Free Republic

President Biden referred to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as the president of South Korea on Friday in his latest gaffe involving world leaders. Biden, 81, was in the middle of attacking his 2024 opponent, former President Donald Trump, over his close relationship with the dictator when he made the blunder. “We’ll never forget his love letters for the South Korean President Kim Jong Un or his admiration for Putin — what a great leader Putin is,” the president said during remarks at a campaign reception in Portola Valley, Calif.

Chicago police say a 13-year-old girl was shot by a car owner Tuesday morning while allegedly trying to steal the car. Police updated information on the incident, saying that the owner shot at the 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy who was allegedly with her, according to ABC 7. A bullet hit the girl “in the right side of her body” and she was taken to the hospital, where she was “in stable condition.”

“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....

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 Countering “outdated” myths of dangerous overpopulation, the pontiff contended that far from being a problem, human beings are the solution to the world’s difficulties.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.

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.

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.

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?”

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.

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,...

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...

Conservative attorney George Conway suggested Thursday that the cross-examination of adult film actor Stormy Daniels by former President Trump’s legal team in his hush money trial this week was a “complete disaster.” “My takeaway was that the continued cross-examination of Stormy Daniels was a complete disaster and fiasco for the defense,” Conway said during a panel appearance on CNN, adding, “It just went on and on, and … they didn’t have anything on her.” Conway, who is going through a divorce with former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, has been a staunch critic of the former president. Still, he praised Trump’s...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) granted an interview to establishment media only “a few hours after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) attempt to oust him” to trash Donald Trump — the man Johnson conveniently clung to when his speakership hung in the balance. Johnson sat down for an extensive “deep dive” interview Wednesday night with Politico so quickly after the vote to end his speakership that Johnson claimed he was not even aware which eleven Republicans voted against him. In what Politico called an “SNL-worthy” send up, Johnson used the interview to caricature Trump praising Johnson: Johnson was impersonating Donald Trump...

Traffic safety advocates cheered a new law allowing the Big Apple to lower speed limits on city streets to as low as 10 miles per hour. The legislation – deemed “Sammy’s Law” in memory of 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein who was fatally struck by a van near his Park Slope home in 2013 – passed as part of the state budget last month. “This is a joyous but bittersweet moment,” Cohen Eckstein’s mother, Amy Cohen, said as she appeared at a press conference Thursday in Manhattan with Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “Sammy was fierce...

Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s onetime fixer-turned-foe, is expected to take the stand on Monday in Trump’s New York criminal trial, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. Billed as a star witness for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Cohen’s testimony is expected to mark the culmination of prosecutors’ case in chief as it approaches its end. It could last multiple days. Cohen is expected to implicate his ex-boss as he testifies about a hush money deal with adult film actress Stormy Daniels that underpins Trump’s case. Many of prosecutors’ witnesses so far have conceded they had no...

On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said that the White House “needs to clean…up” President Joe Biden’s comments on Israel to CNN “and reiterate our support for Israel,” because “To the extent it looks like we are separating from Israel, that just gives Hamas all the more incentive to keep fighting.” He also called on the White House to push the message that Hamas is holding up a ceasefire.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wasted little time after 163 Democrats voted to save his speakership to announce he would not use Congress’s constitutional power of the purse to stop special counsel Jack Smith’s “lawfare” against Donald Trump. The Speaker, in some of his earliest public comments after Democrats saved his gavel, refused to make any attempt to defund Smith’s office as it continues its prosecutions of Trump. “That’s not something you wave a wand and just eliminate the special counsel as a provision,” Johnson told Politico. “There is a necessity for a function like that, because sometimes the Department of...

Former President Donald Trump’s defense on Thursday seemingly worked to paint the picture that porn actress Stormy Daniels attempted to financially benefit from his wealth and fame, according to reports. Daily Caller courts reporter Katelynn Richardson noted that during the defense’s cross-examination of the porn star, who nearly blew the trial for the prosecution on Tuesday, Trump attorney Susan Necheles was “pushing to show Daniels was motivated by money when she entered into her 2016 NDA [non-disclosure agreement].” Daniels notes she did the 2018 Anderson Cooper interview for free. Necheles: After the interview, you negotiated a book contract for $800,000?...

Vice President Harris in a new interview expressed concern that the Supreme Court and its conservative majority could “undo recognized rights” after its 2022 ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. “This court has shown itself to be an activist court,” Harris told The New York Times. “I worry about fundamental freedoms across the board.“ The vice president said she didn’t want to raise any specific legal precedents the court could overturn because she didn’t want to sound “alarmist.” “But this court has made it very clear that they are willing to undo recognized rights,” she told the outlet.

The effects of a “snow drought” are still plaguing parts of the West, after a stretch of warm, dry weather last month accelerated the season’s snowmelt, federal meteorologists reported. While California’s Sierra Nevada has received sufficient snow this season to escape such a designation, the same cannot be said for areas in the northern Rocky Mountains and Washington State, according to an update issued Wednesday. In those areas, which are enduring “the most severe snow drought,” snowpack at many lower elevations has melted one to four weeks early, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Integrated...

Pay day seriously pales compared to rent day — and it’s only getting worse. A new report has found that, since 2019, rent has gone up on average 1.5 times faster than wages in 44 out of the nation’s 50 largest metros, and nowhere more so than in New York City. According to an analysis by StreetEasy of data from Zillow, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and its own site, the Big Apple has seen the greatest gap in rent growth relative to wage growth in recent years. Specifically, the city watched wages go up 1.2% between 2022 and...