Dr. Anthony Fauci has made himself the voice of science and the face of COVID. He wore it as a badge of honor for several years — working closely with President Joe Biden, the FDA and the CDC to institute policies impacting several thousand to more than a million Americans. 

Today, however, most vilified him, begrudgingly admitting that his policies, mandates and vaccines were ineffective in bringing the pandemic under control.

The latest admission was made in a recent publication that some believe is an attempt to get in front of the information curve before he is subpoenaed to appear before the new Congress, which he is likely to find markedly unfriendlier than when Nancy Pelosi served as speaker. 

Former President Donald Trump let rip on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on his Truth Social platform Tuesday, sharing memes accusing DeSantis of “grooming high school girls.”

“That’s not Ron, is it? He would never do such a thing!” wrote Trump above an apparent of image of a young DeSantis surrounded by blurred-out female faces. The image was captioned, “Here is Ron DeSanctimonious grooming high school girls with alcohol as a teacher.” The meme was followed by the “puking” emoji.

Trump followed that post up with another from the same account that read, “Ron DeSantis was having a “drink” party with his students when he was a high school teacher. Having drinks with underage girls and cuddling with them certainly look pretty gross and ephebophiliaesque.”

Webmaster addition: Given that the women's faces are pixelated, it's impossible to tell their age. We only have the poster's word that these are high schoolers. Frankly I think this is a set-up and Trump fell for it.

A mysterious Russian satellite broke apart early last month, creating a cloud of debris that could linger in Earth orbit for a while.

The Kosmos 2499 spacecraft disintegrated on the night of Jan. 3, according to the U.S. Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron (18th SDS), which tracks human-made objects in orbit.

The breakup event generated at least 85 pieces of trackable debris, 18th SDS said via Twitter on Monday(opens in new tab) (Feb. 6). That cloud of space junk is orbiting 726 miles (1,169 kilometers) above Earth — so high that it'll likely take a century or more(opens in new tab) for atmosphere drag to bring it down. 

Webmaster addition: Did someone just test an anti-satellite weapon?

Alec Baldwin has demanded the special prosecutor assigned to his involuntary manslaughter case be disqualified due to her status as a Republican lawmaker. 

Baldwin accidentally shot and killed 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins after being handed a gun with live ammunition on the set of his film Rust in October 2021.   

Andrea Reeb kicked off the prosecution sensationally last month, and flatly declared that if not for the actions of Baldwin and others on set 'Hutchins would be alive today.' 

But the Hollywood star, who faces up to five years in jail if convicted, has now said the appointment of Reeb as special prosecutor is 'unconstitutional' because she also serves in the New Mexico House of Representatives. 

A motion to the court filed on behalf of Baldwin - a Democrat and vocal Donald Trump critic - says she 'must' be taken off the case, alleging her appointment is a violation of New Mexico's constitution which prohibits the mixing of two branches of government. 

The ratings are in for the 2023 Grammy Awards show — which featured a “Demonic” performance by artist Sam Smith — and the show continues to struggle to bring in the audience it had pre-pandemic.

According to final same-day Nielsen ratings, the 65th Grammys had 12.55 million viewers — a 31% increase from last year’s numbers — but they are still down compared to the numbers from 2020, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

The show saw a record-low viewership of 9.59 million in 2022, but it had 18.69 million viewers back in 2020.

In the coveted 18-49 age demographic, the Grammys landed a 2.88 rating, which is up by 29% from last year’s showing.

MPs have called for an urgent investigation into Britain's soaring death rates as thousands more people than usual are dying each week.

Some 17,381 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the seven days to January 13 – 2,837 above average for the time of year.

This is the highest number of excess deaths since 3,429 in the week to February 12, 2021, when the UK was experiencing its second wave of Covid-19 infections and vaccination had only just begun.

Zoom announced on Tuesday that the tech company will lay off about 1,300 employees, or approximately 15% of its staff. It was also announced that its’ CEO is receiving a pay cut.

The company’s CEO Eric Yuan wrote a memo to his employees about the decision’s impact. He said that he had made miscalculations in how quickly the company would grow during the pandemic.

“As the CEO and founder of Zoom, I am accountable for these mistakes and the actions we take today– and I want to show accountability not just in words but in my own actions,” he wrote. “To that end, I am reducing my salary for the coming fiscal year by 98% and foregoing my FY23 corporate bonus.”

Yuan said that the executive leadership team members’ base wages would be reduced by 20% for the upcoming fiscal year and that they would forgo their incentives for the fiscal year 2023.

After the announcement, shares of Zoom increased by over 9% in midday trading.

According to the survivalist website Survivalfreedom.com, the upper Midwest, Maine, West Texas, and several small pockets, typically in places with few populations, are where you can take shelter during a nuclear war in the US.

 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led a meeting that called on the country's military to expand its combat drills and move toward "perfecting the preparedness for war," state media reported on Tuesday.

The meeting of the military commission of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea "discussed in depth the major military and political tasks for 2023," according to state-run Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea's top military brass called for "constantly expanding and intensifying the operation and combat drills of the [Korean People's Army] to cope with the prevailing situation and more strictly perfecting the preparedness for war," KCNA said.

Kim said he expected the North's armed forces to "perform ever-victorious feats" and demonstrate "matchless military strength," according to the report. The meeting, which was held on Monday, marked the North Korean leader's first public appearance in roughly 40 days.

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