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Column: Javier Báez is enjoying life again in Detroit — and playing a villain on the South Side

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

Javier Báez took some of his Detroit Tigers teammates on a tour of Chicago during Thursday’s off day, including a boat trip on the lake.Despite being traded during Cubs President Jed Hoyer’s summer sell-off in 2021, Báez still has the city on his mind.“The city and the people, man, the way everybody loves their sports here, not just baseball, and they really care about it, and they support everybody,” he said Friday at Guaranteed Rate Field. “We had an off day and just kind of went around the city, took all the boys. They were really excited at how nice people are here.”Was Báez still recognized on the streets?“A few (times),” he said. “You can’t hide from that.”It’s hard to imagine, but nearly 12 years have passed since former Cubs general manager Jim Hendry drafted Báez with the No. 9 pick of the 2011 draft. In his last act as GM, Hendry signed Baez to a $2.7 million bonus. Four days later,...

‘What he’s done has motivated everybody’: Liam Hendriks’ journey from cancer diagnosis to his Chicago White Sox return

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

Liam Hendriks did not want to rule out the first two months of the season.The Chicago White Sox closer, undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, shared those sentiments with general manager Rick Hahn in the team parking lot on the first day of spring training in Glendale, Ariz.“I also prefaced it with the fact, ‘Look, I understand it’s a business. I’m not asking for any special treatment or anything like that,’ ” Hendriks said Wednesday of attempting to make a case for avoiding the 60-day injured list. “ ‘But if there’s a chance I don’t have to go on, I would really appreciate not going on purely for my mindset because then I have something to beat.’ ”Hahn talked to someone who was part of the rehabilitation.“And they were like, ‘He’s committed,’ ” Hahn said Monday. “‘It is every bit possible that he’s going to be back within those 60 days.’”Day 6...

Police investigate after man shows up in hospital with gunshot wound

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

Police are investigating after a man walked into a hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. Police say the man showed up at an area hospital just after 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning with serious wounds. Investigators believe the shooting took place in the area of Midland Avenue and Sheppard Avenue East. No further details or suspect information has been released. Police are canvassing the area and anyone with information is asked to contact them.

Indian railways official says error in signaling system led to crash that killed 275 people

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

BALASORE, India (AP) — The derailment in eastern India that killed 275 people and injured hundreds was caused by an error in the electronic signaling system that led a train to wrongly change tracks and crash into a freight train, officials said Sunday.Authorities worked to clear the mangled wreckage of the two passenger trains that derailed Friday night in Balasore district in Odisha state in one of the country’s deadliest rail disasters in decades.An Odisha government statement revised the death toll to 275 after a top state officer put the number at over 300 on Sunday morning. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to reporters.Jaya Verma Sinha, a senior railway official, said the preliminary investigations revealed that a signal was given to the high-speed Coromandel Express to run on the main track line, but the signal later changed, and the train instead entered an adjacent loop line where it rammed into a freight loaded with iron ore. Th...

Supporters of Russian opposition leader Navalny hold demonstrations to mark his 47th birthday

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny voiced hope for better future in Russia as his supporters held pickets and demonstrations to mark his 47th birthday on SundayNavalny is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court, charges he says were trumped up to punish his work to expose official corruption and organizing anti-Kremlin protests. He is facing a new trial on extremism charges that could keep him in prison for decades. Kremlin critics view the case as another Russian government attempt to isolate President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent foe.Navalny’s associates called for demonstrations to show support for him in Russia and abroad Sunday.Risking their own prison terms, some Navalny supporters in Russia marked his birthday by holding individual pickets, while others painted graffiti. Police quickly detained many for questioning, and officers maintained a beefed-up presence in downtown Moscow Pro-Navalny demonstrations were held in sever...

Apple is expected to unveil a sleek, pricey headset. Is it the device VR has been looking for?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

Apple appears poised to unveil a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real world, while also testing the technology trendsetter’s ability to popularize new-fangled devices after others failed to capture the public’s imagination.After years of speculation, the stage is set for the widely anticipated announcement to be made Monday at Apple’s annual developers conference in a Cupertino, California, theater named after the company’s late co-founder Steve Jobs. Apple is also likely to use the event to show off its latest Mac computer, preview the next operating system for the iPhone and discuss its strategy for artificial intelligence. But the star of the show is expected to be a pair of goggles — perhaps called “Reality Pro,” according to media leaks — that could become another milestone in Apple’s lore of releasing game-changing technology, even though the company hasn’t always been the first to try its hand at makin...

While DeSantis hits Trump from the right, the ex-president is looking ahead to the general election

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In his first week on the campaign trail as a presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly hit his chief rival, Donald Trump, from the right.“This is a different guy than 2015, 2016,” DeSantis told a conservative radio host before slamming the bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation Trump championed as “basically a jailbreak bill” that allowed dangerous people out of prison.He also accused Trump of “turning the reins over” to Dr. Anthony Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Trump had “ endorsed and tried to ram” an “amnesty” bill through Congress and vowed that — unlike the former president — he would finish building the U.S.-Mexico border wall.In Iowa on Saturday, he hit back at Trump for saying he didn’t like the term “woke” because people have a hard time defining it. “Woke is an existential threat to our society,” DeSantis said. “To say it’s not a big deal, that just shows you don’t understand what a l...

Man seriously injured in downtown carjacking

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

Police are investigating a carjacking in the city’s Fashion District. Investigators say they were called to the area of Bathurst Street and Adelaide Place on Saturday night. When they arrived they found a man suffering from serious injuries. He was taken to a nearby trauma centre. Police say the suspects fled the scene in the car. No information has been released on the type of vehicle that was stolen.

Highly anticipated legislative election underway in Guinea-Bissau

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — An highly anticipated election to fill Guinea-Bissau’s national legislature was underway Sunday, more than a year after the West African nation’s president dissolved parliament.Nearly 1 million voters were registered to elect more than 100 lawmakers from six parties with active seats in the National People’s Assembly, according to the Centre for Democracy and Development, an African human rights organization. Tiny Guinea-Bissau gained independence from Portugal nearly five decades ago. The country has endured continued political turmoil, including multiple coups, since then. President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, a former army general, took office after he was declared the winner of a December 2019 runoff election. He survived a February 2022 coup attempt when assailants armed with machine guns and AK-47s attacked the government palace.Since assuming office, Embalo has cracked down on civic freedoms, while government bodies have lost significant independen...

14 dead, 5 missing in southwest China landslide

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:20 GMT

A landslide struck a rural district in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Sunday morning, killing 14 people and leaving five others missing, authorities said. The mountainous region has seen rainfall lasting weeks, saturating the top soil. More than 180 people were mobilized to help find those buried under the debris in Sichuan’s Leshan county, with the search ongoing into the afternoon, the Communist Party committee of Jinhouke district said on its social media account. With its humid, rainy climate, southwestern China is prone to landslides, especially in areas where there has been large-scale shifting of land due to farming, deforestation or engineering projects. The Associated Press