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Column: A chilly spring for David Ross and Pedro Grifol — and other warning signs for Cubs and White Sox in the summer ahead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

What the Washington Post termed “a bizarre, localized cold front” hit Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, suddenly turning a warm spring afternoon into a chilly night.Meteorologists called it a “pneumonia front,” comparing it to the chills one experiences when getting ill.Coincidentally, Cubs fans also have been going through a pneumonia front after a feel-good start to the 2023 season evaporated into thin air, leaving them cold and confused and looking for someone to blame.The Cubs blew a five-run, eighth-inning lead Wednesday night in Houston in a 7-6 loss to the Astros, extending their losing streak to five games and falling to 19-24, tied with the rebuilding Cincinnati Reds for third place in the National League Central.Drew Smyly pitched seven perfect innings in a 13-0 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 21, leaving the Cubs at 12-7. They’ve gone 7-17 since, wasting another strong outing by Smyly on Wednesday.The Cubs batted .242 with a .709 OPS...

‘We’ve got to cash that win in’: Chicago Cubs bullpen blows a late 5-run lead in disastrous walk-off loss to seal a road sweep

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

Ten disastrous minutes separated the Chicago Cubs from the cusp of ending a season-high losing streak to their worst loss of the season.A five-run lead entering the bottom of the eighth should have provided enough cushion for the Cubs to put away the Houston Astros. Instead they departed Minute Maid Park ahead of Thursday’s day off with a crushing 7-6 walk-off loss that raised more questions about how the Cubs bullpen can get on track.The Cubs (19-24) head to Philadelphia, where they kick off the last leg of their three-city, nine-game trip Friday carrying a five-game losing streak.“We’ve got to cash that win in,” manager David Ross said. “You’re trying to set guys up for success and match up things that go well, and it didn’t go well tonight. So you’ve got to look at it. Go back to the drawing board and continue to have those guys work.”Mark Leiter Jr., pitching for the second time in 10 days, allowed two runs in the eighth and ...

UK telecom company BT plans to shed up to 55,000 jobs, replace some with AI

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

By KELVIN CHAN (AP Business Writer)LONDON (AP) — U.K. telecom company BT Group said Thursday that it plans to shed up to 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade and replace some of them with artificial intelligence, as part of an overhaul aimed at slimming down its workforce to slash costs. BT, which has 130,000 workers including both staff and contractors, said in its latest earnings report that its number of employees would be reduced to between 75,000 and 90,000 by 2030. “By the end of the 2020s, BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base,” CEO Philip Jansen said. “New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future.”Tech and telecom companies have been cutting jobs as the industry undergoes a painful shakeup amid flagging economic growth and surging inflation. U.K.-based wireless carrier Vodafone, which operates in Europe and Africa, said days earlier that it’s laying off 11,000 workers as part ...

Kenyan marathon star Eliud Kipchoge wins Spain’s 2023 Asturias award for sports

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Kenyan marathon specialist Eliud Kipchoge has won the Princess of Asturias Award for sports for 2023, the Spanish foundation that organizes the prizes said Thursday.Kipchoge, 38, who took Olympic gold medals in the marathon in 2016 and 2020 and was world 5,000 meters champion in 2003 “is considered a legend in world athletics and the best marathon runner of all time,” the foundation’s panel of judges said in a statement.The foundation highlighted that he is known as “the philosopher” for his strategy and concentration in running. Kipchoge has won in 10 editions of four of the major marathons, including London and Berlin four times each. He is the current Olympic marathon champion and holds the world record for the discipline, with a time of 2 hours, 1 minute, 9 seconds set in Berlin last year. That timing lowered by 30 seconds the record he himself had set in 2018.In a statement from Kipchoge forwarded by the foundation after the announcement, he said it was an “...

‘Indiana Jones’ debut is one of the most anticipated moments at Cannes Film Festival

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

CANNES, France (AP) — Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford will swing into Cannes on Thursday for the world premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” in one of the most anticipated events of the French Riviera festival.Ford, 80, who has said “Dial of Destiny” will be his last performance as the character, is also set to receive an honorary Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival. Last year, Cannes feted “Top Gun Maverick” and Tom Cruise in a similar manner. It’s not the first “Indiana Jones” film to premiere in Cannes. The fourth installment, “Indiana and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” launched at the 2008 edition of the festival. Critics and fans alike dismissed “Crystal Skull” as a misjudged sequel, though it still made $790 million worldwide. This time, “Dial of Destiny” is hoping to make a similar if not larger global impact without its famous filmmakers. The new film, which the Walt Disney Co. will release June 30 in the U.S., is the first “Indiana” film no...

Crews work to reach Italian towns isolated by floods as cleanup begins

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

FAENZA, Italy (AP) — Rescue crews worked Thursday to reach towns and villages in northern Italy that were cut off from highways, electricity and cell phone service following heavy rains and flooding, as farmers warned of “incalculable” losses and authorities began mapping out cleanup and reconstruction plans.The death toll from rains that pushed two dozen rivers and tributaries over their banks stood at nine, with some people still unaccounted for, said Stefano Bonaccini, president of the hardest hit northern region of Emilia-Romagna. Local mayors warned that some remote villages were still completely isolated because landslides had made roads impassable and phone service remained severed. That has prevented rescue teams from reaching residents and authorities from understanding the full scope of their needs, said Mercato Seraceno Mayor Monica Rossi. “If it rains anymore, the situation will be tragic,” Rossi warned on Sky TG24, standing on a road with a chunk missing from a landslid...

Fewer Americans apply for jobless benefits, labor market still showing strength

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

Fewer Americans applied for jobless benefits last week after a previous spike that some took as a sign that higher interest rates were finally cooling the labor market.Applications for jobless claims for the week ending May 6 fell by 22,000 to 242,000, from 264,000 the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The weekly claims numbers are broadly as representative of the number of U.S. layoffs.The four-week moving average of claims, which flattens some of the week-to-week fluctuations, ticked down by 1,000 to 244,250. Analysts have pointed to a sustained increase in the four-week averages as a sign that layoffs are accelerating, but are reluctant to predict that a spike in layoffs is imminent.Overall, 1.8 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended April 29, about 8,000 fewer than the previous week.Since the pandemic purge of millions of jobs three years ago, the U.S. economy has added jobs at a breakneck pace and Americans have enjoyed unusu...

Stock market today: Global stocks and Wall Street futures rise in anticipation of US debt deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

BEIJING — Wall Street pointed modestly higher before the opening bell Thursday on hopes U.S. political leaders can reach an agreement to avoid a potentially disastrous default on government debt.Futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 0.1%.Wall Street rallied Wednesday after President Joe Biden expressed confidence “America will not default” despite lack of agreement on Republican demands for cuts in aid to poor families in exchange for raising the amount the government can borrow.“Markets are now fully pricing an in-time resolution of the crisis,” said Clifford Bennett of ACY Securities in a report. “No one wants to sell ahead of an announcement of a deal being made.”Speaker Kevin McCarthy of the House of Representatives said Tuesday the two sides were far apart but could reach a deal by the end of the week. The U.S. government will run out of cash if they don’t agree by June 1 to increase its borrowing l...

Toronto police widen search for missing man with Down syndrome

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

Toronto police have widened their search for a 37-year-old man with Down syndrome who has been missing since last week.Police say Nathan was last seen around 7 p.m. on May 12 in the Jane Street and Sheppard Avenue West area of North York.A mobile command post that was set up earlier this week at Oakdale Community Centre has now been taken down, but investigators are still following up on tips from the public. They believe he is still somewhere in the GTA.On Tuesday, police escalated their search efforts to a level three, which is the highest. Police said they are concerned that Nathan “does not have the ability to take care of himself for this amount of time.”“For someone with that type of need, our level of concern is ramped up,” says Toronto police Duty Insp. Ryan Forde. “We are trying to actively find him and look for him in the best possible condition that we can.”Toronto police say Nathan, 37, has been missing since May 12, 2023. HANDOUT/Toronto Police S...

Saving the farm: Heartland clergy train to prevent agriculture workers’ suicides

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:28 GMT

LAKE BENTON, Minn. (AP) — With traces of winter’s unusually heavy snow still lingering, farmers were out dawn to dusk in early May, planting corn and soybeans across southwestern Minnesota fields many have owned for generations.The threat of losing beloved family farms is a growing worry, affecting many farmers’ mental health and raising concerns of another uptick in suicides like during the 1980s farm crisis. Much of the stress stems from being dependent on factors largely outside their control – from the increasingly unpredictable weather to growing costs of equipment to global market swings that can wipe out profits.“You’d be surprised how many people are suffering with depression. Farmers have been a group of people who keep problems to themselves,” said Bob Worth, a third-generation crop farmer near the hamlet of Lake Benton, who credits his wife with saving his life during a bout with depression in the 1980s. “The more you talk about this, the more you realize it can be fixed....