Here is an interesting article about how silicon valley start ups are trying to take on established defense contractors and build weapons specialized for a war with China:

Luckey, now 31, is a new breed of startup founder and defense-company executive. He is rarely seen wearing anything other than his trademark flip-flops and Hawaiian shirts, lashes out on social media against “idiots” who criticize his company, and says he models himself after a character in a Japanese anime series. 

His company, Anduril Industries—named after a magical sword from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” novels—is central to Silicon Valley’s quest to take on weapons makers like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Since its founding in 2017, Anduril has raised $3.7 billion in venture funding, including $1.5 billion announced this past week. The newcomers’ hope is that the Pentagon will eventually kill off what Luckey calls “old legacy zombie programs,” like expensive jet fighters and attack helicopters, and instead buy autonomous weapons, like drones and uncrewed submarines.

These weapons, Luckey argues, are needed for a potential conflict with China, which the Pentagon two years ago announced is the greatest danger to U.S. security. The U.S. military, Luckey and others say, needs large numbers of cheaper and more intelligent systems that can be effective over long stretches of ocean and against a manufacturing and technological power like China. 

The Wall Street Journal

You can read more at the link.

This should not be really surprising that North Korea has rejected international flood aid. The international community should not have been offering it anyway because if North Korea has money to build nuclear weapons and ICBMs they can provide their own disaster relief:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has pledged to bring victims of recent heavy downpours to the capital city of Pyongyang to take care of them without outside help, state media said Saturday.

Kim made a two-day trip on Thursday and Friday to Uiju County in the northwestern province of North Pyongan to meet flood victims staying at a temporary shelter and offered support, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. 

He announced “an emergency system” to bring children, the elderly, disabled soldiers and mothers in North Pyongan, Jagang and Ryanggang provinces to Pyongyang to provide support in the next two to three months until the reconstruction and repair of their homes are completed, saying about 15,400 people could be brought to the capital city.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

This is horrible for the airmen in this security force at Kunsan AB:

Members of the 8th Security Forces Squadron salute at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, in May 2022. (Jesenia Landaverde/U.S. Air Force)

An airman was discovered dead at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea on Monday, less than two weeks after the death of a fellow service member assigned to the same unit. Senior Airman Saniyya Smalls, 25, of the 8th Security Forces Squadron, was found at an unspecified location on Kunsan, roughly 115 miles south of Seoul, the 8th Fighter Wing said in a news release Tuesday. Smalls’ death is a “tragic loss” and “has deeply impacted our community,” wing commander Col. Peter Kasarskis said in the release.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but condolences to the friends and family of both airmen.

With everything going on in the world, a badminton scandal is currently the top news story in South Korea:

Responding to critical comments by a badminton gold medalist toward her national team, South Korean Olympic chief Lee Kee-heung said Tuesday he had ordered five coaches to submit reports on the situation.

The action by Lee, president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC), was in reference to criticism that An Se-young, the women’s singles champion at the Paris Olympics, leveled against the national badminton team moments after she won her gold medal Monday.

An, who had suffered a torn knee ligament in October 2023 while playing in the gold medal match of the Asian Games, claimed that her national team staff didn’t take her injury as seriously as they should have. She also said she found it “difficult” to continue on with the national team, though she later clarified she wasn’t about to retire from international play, and she was only demanding some action from the Badminton Korea Association.

With An and the rest of the badminton team heading back home Tuesday evening, Lee said he didn’t have enough time to look deeper into the situation.

Speaking to reporters at South Korea’s training camp in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, Lee said, “I ordered five coaches to submit reports on how An’s injury had been handled in the months between the Asian Games and the Paris Olympics.”

On top of injury management, An accused the national team of building training programs around doubles players instead of singles players like herself, and of sticking to archaic and inefficient regimens.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this story makes me wonder if anyone would have cared about her complaints if she didn’t win a gold medal?

With another fire, this is making me wonder if Korean building owners will start banning EVs from being parked in parking garages?:

Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze that broke out from an EV car in a parking lot in South Chungcheong. [NEWS1]

Yet another EV-related blaze broke out in Geumsan County, South Chungcheong, following a Mercedes-Benz EV explosion in an underground parking lot in Incheon a week ago. 
  
The police have identified the vehicle involved as a Kia EV6 model. 
  
Residents reported flames in a parking lot to police and fire stations around 5 a.m. on Tuesday. Fire authorities dispatched 35 firefighters and 12 apparatuses, including some fire trucks, to extinguish the blaze. It was brought under control after an hour and 37 minutes, with no reported casualties. 
  
The fire department took measures to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby vehicles and moved the EV out of the parking garage during the firefighting process to minimize additional damage. 
  
“I parked and plugged in the charger around 7 p.m. the previous day,” said the vehicle’s owner, a man in his 50s.

Joong Ang Ilbo via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but great job by the firefighters for putting out the fire before it spread to other vehicles in the parking garage.