Free Republic

The 70+ year alliance between the US and Turkey has finally come to a dramatic end. But this turn of events was nowhere near unforeseen. In fact, I have been writing about the progression of this calamity for over a year. In April, I even wrote that Turkey was getting ready for economic warfare by repatriating its gold from the Federal Reserve. Well, now we are here. As the US rolled out economic sanctions against Turkey in recent days, the Turkish currency (lira) lost 35% of its value against the US dollar. This has caused inflation to skyrocket, which is...

Full Title: Anatomy of a Sting: Robert Mueller Likely Used FBI and Foreign Intel to Set-Up George Papadopoulos in July 2017 The Daily Caller has learned that a man named Charles Tawil gave Papadopoulos $10,000 during a meeting in an Israeli hotel room in July 2017. Papadopoulos gave the money to an attorney in Greece before traveling back to the U.S., a source told TheDCNF on the condition of anonymity. Papadopoulos was arrested at Dulles International Airport on a return trip from overseas on July 27, 2017. (read more) Do you see what they did there? The $10k payment to...

White House National Security Advisor John Bolton met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his official residence in Jerusalem tonight.... Salih Khater, a Sudanese born UK national, will appear in court Monday charged with two counts of attempted murder over a terrorist incident last week in London.... The FBI and Oregon State Police handling of a January 26, 2016 "felony traffic stop" that killed one Oregon Standoff protestor, LaVoy Finicum, and injured another, Ryan Bundy, came under scrutiny from an esteemed mainstream media outlet this weekend..... In South Africa, white farmers fearful of the government seizing their land are...

A certain Valerius and a certain Athanasius lived during the 5th century AD in Egypt. 1500 years ago, the certain Valerius wrote a letter to Athanasius in Ancient Greek. The letter contained insults and threats of lashing and burning. A fragment of the letter,  written on a Papyrus was translated by scientists. "You trickster, you traitor, you son of a b**** ..." Valerius writes to Athanasius. However, the reason why Valerius was fuming so much remains unknown as the rest of the papyrus is missing. An x-rated papyrus? 'Valerius to Athanasius: You trickster, you traitor, you son of a b****...

A farmer in Kentri Ierapetra on Crete attempted to park his vehicle in the shade of an olive tree and by pure chance, the over-irrigated dirt under his vehicle revealed a carved tombstone of the Late Minoan III period... In the grave, that had not been ransacked, archaeologists discovered two large Larnaka Late Minoan period embossed depictions that are in excellent condition. In addition, there were two skeletons found in the graves and about 24 vases with colored embossings and depictions. "Soil retreat was a result of the watering of the olive trees in the area as well as a...

Archaeologists have found traces of beer in Iraq that are super old, dating back 2,500 years to ancient Mesopotamia and the Babylonian Empire. While texts from those forgotten days speak of fermented drinks, this is the "oldest direct evidence" of beer discovered, Smithsonian reports. And now the archaeologists who discovered the traces are trying to replicate the recipe for us to enjoy in the modern era. Eons pass and civilizations fall, but beer is always good. Elsa Perruchini, the lead author on the study announcing the discovery, used a process called gas chromatography, which has never before been used to...

The eating habits of ancient Greeks were developed after a deep and detailed study of the needs of the body and the spirit. Their diet, which was an important part of their philosophical vision, was based on rules that combined enjoyment with well-being. Unlike what many modern nutritionists believe about the benefits of a hearty breakfast, the ancient Greeks, and especially the Athenians, used to start their day with a very frugal meal that included “akratisma“, a little barley bread dipped in wine. Sometimes they were adding olives and figs. More often, however, their breakfast was limited to a boiled...

Off the coast of the Black Sea in the Mykolaiv region, archaeologists have discovered a sunken ancient Greek shipwreck dating back more than 2.5 thousand years. The ship, discovered during a joint expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of NAS of Ukraine and the Warsaw Institute of Archaeology, is believed to be one of the oldest of its kind discovered in the region. According to the head of the black sea international underwater archaeological expedition, Vyacheslav Gerasimov, it may have possibly sailed ancient trade routes to Olbia or Chersonesos. “This ship is one of the oldest known in the Northern...

"The Patriarchate of Constantinople is struggling with the Russian Church for influence in the Orthodox world. The Moscow and Constantinople Patriarchates are in tense relations today because of Ukraine.” Russian Orthodox priests are complaining they are unable to obtain Schengen visas for EU travel through Greek missions as relations between Athens and Moscow worsens... In a report carried by the BBC’s Russian-language service on Thursday, a source from the church in Constantinople claimed this Greek “policy” is because “Russian priests … are perceived as potential spies and agents of influence”. Several priests told the BBC they had either been refused...

More than 1,000 tourists a day visit the island of Santorini from cruise ships in the peak season. They use traditional transport on the hilly terrain - where cars cannot go - and are attracted to idyllic white houses in places such as the principal town of Fira. Every day the donkeys make four to five journeys up its 520 white cobbled steps in temperatures of up to 86F (30C). Animal rights activists claim donkeys are increasingly left with spinal injuries and open wounds from ill-fitting saddles. They say that, with obesity on the rise, the animals are being forced...

Hello, happy weekend, what did you do last night? Because Lindsay Lohan was chilling in Mykonos when who should wander in? That would be Tiffany Trump, aka the daughter of President Donald Trump, man who is currently running the United States. Lindsay hit up Instagram to share a now-deleted photo of herself and Tiffany hanging with their mutual friend Andrew Warren at a fundraiser for victims of the Greek wildfires. And for reasons you can go ahead and file under "huh, okay," LiLo went ahead and tagged POTUS in her post....

Hundreds of residents of the seaside resort of Mati, east of Athens, sought refuge on Monday to nearby beaches to evade the approaching fire that has claimed the lives of at least 50 people.Heartbreaking photos have emerged of panicked residents trying to escape the rage of the flames and waiting to be rescued by the Greek coast guard and private boats. (note: many more photos at the link and 2 videos) -- Greeks Turn to Social Media to Find Missing Persons A group of Greeks have created an electronic database with photos and names of missing persons following Monday’s devastating fires...

At least 60 people have died in wildfires in the Attica region around Athens, in Greece's worst fire disaster in more than a decade. Flames fanned by strong winds devastated the seaside village of Mati, devouring homes and cars. Rescuers found the bodies of 26 adults and children who had apparently hugged each other as they died, trapped by the inferno just metres from the sea. Many calls have been made to the rescue services looking for missing persons.

The Meghalayan...runs from 4,200 years ago to the present. It began with a destructive drought, whose effects lasted two centuries, and severely disrupted civilisations in Egypt, Greece, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Yangtze River Valley. The Meghalayan Age is unique among the many intervals of the geologic timescale in that its beginning coincides with a global cultural event produced by a global climatic event... The middle phase of the Holocene will be referred to as the Northgrippian, and runs from 8,300 years ago up to the start of the Meghalayan. The onset for this age was an...

Israel is ramping up attacks against Iranian supply lines in Syria to block the flow of weapons to Hezbollah and other Tehran-backed militias, as it seeks to drive its foe away from its borders. In June Israel targeted a far-flung compound near the Syria-Iraq border, according to a security official, after carrying out multiple strikes closer to home against suspected Iranian military assets in Syria, where Iran is a key backer of President Bashar al-Assad. Israel, in accordance with its usual practice, didn’t confirm or deny it carried out the June airstrike. The U.S. denied responsibility, and a U.S. official...

Hamas’s former chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said during a meeting in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday that the movement had received information of a US plan to offer Palestinian leaders a state with its capital in Abu Dis, a Palestinian village near East Jerusalem... connected to the Al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem with a bridge. The plan also proposed dividing the West Bank into three sections and creating an autonomous region in the Gaza Strip. Abu Dis, a small rural community overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem to the southwest and the Jordan Valley to the east, had been...

The Warriors of ParosEarliest Polyandria (Soldiers' burials) found in Greece offer clues to the rise of Classical Greek City-States and Phalangeal War Tactics. by Foteini Zafeiropoulou and Anagnostis Agelarakis Soldiers' bones in urns-evidence of a forgotten battle fought around 730 BC. Did these men perish on their island home of Paros, at the center of the Aegean Sea, or in some distant land? The loss of so many, at least 120 men, was certainly a catastrophe for the community, but their families and compatriots honored them, putting the cremated remains into large vases two of which were decorated with scenes...

Y. pestis was the notorious culprit behind the sixth century's Plague of Justinian, the Black Death, which killed 30%-50% of the European population in the mid-1300s, and the Third Pandemic, which emerged in China in the 1850s. Earlier putative plagues, such as the Plague of Athens nearly 2,500 years ago and the second century's Antonine Plague, have been linked to the decline of Classical Greece and the undermining of the Roman army. However, it has been unclear whether Y. pestis could have been responsible for these early epidemics because direct molecular evidence for this bacterium has not been obtained from...

Secret of ancient Athens plague is being unraveled Kerameikos, Athens’s ancient cemetery, has yielded conclusive evidence as to the nature of the plague that decimated a third of the population of the ancient city and influenced the outcome of the Peloponnesian Wars. Scientists at Athens University’s School of Dentistry have used molecular biology to help solve the riddle of one of history’s biggest mysteries.Greek scientists find typhoid after excavating graves By Dr Manolis Papagrigorakis (1) Recent findings from a mass grave in the Ancient Cemetery of Kerameikos in central Athens show typhoid fever may have caused the plague of Athens,...

A team of scientists at the University of Basel, Switzerland, has discovered that a 1,800-year-old papyrus from the Basel Papyrus Collection is an ancient medical text from late antiquity and that it was likely written by the famous Roman physician Galen. The University Library in Basel possesses a collection of 65 papyri, mostly in Greek and several in Coptic, Hieratic and Latin. Less than half of this collection was published by Ernst Rabel in 1917 in Papyrusurkunden der Öffentlichen Bibliothek der Universität zu Basel. With mirror writing on both sides, one of the Basel papyri — dubbed P.Basel 1A —...