Free Republic

Amid concerns about American shipbuilding, the US Navy's top civilian official said this week that he was "floored" by a Pacific ally's capabilities in this space. The Navy secretary's comments came on the heels of an internal review that discovered that most of the Navy's top programs, including high-priority submarines, a first-in-class guided-missile frigate, and the third Ford-class aircraft carrier, are severely delayed by years, fueling worries from US officials about the ability to maintain our pace against great power rivals. During his keynote speech at the Navy League's Sea Air Space conference this week, Secretary of the Navy Carlos...

Multiple senior members of conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration and the head of his People Power Party (PPP) tendered their resignations on Thursday after vote counts confirmed that the left-wing Democratic Party decisively took over the National Assembly in Wednesday’s midterm election. The Democrats overcame a chaotic campaign season in which leader Lee Jae-myung survived a would-be assassin stabbing him in the neck. The day he was released from the hospital, three members of his party defected, protesting that Lee was running an authoritarian and corrupt “regime” within the party. Lee was in court on Tuesday for a hearing addressing...

A youtuber shows a day in life of a Japanese Elementary School with only 8 students and 11 teachers. The school has about 20 rooms and had over 400 students in previous generations but is now virtually empty. There are about 11 million akiya, or abandoned homes, in rural Japan. Here we see a nearly abandoned school. The video shows happy students and teachers but you can also feel the sad decline. The school built for more capacity. The number of teachers should have been 20-30 and the number of students was and should be hundreds. All of the nearby...

Well the Dow closed 39,131.53 and the NASDAQ 15,996.82 for this week. Accounting for inflation caused by federal spending on COVID we are a long way... Japanese and South Korean companies benefit we had a Uniparty junket to those countries Mike Crapo Republican US Senator from Idaho ranking on the Finance Committee joined... And the Democrat Update I think the Democrats are going crazy so we need Napoleon the 14th from 1966... Are you scared into voting Democrat yet? Well to help you sone uniformed individuals have been touring State Capitol buildings across the United States... There are folks out...

South Korean drivers are concerned that their future EVs could catch fire while charging or in a car crash ... In 2020 and 2021, several high-profile cases of EVs catching fire were reported in South Korea. Three years ago, an electric bus manufactured by Hyundai Motor caught fire while in use. A few months earlier, Hyundai Motor recalled more than 77,000 Kona EVs sold globally after 13 of the electric crossover vehicles caught fire. Hyundai and its battery supplier LG Chem were at odds over the reasons for the recall, with the battery cell maker saying it wasn’t its battery...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has conducted a test of its underwater nuclear weapons system in a protest against this week's joint military drills by South Korea, the United States and Japan, state media KCNA said on Friday. The test of the "Haeil-5-23" system, a name North Korea has given to its nuclear-capable underwater attack drones, was carried out by the defence ministry's think tank in the waters off its east coast, the report said, without specifying a date.

Seoul, South Korea CNN — South Korea’s parliament passed a bill Tuesday banning the breeding and slaughter of dogs for consumption, ending the traditional yet controversial practice of eating dog meat after years of nationwide debate. The bill received rare bipartisan support across South Korea’s divided political landscape, highlighting how attitudes toward eating dog have transformed over the past few decades during the country’s rapid industrialization. The law will ban the distribution and sale of food products made or processed with dog ingredients, according to the corresponding committee of the National Assembly.

SEOUL — North Korea fired more than 200 artillery rounds into the sea on Friday near a tensely defended maritime border with South Korea, a military official said, while residents of two South Korean islands were ordered to evacuate due to an unknown “situation.” The defense ministry would not confirm if the order was prompted by the North’s artillery firing or South Korean drills in response. However, a text message sent to residents and confirmed by an island official cited “naval fire” to be conducted by South Korean troops from 3 p.m.(0600 GMT) Friday. An official on Yeonpyeong island, which...

Footage showing the Stabbing Attack earlier against the Leader of the Democratic Party of South Korea, Lee Jae-myung while he was Speaking to a Crowd in the Southeastern City of Busan. VIDEO AT LINK..............

The leader of South Korea's political opposition was stabbed at a news conference in the southern port city of Busan, Yonhap news agency reports. Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly lost the presidential elections in 2022, was stabbed on the left side of his neck on Tuesday morning. The male attacker was arrested at the scene. Lee was transferred to a hospital about 20 minutes after the attack. He was conscious at the time, Yonhap said. Mr Lee is not currently a member of South Korea's legislature but is widely expected to run for a seat in the next general election, which...

The shipping giant Maersk says it will resume operations in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden waters... Israel facing a 20 billion US dollar budget shortfall due to the war... A new legal filing from President Donald Trump's lawyers to the federal circuit court of appeals... Violent Protest Incident In Belgrade, Serbia This Evening Dozens Of Arrests Police Injured Russia Thanked For Advance Warning About Incident... "Tonight our heart is in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is again rejected by the useless logic of war" Part of the message delivered tonight by Pope Francis... Citizens of Israel, we are...

South Korea is facing “extinction” and needs to embrace immigration to stave off its “demographic catastrophe”, the country’s justice minister has warned. “When it comes to immigration policies, we have passed the stage of deliberating whether to implement them or not. Because if we don’t, we cannot escape the fate of extinction due to the demographic catastrophe,” Han Dong-hoon, told a parliamentary meeting in Seoul, reported the Korea Times.

SEOUL, South Korea — Dressed in borrowed camouflage fatigues, they fumbled with their ammunition belts and K2 assault rifles. Some had white hair and a slow, shuffling gait; their average age was 63, the oldest 75. It was the most unconventional batch of trainees that the 52nd Infantry Division's Seocho Reserve Forces Training Center had ever seen, and Lt. Col. Hwang Hyeon-seok received them with a strained smile, desperately hoping that none of them would get hurt.

South Korea from Monday will re-impose a ban on short-selling shares at least until June to promote a "level playing field" for retail and institutional investors, financial authorities said on Sunday. The ban was lifted in May 2021 for trades involving the shares of companies with large market capitalisation included in the KOSPI200 and KOSDAQ150 share price indices. The restriction has remained in place for most other stocks. The FSC will review market activity in June to decide whether there is significant improvement to allow the ban to be lifted, he said. The regulator last week said it would establish...

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to meet with the President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul today and said he will raise the issue of LGBT rights.South Korea’s constitutional court recently upheld a law banning same-sex relations in the military. Mr. Varadkar is currently in the country on a trade mission and speaking to reporters in Seoul, he said he respected the right of any democratic country to make its own rules, but that it is certainly one of the issues he will have a chance to mention to the President. […] The two leaders are also expected to...

South Korea says China has forcibly repatriated a "large number" of North Korean defectors.This follows recent reports from human rights groups claiming that as many as 600 North Koreans have been sent back. Seoul said on Friday that the reports appear to be true, but did not confirm the exact number who were repatriated. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the defectors, mostly women, could face imprisonment, sexual violence or even death once back in the North.

This better not be Israel's 9/11 because that means nothing will end up being done in its aftermath as was the case with 9/11. The enduring legacy of 9/11 was not the elimination of Wahabbi Sunni Isla in Saudi Arabia that inspired the Al Qaeda terrorists (15 of the 19 actually Saudi citizens). Neither was it a military victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan who sheltered Al Qaeda. The Taliban created and sustained by Pakistan even Bin Laden hid in Pakistan before was killed. The ultimate force behind the Taliban Pakistan was never ever dealt with and it's no wonder...

Researchers at the School of Mechanical Engineering at Chung-Ang University in South Korea have developed a lightweight exosuit that enhances a human’s natural ability to sprint, paving the way for a more robust medical rehabilitation process and helping people with mobility issues and concerns. Designed to be a seamless extension of the human body, this exosuit aids in sprinting, a fundamental human ability. Exosuits are made of soft, flexible fabrics, and unlike their cousin technology, the exoskeleton, they have minimal supporting structures. Exoskeletons are more rigid, usually designed to provide support with weight-bearing. Exosuits, however, work to allow for increased...

South Korean police are investigating 17 US soldiers and five other people who allegedly smuggled or used synthetic marijuana via military mail. This follows raids in at least two US army bases in May, including Camp Humphreys, its largest overseas base. A Filipino and a South Korean have been arrested, while prosecutors review the cases against all 22 suspects. A tip from the US Army's enforcement arm had sparked a four-month investigation by Korean authorities. It was one of the largest in recent years involving American soldiers, US media reported citing Cha Min-seok, a senior detective in South Korea. Joint...

Just days ahead of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Vietnam for key talks on trade and closer diplomatic relations, the president paid homage to events from an earlier and very different time – when Washington and Hanoi were at war. At the White House on Tuesday, Biden presented the Medal of Honor, the United States military’s highest award, to 81-year-old Larry Taylor, a retired army captain who had flown a Cobra attack helicopter during the height of the Vietnam War in 1968. — When Biden lands at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport on Sunday, he steps into a very...