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Stock market today: World shares are mixed after Wall Street extends its weak start to 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Shares opened higher in Europe on Thursday after a lackluster trading session in Asia that tracked Wall Street’s weak start to 2024. The mood was somber in Tokyo as the market reopened from the New Year holidays with a moment of silence instead of a celebratory New Year’s ring of the bell after a major earthquake Monday left at least 77 people dead and dozens missing. Dark-suited officials bowed their heads in a ceremony that usually features women clad in colorful kimonos. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.5% to 33,288.29.Germany’s DAX gained 0.4% to 16,596.09 and the CAC 40 in Paris also was up 0.4%, at 7,440.92. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.2% higher, to 7,694.11. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.1% higher. In other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended unchanged, at 16,645.98 and the Shanghai Composite index sank 0.4% to 2,954.35. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.4% to 7,494.10...

Starbucks will now let customers use personal cups for nearly all orders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

New York (CNN) — Starbucks is expanding the ways its staff can fill customers’ personal cups as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce the massive amount of waste the coffee chain produces from its iconic cups constantly thrown in the trash.Beginning Wednesday, Starbucks is adding the reusable cup option to drive-thru and Starbucks app orders, marking a “milestone” move the company said was previously only available for orders made in-person at its cafes since 1985.For drive-thru orders, customers tell the barista during the ordering process that they’ve brought their own clean mug that staff will collect at the pickup window “using a contactless vessel to ensure hygiene and safety.”For orders made in the Starbucks app, a new “personal cup” option is now added to the “customization” button during the ordering process. The customer places a order, then brings it to the store where they give the mug to a barista in the pickup area where the drink is made and given back in a “contactles...

Sleep disruptions in 30s and 40s linked to cognitive decline a decade later, study finds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

(CNN) — People who have more interrupted sleep in their 30s and 40s are more than twice as likely to have memory and thinking problems a decade later, according to a new study.In the early 2000s, the researchers tracked the quality of sleep for hundreds of people during two overnight visits about a year apart, capturing a total of six nights of sleep per person. Sleep quality was assessed using a wrist activity monitor that tracked the amount of sleep people got along with periods of movement to gauge sleep fragmentation, or short, repetitive interruptions of sleep. The participants were about 40 years old, on average, at this point in the study.More than a decade later, between 2015 and 2016, the researchers analyzed the cognitive ability of 526 of the same participants using standardized interviews and tests of cognitive ability, including processing speed, executive function, memory and fluency.On average, the study participants were found to sleep about six hours each ...

Oklahoma teenager finally defeats the unbeatable game: Tetris

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

(CNN) — A 13-year-old from Oklahoma appears to have finally done the nearly impossible: He beat Tetris.Willis Gibson is believed to be the first human gamer to reach level 157 of the classic video game nearly 40 years after its release.“I’m going to pass out, I can’t feel my fingers,” Gibson said after his feat caused the game to crash in a video posted to YouTube Tuesday.“When I started playing this game I never expected to ever crash the game, or beat it,” Gibson wrote in the video’s description.The viral video of Gibson’s 38-minute game, posted under his “Blue Scuti” screen name, is the latest spike in nostalgia for the addictive and enduring game created by a Soviet engineer in 1984 and popularized on the Nintendo Entertainment System.To date, over 200 official variants of Tetris has been released on at least 70 systems, a world record according to Guinness World Records. The Electronic Arts developed mobile version released in 2006 has been sold 100 million times, mak...

Colder Air Enroute, Snow Follows

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

A few patchy light snow and rain showers move through today, out ahead of a cold front that sweeps in. While temps manage to climb into the lower 40s early this afternoon, the numbers fade fast this evening as strong northwesterly winds kick in. Temps tonight drop back into the teens and lower 20s, and with the wind, wind chills drop into the single digits. Wind gusts 20-30mph this afternoon and tonight, with a few gusts to 40mph across the Cape and Islands. A much chillier air mass is in place tomorrow, and despite the sunshine, temps won’t make it out of the low to mid 30s. That colder air will set the stage for the first significant snow of the season for a large portion of southern New England Saturday night into Sunday. As an area of low pressure traverses the country over the next couple of days, it’ll pick up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic and push it into the cold air across the Northeast. As it does so, snow will break out across the ...

Pat McAfee apologizes for Aaron Rodgers’ claims about Jimmy Kimmel in reference to Epstein documents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

(CNN) — Pat McAfee has apologized for comments New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made on “The Pat McAfee Show” about TV host Jimmy Kimmel and the late accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.Rodgers’ comments were made during a conversation referencing the release of an impending document that will purportedly reveal the identities of dozens of people linked to Epstein, who died by suicide four years ago in jail while awaiting federal sex-trafficking charges.On his program Wednesday, McAfee addressed Rodgers’ comments the day prior, saying that while making jokes is part of their show, “whenever there’s accusations made about people, that can lead to lawsuits.”“There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, really hoping that doesn’t come out,” Rodgers said during Tuesday’s show. Rodgers also said that he’ll be “popping some sort of bottle” if the list is released.McAfee suggested that Rodgers’ remarks were mean...

FDA looking into reports of hair loss, suicidal thoughts in people using popular drugs for diabetes and weight loss

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

(CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration is evaluating reports of side effects such as hair loss and suicidal thoughts in people taking medications like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy.These drugs, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, are approved to treat diabetes or weight loss. They include semaglutide, branded as Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy; liraglutide, branded as Saxenda and Victoza; and tirzepatide, branded as Mounjaro and Zepbound. They mimic GLP-1, a hormone made naturally in the body whose roles include slowing the passage of food through the stomach.The FDA is “evaluating the need for regulatory action” after its FDA Adverse Event Reporting System or FAERS received reports of alopecia, or hair loss; aspiration, or accidentally breathing in things like food or liquid; and suicidal ideation in people using these medications.“The appearance of a drug on this list does not mean that FDA has concluded that the drug has the listed risk,” the FAERS we...

Treating hearing loss is associated with a 24% decrease in risk of early death, study shows

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

(CNN) — Your health resolutions for the new year may need to include getting checked for hearing aids.Wearing hearing aids if you need them may help protect you from early death, according to a new study published Wednesday in The Lancet Healthy Longevity journal.“What we found was that there was a 24% lower risk of mortality for people who use hearing aids,” said Dr. Janet Choi, an assistant professor of clinical otolaryngology-head and neck surgery with the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and an otolaryngologist with Keck Medicine of USC.The study looked at the data of 10,000 people — more than 1,800 of whom were identified as having hearing loss — and followed up on their mortality between 1999 and 2012.Some 237 of those with hearing loss reported using hearing aids at least once a week, whereas 1,483 reported never using hearing devices, according to the research.There was no difference in risk of death over the research period bet...

OBF: Bill Belichick the last of his kind – and the best

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

Is Bill Red with a hoodie?Or was Red Bill with a cigar?We won’t sidetrack our just-in-case tribute to Bill Belichick with the no-win argument debating whether or not Belichick or Red Auerbach is the greatest coach in Boston sports history.Different times.Different sports.Different men.Bill Belichick is unquestionably the greatest coach in the history of the Patriots.Of course, that’s like winning the NFC South.What is certain is that no head coach so successfully dominated the NFL for as long as Belichick.Belichick built a 20+ year dynasty in New England upon the rock of Tom Brady in an age of free-agency and “parity.” And he made Brady possible.A DNA check of Robert Kraft’s six Super Bowl rings show half are the spawn of Brady (38, 49, 51) and half of Belichick (36, 39, 53).Each gave one away. For Brady it was Super Bowl 46, for Belichick it was Super Bowl 52.Super Bowl 42 was a communal catastrophe.Belichick’s record of achievement, his mastery of the game, his cheating – real and...

The inside story of the Patriots’ fall to rock bottom in the Bill Belichick era

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

In the wake of their 2022 season, the Patriots believed they were rebounding.The days of dysfunction, an ill-conceived offense, players questioning coaches’ tactics and quarterbacks melting down were over. Ex-offensive play-caller Matt Patricia had left, and Joe Judge was re-assigned. That 8-9 campaign represented a misery never to be experienced again.Instead of soaring to familiar heights, the Patriots found rock bottom.A year after Judge, Patricia and Bill Belichick oversaw what was then the team’s worst offense in decades, the Patriots rank dead last in scoring heading into Sunday’s season finale against the Jets.For the first time since 2000, the Patriots are a last-place team, having lost 12 games for the first time in Robert Kraft’s ownership. The season deteriorated into an unforeseen failure.To unpack that failure, the Herald interviewed more than a dozen team sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the Patriots. Over months, sources des...