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Winter meetings: A’s seeking low-cost solutions via free agents, trades, draft lottery

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

Major League Baseball’s upcoming winter meetings in Nashville, where trades and free-agent signings are the main courses on the menu, could help produce the single most important player for the future of the A’s franchise.He will be a player to be named later — their most consequential one ever.When baseball’s executives assemble Monday, don’t expect seismic changes to a downtrodden A’s team coming off a team-record 112 losses. The A’s don’t have any stars left so they probably won’t get a potential difference-maker in a trade any time soon. Owner John Fisher has never spent his money on a meaningful free agent and he won’t start now.This means Tuesday’s MLB Draft Lottery represents the one realistic path for the A’s to acquire a franchise-altering player. At least the odds of earning the No. 1 pick are in their favor – the lone perk for being MLB’s worst team in 2023. They’ll share the best odds of winning the lottery (18.3%) with fellow also-rans Kansas City and Colorado.The...

Nantes supporter dies before league game in latest incident to mar French soccer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

NANTES, France (AP) — A supporter from Nantes died on Saturday following a fight that took place before the club’s 1-0 win over Nice in the latest outbreak of violence to mar French soccer this season.Nantes said in a statement overnight that the fan was “fatally injured” close to the club’s stadium. According to the L’Equipe newspaper, the fan was a member of the Brigade Loire, Nantes’ main group of diehard fans. “In circumstances which are the subject of an ongoing judicial investigation, the 31-year-old collapsed, hit in the back,” the club said. “Despite the intervention of emergency services, the fan could not be saved.”Nantes said the public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into voluntary manslaughter.Nantes public prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul said the incident took place shortly before 8 p.m. local time, when several private hire vehicles carrying Nice fans on their way to the match were attacked by groups of Nantes supporters.“The very f...

El servicio de trenes de pasajeros del Eurotúnel tiene un problema importante. Ahora podría estar en camino una reestructuración radical

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

(CNN) —  La demanda de viajes en tren de alta velocidad está en auge en Europa. Los viajeros están desesperados por una alternativa rápida y sostenible a los vuelos aéreos de corta distancia y las carreteras congestionadas.Pero hay un problema.La demanda está superando la oferta en muchas rutas. Los trenes están llenos y los precios suelen estar por las nubes, lo que obliga a muchos viajeros a utilizar medios de transporte menos ecológicos.Los europeos quieren más rutas y más trenes en las rutas existentes entre las principales ciudades, donde la expansión actualmente se ve sofocada por una capacidad inadecuada, problemas políticos y falta de inversión.A diferencia de las aerolíneas, que pueden agregar nuevas rutas en cuestión de meses, se necesitan décadas y miles de millones de dólares para construir nuevos ferrocarriles de alta velocidad, especialmente cuando cruzan fronteras internacionales.En este momento, uno de los mayores cuellos de botella es el Túnel del Canal de la ...

Moscow raises troop levels, citing Ukraine war, NATO expansion

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

Russia is boosting the number of troops in its military for the second time in 15 months, citing the war in Ukraine and the expansion of the NATO defense alliance.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered the military to increase the number of troops by nearly 170,000 to a total of 1.3 million as the Ukraine war grinds on after 21 months. Putin’s decree, which entered into force immediately, brings the overall number of Russian military personnel to 2.2 million, including 1.3 million troops.The Russian defense ministry in a message posted on Telegram cited the war in Ukraine and NATO’s expansion — which was spurred by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — as the reasons for the increase in army personnel. Finland joined the Western defense alliance this past spring, and Sweden said this week that Turkey has promised it will ratify Stockholm’s bid “within weeks.” NATO’s “combined armed forces are being built up near Russia’s borde...

Start over? Stay the course? Ryan Poles is nearing a series of landmark decisions with the Chicago Bears’ QB and coaching future.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

Certainly Ryan Poles knows the cameras are everywhere, his every move being watched. Analyzed. Interpreted. Debated.Before Monday’s road matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, Poles was doing his usual pregame speed-walk around the perimeter of the field when he crossed paths with Justin Fields, who was on his way to the locker room. Without breaking stride, Poles gave his quarterback a fist bump and, quite naturally, a Chicago television reporter caught the moment, delivering it promptly to Bears fans, including all the ravenous social media sleuths seeking clues on what the general manager might be considering.Was there possibly anything in Poles’ stride or Fields’ facial expression to decode?In the third quarter of the Bears’ 12-10 victory, the ESPN broadcast zoomed in on Poles, this time inside a U.S. Bank Stadium suite after a first down running play to Roschon Johnson. Briefly, the GM shook his head and circled his right index finger in a bit of a ̶...

Column: A potential Christmas Eve miracle, an edible bowl mascot and other sports topics to debate in December

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

I asked my local AI story generator to write a Sunday column on some of my favorite topics from the sports world, saving me from wasting several hours scouring the internet.But all it came back with was Pat McAfee-related gibberish, forcing me back to the drawing board with eight non-McAfee things to debate in December.1. The NFL could ring out the year with a special holiday treat. The return of New York Jets savior Aaron Rodgers from his torn left Achilles tendon could be Dec. 24 against the Washington Commanders. Rodgers reportedly has targeted that date, or so he told the aforementioned podcaster and wacky ESPN personality, assuming the quarterback is healthy and the Jets are still alive for a playoff spot.Christmas Eve seems like a perfect date for a “miracle” return that no doubt would be compared to a similar comeback story by you know who. As for all the Rodgers haters, it looks like Festivus for the rest of us.2. When an athlete apologizes without saying what he...

When will Shohei Ohtani make a decision? 3 questions facing the Chicago Cubs ahead of the winter meetings.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

Two months ago during the final week of the season, when the Chicago Cubs’ tenuous hold on a playoff spot had slipped away, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer looked across the field in Atlanta at the standard they were trying to reach.The Braves, winners of six consecutive division titles and a World Series championship in that span, have become an offensive force and are yearly becoming one of the teams to beat.“Whenever I see a great team like this, I actually look at it as inspirational, that’s the standard,” Hoyer said at the end of September. “And to get where you want to go, that’s where you have to get.”Reaching that level will take more than one offseason and require the Cubs return to the postseason for the first time in a full season since 2018. Hoyer and the Cubs certainly have multiple paths to building a playoff roster in the next two months, with Shohei Ohtani representing the marquee prize.Free-agent signings and trad...

1 person is dead and 11 missing after a landslide and flash floods hit Indonesia’s Sumatra island

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

MEDAN, Indonesia (AP) — Rescuers recovered the body of a man buried under tons of mud and rocks from flash floods and a landslide that crashed onto a hilly village on Indonesia’s Sumatra island. Officials said Sunday that 11 people are still missing. Tons of mud, rocks and trees rolled down from a mountain late Friday triggered by torrential rain, reaching a river that burst its banks and tore through mountainside villages near the popular Lake Toba in North Sumatra province.Rescuers used excavators, dogs and sometimes their bare hands to shift the rubble in the worst-hit village as they searched for the dead and missing, said Sariman Sitorus, the spokesman of the local Search and Rescue Agency.They also deployed several divers equipped with sonar detection to detect possible victims swept into Lake Toba, Sitorus said.He said rescuers late Saturday pulled out a mud-caked body on the lakeside, about 500 meters (yards) from the devastated Senior Bakara Hotel. The man was identified as...

The fatal stabbing of a German tourist by a suspected radical puts sharp focus on the Paris Olympics

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A bloodstain by a bridge over the Seine river was the only remaining sign on Sunday of a fatal knife attack 12 hours earlier on a German tourist, allegedly carried out by a young man under watch for suspected Islamic radicalization.The random attack near the Eiffel Tower has drawn special concern for the French capital less than a year before it hosts the Olympic Games, with the opening ceremony due to take place along the river in an unprecedented scenic start in the heart of Paris.After killing the tourist, the suspect crossed the bridge to the city’s Right Bank and wounded two people with a hammer, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Saturday night. The suspect, who apparently cried “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), was arrested.Video circulating on the internet showed police officers, weapons drawn, cornering a man dressed in black, his face covered and what appeared to be a knife in his right hand. They twice tasered the suspect before arresting him, Darmanin said....

Jewish Canadians to celebrate Hanukkah publicly, even as antisemitism rises

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:25 GMT

While many Jewish Canadians prepare to light menorahs in celebration of Hanukkah starting Thursday, some say the Israel-Hamas war coupled with a rise in antisemitism may dim the festival of lights.Daniel Thau-Eleff, a Winnipeg-based playwright, is among those who will mark the holiday celebrating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the second century BC, even as they mourn current events.“It’s a very happy and celebratory occasion and I’m finding it hard to be happy these days. It’ll probably be a challenge to just be happy and celebrate,” said Thau-Eleff.His grief is multi-faceted, he said. There is grief for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, who were pummelled by Israeli fire as the military sought to tamp out Hamas following an Oct. 7 attack. There is also grief for the Israelis who were killed and taken hostage, used as bargaining chips. And then there is the pain caused by a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia closer to home.“And there’s ...