Tag Archives: Australia

Australia’s News Corp outlet reports: A gay couple that had booked flights to a tiny Asian nation before it introduced laws allowing it to stone people to death for gay sex received shocking advice from the federal government’s Smart Traveller hotline. Adultery and gay sex in Brunei will be subject to death by stoning and thieves will have their limbs …

The BBC reports: Thousands of Australians have been forced to evacuate their homes in preparation for two potentially devastating cyclones. Over the weekend, Cyclone Trevor will hit the north while Cyclone Veronica will strike the country’s west coast. Destructive winds are expected, while heavy rains and large waves threaten to cause severe flooding. Experts say a “severe impact” is likely …

Global News reports: The “heroic” teen that smashed an egg into the back of the head of an Australian anti-Muslim senator over the weekend has doubled-down on his internet fame by donating his “reward” money to the victims of the horrific New Zealand mosque attacks. William Connolly, who quickly became known as “Egg Boy,” was thrusted into social media fame …

NBC News reports: Australia’s prime minister has suggested an anti-Muslim senator should be charged after he hit a teen who cracked a raw egg over the legislator’s head. Sen. Fraser Anning has been widely condemned for blaming Muslim immigration for racist attacks on two New Zealand mosques that claimed at least 50 lives. The 17-year-old boy who egged Anning has …

The Guardian reports: An Australian senator who blamed the New Zealand terror attack on Muslim immigration has punched a 17-year-old boy after he was egged at an event in Melbourne. Video footage recorded at the event appears to show Fraser Anning, a far-right independent Queensland senator, halfway through a press conference when the teenager cracked an egg over his head …

Two weeks ago the Australian government banned homocon Milo Yiannopoulos from entering the country over anti-Semitic comments and unpaid bills owed to police for his 2017 visit, which drew hundreds of protesters. The ban was going to be reversed after pressure from right wing lawmakers until last night. ABC News Australia reports: Milo Yiannopoulos has been banned from entering Australia …

Australia’s SBS News reports: Senator Fraser Anning has faced criticism from across the political spectrum for his comments on Friday’s mosque attacks in New Zealand. As the death toll rose to 49, the Queensland senator said the “real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in …

NBC News reports: The most senior Catholic cleric ever to be convicted of child sex abuse was sentenced to six years in prison in Australia on Wednesday morning. Cardinal George Pell, 77, faced as many as 50 years in prison after being convicted in December for the molestation of two choir boys while he was the archbishop of Melbourne in …

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: Australia’s aviation safety authority has banned all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from flying to or from the country in the wake of two deadly plane crashes involving the brand new aircraft in the past five months. In what is a major blow for the aerospace giant and an unusual split from American aviation regulators, the …

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: The Morrison government has banned right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos from entering Australia in a fresh crackdown likely to infuriate his conservative supporters but please critics who believe he is anti-Semitic. The Sydney Morning Herald can reveal the controversial speaker was told this week his visa application had been rejected and he cannot enter Australia. In …

SBS reports: Pop superstar Kylie Minogue, drag queens, glitter and flames dazzled the crowds at Sydney’s 41st Mardi Gras parade. Almost 200 floats featuring 12,000 people made their way down Oxford Street on Saturday night, celebrating a multitude of cultures, religious beliefs, organisations and causes, and embracing the theme of “Fearless”. Machines spat out flames and showered confetti over the …

ABC News Australia reports: Right-wing provocateur and founder of the Proud Boys group Gavin McInnes has had his visa application blocked by the Home Affairs Department, failing the character test to enter Australia. Critics of Mr McInnes were urging the department and Immigration Minister David Coleman to ban him from travelling to Australia for a speaking tour next year, concerned …

The BBC reports: One of Australia’s leading wedding magazines is shutting down after it refused to feature same-sex couples. Luke and Carla Burrell, founders of White Magazine, said advertisers had abandoned them in droves. The Christian couple said they made the choice because they had “no desire to create a social, political or legal war.” Australia legalised gay marriage in …

Australia’s ABC News outlet reports: Labor is calling on the Government to deny a visa to Gavin McInnes, the founder of the Proud Boys, who is coming to Australia in November. McInnes is known for his extreme views and support of violence, saying when he founded the “gang” in 2016: “We will kill you, that is the Proud boys in …

The BBC reports: Scott Morrison has become Australia’s new prime minister after Malcolm Turnbull was forced out by party rivals in a bruising leadership contest. Mr Turnbull had been under pressure from poor polling and what he described as an “insurgency” by conservative MPs. Mr Morrison, the treasurer, won an internal ballot 45-40 over former Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton …

The Hill reports: Defense Secretary James Mattis on Friday disputed a report that the U.S. is preparing a strike against Iran, calling it “fiction.” ABC News had previously reported, citing Australian officials, that the U.S. could launch missile strikes against Iran as soon as next month. “I have no idea where the Australian news people got that information,” Mattis told …

The BBC reports: A Catholic archbishop in Australia has been given a maximum sentence of 12 months in detention for concealing child sexual abuse in the 1970s. Philip Wilson, now archbishop of Adelaide, is the most senior Catholic globally to be convicted of the crime. He was found guilty by a court last month of covering up abuse by a …

As longtime readers know, over the last decade I’ve posted many of Australian musician Nick Bertke’s truly amazing videos and even blogged about his ten-year banning from the US in 2011 for not having a valid work permit. Berkte’s clips typically get many millions of views. Bertke originally posted his innovative compositions on a YouTube channel titled “Fagottron” – leading …

The Associated Press reports: An Australian archbishop on Tuesday became the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the world convicted of covering up child sex abuse in a test case that holds to account church hierarchy that kept silent in the face of an international pedophile crisis. Magistrate Robert Stone handed down the verdict against Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson …

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: George Pell will be the most senior Catholic leader to face a jury after being committed to stand trial on multiple historic sexual assault charges. In a decision that will ring loud through the Vatican and around the religious world, Australia’s most senior Catholic and the man who a year ago oversaw management of the …