Putinoids

Romania: Six arrested over alleged coup plot with Russia

https://www.dw.com/en/romania-six-arrested-over-alleged-coup-plot-with-russia/a-71847734

Nicholas Counter with dpa, AFP

3 hours ago3 hours ago

The suspects include a 101-year-old former military general. They are accused of wanting to overthrow the Romanian government and end its NATO membership.

Willfully ignorant:BBC boss calls Gaza documentary ‘dagger to the heart’ after narrator revealed to be son of Hamas terrorist

BBC boss calls Gaza documentary ‘dagger to the heart’ after narrator revealed to be son of Hamas terrorist

https://nypost.com/2025/03/05/media/bbc-boss-calls-hamas-linked-documentary-dagger-to-the-heart-of-credibility/

By 

Taylor Herzlich

Published March 5, 2025, 4:32 p.m. ET

Barack Obama, John Kerry’s work for Iran shows Russiagate was pure projection

https://nypost.com/2025/03/05/opinion/barack-obama-and-john-kerry-are-traitors-and-russiagate-was-pure-projection/

By 

Post Editorial Board

Published March 5, 2025, 1:23 p.m. ET

A new Senate Judiciary Committee report found that the Obama administration worked to "systematically derail" an FBI investigation into Iranian terrorists.Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

Then-President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry put Iran’s interests ahead of American national security — service to a foreign power unprecedented in US history.

A blockbuster new report from Sen. Charles Grassley’s Judiciary Committee shows that the Obama administration secretly worked behind the scenes to systematically protect Iranian agents and operations from federal investigators — for fear arrests and exposure would upset Tehran and so derail negotiations for Obama’s obscene Iran nuclear deal. 

Via newly released, unclassified emails, whistleblowers have revealed that Obama officials at Justice and State (and Kerry personally) stopped federal agencies from enforcing sanctions on Iran and even intervened in FBI investigations — killing literal dozens of Iran-linked investigations, including ones against individuals aiding Tehran’s efforts to build nukes.  

Biden admin locked up just 8 out of 100+ migrants with ISIS ties who crossed into US, Tulsi Gabbard says

https://nypost.com/2025/03/05/us-news/biden-admin-locked-up-just-8-out-of-100-migrants-with-isis-ties-who-crossed-into-us-tulsi-gabbard-says/

By 

Jennie Taer

Published March 5, 2025, 7:30 p.m. ET

“I think being a Nazi is cool,” she said to the Jewish victim,

Out-of-control NYC woman’s deranged spree included biting cops, attack with a flagpole but she kept getting set free — until now

https://nypost.com/2025/03/06/us-news/out-of-control-nyc-womans-deranged-spree-included-biting-cops-attack-with-a-flagpole-but-she-kept-getting-set-free-until-now/

An out-of-control Brooklyn woman has a troubling string of busts over the past year, including alleged assaults on three consecutive days last week — but remained free without bail until now.

Charlena Nicholas, 29, has been charged with biting three NYPD cops, threatening someone with a Marine Corps flagpole, running over a man’s foot with her car and slugging an 80-year-old woman. 

It wasn’t until her recent mini-crime spree that she was finally put behind bars.

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Charlena Nicholas, 29, has a string of Brooklyn assault and menacing charges in recent months, including three alleged incidents in three days last week. Gabriella Bass

“This is what happens when you’re the only state in the country that doesn’t have a dangerousness standard, allowing someone like this to fall through the cracks,” one source told The Post. 

On Wednesday, Judge Masateru Marubashi finally had enough and set bail at $40,000 — $20,000 for each of her most recent alleged assaults.

Outside the courtroom, Nicholas’ grandmother said she has struggled with psychiatric issues.

“They say she’s schizophrenic or something like that,” Lynette Jameson said. “”She stopped taking her medicine. She said it was making her sick. So I said, ‘There’s different types of medicine.’ 

“She wouldn’t take it. But with all she was going through, they should have given her help,” she said. “I”m not going to make excuses for her I told her she needs to get help.”

In her recent rash of arrests, Nicholas is accused of trying to slug a 35-year-old woman on Gravesend Neck Road in Brooklyn on Feb. 27 in an unprovoked attack.

Charged with attempted assault, menacing and harassment, which are not eligible for bail in New York, she was released without bail at 11:38 a.m. on Friday — only to be busted again less than four hours later, this time for allegedly slugging an 80-year-old woman on Flatbush Avenue.

“What are you looking at?” Nicholas allegedly snapped at the woman before attacking her, police said.

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Charlena Nicholas has been charged with biting cops, punching an 80-year-old woman and running over a man’s foot. Obtained by the NY Post

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The alleged unprovoked punching attack on the 80-year-old woman came on Feb. 28 on Flatbush Avenue. Obtained by the NY Post

Nicholas was back in handcuffs on Saturday, this time for allegedly making an antisemitic remark on a No. 3 train at an Atlantic Avenue subway station — then punching the victim in the chest.

“I think being a Nazi is cool,” she said to the Jewish victim, according to law enforcement sources. “Pretty cool. I’m a Nazi. I’m antisemitic.”

When the victim started shooting video of her verbal assault, Nicolas allegedly punched the woman.

She was arraigned in the two most recent cases on Wednesday, when she was finally held on bail. 

Most of her earlier arrests failed to qualify for bail under the Empire State’s 2019 controversial criminal justice reforms, which barred judges from setting bail for most crimes.

According to sources, that includes a Sept. 12 arrest on menacing charges for allegedly threatening a staffer at Kingsborough Community College with a Marine Corps flagpole after she was told there were no free snacks available on the campus. 

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Charlena Nicholas’ most recent arrest followed an alleged antisemitic assault on a Brooklyn subway train on Saturday. Wayne Carrington

On Sept. 26, she was being evaluated at a medical facility when sources said she flew off the handle. When cops responded to a 911 call, Nicholas allegedly bit three of New York’s Finest. 

She was charged with second-degree assault, which is eligible for bail, but the case was tossed less than a week later because the cops’ injuries weren’t serious enough, according to the sources.

What do you think? Post a comment.

But Nicholas had another scrape with the law in December in two road rage incidents — a Dec. 16 encounter in which she punched a motorists after she nicked his car, and a Dec. 10 incident when she allegedly crashed into another car and ran over the victim’s foot when he confronted her. 

Brooklyn prosecutors asked that she be held on $5,000 cash bail or a bond of up to $15,000, but the third-degree assault charge is not eligible for bail, so Nicholas was released again — until the three new arrests.

“Where’s the humanity on letting someone who demonstrated clear emotional distress — bits cops, random assaults — in letting them just go into the world?” another source said. “We need a mechanism that allows for civil commitment that’s seamlessly integrated at the point of arraignment.”

By 

Joe Marino, 

 

Amanda Woods, 

 

Reuven Fenton and 

 

Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

Published March 6, 2025, 11:17 a.m. ET

‘chronically absent’ as grades plummet, spending surges...it's not the money it's the progressive policies

300K NYC public school students — nearly 35% — ‘chronically absent’ as grades plummet, spending surges

https://nypost.com/2025/03/06/us-news/bombshell-study-reveals-300k-nyc-public-school-students-nearly-35-chronically-absent-as-grades-plummet-spending-surges/

It’s been 10 days, do you know where your children are?

More than one-third of New York City public schoolkids — or some 300,000 students — were “chronically absent” last year, according to a blockbuster study out Thursday.

The bombshell findings come as New York students’ test scores in math and reading remain mediocre, despite the state funneling more money into education than any other in the nation.

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According to a new study, more than one-third of New York City public school students were chronically absent last year. Jack Forbes / NY Post Design

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw the numbers. It’s unbelievable,” said Danyela Souza Egorov, senior policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute think thank and author of the report on chronic absenteeism.

The number of K-12 students deemed chronically absent — or out for 10 days or more in the 180-day school year — has spiked from 26.5% in the 2018-19 term preceding the COVID-19 pandemic to 34.8% in 2023-24.

That means more than 300,000 students out of roughly 900,000 in the country’s largest public school system are frequently missing in action, according to the analysis conducted by the Manhattan Institute.

The results were even more dreadful in upstate school districts, where extensive absenteeism skyrocketed from 41% to 62.2% in Buffalo — Gov. Kathy Hochul’s hometown.

Severe absenteeism shot up from 44.7% to 59.2% in Rochester and 34.7% to 46.8% in Syracuse.

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The absenteeism was even worse in upstate cities like Buffalo and Rochester. Ana Gioia/NY POST DESIGN

Only in Albany did chronic absenteeism drop, from 37.8% to 31.8%.

The report cites two factors for the surge in kids going MIA from class: a lenient shift in parental attitudes toward attendance in recent years and the state’s “ineffectiveness in its efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism.”

SEE ALSO

Only a third of NYC 4th graders deemed ‘proficient’ in math as Big Apple students lag behind state, national averages

“Even more concerning is the recent decision by New York State to deemphasize chronic absenteeism,” Egorov told The Post.

The state Education Department’s new accountability plan—which it must publish to qualify for some federal funding — has “eliminated chronic absenteeism as a measure of school quality,” the analysis said. 

That means how often students actually show up to class “will not be one of the measures by which the state evaluates the performance of school districts,” it said.

In comparison, neighboring Connecticut and Rhode Island are much more aggressively tackling chronic absenteeism, the report said.

But parents are also part of the problem, the study said, having become more lenient post-pandemic about their kids skipping school.

“Some teachers said that remote work has made it easier for some families to keep kids at home on weekdays,” it states. 

“In general, many parents have come to believe, as one educator put it, that ‘missing school in non-testing grades is not a big deal.'”

Test scores remain mediocre despite the state funneling more money into education

The bad attendance comes despite New York pouring more money into its schools — $89 billion or $36,293 per student — than any state in the nation, with only mediocre results to show for it.

New York students have not fully recovered from learning loss suffered from school lockdowns during the pandemic. Students statewide remain below pre-pandemic levels in reading and math, according to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores results.

One former top city educator said New York is going in the wrong direction with its loose education policies.

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Recent test scores show that the majority of New York City eighth and fourth grade students aren’t proficient in math or reading. NY Post Design

“This drives me crazy,” said Eric Nadelstern, a former deputy schools chancellor under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

He noted that absenteeism is closely linked to dropout and graduation rates.

“There’s no more significant indicator of high school completion than having good attendance,” said Nadelstern.

Beyond sagging graduation rates and increased dropout rates, chronic absenteeism has also been linked to negative educational results such as lower grades and standardized test results.

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New York City eighth grade math and reading scores compared to national and state figures. NCES/Thomas Wilburn

“Missing one or two days of school is associated with academic losses equivalent to 57 fewer days of learning and missing 18 or more days equates to years of lost schooling,” found an Empire Report study from 2023.

The problem is that New York “rewards failure and punishes success,” Nadelstern said, noting the “hold harmless” policy that allows schools to get the same level of state and city funding — even when enrollment plummets.

“It’s the job of the educators to get kids to schools and to make the instruction more engaging. It’s the city and state’s responsibility to hold schools more accountable for attendance,” said Nadelstern.

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The city’s fourth graders also lagged behind the state and national averages in math and reading. NCES/Thomas Wilburn

The hike in chronic absenteeism in the Big Apple school school system has worsened across every demographic and every grade.

The grades that saw the biggest increases were the 1st and 7th, where absenteeism jumped by 10 percentage points, the study found.

But the problem is fixable if educators are laser-focused, the report said.

SEE ALSO

NY teachers unions pump school spending to highest in the nation at $36K per kid — yet they rank low in reading and math: report

Charter school educators interviewed said they use a mix of “carrot and sticks” to bolster attendance, focusing on the worst offenders skipping school.

“It’s about having the right attitude, culture and accountability,” said Arthur Samuels, co-founder and executive director of the MESA Charter High School in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Chronic absences often start with students who are late showing up to school, he noted.

“Lateness is a gateway to absence,” Samuels said.

Per MESA’s policy, tardy students are taken to the administrative office and made to call their family on speakerphone to explain why they were late.

MESA’s rate of chronic absenteeism in the 2021–22 school year was 31%, but it dropped to 26% and then to 22% in subsequent years, according to the report.

The city Department of Education and Mayor Eric Adams’ office said chronic absenteeism has come down in recent years, though acknowledged that it is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Chronic absenteeism shot up to 40.7% in the 2021-2022 school during the second year of the pandemic, fell to 36.2% in 2022-2023 to 34.8% last year, city officials noted.

“Since the pandemic, New York City Public Schools has reduced chronic absenteeism over the past three years thanks to strategies that encourage student attendance, including ‘Every Student Every Day’ – providing a range of services and supports in and out of school, working in collaboration with schools, city agencies, shelters, foster care agencies, and community-based organizations,” said DOE spokesperson Nicole Brownstein.t.

“We also offer professional development to staff and targeted supports to community schools. Additionally, we are supporting districts and schools to help families access food, clothing, and hygiene supplies, as well as counseling, and health services, all of which are barriers to regular attendance. There is much more work to be done to reduce chronic absenteeism, but we are on the right path.”

A City Hall spokesperson added Wednesday night, ““Mayor Adams is laser-focused on ensuring that New York City’s hundreds of thousands of students across all five boroughs receive a world-class education, which includes ensuring that students show up to school each day.”

“We are pairing students with mentors, expanding career and technical education programs….. and sending personalized communication to families. Thanks to the Adams administration’s effective strategy, New York City’s school system is seeing significant downward trends in chronic absenteeism since the pandemic. We look forward to continuing this progress to make sure every student can show up to school and receive the education they deserve.”

By 

Carl Campa

Published March 6, 2025, 7:00 a.m. ET