La antigua Roma fue testigo de un desarrollo médico que, aunque innovador para su tiempo, resulta impactante bajo la lente de la modernidad.

Según History Extra, los médicos romanos, carentes de normas reguladoras y equipados con conocimientos limitados, implementaron técnicas de sanación que, si bien salvaban vidas, también implicaban dolorosos procedimientos sin el alivio de anestesia.

Estas prácticas reflejan un enfoque pionero, pero a menudo brutal y ciertamente peligroso.

Uno de los aspectos más fascinantes de la medicina romana fue el intento de revertir la circuncisión. Este procedimiento se realizaba principalmente entre hombres de origen judío u oriental que buscaban integrarse mejor en la sociedad romana, donde la apariencia era un factor crucial.

El método consistía en hacer una incisión en la piel y aplicar pesos para estirar gradualmente el prepucio, lo que representaba un proceso extremadamente doloroso y prolongado.

La doctora Patty Baker, una historiadora citada por History Extra, explicó que el deseo de encajar en el ideal romano justificaba este doloroso procedimiento.

El parto en la antigua Roma era una experiencia extremadamente riesgosa. Según el artículo, en casos en los que el bebé fallecía durante el trabajo de parto, los médicos realizaban una “embriotomía” para salvar a la madre.

Este procedimiento consistía en la extracción del feto, a menudo desmembrando el cuerpo del bebé para facilitar su extracción. La historiadora Baker detalla que, aunque esta cirugía era horripilante desde una perspectiva moderna, ofrecía una de las pocas oportunidades para preservar la vida materna.

History Extra también evidencia cómo los romanos abordaban cirugías sin el beneficio de anestésicos modernos. Las amputaciones constituían procedimientos comunes, realizados con el paciente plenamente consciente y sólo suavizados por remedios herbales rudimentarios.

Baker destaca que algunos textos discutían el uso de opiáceos rudimentarios, pero en su mayoría recurrían al consumo de vino para calmar a quienes se sometían a cirugía.

Esto convertía las operaciones en verdaderas carreras contra el tiempo, donde el equilibrio entre velocidad y precisión era crucial. El escritor Celsus, citado por Dr. Baker, subrayaba que un cirujano debía poder operar rápidamente para disminuir el dolor del paciente.

Uno de los problemas medulares en la práctica médica romana era la falta de reglamentación. Cualquier individuo podía proclamarse médico, independientemente de su formación o capacidades. Según History Extra, este vacío regulador permitía que doctores incompetentes evadieran responsabilidades al huir después de un procedimiento fallido.

Esto creaba un escenario comparado con el “Viejo Oeste”, donde los pacientes quedaban a merced de personas que sus habilidades y conocimientos eran tan diversos como inciertos.

La obsesión romana con la limpieza es otro aspecto resaltado en el informe. Los romanos construyeron sofisticados sistemas de saneamiento, pero no comprendían la teoría microbiana moderna. Baker explicó que las medidas higiénicas se basaban en la creencia en el “miasma”, la idea de que el mal olor era la causa de las enfermedades.

Sin embargo, se alentaba la limpieza de heridas con sustancias antisépticas conocidas como el vino y la miel, pese a su desconocimiento del concepto de gérmenes.

El arte médico romano revela una civilización dispuesta a traspasar límites en busca de la sanación, utilizando métodos que mezclaban innovación y brutalidad. Aunque sus prácticas resultan impactantes, su ingenio sentó las bases para avances futuros.

El medio concluye afirmando que la medicina romana sigue siendo motivo de asombro y reflexión sobre la capacidad de la humanidad para adaptarse y evolucionar en la búsqueda del bienestar.

Saturday’s talks in Rome between the Trump administration and the Islamic Republic of Iran over the rogue regime’s failure to dismantle its illicit nuclear weapons program have raised pressing questions about whether Tehran will adhere to a new deal.

Speaking on «The Story with Martha MacCallum,» retired Gen. Jack Keane, a Fox News senior strategic analyst, said Iran is reintroducing its «playbook» that [was] used to secure the JCPOA from Obama and termed its strategy a «bold-faced lie» that led to the «disastrous 2015» agreement.

Keane said Iran is repackaging the lie that it will reduce highly enriched uranium down to a low percentage and not use it for a nuclear weapon. Instead, it will employ it for civilian commercial nuclear power. Kean added that the Iranians «think the Trump administration is going to buy this. After all, in 2018, Trump pulled out of that very deal.»

In 2018, President Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name for the 2015 nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration, because, he argued, it failed to stop Iran’s ambitions to construct an atomic bomb. 

AHEAD OF TRUMP ADMIN-IRAN TALKS, NEW REPORT SAYS IRAN NUCLEAR THREAT RISES TO ‘EXTREME DANGER’

Fox News Digital sent a detailed press query to the State Department regarding the Islamic Republic’s history of cheating and lying when dealing with its previous pledges to not build a nuclear weapon.

A spokesperson for the State Department told Fox News Digital, «This, along with many other issues, will be decided at the negotiating table. The president has been clear: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon or enrichment program. As we continue to talk, we expect to refine a framework and timetable for working towards a deal that achieves the president’s objectives peacefully.»

Speaking Friday, President Trump told reporters, «I’m for stopping Iran very simply from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon.»

Enrichment of uranium is the key process that enables Iran’s regime to advance its work on a deliverable nuclear weapon. 

«Iran’s enrichment is a real, accepted matter,» Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday. «We are ready to build confidence in response to possible concerns, but the issue of enrichment is non-negotiable.»
 

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, views Iranian nuclear achievements on June 11. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA/Reuters)

Mark Wallace, the CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) and a former U.N. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, told Fox News Digital, «Under the Bush administration, zero enrichment was enshrined in U.N. Security Council resolutions. The Obama administration changed that position, allowing enrichment up to 3.67%, and this paved the way for the failed JCPOA that has allowed Iran to extort the international community ever since.»

The Obama administration’s concession to Iran to permit it to enrich uranium to 3.67% has created new problems for Trump to halt Tehran’s drive to build a weapon. Iran has exploited the right to enrich uranium to speed up its weapons program. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency announced in February that Iran has produced dramatically more uranium that can be used in six atomic bombs and stressed that Tehran has made no progress on resolving outstanding issues.

Iran’s medium-range ballistic missile Hayber after a launch during a promotional program organized with the participation of high-ranking military officials in Tehran, Iran, May 7, 2023.  (Iranian Defense Ministry/Hanodut/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Trump said in late March he would launch military strikes against Iran if it failed to agree to his demands for a new nuclear pact.

Prior to Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, Fox News Digital reported in 2017 that Iran tried to obtain illicit technology that could be used for military nuclear and ballistic missile programs, raising questions about a possible violation of the 2015 agreement intended to stop Tehran’s drive to become an atomic armed power, according to three German intelligence reports.

TRUMP HAS A TIMELINE IN MIND FOR IRAN NUKE DEAL, TAPS ISRAEL TO LEAD ANY POTENTIAL MILITARY ACTION

The Trump administration has outlined a two-month framework to reach a deal with Iran, John Hannah, a senior fellow at JINSA, said during a briefing about Iran’s nuclear weapons program Thursday.

Hannah served in senior advisory roles with former Vice President Dick Cheney and was intimately involved in developing U.S. strategy toward talks with Iran over Afghanistan, Iraq and the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program throughout President George W. Bush’s two terms in the White House.  

Traditionally, military pressure has influenced the Islamic Republic of Iran’s recalcitrant and anti-American leaders to make concessions. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 reportedly compelled the clerical regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to briefly pause his country’s work on nuclear weapons.  

Khamenei feared American military action at the time.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, meets Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi before negotiations with U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in Muscat, Oman, April 12, 2025.  (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)

Hannah said Trump’s «military threat is what brought Supreme Leader Khamenei to the table» because it «put his own regime at risk.» Hannah outlined what dismantlement «with a capital D» would mean for Iran. He said «all of their enriched uranium leaves the country,» and the centrifuges are destroyed and taken out of the country. Hannah said Iran’s secretive underground Fordow nuclear fuel enrichment plant and Natanz nuclear site were where Iran was caught digging tunnels in the mountains.

Hannah’s organization, JINSA, released an infographic Wednesday that focused in on Trump administration officials’ comments on verification and dismantlement.

According to a Reuters report, a senior Iranian official said Friday that Iran told the United States in talks last week it was ready to accept some limits on its uranium enrichment but needed watertight guarantees President Donald Trump would not again ditch a nuclear pact.

Tehran’s red lines «mandated by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei» could not be compromised in the talks, the official told Reuters, describing Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity.

He said those red lines meant Iran would never agree to dismantle its centrifuges for enriching uranium, halt enrichment altogether or reduce the amount of enriched uranium it stores to a level below the level it agreed in the 2015 deal that Trump abandoned.

U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff speaks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fun, in the Oval Office of the White House Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C.  (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

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It would also not negotiate over its missile program, which Tehran views as outside the scope of any nuclear deal.

Top U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff, in a post on X on Tuesday, said Iran must «stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment» to reach a deal with Washington.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tax season is done. 

And this year, Congressional Republicans converted tax season to «sales» season. Republicans and President Donald Trump are pushing to approve a bill to reauthorize his 2017 tax cut package. Otherwise, those taxes expire later this year.

«We absolutely have to make the tax cuts permanent,» said Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., on FOX Business.

«We’ve got to get the renewal of the President’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That’s absolutely essential,» said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., on FOX Business.

Rates for nearly every American spike if Congress doesn’t act within the next few months.

CONFIDENCE IN DEMOCRATS HITS ALL TIME LOW IN NEW POLL

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with the media after the House passed the budget resolution on Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

«We are trying to avoid tax increases on the most vulnerable populations in our country,» said Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee which determines tax policy. «I am trying to avoid a recession.»

If Congress stumbles, the non-partisan Tax Foundation estimates that a married couple with two children – earning $165,000 a year – is slapped with an extra $2,400 in taxes. A single parent with no kids making $75,000 annually could see a $1,700 upcharge on their tax bill. A single parent with two children bringing home $52,000 a year gets slapped with an additional $1,400 in taxes a year.

«Pretty significant. That’s an extra mortgage payment or extra rent payment,» said Daniel Bunn of the non-partisan Tax Foundation. «People have been kind of used to living with the policies that are currently in law for almost eight years now. And the shift back to the policy that was prior to the 2017 tax cuts would be a dramatic tax increase for many.»

But technically, Republicans aren’t cutting taxes.

«As simple as I can make this bill. It is about keeping tax rates the same,» said Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, on Fox.

Congress had to write the 2017 tax reduction bill in a way so that the reductions would expire this year. That was for accounting purposes. Congress didn’t have to count the tax cuts against the deficit thanks to some tricky number-crunching mechanisms – so long as they expired within a multi-year window. But the consequence was that taxes could climb if lawmakers failed to renew the old reductions.

«It sunsets and so you just automatically go back to the tax levels prior to 2017,» said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

A recent Fox News poll found that 45% of those surveyed – and 44% of independents believe the rich don’t pay enough taxes.

Democrats hope to turn outrage about the perceived tax disparity against Trump.

«He wants his billionaire buddies to get an even bigger tax break. Is that disgraceful?» asked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a rally in New York.

«Disgrace!» shouted someone in the crowd.

«Disgraceful! Disgraceful!» followed up Schumer.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., (R) speaks alongside Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., (L) to reporters during a news conference on the impacts of the Republican budget proposal at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.  (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Some Republicans are now exploring raising rates on the wealthy or corporations. There’s been chatter on Capitol Hill and in the administration about exploring an additional set of tax brackets.

«I don’t believe the president has made a determination on whether he supports it or not,» said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.

«We’re going to see where the President is» on this, said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent while traveling in Argentina. «Everything is on the table.»

A Treasury spokesperson then clarified Bessent’s remarks.

«What’s off the table is a $4.4 trillion tax increase on the American people,» said the spokesperson. «Additionally, corporate tax cuts will set off a manufacturing boom and rapidly grow the U.S. economy again.»

Top Congressional GOP leaders dismissed the idea.

«I’m not a big fan of doing that,» said House Speaker Mike Johnson on Fox. «I mean we’re the Republican party and we’re for tax reduction for everyone.»

FEDERAL JUDGE TEMPORARILY RESTRICTS DOGE ACCESS TO PERSONALIZED SOCIAL SECURITY DATA

«I don’t support that initiative,» said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., on FOX Business, before adding «everything’s on the table.»

But if you’re President Donald Trump and the GOP, consider the politics of creating a new corporate tax rate or hiking taxes on the well-to-do. 

Sunrise light hits the U.S. Capitol dome on Thursday, January 2, 2025, as the 119th Congress is set to begin Friday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The president has expanded the GOP base. Republicans are no longer the party of the «wealthy.» Manual laborers, shop and storekeepers and small business persons now comprise Trump’s GOP. So maintaining these tax cuts helps with that working-class core. Raising taxes on the wealthy would help Republicans pay for the tax cuts and reduce the hit on the deficit. And it would shield Republicans from the Democrats’ argument that the tax cuts are for the rich.

Congress is now in the middle of a two-week recess for Passover and Easter. GOP lawmakers and staff are working behind the scenes to actually write the bill. No one knows exactly what will be in the bill. Trump promised no taxes on tips for food service workers. There is also talk of no taxes on overtime. 

WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BLUNTLY SHOWS WHERE PARTIES STAND ON IMMIGRATION AMID ABREGO GARCIA DEPORTATION

Republicans from high-tax states like New York and Pennsylvania want to see a reduction of «SALT.» That’s where taxpayers can write off «state and local taxes.» This provision is crucial to secure the support of Republicans like Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y. But including the SALT reduction also increases the deficit.

So what will the bill look like?

«Minor adjustments within that are naturally on the table,» said Rounds. «The key though, [is] 218 in the House and 51 in the Senate.»

In other words, it’s about the math. Republicans need to develop the right legislative brew which commands just the right amount of votes in both chambers to pass. That could mean including certain provisions – or dumping others. It’s challenging. Especially with the slim House majority.

People attend a press conference and rally in support of fair taxation near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 2025.  (Bryan Dozier / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP)

«There were trade-offs and offsets within that bill that many people are dissatisfied with,» said Bunn of the 2017 bill. «And it’s not clear how the package is going to come together with those various trade-offs.»

Johnson wants the bill complete by Memorial Day. Republicans know this enterprise can’t drag on too late into the year. Taxpayers would see a tax increase – even if it’s temporary – if working out the bill stretches into the fall when the IRS begins to prepare for the next tax season.

It’s also thought that finishing this sooner rather than later would provide some stability to the volatile stock markets. Establishing tax policy for next year would calm anxieties about the nation’s economic outlook.

«The big, beautiful bill,» Trump calls it, adding he wants the legislation done «soon.»

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And that’s why tax season is now sales season. Both to the lawmakers. And to the public.