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Bittersweet reunion: Fletcher brothers face each other for 1st time in majors after father’s death

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — David and Dominic Fletcher got to play against each other for the first time in a major league game. Fittingly, it came at a stadium where they had watched plenty of games while growing up.Unfortunately, the Fletcher brothers’ biggest fan was not in attendance Friday night when David’s Los Angeles Angels hosted Dominic’s Arizona Diamondbacks at Angel Stadium.Their father, Tim, died suddenly earlier this month. He was 60.“This would have been one of his proudest moments,” Dominic Fletcher said. “Every night he turned on the TV and had both of our games going on simultaneously. To be able to be here and watch would have been one of his favorite things.”The Fletcher brothers grew up in Orange, California, and played together for one year at Cypress High School, which is 10 miles (16.09 kilometers) from Angel Stadium. At 29, David Fletcher is the older brother by four years.They also played together for Italy in the World Baseball Classic. Their ...

Morning-after pill vending machines gain popularity on college campuses post-Roe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Need Plan B? Tap your credit card and enter B6. Since last November, a library at the University of Washington has featured a different kind of vending machine, one that’s become more popular on campuses around the country since the U.S. Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion last year. It’s stocked with ibuprofen, pregnancy tests and the morning-after pill.With some states enacting abortion bans and others enshrining protections and expanding access to birth control, the machines are part of a push on college campuses to ensure emergency contraceptives are cheap, discreet and widely available. There are now 39 universities in 17 states with emergency contraceptive vending machines, and at least 20 more considering them, according to the American Society for Emergency Contraception. Some, such as the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, are in states where abortion is largely banned. Over-the-counter purchase of Plan B and generic forms is...

Oladipo getting traded to Oklahoma City by Miami, source tells AP

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — The Miami Heat traded Victor Oladipo back to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night in exchange for future draft compensation, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.The move will create a $9.45 million trade exception for the Heat, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade has not been finalized by the NBA. It also provides some financial flexibility for Miami, which is well over the tax threshold for the coming season.Oladipo exercised his option on Tuesday to be under contract for the coming season, though it is unclear when he’ll next be able to play. He tore his left patellar tendon during the first round of the playoffs against Milwaukee in April.The 31-year-old guard underwent his third major surgery in the last four years — the other two were on his right knee area — and there is no timetable for his return.Oladipo was a two-time All-Star with Indiana before getting hurt in January 2019. I...

Center for Whale Research confirms two calves spotted in B.C.’s Strait of Georgia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

The endangered southern resident killer whale population has grown by two.The Center for Whale Research based in Washington state says it has confirmed two new calves who were spotted during a survey of a group of whales in the Strait of Georgia on June 30. The centre says both calves were very active and social while being observed, and neither shows any immediate signs of illness or abnormality. The sex of the calves is still unknown, and researchers estimate that both calves are at least two months old.The centre says these are the first calves born in L pod since 2021 and the first calves born in the L12 subgroup since 2018.It says one of the babies is the first calf for mother L119, while the other is the third calf for L94.This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2023.The Canadian Press

Cambodia ruling party victory a sure bet as campaigning begins for general election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Campaigning for Cambodia’s general election officially began Saturday, an exercise that is more an affirmation of a nominally democratic process than a prelude to a genuine contest.Eighteen parties are contesting this year’s polls, for which around 9.7 million people are eligible to vote to elect 125 members of National Assembly. The campaign period ends on July 21, and July 23 is election day.Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power for 38 years, and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party is virtually guaranteed a landslide victory, since the Candlelight Party, the sole other contender capable of mounting a credible challenge, was barred on a technicality from contesting the polls by the National Election Committee. The situation mirrors what happened before the last general election in 2018, when the popular Cambodian National Rescue Party, which had performed strongly in local elections, was dissolved months before the polls by a controversial court rulin...

More than 900 people are arrested overnight as young rioters clash with police around France

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Rioting raged in cities around France for a fourth night despite massive police deployment, with cars and buildings set ablaze and stores looted, as family and friends prepared Saturday to bury the 17-year-old whose killing by police unleashed the unrest.The government suggested the violence was beginning to lessen thanks to tougher security measures, but damages remained widespread, from Paris to Marseille and Lyon and French territories overseas, where a 54-year-old died after being hit by a stray bullet in French Guiana. The interior ministry announced 994 arrests around France by early Saturday.France’s national soccer team — including international star Kylian Mbappe, an idol to many young people in the disadvantaged neighborhoods where the anger is rooted — pleaded for an end to the violence.“Many of us are from working-class neighborhoods, we too share this feeling of pain and sadness” over the killing of 17-year-old Nahel, the players said in a statement. “Viole...

Climate change keeps making wildfires and smoke worse. Scientists call it the ‘new abnormal’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

It was a smell that invoked a memory. Both for Emily Kuchlbauer in North Carolina and Ryan Bomba in Chicago. It was smoke from wildfires, the odor of an increasingly hot and occasionally on-fire world.Kuchlbauer had flashbacks to the surprise of soot coating her car three years ago when she was a recent college graduate in San Diego. Bomba had deja vu from San Francisco, where the air was so thick with smoke people had to mask up. They figured they left wildfire worries behind in California, but a Canada that’s burning from sea to warming sea brought one of the more visceral effects of climate change home to places that once seemed immune.“It’s been very apocalyptic feeling, because in California the dialogue is like, ‘Oh, it’s normal. This is just what happens on the West Coast,’ but it’s very much not normal here,” Kuchlbauer said.As Earth’s climate continues to change from heat-trapping gases spewed into the air, ever fewer people are out of reach from the billowing a...

Why social media is being blamed for fueling riots in France

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

Social media companies are once again under scrutiny, this time in France as the country’s president blames TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms for helping fuel widespread riots over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron accused social media of playing a “considerable role” in encouraging copycat acts of violence as the country tries to tamp down protests that surfaced long-simmering tensions between police and young people in the country. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said police made 917 arrests on Thursday alone. More than 300 police officers have also been injured attempting to quell the rioting over the death of the teenager, who is of north African descent and has only has been identified by his first name, Nahel.Macron, who in tandem castigated video games for the rioting, said the French government would work with social media sites to take down “the most sensitive content” and identify users who “call for ...

Pakistani security forces kill 6 militants in separate raids near the border with Afghanistan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s military says security forces have raided two militant hideouts in regions near the border with Afghanistan, triggering intense shootouts that left six insurgents dead during the Eid holidays.A military statement said the two raids were conducted early Friday in Tank and North Waziristan districts on credible intelligence information about intrusion and hiding of militants in the areas near the border with Afghanistan. Security forces also seized weapons and ammunition from the hideout and were carrying out a clearance operation of the area, the military said late Friday.The military gave no further details about the identity or affiliation of the six dead, but largely militants belong to factions of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is generally known as Pakistani Taliban.TTP is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in the neighboring country in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their...

Sri Lanka’s parliament to vote on debt restructuring plan amid economic crisis

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:49:02 GMT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s parliament will vote on a proposal to restructure staggering domestic debt in a special session on Saturday as the country struggles with an unprecedented economic crisis.Sri Lanka’s total debt has exceeded $83 billion, of which $41.5 billion is foreign and $42.1 billion is domestic. The proposed restructuring plan is part of the prerequisites of a bailout package approved by the International Monterey Fund — which has described Sri Lanka’s debt as unsustainable — to help alleviate the country’s humanitarian crisis.Under the proposed domestic debt restructuring program, the bulk of the debt will be shared by the Central Bank and superannuation funds from which the government already borrowed money, while national banks will be spared because of possible negative ramifications on deposits, according to top government officials.Central Bank governor, Nandalal Weerasinghe, previously said the treasury bills owned by the bank would be converte...