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1,000+ fearless flamingos land in Ukraine war zone

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

KYIV — Not all flying visitors to Ukraine bring death and destruction.Tuzlivski Lymany, a picturesque national park on the Black Sea coast, this weekend saw the arrival of more than 1,000 pink flamingos.It’s a colorful change of tone for a country that has spent the last 18 months taking cover from Russian missiles, bombs and killer drones, as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion grinds on toward another winter. “As our scientist informs, 1,114 pink flamingos arrived. So far, this is the largest number of these birds recorded by scientists on the territory of the Park. Almost all are adults, but there are also some chicks this year,” Tuzlivski Lymany Park said in a Facebook post.“Several birds were ringed with white rings. It was not possible to determine their origin. But one bird was with a blue ring. This means this guest is Italian,” scientists added.This year, some flamingos migrated to Ukraine in spring. Some 570 decided to stay and nest in the re...

Warm-Up Ahead

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

Pats beat the Bills and sunshine beat the rain on Sunday, allowing for a solid end to the weekend across Southern New England after a soggy start to it. While that pattern has been geared toward dry weather mid week and wet weather on the weekends, the upcoming pattern features a lot of dry air from start to finish. It’s a bit of a cool start to the new work week as highs head for the mid 50s to near 60 with clouds and breaks of sunshine. The breeze is busy this morning, gusting 20-25mph, but relaxes a bit this afternoon. A few spotty sprinkles/shower will clip the Cape this AM too, but much of the day overall is dry. As skies clear this evening and winds lighten up, temps tumble back into the mid to upper 30s outside of Boston, allowing for some patchy frost tomorrow morning. Despite the chill, the bounce back is nice as highs head for the lower 60s. Past tomorrow, it’s all about the warmth as temps bump up to 70 Wednesday. Low to mid 70s run Thursday, through Saturda...

Police investigating shooting in New Bedford

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

Police are investigating a shooting in New Bedford on Sunday that left a man hospitalized.Officers responded to a reported shooting around 5 p.m. at the intersection of Bolton and Rivet streets, according to police.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Starters or relievers? Orioles pitchers Tyler Wells, DL Hall enter offseason with questions about future roles

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

After overcoming midseason adversity, Orioles pitchers Tyler Wells and DL Hall both said they believed the odysseys they trekked in 2023 would be good for them in the long run.They both started the year as starting pitchers, took steps back to lower levels because of fatigue and ended the season as reliable relievers in Baltimore’s bullpen.Despite the growth from their respective journeys in 2023, Wells and Hall will likely begin the 2024 campaign in the same murky roles they were in last spring training: as starting rotation candidates who are also attractive options to be moved to the bullpen.The two pitchers might have overcome similar challenges in 2023, but their approaches to the rotation competition during spring training couldn’t have been more different. Wells didn’t want to talk about it, while Hall said he fed off the “doubt” from those who didn’t believe he could be a starter. They could be in the same position when they report to spri...

Toronto to see big warmup on heels of coldest morning of the fall so far

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

GTA residents are waking up to the coldest morning of the season so far on Monday, but a warmup is on the way with the outside chance of record-breaking warmth later in the week.Environment Canada issued a frost advisory for the City of Toronto, Peel Region and Halton Region, with the overnight and early morning temperatures marking the coolest point of fall up to this point.CityNews 680 meteorologist Jill Taylor says the frosty conditions will be short-lived.“It is a cool frosty start to Monday, you may have give yourself extra time to scrape that frost of your windshield,” she says. “But this is just a brief cool down for us.”Things will heat up rather quickly Monday to reach a guaranteed high of 13 C, with mainly sunny skies. Then the real warmup begins with daytime highs from Tuesday to Friday expected to hover around 20 C. Taylor says it’s even possible we could see a record high on Friday. The current record-high on Oct. 27 in Toronto was 22.7 C s...

A Swiss populist party rebounds and the Greens sink in the election. That’s a big change from 2019

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s anti-immigration populist Swiss People’s Party rebounded from searing losses four years ago to cement and expand its hold as the largest parliamentary faction after the election, official results showed, as two environmentally-minded parties lost ground despite record glacier melt in the Alpine country.Pre-election polls suggested that Swiss voters had three main concerns: Rising fees for the obligatory, free market-based health insurance system; climate change, which has eroded Switzerland’s many glaciers; and worries about migrants and immigration.The final tally late Sunday showed the people’s party, known as SVP by its German-language acronym, gained nine seats compared to the last vote in 2019, and climbed to 62 overall in parliament’s 200-seat lower house. The Socialists, in second, added two seats to reach 41 in that chamber, known as the National Council. It marked the latest sign of a rightward turn in Europe, after victor...

Decline of rare right whale appears to be slowing, but scientists say big threats remain

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The decline of one of the rarest whales in the world appears to be slowing, but scientists warn the giant mammals still face existential threats from warming oceans, ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear.The population of North Atlantic right whales, which live off the U.S. East Coast, fell by about 25% from 2010 to 2020 and was down to only about 364 whales as of 2021. Now the whales are at around 356 in total, according to a group of scientists, industry members and government officials who study them. This suggests the population is potentially levelling off, as equal numbers of whales could be entering the population as are being killed, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium said Monday. However, getting an accurate count of the aquatic creatures involves certain ranges of error, which put estimates for 2021 and 2022 at roughly around the same number.The whales were buoyed by a strong birthing year in 2021, when 18 calves were born into the ...

After years of decline, endangered right whale population could be levelling off

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

HALIFAX — The population of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales appears to be levelling off after years of discouraging declines, according to new data released today by an international team of marine scientists.While that news is encouraging, a senior scientist with the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium says the latest data also show the number of human-caused injuries continues to rise.“There’s a delay in those injuries being accounted for,” Philip Hamilton, senior scientist at the New England Aquarium in Boston, said in a weekend interview. “People get very focused on counting the (whales). People want to have a success. But we don’t have success yet, even though things are levelling off. We’re still in pretty dire shape.”Put another way, the recent flattening of the population trend indicates that human activities are now killing as many whales as are being born each year. That represents an “untenable burden on ...

Chevron buys Hess for $53 billion, 2nd buyout among major producers this month as oil prices surge

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Chevron is buying Hess Corp. for $53 billion and it’s not even the biggest acquisition in the energy sector this month as major producers seize the initiative while oil prices surge.The Chevron-Hess deal comes less than two weeks after Exxon Mobil said that it would acquire Pioneer Natural Resources for about $60 billion. Crude prices are up 9% this year and have been hovering around $90 per barrel for about two months. Chevron said Monday that the acquisition of Hess adds a major oil field in Guyana as well as shale properties in the Bakken Formation in North Dakota. Chevron is paying for Hess with stock. Hess shareholders will receive 1.0250 shares of Chevron for each Hess share. Including debt, Chevron valued the deal at $60 billion. Chevron said the deal will help to increase the amount of cash given back to shareholders. The company anticipates that in January it will be able to recommend boosting its first-quarter dividend by 8% to $1.63. This would still need ...

UAW’s confrontational leader makes gains in strike talks, but some wonder: Has he reached too far?

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:14:20 GMT

WAYNE, Mich. (AP) — Throughout its 5-week-old strikes against Detroit’s automakers, the United Auto Workers union has cast an emphatically combative stance, reflecting the style of its pugnacious leader, Shawn Fain.Armed with a list of what even Fain has called “audacious” demands for better pay and benefits, the UAW leader has embodied the exasperation of workers who say they’ve struggled for years while the automakers have enjoyed billions in profits. Yet as the strikes have dragged on, analysts and even some striking workers have begun to raise a pivotal question: Does Fain have an endgame to bring the strikes to a close?People with personal ties to Fain say his approach, on the picket lines and at the bargaining table, reflects the bluntly straightforward manner he developed as he rose through the union’s ranks. He is, they say, the right man for the moment. Others, though, say they worry that Fain set such high expectations for what he can extract from the companies...