Free Republic

Sex robots are coming to America, and Houston is the first battleground.The first “robot sex brothel” in America is set to open in Houston, Texas, this November. The mayor is currently investigating how to restrict or regulate it.The owner plans to expand to 10 locations in the U.S. by 2020.This disturbing development is sure to have a negative impact on society.The brand of brothels, KinkSdollS, is owned by Yuval Gavriel. The first location opened in Tokyo in 2017. Clients can test the merchandise and pay by the half-hour to be alone with a doll.Concerned citizens in Houston are right to...

China is the country presenting the biggest barrier to peace on the Korean peninsula, surpassing North Korea for the first time, according to a new poll of South Korean citizens. China “does not want inter-Korean reunification”, according to 91 per cent of respondents, compared with 90, 88 and 53 per cent for Japan, Russia and the United States respectively. In the survey, released on Tuesday by the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies (IPUS) at Seoul National University, 46 per cent of respondents viewed China as “the most threatening country to peace on the Korean peninsula”, a dramatic increase from...

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Hey, remember when all the “experts” were telling you that President Donald Trump could not possibly successfully renegotiate the 25 year-old NAFTA deal? – Yeah, they were wrong about that, too. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump Late last night, our deadline, we reached a wonderful new Trade Deal with Canada, to be added into the deal already reached with Mexico. The new name will be The United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It is a great deal for all three countries, solves the many...... 5:30 AM - Oct 1, 2018 32.5K...

Pre-orders have begun for the first models of a £3.1million electric car which its makers claim can accelerate from 0 to 60 in less than two seconds. The futuristic Aspark Owl, manufactured by a Japanese company, is going on display at the Paris Motor Show this week. At the launch the car's creators said it would have 430 horsepower, weigh less than 1,900 pounds - similar to an average dairy cow and less than half a typical white rhino - and accelerate to sixty in just two seconds. Customers will be able to put down their first £890,000 (€1 million)...

The United States and Canada have cut a last minute trade deal Sunday night ahead of the midnight deadline for Canada to join the United States and Mexico in a trilateral trade arrangement.... Today is Election Day in Canada's second most populous province, Quebec. Four political parties are expected to be dividing up the 125 seats in Quebec's National Assembly.... A political party committed to reducing US military presence has won the election in the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa.... There's a lot of political drama in the UK amidst the Conservative Party conference with many of the faithful dismayed by...

Watch "President Trump Addresses the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly" on YouTube https://youtu.be/q6XXNWC5Koc This speech is so damned incredible, I must post the link in case anyone here has not watched it. Unbelievable clarity and conviction.

The Japanese are growing increasingly concerned that China will someday move to occupy — Bejing says ‘reclaim’ — the Senkaku Islands, which China calls the Diaoyu Islands, and thus is arming up for that potential confrontation. The development comes as Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, pushes for a more muscular military in the face of a rising revisionist China. In April 2014, for instance, he lifted a ban on sales of Japanese weapons systems to other countries, though defense firms have not actually sold any systems.

Private lunar exploration company ispace said it would blast a lander and rovers towards the moon on a SpaceX rocket on two separate missions. The spaceware will first orbit the moon in mid-2020, followed by a moon landing attempt set for mid-2021. It comes a week after SpaceX confirmed Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will be the first man to fly around the moon on a SpaceX rocket as early as 2023. "We share the vision with SpaceX of enabling humans to live in space, so we're very glad they will join us in this first step of our journey," ispace...

President Trump on Tuesday took aim at Iran in a defiant address to the United Nations, calling on world leaders to join the U.S. in isolating Tehran over its "aggression." Trump used a large portion of his address to tout his administration's plans to launch a "campaign of economic pressure" aimed at starving Iran of money it would use "to advance its bloody agenda" in the Middle East and beyond. The president noted his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Obama-era nuclear agreement between Iran and other world powers and stressed that many sanctions would be reimposed on Iran...

The remains of an Army master sergeant from Indiana and a private first class from North Carolina were included in the 55 cases of remains of missing Korean War veterans turned over in July by North Korea, President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday. The two soldiers, both likely killed in action fighting Chinese forces in North Korea about 66 years ago, are the first positive identities that Pentagon officials have confirmed since the transfer was completed July 27 as part an agreement hashed out by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their summit June 12 in Singapore. Pentagon...

With rising unilateralism challenging its very existence, the United Nations convenes its annual meeting of world leaders Monday and will try once more to tackle problems together as a community of nations, addressing threats ranging from Mideast conflicts to the effects of global warming — and also encouraging the glimmer of hope over the nuclear standoff in North Korea. This year, 133 world leaders have signed up to attend the General Assembly session, a significant increase from last year’s 114. Secretary-General António Guterres called the expected large turnout “eloquent proof of the confidence of the international community in the United...

The rovers are part of the MINERVA-II1 program, and are designed to hop along the asteroid's surface, taking photographs and gathering data. In fact, one of the initial images sent home by the hoppers is awfully blurry, since the robot snapped it while still on the go. In order to complete the deployment, the main spacecraft of the Hayabusa2 mission lowered itself carefully down toward the surface until it was just 120 feet (55 meters) up. After the rovers were on their way, the spacecraft raised itself back up to its typical altitude of about 12.5 miles above the asteroid's...

The U.S. Navy, in partnership with the Army and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, have started the recovery of oil from the overturned World War II German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the Kwajalein Atoll.

Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe acknowledges applause from the LDP lawmakers shortly after his name was called as the winner of the ruling party presidential elections at its headquarters in Tokyo on Sept. 20. (AP Photo) Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a ruling party leadership vote on Thursday, putting him on track to become Japan's longest-serving prime minister and to try to cement his legacy, including by revision of the country's pacifist, post-war Constitution. If Abe, who quit abruptly after a troubled 2006-07 term, stays in office through November 2019, he will have exceeded the 2,886 days marked by...

If North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was searching for the perfect propaganda set piece, something designed to show his people that he's a strong leader pushing inexorably for the long-delayed, long-promised prosperity they deserve, then visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in might be providing him with a unique opportunity. Moon believes that his deep engagement with North Korea is crucial after last year's fears of war, when Washington reacted with fury to a torrent of ever-more-powerful North Korean weapons tests. He argues better ties with North Korea will help South Koreans, and the region, by settling the standoff over...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Tuesday that his summit last June with President Donald Trump has provided geopolitical stability and that he expects more progress in talks between his nation and Washington. Kim's comments, first reported by Reuters, were made at the start of a three-day summit at which Kim is meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang, the pair's third meeting of the year. Kim also credited Moon with making the “historic” summit in Singapore possible. “Thanks to that, the political situation in the region has stabilized and I expect more advanced results,” Kim told...

Sachio Kinugasa, the Japanese slugger who in 1987 broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played, only to see his testament to durability exceeded nine years later by Cal Ripken Jr., died on Monday. He was 71. The cause was colon cancer, according to reports in the Japanese news media, which did not specify where he died. In Japan, Kinugasa embodied consistency and effort by playing in game after game for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp over 17 years despite broken bones, slumps and age. Even after a pitch fractured his left shoulder blade in 1979 — about halfway through his...

SpaceX announced on Monday night that its first moonshot passenger will be Yusaku Maezawa, a billionaire estimated by Forbes to be the 18th richest person in Japan. He'll be the first private passenger to visit the moon in the company's much hyped Big Falcon Rocket -- if the launch happens. "I choose to go to the moon!" said the 42-year-old Maezawa, who founded Japan's largest online fashion mall and is worth almost $3 billion. The announcement was made at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. The launch is scheduled to happen in 2023. It's not the first time the...

The United States' commitment to global development does not look good compared with that of other wealthy countries — and it's likely to get worse. According to an annual index released Tuesday by the Center for Global Development that ranks 27 of the world's wealthiest countries, the U.S. scored dead last on foreign aid contributions and quality — despite being the largest donor in dollar amount. That's because in 2017, it allocated a mere 0.18 percent of its gross national income for development assistance. That is well short of the 0.7 percent that wealthy countries have committed to strive for...

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived in North Korea on Tuesday for his third and possibly most challenging summit yet with leader Kim Jong Un in which he hopes to break an impasse in talks with the United States over the North's denuclearization and breathe energy into his own efforts to expand and improve relations between the Koreas. In what are by now familiar images of the two Korean leaders hugging and exchanging warm smiles, Kim greeted Moon at Pyongyang's airport. They walked together past cheering crowds and a military honor guard, and then drove...