Free Republic

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia's right to develop closer ties with North Korea should not be in doubt or a source of fear for anyone, saying the potential for the two countries' relations was very deep. -snip- "It is our neighbour, it is a friendly country with which we are developing bilateral relations. We will continue to do so in an upward direction," said Peskov. "The potential for the development of our relations is very deep. We believe that our right to develop good relations with our neighbours should not be of concern to anyone and cannot and...

CHANCAY, Peru—In this serene town on South America’s Pacific coast, China is building a megaport that could challenge U.S. influence in a resource-rich region that Washington has long considered its backyard.... ...The U.S. worries that China’s control over what could become South America’s first true global commercial hub will allow Beijing to further strengthen its grip over the region’s resources, deepen its influence among America’s closest neighbors and eventually plant its military nearby.... Peru’s Foreign Minister Javier González-Olaechea said...“The United States is present almost everywhere in the world with a lot of initiatives, but not so much in Latin America,”...

Mining firm Rare Earths Norway says it has discovered Europe’s largest proven deposit of highly prized rare earth elements, potentially reflecting a watershed moment for both the Nordic country and the broader region. One of the few deposits not owned or controlled by China, the discovery of continental Europe’s largest rare earths deposit is considered a welcome boost in Europe’s bid to break China’s rare earths dominance. Demand for rare earths and critical minerals is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years as the clean energy transition picks up pace. Rare Earths Norway said in a June 6 statement...

The House voted Wednesday to pass a bill that is urging China to mend ties with the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders. The legislation, named Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act, received broad bipartisan support and encourages China and Tibet to resolve the long-standing dispute over Tibet’s governance. The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk after being passed by the Senate last month. “Tibetans, like all people, have the right to religious freedom — which includes freedom from [Chinese Communist Party] surveillance, censorship, and detention,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in a...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1422705/china-quarterly-value-of-foreign-direct-investment-inflows-according-to-bop/

A factory in China is developing hyper-realistic humanoid robots that can chillingly mimic human facial expressions and emotions in scientists' latest attempt to replace workers with machines. Ex-Robots, a robotics firm based in the northeastern coastal city of Dalian, is trying to create lifelike droids that engineers hope will soon be used in the healthcare and education industries. Terrifying footage from inside the Ex-Robots factory shows workers surrounded by piles of disembodied heads, neck-length silicone masks and spare limbs as they work to construct the most complex class of robotic products in the world. Drawings of robot designs are adorned...

On those bleak corners of the Internet that fret about economic growth, social cohesion, and other boring stuff, there’s a common question: What the heck happened in 1971? On one chart after another for the United States, there is a pattern of steady growth and improvement in life that suddenly goes haywire right around 1971. Wage growth stagnated for all but the richest Americans. Inequality explodes. Housing prices began a long upward march that has yet to level out. Fertility rates crashed while illegitimacy surged. And so on, and so on. Many other nations have data that tells a similar...

In a rare move, Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is receiving praise from Republicans after criticizing his own party’s stance on several issues. Fetterman has slammed the Democratic Party’s progressive “Squad” who refuse to condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. He questioned why the United States hasn’t yet destroyed Hamas, adding that every terrorist killed is "one more step" toward peace. Advertisement The Democrat has stood by his pro-Israel stance, angering members of his party who believe more should be done to help Gaza despite Hamas raping and heinously killing innocent Israelis. “I have a 12-year-old daughter,” Fetterman said....

“Who are we? Who are they really fighting? It’s a group of cowards. They hide in tunnels. They hide behind civilians. They attack, kill, and usually children murder. And they do that. Stop talking about proportion on that. They shot their best shot on October 7th, and they would have taken more lives if they could’ve done that,” Fetterman said in a fiery speech before the group. “But they couldn’t do it. And now let’s also talk about that. Now we’re talking about genocide. And now South Africa is now bringing that kind of a trial. Maybe South Africa, maybe...

A bulldozer unloads the bodies of Palestinians killed in fighting with Israel and turned over by the Israeli military during a mass funeral in Rafah, Gaza StripThe first hearing in a landmark lawsuit against Israel enters its second day on Friday at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ). The case, filed to the top UN court by South Africa last month, claims Israel's siege of Gaza amounts to genocide and breaches the post-Holocaust 1948 Genocide Convention. The Convention gives party countries, which include both Israel and South Africa, the collective right to prevent and stop crimes of genocide. Such...

South African politician Julius Malema, the president of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, said in a speech delivered at an October 23, 2023 protest outside the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and aired on SABC News (South Africa) that there is nothing wrong with what Hamas did. He said that there is no difference between Nelson Mandela and other anti-Apartheid activists and Hamas, as they all took up guns to fight for their people. Malema said that when people are oppressed, they must stand up for their freedom, and “shoot to kill,” not kiss their enemy. He vowed that when his...

Julius Malema has repeatedly called for the genocide of the 4 million Whites living in South Africa. Malema could very possibly be elected as Prime Minister in a few months. Zero international outrage.

JOHANNESBURG — Lungile Khoza is at her wits' end. The mother of four has been without water at her home for three weeks, the kids are dehydrated and sick, and she can't run her small hair salon so she's losing money. Khoza, 37, lives in Soweto, a sprawling township of Johannesburg, which is among the areas worst hit by a water crisis in the city. She says there are sometimes government trucks distributing water, but it often runs out before you make it to the front of the line. Then she says, the water seems to cause stomach problems for...

For a moment, there was so much hope. 0:04 Apartheid was over. 0:05 South Africa had, for decades, essentially operated as two different nations superimposed 0:10 on the same landscape. 0:12 There was the white nation—wealthy and westernized—boasting a similar, if not higher standard of living 0:18 to that of Europe due to its similarly strong and diversified economy. 0:22 Then there was the black nation—impoverished and excluded from that wealthier white nation 0:27 by a legally enshrined system of segregation. 0:30 It felt like Europeans had just built an insular outpost in Africa—that’s to say, it felt 0:36 like...

“30 years on, South Africa still dismantling racism and apartheid’s legacy,” the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights claims.After 30 years of ANC rule by Mandela and his increasingly more corrupt klepto-commie successors, what is there to dismantle?Besides the ANC’s own racism.Apartheid has long since gone. A generation grew up without it and soon so will another. All they will know is ANC rule. And ANC rule has meant racism, violent crime and a regime so corrupt that it can’t keep the lights on, but can ally with Russia, China and Hamas.South Africa is a racist hellhole...

Thank heavens it wasn't raining last Tuesday morning, as it can do in late autumn in South Africa. It would have meant a drenching for the most unusual ­politician fighting today's election — a 32-year-old farmer's son called Chris Pappas, who is white and gay. Peering through owlish glasses, he was giving a campaign speech to 70 locals in their decaying village hall, a half-day's drive inland from the coastal city of Durban in the sprawling province of KwaZulu-Natal. The building had gaping holes in the tin roof through which you could see the sky. In every window the glass...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority in a historic election result Saturday that puts South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago. With more than 99% of votes counted, the once-dominant ANC had received just over 40% in Wednesday’s election, well short of the majority it had held since the famed all-race vote of 1994 that ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela. The final results are still to be formally declared by the...

Election Day on May 29 was a tumultuous, wonderful day for South Africa. Thirty years of corruption and ruin under the sole rule of the African National Congress Party came to an end. The ANC, which won 63 percent of the vote in the first democratic election in 1994, and 70 percent in 2004, now only won 40 percent.When the ANC took power in April 1994, South Africa had the strongest economy and the best infrastructure in Africa. We had a plentiful supply of the world’s cheapest electricity and the world’s greatest mineral treasure. The horrible apartheid laws had been...

MSNBC host Joy Reid said Tuesday on her show “The ReidOut” that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter is about bringing back a system like apartheid in 1980’s South Africa. Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971 and lived there until he moved to Canada at the age of 17.

If Willie Sutton, the bank robber, would instantly have known the answer if asked “Was Archibishop Desmond Tutu anti-Israel or an anti-Semite?” After all, when asked why he robbed banks, Sutton explained, “That’s where the money is.” The iron logic of this bold answer holds the clue to Desmond Tutu’s well-known antipathy to Israel. Why hate Israel rather than any other country? Willie Sutton would say because that’s where the Jews are. If he’d heard that, Tutu’s beloved grin would melt into a grimace. Tugging at his crimson Episcopal cape, he would pontificate that, “The government of Israel is placed...