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Cardinals come into matchup with the Mets on losing streak

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

St. Louis Cardinals (27-42, fifth in the NL Central) vs. New York Mets (32-36, fourth in the NL East)New York; Friday, 7:10 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Miles Mikolas (4-3, 4.02 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 62 strikeouts); Mets: Tylor Megill (5-4, 5.14 ERA, 1.70 WHIP, 49 strikeouts)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Cardinals -113, Mets -106; over/under is 9 runsBOTTOM LINE: The St. Louis Cardinals head into the matchup with the New York Mets after losing five in a row.New York has a 16-13 record at home and a 32-36 record overall. The Mets are sixth in the NL with 80 total home runs, averaging 1.2 per game.St. Louis is 14-21 in road games and 27-42 overall. The Cardinals are 7-16 in games decided by one run.The teams meet Friday for the first time this season.TOP PERFORMERS: Jeff McNeil has eight doubles, a triple and three home runs for the Mets. Francisco Alvarez is 6-for-37 with four home runs over the last 10 games.Nolan Gorman has 10 doubles and 15 home runs for the Cardinals. Nolan Ar...

Braves bring 1-0 series advantage over Rockies into game 2

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

Colorado Rockies (29-42, fifth in the NL West) vs. Atlanta Braves (43-26, first in the NL East)Atlanta; Friday, 7:20 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Rockies: Dinelson Lamet (1-3, 10.80 ERA, 2.35 WHIP, 26 strikeouts); Braves: Jared Shuster (3-2, 5.05 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 21 strikeouts)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Braves -255, Rockies +210; over/under is 10 runsBOTTOM LINE: The Atlanta Braves face the Colorado Rockies with a 1-0 series lead.Atlanta has a 43-26 record overall and a 21-15 record in home games. The Braves have the top team batting average in the NL at .265.Colorado has gone 13-23 in road games and 29-42 overall. The Rockies have the ninth-best team batting average in MLB play at .256.Friday’s game is the second time these teams match up this season.TOP PERFORMERS: Matt Olson leads the Braves with 19 home runs while slugging .494. Orlando Arcia is 15-for-36 with a double, a home run and 10 RBI over the past 10 games.Ryan McMahon leads Colorado with 10 home runs while sluggin...

Giants aim to keep win streak going against the Dodgers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

San Francisco Giants (36-32, third in the NL West) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (39-30, second in the NL West)Los Angeles; Friday, 10:10 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Giants: John Brebbia (0-0); Dodgers: TBDBOTTOM LINE: The San Francisco Giants seek to keep a four-game win streak alive when they take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.Los Angeles has a 22-11 record at home and a 39-30 record overall. The Dodgers have the second-ranked team slugging percentage in the NL at .455.San Francisco has a 36-32 record overall and an 18-15 record on the road. The Giants are ninth in MLB play with 87 total home runs, averaging 1.3 per game.Friday’s game is the fourth time these teams square off this season.TOP PERFORMERS: Freddie Freeman has a .332 batting average to lead the Dodgers, and has 24 doubles, a triple and 13 home runs. David Peralta is 13-for-31 with two home runs and seven RBI over the past 10 games.LaMonte Wade Jr has 11 doubles, a triple and eight home runs for the Giants. Patrick Bailey...

Huawei slams new EU restrictions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

Huawei Friday said it “strongly opposes and disagrees” with an announcement by the EU Commission to block the Chinese technology giant from EU research funding and contracts because it poses “materially higher risks than other 5G suppliers.”The EU executive and member countries’ cybersecurity experts on Thursday urged national governments to restrict the role of Chinese 5G vendors Huawei and ZTE in Europe. But Huawei said in a response the EU’s move was “clearly not based on a verified, transparent, objective and technical assessment of 5G networks.”“It is of paramount importance to emphasize that the discriminatory ‘HRV’ assessment shall not be applied to any vendor without justified procedure and adequate hearing,” it said. “Huawei holds procedural and substantial rights and should be protected under the EU and member states’ laws as well as their international commitments.”It added that publicly singling out an indi...

‘They have been sent to death’: Home commissioner on migrants’ journeys to EU

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

A perilous sea route from eastern Libya to Europe taken by thousands of migrants, including hundreds involved in a fatal shipwreck Wednesday, has seen an increase of vessels carrying migrants by nearly 600 percent in 2023 alone, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson told POLITICO. “They have not been sent to the EU, they have been sent to death,” she said. In what the U.N migration agency IOM called “one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean,” the overcrowded fishing boat sank while attempting to reach Italy. It refused help from a Greek coast guard boat, Greek authorities said. The boat sank just days after EU interior ministers reached a deal to unblock key issues in long-disputed migration reform. At least 79 people died in the fatal wreck but a joint statement from the IOM and the U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated hundreds are dead and missing. Johansson skirted a question about whether Frontex, the European Border and Coast...

How Orioles left-hander Cole Irvin found himself — and trust in his sinker — after ‘humbling’ demotion to Triple-A

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

Cole Irvin’s biggest change after his stint in the minor leagues was evident during the first inning of his first start back in the majors.Irvin, a left-hander the Orioles acquired in the offseason to help anchor their rotation, stumbled out of the gate and was demoted to Triple-A in mid-April. He returned Saturday with the opportunity — now that Grayson Rodriguez is down in Norfolk after struggling — to earn back his spot in Baltimore’s rotation.He opened the game against the Kansas City Royals with a sinker. And then another. And another. Eight of his first 11 pitches were sinkers, while the other three were changeups. Irvin escaped the first inning thanks to a web gem from Anthony Santander and went on to pitch 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball for his first win as an Oriole.The heavy sinker usage was a stark contrast from his first three starts of the season when Irvin relied more on his four-seam fastball to little success. The renewed trust in his sinker wa...

Menace to society: galore of illicit drugs available in the EU as powerful new substances emerge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — New harmful illicit drugs are inundating a flourishing market for traffickers amid violence and corruption hurting local communities across Europe, the EU’s agency monitoring drugs and addiction said Friday.The grim finding was part of the agency’s annual report. It also said that drug users in Europe are now exposed to a wider range of substances of high purity as drug trafficking and use across the region have quickly returned to pre-COVID 19 pandemic levels.Cannabis remains the most-used illicit substance in Europe, the agency found, with some 22.6 million Europeans over the age of 15 having used it in the last year. Cocaine seizures are “historically high” and new synthetic drugs whose effects on health are not well documented are worrying officials.In 2022, 41 news drugs were reported for the first time by the agency.“I summarize this with the phrase: ‘everywhere, everything, everyone,’” said European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction Di...

Commerce Department announces nearly $1 billion in grants for ‘middle mile’ internet access

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

The massive federal effort to expand internet access to every home in the U.S. took a major step forward on Friday with the announcement of $930 million in grants to shore up connections in remote parts of Alaska, rural Texas and dozens of other places where significant gaps in connectivity persist.The so-called middle mile grants, announced by the Department of Commerce, are meant to create large-scale networks that will enable retail broadband providers to link subscribers to the internet. Department officials likened the role of the middle mile — the midsection of the infrastructure necessary to enable internet access, composed of high-capacity fiber lines carrying huge amounts of data at very high speeds — to how the interstate highway system forged connections between communities.“These networks are the workhorses carrying large amounts of data over very long distances,” said Mitch Landrieu, the White House’s infrastructure coordinator, in a media Zoom call. “They’re the ones t...

Drought and rising heat bring unusual wildfire warnings in northern Europe and Scotland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — Summer is wildfire season in southern Europe, but this year the continent’s north is also at risk, with forest fire warnings in effect across the Nordic and Baltic countries.A lack of rain and rising temperatures have led to dangerously dry conditions in the region, leading to worries of a repeat of the summer of 2018 when major wildfires swept across Sweden in particular.Small wildfires are already burning in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland and experts worry it could get much worse unless there’s significant rainfall in coming weeks.Unlike the sun-soaked Mediterranean countries, which have to deal with wildfires every summer, the phenomenon is rare in the countries of northern Europe, where summers are normally cool and wet by comparison.“These countries are relatively new to drought problems,” said Niclas Hjerdt, head of hydrological forecasting at Sweden’s weather agency SMHI. “We usually have an excess of water up here in northern Europe and Scand...

Stock market today: World shares track Wall Street rally, Tokyo’s benchmark at 33-year high

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:26 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares advanced in Europe and Asia on Friday after a broad-based rally on Wall Street. U.S. futures were little changed and oil prices wobbled lower after gaining more than 3% on Thursday. Germany’s DAX added 0.2% to 16,328.40 and the CAC 40 in Paris surged 0.6% to 7,337.98. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,642.77. The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged less than 0.1% higher. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index closed at a 33-year high after the Bank of Japan wrapped up a policy meeting by keeping its ultra-lax monetary stance unchanged, as expected. It is a standout among central banks, most of which have sought to rein in inflation by raising interest rates. The key Japanese rate has stayed at minus 0.1% for a decade and policymakers have indicated they are not convinced that current inflation, which finally has surpassed the BOJ’s target of about 2%, will be sustained. “With extremely high uncertai...