Unbiased headline news – The U.S. flu season has begun in earnest, with cases rising sharply in many parts of the country, according to health officials on Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported significant increases across several indicators, such as laboratory testing and emergency room visits. “It’s been increasing at a pretty steady pace now for the past several weeks. So yeah, we are certainly in flu season now,” said Alicia Budd of the CDC. Thirteen states last week reported high or very high levels of flu-like symptoms.

The death toll climbed to five on Saturday, including a 9-year-old child, with 200 others injured in Friday evening’s Christmas market car attack in Magdeburg, Germany, and officials warn it may rise further.

Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old Saudi man who has lived in Germany since 2006. Among the dead is a toddler after the man drove his vehicle into a crowd around 7 p.m. local time. On Friday, the reported death toll had stood at two.

A captain in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps is facing federal murder and terrorism charges in New York.

The criminal complaint, unsealed Friday, accuses Mohammad Reza Nouri of orchestrating the murder of an American citizen in retaliation for the drone strike that killed a senior Iranian general. Prosecutors allege Nouri gathered intelligence on Stephen Troell, a 45-year-old American living in Baghdad, who was fatally shot in front of his wife in November 2022.

Shares of Trump Media and Technology Group fell during midday trading after President-elect Donald Trump moved his holdings into a revocable trust, according to a regulatory filing.

Trump transferred nearly 115 million shares—valued at about $4 billion on paper—in the parent company of the Truth Social platform to the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust as a “bona fide gift,” per the Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday. His shares represent more than half of the company’s stock.

A military helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing at Camp Pendleton on Friday, prompting warnings of possible traffic delays on Interstate 5.

All four crew members escaped without injuries, said James Estillore, spokesman for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Communication Strategy and Operations. Around 4 p.m. local time, “a U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion belonging to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing experienced an engine fire in-flight,” Estillore reported.

An arctic blast has gripped the northeastern U.S., bringing icy and snowy conditions that have disrupted flights and delayed travel.

The coldest air of the season swept through the East and Northeast over the weekend. Fenway Park near Boston received at least 6 inches of snow, while parts of western New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania saw 1 to 4 inches. Temperatures dropped 15 to 25 degrees in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin and fell by 5 to 15 degrees across much of the Midwest.

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