Free Republic

America’s war on Iran has revealed much about its allies. Israel is as steadfast as ever, as secretary of war Pete Hegseth pointed out on Monday. Australia and Canada have also made clear their unequivocal support for the military action. In Europe, however, the response has been lackluster. Hegseth regretted the faintheartedness of “traditional partners who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, humming and hawing about the use of force.” ... The timidity of Europeans towards regime change in Iran is in stark contrast to their aggressive attitude towards regime change in Russia. Last year Von der Leyen called...

Sir Keir Starmer has told MPs that the government "does not believe in regime change from the skies", putting him at odds with President Trump over the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran. In his first statement to Parliament since the strikes, Sir Keir defended his decision not to permit the use of UK bases for the initial wave of attacks. "President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain's national interest," he told MPs.

Police in Queensland, Australia, have charged a 32-year-old man with a hate crime after he allegedly drove into the entrance gates of Brisbane’s largest synagogue on Saturday. According to authorities, security footage shows the vehicle reversing into the synagogue’s gates, knocking them down before the driver sped away. No injuries were reported in the incident. The charge comes amid heightened tensions following last month’s deadly attack at Bondi Beach during Hanukkah. In response to that massacre, in which 15 people were killed and 29 others injured, including two police officers, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the creation of a state...

Drew Pavlou has taken to social media to accuse popular musician Billie Eilish of getting him deported from the US. It comes after the ‘Birds of a Feather’ singer declared “no one is illegal on stolen land” at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony — a swipe at the ICE raids happening across the US. Controversial, Brisbane-born activist Mr Pavlou then launched a campaign to “move into” the 24-year-old’s Los Angeles mansion because “no human being is illegal on stolen land”.

A poll shows that around 40% of under-40s across Britain would refuse to serve in the armed forces if WW3 broke out. Meanwhile, 30% said they would still refuse to serve even if the nation was facing an imminent invasion. Experts across the world believe we've never been closer to a global conflict since the end of WW2 as tensions mount over Iran, Greenland, Venezuela, Israel and Palestine, and Russia and Ukraine.The UK recently raised the age limit for Army reservists from 55 to 65, a clear signal of its preparation for conflict. However, a 2024 YouGov poll shows that...

Authorities have released the audio of an emergency call made by a 13-year-old boy who swam for hours to save his family after they were swept out to sea. Austin Appelbee, his mother, brother and sister, from Perth, were on an inflatable kayak and paddleboards when they got into difficulty off the west coast of Western Australia. Mum Joanne Appelbee, 47, asked her son to swim around 4km (2.5miles) to shore - where he then ran 2km to find a phone he could use to call the emergency services. With Ms Appelbee's permission, the Western Australia Police Force has released...

An Australian man launched a crowdfunding campaign to fly to the US and move into Billie Eilish’s $3 million Los Angeles mansion following her “no one is illegal on stolen land” rant at the Grammy Awards. Drew Pavlou, a 24-year-old political activist and influencer, called out Eilish’s alleged virtue signaling in her anti-ICE remarks after she won Song of the Year at the 68th annual award show. “I am flying to the USA next Friday to attempt to move into Billie Eilish’s beachside Malibu mansion,” Pavlou wrote on X on Monday, sharing a link to the now-defunct GoFundMe. “No human...

Across advanced economies, the rental market is undergoing a profound change. In the years before covid-19 struck, rents were high but not growing fast: the cost of leasing a home rose by about 2% a year, according to official data. During the pandemic, rental inflation slowed and, in some cities, rents fell as landlords desperately looked for tenants. Today it is a different story. Rich-world rents are growing at an annual pace of 5% or so, the fastest sustained increase in decades—presenting a huge challenge for the quarter of rich-world households that rent. In some places, rental markets have gone...

As Prime Minister Mark Carney emphasizes national unity, separatist sentiment is gaining renewed attention in more than one part of the country. In the small central Alberta town of Innisfail, the quiet of Main Street contrasts sharply with the intensity of opinions surrounding the issue. Jeff Olson, owner of Innisfail Bowling and Entertainment, says he is fully behind separation, arguing Ottawa has long treated Alberta unfairly. “The job of the West is to keep the East prosperous. They’ve made that very clear,” Olson said. “We have taxation without representation. It’s getting to a point where the government is spending more...

Donald J. Trump Truth Social Post 06:29 PM EST 01.29.26 Based on the fact that Canada has wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Jets, one of the greatest, most technologically advanced airplanes ever made, we are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all Aircraft made in Canada, until such time as Gulfstream, a Great American Company, is fully certified, as it should have been many years ago. Further, Canada is effectively prohibiting the sale of Gulfstream products in Canada through this very same certification process. If, for any reason, this situation...

Bounties as high as $100,000 are being offered to contract killers for the murder of dozens of Israeli researchers, including some in the US, on the website of a hateful anti-Zionist group. “The Punishment for Justice Movement” website offers between $50,000 for murdering one of the Jewish academics listed — and twice that amount for the killing of “special targets” — claiming the high-achieving researchers are complicit in child murder. Home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and social media accounts were listed for at least 40 academics, according to The Jerusalem Post. The website offered a $2,000 USD as reward...

Donald Trump’s strangely artificial Board of Peace event in Davos on Thursday looked like a Hollywood rendering of an international summit. Everything was too slick, faintly uncanny. Like an AI-generated image, it was photo-real yet failed the most basic human glance test. Too perfect. No wabi-sabi. The first tell was visual: the set, complete with a crisp new institutional logo: a globe on a shield, flanked by olive branches. It carried the unmistakable whiff of Grok or ChatGPT, but the strangeness went deeper than design. The speeches themselves were weirdly messianic and utopian. The most peculiar part was the show-within-a-show:...

Australia’s most prominent neo-Nazi organisation has announced it will disband ahead of sweeping federal laws coming into effect - but not without taking a parting shot at the government.

All week, Iranians have been mounting massive and widespread street protests. … These demonstrations have been far more consequential than previous such revolts. ... Even more remarkably, a number of bases for the fearsome Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij militia reportedly fell into the hands of protesters, with one Basij operative killed after demonstrators threw stones in Kuhdasht, a city in western Iran. At time of writing, this insurrection is still escalating. Although at least four protesters have been killed, the feared bloodbath by security forces hasn’t yet materialized. ... [If] this revolt ... succeed[s], this ... would...

Australia has activated a new requirement for search engines to verify the ages of their signed-in users, with companies now facing a six-month countdown to full compliance. The rule, which began on December 27, sits within a newly registered industry code under the authority of the eSafety Commissioner and extends the country’s expanding system of online content controls. Search services such as Google and Bing must soon introduce age-assurance checks when logged-in users perform searches that might surface adult or otherwise “high-impact” material. The mechanisms vary, but common approaches include prompting users to confirm their age through a pop-up screen...

One Australian politician has said the quiet part out loud It’s not often the Premier of New South Wales says something that changes the political debate in the UK and elsewhere, but so it is this week. Following the awful carnage on Bondi Beach, NSW Premier Chris Minns gave a press conference about new legal restrictions on speech, and said this: “I acknowledge that we don’t have the same free speech rules that they have in the United States and I make no apologies for that, we have got a responsibility to knit together our community, that comes from different...

A group of Western and allied states issued a joint statement condemning the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of 19 new communities in Judea and Samaria, stating that the move was "part of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank." The statement, issued by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom, described the decision as a unilateral action and claimed that such steps "not only violate international law but also risk fueling instability." According to the statement, the decision risks undermining "the implementation of the Comprehensive...

Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, and Chairman of The Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors, Mark Wilf, have sent a strongly worded letter to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese following the deadly terrorist attack at the Sydney Jewish community’s Hanukkah celebrations. In the letter, the leaders of The Jewish Agency called on the government of Australia to act decisively to eradicate antisemitism through education, legislation, and law enforcement. They expressed their deep condolences to the Jewish community in Australia and to the Australian people, emphasizing that their hearts are with the...

..... Patrick, who has written five other books, says Masters’ 2017 book on the SAS, No Front Line, includes only a single paragraph about the storming of the Taliban-held mosque for which Roberts-Smith received the VC and only a single sentence mentioning Roberts-Smith. Yet Patrick argues this action is probably the high point of the entire war for Australia. The award of a Battle Honour Citation for the entire Special Operations Task Group Rotation 12 for “extraordinary heroism and combat excellence”, the first such award since Vietnam, suggests Patrick is correct. ..... Patrick condemns all war crimes but believes people...

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has erupted at the nation’s leaders over the Bondi terror attack, reiterating her longstanding warnings about mass immigration, Islam, and multiculturalism. Speaking today, the 71-year-old said Australians who continue to vote for major parties should expect “what we’re going to get”. Ms Hanson said the violence reflected a broader breakdown in social cohesion and national identity, which she blamed on immigration policy and political leadership. “(If) you keep voting for these bastards who actually don’t have pride for our country, Australia, our flag, then be prepared to get what we’re going to get,” Hanson said....