Free Republic

A Wisconsin woman who disappeared more than 60 years ago has been found alive by authorities. Audrey Backeberg left her Reedsburg home in July 1962 when she was 20 years old, a press release from the Sauk County Sheriff's Office said. During a review of cold cases earlier this year, a detective reassessed the initial evidence and re-interviewed several witnesses, Sheriff Chip Meister said in the release. Law enforcement departments across the country have been reviewing cold cases with the aid of new DNA technology, including the self-submit websites such as Ancestry.com. As such sites have expanded, so have the...

ealth and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pushed discredited claims that the MMR vaccine contains "a lot of aborted fetus debris." He made the remarks during a town hall event on Newsnation on Wednesday, saying this "debris" was the reason many religious groups don't get vaccinated. Why It Matters The claim comes amid a serious measles outbreak in Texas that has already claimed the lives of two children in a Mennonite community with low vaccination rates. Kennedy Jr., who has long faced criticism over his comments about vaccines, has vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule. Despite...

Marches, protests, phone-banking events, film screenings, and more centered around environmental activism are being organized across the nation for Earth Day, on April 22. Americans are taking to the streets around Earth Day to voice discontent against the Trump administration's "assault on our climate." Earth Day protests have been occurring throughout the month concurrently with other large protest movements including the Hands Off marches, and Tesla Takedowns.

Astronomers have just revealed that a day on Uranus is longer than was previously thought, at 17 hours, 14 minutes and 52 seconds. This is 28 seconds longer than the previous estimate, which was made by NASA's Voyager 2 probe during its flyby of the ice giant planet back in 1986. The new figure—which is 1,000 times more accurate—was calculated based on a decade's worth of observations of Uranus's aurorae made by NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope. The long-term data on the planet's auroral emissions enabled the researchers to track the positions of the planet's magnetic poles and, by extension, its...

A man from Harlem in New York City who has spent more than five decades in the United States was denied release on Friday after recently being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a routine check-in. Why It Matters Some attorneys and immigration groups have warned individuals either traveling out of the U.S. or entering that the federal government, due to the illegal immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, could potentially detain individuals—even those with visas or green cards, or students with legal standing to remain here. Recent cases involving ICE detaining individuals that include students and...

Prince Harry has resigned from the charity he set up in Princess Diana's honor after a "devastating" breakdown in relations with the chair, who has alleged abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny and misgynoir — misogyny directed at Black women. Sentebale was founded by Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in Southern Africa in 2006 and has been one of the British royal's most important projects. When he quit the palace in January 2020 it was at a dinner for Sentebale that he used a speech to justify that dramatic departure saying: “When I lost my mum 23 years ago,...

Nebraska Republican Mike Flood was heckled at a town hall event he hosted on Tuesday in Columbus, with a section of the crowd at one point chanting "tax the rich" at the House representative. Newsweek contacted Flood for comment on Wednesday outside of regular office hours via telephone and voicemail message. Why It Matters Flood is the latest in a succession of Republican politicians to receive a rough reception at town hall meetings across the U.S. since President Donald Trump's inauguration, with House Speaker Mike Johnson advising his GOP colleagues to stop hosting the in-person events earlier this month. Criticism...

According to Jason Lemon, senior politics editor at Newsweek, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is increasingly being discussed as a leading star within the Democrat Party. He writes, “with some suggesting she could be a 2028 contender for the party’s presidential nomination. Lemon suggests this is their response to their defeat in the 2024 election. Ocasio-Cortez “has emerged as one of the Democrats many see to be pushing back in a way that resonates with the party’s base,” the editor writes. He notes she has held massive rallies with [fellow communist] Bernie Sanders. He doesn’t mention that the same thousands appear at every...

An upcoming 60 Minutes investigation into the drone sightings that took place toward the end of 2024 promises to reveal more about the government's knowledge and response to the still largely-unexplained phenomena. In a preview for the special, CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker speaks with Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, inquiring about the intelligence community's thoughts on the mysterious sightings and whether these could have been an attempt at espionage by a foreign power. "I am privy to classified briefings at the highest level," Wicker said. "I think the Pentagon and the National Security...

Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan said she was "grateful" to speak with President Donald Trump on Thursday for a "productive meeting" that included discussions about jobs and tariffs. Since taking office for his second administration, Trump has pursued an arguably chaotic economic policy, which is reflected by the steep drop in the stock market in recent weeks: The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was $44,873 at the start of February, had fallen to $40,813 by the close of business on Thursday. Thursday's drop marked a 10 percent drop over the previous month, which brought the market into a "correction,"...

A fire erupted at one of Russia's largest oil refineries in the city of Ufa in Bashkortostan, approximately 900 miles from the Ukrainian border, following a reported drone attack. -snip- Videos circulating on social media showed a huge fire engulf the Bashneft-owned refinery, which is situated about 932 miles east of the Ukrainian border, and processes up to 168,000 barrels per day, according to Reuters. The Bashkortostan Ministry of Emergency Situations said the fire erupted "in the area of the incinerator." "There is no threat to residents of nearby areas. A laboratory is operating on site to monitor the air...

Despite President Donald Trump's claims, the 2024 election always felt less like a Trump victory and more like a Democratic collapse. Kamala Harris outspent Trump by nearly $700 million—only to get knocked out on the first night. No amount of ads, door-knocking, or "all-star" consultants could make people like Democrats. And now, as America white-knuckles through a fresh constitutional crisis every other day, Democrats still can't figure out why voters keep turning them away. For years, Democrats have branded themselves as the adults in the room—the stable, rational choice. But in practice, that has meant coming off as stiff, preachy,...

n alleged member of the MS-13 gang, who was removed from the United States six times, has been arrested in Texas, accused of killing a man just hours earlier. Luis Miguel Perez-Miranda, 34, was detained Monday and charged with murder in the deadly stabbing of a man in a small community just outside Houston. Why It Matters Originating in Los Angeles, MS-13 is a criminal gang made up of immigrants and was recently designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the administration of President Donald Trump. Groups like MS-13 became a focal point of anti-immigration discourse during the presidential election...

Iran has said it will carry out another military operation against Israel, according to state media agencies.Brigadier General Ali Fazli of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), said that a third operation against Israel, known as "True Promise III," will be carried out "on schedule."...On April 13, 2024, Iran launched a large-scale missile attack on Israeli targets, "True Promise I," marking Iran's first direct military engagement with Israel in decades. The strikes followed the April 1 Israeli bombing of Iran's diplomatic mission in Syria, which killed several Iranian officials and military officers.Iran expanded its operations with a second round of...

Russia is demanding control of cities in Ukraine that its forces don't currently occupy as part of a deal with President Donald Trump to potentially bring an end to the war, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said. -snip- Trump has suggested that both Russia and Ukraine must make concessions in the war. Kyiv has rejected any idea of ceding territory to Moscow, while Putin has demanded that Ukraine give up its aspirations of joining the NATO military alliance, and cede its Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The ISW think tank, based in Washington D.C., noted...

Author Stephen King's declaration that he's "proud to be a Maine man" after Democratic Maine Governor Janet Mills told President Donald Trump "See you in court" has gained significant attention online. The legendary horror novelist praised Mills on X, formerly Twitter, for "standing up to the bully" after she defied Trump's threats to withhold federal education funding from Maine over the state's transgender athlete policies. Newsweek reached out to a representative for King via email on Sunday for comment. Why It Matters The public clash between Mills and the president comes as his administration pushes for state and local leaders...

President Donald Trump gave Europe three weeks to sign off on terms for Ukraine's "surrender" to Russia, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) claimed. Observers of the 3-year-old war have worried that Trump may strike a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that pressures Ukraine to abandon its aspirations to join NATO and cede its currently occupied territories, effectively capitulating to Moscow's demands. Ukraine says it has been excluded from high-stakes negotiations that will shape its future. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Finland's Mika Aaltola of the European People's Party claimed that the U.S. "has given us...

France's far-right leader Jordan Bardella Friday said he had cancelled his speech at a right-wing meeting in Washington after a "gesture alluding to Nazi ideology" by conservative firebrand Steve Bannon. The president of France's National Rally party, who is in the US capital, said he was not present when Bannon, one of the masterminds behind Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, made a gesture that has been described as a Nazi salute on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Billionaire Elon Musk has criticized the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a nonprofit organization established by the U.S. government during Republican Ronald Reagan's presidency. "NED is a SCAM," Musk wrote on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday, in response to a user who used Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok to identify "red flags of corruption or concerns" with NED. Why It Matters Musk ... is running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a Trump administration task force assigned to find ways to cut wasteful federal spending and "dismantle" government bureaucracy. Musk said in October that he could...

From Professor Robert K Goldman: Trump's Gaza Plan Won't Work—The U.S. Does Not Recognize Palestine as a State, but 143 Countries Do Trump's plan would flagrantly violate numerous rules of International Law. While the U.S. does not recognize Palestine as a state, of which Gaza is a component, Palestine is a widely recognized as such by 143 countries. If the U.S. were to use military force to seize Gaza, we would become an Occupying Power under the laws of war and the forcible transfer of Gazans to third countries would constitute a serious war crime and given the scale of...