Free Republic

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2018 World Competitiveness Report ranks the United States No. 1 in global competitiveness, up from No. 3 in the past few years and its first top ranking in a decade. A high ranking matters. As the WEF reports: “Global competitiveness is determined by the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country … And productivity leads to growth ... and improved well-being. The U.S.’s top ranking therefore suggests a lot of growth and prosperity to come." According to the Davos elite (who are no fans of Donald Trump),...

Ambassador Nikki Haley used the threat of a U.S. invasion of North Korea to secure a new round of sanctions against the regime last year, according to a new report. Harper’s Magazine reported that Haley raised the possibility of a U.S. invasion by telling a Chinese diplomat, “My boss is kind of unpredictable, and I don’t know what he’ll do." Haley recalled making those comments during remarks at a small gathering of people at the Council for National Policy, and as part of her effort to discourage China from vetoing additional oil sanctions on North Korea last September, following the...

The U.S. is back on top as the most competitive country in the world, regaining the No. 1 spot for the first time since 2008 in an index produced by the World Economic Forum, which said the country could still do better on social issues. America climbed one place in the rankings of 140 countries, with the top five rounded out by Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and Japan. All five countries’ scores rose from 2017, with the U.S. notching the second-biggest gain after Japan’s. The top spot hasn’t gone to the U.S. since the financial crisis stalled output and triggered a...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea agreed on Monday to begin reconnecting rail and road links, another step in an improving relationship that has raised U.S. concern about the possible undermining of its bid to press the North to give up its nuclear program. The agreement on transport links came during talks in the border village of Panmunjom aimed at following up on the third summit this year between South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, last month. “The South and North reached the agreement after sincerely discussing action plans to develop inter-Korean relations...

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Seoul on Tuesday for failing to finance the U.S. deployment of a missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula. Last year, the U.S. deployed two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, launchers to South Korea in response to North Korea's increased missile and nuclear tests. "I said, so let me get this, we have a system that's very expensive and we shoot down rockets that are shot from North Korea to South Korea," Trump said to a crowd in Council Bluffs, Iowa. "Okay, so we're protecting South Korea, right? Why aren't they paying?" Trump...

Could the Korean peninsula be the world’s next epicentre of change? Today North Korea has an estimated gross domestic product of US$28 billion, similar in size to Cameroon. And yet, by 2050, it is possible that a more economically integrated Korean peninsula could range in size from US$4 to US$6.4 trillion, with the North accounting for around a quarter of that total. That would put the Korean peninsula, if measured as a single economy, roughly on par with Japan, Germany and the UK – and trailing only China, the US and India. To achieve a prize this size, huge unanswered...

As an initial step, the two Koreas are seeking to pull out 11 guard posts within a 1km radius of the Military Demarcation Line by the end of 2018. North Korea, South Korea and the United Nations Command (UNC) held their first three-way talks on Tuesday to discuss demilitarising the border as the two Koreas push for peace, Seoul’s defence ministry said. The two Koreas agreed during September’s summit in Pyongyang to form a tripartite consultation with the UNC, which overlaps with US forces in the South and overseas affairs in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), to facilitate their plan to...

It’s one thing to lose an election; it happens to everyone in politics. It’s one thing to lose a sports match; it happens in every sport. But something even rarer is happening in American politics right now, the losers don’t know why they’re losing and many of them don’t even realize they’re losing at all. In this case, the losers are the Democrats. They not only lost the 2016 presidential election, but continue to lose major battles with the Republicans over key issues like tax reform and the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation. Many of them are shocked by these...

when it comes to the real barometer of presidential truthfulness — keeping his promises — Trump is a paragon of honesty. For better or worse, since taking office, Trump has done exactly what he promised he would. Trump kept his promise to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something his three immediate predecessors also promised yet failed to do. He promised to “crush and destroy ISIS,” and two years later, he is on the verge of eliminating the Islamic State’s physical caliphate. He promised to impose a travel ban on countries he saw as posing...

A Nazi submarine described as an 'underwater Chernobyl' is being sunk into sand to stop deadly chemicals leaking into the sea and the surrounding bed. The wreckage of the German U-boat was left with 1,800 canisters of toxic mercury seeping into the sea off Bergen in Norway. U-864 was torpedoed by a British submarine in early 1945 as it headed for Japan carrying jet parts. The vessel left Kiel in Germany on December 5, 1944, but the hull was damaged in an attack and the captain headed for Norway to carry out repairs.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is ready to allow international inspectors into a key nuclear testing site, signaling a step forward in Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. After meeting with Kim in Pyongyang on Sunday, Pompeo told journalists in Seoul that the leader had agreed to open up the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site to inspectors, according to a pool report. North Korea claims to have destroyed the site. When asked for a date on the inspection, Pompeo responded: "As soon as we get it logistically worked out. Chairman...

We read about the coming trade wars with China and our get tough policy with North Korea. Trump has definitley shown Asia, that we’re no longer patsies. But can you blame them for treating us poorly and with contempt. Bush and Obama were a joke... This was our ambassador to Japan during the Obama years. This is her number one accomplishment. https://nypost.com/2016/12/21/caroline-kennedy-koi-dance-video-goes-viral-rightfully/

SEOUL, South Korea — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that in his meeting with Kim Jong-un on Sunday, the leader of North Korea had agreed to allow inspectors into a key nuclear testing site that the North has claimed it blew up, a down payment on the country’s commitment to denuclearize the country. Mr. Pompeo, whose planned trip to the North in August was canceled by President Trump because of a lack of progress, described his few hours on the ground in Pyongyang, the capital, as a “good trip.” The two men discussed “the upcoming second summit” between Mr....

The head of Russia’s space agency has accused tech billionaire Elon Musk of trying to squeeze Moscow out of the carrier rockets market by lowballing prices for commercial space flights. SpaceX has upended the space industry with its relatively low-cost Falcon 9 rockets. The company has completed more than 50 successful Falcon launches and snagged billions of dollars' worth of contracts, including deals with NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s Roscosmos Federal Space Agency, told state-run television on Monday that Musk sells launches from $40 million to $60 million “to squeeze Russia out...

It's going to be a big night for space tourism. The private spaceflight company SpaceX will reveal its first passenger for a trip around the moon on the company's massive BFR rocket and you can watch it all live online. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has even dropped tantalizing previews of the BFR's new rocket design on Twitter. SpaceX will unveil its BFR rocket passenger (the name stands for Big Falcon Rocket) in a webcast tonight (Sept. 17) at its Hawthorne, California headquarters. You can watch it live here, courtesy of SpaceX, beginning at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 Sept. 18 GMT)....

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke out against President Donald Trump in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, blasting his anti-press rhetoric, the retreat from the world stage, and his insults of U.S. allies.

A hardline adviser speaks out against the president's lovey-dovey diplomacy with Kim Jong Un. On Wednesday—just after Donald Trump gushed about falling “in love” with North Korea’s dictator and ahead of another trip by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang to prepare for a second summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un—Lindsey Graham delivered a stark message to the U.S. president: End the lovefest. “I’m telling President Trump, ‘Enough with I love you,’” said the Republican senator, a close ally of Trump’s who had spoken to the president right before joining Jeffrey Goldberg on stage at The Atlantic Festival....

Mayor of Japanese city says memorial for women used as sex slaves in Japan is not historically accurate The city of Osaka has ended its 60-year “sister city” relationship with San Francisco to protest against the presence in the US city of a statue symbolising Japan’s wartime use of sex slaves. Osaka’s mayor, Hirofumi Yoshimura, terminated official ties this week after the US city agreed to recognise the “comfort women” statue, which was erected by a private group last year in San Francisco’s Chinatown district, as public property. In his 10-page letter to San Francisco’s mayor, London Breed, Yoshimura noted...

Winner of the award announced on Friday in Oslo The winner of this year’s Nobel peace prize is set to be announced on Friday in Oslo, and while the committee does not make the nominees public there has been plenty of speculation over who could win the prestigious award. All that is known is there are 331 nominees – 216 individuals and 115 groups – according to the Nobel committee. The selection process is highly secretive, but here is a list of potential winners based on bookmakers, that includes controversial figures such as Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. Kim Jong-un...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Japan should refrain from flying the “Rising Sun” flag on a warship in a fleet review planned in South Korea next week, a North Korean propaganda website said on Friday, joining South Koreans in the latest spat over the countries’ colonial history. ...“The ‘Rising Sun’ flag is a war-crime flag that the 20th-century Japanese imperialists used when executing their barbaric invasions into our nation and other Asian nations,” North Korea’s state-controlled Uriminjokkiri website said. “Planning to enter flying the ‘Rising Sun’ flag is an unbearable insult and ridicule to our people.”