Free Republic

Populist Peter Pellegrini has been elected president of Slovakia, succeeding the liberal Zuzana Caputova. Mr Pellegrini, 48, defeated the pro-Western Ivan Korcok, a former diplomat, with 53% of the vote. A former prime minister, he is an ally of Prime Minister Robert Fico, and shares the PM's dovish attitude towards Russia. Mr Fico and his allies now control Slovakia's parliament, government and soon the president's office.

Two people were hospitalized after being attacked by a bear in Slovakia, officials reported Sunday. The Environment Ministry may propose making the animals easier to hunt to reduce their population. A 49-year-old woman suffered a wound to her shoulder and a 72-year-old man was treated for a gash on his hand from the bear in the town of Liptovsky Mikuláš, emergency services said. Police drove the bear out of town.. A day prior to the latest attack, a 31-year-old Belarussian woman apparently fell to her death trying to escape a brown bear in the nearby Low Tatra mountains. She and...

Slovakia will not permit Ukraine to become a member of NATO, Prime Minister Robert Fico declared in an interview with the Slovak outlet InfoVojna on December 19.In June, the U.S.-led military alliance refrained from offering Kyiv an actual invitation at the summit hosted by Lithuania. According to the joint communiqué from the Vilnius meeting, NATO would only be in a position to offer membership “when allies agree and conditions are met.”“We will not agree with Ukraine’s membership in NATO, because that would be the start of World War Three,” Fico said.He highlighted Bratislava’s opposition to such a scenario, indicating a...

In New York City arrests tonight as Pro-Palestinian demonstrators moved towards the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony... Former US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Dr. Henry Kissinger is dead at the age of 100... The Canadian government and Google reaching an agreement that makes Google pay Mainstream Media for links to their content... US Central Command acknowledging the Iranian drone overflight of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier... The US Navy destroyer Carney shooting down an Iranian-made Houthi drone near... In the Netherlands the Council of State the highest court ruling that asylum seekers in the country can...

During a SMER party conference, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico declared that his government will not sign the World Health Organisation’s Pandemic Treaty and SMER Members of Parliament will not ratify in parliament the Pandemic Treaty with the WHO because it is a project of greedy pharmaceutical companies. Robert Fico was appointed as Slovakia’s Prime Minister for the fourth time on 25 October 2023 after his SMER – Slovenská Sociálna Demokracia (“SMER”) party won the election on 30 September and formed a coalition with the centre-left HLAS – Sociálna Demokracia (“HLAS”) and nationalist Slovenská Národná Strana (“SNS”) parties. A week...

In Hollywood an end to the actors strike... In the early hours of Thursday six rockets fired at a US base near the Conoco natural gas field in Syria...At least 15 rockets fired at the US base near Syria's Al Omar oil field... The Hezbollah affiliated Al Mayadeen media outlet reporting a shootout involving US military and allied forces with Syrian soldiers... Two US Air Force F-15's attacking a base linked to Iran in Syria... Tonight, a US base in northeastern Syria attacked by a swarm of drones... A drone attacking a US military base in northern Iraq... Israel striking...

Slovakia's election winner, the SMER-SSD party of former prime minister Robert Fico, will sign a memorandum of understanding with prospective government partners HLAS and SNS ...

What is the US aircraft carrier doing in Israel? It will start to carry out serious massacres there by striking, destroying Gaza"...The comments of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan... A plane carrying ammunition from the United States arrived in Israel tonight... Tonight rocket fire aimed at Israel from Syria... Meanwhile the Russian military in Syria says that there were only three US coalition air space violations in Syria's Al-Tanf today... The United States determining that the new military government in Niger since July is the result of a military coup. This means a permanent cutoff of 200 million dollars... Tensions...

The Slovak government approved sending MIG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Friday, stepping up its military assistance to Kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion. Slovakia is the second country to send war planes to Kyiv after Poland, which announced on Thursday it would do so. Its fleet of 11 MiG-29 planes was retired last summer and most of them are not in operational condition. It will send those that are operational and the rest will go for spare parts. Slovakia will also supply part of its KUB air-defence system, Heger said.

Excavations were conducted by a team from the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) at Kiel University (CAU), and the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, which have been conducting research on the site of Vráble-Ve'lke Lehemby, one the largest Early Neolithic settlements in Central Europe.Vráble-Ve'lke Lehemby was occupied between 5,250 to 4,950 BC, comprising of 313 houses in three neighbouring villages. The south-western of the three settlements was surrounded by a 1.3 km-long double ditch that likely served as boundary marker rather than serving any defensive purpose.Archaeologists excavating the ditch have found 38 individuals in what appears to be...

Eastern Europe's arms industry is churning out guns, artillery shells and other military supplies at a pace not seen since the Cold War... [N]early a dozen government and company officials and analysts who spoke to Reuters said the conflict also presented new opportunities for the region's arms industry. Poland's...State-owned PGZ controls more than 50 companies making weapons and ammunition - from armoured transporters to unmanned air systems - and holds stakes in dozens more. It now plans to invest up to 8 billion zlotys ($1.8 billion)over the next decade, more than double its pre-war target... Other manufacturers too are increasing...

The leaders of nine NATO nations from Central and Eastern Europe issued a joint statement on Sunday in support of Ukraine's path to membership in the alliance. "We firmly stand behind the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit decision concerning Ukraine’s future membership," the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Czechia, Romania, North Macedonia, and Slovakia said on Sunday. At that 2008 summit, NATO allies said they "welcomed" Ukraine and Georgia's aspirations to the join the alliance, though no clear timetable has ever been announced.

INTERVIEW of Grigorij Mesežnikov: Why did Putin decide to start mobilization? Should we take the Kremlin's claims about a nuclear strike seriously? What can protests in the Russian Federation lead to? — Why did Putin decide to start mobilization? Did the people who stood for the war to the end win? — He decided to mobilize, because he no longer had a way out. In fact, he is a rat that has cornered itself. The Russian army is losing, and if such dynamics continue, then Ukraine could liberate a significant part of the territory that was captured by Russia by...

WARSAW (Reuters) – Germany said on Wednesday it was receiving less oil but still had enough supplies after Poland found a leak in the Druzhba pipeline that takes crude from Russia to Europe, which Warsaw said may have resulted from an accident rather than sabotage…. …Drone footage showed a black slick of oil from the underground pipeline spreading across farmland at the spill site, surrounded by fire engines and other emergency teams. “The security of supplies in Germany is currently guaranteed,” an Economy Ministry spokesman told Reuters. He added that “the refineries in Schwedt and Leona are still receiving crude...

Germany has promised to transfer to Ukraine 100 Soviet-made tanks, which will be delivered from Greece and Slovakia in a “circular scheme”. This was stated by German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, reports CNN. Head of the German Defense Ministry During a visit to the German military stationed in Lithuania, the German military announced additional deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, including the IRIS-T air defense system and 100 tanks from Greece and Slovakia. The website of the German government reports that queues for delivery to Ukraine: 4 IRIS-T anti-aircraft missile systems 2 MARS II multiple launch rocket systems with ammunition; 4...

Slovakia's parliament on Tuesday ratified the entry of Finland and Sweden to NATO, becoming one of the last countries to back the military alliance's expansion... NATO's 30 members have been ratifying their entry since accession protocols were signed in July. With Slovakia's vote, only Hungary and Turkey remain to approve the expansion... Hungary's parliament has the motion on Finland and Sweden's NATO membership on its agenda, but no date is set as lawmakers return after a summer recess.

Poland and Norway opened a new gas pipeline via Denmark on Tuesday, hailed as a much-needed alternative to Russian-controlled routes. At a ceremony in Poland, Norway’s Energy Minister Terje Aasland said the opening of Baltic Pipe was “a milestone on the important path towards European independence”... Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said it “marks a crucial geopolitical step for all of us.” “Putin uses Russian energy as a weapon to destabilise Europe, to divide us. He cannot be allowed to succeed,” Ms Frederiksen said, referring to the Russian president. Poland, one of the fiercest advocates in Europe of isolating Moscow,...

Traces of Alpine ibex hunters from several thousand years ago have been discovered in the Belianske Tatras in Slovakia.Based on isotope analyses, the joint Slovak-Polish research expedition in Hučivá Cave (Hučivá diera), say the traces were found in what was a Palaeolithic settlement left by the Magdalenian people, best known from France and Spain in the 13th millennium BC.Professor Paweł Valde-Nowak from the Institute of Archeology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków said: “It was a group of hunters specialising in hunting ibex, a species no longer found in the Tatras today.“We found several hundred blades of thrown weapons, bone...

Vladimir Putin has approved a 31-page "humanitarian policy" which says Russia should "protect, safeguard and advance the traditions and ideals of the Russian World". The foreign policy concept of a "Russian World" is a notion that hardliners have used to justify intervening abroad to support Russian speakers, such as in parts of Ukraine. It means that the idea is now enshrined in official policy, though it was presented as a soft power strategy. The new policy stated that Moscow should further deepen its ties with the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic - two breakaway entities in...

A team of archaeologists, palaeozoologists, geologists, sedimentologists, archaeobotanists and palaeogeneticists from the Institute of Archaeology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, found hundreds of blades made from either radiolarite, flint or limnosilicite, in addition to bone needles and the bones of various animals in the remains of a large hearth or fire within the cave.The researchers also found faunal and archaeobotanical remains, as well as bones from species of chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), deer (Cervus elaphus) and wild horse (Equus ferus). More than a dozen bones have traces of cut marks, cracking for marrow extraction and smoothing with stone tools...Most of...