Free Republic

Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Several viruses -- seasonal respiratory flu, stomach flu, COVID-19 and RSV -- are surging in the United States and are expected to spike during the winter months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Seasonal flu activity is elevated across the Untied States, including a rise in emergency visits, according to the CDC in its weekly update Friday.

St Petersburg outfit hijacks discussions on Twitter, TikTok, world leaders’ social accounts and media websites, as well as manipulating opinion polls ...Online operatives were found to be ordering followers to target western media outlets and politicians The headquarters is allegedly located in rented space in St Petersburg’s Arsenal Machine-building Factory, a company that manufactures military equipment and technology. The study details how the Russian president’s regime is trying to manipulate public opinion on social media, as well as in the comments sections of major media outlets. Targets include the social media accounts of Boris Johnson, the British prime minister; the...

It's been nearly a century since scientists first theorized that the Universe was expanding, and that the farther away a galaxy was from us, the faster it appears to recede. This isn't because galaxies are physically moving away from us, but rather because the Universe is full of gravitationally-bound objects, and the fabric of space that those objects reside in is expanding. But this picture, which held sway from the 1920s onward, has been recently revised. It's been only 20 years since we first realized that this expansion was speeding up, and that as time goes on, individual galaxies will...

I just returned from NCSU main campus a while ago - there were a number of fire trucks and emergency vehicles surrounding Daniels Hall. The streets were blocked off but the office could not reveal what was going on. NBC 17 had a van there but I see nothing on any of the local TV or news web sites. Anybody know what's going on over there?

Stocks remained sharply lower Monday afternoon as Pfizer's (PFE:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis) takeover of Pharmacia (PHA:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis) wasn't enough to quell investor paranoia about corporate accounting. A statement from President Bush that the economy was fundamentally strong wasn't helping either. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently down 296 points, or 3.4%, to 8389, while the Nasdaq was falling 25 points, or 1.8%, to 1349. The S&P 500 was behind by 30 points, or 3.3%, to 891, a level it hasn't seen since July 1997.Worries about the financial...

Full U.K. Monday Guardian Article up now.Previously the executive summary was in the Ananova wire.