Free Republic

Whether it’s the South China Sea or the most distant regions of Tibet, China is always trying to lay claim to more territory. This week China published an annual map which now includes a region controlled by India as part of China.The map was released Monday on the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources standard map service website, just days after the two nations agreed to work to ease tensions at their disputed border.The map also includes Taiwan and the South China Sea as Chinese territory.Here’s an image of the full map:The 2023 edition of China's standard map was officially released...

Ukraine, Denmark, and the Netherlands appeared to reach a milestone agreement to give the invaded nation F-16 jets, with the first delivery coming as early this year but it comes with a condition of no strikes beyond Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders. President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the progress on the F-16 deal during an in-person visit to Denmark and the Netherlands at the weekend, enthusiastically claiming the Dutch government was going to hand over 42 F-16s, the nation’s entire stock of the aircraft. The Dutch were more circumspect and didn’t put a specific number or even timeline for delivery at the...

Ukrainian forces are now pushing over the defacto border established in the 2014 Russian invasion, taking back long-occupied territory in the Donbas region for the first time, the United Kingdom says. There have been “small advances” — which is on trend for the progress of the counter-offensive so far, per reports — around Krasnohorivka near Donetsk city, an area that has been occupied by Russian and pro-Kremlin forces for nearly a decade.

This image of GPS tracking of multiple wolves in six different packs around Voyageurs National Park was created in the framework of the Voyageurs Wolf Project. It is an excellent illustration of how much wolf packs in general avoid each other’s range. .... As beautifully demonstrated by the animation, wolf packs generally avoid being around each other unless they are fighting for food that may be in short supply. When that occurs, they may engage in battles with other packs in order to continue have their claim on a given location as well as the food found within it. Wolves...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ventured beyond the relative safety of Kyiv on Wednesday to visit the recently liberated city of Izyum, where he promised to drive Russian forces from all of Ukraine. “Our blue-yellow flag is already flying in de-occupied Izyum. And it will be so in every Ukrainian city and village,” he said on social media during the visit. “We are moving in only one direction — forward and towards victory.” A supply and logistic hub for Russian operations in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, the retaking of Izyum represents a strategic win for Ukraine as well as...

“Russia’s geographic goals in Ukraine have changed,” said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavorv at a news conference on Wednesday, July 20. “Now [our] geography is different. It is not only the DNR and LNR, it is also the Kherson region, the Zaporizhzhia region and a number of other territories,” he said and explained that this change was due to “weapons that will pose a direct threat to our territory and the territory of those [eastern Ukrainian] republics that have announced their independence.” FM Lavrov added: “If Western countries supply long-range weapons to Ukraine, [these goals] will move even further.” The Russian...

Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out several demands for Ukraine including two “most difficult issues” during a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.The demands can be divided into two parts, Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told several media outlets.The first four articles appear to be possible common ground for both sides.“Basically, there are six topics discussed. The first is Ukraine’s neutrality, that is, its withdrawal from NATO membership. Second, disarmament and mutual security guarantees in the context of the Austrian model. Third, [is] the process that the Russian side refers to as ‘de-Nazification.’ Fourth, removing obstacles to the widespread...

NEW DELHI, India (Project Syndicate)—As the world’s largest, strongest, and longest-surviving dictatorship, contemporary China lacks the rule of law. Yet it is increasingly using its rubber-stamp Parliament to enact domestic legislation asserting territorial claims and rights in international law. In fact, China has become quite adept at waging “lawfare”—the misuse and abuse of law for political and strategic ends. Under “commander-in-chief” Xi Jinping’s bullying leadership, lawfare has developed into a critical component of China’s broader approach to asymmetrical or hybrid warfare. The blurring of the line between war and peace is enshrined in the regime’s official strategy as the “Three...

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has warned that all Australian major cities are within range of Chinese missiles and claims the conquest of Taiwan will be the first domino to fall in a campaign by Beijing to dominate the Indo-Pacific region. In the most aggressive anti-China speech by an Australian minister in decades, Mr Dutton said on Friday the world could not repeat the mistakes of the 1930s when Western powers ignored the rapid militarisation of Japan and Germany.

Essential workers in the Northern Territory will be subject to one of the strictest Covid-19 vaccination mandates in the world to begin in just a month. Chief Minister Michael Gunner said employees who interacted with the public needed to get least one Covid-19 jab by November 13 or they wouldn’t be allowed back to work and faced a $5000 fine.

Foreign Policy magazine recently dropped a bombshell: China has built an entirely new village in an area historically and internationally recognized as part of neighboring country Bhutan’s territory. Moreover, China did it through a “gray zone invasion,” without firing a single shot, causing any military conflict with Bhutan, or even drawing any international attention until after the fact. The revelation is a reminder of how far the Chinese Communist Party is willing to go to fulfill its global ambitions.For decades, CCP leaders have sought to assure the rest of the world that China’s rise is peaceful and never seeks hegemony....

Russian President Putin vowed to 'knock the teeth out' of nations who grab pieces of the state's vast territory Secretary of State Blinken warned Moscow the North Pole must remain 'free of conflict' at Thursday's summit His Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov hit back, saying the Kremlim saw 'no grounds' for conflict in the Arctic, but warned the West about militarising on Russia's doorstep and said the country would defend itself Comes as Russia revealed a massive polar military airbase, Nagurskoye, in the Franz Josef Land archipelago It has been heavily militarised with missiles, a radar system and a runway handling...

MANILA—Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has rebuffed a call from China to withdraw vessels from disputed areas of the South China Sea and said he would not bow to pressure, even if it jeopardizes his friendship with Beijing. The Philippines has boosted its presence in contested areas of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), including Thitu island, near to Chinese military installation, in defiance of the months-long presence of hundreds of Chinese boats it believes are manned by militia. Duterte’s remarks in a televised address aired on Friday come as pressure builds on him to abandon his pursuit of close ties with...

With the United States still reeling from the pandemic and having recently undergone a change in administration, the Chinese Communist Party now sees a “window of opportunity” to accelerate its plans to expand its territory in the Asian region, according to a former senior intelligence officer for the U.S. Navy.“It’s a very dangerous time for the region as Beijing is seeking to advance their strategy and their timeline,” James Fanell, who previously served as the director of intelligence for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told The Epoch Times’ affiliate NTD in an April 9 interview.In recent weeks, the Chinese regime amassed...

Songs of musical rodents may offer insights into human conversationIn the understory of Central American cloud forests, musical mice trill songs to one another. Now a study of the charismatic creatures reveals how their brains orchestrate these rapid-fire duets. The results, published in the March 1 Science, show that the brains of singing mice split up the musical work. One brain system directs the patterns of notes that make up songs, while another coordinates duets with another mouse, which are carried out with split-second precision. The study suggests that “a quirky animal from the cloud forest of Costa Rica could...

The NAACP on Thursday rescinded its support for Puerto Rican statehood. The civil rights group emphasized Puerto Rican "self-determination" in a statement walking back its endorsement of a bill that would make Puerto Rico the 51st state, which it voted to support on Tuesday. "Puerto Rico should be free to decide its preferred option in a fair and inclusive manner," the NAACP said, adding that it has a "long history of supporting the democratic value of self-determination." In a statement on Tuesday, the NAACP threw its weight behind the Puerto Rican Admission Act after an appeal from Gov. Ricardo Rosselló,...

June 28 (UPI) -- A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress on Wednesday calls to make Puerto Rico a state by 2021. The Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2018 was introduced by Republican Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón, a nonvoting members of Congress representing Puerto Rico and co-sponsored by 36 members of Congress, including 22 Republicans and 14 Democrats.

Ernesto Davila Marin was in elementary school when rebellion interrupted class. As he left the schoolhouse that October day, black smoke rose from the town center where nationalists had set Jayuya ablaze, shooting police officers and declaring the independent republic of Puerto Rico from a rooftop. In the struggle for sovereignty from American colonial rule, Puerto Rican independence fighters staged uprisings in nearly a dozen cities that day in 1950 and later attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. They held the central mountain city for three days until U.S. Air Force bombers buzzed over the emerald peaks packed with...

By a narrow margin, more voters think Puerto Rico should become a state than think it should stay a territory. According to the latest Fox News Poll, 41 percent say Puerto Rico should become the 51st star on the flag. That’s an 11-point increase since the last time the question was asked in June 2007, when 30 percent opted for statehood.

Weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the island remains in crisis. Eighty three percent of people in Puerto Rico don’t have power and thirty five percent don’t have access to clean water. The death toll currently stands at 48 but is likely to keep rising in the coming weeks. Washington has responded to this crisis with billions in immediate disaster assistance, helping the cash-strapped island afford its basic expenses after tax revenue has all but dried up. This financial commitment isn’t going to end anytime soon: Experts suggest the final cost could exceed $100 billion.