Free Republic

When Stephen Scheeler became Facebook's Australia chief in the early 2010s, he was a true believer in the power of the internet, and social media, for public good. It would herald a new era of global connection and democratise learning. It would let users build their own public squares without the traditional gatekeepers. "There was that heady optimism phase when I first joined and I think a lot of the world shared that," he told the BBC. But by the time he left the firm in 2017, seeds of doubt about its work had been planted, and they've since bloomed....

"Meaningful action must accompany any apology," wrote Pearce, who is now stepping away from social mediaGuy Pearce has apologised for sharing “misinformation and falsehoods” about Israel on social media whilst publicly voicing support for Palestine. “It has been brought to my attention that, in my support of Palestine, I have inadvertently re-posted articles, and/or statements, that have contained misinformation and falsehoods,” Pearce told Jewish News, per Variety. “I am aware how sharing inaccurate content can cause confusion and distress; for this I am deeply sorry. I will certainly endeavour to be more diligent in future to verify anything I share...

I didn’t grow up with Thanksgiving. I grew up in Australia, a place that prides itself on being relaxed and irreverent, where national icons range from crocodile wrestlers to movie stars with casual, sun-soaked charisma.Our culture is fun-loving and independent, summed up in the phrase, “she’ll be right, mate.” It means: don’t fuss, don’t interfere, everyone handles their own problems. It isn’t unkindness; it’s distance. You stay in your lane; others stay in theirs.Thanksgiving wasn’t part of my world. What I grew up with was a steady, unquestioned criticism of Americans. In art school in Sydney, we were encouraged to...

A shark killed a woman and seriously wounded a man taking an early morning swim with her at a national park beach on Australia’s east coast Thursday, police said. Experts say a shark rarely attacks more than one person. The attack occurred at Crowdy Bay National Park, which is known for beach camping, fishing spots and hiking tracks 224 miles north of Sydney. Beaches in the area and to the north of the attack were closed to swimmers indefinitely, Police Chief Insp. Timothy Bayly said. Emergency services were called to Kylies Beach following reports that two people in their mid-20s...

As AC/DC launched their Australian tour in Melbourne on Wednesday, hundreds of bagpipers assembled in record-breaking droves in the nearby Federation Square to play the band's classic song "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)." The gathering drew 374 bagpipers, breaking the world record previously set in 2012 by 333 pipers in Bulgaria, the Associated Press reports. The oldest confirmed piper was 98 years old. You can see photos and video from the record-breaking gathering, dubbed "The Great Melbourne Bagpipe Bash," below. Why Was the Location of 'The Great Melbourne Bagpipe Bash' Important? Federation...

According to an ABC News Australia report, a new study of a cut mark in the bone of a giant kangaroo recovered from southwestern Australia’s Mammoth Cave suggests that the cut was made after the bone had fossilized. Mike Archer of the University of New South Wales once thought the cut mark was evidence that humans living in Sahul, a paleocontinent made up of what are now Tasmania, Australia, and New Guinea, contributed to the extinction of many species of megafauna some 40,000 years ago. "We were convinced that humans…were trying to cut the bone open to get, perhaps, marrow,"...

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A prisoner is challenging an Australian state’s ban on inmates eating Vegemite, claiming in a lawsuit that withholding the polarizing yeast-based spread breaches his human right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian.” Andre McKechnie, 54, serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of Victoria, according to documents released to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Having a cat as a pet could potentially double a person's risk of schizophrenia-related conditions, according to an analysis of 17 studies. Psychiatrist John McGrath and colleagues at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research in Australia looked at papers published over the last 44 years in 11 countries, including the US and the UK. Their 2023 study found "a significant positive association between broadly defined cat ownership and an increased risk of schizophrenia-related disorders."

The Liberals are no closer to resolving internal divisions despite frontbenchers getting set to agree on dumping net-zero policy. An announcement of dumping the policy, extending coal-fired power and embracing nuclear is expected to follow shortly after the party's shadow cabinet convenes in Canberra on Thursday. The decision follows a five-hour meeting between all 51 Liberal MPs and senators, where a majority spoke in favour of ditching Australia's goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, according to people in the room. Championed by the ascendant conservative faction, the party's climate shift is a blow for Liberal moderates who see their chances...

Leaders and activists say they are feeling the weight of the moment, after Australia's first treaty with Aboriginal people was signed and formalised as law today. Victoria's treaty has become Australia's first modern treaty agreement with the country's Indigenous owners, in a move labelled "historic" by the United Nations human rights chief. Yiman and Ghangulu man man Mick Gooda, who has spent decades advocating for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, said he was "so happy and pleased" for the people of Victoria. Indigenous man wearing a navy shirt and glasses. Mick Gooda says the Victorian treaty...

Teachers at nine high schools in northeastern Australia discovered days before an ancient history exam that they had mistakenly taught their students about the wrong Roman ruler — Augustus Caesar instead of his predecessor, Julius Caesar. The students in Queensland ended up being exempt from the statewide exam on Wednesday while Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said he would investigate the mix-up, describing the experience for the students as "extremely traumatic." Since the error in the curriculum was discovered on Monday, schools applied — and were granted — an exemption from the exam for their students, even as panicked high schoolers...

5:13 Video of people from the UK who have traveled to America are shocked and surprised that we are not savages and are actually a welcoming people..............

Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A pair of reptile wranglers in Australia came to the rescue of a yellow-tailed whip snake that found its way into a resident's backyard swimming pool and was unable to slither out. Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 said on social media that Stuart McKenzie and another rescuer, named Howdy, responded to a Coolum property where a snake was spotted in a pool.

Dream Defenders, the main group that has been agitating the protest movement surrounding the Trayvon Martin case, was spawned by activists employed by a who’s who of the race-hijacking radical left. From the socialist-oriented SEIU union to ACORN to Occupy to a litany of George Soros-funded organizations, the deep connections behind Dream Defenders raises questions about the motivation of an organization that claims to be a grassroots effort working to oppose racism. Dream Defenders has been leading Martin protests since the onset and has been credited with agitating for George Zimmerman’s arrest. The group was behind the protests that blockaded...

Missing a boarding time for a cruise ship could end up fatal. An 80-year-old Australian woman was discovered dead on a remote island after she was left behind by the cruise ship she was traveling on. The woman was hiking on Lizard Island with a group of other passengers, but was separated from the group after she decided to take some time to rest. The Coral Adventurer cruise ship ended up leaving the woman on the island, but returned several hours later to find her after she was discovered not to be on board. On Sunday, she was discovered dead....

Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A message in a bottle found during a beach clean-up in Australia turned out to contain letters from two World War I soldiers who launched their bottle 109 years earlier. Debra Brown said she and her family were cleaning up along the shoreline in Wharton Beach when her daughter found a bottle containing letters from Malcolm Alexander Neville and William Kirk Harley, soldiers serving in World War I in 1916. Neville's letter showed he came from Wilkawatt, South Australia, and Brown was able to use Facebook to contact Herbie Neville, the soldier's great nephew. The elder...

This may offer some insight into why the UK government is inviting in so many Muslims, and doing everything it can to appease and accommodate them, even to the extent of letting Muslim rape gangs run wild for years, with British authorities too afraid of being called “racist” and “Islamophobic” to do anything about: key members of the British political elite, including Prince Charles, don’t find the Islamic supremacist world view, particularly in its hatred of and paranoia toward Jews, all that different from its own.“Prince Charles blames ‘foreign Jews’ for Middle East turmoil in 1986 letter,” by Chantal Da...

On 6 September 2025, two boys aged twelve and fifteen were walking home from basketball practice in Cobblebank, an outer suburb of Melbourne, when they were chased and set upon by a group of assailants who then hacked them to death with machetes. Seven teenagers have since been arrested and charged with murder. This double murder has become a flashpoint in the city’s ongoing crimewave. A surge in violent crime and property crime is afflicting the city, still regularly (but less credibly) listed among the world’s most liveable. The Melbourne crimewave is the most visible manifestation of endemic disorder created...

The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs. The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts. TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to America, who trash talked Trump in the past found himself getting some payback in the Oval Office duding the US/Australia meeting. Not a great idea to get into fights with Trump, Chuckle.