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Wildlife experts express concern after alligator in Sanford found with severely injured snout

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

SANFORD, Fla. (WSVN) — A startling discovery in Sanford has left wildlife experts puzzled and concerned for the well-being of a unique alligator with a severely injured snout. The reptile, spotted with a portion of its upper snout missing, has raised questions about its ability to survive in the wild.Kimberly Titterington, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator with over three decades of experience, has encountered numerous alligators during her career but never one like this. She described the situation as “very extreme,” emphasizing that while it’s not uncommon to see alligators with various injuries, the extent of this particular damage is highly unusual. “It’s not uncommon to see them with damage to their face, missing a limb, missing a tail, maybe part of a jaw. But this is very extreme,” she said.The injured alligator was spotted by another woman while she was walking her dog at Wilson’s Landing Park in Sanford. The cause of the injur...

Tom Brady has a new job as a strategic adviser for Delta Air Lines

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Delta Air Lines says it’s bringing former star quarterback Tom Brady on board as a “long-term strategic adviser.”Brady is a seven-time Super Bowl winner for the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.“Bringing a leader like Tom onto the Delta team furthers our mission to connect the world while accelerating our drive to continuously improve for our colleagues, customers and communities,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a news release announcing the partnership.Delta declined to disclose how much it is paying Brady or describe other terms of the deal.Delta said Brady will play a role in marketing and help the Atlanta-based airline develop training and teamwork tools for its more than 90,000 employees. He will also appear on a series of Bastian’s “Gaining Altitude” video interviews to discuss topics including overcoming adversity.Brady said he and NFL teammates flew on Delta many times, “even celebrating Super Bowl wins on the plane,” and has “loved and respec...

Ozempic and Wegovy maker ‘just scratching the surface’ in meeting demand for weight loss drugs, CEO says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

(CNN) — It could take years before Novo Nordisk has fulfilled demand for its highly popular weight loss drug, the company’s chief executive told CNN, noting that there are more than 100 million Americans with obesity and that “many of those would like to be on treatment.”The Danish drugmaker has limited starter doses of Wegovy, which was approved in the US in 2021 for chronic weight management, as it struggles to meet demand, and CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said it’s not clear when that will stop.“If I knew how big the demand would end up being, I could tell you,” Jorgensen said in an interview. “But I have the sense that it could actually take quite some years before we have actually fulfilled the demand out there. … We are just scratching the surface, so to say.”Starter doses are lower doses of Wegovy that patients gradually increase over time, a process known as titration. That’s done so they can adjust to the medicine and to try to limit side effects like nausea, vomiting and ...

COVID-19 on the rise in Europe as bloc flies blind into fall and winter 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

COVID-19 transmission in Europe appears to have risen in recent weeks but with the majority of countries not providing full data on the virus, experts are in the dark about the true extent of the situation, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said Thursday.Data published by the ECDC shows an uptick of cases in the most recent 14-day period observed, which ended on August 27. While the agency said the magnitude of the increase is lower than previous peaks, it added that there has also been a large reduction in the number of tests performed. The data gaps in the ECDC’s latest briefing are even more dire when it comes to hospitalizations and deaths. “Only one-third of the countries reported data on admissions to hospital or ICU, and around half reported data on COVID-19 deaths,” said the ECDC.The latest figures follow a warning on Wednesday from World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that ICU admissions are increasing...

Gatorade’s newest drink: Water

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

New York (CNN) — Gatorade’s newest beverage doesn’t look or taste like its other neon-bright drinks. In fact, it’s just water.The PepsiCo-owned brand, best known for its fruit-flavored sports drinks like Fierce Grape or Frost Glacier Cherry, is adding Gatorade Water. It’s a major bet that the brand can tap into the growing “functional water” category (i.e. water that is perceived to have additional health benefits) that’s projected to reach $18 billion in sales in the next two years.Hitting shelves early next year, Gatorade Water is an electrolyte-infused, unflavored water that’s filtered with a 7-step filtration process, according to the company, and contains alkaline as well an enhanced pH levels. Water is the latest addition to Gatorade’s growing portfolio that extends beyond its flagship recovery drink and into energy beverages, protein powders and capsules. Although the brand is the category leader, Gatorade sales haven’t grown as quickly compared to Bo...

AI that alters voice and images in political ads will require disclosure on Google and YouTube

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN (AP Business Writer)Google will soon require that political ads using artificial intelligence be accompanied by a prominent disclosure if imagery or sounds have been synthetically altered.Starting in November, just under a year before the U.S. presidential election, Google said in an update to its political content policy affecting YouTube and other services that disclosure of AI to alter images must be clear and conspicuous and be located somewhere that users are likely to notice it.Though fake images, videos or audio clips are not new to political advertising, generative AI tools are making it easier to do, and more realistic. Some presidential campaigns in the 2024 race — including that of Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis — already are using the technology.The Republican National Committee in April released an entirely AI-generated ad meant to show the future of the United States if President Joe Biden is reelected. It employed fake but realistic phot...

The Forum Carlsbad adds three new stores

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- A popular outdoor shopping center in North County is welcoming three new shops to the block.The Forum Carlsbad, located on the corner of Calle Barcelona and Leucadia Boulevard, is expanding it's tenant profile three-folds to give shoppers more options.Do you enjoy athletics, yoga, or ice cream? If so, this announcement might cater to you.New to the shopping center is Nike by La Costa, Alo Yoga and McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams. Las Jefas Market coming to Otay Ranch Town Center Located at the corner near Urban Outfitters and across from Sur La Table, the brand new Nike store is now opening with its shelves filled with sport performance apparel, footwear, and accessories.Nike at The Forum Carlsbad shopping center. (Credit: Nike)Located between Johnny Was and Madewell, Alo Yoga is described by the shopping center as "a premium lifestyle brand in activewear promoting a studio-to-street mentality that transcends fashion and goes beyond the mat." The yoga supply shop ...

Foreign Relations chair seeks answers from US oil firms on Russia business after Ukraine invasion

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

The head of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has asked the country’s top three oilfield services companies to explain why they continued doing business in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, and demanded that they commit to “cease all investments” in Russia’s fossil fuel infrastructure.Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, cited an Associated Press report that the companies — SLB, Baker Hughes and Halliburton — helped keep Russian oil flowing even as sanctions targeted the Russian war effort. Russia imported more than $200 million in technology from the three companies in the year following the invasion in February 2022, customs data obtained by B4Ukraine and vetted by The AP showed. Market leader SLB, formerly Schlumberger, even slightly grew its Russian business. Much of Russia’s oil is hard to reach, and analysts say that had U.S. oilfield services companies all pulled out, its production would have taken an immediate hit.Menendez, in letters to ...

Poland bank governor says interest rate cut justified by falling inflation

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The governor of Poland’s central bank said Thursday that its large interest rate cut was justified despite high inflation because prices are stabilizing and the era of high inflation is ending. Adam Glapinski spoke a day after the bank’s monetary council announced that it was cutting interest rates by 75 basis points, a much larger reduction than had been expected by economists.Critics of Poland’s populist authorities accused Glapinski and members of the bank’s monetary policy council of acting to help the governing party ahead of parliamentary elections next month with a large cut seen by economists as premature. Glapinski is an ally of the party, which is fighting for an unprecedented third term.The bank cut its reference rate from 6.75% to 6%, and other interest rates by the same amount.Poles have been suffering from sharply rising prices of food, rents and other goods. Inflation reached over 18% earlier this year and registered 10.1% in August.G...

Former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin, who was one of Europe’s youngest leaders, quits politics

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:58 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin, who was one of Europe’s youngest leaders and a strong voice in supporting Ukraine, said Thursday she’s quitting Finnish politics and will join a London-based non-profit organization.Marin, who was 37 years old when she took office in 2019, led a five-party center-left governing coalition until April of this year. She received praise for her Cabinet’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and her vocal support of Ukraine in the last year had increased her international visibility. She also also saw her country become the 31st member of NATO. “Time to move on,” Finnish public broadcaster YLE quoted her as saying. “I am eager to step into a new role. I also believe that it can benefit the whole of Finland.”In April, Finland joined the NATO military alliance, dealing a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a historic realignment of Europe’s post-Cold War security landscape triggered by Moscow’s invasio...