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Cactus League report: Cubs’ Justin Steele moves on from 5-walk start — and the churro vendor who spices up spring training

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

White Sox starter Dylan Cease found a groove against the Seattle Mariners, retiring 10 of the final 11 batters he faced during Sunday’s outing at Peoria Stadium.Cease allowed one run on three hits with six strikeouts and one walk in four-plus innings. He retired 10 consecutive batters, including five straight strikeouts, before giving up a single to Kean Wong to lead off the fifth. Cease exited after the hit.“Kind of got my feel with my body and where to aim everything, and it was just automatic after that,” Cease said.Sox catcher Seby Zavala doubled and hit a two-run homer — his third this spring — in the 6-2 victory. Outfield prospect Oscar Colás hit a solo homer, also his third of the spring.Nelson Velázquez, in his return from playing for Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, hit a walk-off three-run homer to give the Cubs a 5-2 win against the San Diego Padres.Catcher Yan Gomes hit his third home run of the spring — tying ...

Adam Sandler receives Mark Twain Prize, praise from comic pals

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

By ASHRAF KHALIL (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Adam Sandler placed his hand on the bronze bust of Mark Twain and speculated that it “one day might be the weapon used to bludgeon me in my sleep.”A host of comedic and entertainment royalty gathered at Washington’s Kennedy Center as Sandler was presented with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.Presenters including Drew Barrymore, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Buscemi, Dana Carvey, and Luis Guzmán gave testimonials to Sandler’s creative longevity, while poking occasional fun at his uneven movie output and tendency to cast all his friends in his movies.Sandler’s longtime writing and production partner Tim Herlihy joked that the pair were responsible for “31 motion pictures with a combined Rotten Tomatoes score of 59.”Buscemi, known largely for dramatic and often violent roles, portrayed a string of comedic characters in Sandler movies.“He takes his comedy very seriously. I laugh hard at everything I do wit...

Top Israeli minister: ‘No such thing’ as Palestinian people

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A firebrand Israeli minister claimed there’s “no such thing” as a Palestinian people as Israel’s new coalition government, its most hard-line ever, plowed ahead on Monday with a part of its plan to overhaul the judiciary. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition said it was pushing a key part of the overhaul — which would give the coalition control over who becomes a justice or a judge — before the parliament takes a monthlong holiday break next week.The development came a day after an Israeli and Palestinian delegation at a meeting in Egypt, mediated by Egyptian, Jordanian and U.S. officials, pledged to take steps to lower tensions roiling the region ahead of a sensitive holiday season.It reflected the limited influence the Biden administration appears to have over Israel’s new far-right government and raised questions about attempts to lower tensions, both inside Israel and with the Palestinians, ahead of a sensitive holiday season.As the negotia...

Deal for UBS to buy Credit Suisse sends shares tumbling

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Shares of Credit Suisse plunged 60.5% on Monday after banking giant UBS said it would buy its troubled Swiss rival for almost $3.25 billion in a deal orchestrated by regulators to try to stave off further turmoil in the global banking system. UBS shares also were down nearly 5% on the Swiss stock exchange.Swiss authorities urged UBS to take over its smaller rival after a central bank plan for Credit Suisse to borrow up to 50 billion francs ($54 billion) last week failed to reassure investors and customers. Shares of Credit Suisse and other banks had plunged last week after the failure of two banks in the U.S. raised questions about other potentially weak global financial institutions. “Only time will tell how this shotgun wedding is received,” said Neil Shearing, group chief economist for Capital Economics.Markets remained jittery Monday despite efforts of regulators to restore calm. In the U.S., the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said late Sunday that New York Commun...

International Red Cross says 2 kidnapped staff freed in Mali

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Two aid workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross were freed in Mali on Monday, the organization announced.The staff members were released unharmed but the organization would not disclose the employees’ identities or the circumstances of the abduction.“We are relieved to find our colleagues safe and sound. They will be reunited with their families as soon as possible,” said Antoine Grand, head of the ICRC in Mali. The staff were kidnapped earlier this month in the country’s north between the towns of Gao and Kidal, part of the country riddled by jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that’s killed thousands in the last 10 years.The ICRC said it has been operating in Mali’s north region for more than 30 years and said it will continue its humanitarian work in the country. Jihadi groups have been abducting hostages for ransom as a way to fund their operations and expand their presence. The...

Will we ever know Covid-19’s origin story?

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

Even three years after it emerged, there’s still no consensus on the origin of the virus that shut down the world. Last week, the US Department of Energy said that its conclusion (albeit with “low confidence”) was that the virus escaped from a lab. Three days later new genetic research pointed to the presence of the virus in racoon dogs found in Wuhan at the time the virus began to spread.Umair Irfan, correspondent at Vox writing about climate change, Covid-19, and energy policy. He joins us to discuss the lab leak and natural origin theories, and how partisan politics is influencing the debate.“I think a lot of people have aligned with one view or the other, based on their priors, based on their political alignments, and it’s really going to be hard to change people’s minds one way or the other,” he said.So will we ever get clarity on where the virus truly came from? And if we did, would it change anything?You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcas...

Insider Q&A: From oil to offshore wind, Ørsted transformed

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — One of Europe’s most fossil fuel-intensive energy companies transformed completely in little more than a decade by doubling down on offshore wind.Ørsted, formerly DONG Energy, for Danish Oil and Natural Gas, started aggressively building wind farms off the coast of Denmark, the U.K. and Germany in 2008 — a time when offshore wind was a curiosity.The company sold off the North Sea oil and gas assets on which it had built its identity to focus on clean energy, becoming Ørsted.Fast forward 15 years and China, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan and Denmark have some 62 nuclear plants’ worth of wind power spinning or under construction offshore. Ørsted is one of the biggest developers. CEO Mads Nipper called Ørsted the “Tesla of offshore wind” because it didn’t invent wind turbines or copper cable or substations, just like the electric car company didn’t invent batteries or electric motors. But they both proved something was scalable when few believed ...

Palestinian commander killed in Syria buried in refugee camp

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A commander of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad killed in Syria in what the group described as an assassination by Israeli agents was buried on Monday at a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital, Damascus. His wife, speaking at the funeral, said the killers of 31-year-old Ali Ramzi al-Aswad used silencers. She said he had left their second-floor apartment in a Damascus suburb on Sunday morning, as he regularly did, and within less than a minute, she heard a crackling noise coming from the outside. “They were waiting for him. He was killed with a weapon equipped with silencer,” al-Aswad’s wife, who identified herself as Um Abdul-Rahman, told The Associated Press. Al-Aswad was buried at the Martyrs Cemetery in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk on the southern edges of Damascus. The wife said she checked the stairs after hearing the crackling but saw nothing. After 45 minutes she received a call from people asking about him and when she ...

A week on, brutal Cyclone Freddy still taxes southern Africa

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

Over a week after Cyclone Freddy’s second and more devastating landfall in Malawi and Mozambique and nearly a month since it battered Madagascar, the effects are still being felt as locals, officials and aid workers continue to uncover the full extent of the cyclone’s destruction.In Malawi the death toll has reached 447 people, with 282 others missing and close to 400,000 people still displaced, authorities in the country said. Malawi’s southern region, including the financial capital of Blantyre, was the worst affected. In Mozambique, some 66 people have died and 59,000 are still displaced, according to local authorities.Many people, including children “are traumatized by the cyclone,” said Palal Areman, from the aid agency Save the Children and based in Blantyre. “They were brought to the hospital with head injuries, broken limbs, and bruises, while others looked worried or had no family members.”The United Nations emergency fund released $5.5 million to Ma...

Driver in custody after elderly woman hit by car in Morton Grove

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:21:33 GMT

MORTO GROVE, Ill. —  A 72-year-old woman is in serious condition after being struck by a vehicle in Morton Grove Sunday night. According to Morton Grove police, a car was travelling southbound on Harlem in the 9200 block when it struck the woman in the roadway. 2 fatally shot on Chicago’s South Side The woman was transported to Lutheran General Hospital with serious injuries.The driver is currently in custody pending further investigation.