Free Republic

It’s an ominous scene. A warehouse crammed with books set to be sliced open, scanned and then pulped by an AI lab. Australia is fighting back. If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines. Artificial intelligence labs are in a new arms race to buy up millions of rare books, slicing them open, scanning the pages and pulping the remains — sparking concerns that the last remaining copies of out-of-print texts are being destroyed on an industrial scale....

A new long-range airliner soared high over California on Monday before finally touching down in France on Tuesday morning after flying for more than 24 hours straight from Australia, Qantas Airways announced. Built for the carrier’s Project Sunrise, the cutting-edge Airbus A350-1000 is designed to fly passengers nonstop from the east coast of Australia to London and New York — a “world first,” according to the company. Per public flight records, the aircraft departed from Melbourne at 5:30 p.m. on Monday and passed directly over Los Angeles and Las Vegas on Monday afternoon after crossing the international date line. It...

Mass immigration doesn’t stand alone. Instead, Western governments, including ours, have much grander plans for the end of nations. One of the greater mysteries of our century may be why governments across much of Europe, North America, and even Australia adopted remarkably similar immigration policies seemingly at the same time. It is difficult to believe this happened by chance. And unlike Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand, which explains how complex order can arise without central direction, mass migration appears less like an organic historical development than a remarkably coordinated political calculus. There are many explanations; some point to economics, others to...

A teenage schoolgirl unwittingly exposed what has been described as the "world's worst inbred family" when she casually told her classmate: "My sister is pregnant and we don't know which of my brothers is the father." The disturbing comment was overheard by another student, who promptly informed a teacher of what she had inadvertently heard. It was rare for any children from the family to attend school, as they frequently relocated to different parts of Australia to evade scrutiny. However, on one of the rare occasions a child did attend, the teacher reported the student's account to Australian authorities —...

After Muslim medical personnel were caught on camera threatening to kill Jewish patients in Australia, a judge issued a ‘secret order’ protecting them and refusing to accept the evidence. “You have no idea how many Israeli dog came to this hospital and I,” Rashad says before making a throat-cutting gesture. “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.” After the Muslim terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, attack victims had their names hidden so Muslim nurses wouldn’t cause them harm. She was struck in the head by shrapnel and began bleeding heavily before she was admitted to Liverpool Hospital under her...

Jewish Mother Left Lying in a Pool of Blood Beside Her Newborn: Severe Antisemitism Exposed in Australia's Healthcare System. A major investigation reveals a disturbing pattern of hostility toward Jews in Australian hospitals and clinics since the October 7 attacks. It documents doctors spreading Hamas messaging, Holocaust denial in intensive care units, and serious allegations of abuse against Jewish patients and healthcare workers. "Patients began hiding their identity" N12:07.12.26. Women who say medical staff endangered their lives, a new mother allegedly left lying in her own blood after a C-section, and the mistreatment of an elderly Jewish patient in the...

Acclaimed actor Sam Neill has died, aged 78, surrounded by family in Sydney. Neill’s death was sudden and unexpected after he was declared cancer free following an illness. “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing,” the family said in a social media post on Monday. “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.”

Florida millionaire wooed bestselling author before allegedly forcing her into cuckolding fantasy with black men who he paid 'reparations': Litany of claims detail degrading sexual abuse It was supposed to be the dating app where the rich met their equals. Millionaire Match promises to connect wealthy, successful singles looking for partners who share their ambition, lifestyle and bank balance – a kind of Tinder for the one percent. For Australian bestselling author Hacia Atherton, 38, it appeared to deliver exactly that. Her match with millionaire Florida businessman and retired pilot Paul Vitale, 69, quickly blossomed into a glamorous long-distance romance...

I admit that this surprised me too. No matter how much one distrusts media narratives, they shape our perceptions until something breaks the bubble and makes you question the basic assumptions that inform your worldview. What choice do we have? We can't go down every rabbit hole to ferret out the truth. We have to pick and choose our battles, after all. So it's good to have a reminder to remain skeptical in all things, especially when some interest or political agenda is involved. A case in point: the story we are told about crime rates in the United States...

Conventional wisdom holds that the United States is the most violent and dangerous nation in the developed world. This dark view is frequently invoked by conservatives to demand stronger penalties for crimes and by progressives to argue for stronger gun laws. At the same time, other nations point to crime as an Achilles heel of the American system. These include two peer nations with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world – Australia and Canada. In 2025, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that “the U.S. generally sees higher violent crime rates than many other countries.” Last year,...

New similarities have emerged between the Thai teenager whose body was found in a suitcase and two cold case murders involving women who suffered the same fate. Tunchanok Donhomla, 17, was allegedly beaten and strangled before her body was hidden in the black 74cm suitcase dumped near railtracks on the outskirts of Pattaya, eastern Thailand, last Friday. Simon Carman, 45, was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport on Friday as he tried to board a Perth flight back to Australia. He has been charged with murder and remains in police custody. Police are still waiting for the autopsy report, but...

An Australian man has been arrested over the murder of a teenage girl whose naked body was found inside a suitcase alongside a railway line in Thailand. The 46-year-old man, from Ballarat, Victoria, was arrested for the murder of 17-year-old Thai girl Tunchanok Donhomla as he allegedly tried to board a plane at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok on Friday evening, local media reports. His arms and neck were allegedly covered in scratch marks at the time of his arrest. According to local media, the man allegedly picked up the teenager from the Beach Road vice strip in Pattaya...

They did it! The USMNT (United States Men's National Team) has won back-to-back contests in its first two matches in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with a victory on Friday handing the Aussies' Socceroos team a giant goose egg, 2-0, in Seattle. And even more dramatically, they did it without star forward Christian Pulisic.The U.S. national soccer team advanced to the knockout round at the World Cup despite the absence of injured forward Christian Pulisic, beating Australia 2-0 on Friday....Alex Freeman, the youngest player on the [U.S.] team at 21 and son of Super Bowl champion Antonio Freeman, gave the...

IT’S TRUE! Steak’n Shake Offering 20 Cent Shakes on Saturday If US Soccer Beats Australia! Steak’n Shake is doubling down on Team America. VIDEOS AT LINK................... What a great company – support your local Steak’N Shake! They did the same last weekend after the US’s win over Paraguay. This company is all in for RFK Jr. and MAHA! On our MAHA journey, we have introduced the following: 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef ✅ 100% beef tallow fries ✅ 100% beef tallow tots ✅ Grade A Wisconsin butter ✅ A2 whole milk ✅ Cane-sugar Coca-Cola ✅ Elimination of all microwaves ✅ And...

Australia's wealthiest person, mining baron Gina Rinehart, has taken a stake of more than $1 billion in the record-setting $75 billion SpaceX (SPCX.O), the Wall Street Journal reported on ​Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter... Hancock is a significant investor in ‌a swathe ⁠of rare earths companies including U.S.-based MP Materials, and Rare Earths Americas (REA.A), and Australia's Lynas Rare Earths (LYC.AX), as well as lithium producer Liontown Resources (LTR.AX), among many others. It bulked up its defence, gold and rare-earths holdings in its $3.3 billion U.S. portfolio this year, filings showed last month... While commending Musk's entrepreneurial...

In an unprecedented move, 22 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia, issued a joint statement condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran for what they called “hostile actions and extraterritorial operations against individuals on the soil of other countries,” and demanded the immediate cessation of such actions. In the statement, published on Thursday, June 11, the Islamic Republic’s security services were accused of using local and international criminal networks to carry out assassination plots, kidnappings, intimidation, and harassment against dissidents, journalists, and citizens in Europe, North America, and Oceania. The signatories emphasized that attempts...

Australia's economic slowdown is just beginning, economists warn, as interest rate rises and cost-of-living pressures weigh on households.The economy grew just 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed on Wednesday, but the figures only captured the first month of the Middle East war.

... nations failed to establish or effectively enforce comprehensive legal prohibitions against importing goods produced wholly or partly through forced labour.While a subset of countries — including Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the European Union — will see 10% tariffs imposed due to specific enforcement failures, Australia has been grouped with jurisdictions like China and India under the higher 12.5% tariff bracket...

Australian beef exports to China could be hit with a 55 per cent tariff within days. Earlier this year, Beijing announced a quota on Australian beef of 205,000 tonnes a year...

A senior police officer has praised the “impressive” efforts of an elderly man who shot an alleged intruder after he and his wife were stabbed at their rural NSW home. Police allege the 75-year-old man and 72-year-old woman, identified as Keith and Dianne Blessing, were attacked by a knife-wielding man in their home at Torrington, a small village in northern NSW, just after midnight on Thursday. Ms Blessing “collapsed with a chest wound” while her husband was slashed across his abdomen, police say. Mr Blessing called triple-0 as their alleged attacker retreated onto the home’s veranda. The alleged attacker can...