growing alarm at the rejection of his appeal by a majority of Judges sitting as the Victorian Court of Appeal, much of the recent commentary on the case has focused on post-trial developments. There is emerging concern, not just among Pell’s small army of supporters, or even just Catholics, but among observers of the legal system and those who cherish individual protections under the law, that not only was a wrong inflicted on an innocent...

..... The case against the choirboy’s credibility: # The sacristy had been renovated since 1996 and did not look the same as it did then. The choirboy saw the renovated room in 2016 and declared it looked the same as it did in 1996. Therefore, his memory is suspect. # The choirboy testified that he had only been in the sacristy once, at the time of the sexual assault, but it is highly probable he saw inside it several times before and after December 1996 in both an introductory tour of the cathedral and as the boys went back and...

Australia: Muslim migrant sexually assaults 3-year-old girl, berates her mother for leaving her unattended AUG 29, 2019 2:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER Mohammad Hassan Al Bayati is a “refugee” from Iraq. Sexual assault occurs in all cultures, but only in Islam does it have divine sanction. One survivor of a Muslim rape gang in the UK said that her rapists would quote Quran to her, and believed their actions justified by Islam. The Qur’an teaches that Infidel women can be lawfully taken for sexual use (cf. its allowance for a man to take “captives of the right hand,” 4:3, 4:24,...

On 15 March 2019, a political terrorist attacked two mosques located in Christchurch, New Zealand. He killed 51 people and wounded many more. The far-left government of Jacinda Ardem immediately set on a course to ban semi-automatic firearms in New Zealand. Those opposed were shouted down. The government censor worked hard to keep the public from reading the manifesto published by the terrorist. That conveniently prevented people from knowing that gun confiscation was one of his goals. When academic John Lott pointed this out on Twitter, he was banned.Initial reports were few guns were being turned in, partly because...

Miracle minister lays ‘healing hands’ on poorly hedgehog at Glasgow church John Mellor, an Australian healing evangelist, shared footage of him helping hedgehog Sprinkles at Destiny Unity Church in Shawlands. The African pygmy hedgehog, called Sprinkles, was brought along by his owner Jennifer to an event held in Destiny Unity Church in Shawlands. Australian healing evangelist John Mellor who calls himself a miracle minister was keen to help Jennifer and Sprinkles. In footage of the event, they are seen coming up on stage in front of a large crowd and a tumour on Sprinkles’ mouth is shown to the audience....

Despite Australia’s historically strong alliance with the US, Pres Trump specifically named Australia as a nation whose part in what he calls the “Russia hoax” must be thoroughly investigated. “I’ve declassified everything,” Mr Trump told AAP reporters. “ I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine. I hope he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country.” Mr Trump described the Russia probe as “an attempted coup or an attempted takedown of the president of the United States”. In addition to President Trump’s allegations, his former campaign aide George...

The 2-1 Victorian Court of Appeal dismissal of George Pell’s appeal against his sexual offences convictions may settle Pell’s guilt in the eyes of the law, but this contested judgment cannot constitute an enduring settlement or convincing argument in relation to Pell’s guilt. It is an extraordinary judgment. The power, logic and suasion lies in the 200-page minority judgment by Mark Weinberg, a former commonwealth director of public prosecutions and the most experienced of the three judges in criminal law. Weinberg’s dissent is long and closely reasoned. Weinberg has ensured that grave doubts about Pell’s guilt will not be dissipated...

Much has been written since 9.30am on Wednesday, when two members of a three-judge panel decided the uncorroborated and highly improbable account of cathedral choir boys being molested in an open, unlocked room after Sunday Mass by Cardinal George Pell was sufficiently convincing to see him returned to prison. Where close friends fear he will leave in a coffin, for at 78 such is the parlous state of his health. Of all the tens of thousands of words, however, none paint such a damning picture of the forces arrayed against an innocent man as the magisterial overview pulled together by...

Despite writing in dissent, judge Mark Weinberg dominated yesterday’s decision in George Pell’s appeal with a 204-page argument that can be summed up in one line: the cardinal’s conviction is unsafe. The majority disagreed but Weinberg’s detailed compelling dissent almost guarantees that the High Court will be asked to re-examine this case. This massive dissent is expected to become a guide for any special­ leave application. Even if special leave is refused by the High Court, Weinberg’s rejection of much of the prosecution’s case is set to ensure the community’s deep divisions over this cleric are unlikely to be healed....

It is 9am Australian Eastern Standard Time on the 21st August 2019. In approximately 30 minutes, the Victorian Court of Appeal will hand down its verdict in the appeal of Catholic Cardinal George Pell against his conviction for historical child sexual abuse. There has been considerable discussion on this on FR and elsewhere as a significant number of people believe there has been a miscarriage of justice in this case for various reasons. I will be monitoring various Australian media as the verdict is delivered and thought I would post here to keep people informed and updated.

A mystery brunette seen with Prince Andrew in a bombshell video shot at Jeffrey Epstein's New York mansion in December 2010 is Katherine Keating, the daughter of former Australian prime minister Paul Keating, her friends have told DailyMail.com. Keating, now 37, is the woman pictured leaving the Manhattan townhouse and being waved at by Prince Andrew nine years ago. A second photograph obtained by DailyMail.com showed her just minutes after leaving the apartment, standing on the corner of E71st Street and 5th Avenue. Her father Paul Keating's secretary told DailyMail.com he was 'aware of what the enquiry was about, but...