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‘We’ve got to be more accountable to our at-bats.’ Finding the right offensive balance is proving to be elusive for Chicago Cubs.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

Plate patience and an approach that yields walks can be an indicator of a healthy offense.For the Chicago Cubs, it’s been a frustrating trend of putting runners on base at a high rate who are then consistently stranded. Finding a balance between working counts and seeking out moments to go into a more aggressive swing mode is a work in progress for an offense that has too often been a weakness.Two days after president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer expressed the need for the team to not only win series but produce some series sweeps, the Los Angeles Angels completed the sweep with the Cubs’ 3-1 loss Thursday.The Cubs (26-36) begin the final leg of the 10-game West Coast trip in San Francisco Friday night with the sixth-worst winning percentage in Major League Baseball. Only four teams have more losses than the Cubs: St. Louis Cardinals (37), Colorado Rockies (38), Kansas City Royals (44) and Oakland A’s (50).“As a whole, we’ve got to be more accountab...

Chicago White Sox split a doubleheader with the New York Yankees — and Eloy Jiménez exits Game 2 with a leg injury

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

The sky cleared up enough for the Chicago White Sox to resume their series with the New York Yankees.Instead of the haze the smoke from Canadian wildfires created, there were plenty of longballs during Game 1 of the doubleheader Thursday at Yankee Stadium.The Sox hit four home runs on their way to their fifth straight win, beating the Yankees 6-5.The season-high winning streak came to an end with the Yankees taking the nightcap 3-0.Gleyber Torres hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Billy McKinney had a solo homer the next inning against Sox starter Mike Clevinger, who allowed three runs on six hits with two strikeouts and a walk in 5⅔ innings.The Sox had two hits, singles from Eloy Jiménez and Gavin Sheets. With the split, the Sox (28-36) are 3½ games out of first place in the American League Central. They are in third place in the division for the first time since April 17.Trainers checked on Jiménez after he ran slowly while grounding into a fielder’s ...

Dutch Supreme Court orders museum artifacts borrowed from Crimea returned to Ukraine

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Supreme Court of the Netherlands on Friday ordered that a Dutch museum’s trove of historical treasures from Crimea be sent to Ukraine, upholding a lower court ruling that the 300 artifacts are part of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. The collection of archaeological objects, some more than 2,000 years old, was on display at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, sparking a dispute over the repatriation of the borrowed pieces. Both the Ukrainian government in Kyiv and the four Crimean museums that had loaned bronze swords, golden helmets, precious gems and other artifacts to the Allard Pierson demanded the objects back. The Amsterdam museum instead opted to store the items until a court could decide their fate. The legal tug-of-war has now ended with the Hague-based Supreme Court ordering the collection to be returned to Ukraine. Judges cited the lack of national recognition for the Ru...

Unemployment rate ticks higher in May for first time in nine months: StatCan

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.Overall employment was little changed last month as the economy lost a modest 17,000 jobs, Statistics Canada reported Friday.The job report comes one day after the Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, bringing it to 4.75 per cent, the highest it’s been since 2001.The decision was prompted by a string of hot economic data, including a surprisingly resilient labour market. The central bank said the resilience of the Canadian economy suggests getting inflation back to two per cent may be harder than it had previously expected.Canada’s unemployment rate was previously hovering at five per cent for five consecutive months, just above the all-time low of 4.9 per cent reached last summer.However, the federal agency noted in the report that job growth has moderat...

Chow still front-runner as Bailão, Saunders gain ground: Toronto mayoral polls

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

Campaigning continues in the race to become Toronto’s next mayor as we enter the second day of advanced voting.Two new polls courtesy of Mainstreet Research and Viewpoints show Olivia Chow is still the frontrunner in the race but are at odds as to whether support for the former Member of Parliament is growing or shrinking.The Viewpoints survey shows Chow has 37 per cent of support among decided voters, with her closest competitor, ex-Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders, at 15.4 per cent.Other candidates are hovering at or below 10 per cent, with Josh Matlow at 10.3 per cent, Ana Bailão at 10 per cent, Brad Bradford at 9.5 per cent, Anthony Furey at 9 per cent, and Mitzie Hunter at 6 per cent, respectively.RELATED: ‘I’m the only one’: Mark Saunders bills himself as only alternative to Olivia Chow“This data reveals that Chow’s lead has grown and widened. She has momentum as undecided voters start to firm up their choice,” said James Valcke of V...

France hails ‘hero with a rucksack’ who intervened in knife attack on very young children

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

LE PECQ, France (AP) — The attacker slashed at the 24-year-old man with the knife that he used to savagely stab one young child after another. But rather than run, Henri held his ground — using a weighty backpack he was carrying to swing at the assailant and parry his blade.French media hailed Henri as “the hero with a rucksack” Friday after he was shown in a video grappling with the assailant and charging after him during the knife attack that critically wounded four children between the ages of 22 months and 3 years old, and also injured two adults.Henri had a heavy rucksack on his back and was holding another in his hand when the attacker slashed at him. Even after being slashed at, Henri still continued to harass the attacker by pursuing him inside a playground — where the man repeatedly stabbed a child in a stroller — and then out of the park again, carrying his rucksacks all the while. He appeared to hurl one of the sacks at the assailant at one point and then pick it up again...

Report: Iran detains cartoonist again, journalist group calls for release

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian authorities have summoned and arrested a cartoonist who has a history of being imprisoned for political posts on her Instagram account, her lawyer said Friday.Mohammad Moghimi said in a tweet said his client, Atena Farghadani, a painter, cartoonist and former political prisoner, was summoned to the Evin courthouse in Tehran and arrested. He did not elaborate on why she was detained. In 2016, Farghadani was released after spending 18 months in jail for portraying lawmakers as animals to criticize a draft law restricting contraception and criminalizing voluntary sterilization.On Wednesday, Farghadani posted one of her cartoons showing people with animal and satanic faces.The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday that Iranian authorities must release Farghadani and stop efforts to silence commentators and members of the press.“This cycling of journalists and commentators through prison is a continuation of authorities’ ...

Is it time to change the Cannabis act?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

Currently, Canada’s federal government is undertaking a comprehensive review of the legislation that legalized recreational marijuana. While the basic aspects of the act are expected to remain largely unchanged, the review presents an opportunity to improve the system and make it more fair for everyone.Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, associate professor of criminal justice at University of Toronto and co-author of Waiting to Inhale: Cannabis Legalization and the Fight for Racial Justice, says legalization lacked measures to repair the harms of cannabis-related convictions. “I think the biggest oversight was really the lack of acknowledgment of the impact that drug prohibition and cannabis prohibition had on Indigenous, Black and other marginalized communities, period,” says Owusu-Bempah.Various aspects of the legal cannabis industry, including the pardon process, licenses, and overseeing boards, resemble the days of prohibition in one way–a lack of racial justice and the inability to pro...

Blue Jays’ Bass regrets sharing anti-2SLGBTQ+ video, stands by personal beliefs

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

Toronto Blue Jays reliever Anthony Bass is slated to be part of the club’s pre-game Pride Weekend festivities one day after he admitted regret to sharing an anti-2SLGBTQ+ video on social media while defending the move citing his religious beliefs.The Instagram video Bass shared promotes boycotting companies, like Target and Bud Light, that support gay and trans rights in the name of the Christian faith.He followed comments from general manager Ross Atkins before Thursday’s game. He elaborated on his decision to share the video, delete it, share it again and then permanently remove it from his Instagram account.“The video itself, I took it down,” Bass said. “I felt like it was too much of a distraction. I stand by my personal beliefs, and everyone is entitled to their personal beliefs, right? But I also mean no harm to any groups of people.”The video, which referred to Target and Bud Light’s support of the trans community as “demonic...

Sudan’s government declares UN envoy no longer welcome as both sides agree to a 24-hour cease-fire

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:52 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations envoy to Sudan, a key mediator in the country’s brutal conflict, is no longer welcome in the African country, Sudanese authorities say, as the warring sides agreed to a new 24-hour cease-fire.A terse statement issued by Sudan’s Foreign Ministry late Thursday comes just weeks after the head of the country’s military, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, demanded in a letter to envoy Volker Perthes that he should be removed from his post.UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been notified that Perthes has been formally declared “persona non grata,” the Foreign Ministry said.Since Apr. 15, Sudan’s military, headed by Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have been locked in a violent power struggle that has killed more than 860 civilians, according to Sudan’s Doctors’ Syndicate which tracks civilian casualties. The actual death tally is likely to be much higher.Later Friday, the military and the...