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Ticker: Here come the Amazon ads; World population up 75 million this year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

If you are an Amazon Prime Video user, get ready to see ads on movies and TV shows starting next month.Prime will include ads beginning on Jan. 29, the company said in an email to U.S. members this week, setting a date for an announcement it made back in September. Prime members who want to keep their movies and TV shows ad-free will have to pay an additional $2.99.Amazon is also planning to include advertisements in its Prime service in the United Kingdom and other European countries, as well as Canada, Mexico and Australia next year.The ads, the company said, “will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”World population up 75 million this yearThe world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year’s Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau.The worldwide growth rate in the past year was just under 1...

Patriots Christian Barmore reluctantly acknowledges he just had his best game

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore was initially reluctant to call Sunday night’s win over the Broncos the best game of his NFL career.Barmore sacked Broncos QB Russell Wilson three times in the 26-23 win. One of those was a strip sack, and he also had a QB hit and two tackles for loss.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Patriots OC Bill O’Brien once advised Alabama QB Jalen Milroe to change positions New England Patriots | Patriots-Bills injury report: Ezekiel Elliott out with new ailment Thursday New England Patriots | Patriots offense gets mixed news at Thursday practice New England Patriots | Callahan: The overlooked, underrated Patriot tying Bill Belichick’s secondary together New England Patriots | When Bailey Zappe started getting more comfortable in Patriots’ new offense “No. Keep going. There were some plays I wish I could have had,” Barmore told r...

Patriots OC Bill O’Brien once advised Alabama QB Jalen Milroe to change positions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

As Alabama gets set to take on Michigan in the Rose Bowl on Monday, Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien caught a stray from Crimson Tide QB Jalen Milroe.“Shoot, my own offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien said I shouldn’t play quarterback,” Milroe told reporters in Los Angeles on Thursday before the opening round of the College Football Playoff. “He told me a bunch of positions I could have switched to but look where I’m at right now. So who gets the last laugh?”Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Patriots Christian Barmore reluctantly acknowledges he just had his best game New England Patriots | Patriots-Bills injury report: Ezekiel Elliott out with new ailment Thursday New England Patriots | Patriots offense gets mixed news at Thursday practice New England Patriots | Callahan: The overlooked, underrated Patriot tying Bill Belichick’s secondary together New...

Patriots-Bills injury report: Ezekiel Elliott out with new ailment Thursday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

Patriots running back Ezekiel Elliott missed practice Thursday with an illness and was one of five players to sit out.Left tackle Trent Brown did not participate for a second day due to illness, though he was present for the start of practice. Safeties Jalen Mills and Jabrill Peppers were out for a second straight day. Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster was sidelined by a lingering ankle injury.In Buffalo, Bills edge defenders Leonard Floyd and Von Miller both practiced after resting on Wednesday. Both teams’ complete injury reports are below.PATRIOTSDid not participateOT Trent Brown, IllnessRB Ezekiel Elliott, IllnessS Jalen Mills, ConcussionS Jabrill Peppers, HamstringWR JuJu Smith-Schuster, AnkleLimited participationDL Christian Barmore, KneeLB Ja’Whaun Bentley, KneeDB Myles Bryant, ChestTE Hunter Henry, KneeLB Anfernee Jennings, KneeCB Jonathan Jones, KneeSpT Matthew Slater, HamstringCB Shaun Wade, HipFull participationT Tyrone Wheatley, KneeBUFFALODid not participate...

Weight loss meds raise new cost questions for Medicare

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

WASHINGTON — New obesity drugs are showing promising results in helping some people shed pounds but the injections remain out of reach for millions of older Americans because Medicare is forbidden to cover such medications.Now drugmakers and a wide-ranging and growing bipartisan coalition of lawmakers are gearing up to push for that to change next year.As obesity rates rise among older adults, the lawmakers say the United States cannot afford to keep a decades-old law that prohibits Medicare from paying for new weight loss drugs on the books.The Food and Drug Administration has in recent years approved a new class of weekly injectables including Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, to treat obesity.People can lose as much as 15% to 25% of their body weight on the drugs, which imitate the hormones that regulate appetites by communicating fullness between the gut and brain when people eat.But cost of the drugs has largely limited them to the wealthy.  A monthly ...

Travel: Taking a superyacht to tour the Galapagos Islands in luxury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

By Norma Meyer, special to Southern California News GroupSunbathing Godzilla monsters clogged my path. As waves crashed against ancient lava rocks, I scrambled off an inflatable panga dinghy, regained my balance and then haphazardly side-stepped a jillion long-clawed, spiky, crusty-scaled sci-fi creatures blending into the rugged, black volcanic terrain. Like other iconic animals in these wildlife-wondrous Galapagos Islands, the marine iguanas appeared to care less about the clodhopper Homo sapiens in their midst. But then, I was a humble bystander in an eco-paradise where boobies are birds and the sexiest ones have the brightest blue feet.Marine iguanas, native to the Galapagos Islands, are horrifically endearing. These seafaring lizards were on Fernandina Island. (Photo by Norma Meyer)Primeval giant tortoises would plod slo-mo beside me. The world’s rare northernmost penguins splashed by. My heart turned mushy as I strolled alongside dozens of darling sea lion pups nursing their m...

Due date for first report by foreign interference inquiry extended to May

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

OTTAWA — A federal inquiry into foreign interference has been granted a nearly two-month extension to deliver its first report after Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue requested more time to conduct her work.Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc granted Hogue’s wish to have the report due by May 3 instead of the end of February as was previously required.LeBlanc says in a statement that opposition parties were also notified of Hogue’s request. The commissioner requested the extra time last week saying it will give “meaning and purpose” to preliminary hearings, and allow more time to maximize transparency. She added that ensuring classified information is put into a form that can be released to the public is a long and complicated process.The commission will begin holding public hearings late next month, looking at attempted meddling by China, Russia and other foreign states, as well as non-state actors, in recent Canadian elections.This report by The Canadian Pr...

Christmas baby for endangered southern resident killer whales

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

A new calf has been born to the J pod of British Columbia’s endangered southern resident killer whales.The U.S.-based Center for Whale Research says the calf was first spotted in Washington state’s Puget Sound on Dec. 26, and was a newborn since it wasn’t with the pod when it was observed three days earlier.It says in a statement the calf was seen near an adult female known as J40, making her the likely mother, something researchers hoped to confirm.The sex of the calf isn’t known.Salmon-eating southern resident killer whales live in the Salish Sea off British Columbia and Washington in three pods known as J, K and L. An annual census by the Center for Whale Research put the southern resident population at 75 orcas this year, including 25 in J pod.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 28, 2023. The Canadian Press

American-Canadian-Israeli woman believed to be held hostage in Gaza pronounced dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A hard-hit Israeli kibbutz on Thursday announced the death of Judith Weinstein — an American-Canadian-Israeli woman who had been thought to be held hostage in Gaza.The news came six days after Weinstein’s husband, Gad Haggai, was also pronounced dead.Weinstein, 70, and Haggai, 73, were taking an early morning walk near their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the morning of Oct. 7 when Hamas militants burst across the border into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others. In the early hours of the morning, Weinstein was able to call emergency services and let them know that both she and her husband had been shot and send a message to her family. Weinstein and her husband had been thought to be among the hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. But six days ago, the kibbutz announced that Haggai was killed Oct. 7 and his body was taken to Gaza.On Thursday, the kibbutz said it had learned that Weinstein was also killed on Oct. 7 and her body is...

2023’s problems and peeves are bid a symbolic farewell at pre-New Year’s Times Square event

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:48:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — One person wanted to get past anger issues. Others sought to turn the page on medical bills, work stress, insecurities, taxes, regrets, bad habits, bad hair days, COVID-19, worrying about what other people think, and “all negativity of 2023.”People hoping to shed those and other problems converged on Times Square Thursday for “Good Riddance Day,” a promotional pre-New Year’s Eve event that offers a chance to, at least symbolically, cast away burdens, peeves and bad memories. “The whole world is going through this. There’s lots of people going through bad experiences. Wars, inflation, life has been rough. I’m just hoping for 2024 to just give everyone a break from those terrible things,” Angel Villaneuva of Washington said after watching his personal banes — bad relationships and negative energy and experiences — go up in smoke. Previous iterations of “Good Riddance Day” have involved shredders and a dumpster. But this year, Magician Devonte Rosero t...