Free Republic

Conservative Karol Nawrocki won Poland’s weekend presidential runoff election, according to the final vote count on Monday. Nawrocki won 50.89% of votes in a very tight race against liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11%

The US president no longer cares about the near-term political consequences of his actions, says the former senior official in an interview in Washington. Few people know the inside of U.S. Republican administrations as well as John Bolton, who has worked on foreign policy in every one of them since the days of Ronald Reagan. Under George W. Bush, he served as ambassador to the UN, and in Donald Trump’s first term, he served as National Security Adviser for 18 months—“a record for that administration,” he recalls with a laugh. The relationship didn’t end well: Bolton, like many other senior...

An interdisciplinary research team has demonstrated a durable and lasting response to a novel treatment—combined locoregional therapy and immunotherapy (LRT-IO)—for advanced liver cancer patients. Advanced liver cancer is often considered incurable, but it can sometimes be converted to a treatable stage through a combination of therapies, potentially leading to curative surgery. This innovative strategy consists of three treatments: stereotactic beam radiotherapy (SBRT) with optional transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), followed by immunotherapy (IO). In previous studies, the team found that the cancer completely disappeared in 42% of patients after treatment, as evidenced by MRI or CT scans—even without curative surgery. The research...

I love watching women’s football (Australian Rules). It provides a better spectacle and healthier community than the men’s game. Watch the strength, agility and quick thinking of number 22 from Aberfeldie as an example of how good the women’s game can be to watch. (click link to see video) With a fantastic tackle she dispossesses a powerfully built Hillside opponent of the football, and then gets to her feet and brilliantly anticipates the trajectory of a handpass from another Hillside player to knock the ball behind an opponent and run around that player to possession for her team and race...

Bronze Age potters working in the city of Hama in current-day Syria appear to have sold more than just cups, bowels, and dishes 4,500 years ago -- they apparently also sold children's toys. Past excavations at the site have uncovered 19 small clay artifacts that contained bits of clay or small pebbles that produce a sound when shaken. Originally, they were thought to have been musical instruments. However, according to a statement released by the National Museum of Denmark, these objects have now been reinterpreted as baby rattles. Researchers determined that the sound that the artifacts produced was much too...

A small bronze coin found at an ancient site near Tashkent has the potential to reshape archaeologists' understanding of early Turkic civilization, reports Türkiye Today. According to archaeologist Gaybulla Babayarov of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, the late sixth– or early seventh–century object is stamped with the phrase "Turk-Kagan" written in the Sogdian language. While the word "kagan," sometimes spelled khagan, refers to the ruler of an empire or khaganate, Babayarov argues the usage of the word "Turk" here denotes the oldest known reference to ethnic Turkic identity. Previously, the earliest known appearance of the term "Turk" came from eighth-century...

ERR News reports that a new experimental archaeology study may have finally solved a decades-old mystery surrounding a set of bone tools found at the oldest known settlement in Estonia. The Mesolithic site of Pulli was first investigated by archaeologists in the 1960s and 1970s, when teams uncovered a large number of stone, antler, and bone tools that were around 10,000 years old. Nineteen of them were made from elk bone and had distinctive beveled points. Initially, these were thought to be chisels, but recent reanalysis as part of the project Life and Death Written in Bones suggested they were...

Chemotherapy doesn't just kill cancer cells. It also affects the microbes in the digestive tract. Researchers have discovered that some gut bacteria can reduce the side effects of these potent treatments, and that one family of cancer drugs may actually boost these protective bacteria. The phenomenon could help physicians to predict the severity of a patient's side effects, and it points the way to supplements that could help those whose guts aren't sufficiently protecting them. Turnbaugh's team found colorectal cancer patients taking a class of chemotherapy drugs known as fluoropyrimidines had less diverse microbiomes in their digestive systems. But the...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed that a devastating drone strike which obliterated more than 40 Russian aircraft, including "irreplaceable" nuclear-capable warplanes, was orchestrated from within Russia—right under the nose of the Kremlin’s feared security service. The dramatic operation, which reportedly caused a staggering $7 billion in damage, was launched using 117 drones and struck at the heart of Russia’s air capabilities, hitting 34 percent of its strategic cruise missile carriers. In a remarkable statement on his official X account, President Zelensky shared details of the operation, describing it as a major success that had been in the works for...

Research has shown amiloride is as effective as spironolactone in reducing systolic blood pressure (SBP) over 12 weeks in patients with resistant hypertension. Spironolactone is a fourth-line medication. Adverse effects, particularly hyperkalemia and hormonal disruptions, limit its use in long-term care. Amiloride, a potassium-sparing diuretic, lacks these hormonal side effects, making it a potential replacement candidate. In the study, researchers conducted a prospective, open-label, blinded end-point trial to assess whether amiloride could provide comparable SBP reduction to spironolactone in patients with resistant hypertension. Researchers enrolled 118 participants at 14 hospitals across South Korea. Participants ranged in age from 19 to...

[Catholic Caucus] Let the Forgetting BeginOver the length of the Francis pontificate, those with even a slight whiff of concern were labeled “anti-Francis,” or having “attacked” Francis, or had even become heretics.The Francists are playing defense now, fighting a rear-guard action against those who have questioned certain actions, thoughts, and even “teachings” of Pope Francis. There is an odor of desperation among them. After all, we have had a sometimes rocky 12 years. The Francists know this, though they would put all the blame on Taylor Marshall. Over the length of his papacy, those with even a slight whiff of...

Please join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.1 Timothy 2:1-2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.Religion Forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

The riots followed Paris Saint-Germain's victory in the Champions League game.At least two people were killed and hundreds more were injured in Paris following a European soccer championship, as protesters waved Palestinian flags and clashed with police. Chaos erupted across the city after thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate Paris Saint-Germain winning the Champions League, the most prestigious title in European soccer. Videos and photos from the riots showed people clashing with police, crashing through barriers, destroying vehicles, climbing monuments, and causing mayhem. Protesters waived Palestinian flags amid the chaos, following an anti-Israel protest during the championship...

You’d think an elderly woman getting burned alive at a pro-Israel event by a man hurling Molotov cocktails while screaming “This will end when Palestine is free” would be universally condemned as terrorism. But this is 2025, with the media’s moral compass still spinning wildly and antisemitism extremely fashionable on the political left. So, instead of acknowledging the obvious, CNN went into full denial mode the moment the FBI under Director Kash Patel called the Boulder firebombing exactly what it was: a targeted terror attack. Despite the local police chief declining to confirm whether the Boulder attack was targeted, the...

ATTENTION!So, it appears Zelenskyy gave the go ahead to attack parked Russian nuclear capable bombers without informing @realDonaldTrump (if true that our President was not consulted nor informed, this isn’t simply a breach of protocol. It’s a geopolitical insult and a warning sign. If Ukraine is willing to conduct strikes with strategic consequences without notifying the White House, we are no longer allies with coordination issues—we are co-belligerents flying blind).Also given Senator “warmonger” Lindsey Graham’s and Senator “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal’s recent visit, this attack could appear as though it was sanctioned. I pray the Russians have better intelligence than...

Ipsos poll, which includes some partial results, puts Nawrocki on 51% and his pro-European rival, Rafał Trzaskowski, on 49%Overnight projections from Poland’s crucial presidential run-off showed a narrow lead for the right-wing candidate Karol Nawrocki, as votes continued to be counted. A set of preliminary results combining exit polls and counted ballots, published at 1am local time on Monday morning (midnight BST), gave Nawrocki a 51-49% lead over liberal contender Rafał Trzaskowski, an ally of the ruling government led by Donald Tusk. Nawrocki’s lead was a dramatic reversal of projections, after an exit poll, published as voting concluded, appeared to...

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's factory activity shrank for a fourth month in May as frail domestic demand and the impact of U.S. tariffs took a heavy toll on factory output while overall orders plunged at their steepest pace in five years, a business survey showed on Monday. The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for manufacturers in Asia's fourth-largest economy, released by S&P Global, edged up to 47.7 in May, from 47.5 in April. The index has stayed below 50-mark, which separates expansion from contraction, since February. "South Korea's manufacturing sector came into May on an unstable footing," said Usamah Bhatti,...

France is no longer France.

Anti-ICE activists intervened and obstructed the officers, with one individual later posting a video online bragging about running the agents out of the area. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Boston were forced to abandon an operation after a crowd of activists surrounded their vehicle and blew their cover while they were surveilling the home of an illegal immigrant wanted for murder. According to Fox News’ Bill Melugin, who was covering immigration in Boston this week, the agents was in close proximity to a school during the operation in order to arrest a murder suspect. Activists intervened and obstructed...

As the administration continues to remake the federal bureaucracy to President Trump’s liking, the Office of Personnel and Management has developed an intensive new training program for those aspiring to join the Senior Executive Service, the upper echelon of government employees. Per an OPM memo, obtained first by RealClearPolitics, the syllabus includes course work grounded in the U.S. Constitution, “Founding ideals of our government,” and Trump’s own executive orders. The development program requires 80 hours of video-based training and culminates in two days of in-person training in Washington, D.C. It will affect government employees across the administration and disparate agencies...