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‘I would truly would love to stay a Cub,’ says Marcus Stroman. But pitcher says team hasn’t engaged in extension talks.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

Marcus Stroman has made clear he wants to engage in contract extension talks with the Chicago Cubs.The feeling is not mutual, according to Stroman.President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has repeatedly stated over the years he does not talk about players’ contract situations publicly. In this case, there does not appear to be engagement behind the scenes, either.“I want nothing more than to be a Cub,” Stroman told reporters Saturday. “I kill myself 24/7 on and off the field to perform, to keep my body is position, to keep my mind in position.“I truly believe I prepare like nobody else so I know my worth.”Coming off another stellar start in Friday’s 3-2 win against the San Francisco Giants, allowing two runs in 6⅔ innings, the love from Cubs fans on Twitter calling for the team to extend him didn’t go unnoticed by the 32-year-old right-hander.It prompted Stroman to share his feelings about his future Saturday morning through a ...

Chicago White Sox give up 5 runs in the 9th to the Miami Marlins in 5-1 loss: ‘It wasn’t a good day for us’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

The Chicago White Sox had escaped trouble several times throughout Saturday afternoon.Until the ninth, when the Miami Marlins scored five in the inning to beat the Sox 5-1 in front of 25,793 at Guaranteed Rate Field.The Sox were three outs from their seventh victory in eight games.But then came a ninth to forget, featuring two singles, a double, a pair of walks and a fielding error as a one-run lead became a four-run deficit.“It wasn’t a good day for us in the ninth inning today as a team,” manager Pedro Grifol said.With the loss and the Minnesota Twins’ 9-4 win at Toronto, the Sox (29-37) are 4½ games out of first in the American League Central.They had a chance at keeping pace, entered the ninth leading 1-0 thanks to a homer by Andrew Vaughn in the fourth.Reliever Joe Kelly surrendered back-to-back singles to begin the ninth. He walked Jorge Soler, loading the bases. Bryan De La Cruz hit a grounder to shortstop Tim Anderson, who charged but couldn̵...

MLB notes: Phillips Andover’s Thomas White a once-in-a-generation talent

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

Thomas White had barely moved into his new dorm at Phillips Academy when his phone started blowing up.Then 14 years old, the tall left-handed pitcher from Rowley had always been regarded as one of the region’s most promising young talents. But now he was about to go national, as news had just broken that White was now the No. 1 ranked player in the incoming high school class of 2023.Nothing was the same after that, and it’s been a whirlwind journey for White ever since.Four years later White has developed into one of the top baseball prospects to ever come out of Massachusetts and is considered a likely first-round pick in next month’s MLB Draft. At 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, White boasts mid-to-high 90s velocity and a combination of physical gifts and off-field intangibles that have scouts across the game salivating.“He’s the most talented pitcher at that age I’ve seen anywhere,” said Kevin Graber, who coached White his first three years at Phil...

Elvis Presley’s cousin lifts Democrats’ hopes in Mississippi governor’s race

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

GRENADA, Miss. (AP) — Conservative Mississippi is tough territory for Democrats, but the party sees an unusual opportunity this year to unseat first-term Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. They’re pinning hopes in November on a candidate with a legendary last name who has used his own compelling story to highlight the economic plight of working families in a state that has long been one of the poorest in America.Democrat Brandon Presley is a second cousin of Elvis Presley, born a few days before the rock ’n’ roll legend died. While campaigning, Brandon Presley talks frequently about government corruption, focusing on a multimillion-dollar welfare scandal that developed when Reeves was lieutenant governor. Presley, an elected member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, is unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor. He is pushing for Medicaid expansion to help financially strapped hospitals while telling voters about his own difficult childhood. “I understand ...

French town gathers at playground where young children were stabbed to support victims

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Children, parents and grandparents joined a few thousand well-wishers Sunday in a park in the French Alps town of Annecy to show solidarity and support for the victims of a playground stabbing attack that left four young children and two adults hospitalized with serious wounds, The children represent ‘’the poetry of life,” Annecy Mayor Francois Astorg told the crowd, calling on Annecy residents to “come together to build, instead of to hate.”Astorg had called for a “citizens’ gathering’’ in the lakeside park where a man with a knife raced around stabbing people Thursday. City officials reopened the playground hours after the attack in an attempt to show the area was again safe.People have heaped flowers, stuffed toys and messages of support on the playground’s padded surface in the days since. A pink heart-shaped balloon tied to a bench read, “For the children – LOVE.”The children targeted were a 22-month-old Dutch girl, a 3-year-old British girl, and two 2-year-o...

Hospitalized Pope Francis follows Mass on TV, lunches with medical personnel and aides

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

ROME (AP) — Sticking to doctors’ advice, Pope Francis on Sunday skipped his customary Sunday noon public blessing as he convalesces from abdominal surgery, but he followed Mass on TV from a Rome hospital and prayed in private, the Vatican said.Francis also ate lunch in his 10-floor hospital apartment with doctors, nurses, other medical staff and members of his Vatican security detail, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a written statement.The surgeon who performed the three-hour surgery Wednesday to repair an abdominal hernia and to remove painful internal scarring that had resulted from previous operations said the 86-year-old pontiff had begun a semi-liquid diet. Dr. Sergio Alfieri also told reporters that medical staff had made clear to Francis their concerns that even if the pontiff delivered the noon public blessing and greeting from a balcony down the corridor from his hospital room, he might over-exert himself and tear a prosthetic mesh that was inserted as part of ...

Meet the LGBTQ activist who challenged his Caribbean country’s anti-sodomy law and won

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua (AP) — For years, Orden David was persecuted in his native Antigua and Barbuda — a frequent complaint by many LGBTQ people who fear for their safety across the conservative and mostly Christian Caribbean, where anti-gay hostility is widespread. David was bullied and ridiculed. One time, a man stepped out of a car, made a comment about how a gay man was walking on the street late at night, then hit him in the head. More recently, another stranger struck him in the face in broad daylight, knocking him out. That’s when he had enough.Facing ostracism and risking his life as the public face of the LGBTQ movement, David took his government to court in 2022 to demand an end to his country’s anti-sodomy law.“I realized that with our community, we’ve gone through a lot and there’s no justice for us,” Orden told The Associated Press. “We all have rights. And we all deserve the same treatment.”Last year, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court ruled the law un...

Lawmakers say UK’s planned law to deport Channel migrants breaches rights obligations

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A committee of British lawmakers said Sunday that the U.K. will break its international human rights commitments if it goes through with government plans to detain and deport people who cross the English Channel in small boats.Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights said the Illegal Migration Bill “breaches a number of the U.K.’s international human rights obligations and risks breaching others.”Scottish National Party lawmaker Joanna Cherry, who chairs the committee, said the law would leave most refugees and victims of modern slavery with no way of seeking asylum in Britain.“By treating victims of modern slavery as ‘illegal migrants’ subject to detention and removal, this bill would breach our legal obligations to such victims and would risk increasing trafficking of vulnerable people,” she said.The committee urged the government to make sweeping amendments to the bill, including exempting trafficking victims and curbing the government’s power to detain people i...

Three British tourists missing after a boat caught fire off Egypt’s Red Sea coast, authorities say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities said three British nationals were missing after a scuba diving boat they were cruising in caught fire off Egypt’s Red Sea coastline on Sunday.In a short statement, Egypt’s Red Sea Governate said 12 crew members and 12 British tourists were rescued when a medium-sized scuba diving boat, christened “Hurricane,” went up in flames off the southern Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam. A search party was launched to find the remaining three British tourists whose identities were not revealed. Following an initial examination of the vessel, Egyptian authorities said, “an electrical short circuit in the boat’s engine room sparked the blaze.” Britain’s Foreign Office said that it was in contact with the Egyptian authorities and is “supporting the British nationals involved.”Fatal boat accidents are uncommon in Egypt. In 2021 a boat capsized in a lake near Egypt’s Mediterranean city of Alexandria, leaving at least five people dead, including three c...

In a last-ditch effort, longtime Southern Baptist churches expelled for women pastors fight to stay

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:14 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The robed choir performed a rousing missionary chorus, the worshippers sang from the Baptist Hymnal, and the pastor preached on the need to listen to God before inviting people to come forward and profess faith in Jesus.If there was ever a blueprint for a traditional Southern Baptist worship service, Fern Creek Baptist Church followed it to a tee on a recent Sunday.Except for one key detail.The pastor is a woman.And because of that, Fern Creek is no longer a Southern Baptist church.In February, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee voted to oust Fern Creek for having a woman pastor — the same issue it cited for expelling four other churches, including the massive California-based Saddleback Church. All Baptist churches are independent, so the convention can’t tell them what to do, but it can decide which churches are “not in friendly cooperation,” the official verbiage for an expulsion.Fern Creek and Saddleback are appealing the decision to the...