Things To Do In SW Florida

Universal Orlando has started selling Frequent Fear Passes and other multi-night tickets for Halloween Horror Nights and has revealed the theming for its eighth haunted house of the 2025 season.

The event’s Fear passes — aka Rush of Fear, Frequent Fear, Frequent Fear Plus and Ultimate Frequent Fear — are tiered, allowing different levels of access on multiple nights of the event, which runs for 48 nights between Aug. 29 and Nov. 2 at Universal Studios theme park.

The prices of the Rush of Fear passes, which work on the first 18 days of the event, are $199.99. With express powers for shorter waits, it’s $690.

For Frequent Fear, which includes 30 select dates but not Fridays and Saturdays, the cost is $249.99 ($839.99 with express).

With Frequent Fear Plus, pay $249 for 40 dates (no Saturdays). With Express, it’s $949.99.

For the hardcore HHN fans who want to go every night, there’s the Ultimate Frequent Fear Pass for $419.99 … and $1,199.99 with express.

However, by early afternoon Thursday, the allotments of Frequent Fear with express, Frequent Fear Plus Pass with express and Ultimate Frequent Fear Pass with express were sold out, according to Universal’s website. read more

By SHAWN CHEN

NEW YORK (AP) — Samsung introduced several updates to its foldable devices lineup on Wednesday, with the new Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and the new Z Flip 7 FE taking stage at the latest Unpacked event.

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The Korean electronics company unveiled the upgrades — including new versions of their watch — in New York but also announced an expanded partnership with Google to inject more artificial intelligence into its foldable lineup.

Here are the biggest announcements from this summer’s Unpacked event:

A thinner Galaxy Z Fold 7

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is much thinner and lighter than its predecessors, coming in at 0.17 inch thick when unfolded and less than half an inch folded. read more

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN

Pharmaceutical giant Merck is buying Verona Pharma, a company that focuses on respiratory diseases, in an approximately $10 billion deal.

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  Samsung unveils its new line of foldable devices at Unpacked

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• 
  Could renting be part of the new American dream?

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  Universal’s Woodbury set for IAAPA Expo session

The deal gives Merck access to Verona Pharma’s new chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medication Ohtuvayre. U.S. regulators approved the inhaled medication more than a year ago to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, in adults.

“Ohtuvayre complements and expands our pipeline and portfolio of treatments for cardiopulmonary diseases while delivering near- and long-term growth as well as value for shareholders,” Merck & Co. Inc. Chairman and CEO Robert Davis said in a statement. read more

Living in Florida has long been enticing for Canadians, but a new analysis shows fewer of them are considering it as a destination.

The number of Canadians seeking a home in Miami and Orlando dropped by about 30% in each region year over year in May, with Fort Lauderdale seeing a 21% dip, according to data compiled by Redfin, which provides real estate services and data.

And “fewer Canadians are searching for homes in the United States than they were at the start of 2025, before the U.S. instituted steep tariffs on Canada and relations between the two countries started suffering,” Redfin said.

The number of Canadians searching for homes in the U.S. started to drop significantly in February, shortly after the Trump administration implemented 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. Some real estate experts believe the overall suffering relationship between Canada and the U.S. also may be contributing to the decrease.

President Donald Trump has, for example, commented about making Canada the 51st state, saying that Canada is “not viable as a country” without U.S. trade. The prospect of dissolving the border between the two countries is highly unpopular among many Canadians, though. read more

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The first day of Amazon’s Prime Day event and competing retail sales that kicked off on Tuesday drove solid online spending compared to a year earlier, according to two data sources.

Adobe Digital Insights, which tracks visits to e-commerce sites, reported that U.S. consumers spent $7.9 billion at online stores on Tuesday, a 9.9% increase from the comparable day last year.

Retailers offered discounts in the range of 9% to 23%, on par with July 2024 sales events, Adobe said.

Shoppers appeared especially eager to take advantage of deals on appliances, electronics and home improvement products, the data company said. Online sales of appliances were 135% higher than last month’s daily average, according to Adobe’s data.

Back-to-school items also were popular. Spending increased threefold on school supplies like backpacks, lunchboxes and stationery, and was two times higher for college dorm fixtures like mattresses, mini refrigerators and microwave over, Adobe said. read more