Free Republic

Islam has traditionally played an important role in the life of Chechen society. It has been a part of its ethnic identity for more than two centuries, and at critical times of national history it was a powerful source of social mobilization.Islamization of ChechnyaThe religion of the Muslims started to spread in the region in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was promoted by missionaries from the neighboring Dagestan (especially Kumyks), as well as through contacts of lowland Chechens with neighboring Kabardinians, Nogays, and Crimean Tatars. In Ichkeria – the mountainous region in south-eastern Chechnya – and in Ingushetia (where...

A little over 2 minute video...very sweet.

A Bridgerton star has reignited the controversy over whether George III's wife Queen Charlotte, who is depicted in the Regency-era drama, was black in real life. Adjoa Andoh said of the royal, played by fellow black actress Golda Rosheuvel: 'Queen Charlotte wasn't fictionalised as a woman of colour, she was a woman of colour. You just have to do your historical research.' The actress – who in 2023 said the Buckingham Palace line-up after King Charles' coronation was 'terribly white' – said the Netflix series gave viewers 'a more realistic version of history'.

Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:42 Shakespeare's classical education 1:45 Shakespeare's sources 3:13 Anachronisms 4:26 The character of Caesar 5:38 The character of Brutus 7:46 Political messages 8:52 Timeless language 0:10 Julius Caesar was the first Shakespeare play that I read. It’s still one of my 0:15 favorites. Along with some of the most stirring speeches ever written, it presents what might be 0:22 the first attempt in English literature to really recreate the world of ancient Rome. 0:28 In today’s video, we’ll explore the historical accuracy of Shakespeare’s 0:34 best-known Roman play – and consider how the greatest English playwright used...

There are many strong and powerful women, or femme fatales, who became known for their ruthlessness and cunning ways in Greek mythology, such as Circe, Clytemnestra, and Medea. These women were powerful and often deadly forces despite the fact that Greek mythology is filled with references to strong men who conquered kingdoms, fought for their freedom, and did not hesitate to kill. Clytemnestra, one of the most ruthless figures in Greek mythology deadliest women greek mythology femme fatales clytemnestra “Clytemnestra Hesitates Before Killing Agamemnon,” by Pierre-Narcisse Guerin. Clytemnestra is one of the most notorious femme fatales in Greek mythology. Credit:...

Deep within the frozen ground of Devon Island in Canada’s High Arctic, researchers found the nearly complete skeleton of a rhinoceros, Epiaceratherium itjilik, that lived there around 23 million years ago. The discovery, made by a team from the Canadian Museum of Nature, reveals that rhinos once roamed much farther north than anyone imagined. The fossils were found inside Haughton Crater, a 23-kilometer-wide impact site now locked in ice and silence. Millions of years ago, this same place held forests, lakes, and life. The team named the new species Epiaceratherium itjilik, or “frosty rhino,” combining Latin and Inuktitut to reflect...

The Catacombs and Ruins of Alexandria | 10:46Scenic Routes to the Past | 57.8K subscribers | 177,574 views | November 7, 2025 Travels in Egypt | Playlist | 7 videos | 798 views

You have a 10 hour flight, which US president are you sitting next to?

...a coffin crashed down from a cliff near the Baltic Sea near the village of Bagicz, Poland, in 1899... Made from the hollowed trunk of an oak tree and exceptionally preserved, it protected the bones of a young woman from the ancient Wielbark culture who was thought at the time to have likely been a member of the social elite. She was buried with a bronze fibula, a necklace of glass and amber beads, a brooch, and bronze bar bracelets; was laying on a cowhide; and had a wooden stool at her feet....almost forgotten until the 1980s, when archaeologists rediscovered...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Some of the documents that helped shape the United States are temporarily leaving Washington, D.C., ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, giving many Americans a rare chance to see them in person. The "Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation" – launched by The National Archives – is bringing founding-era records out of the nation’s capital and into communities across the country. The nationwide tour kicked off Friday at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, where visitors can walk through a specially prepared exhibit room to see several historic documents...

Jasmine Crockett's pastor, Frederick Haynes III, who announced his bid to take over Crockett's House seat shortly after she announced her now-failed bid for the U.S. Senate, won the Democratic primary for Texas's 30th Congressional District and will likely win in November due to the district being reliably blue. By St Jude Childrens Research Hospital Haynes, who Crockett calls her pastor and mentor, runs Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, where he has been at the helm for around 40 years, according to public reporting. In a sermon the day after Hamas invaded Israel and slaughtered thousands of Israelis on Oct....

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave a two-word retort after Anthropic leader Dario Amodei claimed in an interview that he isn’t sure if his company’s AI models have gained consciousness. "Anthropic CEO says Claude may or may not have gained consciousness, as the model has begun showing symptoms of anxiety," read a post on X by cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket, to which Musk replied, "He’s projecting." The comment from Musk, who is also the founder of xAI, comes as Anthropic is at odds with the Pentagon over its use in a separate matter. In an interview with The New...

Hundreds of Iranian-Americans gathered in Los Angeles on Saturday to voice support for the attacks against Iran’s ruling regime a week after US-Israeli airstrike killed the supreme leader. Demonstrators rallied near the federal building in Westwood on Saturday, chanting for the return of democracy to authoritarian Tehran. Many praised former President Donald Trump and called the moment a long-awaited turning point for the Iranian people. Waving flags and sharing stories of exile, protesters said the conflict is not a war but a chance to end the Islamic Republic’s grip on power. Mars, who was born in Shiraz in south central...

A crowded field of eight California Democrats is splitting the race for governor, as the coalition behind outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom begins to fracture. The result could be unthinkable: Republican victory in November. Party leaders tried, and failed, to convince some of their own gubernatorial candidates to drop out of the race before Friday’s filing deadline. The warning was blunt: Too many Democrats will split the vote and allow two Republican candidates to qualify for the general election under the rules of California’s “jungle” primary. California adopted its unique primary system, also known as the “top-two” system, through a statewide...

Six people are in custody after two homemade explosive devices were tossed outside Gracie Mansion Saturday during competing anti- and pro-Muslim protests, causing a panic. Dozens of demonstrators and counter-protesters fled as smoke started to billow from a device which appeared to have a lit fuse and was wrapped in duct tape. There were no injuries and no explosion at roughly 12:30 p.m. standoff, police said. A second device was also seen, according to the NYPD. Those devices were glass jars wrapped in electrical tape containing bolts, screws, and nuts and featuring a hobby fuse “that could be lit,” according...

CE Barbie has made her soft landing. Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem debuted in her newly-created role as special envoy for “Shield of the Americas,” as President Trump announced the initiative in Florida Saturday. Trump fired Noem as DHS chief on Thursday after a series of flubs that included claiming in a House hearing the president approved $220 million in TV ads starring herself — and her stunning non-answer about whether she had “sexual relations” with top aide Corey Lewandowski. The 54-year-old former governor of South Dakota, who earned the nickname ICE Barbie for her perfectly coiffed...

L.P. Hartley's novel The Go-Between begins with one of the most famous first lines in modern literature: "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." The quote has certainly outlived Hartley; it's invoked constantly by anyone trying to make a point about "presentism" and the tendency to judge historical motivations and events by current standards or morality. It even got referenced (and subverted) in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The quote paraphrased some lines delivered by Hartley's old school friend Lord David Cecil in a lecture he delivered at Oxford in 1949. It was...

Iran is reportedly expected to meet and possibly choose its next supreme leader in the next 24 hours. Ayatollah Mozaffari, a member of Iran’s 88-member Assembly of Experts, expressed hope that a session could take place over the next day, though no official meeting has been scheduled, according to Iranian International. The election will take place virtually after the building used by the Assembly of Experts was destroyed in Israeli strikes earlier this week. The Tuesday attack “flattened” the IRGC’s compound in Qom, as well as a building in Tehran that served as the previous parliament site, The Jerusalem Post...

Mojtaba Khamenei — the expected next supreme leader — was reportedly wounded in an Israeli air strike. The son of Iran’s slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei survived an assassination attempt made by Israel during the devastating launch of Lion’s Roar military operation Feb. 28, which occurred in tandem with the US’s Operation Epic Fury, Times of Israel reported on Saturday. Other strikes in the joint military attack killed his father and roughly 40 other high-ranking Islamic Republic leaders. Also killed was Mojtaba’s wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country’s theocracy. It’s not clear if...

Far-left “Squad” Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) were among dozens of House Democrats this week that voted against reaffirming Iran as the “largest state sponsor of terrorism.” The resolution, introduced by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), passed in a 372-53 vote Thursday, with only Democrats opposing the nonbinding measure – which also declared that Iran “provides substantial financial and military support to groups including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.” Lefty Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Al Green (D-Texas), along with New York’s Yvette Clarke and Nydia Velázquez, were among...