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St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs meet in game 2 of series

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

St. Louis Cardinals (12-24, fifth in the NL Central) vs. Chicago Cubs (17-18, third in the NL Central)Chicago; Tuesday, 7:40 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Jack Flaherty (2-4, 6.29 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, 36 strikeouts); Cubs: Jameson Taillon (0-2, 4.76 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 20 strikeouts)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Cubs -125, Cardinals +104; over/under is 8 runsBOTTOM LINE: The St. Louis Cardinals lead 1-0 in a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs.Chicago is 17-18 overall and 10-10 at home. The Cubs have gone 10-3 in games when they scored five or more runs.St. Louis has gone 6-11 on the road and 12-24 overall. Cardinals hitters are batting a collective .256, which ranks fifth in the NL.The teams meet Tuesday for the second time this season.TOP PERFORMERS: Nico Hoerner has six doubles, a triple, two home runs and 19 RBI while hitting .303 for the Cubs. Cody Bellinger is 12-for-40 with four doubles and two home runs over the past 10 games.Nolan Gorman leads St. Louis with seven hom...

Mets aim to end 5-game road skid, play the Reds

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

New York Mets (17-18, second in the NL East) vs. Cincinnati Reds (14-20, fourth in the NL Central)Cincinnati; Tuesday, 6:40 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Mets: Max Scherzer (2-2, 5.56 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 20 strikeouts); Reds: Luke Weaver (0-2, 7.88 ERA, 1.69 WHIP, 19 strikeouts)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Mets -200, Reds +168; over/under is 9 1/2 runsBOTTOM LINE: The New York Mets hit the road against the Cincinnati Reds looking to stop a five-game road slide.Cincinnati has a 14-20 record overall and a 10-8 record in home games. The Reds have the ninth-ranked team batting average in the NL at .246.New York is 17-18 overall and 10-10 in road games. The Mets are 7-0 in games when they did not give up a home run.The matchup Tuesday is the first meeting this season between the two teams.TOP PERFORMERS: Spencer Steer leads the Reds with four home runs while slugging .436. Jonathan India is 13-for-37 with two doubles, two home runs and four RBI over the last 10 games.Pete Alonso has three doub...

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

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

Colorado Rockies (14-22, fifth in the NL West) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (21-15, first in the NL Central)Pittsburgh; Tuesday, 6:35 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Rockies: Connor Seabold (0-0, 5.30 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 14 strikeouts); Pirates: Luis Ortiz (0-0)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Pirates -166, Rockies +142; over/under is 9 runsBOTTOM LINE: The Pittsburgh Pirates play the Colorado Rockies with a 1-0 series lead.Pittsburgh is 21-15 overall and 10-7 in home games. The Pirates have the 10th-best team on-base percentage in MLB play at .329.Colorado is 14-22 overall and 7-13 in road games. The Rockies are 5-1 in games when they hit at least two home runs.The matchup Tuesday is the fifth time these teams match up this season. The Pirates have a 4-0 advantage in the season series.TOP PERFORMERS: Carlos Santana has 11 doubles, two home runs and 20 RBI while hitting .256 for the Pirates. Bryan Reynolds is 11-for-38 with seven doubles over the past 10 games.Elias Diaz leads the Rockies with a .333...

Southern border braces for a migrant surge with Title 42 set to expire this week

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

(CNN) — The United States is bracing for the expiration of a pandemic-era border restriction this week, with officials fearing it will spur a surge of migrants and exacerbate an already challenginghumanitarian crisis at the southern border.“No matter how much we are prepared, I don’t think we are going to be prepared enough,” John Martin, deputy director of the Opportunity Center for the Homeless in El Paso, Texas, told CNN on Sunday, days before the lifting of Title 42, a Trump-erapolicy that allowed the government to quickly turn away certain migrants at the border, originally with the aim of stopping the spread of Covid-19.“I wanted to emphasize more so than anything else at this point — this is a national issue,” Martin said. “We in El Paso, along with many other communities along the southern border, just happened to be at the front doorstep.”While first implemented under the Trump administration as a response to the pandemi...

UK’s Liz Truss heads to Taiwan after string of hawkish China speeches

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

LONDON — Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss will visit Taiwan next week as she continues a hawkish post-premiership streak on China.Truss, whose turbulent administration collapsed after just 49 days last year, will “deliver a keynote speech and is expected to meet senior members of the Taiwanese government,” her spokesperson said Tuesday.The trip takes her to the site of a key flashpoint in China’s relationship with the West. China claims the self-governing Taiwan as its territory, but the U.S. has promised to arm and defend the island.Truss has repeatedly made her views on Taiwan clear. She said last month that the West “should be doing all we can to make sure Taiwan has the support it needs to defend itself,” and took a direct swipe at French President Emmanuel Macron for warning in an interview with POLITICO that Europeans must not “become followers” of the U.S. on the issue.In remarks briefed out ahead of the visit, Truss said: “Tai...

UN rules useless against China’s forced labor, research shows

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

The EU’s trade gurus, confronted with concerns over whether Chinese cotton or solar panels are being produced with Uyghur Muslim forced labor, have long turned to the International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines for reference, adopting its rules while urging Beijing to ratify and observe them.Except they might not be that effective in this case.In a new research paper previewed by POLITICO, Adrian Zenz, a leading scholar on Beijing’s repressive policies, casts doubt on the applicability of these rules by the ILO, a U.N. agency, arguing they were mainly drawn up to tackle commercially — not politically — driven exploitation.In other words, Beijing is not looking for cheap labor when its local officials in Xinjiang arrange for Uyghurs to go to work. Instead, it is a top-down political campaign to make these Uyghurs, collectively presumed by the state to be potential secessionists and terrorists, submit to Communist Party rule.That, according to Zenz, a scholar at the...

Police: Arrest made in deadly stabbing at Chelsea apartment building

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

An arrest has been made in connection with a deadly stabbing at a Chelsea apartment building, according to police.A spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said a woman was found with multiple stab sounds at a building on Lafayette Avenue. A 7NEWS source said the woman was later taken by ambulance to a local hospital and did not survive.Initially called to the address around 10 a.m., police could be seen going in and out throughout the day, taking photos and gathering evidence.Detectives also talked to residents and neighbors.The building where the woman was found sits up on a hill overlooking the Boston skyline. It is normally quiet and peaceful, according to residents.“You barely see people in there,” said area resident Deolinda Brito. “It’s really nice.”“I just moved here in September and I was remarking to the people I work with how I love my building,” said Pamela Rivera. “I love my apartment. It was so quiet, clean, I never hear any noise.” Detectiv...

Crews battle house fire in Lowell

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

Crews battled a fire at a home on Andrews Street in Lowell Tuesday morning. Firefighters responding to the scene around 4:15 a.m. found smoke shooting from the roof of the three-story building.Officials remained on scene as of 6 a.m. A ladder truck was set up in front of the house. There is no word on the cause of the fire or if there are any injuries.

Red Sox notebook: Surging Sox have chance to make statement in Atlanta

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

One way or the other, this ongoing stretch was always going to set the tone for the rest of the season.Coming out of their last off day on April 27 the Red Sox were 13-13 and looking at a daunting 12-game stretch, with series against the Cleveland Guardians (reigning AL Central champs), Toronto Blue Jays (who owned Boston last year), Philadelphia Phillies (last fall’s World Series runner-ups) and Atlanta Braves (perennial title contenders). It wasn’t hard to imagine the Red Sox losing all four series and looking up at the end five or six games under .500 and well behind the pack in the playoff hunt.Instead the Red Sox won the first three series, ripped off an eight-game winning streak and now head to Atlanta as one of the best teams in baseball.Even the biggest optimist couldn’t have predicted things would be going this well. After going 8-2 over their past three series the Red Sox are now 21-15 and entered Monday with a 1.5-game lead for the third American League ...

Chinese woman appeals in fight for right to freeze her eggs

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:41:09 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — An unmarried Chinese woman on Tuesday began her final appeal of a hospital’s denial of access to freeze her eggs five years ago in a landmark case of female reproductive rights in the country. Teresa Xu’s case has drawn broad coverage in China, including by some state media outlets, since she first brought her case to court in 2019. She lost her legal challenge last year at another Beijing court, which ruled the hospital did not violate the woman’s rights in its decision. The upcoming judgment will have strong implications for the lives of many unmarried women in China and the country’s demographic changes, especially after the world’s second-largest economy recorded its first population decline in decades. In China, the law does not explicitly ban unmarried people from services like fertility treatments and simply states that a “husband and wife” can have up to three children. But hospitals and other institutions, in practice, implement ...