Free Republic

Archaeologist Youssof Majidzadeh proposed in 2003 that the civilization discovered in Jiroft could be the legendary Aratta, mentioned in Sumerian poetry for its wealth. However, this theory lacked solid historical evidence and faced criticism from the academic community. Other experts suggested that, due to references in Mesopotamian texts about conflicts with a powerful Iranian state, this kingdom might be the Marhashi Kingdom.The analysis of the iconography from Jiroft revealed striking similarities with Mesopotamian traditions, hinting at a possible cultural connection. Depictions of mythological creatures like bulls and eagles evoked Sumerian myths, such as the shepherd king Etana. Speculations also arose...

Makes one almost feel sorry for Barack. Imagine this sentiment coming from your wife. Wow. Michelle Obama on being 'glad' she didn't have a son: 'He would've been a Barack Obama'

Hundreds of pro-Iran protesters took to the streets in New York City to call for the killing of Israelis. Video footage circulating on social media shows protesters marching through Times Square to advocate against Israel’s airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The activists shouted several slogans such as “Iran, Iran makes us proud! Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!” according to The Jerusalem Post. They also chanted, “US drones in the sky, Iran’s missiles will reply” and “Courts and talks won’t set us free, resistance brings victory!” The rally, called “Solidarity with Iran” was organized by a socialist pro-Palestinian organization called...

Walk in the footsteps of the Scythian Princes who lived in the 1st millennium AD. This mysterious people of intrepid horsemen has left a real archaeological desire. From the 1st millennium BC, the Scythians constituted a moving and formidable empire established in the vast Eurasian steppes. The only traces they left us are their graves: the kurgans. In April 1999, a Franco-Italian and Kazakh scientific team announced the exceptional discovery in Kazakhstan of a 2,400-year-old Scythian tomb. A true archaeological treasure, the contents of the tomb reveal, among other things, twelve horses entirely harnessed in gold, whose precious adornment testifies...

HOUSTON, Texas — A Mexican man who allegedly entered the U.S. illegally is accused of secretly recording women in a Houston-area brewery. Immigration officers placed a detainer on him due to his status. Houston police detectives arrested Edrie G. Vierya, 40, this month for the alleged secret recording of a woman in the bathroom of the Bad Astronaut Brewery in July 2024, Fox 26 Houston reported. The complaining witness told the local Fox News affiliate that Vierya tried to record her by sliding his phone under the stall door. “It was a very private moment that was no longer private,”...

You almost wish Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would make congressional Democrats write it 100 times on the Capitol Hill blackboard: "Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities are not for photo opportunities." However, she has issued guidance that works just as well: On Wednesday, the DHS released new restrictions that bar lawmakers from turning ICE facility visits into spectacles, including advance notice of the visit and limits on the detainees they can meet with individually. The new regulations, Just the News reported, came after a clash at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey last month, which led to...

Liberals seethe over Trump's 'tacky,' 'monstrous changes.' President Donald Trump installed two big, beautiful flagpoles on the White House grounds on Wednesday, and leftists are losing their minds. Trump announced the installation on Tuesday, saying the flagpoles were "always missing from this magnificent place." After the 100-foot flagpoles were put in place, the left-wing media ripped the administration for the changes to the White House grounds. The Daily Beast reported on the new flagpoles, calling them one of the latest "monstrous changes" Trump has made to the White House. The "monstrous changes" in question also include renovations to the Rose...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” Matthew 6:14–15It’s truly amazing how often our Lord exhorts us to forgive. Much of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, from which we have been reading all week, continually calls us to offer mercy and forgiveness to others. And in the passage above from the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus offers us the consequences of not heeding His exhortations. This passage is a sort of addendum to the “Our Father” prayer...

Safety experts recommended Wednesday that the engines on Boeing's troubled 737 Max airplanes be modified quickly to prevent smoke from filling the cockpit or cabin after a safety feature is activated following a bird strike. The problem detailed by the National Transportation Safety Board emerged after two bird strikes involving Southwest Airlines planes in 2023 — one in Havana, Cuba, and another in New Orleans. The Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing already warned airlines and pilots about the problem and the engine maker has been working on a fix. The NTSB said that the engines CFM International makes for the...

A surge of supercell thunderstorms over the last week has pummeled Wyoming, Montana and Colorado with golf ball- to baseball-sized hail that’s obliterated windshields, tore pieces off of homes and killed wildlife. Haden Wichman was branding calves near Kolin, Montana, on Saturday evening when he saw dark storm clouds on the horizon. “We went up the road to watch it, because we knew the big white cloud was going to come down the creek bottom,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It was like a flash flood of golf ball-sized hail and 2 inches of rain that came with it.” After...

I have been looking for coverage of this in the lamestream media and so far I've found zip. Has anyone else come across anything? I am pretty sure if the shoe was on the other foot it would be leading the news for the next several weeks.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that it is restarting the process for foreigners to apply for student visas but says all applicants must have their social media accounts set to ‘public’ to allow review by officials. Consular officers will be looking for activity, posts and messages showing “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States,” the department said. The announcement is the latest step in the Trump administration’s crackdown on international students, and the U.S. said applicants who refuse may have their applications rejected.

A boozed-up wrong-way driver flipped his car and slammed into a tree on Long Island Sunday night, killing a 19-year-old woman and injuring six other passengers, authorities said. Luis Gonzalo Barrionuevo-Fuertes, a former East Hampton High School graduate, was allegedly behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry while driving in the wrong direction on Old Stone Highway in East Hampton when he swerved to avoid slamming into another car around 7:30 p.m. The car overturned and struck a tree, killing 19-year-old passenger Scarleth Urgiles, East Hampton police said. The East Hampton High School student was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Supreme Court gave transgender activists and the gender ideology movement a possible lifeline Wednesday in upholding Tennessee's law prohibiting puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery as treatment options for gender-confused youth, presumably protecting similar laws in half the states: It adopted their language, say opponents of gender ideology. The 6-3 majority opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts in Skrmetti v. U.S. repeatedly uses the phrases "transgender boy" and "transgender girl" to describe females who identify as boys and males who identify as girls, respectively, and explicitly specifies what he's doing in a footnote. It also refers to each by...

Constitutional attorney Alan Dershowitz said Wednesday that the Supreme Court should have ruled unanimously in favor of Tennessee’s restrictions on child sex changes, calling it “a simple, simple, case.” The Supreme Court upheld SB1, which was passed by the Tennessee legislature in March 2023, in a 6-3 ruling released Wednesday morning. On “The Dershow,” Dershowitz expressed shock that it was a 6-3 decision. “The Supreme Court decided today in a six-to-three decision. [It’s] shocking to me it was six-to-three. It should have been nine-nothing, in a six-to-three decision, decided that a state, Tennessee, had the right to restrict certain kinds...

Israel recently learned from its agents inside Iran — presumably native informants working with Mossad — that Iran’s nuclear scientists had successfully completed tests of their design of a nuclear weapon. This meant that Iran was potentially only weeks away from being able to produce such a weapon, and that intolerable threat had to be dealt with without delay. More on Israel’s discovery that prompted the attack, can be found here: “Israel found Iran carried out key tests for nuke design ahead of strikes — report,” Times of Israel, June 15, 2025: Israel recently learned from its agents inside Iran...

PART OF THE MAKE-OVER FOR BOTH ARE PHARMACEUTICAL CEOs of BioNTech, Pfizer, J&J and Merck Make List of Highest-Paid Pharma Execs. We Spent a Year Investigating How the FDA Let Risky Drugs Into the U.S. Market. Our investigation revealed a previously unknown practice within the FDA that allowed more than 150 drugs or their ingredients to enter the U.S. over the past decade, despite being manufactured at factories banned from shipping their products here.

The pilot of a small private jet that crash landed in southern California last month and killed everyone on board, including a famous drummer, clipped a power line during landing while flying too low a preliminary report has revealed. The Cessna 550 Citation plummeted into San Diego's Murphy Canyon neighborhood in the early hours of May 22 as it made its final approach for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. Daniel Williams, a former drummer for metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada, and famed music producer Dave Shapiro - who is believed to have been the pilot - were among the six people...

How gullible can Audie Cornish be? On Thursday's episode of CNN This Morning, host Cornish claimed that in addition to Iranian leaders: "The people of Iran are striking a defiant tone." Audie's evidence: a video clip of a motorcycle parade in Tehran, featuring people waving Iranian flags. Can Cornish possibly believe this was an authentic, organic demonstration of the views of most Iranians, and not an astroturf event staged by the regime? What does Audie think would happen to people who tried to stage a "No Ayatollahs!" protest in Tehran?Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Donald Trump made his first round of judicial picks, and he’s hitting it out of the park with exactly the kind of nominees we need to help fix the broken bench. Let’s take Emil J. Bove, the president’s nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Of course, the left hates him. It hates him because Trump picked him. It hates him in particular because he helped Donald Trump successfully beat the false lawfare charges against him.