Free Republic

French Premier Edouard Philippe announcing the creation of two "missions" to detect "radicalization" in police anti-terrorism operations.... Castaner also cited no information in Harpon's personnel file to indicate he was associated with terrorism.... The Turkish President spoke by phone Sunday with President Trump...... The latest word from the White House tonight is that Turkey will invade northeastern Syria and that US troops will not be part of the Turkish operation..... The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group, aligned with Syria's opposition, says US warplanes are conducting patrols on the northeastern Syrian border with Turkey. The report comes amid concern from...

Australia’s most decorated soldier has accused Nine of being “malicious”, saying the company is commercially motivated to tear him down. Ben Roberts-Smith has accused Nine of being commercially motivated and malicious when it alleged the former soldier was engaged in war crimes. Australia’s most decorated soldier has hit back at claims he handcuffed and kicked an Afghan prisoner named Ali Jan off a cliff during a military operation in Afghanistan in 2012. The prisoner was then allegedly shot dead by another soldier. “I want Australians to know that I absolutely deny these hurtful allegations,” Mr Roberts-Smith said in a statement...

A Nissan Leaf owner has received a $33,000 bill to replace the battery in his electric car - even though it's now only worth $12,000.Canberra engineer Phillip Carlson bought his fully-electric hatchback brand new for $53,500 in August 2012. Just seven years later, he can't drive his environmentally-friendly car because he isn't prepared to stump up $33,385 to replace the lithium ion battery. The tab included $750 for labour and $29,600 for the battery plus the 10 per cent GST. Mr Carlson, a married father with a daughter, believed his new car had a range of 175km but even as a...

A Jewish schoolboy was forced to kiss the shoe of a Muslim boy or face a vicious beating at the hands nine other children who circled him in a park, it has emerged.

What Democrats and their media allies really want is to torpedo Attorney General William Barr’s probe into the origins of the Russian “collusion” hoax. The whistleblower’s written complaint presents Trump’s request that the Ukrainian leader work with Barr to “get to the bottom” of the collusion hoax as part of the alleged quid pro quo. That suggests the whistleblower and his confreres in the ­intelligence apparatus are worried about Barr’s investigation and what it could ­uncover about their spying on the Trump campaign. The whistleblower complaint and the manic news reports of the Australia call both serve the same dual...

But experts see a civic danger in the president frequently and falsely calling out what he labels treasonous behavior. Carlton F.W. Larson, a professor at the University of California at Davis School of Law and an expert on treason, said the president had cheapened the word through overuse. "It is a complete debasement of political discourse where ordinary political disagreements are elevated to a level of capital crime,” Mr. Larson said. “If Trump ever did uncover an instance of true treason, no one would believe him because he has so debased the meaning of that word.”

In a sign that even Trump-haters don’t see strong enough grounds to impeach President Trump, The New York Times on Monday “broke” yet another breathless story meant to bolster the case about his supposed abuse of power. Trump “pressed” Australia’s leader “in a recent telephone call” to help Attorney General William Barr collect info to “discredit” the Mueller probe, the paper said, citing (as usual) unnamed sources. “The president,” it concluded, “is using federal law enforcement powers to aid his political interests.” Other anti-Trump media pushed the smear with similar enthusiasm. This, on the heels of a whistleblower’s complaint that...

This morning I had another experience with a dog aggressively defending its territory. I was on my exercise walk. The sky was light before the sun was up. A pair of dogs were in a fenced yard, with their owner. They took exception to my presence. The fence, next to the sidewalk, was only two feet tall, as incentivized by the silly local zoning laws. I am a dog person. I understand dog body language pretty well. As I passed the yard, on the sidewalk, with a boulevard to my right and the yard to my left, I considered...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., criticized a report by the New York Times that claimed President Trump "pressed" the prime minister of Australia for information to discredit the probe conducted by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, calling it an "effort" to shut down Attorney General William Barr's investigation. "This New York Times article about Barr talking to Australia is the beginning of an effort to shut down Barr's investigation to find out how this whole thing started," Graham said on "Hannity" Monday. A Justice Department official told Fox News on Monday that Barr asked Trump to make introductions to foreign countries...

The teen suspects who were wanted for three murders in Canada confessed to their crimes and said they planned to kill more people in a video recorded not long before the two died by suicide, police said. Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, showed "no remorse for their actions" and expressed "their intentions to potentially kill others" in the video, which was found on a digital camera, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Kevin Hackett said at a press conference Friday. The bodies of McLeod and Schmegelsky were found Aug. 7 in the province of Manitoba. They were the...

A letter emerged late on Monday from the Australian government that directly disputed the accuracy of a New York Times report that claimed that President Donald Trump “pushed” Australia to help Attorney General William Barr investigate the origins of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in an attempt to “discredit” the investigation in what The Times claimed was an example of Trump “using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.” The letter, reported by Nine News Australia’s Kerrie Yaxley, is dated May 28, 2019, from Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey to Barr, and states: Dear Attorney General, I refer to...

The discussion was another instance of the president using American diplomacy for potential personal gain. President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call. The White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to a small group of the president’s aides, one of the officials said, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that...

The story has invited more ridicule than sympathy: an Australian couple has been arrested in Iran after only traveling there in the first place to “try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad wrap [sic] in the media.” (snip) the responsibility for their plight lies not just with the Islamic Republic of Iran or ISIS, but also with the Leftist world in which they moved and lived. The Left’s leaders constructed a fantasy world, because Leftist ideas are dead on the drawing board without it. In this fantasy world, Islam is peace. Borders and nation-states...

One of the animating chapters in the Trump-Russian collusion saga was the claim that Russia infiltrated the Democratic National Committee’s email server in the spring of 2016. That hack, according to collusion truthers, and the subsequent release of damaging emails exchanged between top Democratic Party officials was central to Vladimir Putin’s scheme to sway the presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. But the evidence to support this widely accepted claim is sketchy at best and appears to be under appropriate scrutiny by prosecutors now examining the origins of the FBI’s pre-election investigation into the Trump campaign for “colluding” with...

Pro-abortion politicians celebrated Thursday after the Australian state of New South Wales legalized the killing of unborn babies up to birth. The controversial law allows abortions for any reason up to 22 weeks and up to birth with the permission of two doctors and a hospital committee, The Independent reports. Ignoring strong opposition from New South Wales citizens, lawmakers in the upper and lower house quickly passed the bill with very few amendments. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, MP Alex Greenwich, the lead sponsor of the bill, and other pro-abortion politicians cheered and hugged each other in celebration Thursday...

Our grandfathers built a low-cost reliable decentralized electricity supply for all states of Australia based mainly on black and brown coalfields — Blair Athol, Callide, Ipswich, Sydney/Newcastle, Yallourn, Leigh Creek, and Collie. Then our fathers built the mighty Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric scheme, which provided water to irrigate the inland while generating electricity to help pay for it. In the years up to 1980, huge new coal-fired power plants were constructed in each state. We discovered oil and gas in Roma, Bass Strait, Barrow Island, Timor Sea, and in coal and shale in many places. Coal and hydro gave Australia reliable...

WAPAKONETA — Manufacturing is back in the United States, and the president of the United States will not-so-humbly take credit for that. “There’s never been a better time to buy, invest and build in the United States,” President Donald Trump said during a stop in Wapakoneta on Sunday. His surroundings Sunday proved his words true. There he stood at the grand opening of the first phase of Pratt Industries’ $500 million paper mill and corrugated box factory. The owner of the company, Anthony Pratt, directly credited Trump’s policies for his decision to build the largest factory during Trump’s presidency with...

Rudy Giuliani attended a White House dinner on Friday with the woman he claimed he was not having an affair with during his marriage to his third wife. The former New York mayor walked proudly into the dinner that was being thrown for the Prime Minister of Australia and his wife with Dr. Maria Ryan. She was named in court documents filed by Giuliani's wife when she divorced him. She claimed he and Ryan, who is also married, were having an affair throughout their marriage. Giuliani denied it, saying there was 'no proof' they'd had sex despite spending the night...

So. Much. This’: Australian broadcaster shares a harsh reality check for #ClimateStrike students (OUCH!) [video]

WAPAKONETA — President Donald Trump will be visiting Auglaize County this weekend. News Center 7’s Gabrielle Enright went to Wapakoneta to talk with residents and see the Australian-owned plant that he will be visiting. About 10,000 people call Wapakoneta home, and the reason for Trump’s visit is a big deal to some residents. “It’s a big deal, I think,” Peter Caldes said. “I’m not into politics that much, but for the people, it’s jobs. The people come first.” On Sunday, Trump will be meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and touring the new Pratt Industries facility. The paper plant...