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A former Australian prime minister has warned the government to expect a negative reaction from Indonesia if Australia follows the United States by shifting its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke to reporters after meeting Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on the tourist island of Bali on Monday to discuss a bilateral free trade deal. “The president expressed to me ... the very serious concern held in Indonesia about the prospect of the Australian Embassy in Israel being moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Turnbull told Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview...

Scott Morrison, the Australian treasurer who on Friday became his country's newest prime minister, is reported to be an evangelical Christian who voted against gay marriage. Morrison won an internal ballot, 45-40, in the Liberal party, forcing moderate Malcolm Turnbull out amid political turmoil in the country. He attends Horizon Church, a Pentecostal megachurch in Sutherland, and lists "church" as one of his interests. Nick Bryant, a journalist and expert on Australian politics, told CNN that Morrison met his future wife, Jenny, at church when he was 12 years old. Their current church is said to have close ties to...

Devotion to the global warming fraud has driven from office the head of government of a major democracy. Facing a no confidence vote from the Liberal Party (which is actually what passes for a conservative party in Australia – the Labor Party is the leftist party Down Under), Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull resigned. Turnbull had lost 40 to 45 what the Aussies call a "spill motion" to short-circuit a leadership ballot in the party.  The party then chose Scott Morrison as new party leader and therefore prime minister in their coalition with the National Party, which holds 16 seats and represents rural areas.  ...

Its Tuesday in Australia where Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull survived a vote of confidence as Liberal Party caucus met just 24 hours after Turnbull backed down on part of an energy policy he announced last week. Turnbull abandoned a plan setting targets for carbon emissions opposed by many caucus members. The Liberal Party has also been reeling from defeats in recent by-elections for lower house seats in Parliament. Mr. Turnbull was able to survive a challenge from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton winning 48-35 in the caucus meeting. A win for Turnbull but a narrow one in the context of...

Facing a serious threat to his leadership of the Liberal Party in Australia, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has scrapped his plans to set emissions targets in his signature energy policy.  The emissions targets have generated large-scale opposition in his party and rather than test his strength in a parliamentary vote, Turnbull has dropped the policy altogether. BBC: Down in the polls and desperate to hold on to his position, Malcolm Turnbull knows a leadership challenge could be near. After all, it's only three years since he launched his own "spill" to oust former prime minister Tony Abbott. Once a leader looks...

Here's what you need to know: * The PM has abandoned the emissions reduction target section of his National Energy Guarantee * Cabinet ministers have openly admitted this morning they were facing an outbreak of disunity within the party over energy * It's been suggested the Coalition's Longman by-election loss sparked a push for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to challenge Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's leadership * The PM says Mr Dutton has given him "his absolute support" and Cabinet ministers maintain Mr Turnbull has the confidence of the party

"As a gurantor of this de-escalaltion area with Russia and Jordan, the United States will take firm and appropriate measures in response to Assad regime violations" Heather Nauert of the US State Department speaks late Friday 5/25/2018 With the Syrian regime dropping leaflets in southwestern Syria near the Golan Heights and Jordan urging rebel-jihadist forces to disarm and with the expectation of Syrian government military action in the region, the United States has begun to cry foul. This going into a weekend statement reminds me of what President Trump did earlier this year when he discussed Syria on a Friday...

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull says US President Donald Trump “absolutely” deserves credit for bringing about historic talks between the leaders of North and South Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have engaged in a historic meeting in the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, seeking an agreement to establish peace on the peninsula. “I’ve given him that credit because Donald Trump has taken a very, very strong, hard line on the denuclearisation issue and he has been able to bring in the support of the global community and, in particular, China,” Mr Turnbull told...

The UN Security Council is struggling to agree a resolution seeking a ceasefire in Syria and has put back a vote until Saturday. The vote has already been delayed several times since Thursday. Russia wanted changes to the draft that calls for a 30-day calm to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations. Western diplomats have accused Russia, Syria's key ally, of stalling for more time. France said failure to act may spell the of the UN itself...... Commenting on Friday evening, US President Donald Trump pointed the finger of blame firmly at Syria and its allies, Russia and Iran,...

When Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull arrives in Washington this week for consultations with President Donald Trump, he won’t be traveling solo. Turnbull is bringing the most senior Australian political and business delegation ever to visit the United States in a trip aimed at building stronger relationships with America’s governors. While he’ll talk trade and security concerns with Trump, Turnbull will spend the weekend courting U.S. governors at their annual gathering. Turnbull, a Goldman Sachs executive-turned prime minister, is the latest world leader to extend outreach to U.S. governors and big-city mayors in the age of Trump’s “America First” policies....

<p>It should have been one of the most congenial calls for the new commander in chief — a conversation with the leader of Australia, one of America’s staunchest allies, at the end of a triumphant week.</p> <p>Instead, President Trump blasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a refu­gee agreement and boasted about the magnitude of his electoral college win, according to senior U.S. officials briefed on the Saturday exchange. Then, 25 minutes into what was expected to be an hour-long call, Trump abruptly ended it.</p>

Australia’s opposition leader conceded defeat on Sunday in a chaotic national election that has left Australia in a state of political paralysis for more than a week, while officials scramble to sort out who, if anyone, actually won the tight race. Vote counting was still underway from the July 2 ballot, but opposition leader Bill Shorten said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s ruling conservative coalition would eventually secure enough seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives to retain power. […] With Shorten’s center-left Labor Party out of the running, just two options remain: Either the coalition will form a majority government...

THE Grand Mufti of Australia has just proved that Pauline Hanson is right to feel threatened by Islam in this country. Ibrahim Abu Mohammad has written an astonishing letter warning that to criticise even a gay-hating imam is to risk inciting terrorist attacks against us. His inflammatory letter perfectly demonstrates why Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a fool to hold an Iftar dinner for the Mufti and other troubling Muslim leaders during the election campaign. And Turnbull’s dinner — shown on all TV news bulletins — may explain why Hanson’s vote on Saturday was so high, helping her to win...

TONY Abbott must return as leader of the shattered Liberals after Saturday’s election disaster. ..... True, Abbott ideally needs months more to repair the image that a smart-arse media tore to shreds, feeding off his sometimes dumb mistakes. But who else but Abbott could hope to fix what Turnbull has just smashed? This election result has been a near-total catastrophe for the Liberals, who have been left without a mandate, platform, unity, honour or real power after letting Turnbull hijack their party last year. Turnbull, a man of the ABC Left, then ditched the Liberals’ base, Liberal principles and even...

Australia's prime minister gave a personal assurance on Friday that his government would legalize gay marriage if a majority of Australians choose marriage equality in a popular vote. The center-right government has promised to hold a plebiscite on the gay marriage question if the government is re-elected in a vote due this year. But a number of the government's most conservative lawmakers have recently announced that they might vote down gay marriage against the wishes of a majority of Australians. ...

The White House says Australia's prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will meet with President Barack Obama on Jan. 19 as he makes his first trip to Washington since being sworn in last September. The White House says the two leaders will highlight the wide scope of the U.S.-Australia alliance. They'll talk about a wide range of issues that include the conflicts with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Australia has provided air power to the coalition efforts. ...

FROM the loneliness of political exile, Tony Abbott is urging conservative members of the Liberal Party not to walk away from the party he led into government two years ago. Aware of the tsunami of anger created by his ousting among party stalwarts, the former prime minister is telling friends that the Liberal Party will always be a better organisation with good people working within it than against it from the outside. ..... It is noteworthy that it took Malcolm Turnbull and his accomplice Julie Bishop two years to achieve what Labor could not do — remove Tony Abbott from...

Watching the ceremony now.

The knifing of Tony Abbott will go down as one of the most destructive and arrogant acts of political bastardry this nation has yet seen. In many ways, it surpasses Labor’s two similarly bloody coups, so forensically explored in Sarah Ferguson’s superb Killing Season documentary, for the simple reason that Mr Turnbull’s treachery was done despite the knowledge that the electorate genuinely deplore such brutality. If there was, indeed, one clear lesson to come from the Rudd/Gillard danse macabre, it is that the voters prefer to do the knifings in the sanctity of the ballot box, and have little time...

It is being described as "front stabbing" - a brutal attack on his leader by Malcolm Turnbull, who has long coveted the job of prime minister of Australia.