Free Republic

"Anybody who knows anything about that case and believes that Assange should still be in prison is your enemy, by the way, and the enemy of human freedom and flourishing." Carlson didn't hold back, calling it "monstrous" that Assange spent twelve years locked away for exposing other people's crimes. "Typically, the guy who discovers the crime doesn’t go to jail. It's the guy who commits the crime that goes to jail, and that's been inverted in his case." Assange was never charged with a crime in Great Britain, yet he was nearly tortured to death in Belmarsh prison for over...

Jack Black’s band Tenacious D has cancelled its upcoming gig after United Australia Senator Ralph Babet demanded the band be deported from Australia over an "evil" joke band member Kyle Gass made about the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. Gass made the controversial comment during a concert in Sydney on Sunday night which coincided with his 64th birthday. After a cake was brought out for the musician as Black sang ‘Happy Birthday’, Gass was asked to make a wish when he jokingly replied “Don’t miss Trump next time” to shocked laughter and applause. The rockstar’s comment appeared on...

Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger says Donald Trump has picked the “future of the Republican Party” after selecting JD Vance to be his running mate in this year’s presidential election. “He’s picked someone who can be the presidential candidate in 2028 when I’m not sure the others could have been as powerful as Vance,” he told Sky News Australia. “So, he’s picked someone for the future.”

A boat carrying nine Chinese nationals was turned back by Australian Border Force officials forcing the passengers to return to their point of departure in Indonesia. The human cargo of intended illegal immigrants were found by fishermen off Southern Java after claiming they were denied landing and forced back by Australian authorities, the Sydney Daily Telegraph reports. The Chinese passengers, along with three Indonesian crew members, were sent back to the port town of Pelabuhan Ratu as part of Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders which officially enforces a “turn back the boats” policy without exception.

Lawmakers in the Australian state of Queensland have introduced legislation “to provide stronger protections for trans, gender diverse and intersex people.” At the end of April the state’s discrimination laws will be changed so that LGBTQI+ claimants will be offered a host of protections shielding them from “discrimination and vilification” while “intersex people” can similarly expect to be treated differently and afforded protection. A press release from the Queensland Human Rights Commission has set out the changes, detailing the following provisions: Protections against gender identity discrimination and vilification have been in place since 2002 but now the law will be...

Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) is facing a lawsuit for exhibiting an artist’s Ladies Lounge installation that only allows women to enter the installation. The installation by Kirsha Kaechele refers to a moment in Australian history before women won the right to drink in the nation’s pubs in 1965. Until then, women were either relegated to side rooms, where they were charged exorbitantly, or barred from these kinds of establishments altogether. Intended to point out the hypocrisy, the Mona installation offers an opulent retreat for female guests only with champagne served by male butlers. The exhibition also...

Kung Fu Panda star Jack Black’s band Tenacious D mocked Donald Trump just one day after the former president was struck by but survived an assassin’s bullet, with a band member shouting “don’t miss Trump next time” during a performance on Sunday. Tenacious D was performing in Sydney, Australia, when the tasteless comment was made from the stage, according to video from Sunday’s concert. It remains unclear which band member made the remark, though some reports identified the speaker as bandmember Kyle Gass. Expressing a wish for the death of a U.S. president is a federal crime.

Jack Black's "Tenacious D" bandmate Kyle Gass made a "joke" about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a concert in Sydney on Sunday. Yahoo News reports: "Black is seen presenting his Tenacious D band member Kyle Gass with a birthday cake during their performance at the ICC Sydney Theatre... 'Make a wish,' he urges, with Gass then seen blowing out the candles and says in a hushed tone, 'Don’t miss Trump next time' -- causing the crowd to erupt. While some are heard laughing and clapping, others are less impressed." Jack Black appeared at a Hollywood fundraiser for President...

I thought some people might find the front pages of all of Australia's major newspapers interesting today. Descriptions in brackets are my personal assessments of their general slants.I have to say, I am rather surprised to see a lot of this coverage, especially from the left-wing papers.National PapersThe Australian (broadly conservative)The Guardian ('progressive' - actually an Australian edition of a British based paper)New South WalesDaily Telegraph (broadly conservative)Sydney Morning Herald (left-wing)VictoriaHerald Sun (broadly conservative)The Age (left-wing)QueenslandCourier Mail (centrist)South AustraliaAdelaide Advertiser (centrist)Western AustraliaThe West Australian (centre-left)Australian Capital TerritoryThe Canberra Times (left-wing)

Have the greenies ever heard of these crazy things called trees? First, the story, from a report out at The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday: In May this year, on the flat plains of an Icelandic geothermal reserve, a gigantic vacuum cleaner designed to suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the sky was switched on. The machine, called Mammoth, would not be entirely out of place on a Mad Max set. It will soon start extracting up to 36,000 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere a year to be fossilised, locking it safely and permanently underground. And, here’s some context, from...

An Australian who travelled around the country asking other Aussies if they would fight to defend the nation has received some surprisingly mixed answers. Surfer and journalist Fred Pawle took his camera and mic to locations including the NSW Central Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Byron Bay, the Gold Coast and Brisbane in recent weeks posing the question to people on the street. 'My initial motivation was whether you would be able to judge the responses based on where you live, so which areas would be more or less likely to defend the country,' Mr Pawle told Daily Mail Australia. He said...

(JTA) — SYDNEY — The shaming of hundreds of Australian Jewish creatives played out very much in public, with names and photos and threats, at least one targeting a child. Now, months later, it lingers in silences — friends unfollowed, musicians quieted, colleagues ducked.In February, a number of prominent Jews who had expressed anguish over Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre had their personal information outed by pro-Palestinian activists in a doxxing incident that stunned the country. The “Zio600” list was meant to isolate “Zionists,” ostensibly in retribution for threats to the careers of Israel’s critics.The subsequent harassment and isolation of those...

The Chinese grab dredge that desecrated the wrecks of two famous WWII warships off Malaysia has run into trouble with the law once more. The notorious Chuan Hong 68 has been detained by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) again, this time over paperwork violations. Last year, Malaysian authorities detained Chuan Hong 68 off Johor for allegedly crushing and removing the wreckage of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse, which were sunk by Japanese forces during the invasion of the Malay .Peninsula in December 1941. Both are protected war graves. In May 2023, local...

The current Lawfare persecution of President Trump is not the first recent instance of a good man being done over by leftist usurpation of Western justice. Cardinal George Pell was falsely imprisoned on the testimony of one disturbed young man for an alleged sex crime supposedly committed when about twenty witnesses said that George Pell was actually in front of his church greeting parishioners after a mass. The High Court Of Australia overturned the conviction 7-0. This 78 year old man of God spent 13 months in prison. To Australia's eternal shame.

[Catholic Caucus] Unhinged Miscreants Desecrated the Body of Cardinal PellIt was appalling to learn that a person or persons unknown desecrated the body of Cardinal George Pell before it was returned to Australia. We are told that this happened after the autopsy, that his body was inadequately embalmed, that he was left undressed and that his nose had been broken. This indicates a level of vindictiveness that is hard to fathom, and shows how little regard the perpetrators had for Pell’s family: the ones most affected by this sad event. One can only wonder at the motive: a true Christian...

People living in southern Australia won’t have failed to notice how cold it is. Frosty nights and chilly days have been the weather for many of us since the start of July. As winter continues, we are left wondering how unusual the cold is and whether we can expect several more months of this. Warmer conditions are in the forecast but winter has a long way to go. Further cold snaps could occur. Cold conditions have been in place across southern Australia for the past few days. Temperatures have fallen below zero overnight in many places.

Sky News host Danica De Giorgio says US President Joe Biden “mistook” July 4 for Christmas. Joe Biden addressed an audience of people on July 4 by saying ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’. Ms De Giorgio said the US president has “really lost it”.

When Fatima Payman crossed the Senate floor to vote against her government she knew it would come with consequences. The Australian Labor party has strict penalties for those who undermine its collective positions, and acts of defiance can lead to expulsion - a precedent with a 130-year history. The last time one of its politicians tested the waters while in power was before Ms Payman was born. But last Tuesday, the 29-year-old did just that - joining the Green party and independent senators to support a motion on Palestinian statehood. Officially the Australian government supports a two-state solution, but did...

Tucker Carlson speaks Down Under from Sydney, Australia, and reacts to the recent U.S. presidential debate.

Tucker Carlson speaks Down Under from Canberra and assesses Julian Assange's release. We also answer questions from an adversarial press corps.