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Bill Madden: Making sense of the Tampa Bay Rays hot start to the ‘23 season

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

“You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose”The famous quote by college football Hall of Fame coach Lou Holtz — especially the first part of it — was being thrown around a lot this past week in the wake of the Tampa Bay Rays’ record-tying 13-0 start to the 2023 baseball season. A start like this from a team with the 28th lowest payroll in baseball — in which they out-scored the opposition 101-30, more than the total runs of 27 other teams, while winning 11 of those games by four or more runs — would ordinarily seem quite phenomenal. Going into the weekend, the Rays led the majors in runs, batting, homers, OPS, total bases and ERA — and according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Rays’ plus-71 run differential in those first 13 games was the best in the modern era (post-1900).But it does pale somewhat when you consider the quality of the opposition. The four...

No rest for the weary, but Heat scoff at playoff outlook vs. Bucks being dreary

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

Typically the NBA playoffs don’t come at you fast, at least not the first round, with at least a five-day break following the regular-season finale.But for the Miami Heat, this has not been a typical path, forced to play through two play-in tournament games on Tuesday and Friday after last Sunday’s emotional final regular-season game for 20-year team stalwart Udonis Haslem.And now . . . immediately on to a best-of-seven opening-round playoff series against the No. 1 Eastern Conference seed Milwaukee Bucks that opens at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Fiserv Forum.“It’s like you have all these emotions and this competitive week, this week, just with two games, three games if you count UD’s, the emotions and everything,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It feels like we’re in round two already. And we just earned the right now to start the playoffs.”Friday’s 102-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls at Kaseya Center allowed for this next step, a ...

Christian faithful celebrate ‘Holy Fire’ under restrictions

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Christian worshippers thronged the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Saturday to celebrate the ceremony of the “Holy Fire,” an ancient, mysterious ritual that sparked tensions this year with the Israeli police.In the annual ceremony that has persisted for over a millennium, a flame — kindled in some miraculous way in the heart of Jesus’ tomb — is used to light the candles of fervent believers in Greek Orthodox communities near and far.After hours of frantic anticipation, a priest reached inside the dim tomb and ignited his candle. Each neighbor passed the light to another and, little by little, the darkened church was irradiated by tiny patches of light, which eventually illuminated the whole building. Bells rang out. “Christ is risen!” the multilingual worshippers shouted. “He is risen indeed!”Many trying to get to the church — built on the site where Christian tradition holds that Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected — were thrilled t...

NATO member Finland breaks ground on Russia border fence

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

IMATRA, Finland (AP) — The construction of barbed-wired fence along Finland’s long border with Russia – primarily meant to curb illegal migration – has broken ground near the southeastern town of Imatra less than two weeks after the Nordic country joined NATO as the 31st member of the military alliance.The Finnish Border Guard on Friday showcased the building of the initial three kilometer (1.8 mile) stretch of the fence to be erected in Pelkola near a crossing point off Imatra, a quiet lakeside town of some 25,000 people. Finland’s 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia is the longest of any European Union member. Construction of the border fence is an initiative by the border guard that was approved by Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government amid wide political support last year. The main purpose of the three-meter (10-foot) high steel fence with a barbed-wire extension on top is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia and give reaction time to authorit...

Police: 4 migrants among 6 killed in highway crash in Greece

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Four migrants and a suspected trafficker died Saturday and another six were injured when their car collided head-on with another as it sped the wrong way on a major highway in Greece near the Turkish border, police said.The driver of the other car, a 46-year-old Greek man, also died in the collision, police said.The car, with the driver and other 10 passengers, some of them stowed in the trunk, was driving along an older road, away from the border, when it came upon a police checking point, near the city of Alexandroupolis, on Saturday morning. Signaled to stop, it rammed the patrol car that stood in its way and sped away instead. Police say they followed at a distance. The suspected trafficker entered the Egnatia Highway, northern Greece’s major east-west highway, when it collided head-on with the other car. Police said the drivers, both men, died instantly, as well as a man in the car carrying the migrants and a girl, who was sitting in the lap of the m...

Rutgers, unions announce agreement, classes to resume

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Rutgers University and union representatives have announced an agreement on a framework for new contracts with several faculty unions, allowing a halt to a five-day strike that was the first such job action in the 257-year history of New Jersey’s flagship university,Rutgers said early Saturday that the agreement on the framework on economic issues was reached late Friday night with the aid of Gov. Phil Murphy, and closure on that framework “will allow our 67,000 students to resume their studies and pursue their academic degrees.”“Nothing we do is as important as living up to the expectations that our students and their families have of us to be fully supportive of them and nurturing of their academic ambitions and dreams,” the school said in a statement.The unions representing professors, part-time lecturers and graduate student workers told members that they had agreed to suspend the strike and return to work, but more issues need to be resolved before me...

What to know about 1st test flight of SpaceX’s big Starship

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is about to take its most daring leap yet with a round-the-world test flight of its mammoth Starship.It’s the biggest and mightiest rocket ever built, with the lofty goals of ferrying people to the moon and Mars.Jutting almost 400 feet (120 meters) into the South Texas sky, Starship could blast off as early as Monday, with no one aboard. Musk’s company got the OK from the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday. It will be the first launch with Starship’s two sections together. Early versions of the sci-fi-looking upper stage rocketed several miles into the stratosphere a few years back, crashing four times before finally landing upright in 2021. The towering first-stage rocket booster, dubbed Super Heavy, will soar for the first time.For this demo, SpaceX won’t attempt any landings of the rocket or the spacecraft. Everything will fall into the sea.“I’m not saying it will get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement. It won’t be boring,” Musk...

Red Cross: Yemen’s warring sides resume releasing prisoners

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Hundreds of detainees from Yemen’s conflict were released Saturday as part of a major prisoner exchange that began a day earlier, the International Committee for the Red Cross said.The deal, brokered by the United Nations last month, has been the most significant exchange of prisoners in Years. It comes amid concerted efforts diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the long-running war in Yemen.It involves the release of more than 800 prisoners from all sides of the war that began in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, overthrowing the internationally recognized government. The government fled to the south and then into exile in Saudi Arabia.The Houthi takeover prompted a Saudi-led coalition to intervene months later, and the conflict turned into a regional proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with the United States long involved on the periphery, providing intelligence assistance to the kingdom. However, international cri...

‘Defiant Dene:’ Former Northwest Territories premier publishes memoir

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

YELLOWKNIFE — Stephen Kakfwi says one of his proudest accomplishments has been overcoming the inability to feel any emotions after leaving residential school.“I grew very limited in feeling joy, feeling happy and also feeling sad. Everything got flattened,” he said. “Overcoming that took years.” The former Northwest Territories premier said he felt lucky when he met his wife, former journalist and Truth and Reconciliation commissioner Marie Wilson, in 1976.“I felt she was like my prism,” he said. “She brought out all the colours of the world more than anybody I knew. She enjoyed things that I thought were just mundane.” In his new memoir, “Stoneface: A Defiant Dene,” Kakfwi recounts his life starting from when he was three years old, including his experiences at residential school, the effect of tuberculosis on his family and his political career in the Northwest Territories.“The book is in a way a celebration,”...

Italy’s Meloni acknowledges ‘anomalies’ in Russian escape

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:14:54 GMT

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni acknowledged “anomalies” in the handling of a Russian businessman who escaped from house arrest in Italy to avoid extradition to the United States and said Saturday she would speak with the justice minister to understand what happened.During a visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Meloni termed the case of Artyom Uss “grave” and vowed to get to the bottom of it when she returned to Rome.Uss, the 40-year-old son of a Russian regional governor, was detained in October 2022 at Milan Malpensa Airport on a U.S. warrant accusing him of violating sanctions. In November, a ruling from a Milan appeals court resulted in him being moved from jail to house arrest and outfitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet.He escaped from Italy on March 22, a day after a Milan court recognized as legitimate the U.S. extradition request, and surfaced in Russia earlier this month.“For sure there are anomalies,” Meloni told reporters in Ethiopia. “The principal anomaly...