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Column: What we know about the Chicago Cubs and White Sox — and what we don’t — as midseason approaches

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

As the 2023 baseball season nears the midpoint, here’s what we know and don’t know about the Chicago Cubs and White Sox.Tim Anderson is too good a hitter to continue at his current pace. That’s what we keep saying anyway. Anderson, the 2019 American League batting champion, was hitting .358 on June 22, 2022, before going on the injured list with a groin injury. He since has suffered finger, knee and shoulder injuries and is hitting .244 with one home run and 11 RBIs in 93 games. Anderson’s last home run was on July 15, 2022, in Minnesota.Despite winning this weekend’s series against the Boston Red Sox, the White Sox have given no reason to believe they can be even a .500 team. Giving Anderson playing time at second base should increase his trade value. The Los Angeles Dodgers could be a good fit.NBC Sports Chicago’s Chuck Garfien and Ozzie Guillén might be the Sox’s toughest critics. Both criticized Anderson during Friday’s postga...

Chicago baseball report: Cubs’ Michael Fulmer on career-saving surgery — and Elvis Andrus’ latest milestone for the White Sox

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

The Cubs’ chance to earn a London Series sweep and make up more ground slipped through their hands.The Cubs are trying to become only the third team in franchise history to fall 10 games under .500 and get back to .500 in the same season. They return home to Wrigley Field on Tuesday after a memorable overseas trip with a great opportunity to build off the momentum they’ve found the last two weeks.The White Sox didn’t have much success during a June 13-18 West Coast trip, going 2-4 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Seattle Mariners. They’ll aim for a better outcome this week as they head west again to face the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics.Every Monday throughout the season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead — for the Cubs and Sox.Michael Fulmer provides guidance for Brandon HughesThe conversation first came up during spring training.Cubs left-hander Brandon Hughes approached vete...

Russia’s defense minister seen in first video since mercenary revolt as uncertainty swirls

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made his first public appearance since a mercenary uprising demanded his ouster, inspecting troops in Ukraine in a video released Monday aimed at projecting a sense of order after the country’s most serious political crisis in decades.But uncertainty still swirled about his fate, that of rebellion leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army, the impact on the war in Ukraine and even the political future of President Vladimir Putin.A feud between Wagner Group leader Prigozhin and Russia’s military brass that has festered throughout the war erupted into a mutiny that saw the mercenaries leave Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city and march seemingly unopposed on Moscow, before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday.The Kremlin said it had made a deal that Prigozhin will move to Belarus and receive an amnesty, along with his soldiers. Yet on Monday, Russian media reported a criminal probe against ...

H&M workers strike for higher pay across Spain, shutting down stores

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Hundreds of retail workers on Monday walked off the job across Spain in a new round of strikes against the fashion giant H&M Group, extending a series of store closures in the middle of the summer sales season.More than 4,000 Spanish employees at the Swedish multinational’s brands including H&M, Other Stories and Cos are seeking pay rises in line with the higher cost of living and are protesting increased workloads linked to layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic.Monday’s walkout was the third day of strikes by H&M Group employees this month. Flagship stores in Madrid have closed, with hundreds of workers gathering in front of the city’s largest H&M location to demand better conditions as online sales increasingly fracture the retail industry.Union leader Ángeles Rodríguez Bonillo told The Associated Press that workers had lived with “salaries that have been frozen for many, many years” but now have found their situation untenable “with ...

Hollywood mogul acknowledges gifts to Netanyahu may have been ‘excessive’ in 2nd day of testimony

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — A billionaire Hollywood mogul took the stand for a second day on Monday in Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, acknowledging that the long list of champagne, cigars and jewelry he systematically gave to the Israeli prime minister may have been excessive.Arnon Milchan, whose production credits include “Pretty Woman,” “12 Years a Slave,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” is a key witness in one of three cases brought against Netanyahu. Prosecutors are trying to prove that Netanyahu committed fraud and breach of trust. Milchan, 78, has been testifying by videoconference from Brighton, England, which is near where he is based. Prosecutors hope his testimony, which began Sunday and is expected to last some two weeks, will provide details about the abundance of gifts given to Netanyahu and his wife. The gifts, the prosecutors maintain, led to favors from Netanyahu that advanced Milchan’s interests. Netanyahu’s lawyers have said Milchan’s gifts were frien...

Fukushima nuclear plant operator says equipment to release treated wastewater into sea is complete

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — All equipment needed for the release into the sea of treated radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant has been completed and will be ready for a safety inspection by Japanese regulators this week, the plant operator said Monday, as opposition to the plan continues in and outside Japan over safety concerns.Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said it installed the last piece of an undersea tunnel dug to release the water offshore, completing the construction of the necessary equipment that began last August.A mandatory safety inspection of the equipment will begin Wednesday, said Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shinichi Yamanaka, who visited the Fukushima Daiichi plant last week.If everything goes well, TEPCO is expected to receive a safety permit for the release about a week after the inspection ends, officials said. Discharge of the treated water is expected to begin this summer, although the exact date has not been set.The plan has faced ...

Chaos in Russia is morale booster for Ukraine as it pushes on with early stages of counteroffensive

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The armed rebellion against the Russian military may have been over in less than 24 hours, but the disarray within the enemy’s ranks was an unexpected gift and timely morale booster for Ukrainian troopsThe spectacle of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny in the critical military command and control hub in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, and later Russia’s scramble to fortify Moscow as troops marched to upend the country’s military leadership was greeted “with applause” by commanders of Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, said its spokesperson, Serhii Cherevatiy.“Soldiers at the front lines are positive about it,” he said. “Any chaos and disorder on the enemy’s side benefits us.”A video of well-known Ukrainian drone commander “Magyar” watching the revolt while eating enormous amounts of popcorn went viral. A plethora of gleeful memes mocking Russian leader Vladimir Putin inundated social media, and statement after statement from Ukraine’s top brass described the t...

Netherlands and Belgium join international probe into crimes against Yazidis in Syria and Iraq

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands and Belgium have joined an international investigation into atrocities committed against the Yazidi minority in Syria and Iraq, the European Union’s judicial cooperation agency said Monday.The Joint Investigation Team was established by France and Sweden in October 2021 and supported by The Hague-based Eurojust to identify and prosecute foreign extremists who targeted Yazidis during the armed conflict in Syria and Iraq.Eurojust said the teamwork already has borne fruit, including in France, where a Yazidi victim of a French jihadist couple was identified. That led to to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity being added to an existing case.The joint investigation team is part of a broader international effort to mete out justice for atrocities targeting Yazidis, a minority considered heretics by the Islamic State militant group.A United Nations probe concluded in 2021 that crimes committed against Yazidis by Islamic State...

Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group says it shot down an Israeli drone near the southern border

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said its fighters shot down on Monday an Israeli drone that was flying near the border and over southern Lebanon. The group gave no further details about the type of the drone that it claimed was downed near the village of Zibqine just north of the border with Israel. There was no immediate comment from Israel. The incident comes after weeks of tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border, mainly in a disputed area known as Chebaa Farms. Earlier this month, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas to disperse scores of Lebanese protesters who pelted the troops with stones along the border. Some of the demonstrators and Lebanese troops suffered breathing problems.The protest took place on the edge of Kfar Chouba hills, which Beirut says is Lebanese land occupied by Israel. The hills and the nearby Chebaa Farms, are areas captured by Israel during the 1967 Mideast War and claimed by Lebanon.Israeli media reported earlier this month that Hezbollah ha...

Liz Weston: Safer ways to raid your retirement, if you have to

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:51:49 GMT

Raiding your retirement accounts can be expensive. Withdrawing money before age 59 1/2 typically triggers income taxes, a 10% federal penalty and — worst of all — the loss of future tax-deferred compounded returns. A 30-year-old who withdraws $1,000 from an individual retirement account or 401(k) could lose more than $11,000 in future retirement money, assuming 7% average annual returns.In the past, there were a few ways you could avoid the penalty. Congress recently added several more, and some of those exceptions allow you to repay the money within three years. That would allow you to get a refund of the taxes you paid and — best of all — allow the money to start growing again, tax deferred, for your future.You’re still better off leaving retirement funds alone for retirement, says Erin Itkoe, director of financial planning at Tarbox Family Office, a wealth management firm in Scottsdale, Arizona. If you can’t, though, you could at least limit the damage from taking the money out e...