Free Republic

A high ranking Saudi Arabian official is now calling Jamal Khashoggi's death "murder". The word "murder" was used by Foreign Minister Adel el-Jubeir in a Fox News interview Sunday where he also said that those responsible for the murder will be held accountable..... A Turkish news agency reported that President Trump has spoken with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the Khashoggi murder and that both agree the matter needs to be cleared up..... The top Chinese official in the Macau Territory, a former Portuguese colony, is dead after he fell from a tall building..... The Central American migrants who...

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex paid tribute to Australia and New Zealand’s war dead as Harry unveiled an extension to the Anzac memorial at a sombre ceremony in Sydney. Harry, wearing his Blues & Royals tropical dress, medals and Knight Commander of the Victorian Order, also sported the insignia of his new position as the Queen’s personal aide-de-camp for the occasion in the city’s Hyde Park on Saturday. The 34-year-old was joined by Meghan, in a black Emilia Wickstead dress and black Philip Treacy hat, as the couple attended the opening of the memorial which commemorates those who fell...

The Saudi government came out with its version of what happened to Jamal Khashoggi overnight. The Saudi government media reports that a fight took place inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2nd..... A man who is called a "Muslim hate preacher" and a supporter of ISIS, Anjem Choudry, has been released from prison in the UK halfway through his sentence.... In London at within the last hour (7AM Eastern US) Leicester Square was the scene of a rally by the "#IAmSoliderX" Movement..... The Justice Department is accusing a woman from St. Petersburg, Russia of interfering in the 2018...

A top Republican lawmaker has revealed that the FBI has evidence that "directly refutes" the foundation for Robert Mueller's investigation the Trump Campaign's alleged collusion with Russia. Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe said on Sunday that the Bureau is withholding vital information that directly contradicts the evidence that was provided to federal judges on the surveillance court in order to get a FISA warrant to spy on Donald Trump and officials working on his election campaign.

A top Republican lawmaker said Sunday that the FBI failed to provide a federal surveillance court with evidence that “directly” contracted the bureau’s rationale for opening the Trump-Russia investgation Rep. John Ratcliffe told Fox News that the evidence related to former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos The FBI opened its investigation in July 2016 based on intelligence from the Australian government about Papadopoulos Republican lawmakers have hinted for months that the FBI failed to provide federal judges on the surveillance court with information that undercut the government’s premise for opening the Trump-Russia probe in 2016. Republicans have suggested in interviews...

A VICTORIAN family woke to find their pet dog Buk suffering several stab wounds. Their horror morning got worse when they raced to the car. In the backyard of their Fifth Avenue home about 7.15am the owners discovered the family dog — an 11-year-old Jack Russell cross Maltese named Buk — had been stabbed a number of times. Police say the owners collecting the injured animal and bundled it into the back of the family car in order to transport it the local vet for help. But they quickly realised they were the victims of a cruel twist. Police from...

Australia may follow US president Donald Trump’s lead and move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Scott Morrison, Australia’s new prime minister, said on Tuesday he was “open to” following the move, describing it as a “sensible” proposal.

US embassy in Australia apologizes for sending out email with photo of cat dressed like Cookie Monster The U.S. embassy in Australia apologized on Monday after it accidentally sent out a photo of a pajama-clad cat dressed like the Cookie Monster. The embassy in Canberra sent out an email invitation titled “meeting” to an unknown number of recipients, the BBC reported. Attached to the email was a photo of a cat wearing blue pajamas to look like “Sesame Street” character Cookie Monster. The text next to the photo read “cat pyjama-jam.” U.S. mission to Australia spokesman Gavin Sundwall told the...

You ARE Alive in Me Your situation is about to change for the better. These days are for you, For as I stand with you and beside you it is with my momentum your life is carved. Therefore your now is My Destiny "Yeah " Prophecy coming alive to accomplish The Fathers will in "Real" time. Do you understand?! I Am your Spear head and the Living breathing Force of The ( (( Active Kingdom of Zion )) ) Budding, blossoming and bearing Live fruit before the world's very eyes and existence, for you are riding in My Chariot of...

It started badly and then just got weird. Arriving at the mid-America arena in the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, we were drenched in cold rain — part of a front that even brought early snow to nearby Nebraska. Our plan to get the views of flag-clad Donald Trump supporters queuing to see the President literally had cold water poured on it and we ran for the press entrance. No worries — we'll just mingle and find some people to talk to inside, I thought. But, no. When we picked up our press pass we were ordered straight to a...

Foreign aid workers who rallied to the island of Sulawesi after the devastating earthquake and tsunami more than a week ago have been asked to leave the country by the Indonesian government... Clancy said international NGOs had to walk a careful line of not acting paternalistically and taking over aid operations. “There’s pushback against the international community who come flooding in days or weeks later, taking over the response. It’s about taking back that power and saying local organisations have significant capacity.” The Indonesian government, the Indonesian Red Cross and other Indonesian NGOs all have “significant capacity” for providing humanitarian...

Japan’s Soryu-class diesel-electric attack submarine. You don’t often think about France and Australia, unless you really know your history and know that a French explorer arrived in the Antipodes days after the First Fleet arrived from Britain and that much of the vast continent was surveyed by French sailors. But France and Australia may grow much closer, as Breaking D readers know, if they can sign a strategic partnership agreement to clear the path for work on a stealthy attack submarine known as the Shortfin Barracuda. That is beginning to look less likely, with French and Australian politicians and policymakers...

Russia Derangement Syndrome: Syria Edition by David Archibald 6 August 2018 The road to hell is paved with good intentions. So it has been with US involvement in Syria. To provide a context to that involvement, let’s start part way through the story with the self-immolation of a Tunisian vegetable vendor on December 17, 2011, driven to despair by harassment from petty officials. That spark set off the Arab Spring. A number of Arab regimes changed; some remained resilient. That wasn’t good enough for David Cameron and Nicholas Sarkozy, the then leaders of the UK and France respectively. Their armed...

Scientists have made a breakthrough discovery in the fight to cure cancer after finding that the venom from a deadly Australian spider can actually kill melanoma cells while leaving the surrounding healthy tissue unharmed.

The Archbishop of Hobart has condemned the moveCatholic priests in the Australian state of Tasmania could face jail time if they fail to report sexual abuse disclosed during the sacrament of confession, ABC news (Australia) has reported. Draft legislation put forth by the government of the island would make mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse a criminal matter for religious leaders. Many public sector workers already face fines if they fail to report suspected abuse, according to ABC. The Tasmanian proposal comes amid various attempts by authorities throughout Australia to mandate the breaking of the confessional seal to report cases...

TOKYO -- Japan's first submarine powered by lithium-ion batteries was launched on Thursday, symbolizing domestic defense contractors' hopes that innovations can allow the industry to survive amid renewed pressure from Washington to procure more American military gear. The 84-meter Oryu was lowered into the water at the Kobe shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the vessel's developer, after being christened with a bottle of sake. The submarine can reach speeds of roughly 20 knots and displaces 2,950 tons. It will be delivered to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in March 2020. The Oryu is the eleventh submarine based on the Soryu's...

Bringing it in just under the wire, negotiators representing Mexico, Canada, and the United States announced a new trade deal, to be named the USMCA, on Sunday, September 30, enabling the replacement for NAFTA for which many have long clamored. With the agreement to switch to this new program, the three nations are taking some steps – however small – back in the direction of the goals that Free Trade Agreements have always promised to support, but which have been largely forgotten in the quest for their side effects. Free Trade Agreements, in fact, are not designed to reduce taxes...

A top lawyer working with the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign contacted the FBI’s general counsel in late 2016 and provided documents for the Russia probe as federal investigators prepared a surveillance warrant for Trump campaign aide Carter Page, sources close to a congressional investigation told Fox News, citing new testimony. The FBI official who was contacted, James Baker, revealed the exchange to congressional investigators during a closed-door deposition Wednesday. He said Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann initiated contact with him and provided documents as well as computer storage devices on Russian hacking. The sources said Baker described the...

When many Americans think of Australia, things like white sandy beaches, kangaroos, and Steve Irwin come to mind – an image that is at times more of a caricature than an actual country. What actually goes on in Australia, especially in its politics, is an unknown to most people not from the Land Down Under. It's usually not that well covered by the media, especially since the advent of Brexit and Donald Trump's presidency. There is, however, an extremely dangerous trend in Australian politics that should concern lawmakers and political regulatory bodies across the democratic world. That's the foreign interference...

In a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis in June, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed that Bejing “cannot lose even one inch of the territory” in the South China Sea. That’s about as plain a warning as one gets: China will defend, militarily, it’s outsized claims in a body of water through which one-third of all global trade passes. The U.S. would have little difficulty in taking out militarily significant targets on any of the islands in question. But that’s not really the point. Through the construction of these artificial islands-turned-military bases, China acted brazenly but in a calculated...