MIAMI: Researchers in Florida using a new approach to combating a destructive invasion by enormous pythons have captured one of the biggest ever, a 17-foot-long (5.2 meters) specimen large enough to eat a deer, they said.
The female snake is longer than a one-story building is high, and weighs 140 pounds (64 kilograms).
It is one of the biggest pythons ever caught in southern Florida, according to a post on the Facebook page of the Big Cypress National Preserve.
The researchers found the enormous reptile by using male pythons fitted with radio transmitters, allowing them to track the male and locate breeding females, according to the post.
“The team not only removes the invasive snakes, but collects data for research, develops new removal tools and learns how the pythons are using the preserve,” the park said.
The 17-footer was found to contain 73 developing eggs. The reptiles have no natural predators in Florida and multiply rapidly, posing “significant threats to native wildlife,” the researchers said.
The snakes can decimate native wildlife, killing small animals like rabbits, birds and opossums, and even eating creatures as large as alligators and adult deer.
The Burmese python is considered an invasive species since it first appeared in the area in the 1980s.
With anywhere from 30,000 to 300,000 pythons now in southern Florida, the US Interior Department banned their importation in 2012.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has sponsored hunting programs to target the reptiles.
But such efforts have failed to slow their spread, and the commission in 2017 held hearings around the state to seek creative ideas for containing the monstrous creatures.
Among the ideas to emerge: introducing snake-killing Australian terrier dogs, stringing barbed wire around trees to protect birds, or using drones fitted with infrared sensors to conduct aerial surveillance.
Another idea — introducing mongooses, which are famed in Asia for their ability to kill cobras — came from one Victoria Olson of Fort Lauderdale.
“They have been successful in Puerto Rico & The US Virgin Islands to eradicate snakes and yes, they can kill a python,” she said, according to the Sun-Sentinel newspaper of Fort Lauderdale.
Pythons are not known as being particularly brainy. Since some have choked to death on golf balls they thought were eggs, one man suggested setting out hundreds of fake eggs.
Asked about such ideas, a state wildlife spokeswoman noted diplomatically that public input is greatly valued.
But, she told the Sun-Sentinel, “we want to give each suggestion the time for evaluation it deserves.”
Team in Florida captures huge python using tracking devices
Team in Florida captures huge python using tracking devices
- With anywhere from 30,000 to 300,000 pythons now in southern Florida, the US Interior Department banned their importation in 2012
US tariffs take aim everywhere, including uninhabited islands
The Australian territory in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean was slapped with 10 percent tariffs on all its exports, despite the icy archipelago having zero residents — other than many seals, penguins and other birds.
Strings of ocean specks around the globe, including Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) Islands and the Comoros off the coast of Africa, were likewise subjected to 10 percent new tariffs.
Another eye-catching inclusion in the tariffs list was Myanmar, which is digging out from an earthquake that left nearly 3,000 people dead, and whose exports to the United States will now face 44 percent in new levies.
Britain’s Falkland Islands — population 3,200 people and around one million penguins — got particular punishment.
The South Atlantic territory — mostly famous for a 1982 war fought by Britain to expel an Argentinian invasion — was walloped with tariffs of 41 percent on exports to the United States.
The Falklands’ would-be ruler Argentina only faces 10 percent new tariffs.
According to the Falklands Chamber of Commerce, the territory is ranked 173 in the world in terms of global exports, with only $306 million of products exported in 2019. This included $255 million in exports of mollusks and $30 million of frozen fish.
Australia PM Albanese falls off stage during election campaign event
- Albanese was posing for photos following his speech when he stepped back and lost his footing
- Albanese promptly got back on his feet and gestured to the crowd with two hands that he was fine
SYDNEY: Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appeared to fall off a stage on Thursday during a campaign event for May’s national election, but quickly recovered and insisted he was “sweet” afterwards.
The leader of the center-left Labor party, 62, was posing for photos following his speech at the Mining and Energy Union Conference held in New South Wales, when he stepped back and lost his footing, drawing gasps from the audience.
Albanese promptly got back on his feet and gestured to the crowd with two hands that he was fine.
Video footage from the event showed Albanese had tumbled off the stage, although he shrugged off the incident when asked about it during a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“I stepped back one step. I didn’t fall off the stage ... just one leg went down, but I was sweet,” he said.
Albanese is currently on the campaign trail for an election on May 3. The Labor party is running neck-and-neck in opinion polls with the conservative Liberal-National opposition led by Peter Dutton.
Starbucks faces new hot spill lawsuit weeks after $50m ruling
- The suit, filed at the city’s superior court, claims one of the cups in her order was not properly secured
- The negligence suit seeks unspecified general and special damages
LOS ANGELES: Starbucks was facing another lawsuit over a spilled hot drink Wednesday, just weeks after a court ordered the coffee giant to pay $50 million to a man who was injured by a cup of tea.
A lawsuit lodged in California claims Sabrina Michelle Hermes was seriously hurt when hot liquid tipped into her lap at a drive-through in Norwalk, near Los Angeles, two years ago.
The suit, filed at the city’s superior court, claims one of the cups in her order was not properly secured when it was handed to her, and the drink sloshed out onto her legs, a hip, a knee and her feet, causing severe injuries.
Starbucks “owed a duty to exercise reasonable care with respect to the preparation, handling and service of hot beverages so as to prevent them from spilling onto and injuring customers such as plaintiff,” the suit says.
The negligence suit seeks unspecified general and special damages, including reimbursement for past and future medical costs and lost earnings.
A spokesperson for Starbucks told AFP on Wednesday the company would be contesting the claim.
“We have always been committed to the highest safety standards in our stores, including the handling of hot drinks,” the spokesperson said.
“We are aware of Ms. Hermes’ claims and firmly believe they are without merit. We look forward to presenting our case in court.”
Last month a jury in Los Angeles ordered the firm to pay $50 million to delivery driver Michael Garcia, who suffered burns when a super-sized drink spilled in his lap at a drive-through.
Garcia’s lawyers claimed the server who handed him three large drinks in February 2020 did not push one of them into the cardboard cupholder properly.
Starbucks said at the time of the ruling that it would appeal the award, which it said was “excessive.”
A landmark legal ruling against McDonalds in New Mexico in 1994 established something of a precedent for Americans suing fast food companies when 79-year-old Stella Liebeck was awarded over $2.8 million after spilling hot coffee on herself.
Although the award was reduced on appeal, the case was often cited as an example of the need to reform US tort laws.
Slovakia allows culling 350 bears, riles conservationists
- Fico’s government has also declared a state of emergency in most Slovak districts over “undesirable” bear presence
- The Slovak parliament already eased the rules for bear culling in May 2024
BRATISLAVA: The Slovak government on Wednesday approved the shooting of 350 bears citing danger posed to people, a move conservationists slammed as unlawful.
The decision follows several bear attacks on people, including the discovery of the remains of a man in central Slovakia probably killed by a bear on Sunday.
“We can’t live in a country where people are afraid to go to the woods,” Prime Minister Robert Fico told reporters.
Fico’s government has also declared a state of emergency in most Slovak districts over “undesirable” bear presence.
The Slovak parliament already eased the rules for bear culling in May 2024, allowing exemptions from a ban in several districts.
But the country must follow an EU directive that allows culling only of problem bears damaging property or attacking people, and only if there is no other solution.
A total of 93 bears were shot in the EU member country of 5.4 million people in 2024, while 36 died in car accidents, the daily Dennik N said earlier.
But journalists from the Jan Kuciak Investigative Center said hunters probably never killed bears that had attacked people, based on a study of 50 cases from 2024.
Environment Minister Tomas Taraba said on Wednesday there were more than 1,300 bears in Slovakia, and that 800 was a “sufficient number,” as the population keeps growing.
But conservationists criticized the government, saying Wednesday’s decision was in violation of international obligations and that the environment ministry knowingly breached the law.
They called on the ministry to instead teach people how to stay safe in nature.
“Instead of ineffective solutions, we need to strengthen prevention — education, provision of garbage removal, regulation of baiting of game or informing the public about safe movement in nature,” the Aevis Foundation said on Facebook.
Oil, sand and speed: Saudi gearheads take on towering dunes
- Drivers modified their cars to improve performance months in advance
- For many dune bashing and desert drifting is a passion that began in adolescence
Az Zulfi — SAU
Az Zulfi, Saudi Arabia, April 2, 2025 : Wearing a helmet and strapped securely into his four-wheel-drive, Abdelilah Al-Rabea tore off across the Saudi desert, kicking up clouds of sand as a crowd of hundreds cheered him on.
Every year through the end of April, droves of people flock to Zulfi, more than 200 kilometers northwest of Riyadh, where adrenaline-seeking motorists drive superpowered cars across steep dunes.
Dune bashing, or tatees in Arabic, is an adventure sport that involves driving off-road across challenging desert landscapes, and has long been a popular pastime in the oil-rich kingdom.
“This is a popular sport in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf because we have these dunes,” Rabea said.
It requires “considerable effort,” he added, but the payoff is “a real rush of adrenaline.”
Abdallah Al-Amar, who came to watch the show with his son, said spectators were willing to “travel great distances” for the meets, flocking from all over the country to watch the drivers perform their stunts.
Saudi Arabia, as the world’s biggest oil exporter, enjoys bargain-basement gasoline prices, with a liter costing just 2.33 riyals ($0.62).
The cheap fuel, combined with prolonged periods of extreme heat, means cars reign supreme in the kingdom — further fueling a passion for motorsports.
Waiting all year
In Zulfi, hundreds of cars and pick-up trucks dotted the sands as far as the eye can see, while nearby a motorist raced up a 100-meter-tall dune.
“The cars you see here are specially equipped” for the challenge, Rabea told AFP.
Crowds made up almost exclusively of men looked on, drinking coffee and tea on carpets strewn on the sand.
Engines roared, crowds cheered and plumes of dust rose with every turn of the wheels.
“We wait for this moment all year. We optimize the engine, the car, every single detail,” Rabea said.
At the foot of the dune, modified cars and trucks with oversized tires and powerful engines were lined up, waiting to take on the dunes.
Their drivers were making final adjustments to the vehicles, preparing to defy gravity racing uphill at dizzying speed.
'Always loved the dunes'
For many, dune bashing and desert drifting is a passion that began in adolescence.
Badr Al-Ghamas, a 33-year-old man from Al-Qassim, began practicing the sport when he was only 15 years old.
“For some, sports means to play football or swimming. For us, it’s going dune bashing,” he said with a smile.
One experienced drifter, Ahmed Al-Rumi told AFP that drivers modified their cars to improve performance months in advance.
But the extreme sport is not without risk.
“A while ago, there was an accident because the car was not fully safe,” Rumi said, adding that no one was hurt.
Many of the drivers, however, brushed off the risk of accidents, citing safety precautions they take.
In his 2014 book “Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism, and Road Revolt,” researcher Pascal Menoret said this passion for speed and high-risk maneuvers was rooted in a desire to project an image of power and masculinity.
At sunset the drivers headed home, leaving behind splotches of oil on the sand and track marks scarring the dunes.
But Amar said the gas-guzzling sport was not necessarily in conflict with nature.
“I grew up on a farm and I’ve always loved the dunes,” he said.
“Now, I bring along my son who shares the same passion.”
