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Column: Ecstasy or heartbreak? A roller-coaster Chicago Cubs season has reached the fork in the road.

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

It all comes down to the final week for the Chicago Cubs, a team that has toyed with its fans emotions from opening day.Six road games against two playoff-bound teams, the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers, to decide whether the Cubs are October-worthy.For anxiety-ridden Cubs fans who’ve followed their team from Day 1, the obstacles to the postseason party couldn’t be more pronounced. One is the best team in baseball, with a lineup ESPN speculated could be the greatest of all time. The Cubs are not of the Braves’ “caliber,” some might say, but they did beat the Braves in two of three games at Wrigley Field in early August.The other is the Cubs’ longtime irritant from up Interstate 94, the traditionally overachieving Brewers, who have replaced the St. Louis Cardinals as the team’s archrival to a generation of fans. The Cubs’ turnaround this season can be traced directly to a wild 7-6, 11-inning win over the Brewers on July 4 in Milwa...

Who’s the point guard? Will DeMar DeRozan get extended? 4 questions the Chicago Bulls need to answer in the 2023-24 season

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

The Chicago Bulls head to training camp in a week, which means the NBA season is just around the corner for a roster that has remained relatively untouched in the offseason.Ahead of media day and the team’s trip to Nashville for preseason camp, here are four questions the Bulls need to answer in the 2023-24 season.1. Who is the point guard?First things first, the Bulls need to figure out who’s running the offense.This has been the prevailing question since Lonzo Ball’s injury in January 2022. The Bulls have rotated through a series of less-than-ideal options: Ayo Dosunmu, Alex Caruso, Coby White. Each of these players has been treated as a stopgap, but that can’t be the status quo for a third consecutive season.White grew as a playmaker last year, but the Bulls never entrusted him with the starting role, which often fell to Caruso. But Caruso’s minutes have always been restricted by the effort required for his defensive rigor and his proclivity toward i...

Chinese gymnast Zhang Boheng wins men’s all-around at the Asian Games. The Paris Olympics are next

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

HANGZHOU, China (AP) — Chinese gymnast Zhang Boheng won the men’s all-around title Tuesday at the Asian Games, putting himself up as a name to watch at next year’s Paris Olympics.Zhang missed out on competing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but won the all-around title later in the year in Japan at the world championships.“Missing Tokyo was actually a very precious learning experience for me,” Zhang said in his biography for the Asian Games.Takeru Kitazono of Japan took silver, with bronze for Lan Xingyu of China.The all-around medal was one of the most high-profile events on Day 3 at the Asian Games.Other countries win medals at the Asian Games in addition to China, but it can be difficult to notice with the host country’s total dominance. Through 93 gold medals awarded so far, China has claimed 49. South Korea and Japan are far behind as China’s major challengers.ESPORTS MEDALSThailand won the first medal ever awarded at the Asian Games in esports, beating V...

More students gain eligibility for free school meals under expanded US program

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of additional students in schools serving low-income communities will be eligible to receive breakfast and lunch at no cost under a rule change announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.At schools where 25% of families participate in income-based public benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, the federal government now will cover the cost of free meals for all enrolled students. Previously, the qualifying threshold was 40%.Roughly 3,000 additional school districts serving more than 5 million students will now be eligible, officials said.“While there is still more work ahead to ensure every K-12 student in the nation can access healthy school meals at no cost, this is a significant step on the pathway toward that goal,” said Stacy Dean, USDA deputy under secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services. During the pandemic, Congress temporarily made universal meals free to all students, but that ended last year. ...

8 people electrocuted as floods cause deaths and damage across South Africa’s Western Cape

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Eight people including four children were killed by electrocution in two separate events after days of heavy rain caused floods in impoverished informal settlements near the South African city of Cape Town, emergency services said on Tuesday.Four people died in the Driftsands settlement on the eastern outskirts, the Cape Town Disaster Risk Management service said in a statement, as the floods caused problems with electricity connections. Four children were electrocuted and died in the Klipfontein settlement.Many homes in the poor townships on the outskirts of South Africa’s second-biggest city have makeshift electricity connections, where people hook their houses or shacks up to existing power lines themselves. They are illegal and dangerous, but relatively widespread.A storm front hit the Cape Town area and the larger Western Cape province for three days, causing rivers to burst their banks and flood residential areas and major roads, both in co...

Greece is planning a major regularization program for migrants to cope with labor crunch

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s minister for migration says the government is planning a major regularization program for migrants to meet pressing demands in the labor market despite a recent increase in illegal arrivals.Dimitris Kairidis told state-run radio Tuesday that the program would target an estimated 300,000 migrants who are undocumented or whose residence permits have expired to help address acute shortages in agriculture, construction and tourism.The plan – similar to a 2020 reform in Italy – was due to be discussed later Tuesday at a national security meeting to be attended by Cabinet members and military leaders and chaired by center-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Kairidis said.“We do not want to create new incentives for further illegal (migrant) flows because that is the danger,” the minister said. “On the other hand, we want to go from black to white … from undeclared to declared labor to boost public revenue with employment taxes and contributions and hel...

Serbia demands that NATO takes over the policing of Kosovo’s north after a deadly shootout

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s president demanded on Tuesday that NATO-led troops stationed in Kosovo take over the security from police in the north of the country, days after violent clashes between armed Serbs and Kosovo police left one officer and three gunmen dead.A daylong shootout in northern Kosovo on Sunday further raised tensions in the Balkan region at a time when European Union and U.S. mediators have been pushing for a deal that would normalize ties between the wartime foes. The violence over the weekend was one of the worst confrontations in Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused Serbia of logistically supporting “the terrorist, criminal, professional unit” that clashed with the police. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić denied those claims, saying the gunmen were local Kosovo Serbs “who no longer want to withstand Kurti’s terror.” On Tuesday in Belgrade, Vučić met with ambassadors from five Western countri...

Russian drone strikes on Odesa region hit port area and cut ferry service to Romania

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia struck the Black Sea region of Odesa in a drone barrage that damaged a warehouse, charred dozens of trucks and injured two drivers in fiery explosions that led to the suspension of the ferry service between Romania and Ukraine, officials said Tuesday.Meanwhile, a senior Russian naval officer that Ukraine on Monday claimed to have killed in a missile strike was seen attending an online conference.Video shot from the Romanian side of the Danube River showed rapid bursts of Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire streaking through the night sky followed by two orange fireballs exploding near the port area. Photos showed burned-out frames of trucks.Romanian Border Police said ferries were anchored on the Romanian shores of the Danube in Isaccea due to the attacks on Ukraine. Traffic was being redirected through Galati, a Romanian town upstream on the Danube.Ukraine’s air force said it downed 26 of 38 drones launched by Russia overnight.Russian forces targeted the area o...

How Doug Ford’s greenbelt plan imploded, and what comes next

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

In today’s Big Story Podcast, last week, Ontario premier Doug Ford apologized for breaking his promise on the Greenbelt and vowed to reverse his decision to open up parts to development. The move came after months of scandal, investigations and public outcry—it’s a rare example of a politician listening and admitting he screwed up, and got it wrong.Emma McIntosh is an Ontario reporter for The Narwhal. She’s been following this story since the beginning, and only heard about the announcement minutes before it happened. “I think I had to pick my jaw up off the ground first before I could even think about what was going on. My second reaction was, ‘oh man, this is gonna be messy,’” said McIntosh.But the saga isn’t over yet. There are developers who spent billions buying up land they assumed would be developed. They may sue. There are still ongoing investigations. And there is still an electorate that was showing clear signs of abandoning Ford over this move before his...

Pakistan’s Imran Khan remains behind bars as cases pile up. Another court orders he stay in jail

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:27:07 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani court on Tuesday extended custody for former Prime Minister Imran Khan on charges that he had revealed state secrets after his 2022 ouster, and ordered that he remain in custody for two more weeks. The development is the latest in an unprecedented pileup of legal cases against the country’s top opposition leader and hugely popular former cricket star turned Islamist politician. Since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April last year, Khan has campaigned against Shehbaz Sharif, who succeeded him. The legal imbroglio underscores the deepening political turmoil in Pakistan since Khan’s ouster and ahead of the next parliamentary elections, due in the last week of January. Sharif stepped down last month at the completion of parliament’s term and an interim government took over to steer Pakistan through the elections.Khan is facing more than 150 cases, including charges ranging from contempt of court to terrorism and inciting viol...