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Cardinals host the Cubs, aim to continue home win streak

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

Chicago Cubs (50-51, third in the NL Central) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (46-57, fourth in the NL Central)St. Louis; Thursday, 7:45 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Cubs: Justin Steele (10-3, 2.95 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 96 strikeouts); Cardinals: Miles Mikolas (6-5, 4.33 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 86 strikeouts)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Cubs -110, Cardinals -109; over/under is 9 runsBOTTOM LINE: The St. Louis Cardinals will try to keep a five-game home win streak alive when they face the Chicago Cubs.St. Louis has a 46-57 record overall and a 22-26 record in home games. The Cardinals are 30-11 in games when they have more hits than their opponents.Chicago has a 23-25 record on the road and a 50-51 record overall. Cubs pitchers have a collective 4.14 ERA, which ranks seventh in the NL.The matchup Thursday is the 10th time these teams meet this season. The Cubs have a 5-4 advantage in the season series.TOP PERFORMERS: Nolan Arenado has 19 doubles, two triples, 22 home runs and 77 RBI for the Cardinals. Nola...

Mets host the Nationals in first of 4-game series

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

Washington Nationals (43-59, fifth in the NL East) vs. New York Mets (47-54, fourth in the NL East)New York; Thursday, 7:10 p.m. EDTPITCHING PROBABLES: Nationals: Josiah Gray (7-8, 3.45 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 98 strikeouts); Mets: Kodai Senga (7-5, 3.27 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 125 strikeouts)FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Mets -198, Nationals +166; over/under is 9 runsBOTTOM LINE: The New York Mets host the Washington Nationals to open a four-game series.New York is 23-22 at home and 47-54 overall. The Mets have a 34-7 record in games when they out-hit their opponents.Washington is 23-26 on the road and 43-59 overall. Nationals hitters have a collective .403 slugging percentage to rank 10th in the NL.Thursday’s game is the eighth time these teams meet this season. The Nationals are ahead 4-3 in the season series.TOP PERFORMERS: Brandon Nimmo has a .260 batting average to lead the Mets, and has 17 doubles, four triples and 15 home runs. Pete Alonso is 10-for-36 with two home runs and seven RBI ...

Netherlands stands tall against US at Women’s World Cup despite injuries to its forwards

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — They almost did it, even without their best forwards.Netherlands got ahead of the United States early Thursday and then withstood a flurry of U.S. attacks to preserve a 1-1 draw in its rematch of the 2019 Women’s World Cup final.The Dutch entered the match with a weakened attack. Vivianne Miedema, the country’s all-time leading women’s scorer, is out of the tournament entirely with a torn ACL.After coach Andries Jonker selected Lineth Beerensteyn for the team’s first match against Portugal, Beerenstyn went down with an ankle injury. With Jonker’s top forwards out against the United States, he turned to Katja Snoeijs, a 26-year-old attacker for Everton.“I think, a bit (of) mixed feelings,” Snoeijs said after the match. “I think we can be happy with the point, especially in the group phase, but I think we’re still looking to be better and to win a game like this as well.”Snoeijs was only informed she’d be starting against the U.S. one day bef...

Meta’s Threads gets a highly requested ‘following feed’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

New York (CNN) — Meta on Tuesday launched a highly anticipated “following feed” option in its Threads app as part of its latest batch of updates that could help the new social platform further chip away at Twitter’s position in the market.The option to see a reverse chronological feed of posts from only accounts a user follows had been one of the most requested features since Threads launched earlier this month. On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg replied to a post requesting the feature, saying, “Ask and you shall receive.”The following feed, one of the central features of the Twitter experience, can be accessed on Threads by double tapping on the app’s home button.Meta has been steadily rolling out updates to Threads as it tries to keep users engaged in the new app. Threads had a hugely successful launch, topping 100 million sign-ups in its first week, but engagement has declined somewhat since then.Meta rolled out Threads as a barebones app — missing popular features such as dir...

Colorful new stars shine in latest Webb telescope image

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

(CNN) — A pair of rambunctious young stars takes center stage in a new near-infrared image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.The two stars, which are still actively forming and closely orbiting one another, are called Herbig-Haro 46/47 and can be found 1,470 light-years away in the Vela constellation.Although the stellar duo has been studied and observed by many space and ground-based telescopes since the 1950s, Webb has taken the most detailed and highest-resolution image in near-infrared light. The telescope’s capabilities allow it to peer through an otherwise obscuring nebula, filled with gas and dust, that surrounds the stars. In visible-light images taken by other telescopes, the blue nebula has actually looked black.The stars have been releasing jets of material into space for thousands of years.The stellar pair can be seen as the orange-white center at the intersection of the red and pink spikes in the image, located deep within an invisible disk of gas and dust th...

Crews respond to tractor-trailer rollover in Wakefield

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

An overturned tractor-trailer is causing traffic delays on Interstate 95 northbound in Wakefield for the Thursday morning commute.Crews could be seen preparing to clear the truck from the roadway around 6 a.m.Drivers who use 95 north should be prepared for lengthy traffic delays until the lane is reopened.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Kyiv launches a major push against Russian forces, officials and analysts say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has launched a major push to dislodge Russian forces from the country’s southeast as part of its weekslong counteroffensive, committing thousands of troops to the battle, according to Western and Ukrainian officials and analysts.The surge in troops and firepower has been centered on the region of Zaporizhzhia, a Western official said late Wednesday.The official was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.Fighting has intensified in recent weeks at multiple points along the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line as Ukraine deploys Western-supplied advanced weapons and Western-trained troops against the deeply entrenched Russian forces who invaded 17 months ago.Ukrainian officials have been mostly silent about battlefield developments since they began early counteroffensive operations, though Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said troops are advancing toward the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhizhia reg...

Indonesian President Widodo arrives in China, plans talks with Chinese leader Xi

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived Thursday in China and planned to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, a state news agency reported.Widodo was due to attend the opening of the FISU World University Games in Chengdu in southwestern China, the Xinhua News Agency said. It said the two leaders would meet but gave no details of what they might discuss.Indonesia is, along with China, a member of the Group of 20 major developed and emerging economies.Indonesia wants a bigger role as a supplier of nickel and other raw materials to China’s fast-growing electric car brands.The Associated Press

Ontario provincial byelection set today for Toronto, Ottawa areas

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

Residents of two Ontario ridings head to the polls today to elect new provincial representatives, after a pair of resignations left those seats vacant.Mitzie Hunter stepped down this spring as the member of provincial parliament for Scarborough-Guildwood in Toronto – a seat she held for the Liberals since 2013 – to run in Toronto’s mayoral byelection.In the Ottawa area, Merrilee Fullerton abruptly resigned her cabinet post and her Kanata-Carleton seat in March.Polls are open Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. More voter information can be found here.The Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals are each running a candidate familiar to voters in those ridings, in the hopes of picking up an extra seat, though the balance of power in the legislature will not change under any of the possible outcomes.The Liberal candidate in Kanata-Carleton is Karen McCrimmon, who previously represented the riding federally, and the PC candidate in Scarborough-Guildwood is Gary Crawford, a city counc...

Mutinous soldiers say they’ve taken Niger. The government says a coup won’t be tolerated

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:35:04 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — People in Niger awoke to a divided country Thursday after mutinous soldiers claimed to have ousted the president. But the government said it will never accept their rule and has called for the population to reject it.“There was an attempted coup, but of course we cannot accept it,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassoumi Massoudou told news network France 24 in an interview Thursday. “We call on all Nigerien democratic patriots to stand up as one to say no to this factious action that tends to set us back decades and block the progress of our country,” he said. He also called for the president’s unconditional release and said talks were ongoing.President Mohamed Bazoum was elected in 2021 in the West African nation’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since its independence from France in 1960. He thwarted a coup attempt days before he was sworn in. Threats to his leadership undermine the West’s efforts to stabilize Africa’s Sahel region, which has ...