Free Republic

“Don’t jump,” President Joe Biden shouted this week for at least the 20th time as president, raising concerns on the campaign trail about his mental acuity. Biden, 81, whom special counsel Robert Hur described as “an elderly man with a poor memory,” often uses the phrase “Don’t jump” to joke or taunt his critics. Biden typically directs his wisecrack at individuals who are standing near a ledge or on a balcony, though no video evidence shows anyone seeking to “jump” from their perch. He once told a person standing just a few feet in front of him not to jump....

A defiant French teacher is still in the classroom after being fired by the Department of Education — crowing that the city “can’t touch me” despite the sexually-charged accusations that got her sacked, including making nearly 30,000 late-night texts to a schoolgirl. Dulaina Almonte, 33, lost her job at Harry S. Truman High School in The Bronx in 2020 after the Special Commissioner of Investigation substantiated claims of her creepy behavior with teens. “I can’t be guilty if I’m still a teacher,” Almonte — who now teaches at a Bronx charter school — boasted to The Post this week.

ROME — Pope Francis lamented the West’s continued demographic decline, insisting on Friday that fewer children signals a lack of hope in the future. Countering “outdated” myths of dangerous overpopulation, the pontiff contended that far from being a problem, human beings are the solution to the world’s difficulties. Without naming names, the pope seemingly referred to characters like Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich, who penned the 1968 doomsday bestseller The Population Bomb, which sparked hysteria over the future of the world and the earth’s ability to sustain human life.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces began a renewed ground assault on Ukraine’s northeast, killing and injuring several and forcing more than 1,700 civilians to evacuate from the Kharkiv region, local officials said Saturday. Artillery, mortar, and aerial bombardments hit more than 30 different towns and villages, leaving at least three people dead and five others injured, said Kharkiv governor, Oleh Syniehubov. Ukraine rushed reinforcements to the Kharkiv region on Friday to hold off a Russian attempt to breach local defenses, authorities said.

President Joe Biden said during a fundraiser Friday in San Francisco, California, that he wished former President Donald Trump had injected himself with bleach. While speaking at the fundraiser on Friday, Biden referenced a false claim that Trump had once suggested people “inject bleach” to help treat the coronavirus, saying he wished the former president “had done a little bit himself,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announced his proposed $288 billion state budget, which would cut thousands of vacant state jobs and funding to more than 200 state programs in order to close the state’s $27.6 billion deficit. Newsom revealed his budget proposal on Friday for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which starts on July 1, citing the importance of accountability and responsibility, according to ABC7 News. This comes a month after state officials agreed to reduce California’s deficit by $17.3 billion after Newsom announced in January that the state’s deficit was $37.9 billion. The state deficit ended up being closer to $45...

Dozens of Israel supporters protested outside “traitor” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office in Manhattan on Friday, calling on him to resign for “backstabbing” Israel and allegedly staying silent as antisemitism rages across college campuses. The demonstration came days after the New York senator told reporters he has “faith” in President Biden’s decision to withhold weapons for Israel’s invasion of Rafah, a move the protesters strongly condemned. “Schumer, the doomer! It’s time to resign!” yelled the crowd of about 40 protesters outside his Midtown office.

On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) stated that America wants “to continue to be” Israel’s best ally but “the Biden administration, and certainly I would agree here, has a very strong disagreement with how Israel is conducting the war in Gaza. And so, if Israel wants to go ahead and do whatever it’s doing, regardless of the American position, there will be consequences, and that will be seen in the Congress and undoubtedly seen in the actions of the administration.”

NEXSTAR) – It’s been almost 20 years since we’ve seen a geomagnetic storm as strong as the one heading our way this weekend. Power operators and other groups that maintain critical infrastructure are preparing for what might happen when the coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, hit Earth. But is there anything you should be doing? A G4-level solar storm, such as the one expected to hit as soon as Friday evening, can cause issues with the power grid, radio communications and the accuracy of GPS.

Former Trump administration communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Friday on CNN’s “The Lead” that former President Donald Trump was a “very dangerous guy” who shouldn’t be anywhere near the White House. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “You recently called Trump the most un-American presidential nominee in U.S. history. Obviously, you want Biden to win president Biden to be reelected. What are you hearing from your fellow Republicans who also have a distaste for Trump but are having difficulties pulling the lever for Biden?”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s domestic support is on the rise as Israel’s war against Hamas advances, according to poll numbers released on Thursday. Israel’s Channel 14 published the results of a survey conducted by Direct Polls on Thursday evening, showing that if elections were held now, Netanyahu’s Likud Party would receive 25 mandates, one of its best numbers since the October 7 massacre — the most brutal attack on Jews since the Nazi Holocaust.

Florida voters could narrowly pass an amendment enshrining the right to abortion in the state constitution in November. A survey by the Florida Chamber of Commerce found that 61 percent of likely Florida voters say they support the abortion amendment, above the 60 percent support needed to pass the measure. However, the results are within the survey’s ±4 percent margin of error. The poll found that 29 percent of respondents oppose the amendment, and 10 percent are undecided.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that student protesters didn’t “know very much” about the Middle East. When asked about the protests at college campuses across the country, Clinton said, “First of all, I have had many conversations, as you have had, with a lot of young people over the last many months now. You are right. They don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or frankly about history in many areas of the world, including in our own country. With respect to the Middle East, they don’t...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday announced a $44.9 billion deficit in his revised proposal for the 2024-2025 state budget, while proposing a series of cuts to close the spending gap. The shortfall includes $27.6 billion detailed in his proposal, plus $17.3 billion in cuts that the State Legislature proactively instituted a few weeks ago. The governor proposed a $288.1 billion topline budget figure, down from Newsom’s initial January proposal for a $291.5 billion budget. Although the total $44.9 billion deficit is higher than the $37.9 figure projected in January, Newsom’s revision involves withdrawing $4.2 billion from the state’s...

If you’ve visited a grocery store in the last year, chances are high that you saw single-use plastic bags swapped for another reusable bag (also made with plastic, but we’ll get to that later). Or maybe your local grocery store hasn’t even made this trade-off, despite the law stating they must do so. On your walk home from that very store, you probably saw plastic bags still littered along the street. This is all part of the current problem with single-use plastic bans on bags, straws and takeout containers across the U.S. They are disjointed and, for the average person,...

White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Lael Brainard dismissed the notion that Republicans would be able to easily reverse the sustainable energy provisions passed in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) even if they win majorities in the general election this fall. By building the energy transition into the tax code and incentivizing businesses and households to change their behaviors rather than compelling them to do so with more top-down spending initiatives, the Inflation Reduction Act is insulated from any quick-and-dirty policy corrections that may be desired by a new Congress or presidential administration, Brainard argued Friday.

President Joe Biden’s border chief says the White House’s border plan “is working.” But the plan is not intended to reduce migration into U.S. communities, homes, and jobs, according to May0rkas, who was impeached in February by the House of Representatives. Instead, the border plan is intended to divert the flood of economic migrants from the cartel-run “irregular migration” pipeline into many expanding government-run quasi-legal pipelines, Mayorkas told NPR Morning Edition‘s Steve Inskeep during a May 10 interview: Inskeep: Do you also have a policy goal to cause fewer people to arrive, fewer people to get in, fewer people to...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) praised House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in an interview with Politico, saying that he and the Democrat leader have “more in common than people might think.” Johnson said about Jeffries: I have. Hakeem is a good man. We’ve worked well together. We have a lot more in common than people might think. You know, he’s from New York and I’m from Louisiana. While we have lots of disagreements on policies and the fine points of policy, I think you can appreciate people for who they are as a person. I think that’s what we’re called...

CLAIM: President Ronald Reagan, like President Joe Biden, withheld arms from Israel to influence its military policy. VERDICT: MISLEADING. Reagan acted within the law, and in very different circumstances, in withholding arms. The New York Times‘ Peter Baker — winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper’s bogus reporting on “Russia collusion” — wrote Friday that President Reagan, too, withheld weapons from Israel over concerns about their use. Baker’s aim in the article appears to be to rescue Biden from some of the criticism he has faced since he confirmed earlier this week that the administration was withholding bombs and...

Shocking video footage shows two masked thieves using sledgehammers to smash up a Connecticut jewelry store in a brazen smash-and-grab raid. Video released by Westport police starts with quiet scenes in Lux, Bond, and Green on Main Street at about 3:10 p.m. Thursday, with only a few people in one room in the store. Suddenly, the two crooks race into another part of the store, dressed completely in dark clothing — including hoods and covered faces — apart from orange gloves.