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Nationals and Rockies play, winner secures 3-game series

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

Colorado Rockies (40-61, fifth in the NL West) vs. Washington Nationals (42-59, fifth in the NL East)Washington; Wednesday, 12:05 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Rockies: Peter Lambert (2-1, 5.49 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, 39 strikeouts); Nationals: Jake Irvin (3-5, 5.00 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 53 strikeouts)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Nationals -136, Rockies +115; over/under is 9 1/2 runsBOTTOM LINE: Both the Washington Nationals and the Colorado Rockies are looking for a series win with a victory on Wednesday.Washington has gone 19-33 at home and 42-59 overall. The Nationals have the fifth-best team batting average in MLB play at .262.Colorado has a 17-35 record on the road and a 40-61 record overall. The Rockies are 15-9 in games when they hit two or more home runs.The teams match up Wednesday for the seventh time this season. The season series is tied 3-3.TOP PERFORMERS: Lane Thomas has 16 home runs, 24 walks and 54 RBI while hitting .293 for the Nationals. Keibert Ruiz is 15-for-36 with four doubles...

Diamondbacks and Cardinals meet with series tied 1-1

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

St. Louis Cardinals (45-57, fourth in the NL Central) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (55-47, second in the NL West)Phoenix; Wednesday, 3:40 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Jack Flaherty (7-6, 4.39 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, 102 strikeouts); Diamondbacks: Zac Gallen (11-4, 3.18 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 135 strikeouts)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Diamondbacks -156, Cardinals +131; over/under is 8 1/2 runsBOTTOM LINE: Both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the St. Louis Cardinals are looking for a series win with a victory on Wednesday.Arizona is 27-25 in home games and 55-47 overall. Diamondbacks hitters have a collective .429 slugging percentage to rank third in the NL.St. Louis has a 45-57 record overall and a 23-31 record in road games. The Cardinals have hit 137 total home runs to rank third in the NL.The matchup Wednesday is the sixth meeting between these teams this season. The Diamondbacks have a 3-2 advantage in the season series.TOP PERFORMERS: Corbin Carroll has 21 home runs, 36 walks and 57 RBI wh...

Skittles’ newest flavor will make your nose hairs curl

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

New York (CNN) — Skittles’ newest flavor doesn’t taste like the rainbow.In celebration of National Mustard Day on August 5, the candy brand has partnered with French’s to make its first-ever mustard-flavored skittle. A press release describes the candies as having a “tangy mustard flavor” combined with the candy’s “iconic chewy texture” doused in a yellow coloring.Don’t expect it to see it on store shelves – near the mustard or the candy aisle. People brave enough to try the new flavor can do that at French’s “Mustard Mobile” that’s stopping in three US cities, including Atlanta on July 31, Washington on August 2 and New York on August 5. (There’s a website for exact time and locations.) Fans can also enter an online sweepstakes for a chance to win a package.Food brands often debut wacky and sometimes gross flavors in hopes that their concoctions go viral on social media. It’s a way to give sales a temporary boost and generate positive media coverage.Such food marketing stunts have ...

Readers sound off on new MLB rules, NYCHA homes and rewriting Black history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

Don’t shorten baseball games by cheapening themFlushing: It has become obvious that fans watching the recently construed shortening of Major League Baseball games have become turned off by the new rule speeding up the conclusion of games that have been tied at the end of nine innings. And starting the 10th inning by placing a player of the offensive team on second base before the inning starts is not a legitimate method of bringing the game to an early conclusion.I suggest that another solution is right before our eyes if we dare to examine prizefighting: If neither fighter has scored a knockout, then at the end of a 10-round boxing match, a point system is invoked to declare the winner. If this is working for boxing, why can’t it work for baseball? The point system would be easy to execute by assigning a 4 for every home run, a 3 for every triple, a 2 for every double and a 1 for every single or walk acquired by the offensive team. The team that has acquired the most po...

Nissan plans $663 million investment in Renault’s EV unit Ampere and says profit leapt in April-June

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Nissan plans to invest 600 million euros ($663 million) in Ampere, Renault’s electric vehicle and software entity in Europe. The two companies also plan to establish more equal cross-shareholdings in the French-Japanese auto alliance, they said Wednesday.The change will end a disparity that had caused friction between the automakers.Renault Group and Nissan will retain 15% cross-shareholdings in each other, and Renault will transfer 28.4% of its Nissan shares into a French trust, to keep voting rights of each side at 15% of the total, the companies said in a statement.“The agreements that have been signed today allow us to step into the next chapter of the alliance,” said Jean-Dominique Senard, chairman of the alliance.The change is subject to regulatory approval. When the alliance was set up in 1999, Nissan was on the verge of bankruptcy. The deal initially announced earlier this year also calls for the companies to work together on marketing, vehicles and techno...

Al Jazeera condemns Egypt’s decision to add some of its journalists to a terrorism blacklist

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The pan-Arab news network Al Jazeera has condemned a recent decision by Egyptian authorities to brand some of its journalists as terrorists.The media outlet, which is owned by the Gulf state of Qatar, said that “a number” of its Egyptian journalists and presenters had been added to a list of alleged terrorists published in an official newspaper earlier this month following a ruling by the Cairo Criminal Court.“Al Jazeera Media Network strongly denounces the recent move by the Egyptian authorities to reinstate a number of its journalists onto a newly crafted terrorism list,” the network said in a statement Tuesday. It also called for the release of two reporters — Bahaa Al-Din Ibrahim, who was arrested in February 2020, and Rabee Al-Sheikh, who was arrested in August 2021. Both had traveled back to Egypt from Qatar to visit family, the network said.Egypt launched a crackdown on Al Jazeera after the 2013 military overthrow of an elected but divisive ...

Biden’s son Hunter heads to a Delaware court where he’s expected to plead guilty to tax crimes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is expected to appear before a federal judge on Wednesday to plead guilty to two tax crimes and admit possessing a gun as a drug user in a deal with the Justice Department that’s likely to spare him time behind bars. U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump, will preside over the hearing and must sign off on the deal, in which prosecutors are recommending two years of probation. Hunter Biden is not expected to be sentenced on Wednesday. The deal, announced last month, comes after a yearslong Justice Department investigation into the taxes and foreign business dealings of the Democratic president’s second son, who has acknowledged struggling with addiction following the 2015 death of his brother, Beau Biden. While legally this will clear the air for Hunter Biden and avert a trial that would have generated weeks or months of distracting headlines, the politics rema...

Man, woman killed in crash involving motorcycle in Vaughan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

Two people are dead following a serious crash involving a motorcycle in Vaughan on Tuesday night.The two-vehicle collision between a car and motorcycle happened around 10:15 p.m. on Highway 7 near Thornhill Woods Drive.Police say a man and a woman who were on the motorcycle were pronounced dead. The female driver of the car was taken to hospital with minor injuries.The impact of the collision left the car flipped over onto its roof.There is no word on the cause of the crash.Highway 7 is closed from Bathurst Street to Langstaff Road for the investigation.

Stellantis profits soar 37% in first half of the year as electric vehicle sales rise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

MILAN (AP) — U.S.-European carmaker Stellantis on Wednesday reported a 37% boost in earnings in the first half of the year, driven by strong North America income and an increase in electric vehicle sales in Europe. Profit in the first six months of the year was 10.9 billion euros ($12.07 billion), compared with 7.96 billion euros in the first half of 2022. The carmaker set record net revenue in the first six months of the year of 98.4 billion euros, up 12% over a year earlier. It came as shipments rose to 3.327 million vehicles from 3.033 million.CEO Carlo Tavares called the first-half performance “outstanding,” saying that it “supports our long-term stability.”Sales of all-electric vehicles rose by 24% to 169,000 vehicles as Stellantis became the third-largest producer of EVs in Europe, led by the Fiat New 500, Open Mokka and Citroen Berlingo. Stellantis has 25 electric vehicles on the market and is launching another 23 by the end of next year.North America accounted for 57% of adj...

WATCH: Funnel cloud over US Capitol goes viral

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:57:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Observant visitors to the area around the U.S. Capitol building on Tuesday afternoon were treated to a unusual sight: the unmistakable shape of a funnel cloud extending diagonally from the sky and seemingly almost reaching the tip of the Capitol dome itself.This photo provided by Peter Kiley shows a small funnel cloud over the U.S. Capitol dome on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 in Washington. (Peter Kiley via AP)The funnel cloud never touched down on the ground and therefore can't be classified as a tornado. There was no damage and no reports of any other funnel clouds in the area Tuesday. But a photo of the thin, wispy twister curving over the Capitol drew more than 1 million views on Twitter.Although the area around Washington isn't considered a tornado hotspot, small proto-twisters like the one Tuesday “certainly do happen sometimes,” said Austin Mansfield, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.They're most common during what Mansfield called “convection se...