Free Republic

Japan put its ballistic missile defences on alert on Monday and vowed to shoot down any projectile that threatens its territory, after North Korea notified it of a planned satellite launch between May 31 and June 11. The nuclear-armed North says it has completed its first military spy satellite and leader Kim Jong Un has approved final preparations for the launch. It would be the North's latest step in a series of missile launches and weapons tests in recent months, including one of a new, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile. Tokyo expects North Korea to fire the rocket carrying its satellite...

Over the weekend, a rapidly intensifying region of thunderstorms in the western Pacific culminated in the formation of Typhoon Mawar. The movement of this storm is projected to affect the Mariana Islands, including the US territory of Guam, as early as Tuesday. There is a risk of wind speeds above 75mph, with torrential rain.

Joe Biden is in Japan now for the G7 meeting, right in the middle of challenging debt negotiation meetings with the Republicans. That’s all on him because he delayed meeting with Republicans for so long. He had planned on being abroad longer, after the G7 but he’s amended his plans and will be coming back to try to make a deal after he got shamed into it by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). But now Biden is in Japan doing what he generally does when he’s overseas — embarrassing the heck out of us. Biden was meeting with other leaders...

Biden in Hiroshima, Japan on 5/19/23.

The White House on Tuesday left open the possibility that President Biden could cut short a weeklong international trip as debt talks remain at a standstill. National Security spokesman John Kirby confirmed that Biden will leave as planned for Japan on Wednesday for the Group of Seven summit but added, “We’re re-evaluating the rest of the trip now.” “It’s difficult for me to tell you exactly what to anticipate at this point,” he said. “Given where we are right now, it’s also incredibly prudent and responsible for the president to take a look at the rest of the trip.”

The U.S. Navy is overstretched, and if it doesn’t find a way to hold on to sailors, keep ships in good condition and develop a clear plan forward, America will lose the most powerful tool it has to deter China, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Navy’s preparedness for a fight has crumbled in recent years from a series of issues with personnel and capabilities that likely stem from a failure to maintain a fleet of the right size and composition for the job of patrolling the world’s oceans and guarding the homeland, according to experts and watchdog...

President Biden will leave as planned to Japan on Wednesday, despite questions swirling around whether he might postpone a weeklong international trip given the crunch time lawmakers and the White House are facing to come up with a deal to avoid a debt default. “We are still planning to leave, as scheduled, on Wednesday,” national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday. “He still expects to be able to make that trip so we’re all planning on departing on Wednesday, as scheduled.”

Japan has just made an historic shift: In December, Tokyo announced a doubling of its defence budget by 2027, the first time this has happened since World War II. The Japanese are wary of China and North Korea. VideoLink

On this date in 1948, Burma hanged six for a shocking assassination that haunts the country to this day. The previous summer — specifically, at 10:37 a.m. on July 19th — independence hero/proto-head of state Aung San and six members of his cabinet had been massacred by gunmen. The trail quickly led back to rival pol U Saw, himself a former Prime Minister of under British colonial rule. U Saw had once defended in court the hero of a peasant revolt that the British had quelled with some difficulty. His own maneuverings were heretofore of a more slippery character, having...

Africa is now projected to become the fastest growing region globally, outpacing Asia, according to a new report by Mo Ibrahim Foundation. It is reported that six out of the ten fastest growing economies in 2023 are African countries. With a ready market of more than 1.4 billion people, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) surpasses the European Union (EU) single market, US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) combined. The report, which is based on the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), highlights that Africa is the world’s youngest continent and projected to be...

A brawl which erupted in a KTV lounge in Taiwan has left one woman seriously injured, after a video clip showed scalding hot soup being poured on her face. The incident occurred in the wee hours of Friday morning (April 21) in Taichung, ETToday reported. A viral video which circulated of the incident showed two women duking it out in a private room of the KTV lounge with the victim seen pulling the hair of the other woman. A man then intervenes, grabbing the victim by the hair and dragging her across the floor. He then slaps her several times...

President Joe Biden and visiting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday signed an agreement that would increase U.S. support for South Korea’s security and give Seoul more input in responses to North Korean aggression. In exchange, Yoon abandoned his proposal for South Korea to devel op its own nuclear weapons. A major element of the “Washington Declaration,” as the deal has been dubbed, is an agreement for U.S. nuclear submarines to resume docking in South Korea — a practice that was discontinued in the early 1980s. Soon afterward, the United States withdrew all of the nuclear weapons it had...

Singapore on Wednesday executed a man convicted of drug trafficking, a representative for his family said, despite pleas from his relatives and activists for clemency. Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, had been convicted for abetting the trafficking in 2013 of more than 1 kg (2.2 pounds) of cannabis, double the threshold for the death penalty in the city-state, which is known for its tough laws on narcotics. Kokila Annamalai, a Singapore-based rights activist representing the family, confirmed Suppiah had been executed by hanging after the president had rejected pleas for clemency on the eve of the execution.

North Korea announced about the launch of a reconnaissance satellite, while Japan stated its readiness to destroy a missile carrier, since there is no certainty that it will not be a ballistic missileTokyo has decided to be straightforward with Pyongyang and has officially announced that the country is ready to shoot down any missile that will be launched from North Korea and pose a threat to Japan's security. For this purpose, the Kongō and Atago-class Aegis destroyers have been deployed, which are armed with the Standard Missile 3 SAM. Also, and Patriot PAC 3 systems have been deployed in Okinawa.This...

Stanford’s Creative Writing program hosted poet Hieu Minh Nguyen in the Poetry-in-Conversation interview series on Wednesday.... Nguyen’s works were heavily influenced by his gay and Vietnamese American identities. “Not Here” conveys his experiences struggling to come to terms with whiteness, trauma and belonging. However, Nguyen’s career as a poet began with a seemingly unrelated piece of 2000’s pop culture: the movie “8 Mile,” which was released during his teens. A semi-autobiographical film of the rapper Eminem’s life, the popularity of “8 Mile” led to rap battles on Nguyen’s school bus. Nguyen recalled having an “overwhelming anxiety” that one day his...

Call it the under-reported story of the year.But if you're in Taiwan, you'd be mighty nervous, given that the Chinese navy is surrounding your entire island -- just as a military exercise, of course.

Former president Donald Trump warned of “World War III” as tensions around the world continue to escalate.“WORLD WAR lll,” Trump blasted out on Truth Social.The news comes amid news that French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to advocate a distancing of Europe from the U.S. in their continuing war between Russia and Ukraine and the crisis between China and Taiwan.Internet Entrepreneur Kim Dotcom reacted to Macron’s remarks saying it was a precursor to a “nuclear war.”“Now what? Europe says enough with Ukraine and sides with China on peace?” Kim Dotcom wrote.“Europe leaves the abusive relationship and the U.S. Govt turns into...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that he is “open” to sending U.S. troops to Taiwan to defend the island, saying that “strategic ambiguity” is not working. “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream asked Graham if the senator would support authorizing U.S. force in Taiwan if tensions rise between the island and China. Graham responded that Congress needs to ask itself whether the U.S. should have a defense agreement with Taiwan. “So the question for the Congress, should we have a defense agreement with the island of Taiwan? We don’t should we have one?” he said. “But yes, I’d...

An official meeting of all ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors kicked off on Tuesday (March 28) in Indonesia. Top of the agenda are discussions to reduce dependence on the US Dollar, Euro, Yen, and British Pound from financial transactions and move to settlements in local currencies. The meeting discussed efforts to reduce dependence on major currencies through the Local Currency Transaction (LCT) scheme. This is an extension of the previous Local Currency Settlement (LCS) scheme that has already begun to be implemented between ASEAN members. This means that an ASEAN cross-border digital payment system would be expanded further...

People in the Matsu islands of Taiwan have recently been cut off from the outside world after two submarines controlled by China snipped internet cables last month. Consequently, credit cards could not be used, bank transfers failed, and online videos were not successfully uploading. However, the event is more serious than not being able to load YouTube videos to the internet. The recent development has exposed an important information vulnerability, one that has revealed Taiwan is incapable of protecting its own communications should the small country go to war with China ... Lin Shengyue, 80, said of the outages: “Calls...