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MLB playoffs 2023: Verlander gets Game 1, all 8 teams prep for Division Series openers Saturday

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

Justin Verlander is scheduled to start for the Houston Astros against former teammate Carlos Correa and the Minnesota Twins in Game 1 of their AL Division Series on Saturday. Houston manager Dusty Baker made the announcement Thursday, adding that left-hander Framber Valdez will pitch Sunday night in Game 2.After all four Wild Card Series ended in two-game sweeps Wednesday, the eight remaining playoff teams are prepping for best-of-five Division Series that begin Saturday. Correa and the AL Central champion Twins will be in Houston to face the defending World Series champion Astros, who won the AL West. Also in the American League, Texas plays at AL East champion Baltimore.In the National League, the young Arizona Diamondbacks square off against the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers, and the defending NL champion Philadelphia Phillies head to Atlanta for a playoff rematch with the major league-best Braves, who won their sixth straight NL East title this year.BETTING FAVORITESThe B...

Duelo de moda en la alfombra azul de los Premios Billboard 2023

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

MIAMI – La alfombra azul de los Premios Billboard de la Música Latina 2023 fue el escenario de un duelo de la moda entre hombres y mujeres, en el que nominados, presentadores, nuevos artistas e influyentes ofrecieron elegancia, con algunas excepciones, y mucho negro.Entre los mejores vestidos se destacaron Danilo Carrera, el presentador de la gala, las artistas argentinas TINI y Nicki Nicole, y la cantautora colombiana Karol G. Los tres primeros iban en el color de la noche, y la bichota con un clásico vestido blanco de corte de sirena.“El negro es mi color favorito y quise ponerme algo que me hiciera sentir sexy y empoderada en una noche tan especial”, dijo a EFE Nicki Nicole, quien participa en dos números en la gala. Para “mi amiga”: Paris Hilton entrega a Karol G el premio Billboard Espíritu de la Esperanza La lista de ganadores de los Billboard de la Música Latina 2023 También de negro con pinceladas de bla...

Sunak, Meloni demand more urgency to combat migration

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her U.K. counterpart Rishi Sunak made a joint call for action against undocumented migration, urging other European countries to show the “same sense of urgency” as Britain and Italy to end what they call a “moral and humanitarian crisis.”In a joint opinion piece published Friday in the Times, the two leaders, from the far-right Brothers of Italy and Britain’s Conservative Party, said they are working together to stop thousands of migrants entering Europe through Italy and making their way to the U.K.“We’re proud that Italy and the U.K. are leading on this together, because in this, and many other areas, our perspectives and our goals are the same,” they write. “In fact, we are two of the closest friends in Europe today.”Migration is a “moral,” “humanitarian” and “European crisis,” Sunak and Meloni write, which claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people this year alone. “Now is the time for act...

Russia to lift fuel export ban amid supply fears

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

Seaborne exports of Russian diesel will resume just weeks after Moscow imposed an outright ban that sent energy prices soaring around the world.In a statement on Friday, the Russian government confirmed it “has lifted restrictions on exports of diesel fuel delivered to ports by pipeline.”The unprecedented measure was introduced on September 21 in response to shortages on the domestic market that had seen Russians queuing at the gas pumps despite the country’s massive refining industry.“Temporary restrictions will help saturate the fuel market, which will reduce prices for consumers,” the government said at the time. With consumer prices capped by law, enterprising businesses have apparently been sending more fuel abroad where it fetches far higher sums, at the expense of supplies back home.In a bid to prevent these so-called gray exports, Russia will instead introduce a windfall tax of 50,000 rubles — equivalent to $495 — per ton on sales of petroleum pro...

Germany’s old order crumbles in Bavaria

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

ROTH, Germany — Michaela Wild believes it’s time for a change.Standing behind the counter of the café where she works in this small town in northern Bavaria, the 48-year-old barista said she’s tired of the economic malaise that has gripped her area.Local stores had shut down or left town of late, and cutbacks at a nearby air force base hadn’t helped local business. Wild had a sense perhaps her area’s best economic days were behind it.This was one reason, she said, she and many people had just about had enough of mainstream parties, including the Christian Social Union (CSU), the conservative party that has ruled Bavaria — but for a relatively short interruption — since the end of World War II.On Sunday, Wild and others who share her views will have a chance to voice their dissatisfaction as the states of Bavaria and Hesse hold parliamentary elections, which have become a bellwether of the national mood, at a particularly volatile moment in Germany’s history.Wild said some people clo...

Chicago Bears finally finish in the 4th quarter for first win in 346 days — and a ‘sigh of relief’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

Chicago Bears wide receiver DJ Moore ran 8 yards up the left sideline and then abruptly turned around to look at quarterback Justin Fields on Thursday night at FedEx Field.As the football sailed toward Moore, Washington Commanders cornerback Kendall Fuller tried to jump in front and make a play, but Moore leaped up behind him and grabbed the pass out of the air. As Moore turned and sprinted another 48 yards to the end zone, the same emotion was running through the minds of Fields and tight end Cole Kmet — and certainly many, many others throughout Bears nation.“Sigh of relief,” Fields said.“Relief,” Kmet said. “Relief. It’s been a long time coming.”Moore’s 56-yard touchdown with 4 minutes, 18 seconds to play sealed a 40-20 victory over the Commanders to snap a 14-game losing streak. It had been 346 days, to be exact, since the Bears had won a game.The last one the Bears had played, just four days earlier against the Denv...

‘The stars aligned’: DJ Moore explodes for 3 touchdowns as the Chicago Bears — at long last — end their lengthy losing streak

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

Chicago Bears receiver DJ Moore was only 3 minutes into his postgame news conference Thursday night when his cellphone began buzzing. His fiancee was calling, presumably to catch up and talk a little bit about how his night had gone.Moore wasn’t about to leave her hanging. So from a lectern in the visitor’s media room at Fed Ex Field, he put a reporter’s question on hold and answered his phone.“Hey, I’m in media,” he said. “Yeah.”Then a pause.“(It’ll be) probably about 5 minutes. Bye.”To be fair, Moore could have spoken to reporters for another 25 minutes and not run out of things to talk about. Not after the night he had, the eight-catch, 230-yard, three-touchdown explosion that, at long last, brought an end to the Bears’ 14-game losing streak.Moore and his teammates felt a euphoric combination of relief, satisfaction and excitement after the Bears pounded the Washington Commanders 40-20 on the brig...

UK’s opposition Labour Party gets a boost from a special election victory in Scotland

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s main opposition Labour Party won an emphatic victory Friday in a special election for a Scottish district that was watched as an indicator of the party’s rebounding popularity ahead of a national election next year.Labour took the parliamentary seat of Rutherglen and Hamilton West near Glasgow from the Scottish National Party. The result doubles Labour’s total of Scottish seats from one to two.Labour candidate Michael Shanks won 17,845 votes, more than twice the number taken by SNP runner-up Katy Loudon. The Scottish Conservatives came a distant third.Labour leader Keir Starmer called it a “seismic result.”The election was called when the former lawmaker, Margaret Ferrier, was ousted by her constituents for breaking coronavirus restrictions in 2020 by taking a long train journey when she had COVID-19.Labour was long dominant in Scotland but in the past 15 years has been all but wiped out by the SNP, which wants Scotland to leave the U.K. and become an i...

The Nobel Peace Prize is to be announced in Oslo. The laureate is picked from more than 350 nominees

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

OSLO (AP) — The winner of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize is being announced Friday, chosen by a panel of experts in Norway from a list of just over 350 nominations.Last year’s prize was won by human rights activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, in what was seen as a strong rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart and ally.The prize can be awarded to individuals or organizations. Other previous winners include Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Aung San Suu Kyi and the United Nations. Unlike the other Nobel prizes that are selected and announced in Stockholm, founder Alfred Nobel decreed that the peace prize be decided and awarded in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.The independent panel is appointed by the Norwegian parliament.This year, the committee received 351 nominations — 259 for individuals and 92 for organizations. People who can make nominations include former Nobel Peace Prize winners, members of...

Funerals held in Syria for dozens of victims killed in deadliest attack in years

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:40 GMT

HOMS, Syria (AP) — Family members of some of the victims of a deadly drone attack on a crowded military graduation ceremony that killed scores gathered outside a military hospital in the central city of Homs on Friday to collect the bodies of their loved ones, who died in one of Syria’s deadliest single attacks in years.Thursday’s strike on the Homs Military Academy killed 89 people, including 31 women and five children, and wounded as many as 277, according to the health ministry. The death toll could rise as some of the wounded are in critical condition. Syria announced a three-day state of mourning starting Friday.Syria’s military said in a statement Thursday that drones laden with explosives targeted the ceremony packed with young officers and their families as it was wrapping up. Without naming any particular group, the military accused insurgents “backed by known international forces” for the attack and said “it will respond with full force and decisiveness to these terrorist ...