Things To Do In SW Florida

Hurricane Melissa hit much of Jamaica hard. The country’s all-important tourism industry will likely suffer, too, as damage assessments are made over the coming days.

While it’s too early to know the full impact of Melissa, Montego Bay was underwater on Wednesday and infrastructure was damaged. The city is the home to several resorts and golf courses.

Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the town of New Hope on the southwestern tip of Jamaica. By 8 p.m., it was heading to eastern Cuba.

As of Wednesday evening, Jamaica’s airports remained closed to visitors, including Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay and Ian Fleming International Airport near Ocho Rios and in the northeast of the country. Transport Minister Daryl Vaz, who earlier in the day conducted an assessment of Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport, later indicated that it had received its first flight, one carrying relief.

In a post on X, he also announced that the Kingston airport and Ian Fleming would both open at 7 a.m. Thursday for commercial flights. Montego Bay’s airport can begin receiving relief flights at 10 a.m., however Vaz said the resumption of commercial flights there has yet to be determined. Sections of one of that airport’s concourses had significant damage, he said in other postings. read more

By TOM MURPHY, AP Health Writer

The market for obesity and diabetes treatments remains scorching hot, funneling billions in sales to Eli Lilly and fueling a bidding war over another drugmaker.

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Lilly said Thursday that its top-selling drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, brought in more than $10 billion combined during the recently completed third quarter. That made up over half of the drugmaker’s $17.6 billion in total sales.

Separately, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk announced plans to buy Metsera Inc. in a deal that could be worth up to $9 billion. read more

Theme park revenue climbed 18.7% in the third quarter for Comcast Corp., propelled by the early months of operation of Epic Universe, the company reported Thursday.

The attractions segment, which includes Universal Orlando as part of Comcast’s content and experiences division, took in $2.7 billion in the quarter that ended Sept. 30. Epic Universe theme park debuted May 22.

“We’re really pleased with the early results from Epic, which are driving higher per-cap spending and attendance across the entirety of Universal Orlando,” said Jason Armstrong, Comcast’s chief financial officer.

Officials said the new park is performing as designed by making the resort more of a draw to weeklong visitors.

“The full resort of Orlando is very strong,” said Mike Cavanagh, Comcast president. He said there has been less “cannibalization” of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, the pre-existing parks of Universal Orlando, than anticipated.

“Our focus now is just driving increased ride capacity. It’s a new park and very technologically advanced, so working on the labor and the kinks to drive it to full capacity,” said Cavanagh, who will become co-CEO of the company in January. read more

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, Associated Press Technology Writer

President Donald Trump’s meeting Thursday with China’s top leader Xi Jinping produced a raft of decisions to help dial back trade tensions, but no agreement on TikTok’s ownership.

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“China will work with the U.S. to properly resolve issues related to TikTok,” China’s Commerce Ministry said after the meeting.

It gave no details on any progress toward ending uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the U.S.

The Trump administration had been signaling that it may have finally reached a deal with Beijing to keep TikTok running in the U.S. read more

By Ilena Peng, Bloomberg News

Halloween is shaping up to be a test for the chocolate industry, as high cocoa costs threaten to accelerate a consumer shift toward cheaper and trendier sweets such as sour gummies.

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For candy makers, Halloween remains crucial — the holiday made up nearly 18% of annual U.S. candy sales last year, second only to Christmas. But chocolate makers have been passing along costlier input prices to consumers, and that’s leaving an opening for rivals — who have already seen a shift toward non-chocolate treats — to grab more market share. read more