Free Republic

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy Shandong Carrier Strike Group is operating in the Philippine Sea, being shadowed separately by Republic of China Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyers, according to both countries. Meanwhile, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday – shortly before its leader, Kim Jong Un, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia – marking the first time North Korea has conducted such a launch while its leader was overseas. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense in a Wednesday social media post stated that a total of 35 PLA...

The mood among Russia’s special forces and the FSB began to change dramatically in the fall, when Russian troops abandoned Kherson, suffering the latest of many humiliations for the Russian army. ''' We’ve known most of our contacts in Russia’s special forces and the FSB for years, and none was particularly religious before the war. Now a wave of mysticism has descended on them; the apparent trigger being a growing understanding that the war is not going to end anytime soon. '''

The Stratolaunch Roc plane in action during testing - Stratolaunch The world's largest flying aircraft has reached new heights, with Stratolaunch today completing the seventh test flight of its gigantic Roc carrier plane and logging a record altitude for the huge aircraft in the process. The exercise was also used to test the in-flight performance of recently installed pylon hardware, which will launch smaller hypersonic aircraft from altitude and send them across the skies at speeds of over Mach 5. California's Stratolaunch originally designed Roc to carry rockets and satellites into the stratosphere from where they would then be...

Overviewing the current strategic situations, mainland China, aspiring to become an international superpower, is eager to undermine the international order and regional stability. It has been particularly imposing coercive means of verbal intimidation and saber-rattling, intrusion and provocation by aerial and maritime assets, cyberattacks, and cognitive warfare-forcing us to succumb to their will. Amidst the rapid-change external situations with full of severe challenges, the ROC Armed Forces is absolutely responsible for defending Taiwan. Only by improving ourselves and striving forward, accelerating force buildup and focusing on defense reform without fear of any difficulties, can we protect the country by our...

Those tuning into the Tokyo Olympics may have noticed that Russian athletes are competing under the flag of the ROC, or Russian Olympic Committee, rather than their native country. That’s because the 335 Russian athletes participating in this year’s Summer Games are considered “neutrals” due to the fact that Russia is currently banned from the Olympics. In 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency banned Russia from all international sporting competitions, including the Olympics, for four years over a doping scandal. The punishment was cut in half to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport following a 2020 appeal and...

Senior defense officials in Taiwan were coy about the country's military collaboration with Japan when quizzed on Monday about satellite imagery showing an apparent joint surveillance operation of a Chinese warship in the East China Sea. Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters that Taiwan was cooperating with a number of friendly parties but said he could not disclose information about specific departments. On Saturday, Japan's Defense Ministry said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) frigate Binzhou had passed through the Miyako Strait into the Western Pacific the day before. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force later deployed an Abukuma-class destroyer escort and...

Click for lovely music! Happy Orthodox Easter! Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!

An extraordinary meeting of the leadership of the Church of Greece decided on October 12 to recognize the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), making it the first of the Eastern Orthodox churches to take such a step. The Orthodox Times said the Greeks' formal recognition will take place on October 19 in Thessaloniki, with Archbishop Ieronymos and the OCU's Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine present. The Patriarchate of Constantinople, generally considered the spiritual headquarters for Orthodoxy, granted the Orthodox Church of Ukraine independence in January in a move that was adamantly resisted by Moscow and the Russian...

A 32-year-old Chinese woman, who said she wanted to talk to President Trump’s family about economic relations between the United States and her home country, lied her way into Mar-a-Lago over the weekend before she was arrested, U.S. Secret Service agents said. Yujing Zhang, who said she was sent by a fellow Chinese national named Charles, was charged with making false statements to a federal officer and entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds. She appeared in U.S. District Court on Monday and a public defender was appointed to represent her. She is to return to court next...

The creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in line with canonical principles is one way or another pushing people to get from under of Moscow's influence. It is not only spiritual support that Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) Kirill is losing as a result of the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, it is also big money, says religious scholar Vita Titarenko. With each community leaving the ROC toward the Orthodox Church of Ukraine she believes Kirill is losing the income which had earlier been receiving from them. The creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine...

The real problem is that the crisis is deeper and its reasons can’t in any way be reduced to politics or the question of autocephaly. And the people who live in Ukraine and the Ukrainian church bear in themselves exactly the same wounds of Soviet authority that people in the modern Russian Federation bear. They are not free of Soviet times just as we are not free; they haven’t repented and haven’t been reborn either. And that rebirth cannot happen if people continue to insist that the reasons for the horror of the 20th century are external, rather than within...

The creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) on December 15, at a Unification Council in Kyiv attended by representatives of three previously divided Orthodox jurisdictions in Ukraine, is a seismic event in world Christian history that could also have significant geopolitical repercussions. For centuries, Orthodoxy in Ukraine was subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, as Ukraine itself was subjected to Russian suzerainty (sometimes under the guise of Soviet “republicanism”). The first phase of Vladimir Putin’s attempt to re-create some form of the old Soviet empire in the Russian “near abroad” has unfolded under the...

MOSCOW, Russia - The Russian Orthodox church on Friday called on Pope Francis, the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics. Ukraine’s Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting Saturday that is expected to form a new, independent Ukrainian church, and Ukrainian authorities have ramped up pressure on priests to support the move. The Ukrainian church has been part of the Russian church for centuries, while enjoying broad autonomy, but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pushed for the creation of an independent...

The image of the Russian Orthodox Church as the “handmaiden” of the state long prevailed in Tsarist Russia. After decades of Soviet persecution, this perception of the church has reemerged. Some in Russia have leveled similar criticism, as in a public declaration by three provincial Orthodox priests: “We urgently ask you to cease the shameful practice of blind collaboration with the authorities and every kind of dalliance with the wealthy in our country.” While church and state do collaborate in many areas, they have diverging perspectives and interests. The church’s adamant defense of autonomy stems from the calamitous Soviet experience....

On December 1, Vladimir Putin addressed the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. His remarks on the Orthodox Church’s historical and contemporary value to Russian society illustrate his utilitarian view of the church as a conduit of the Kremlin tasked with maintaining “stability and unity.” Putin’s view is at odds with that of Patriarch Kirill, who criticized the state’s influence on the church in remarks delivered later that day. The differences in opinion between President Putin and Patriarch Kirill shed light on broader cleavages in Russian society over the future relationship between church and state, which the...

The Moscow Patriarchate’s chief ecumenical officer praised a non-sectarian class in religions in Russia’s schools and called for the course’s extension beyond fourth grade. “If our children do not know religious teachings, they can involuntarily become an easy prey for terrorists,” Metropolitan Hilarion, the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations, said in an interview with Ekaterina Gracheva of the television station Russia-24. “We must always remember that terrorism cannot be motivated by religion,” he continued, though “there are people who cover their criminal acts with religious rhetoric.” After stating that Orthodox children should learn about Islam, and Muslim...

A military source on Friday confirmed plans for the production of an upgraded version of the navy’s Tuo Chiang-class stealth corvette that is to incorporate expanded anti-aircraft capabilities. The new vessel type is to be longer, wider and equipped with 3D radar systems and a ship-to-air version of the Tien Chien II (“Sky Sword”) guided missile system. A total of 11 vessels are to be produced in three lots, for a total of 12 ships including the original Tuo Chiang-class corvette, the source said. The navy plans to begin operating three of the new vessels and make design adjustments where...

BOULDER, COLORADO — The Republican Party held their third debate in Boulder, Colorado Wednesday night and if anyone came out on top of the third Republican debate Wednesday night, it was Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. The biggest spat of the night came when former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush attacked Rubio over his absence in the senate, which Rubio dodged gracefully and countered with an attack on what he called the mainstream media — Hillary Clinton's real super PAC. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz scored some easy media-bashing points as well. Jeb Bush did nothing but dig deeper into his poll...

The Russian Orthodox Church is deeply grieved to learn about the terrible terrorist action in a college in the state of Oregon in the United States, in which peaceful people were killed. What makes the tragedy even graver is that the killer consciously chose to victimize young people who confess Christianity. This glaring inhuman act confirms once again that Christianity has become the most persecuted religion in the world. Extremists in various parts of the world increasingly seek to provoke hatred and enmity among religions and nations, for which they are ready to commit the most inhuman evil deeds. The...

<p>Warplanes have carried out air strikes in Hama, Homs and Latakia in what Russia's powerful Orthodox Church has termed a "holy battle".</p> <p>“Russian and Syrian airplanes carried out numerous strikes today against terrorist positions in Hama, Homs and Latakia provinces,” according to a Syrian security source.</p>