Free Republic

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas authorized the payment on Sunday of $42,000 to the family of a terrorist who killed two Israelis through a policy that incentivizes and rewards terrorism against Israel. Laila Ghannam, governor of Ramallah’s Al-Bireh district, personally handed the money to the family of Muhannad Al-Halabi, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group . Al-Halabi fatally stabbed two Israeli civilians in 2015 before being shot by police. The $42,000 payment was given to Al-Halabi’s parents "on behalf of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas ," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which tracks regional media...

The Biden administration ended an inquiry into a possible connection between the origins of the novel coronavirus and a lab in Wuhan, a CNN report published Tuesday claims. The State Department launched the previously undisclosed inquiry last fall under President Donald Trump — but the effort was shut down this spring because of “concerns about the quality of its work,” CNN reported, citing three unnamed sources. Allies of Mike Pompeo, Trump’s secretary of state, were looking into the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic may have started in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and not in nature, CNN reported. But after...

Freudian slip or does the Joe Biden era already feel a little old? A CNN reporter accidentally referred to the president-elect as “Joebama” during a live shot Tuesday, combining his name with that of the man he served as vice president and from whose administration much of his staff and cabinet picks are derived. “President-elect Joebama — uh, Joe Biden, rather — did finish speaking here just a short time ago,” said veteran journalist Jeff Zeleny, catching and correcting his own mistake.

Freudian slip or does the Joe Biden era already feel a little old? A CNN reporter accidentally referred to the president-elect as “Joebama” during a live shot Tuesday, combining his name with that of the man he served as vice president and from whose administration much of his staff and cabinet picks are derived. “President-elect Joebama — uh, Joe Biden, rather — did finish speaking here just a short time ago,” said veteran journalist Jeff Zeleny, catching and correcting his own mistake. Zeleny had the slip of the tongue while reporting to “Situation Room” host Wolf Blitzer on Biden’s stumping...

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