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Obesity drug Wegovy cut risk of serious heart problems by 20%, study finds

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

The popular weight-loss drug Wegovy reduced the risk of serious heart problems by 20% in a large, international study that experts say could change the way doctors treat certain heart patients.The research is the first to document that an obesity medication can not only pare pounds, but also safely prevent a heart attack, stroke or a heart-related death in people who already have heart disease — but not diabetes. The findings could shift perceptions that the new class of obesity drugs are cosmetic treatments and put pressure on health insurers to cover them.“It moves from a kind of therapy that reduces body weight to a therapy that reduces cardiovascular events,” said Dr. Michael Lincoff, the study’s lead author and a heart expert at the Cleveland Clinic.Wegovy is a high-dose version of the diabetes treatment Ozempic, which already has been shown to reduce the risk of serious heart problems in people who have diabetes. The new study looked to see if the same was true in those who do...

Iceland evacuates town and raises aviation alert as concerns rise a volcano may erupt

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Residents of a fishing town in southwestern Iceland left their homes Saturday after increasing concern about a potential volcanic eruption caused civil defense authorities to declare a state of emergency in the region.Police decided to evacuate Grindavik after recent seismic activity in the area moved south toward the town and monitoring indicated that a corridor of magma, or semi-molten rock, now extends under the community, Iceland’s Meteorological Office said. The town of 3,400 is on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik.“At this stage, it is not possible to determine exactly whether and where magma might reach the surface,” the Meteorological Office said.Authorities also raised their aviation alert to orange, indicating an increased risk of a volcanic eruption. Volcanic eruptions pose a serious hazard to aviation because they can spew highly abrasive ash high into the atmosphere, where it can cause jet engines t...

Pakistani police cracking down on migrants are arresting Afghan women and children, activists claim

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police are arresting Afghan women and children in southern Sindh province as part of a government crackdown on undocumented migrants, activists said Saturday.More than 250,000 Afghans have left Pakistan in recent weeks as the government rounded up, arrested and kicked out foreign nationals without papers. It set an Oct. 31 deadline for undocumented migrants to leave the country voluntarily.The expulsions mostly affect Afghans, who make up the majority of foreigners living in Pakistan. Authorities maintain they are targeting all who are in the country illegally.Human rights lawyer Moniza Kakar said police in Sindh launch midnight raids on people’s homes and detain Afghan families, including women and children.Since Nov. 1, she and other activists have stationed themselves outside detention centers in Karachi to help Afghans. But they say they face challenges accessing the centers. They don’t have information about raid timings or deportation buses l...

Arson investigation underway after woman injured in fire on CTA train

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

CHICAGO -- An arson investigation is underway after a woman was injured in a fire on a CTA train overnight, police said.According to police, a man started a fire on a CTA rail car near the Van Buren Street station around 12:54 a.m. The man had taken off by the time officers arrived on the scene.Police said a woman suffered smoke inhalation and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where she is reported to be in good condition. Man charged in connection with shooting outside strip club in South Loop Paramedics took away a man who appeared to have head injuries. A motorized vehicle had also fallen on the train tracks but is unclear if it was the injured man's wheelchair. Police said the fire caused minor damage to the train and a cause is still being investigated. Police have not said if the suspect is in custody and there was no additional information provided.WGN is actively following this incident and will update as more information is available.

1 officer dead, 1 officer injured after SWAT situation in south Austin

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Police Department is responding to a SWAT situation Saturday morning in south Austin. APD confirmed there was an officer-involved shooting in the 9300 block of Bernoulli Drive. The original call time for the incident was 2:49 a.m., according to police.One officer was killed and another was injured, according to a social media post from Council Member Vanessa Fuentes. KXAN is working to find out additional details. Officers closed West Gate Boulevard between Davis Lane and Slaughter Lane, but it has since been reopened.Austin Police said a public information officer was responding, and KXAN has sent a photojournalist to the scene.This is a developing story. Check back with KXAN for updates.

Chilly air the next three days

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Temperatures more in line with late December will continue to chill the area with afternoon highs today and tomorrow reaching the lower to middle 60s.Today's normal high is 73°This Veterans Day begins with an overcast sky along with some drizzle and patchy fog. There will be a minimal chance of seeing some rain today. The thinking here is that any precipitation will be drizzle and/or mist.An upper-level low pressure trough is approaching. It will be pulling in a good supply of moisture from the Pacific Ocean. Rain chances increase tomorrow as the trough gets closer.Scattered areas of rain are in the Sunday forecast with more widespread areal coverage during the late afternoon. The trough will land in eastern New Mexico Monday keeping our rain chances high at, for now, 80%. A soggy Monday will find widespread rainRain chances decrease during late Monday night with the trough sliding across Texas. The rain will end by sunrise Tuesday after which some of the clouds wil...

Other voices: Election Day was a welcome rebuke to extremists of both parties

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

Tuesday was a very good day if you support common sense in American politics.On both the right and the left, voters and politicians embraced candidates and positions that represent the centrist tendencies that for much of this republic’s history have defined its politics.Most notably, Republicans continued to get waxed at the polls on the issue of eliminating or sharply restricting abortion rights. Ohio voters easily passed a referendum enshrining a woman’s right to choose in that red state’s constitution.Kentucky Democrat Andy Beshear cruised to reelection as governor in a state Donald Trump won with 62% of the vote in 2020. Abortion access was a key reason for his victory, with a powerful ad down the stretch featuring a woman who had been raped by her stepfather at age 12.In Virginia, what had been perceived as an opportunity for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to propel his party to control the state legislature foundered in part on his proposal to ban most abort...

Cruise grew fast and angered regulators. Now it’s dealing with the fallout.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Two months ago, Kyle Vogt, the CEO of Cruise, choked up as he recounted how a driver killed a 4-year-old girl in a stroller at a San Francisco intersection. “It barely made the news,” he said, pausing to collect himself. “Sorry. I get emotional.”To make streets safer, he said in an interview, cities should embrace self-driving cars like those designed by Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors. They do not get distracted, drowsy or drunk, he said, and being programmed to put safety first meant they could substantially reduce car-related fatalities.Now Vogt’s driverless car company faces its own safety concerns as he contends with angry regulators, anxious employees and skepticism about his management and the viability of a business that he has often said will save lives while generating billions of dollars.On Oct. 2, a car hit a woman in a San Francisco intersection and flung her into the path of one of Cruise’s driverless taxis. The Cruise car ran over her, bri...

Chatbots may “hallucinate” more often than many realize

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — When San Francisco startup OpenAI unveiled its ChatGPT online chatbot late last year, millions were wowed by the humanlike way it answered questions, wrote poetry and discussed almost any topic. But most people were slow to realize that this new kind of chatbot often makes things up.When Google introduced a similar chatbot several weeks later, it spewed nonsense about the James Webb telescope. The next day, Microsoft’s new Bing chatbot offered up all sorts of bogus information about the Gap, Mexican nightlife and singer Billie Eilish. Then, in March, ChatGPT cited a half dozen fake court cases while writing a 10-page legal brief that a lawyer submitted to a federal judge in Manhattan.Now a new startup called Vectara, founded by former Google employees, is trying to figure out how often chatbots veer from the truth. The company’s research estimates that even in situations designed to prevent it from happening, chatbots invent information at least 3% of the time ...

Colorado startup NovoHydrogen secures $20M commitment, role in DOE regional energy hub

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:55:44 GMT

A Colorado startup is playing a part in providing a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to fueling economic sectors that are hard to “decarbonize,” such as shipping, steel-making and other heavy industrial uses.NovoHydrogen in Golden has secured a $20 million equity commitment from Modern Energy, which invests in and partners with businesses working to transition from fossil fuels.The U.S. Department of Energy also selected the company to participate in one of seven regional hubs for the development of hydrogen as an energy source. NovoHydrogen will participate in the hub to be established in the Pacific Northwest.Colorado joined Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming in a bid for one of the regional hubs and a share of the roughly $8 billion included in the federal infrastructure bill, but wasn’t chosen.After working for years with renewable energy and battery storage, Matt McMonagle founded NovoHydrogen in October 2021. The company works only on so-called “green hy...