Free Republic

Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski stated at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Warsaw does not want allied nuclear weapons stationed on its soil, according to Politico on August 27. This statement represents the most explicit position expressed by Polish authorities on the matter to date. Zalewski emphasized that while Poland intends to remain an active participant in NATO's collective nuclear deterrence framework, that role does not require physical deployment of nuclear warheads within Polish borders. “I would like to state clearly and openly: Poland does not want to have nuclear warheads on its territory. We want to participate in...

A hobbyist searching a forest in northern Poland stumbled across an unusual sight: a bronze sword that had been standing upright in the ground for nearly 2,700 years. The remarkably well-preserved weapon was discovered by metal detectorist Marcin Wiśniewski in the Gdańsk Forest District, according to the Pomeranian Provincial Heritage Conservator. Officials say the sword dates to the Late Bronze Age, between 900 and 700 B.C. Photos released by the conservator show the ancient weapon protruding vertically from the sandy soil before archaeologists carefully removed it. Rather than excavating the find himself, Wiśniewski reported it to heritage officials, who recovered...

The Army announced on Tuesday the activation of V Corps (or Fifth Corps), the latest development in the U.S. military's push to build up capabilities in Europe in the face of great power competition with Russia. V Corps will be based out of Fort Knox, Kentucky, per Tuesday's Army press release. It will be made up of 635 soldiers, 200 of which "will support an operational command post in Europe on a rotational basis." It's expected to be operational by this fall. "The activation of an additional Corps headquarters provides the needed level of command and control focused on synchronizing...

One of the Pentagon's top generals overseeing military operations in Europe has been removed from command, the Army confirmed Friday, nearly two months before his time on the job would have naturally wrapped up. Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, commander of the Army’s V Corps, was removed from command in recent days, according to a service spokesperson, though the circumstances surrounding his removal remain unclear. Costanza's removal comes amid a broader shake-up of the military's senior ranks, with more than two dozen high-ranking officers removed or sidelined under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, often without public explanation. But a source familiar with...

Hamas terrorists were quietly building a sprawling European terror network for years — stockpiling guns, scouting targets, and even filming a martyrdom-style video — as they plotted a massacre on the continent to mirror the horrific October 7 attack on Israel, according to a bombshell investigation released last week. The chilling scheme, uncovered through a joint probe by European intelligence agencies and reported by Swiss outlet Neue Zürcher Zeitung, spanned at least seven countries: Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Poland, and Britain. The terror group eyed the second anniversary of its 2023 rampage, October 7, 2025, as a possible attack...

LONDON -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed "insufficient or delayed" air defense supplies for the deaths of several people across Ukraine in the latest wave of Russian drone and missile strikes, launched on Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

Four men were sentenced to prison in Berlin on Wednesday for operating a covert Hamas weapons-stockpiling network across Europe in preparation for potential terrorist attacks — a landmark ruling marking the first time a German court convicted members of the Palestinian terrorist group under the country’s terrorism laws. The Berlin State Protection Senate — a special national-security chamber within the Berlin Court of Appeal — convicted the defendants of stockpiling weapons for future attacks in Europe, including possible targets in Germany, sentencing them to four and a half to six years in prison for membership in a foreign terrorist organization...

They are preparing for large-scale violent jihad in Europe against Jewish targets. And there are likely to be more attempts, as Stephan Weh, Berlin police union chief, suggested when he said: “As a Western metropolis, Berlin remains a focal point for radical Islamist networks, which today primarily recruit new members and supporters via social media.” Nonetheless, Weh states that this Berlin court ruling was important, given the precedent it establishes, and especially since Hamas is not a designated terror group under German law. As Western authorities become more knowledgeable about organized jihad groups, they still lag too far behind. They...

Savanah Hernandez, a reporter for TPUSA Frontlines, says the final restraining order sought against her by members of the Ostroushko family has been voluntarily dismissed, marking another legal setback for the Minnesota family charged with assaulting her during an anti-ICE protest earlier this year. The attack was caught on camera. Hernandez announced on social media that Paige Ostroushko voluntarily dismissed her petition for a restraining order after Chris and DeYanna Ostroushko previously failed to obtain permanent orders against the journalist in Hennepin County court. "Paige Ostroushko, who violently assaulted me in Minneapolis, has voluntarily dismissed her restraining order against me...

President Donald Trump said it is “ridiculous” for the United States to maintain its current level of support for NATO “when the relationship is not reciprocal." Referring to the alliance as a "one-sided path” late Thursday, Trump doubled down on his long-argued criticism of allied nations’ defense spending ahead of next week’s planned NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Alongside his Truth Social remarks, Trump posted a chart displaying contributions from NATO members, showing the U.S. vastly outspending its allies. The President had earlier complained that the U.S. “spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was planning to head to Brussels last month to deliver what would be a bombshell announcement in a meeting with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s top military chiefs. The U.S., he planned to say, was preparing additional cuts to its forces in Europe that would go beyond the canceled deployment of an armored brigade to Poland and the earlier withdrawal of an infantry brigade from Romania, people familiar with the matter said. But Hegseth’s proposal was nixed after it was shared with Marco Rubio—President Trump’s national-security adviser—and other senior officials, the people said. Instead, Hegseth said...

The Kremlin is planning an armed incursion on Polish land to test Nato's response, according to Washington. The provocation could see Putin's troops cross over into Poland, and vital infrastructure could be targeted by missiles and drones. Sources close to Polish President Karol Nawrocki told news outlet Onet that the US had been warning Warsaw about the plan for a while. Russia's plan aims to start a crisis to scare Western nations into stopping their support for Ukraine. Polish security experts also warned that Russia and Belarus might send a small number of troops across the Nato border. Power stations...

The captured archives are starting to show that post-Soviet Russia hadn't stopped its old Soviet ways in Iraq. Among the initial revelations: Russia's SVR foreign-intelligence service recently spied on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, eavesdropping on their conversations and passing the information to Saddam Hussein's regime. As recently as last fall, Russia was continuing to train the Iraqi secret police. Rooting through an office of the Mukhabarat secret police, Robert Collier of the San Francisco Chronicle discovered documents showing that the SVR trained five Iraqi officers in "phototechnical and optical means" and "acoustic-surveillance means"...

In the first centuries of the Common Era, far from the Baltic coast where amber naturally occurs, communities in Masovia were producing large quantities of amber jewellery -- leaving behind traces of a craft that has only gradually come to light.Archaeologists have identified as many as 10 ancient amber workshops across five settlements. In some of them, they uncovered up to 20,000 amber fragments, along with decorative beads and pendants, pointing to production on a significant scale...At the time, much of present-day Poland was inhabited by communities of the Przeworsk Culture. Known for their advanced craftsmanship, they developed large-scale iron...

The Polish government has told its citizens to cash in on British benefits before returning home. Advice published on Powroty, a Polish government website for citizens living abroad who wish to return home, says "when leaving the UK, it is worth considering whether you are eligible for Jobseeker's Allowance". Post-Brexit arrangements allow European Union citizens who acquired settled status before December 2020 to transfer some benefit payments abroad when they move to an EU country, for up to three months. It means those returning to Europe can claim hundreds of pounds from the British taxpayer to support their job hunt,...

A Polish doctor has been taken into custody after 34 human fetuses were found buried in the garden of her former home, the authorities said on Monday. Magdalena H. – a 57-year-old medical pathologist with no previous criminal record – is suspected of using the fetuses to perform experiments and now faces up to 12 years in prison. Her case has whipped up a storm in traditionally Catholic Poland, with many questioning how she managed to obtain the unborn babies’ bodies in a country with some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. But a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office...

In a Latin manuscript from a monastery in Poland, a Latin scholar from Würzburg has found two new sermons by the Doctor of the Church, St Augustine. He is currently working with an edition company on the first edition. Augustine is considered one of the most important Christian Church Fathers. He left behind an extensive body of work that continues to engage scholars today. (Image: Renáta Sedmáková / Adobe Stock) One day in 2024, the telephone of Professor Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar at the University of Würzburg, rings: an employee of the Bad Doberan Monastery Association in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania...

Ready for a ride on the highway to Hel? The infamous 'Route 666' bus service to the Polish seaside resort is being resurrected by Flixbus – three years after it was renumbered due to pressure from religious groups. The 13-hour route links Kraków and Hel, with stops in major Polish hubs like Władysławowo, Kuźnica and the capital, Warsaw. The route gets its name from a mix of its destination, Hel (similar to the English word 'hell'), and bus number 666, the biblical number of the beast. Although the service ran for over a decade, the number was ultimately retired and...

Russia's war on Ukraine is devouring its finances. War spending now totals 16.8 trillion roubles ($238 billion) — nearly 40% of the entire 2026 budget — and Putin's own finance minister, Anton Siluanov, has privately warned of a possible economic collapse, urging deep cuts to avert it. -The deficit is the largest since the 2022 invasion, growth has flatlined at 0.4%, and analysts say Moscow is faking its books. According to a 30 May report in the Financial Times, Russian government spending on the war in Ukraine is on track to exceed budget allocations by about 2 trillion Russian roubles...

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has announced plans to strip Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honour, after the Ukrainian president named a military unit after a group that led massacres of ethnic Poles during World War Two. However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government regularly clashes with the opposition-aligned president, has sought to calm emotions, warning that the only one to benefit from conflict between Poland and Ukraine is Russia. Zaproponowałem, aby jednym z punktów było odebranie prezydentowi Zełenskiemu Orderu Orła Białego – Prezydent RP @NawrockiKn. pic.twitter.com/4NaOAIjO3C — Kancelaria Prezydenta RP (@prezydentpl) May 29,...