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What we know on Saturday:

Longboat Key’s reopening delayed due to discovery of gas leaks

Longboat Key Fire Chief Paul Dezzi said Saturday afternoon that plans to gradually reopen the island were stalled by the discovery of gas leaks.

“We just found out less than an hour ago that we have multiple gas leaks in the north end and we determined that we need to secure those before we do anything to develop the island,” Dezzi said.

Alabama football is looking for a win against Georgia on Saturday at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, a game that former President Donald Trump is expected to attend.

The game is the opener of SEC play for the Crimson Tide, who will be looking for their ninth win in the last 10 tries against the Bulldogs.

With quarterbacks Jalen Milroe and Carson Beck, two contenders for the Heisman Trophy will compete against each other. It will also be a battle between Georgia coach Kirby Smart and Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer; Smart is no stranger to coaching against the Crimson Tide, but DeBoer has never coached against Smart.

It will be the first game against the Bulldogs in Tuscaloosa in front of a full crowd since 2007; The 2020 game took place during COVID-19 when attendance was limited.

Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT. The game can be watched on ABC.

Follow here for live updates.

Aerial footage over Lake Lure in Rutherford County shows the impact of the devastating flooding and damage caused by Helene.TOP STORIES54 people rescued from an underwater hospital near the North Carolina-Tennessee border after the Helene floodLt. Gov. Mark Robinson was treated for burn injuries after a campaign rally in Mount Airy. The New River in Galax, VA reaches 22 feet in Helene’s wake. Click here to get the latest news of interest. On Friday, the water began to recede following evacuations and emergency rescue operations. According to Rutherford County Emergency Management officials, the Lake Lure Dam was damaged. The National Weather Service said the heavy rains in Helene threatened dam failure. The video above shows the damage over Lake Lure from Helene. Voluntary evacuations were encouraged along the Broad River basin in the Lake Lure and Chimney Rock areas of Rutherford County. Lake Lure became famous in the movie “Dirty Dancing” as several iconic scenes were filmed there. Watch: NOWCAST streaming newscasts. Stay up to date with the latest news and weather by downloading the WXII app here. NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Watch NOWCAST TV | Local News | National | News We Love |

Several countries around the world are investing heavily in lithium extraction to support battery production for electric vehicles (EVs) and utility-scale storage. This has led to tremendous growth in mining projects in lithium hubs such as the Lithium Triangle in South America. It has also encouraged greater exploration in less productive areas as energy companies seek to strengthen their supply chains through domestic lithium production. In the United States, Arkansas is quickly becoming a major lithium hub and additional lithium states are expected to emerge following major exploration activities.

The Biden administration has supported the development of the domestic lithium industry with favorable policies for mining activities that support the green transition, as well as funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). This is part of the government’s commitment to ensuring a reliable supply of essential minerals to support the deployment of renewable energy and clean technologies.

In March of this year, the US Department of Energy (DoE) announced Financing of up to $2.26 billionConstruction of the Thacker Pass Lithium Project in Nevada under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. The mine is expected to come online later this decade and supply General Motors (GM) with lithium. Lithium Americas will extract approximately 40,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate annually from Thacker Pass, which could power up to 800,000 electric vehicles. This will eventually rise to around 80,000 tonnes per year. GM has made additional investments 650 million dollars in the project.

In November last year, Exxon Mobil announced plans to produce lithium in the US starting in 2027. The Company will operate operations in Arkansas using conventional oil and gas drilling methods to access lithium deposits. Exxon works with Tetra Technologies for its lithium business under the brand name Mobil Lithium. American Battery Technology Company, Applied Materials and Cirba Solutions jointly received the award $2.8 billion in DoE funding for 21 new, upgraded and expanded commercial-scale lithium processing and battery recycling facilities.

Albemarle, a major lithium producer, is pursuing lithium production in North Carolina. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to reopen the resource-rich Kings Mountain lithium mine in the state by the end of 2026, backed by 150 million dollars in DoE funding. However, it faced backlash from environmentalists and indigenous groups who wanted to block the development, leading to delays. Albemarle wants to expand its domestic lithium production. The company currently operates the Silver Peak mine in Nevada first lithium producing mine in North America.

Based on recent discoveries, the US could be on the path to lithium independence. In September last year, a group of scientists funded by Lithium Americas Corporation founded reported that the McDermitt Caldera, a volcanic crater on the Nevada-Oregon border, holds between 20 and 40 million tons of lithium deposits, almost twice as much as in Bolivia, which forms part of it Lithium triangle. In December, the Department of Energy announced that it had confirmed another large lithium deposit beneath California’s Salton Sea. It said there were around 3,400 kilotons of lithium, which would be enough for over 375 million electric car batteries. This is well above the 14 million tonnes previously mapped by the US Geological Survey.

Although recent lithium discoveries in the US are significant, the country still has limited capacity to extract, refine and produce domestic lithium. The largest lithium producers in the world are currently Australia, Chile, China, Argentina, Brazil, Zimbabwe, the USA and Portugal. The United States is the only one of these countries to have had such an experience Decline in lithium production in the last decade. It also has the lowest lithium production relative to the size of its reserves of these countries.

However, there are some High hopes for the future of US-produced lithium with Arkansas is developing into an important transshipment point for the critical mineral. Several large companies, including companies such as ExxonMobil, Albemarle and Standard Lithium, have invested in mining operations in Arkansas. Based on recent exploration activities, lithium reserves in the state are of high quality, which should allow for easier extraction.

The USA is investing heavily in the development of direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies to increase their production potential. DLE technologies can extract up to 90 percent of the lithium in brine, well above traditional pond extraction rates of around 50 percent. You can also extract the mineral in days instead of months, potentially making production much cheaper and faster. However, DLE has not yet been proven to work on a large scale, meaning the US will need to further develop the technology or deploy conventional production techniques on a larger scale to increase its lithium production capacity.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

More top reads from Oilprice.com

Songs by Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, REM, Burna Boy, Rush and many others are currently unplayable on YouTube in the US due to a legal dispute between the platform and performance rights organization SESAC.

Attempts to play many, but not all, of these artists’ songs on Saturday resulted in the following message: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”

A similar dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok lasted several months earlier this year before being resolved.

In a statement about this Diversity, A YouTube representative said: “We have been negotiating in good faith with SESAC to extend our existing contract. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach a fair agreement before the deadline. We take copyright very seriously and therefore the content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the United States. We are in active discussions with SESAC and hope to reach a new agreement as soon as possible.” Representatives for SESAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Performing rights organizations such as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the US collect royalties and help protect copyrights on behalf of songwriters and music publishers. They have the ability to block certain public performances of music — which includes everything from streaming to radio to music played in restaurants — although such bans are cumbersome and difficult to enforce, even for a platform as large as YouTube, as the seemingly scattered numbers show prove blockage of SESAC material on the platform at the moment.

Such blocks are legally complex and may affect other copyright holders (for example, a live recording of the British broadcaster BBC’s Green Day is currently available, suggesting litigation), although they may also reflect the sheer volume of videos that are blocked must be. Certain songs by Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj and other artists are also affected, presumably because they are featured by songwriters affiliated with SESAC.

Fans quickly noticed the ban and received the following responses from the TeamYouTube account on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.

“We hear you,” it says. “Our music licensing agreement with SESAC has expired without agreement on renewal terms, despite our best efforts. “For this reason, we have blocked content on YouTube in the US that is known to be associated with SESAC – in accordance with copyright law.”

Responding to frustrated follow-up tweets from users, the company said: “We understand this is a difficult situation and our teams continue to work to reach an extension agreement” and “We are continuing our discussions with SESAC to “I don’t have exact dates for future updates yet.”

Such suspensions often occur when rights holders (e.g. record labels, publishers and PROs) and a broadcaster cannot agree on a licensing agreement, and typically last no longer than a few days or weeks. But along with the heated UMG-TikTok battle earlier this year, such a dispute between YouTube and Warner Music Group led to Warner withdrawing its videos from the platform for about nine months in 2008 and 2009 before terms were reached became.

In recent years, YouTube’s formerly contentious relationship with music companies has become much more positive, ironically after the company hired former Warner recording chief Lyor Cohen as music chief in 2016. But as music fans learned on Saturday, disputes still arise.

diversity I will have more information on the situation as it develops.

Additional reporting by Steven J. Horowitz

MILWAUKEE — The Mets had a ticket to two to four more regular-season games before playing here Saturday night in one of the most unusual and perhaps unfortunate season finishes ever. Their chances of making the playoffs look good on paper (more on that below), but they still have more problems than games, no matter how many there are – whether it’s two, three or four.

1. The Mets played poorly in the first few games of their most momentous journey (but the combinations and permutations still work somewhat positively, believe it or not). As hard as it is to believe, they could prevail here, but they can’t be eliminated before their elimination as they held the tiebreaker over the also-struggling Diamondbacks.

2. JD Martinez, a noted hitting expert, fell to 0 for his last 35 after his pop fly that bounced off the glove of Brewers second baseman Brice Turang was ruled an error on Friday. (Martinez was not in the squad on Saturday).

3. Francisco Lindor appeared to be hurt, although he scored two goals in his first full game in two weeks. It’s uncomfortable to bend over, so shortstop is not easy now.

“The pain would come and go, so I’m comfortable with that,” Lindor said after the Mets lost their first game here, 8-4, to a Brewers team that looked better. (The Mets noticed, too, and Lindor made a downhill appearance on Saturday.)

4. You can’t stop Milwaukee’s running game. The Brewers stole six bases on Friday, not to mention adding bases on two wild pitches and a passed ball, as the Mets hurried to defeat baseball’s fastest team (Turang, Garrett Mitchell and Blake Perkins look like three quarters of an Olympic sprint team).

5. Francisco Alvarez is also in pain. He left with back spasms, and although he’s “much better,” they replaced him in the lineup Saturday with Luis Torrens, whom they picked up from the Yankees for pocket money ($100,000).

6. Unless they can avoid the trip back to Atlanta due to a combination of three Mets wins and D-Backs losses, their pitching will soon become chaotic due to the likely need to play a game or two in the South. Manager Carlos Mendoza admitted he considered cutting Sean Manaea, Friday’s starter, after falling behind 5-0 early in hopes of saving bullets.

A big plus: It is assumed that they will not have to return to Atlanta on Monday, when both teams are already there and only the seedings have to be decided. What’s notable is that while they still managed to clinch a playoff spot on Saturday afternoon, they couldn’t be eliminated here, even after accomplishing nothing positive on this trip other than defeating Hurricane Helene in Atlanta.

Speaking of nothing positive, Martinez, whose career 131 OPS is on par with Hall of Famers Tony Oliva, Rod Carew and Wade Boggs, hasn’t had a hit in what seems like a month. Mendoza included him in the lineup after being out of the starting lineup for a week. But after scoring another zero point, he’s back on the bench.

“I thought I felt good tonight… [but] The evidence is obvious,” Martinez admitted.

The Mets offense is now on its head. The biggest contributors continue to be Mark Vientos and Jose Iglesias, the rookie and extreme veteran who began the season in the minors. Meanwhile, Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo are having mediocre seasons statistically – at least based on slashes – and Martinez is even worse.

With 34 home runs, Alonso is among the NL leaders, but by his previous standards, his platform year is undoubtedly below his norm. He is also looking for a special moment. (Now might be a good time?)

Nimmo is improving his base-stealing, getting some big hits (believe it or not, he’s fourth in the NL in win probability, however you calculate that), and having just about the worst luck ever you can imagine. The poor guy fired several shots over the foul pole, which were ruled a foul based on guesswork. (He said there was discussion about extending the pole, and we hope so!)

With Lindor in pain, Jeff McNeil in sickbay, and the biggest jerks in pseudo-slumps, maybe the stars need to start shining. Vientos and Iglesias need help.

The Mets don’t technically need outside help, but another loss will send them packing. It’s in their hands. The three-way tie heading into Saturday’s games (plus the tiebreaker lead against at least Arizona) gives them a lot of hope. But they need to show a better version of themselves.

There are still too many ways to catalog them in this area. But suffice to say, their chances of advancing past the preliminary round were somewhat dented by the prospect of another unwanted trip to Atlanta. And a second dud in a row didn’t help.

But hope is far from lost. And they stick to it.

“We didn’t play our best,” Mendoza said, “but this team has been through a lot.”

They came back after 11 games, so they’re confident they can get it done – whether they have two games left, three or possibly four.

Alabama-Georgia games always mean somethingwith two programs with championship pedigrees in soccer-mad states competing in a battle for on-field supremacy.

But even by that high bar, Saturday’s game between the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs will mean a little more.

There may not be a more consequential, highly anticipated or breathlessly discussed game on the 2024 college football regular season calendar than the matchup between No. 4 Alabama and No. 1 Georgia.

Required reading:Why Alabama vs. Georgia is important for Kalen DeBoer and Kirby Smart for a variety of reasons

CLEARWATER BEACH, Fla. – The Barrier Islands and Clearwater Beach reopened to residents, business owners and employees on Saturday.

The city of Clearwater opened access at 4 p.m

Residents and business owners must prove their residency or property interest with a photo ID, vehicle registration, property tax or utility bill, proof of employment, work orders or re-entry pass to get through police checkpoints.

Employees are also granted access with appropriate ID.

Beach communities remain closed to visitors. Pier 60 also remains closed due to damage.

Officials are urging anyone granted access to exercise caution as many traffic lights will not be working and cleaning vehicles will be on the move.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Nick Saban wore Georgia football’s number while building Alabama into college football’s premier program for 17 years. He went 8-2 against the Bulldogs and won eight of the last nine games.

Here comes new Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer for his first matchup against a program that has won two national titles since Alabama won its last.

Tonight, No. 1 Georgia plays No. 4 Alabama at today’s Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“We have to do our part to make the environment special and bring our fans to it,” DeBoer said.