Free Republic

For decades, pancreatic cancer has been one of medicine's most feared diagnoses. Aggressive, fast moving, and stubbornly resistant to treatment, it has claimed lives with ruthless efficiency. Now, the name Mariano Barbacid is echoing far beyond scientific circles. His latest work is being hailed as one of the most important cancer breakthroughs in years, offering a glimmer of hope against a disease that has defied progress for decades. Who Is Mariano Barbacid Mariano Barbacid was born on 4 October 1949 and built his career at the cutting edge of cancer genetics. He earned his PhD from the Universidad Complutense de...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Justice Department official played down the possibility of additional criminal charges arising from the Jeffrey Epstein files, saying Sunday that the existence of “horrible photographs” and troubling email correspondence does not “allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.”Department officials said over the summer that a review of Epstein-related records did not establish a basis for new criminal investigations.That position remains unchanged, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, even as a massive document dump since Friday has focused fresh attention on Epstein’s links to powerful individuals around the world and revived questions about what, if any, knowledge...

— Despite facing what is likely to be a difficult national political environment this fall, Republicans remain favored to hold their Senate majority. — President Trump did well among young people and nonwhite voters in 2024 for a Republican, but he has seen his approval erode with those voters. However, that doesn’t have as much of a bearing on the Senate map, with Democrats having to compete in whiter states like Iowa and Ohio. The 2026 midterm may once again be a “Blue Wave,” as we saw in 2018, Donald Trump’s first midterm as president. But that environment wasn’t enough...

Alex Pretti’s last words were, “Are you okay?” Renee Good’s were, “I’m not mad at you.” Both were fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers this month. Neither was holding weapons. They were observers, present to record, witness and alert their communities. We all saw what happened to them. ICE brutality is not new. The agency has instituted inhumane conditions and separated families for decades. Thirty-two people died in ICE custody in 2025, but that was also true in 2004. What has changed is not the violence. The change is that we can no longer pretend we do...

One-third of business leaders say they’re not making a statement about Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, by immigration agents because it is “not relevant to their business,” a CNBC flash survey found. …More than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies signed a letter on Sunday urging “an immediate de-escalation of tensions,” but stopped short of demanding that ICE leave the state, while Democratic state officials, such as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have done so. CNBC sent the survey to 550 C-suite executives on Monday and Thursday...

Almost a third of children who started reception last year were not able to use books correctly, sometimes even trying to swipe or tap them like a smartphone, a survey has found. Around one in four were not toilet trained, amid warnings more children are struggling with basic life skills. In an annual survey of primary school staff by early years charity Kindred Squared, teachers estimated 26% of the children in their reception class this year were having frequent toilet mishaps, rising to more than one in three (36%) in the North East. Staff also report around 28% of children...

Happy Goundhog Day

Explanation: Mars has put on a happy face. The Martian crater Galle is famous because it has internal markings that make it look like a face that is both smiling and winking. These markings were originally discovered in the 1970s in pictures taken by the Viking Orbiter. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft that orbited Mars from 1996 to 2006 captured the featured picture. Happy Face Crater and its iconic features were formed by chance billions of years ago when a city-sized asteroid slammed into the Martian surface. All rocky planets and moons in our Solar System show impact craters,...

The list of 70 names in Genesis 10 is often called the Table of Nations because each man named was the original ancestor of an ethnic group that later became a nation. These post-diluvian men are the sons and descendants of Noah’s three sons. Japeth was Noah’s eldest son. His descendants are mentioned in Genesis 10:2-5. Japeth had seven sons. “The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras” (Genesis 10:2). Three of these names appear in the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39. Magog, the second son of Japeth, fathered the children who...

When glib, elitist leftists fail to actually read and comprehend history, you get someone who is an incompetent history teacher and a soon-to-be former governor, like Tim Walz. The Minnesota Democrat actually had the nerve to suggest that federal enforcement of immigration laws in his state could trigger another civil war. (snip) All of this posturing is to detract from the fact that Walz is mired in the Somali fraud scandal in his state and could possibly wind up in jail over it. His hands are certainly not clean when it comes to the burgeoning corruption, and he has now...

VIDEOAn angry gay Batman addresses the city council of Santa Clara (CA, naturally) and the result is such hilarity that it inspired a plethora of reactions as you can see in this video.

Transcript SummaryPatrick Byrne appeared as a guest on The Alex Jones Show, hosted by Harrison Smith. He discussed recent developments related to 2020 election claims in Fulton County, Georgia.Byrne stated that forensic examinations of hard drive images from five counties using Dominion voting systems in 2020 revealed an average of 500 changes (with one reaching 1,000) to DLL files (dynamic link libraries) after certification. He explained DLLs as shared libraries of tools that programs access, analogous to a common toolbox in an auto repair shop. He asserted that any post-certification change invalidates the system for the election, as acknowledged even...

On Jan. 19, 2026, the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) staff reported that Israel’s Finance Minister and head of the Religious Zionist Party, Bezalel Smotrich, said: Israel should issue Hamas a short ultimatum for disarmament and true exile, and once it expires—Israel should storm Gaza with all its might, destroy Hamas militarily and civilly, open the Rafah crossing with or without Egyptian consent, and allow Gaza residents to leave and seek their future elsewhere, where they won’t endanger the future of our children. This was the simple, self-evident position of the overwhelming majority of Israelis in the days after the massacre...

Latest commentary details ambitions for ‘powerful currency’ to play a greater role in trade and forex. .....Xi Jinping has called for the renminbi to become a global reserve currency, in some of his clearest comments on his ambitions for China’s currency as Beijing seeks to play a greater role in the international The publication of Xi’s comments comes amid heightened uncertainty in global markets as a weaker US dollar — which President Donald Trump last week called a “great” development — a change in leadership of the Federal Reserve and geopolitical and trade tensions have prompted central banks to rethink...

For millennia, hundreds of vivid bas-reliefs adorned the walls of the Nineveh palace of the legendary eighth-century BCE Assyrian king Sennacherib, depicting daring conquests richly described in Assyrian sources and the Hebrew Bible. In 2016, Islamic State terrorists entered the palace, in modern-day Mosul, Iraq, and systematically smashed the artifacts. The long-surviving sculptures had enabled modern scholars to compare biblical information on Sennacherib with historical sources and archaeological findings since the 19th century. Had they not been destroyed, they would have likely had more to offer. Among the treasures broken in the terror group’s campaign of destruction was a slab...

The papyrus describes encounters with the Shosu people, said to stand 'four cubits or five cubits' tall, up to eight feet in height. Supporters of the theory say the text provides rare non-biblical corroboration of Old Testament accounts of giants, which appear repeatedly beyond the familiar story of David and Goliath. An Egyptian cubit measured roughly 20 inches, meaning the Shosu would have towered over most people of the era. The papyrus takes the form of a letter written during a time of war, detailing hostile terrain and military challenges.

The Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium has been postponed to Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. ET on FOX due to historic snowfall in North Carolina over the weekend. The National Weather Service reported Winston-Salem, North Carolina, received 8-10 inches of snow Saturday while the Charlotte area — roughly 80 miles south of Bowman Gray and home base for most NASCAR Cup Series drivers and teams — received 11 inches of snow, according to local television affiliate WCNC. Out of an abundance of caution due to hazardous road conditions, NASCAR and the City of Winston-Salem agreed to move...

Video

Eight-foot piles of rat-infested trash are choking the streets around Gracie Mansion — which has gotten white-glove shoveling treatment as Mayor Zohran Mamdani crows he can’t “imagine how it could get better’’ in the city. While Hizzoner’s Upper East Side neighbors are forced to trudge through garbage-plagued roads, roaming rodents and mounds of snow tainted with dog pee a full week after Winter Storm Fern, the sidewalks outside the lefty mayor’s digs on East 88th Street are squeaky clean. “Clean as a whistle for the mayor,” Rivers said. “Look at this side.” “This side” is marred by massive piles of...

Seinfeld had quite a few memorable supporting characters who, time and time again, would cross paths with Jerry. And, for the most part, the interactions were more awkward or adversarial than pleasant. For instance, rival comedian Kenny Bania. Or Jack Klompus, his parents’ neighbor at Del Boca Vista. Then there’s Bryan Cranston’s Tim Whatley, dentist and re-gifter extraordinaire. Other examples include the vengeful Joe Davola and…Newman! And outside the aforementioned postal worker slash neighbor of Mr. Seinfeld, the best of these recurring characters is none other than Uncle Leo.Uncle Leo is the type who is always there when you don’t...