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Orioles GM Mike Elias felt ‘uniquely qualified’ to resurrect a ‘fragile’ club back to the top of the AL East

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

Even as champagne spewed around him and cigar smoke hung in the air, Mike Elias maintained the long view.The bubbly and stogies marked the grand achievement Elias has supervised over the past five years, the reconstruction of the Orioles from 115-loss embarrassment to 101-win juggernaut.But he did not see this as the culmination of his quest. “We’re focused on the rest of this month,” he said, with a Mid-Atlantic Sports Network camera capturing his words for posterity. “But I think the rest of this decade is going to be really special, too. I want this to be one of the best baseball towns in the United States.”That ability to keep his eyes trained on the big picture saw Elias, 40, through some of the darkest seasons in franchise history, with one ESPN writer accusing the club of “noncompetitive behavior” as recently as two years ago.John and Louis Angelos handed him the keys to the Orioles’ baseball operation in November 2018, ...

Firefighters work until dawn to clear wreckage of bus crash that killed 21 people in Venice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

VENICE (AP) — Firefighters worked until dawn Wednesday to remove the wreckage of a bus that crashed in a section of Venice on the Italian mainland, killing 21 people and injuring at least 15, mostly foreign tourists returning to a nearby campsite. Those killed included at least four Ukrainians and a German citizen, according to Venice prefecture. The injured, including five in serious condition, included French, Spanish, Austrian and Croatian nationals, local officials said.The Spanish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that two people from Spain were injured in the accident, who are both in hospital and in good condition.At least two of the dead were children, Venice prefect Michele Di Bari said, adding that many of the people involved in the accident were “young.” The bus was carrying foreign tourists from Venice’s Piazzale Roma to the Hu campground on Tuesday evening when it fell from an elevated street next to railway tracks in the borough of Mestre, catching fire. Tourist...

3 scientists win Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on tiny quantum dots

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov for their work on tiny quantum dots.Hans Ellegren, the secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced the award Wednesday in Stockholm.The Nobel Prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million). The money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish media reported Wednesday that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences may have announced the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry prematurely.Public broadcaster SVT said the academy sent a press release by mistake early Wednesday that contained the names of the winners.The Associated Press did not receive the press release and has decided not to publish the names until they’re confirmed.“Unfortunately, I cannot comment on what has b...

Stock market today: World shares are mostly lower, tracking a rates-driven tumble on Wall Street

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Markets in Europe and Asia were mostly lower Wednesday after Wall Street tumbled as investors focused on the downside of a surprisingly strong job market: the likelihood that interest rates will stay high.U.S. futures and oil prices edged lower. European markets fell far less than those in Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 0.1% to 15,071.35. In Paris, the CAC 40 edged 0.1% higher, to 7,005.23. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down less than 0.1%, at 7,466.94. On Wall Street, the future for the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and that for the Dow was unchanged. In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index sank 2.3% to 30,526.88 and the Kospi in South Korea dropped 2.4% to 2,405.69. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng skidded 0.8% to 17,195.84. Troubled property developer China Evergrande was down 12.2% after plunging 28% on Tuesday.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.8% to 6,890.20. In Bangkok, the SET recovered from early losses, gaining 0.3%.On Tuesday, the S&P 500 lost 1.4%. The ...

More than 500 migrants arrive on Spanish Canary Islands in 1 day. One boat carried 280 people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Emergency services on the Spanish Canary Islands said Wednesday that more than 500 migrants have reached there in four large wooden boats this week. One of the boats was carrying 280 migrants, the islands’ emergency service said on X, formerly known as Twitter. The state news agency EFE says it was the largest number in a single boat since human traffickers began to regularly use the Canary Island route in 1994. Spanish Red Cross coordinator José Antonio Rodríguez Verona told The Associated Press he had not seen so many people in one boat since 2008, when 234 arrived in a single vessel.Only five of the migrants needed medical treatment on arrival at the small port of La Restinga on the southern tip of Hierro Island. Hundreds of other migrants were intercepted trying to reach other islands in the archipelago, located off the northwest coast of Africa, and elsewhere on mainland Spain in recent days.Spain’s Interior Ministry says nearly 15,000 migrants reached the C...

Saudi Arabia says it will maintain production cuts that have helped drive oil prices up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Wednesday confirmed that it will maintain a production cut of 1 million barrels of oil a day through the end of the year.The announcement could further prop up oil prices, which are hovering around $90 a barrel. Production cuts first announced by Saudi Arabia and Russia in July have driven up prices at the pump, enriched Moscow’s war chest and complicated global efforts to bring down inflation.The Saudi Energy Ministry reaffirmed that the cuts would continue through the end of the year in a brief statement posted on its website Wednesday attributed to “an official source.” It said the kingdom would continue to produce 9 million barrels per day in November and December. “The source stated that this voluntary cut decision will be reviewed next month to consider deepening the cut or increasing production,” the statement said.Benchmark U.S. crude oil for November delivery rose 41 cents to $89.23 a barrel Tuesday. Brent crude for December...

Lawyers of Imran Khan in Pakistan oppose his closed-door trial over revealing official secrets

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Lawyers for Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday opposed his closed-door trial in a case in which he is accused of revealing state secrets after his 2022 ouster, saying it’s aimed at convicting the popular opposition leader quickly.Salman Safdar, who represents Khan, said the trial should be held in an open court. He made comments outside the high-security Adiyala prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where the former cricket star turned politician is facing a trial on charges of revealing official secrets.The case is related to his speech and waiving of a confidential diplomatic letter to a rally after his ouster in a no-confidence vote in parliament in 2022. At the time Khan showed a document as a proof that he was threatened and his ouster was a conspiracy by Washington. He accused the military and then-Premier Shehbaz Sharif of implementing a U.S. plot, a charge denied by U.S. officials, the Pakistani military and ...

Iran says it has agreed with Saudis to reschedule Asian Champions League soccer match after walkout

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Wednesday it has agreed with Saudi Arabia to reschedule an Asian Champions League match after the Saudi team walked out at the last minute, apparently over the presence of a statue of a slain Iranian general.The walkout appeared to further strain a recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, longtime rivals who have backed opposite sides in conflicts across the Middle East. But in the days since, both sides have appeared eager to move past it.The Saudi Al Ittihad team did not come out onto the field in Isfahan on Monday, where some 60,000 fans were eagerly awaiting their match against Iran’s Sepahan. Saudi Arabia’s state-run Al Ekhbariya TV said they refused to come out because of a statue of the late Gen. Qassem Soleimani placed outside the entrance tunnel.Soleimani, who commanded the elite Quds Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, is seen as a war hero by Iran’s clerical rulers and their supporters but vili...

Biden presses student debt relief as payments resume after pandemic pause

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will announce another wave of federal student loan forgiveness on Wednesday, according to a White House official, as borrowers brace for payments to restart after a three-year pause that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. His latest step will help 125,000 borrowers by erasing $9 billion in debt through existing relief programs. In total, 3.6 million borrowers will have had $127 billion in debt wiped out since Biden took office. The official requested anonymity ahead of the announcement, which Biden is scheduled to make at the White House at 1 p.m. ET. Biden promised to help alleviate the burden of student debt while running for president, and he’s been under pressure to follow through even though his original plan was overturned by the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.He’s been relying on a patchwork of different programs to chip away at debt, such as public service loan forgiveness and the SAVE Plan, which lowers pay...

Greater Toronto home sales drop 7.1 per cent in September as higher rates bite

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:12 GMT

TORONTO — Greater Toronto home sales slid 7.1 per cent last month compared with September 2022, with sales of semi-detached houses and townhouses particularly declining from last year.The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says last month’s 4,642 home sales also marked a 12.1 per cent month-over-month decline from August.The board attributes the downward trend to the impact of high borrowing costs, high inflation, uncertainty surrounding future Bank of Canada decisions and slower economic growth.Meanwhile, the average home price reached $1,119,428, 3.4 per cent higher than in August and a three per cent increase from last September.New listings surged 44.1 per cent to 16,258 in September compared with extremely low levels in September 2022, as the number of listings also trended upward on a month-over-month basis.TRREB president Paul Baron says elevated borrowing costs are expected until mid-2024, after which they will start to trend lower, which suggests there will be an upti...