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☆ Back on track, Astros chase another win over Red Sox
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Field Level Media | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

What the Astros sought against the Mariners they manifested in a 7-3 victory over the visiting Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, a win that earned at minimum a split of the four-game series after a 9-4 win on Monday. Urquidy is 3-0 with a 2.50 ERA over three career starts against the Red Sox. Chris Sale (5-3, 4.50 ERA) will get the ball for the Red Sox on Wednesday. One night after Red Sox manager Alex Cora lamented a sloppy defensive performance in the series opener, Boston committed three errors on Tuesday. The Red Sox have committed 90 errors, the highest total in the majors.

Persons: Martin Maldonado, Houston, Justin Verlander, Mauricio Dubon, Dubon, Connor Wong, Dusty Baker, Gary, Pettis, Jose Urquidy, Urquidy, Chris Sale, Alex Cora, Mauricio Llovera, Wilyer Abreu, Cora Organizations: Houston, Astros, Seattle, Mariners, Boston Red Sox, Red Sox, Boston, Washington Nationals, New York Yankees, Verlander, Thomson Locations: Boston

☆ The scientist behind IBM Watson has raised $60 million for his AI startup in New York
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

David Ferrucci, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher who led the team that created IBM Watson , has raised nearly $60 million for his AI startup called Elemental Cognition, according to a regulatory filing. The filing on Thursday says the company sold $59.95 million worth of equity to 17 investors and plans to raise another $5.75 million. Ferrucci led IBM Watson between 2006 and the end of 2012, during which time the computer system famously won "Jeopardy!" He then ran AI research for Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds. In January of last year, the company sold its Watson Health unit for an undisclosed amount to private equity firm Francisco Partners.

Persons: David Ferrucci, Watson, Cora, Ferrucci, IBM Watson, David Shepler, Eric Brown, Mike Barborak, Jim Breyer, Sam Palmisano, Greg Jensen, Bridgewater's, Geoff Yang, OpenAI's Organizations: IBM, Bridgewater Associates, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Bridgewater, Breyer Capital, Facebook, Redpoint Ventures, CNBC, Investors, Health, Francisco Partners Locations: New York, New, Helmsley, guardrails, China

☆ Mets blast Pirates 8-3 behind DJ Stewart's 2 HRs
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Field Level Media | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports Acquire Licensing RightsAugust 16 - DJ Stewart homered twice and finished with three RBIs on Wednesday afternoon for the host New York Mets, who beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-3 in the rubber match of a three-game series. Francisco Lindor's two-run single closed out a three-run second inning and Brandon Nimmo added an RBI single in the fourth. Nimmo drew two walks while Ortega had a double, a single and a walk. Pirates starter Johan Oviedo (6-13) gave up four runs on five hits and five walks while striking out three over four-plus innings. The Pirates immediately answered in the third, when Hayes hit a leadoff double and Reynolds homered to left-center field.

Persons: Joey Cora, DJ Steward, Gregory Fisher, DJ Stewart, Francisco Lindor's, Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Rafael Ortega, Tylor Megill, Phil Bickford, Brooks Raley, Trevor Gott, Adam Ottavino, Nimmo, Ortega, Bryan Reynolds, Alika Williams, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Johan Oviedo, Stewart, Omar Narvaez, Jonathan Arauz, Hayes, Reynolds, Oviedo, Alonso, Ryan Borucki, Daniel Vogelbach, Connor Joe, Bickford, Alfonso Rivas, Williams, Jose Hernandez, Jeff McNeil, Rivas misplayed Narvaez's, grounder, Ortega's Organizations: New York Mets, Base, Pittsburgh Pirates, Citi Field, USA, Mets, Pirates, homering, The Pirates, Thomson Locations: New York City , New York, USA

☆ Red Sox look to stay hot in clash vs. Nationals
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Field Level Media | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

August 16 - The Boston Red Sox will look to continue their push toward a playoff spot on Wednesday night in the second contest of their three-game series against the host Washington Nationals. With their 5-4 victory in the series opener Tuesday, the Red Sox have won six of their last eight games. Gore, 24, has yet to face the Red Sox in his young career. "They did an outstanding job," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. After back-to-back late comeback wins against the Oakland Athletics, the Nationals couldn't produce similar heroics against the Red Sox relievers.

Persons: Boston's James Paxton, MacKenzie Gore, Paxton, Gore, Alex Verdugo, Pablo Reyes, Alex Cora, Garrett Whitlock, Reyes, Keibert Ruiz, I've, Casas, Ruiz, Hunter Harvey, Kyle Finnegan, Finnegan, Dave Martinez, We'll, Harvey Organizations: Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, Red Sox, Kansas City Royals, Nationals, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington, Oakland Athletics, Thomson

☆ Out to end 4-game skid, Red Sox host Royals
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Field Level Media | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

August 7 - The Boston Red Sox will attempt to end a four-game losing streak and pull themselves back into the American League wild-card race when they open a four-game series against the visiting Kansas City Royals on Monday. The Blue Jays completed a three-game sweep of the Red Sox with a 13-1 victory on Sunday. "Tough weekend," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. Kansas City acquired Ragans, 25, in the trade that sent Aroldis Chapman to the Texas Rangers in June. The Royals recalled Ragans from Triple-A to start against the Mets last Wednesday, when he tossed six scoreless innings in Kansas City's 4-0 victory.

Persons: Alex Cora, There's, Cole Ragans, Ragans, Brayan Bello, Aroldis Chapman, Bello, Cora, It's, Salvador Perez, Freddy Fermin, Perez, Fermin, Alex Verdugo, Verdugo Organizations: Boston Red Sox, American League, Kansas City Royals, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Boston, Kansas City, Phillies, . Kansas City, Texas Rangers, Royals, Tampa, Rays, Triple, Mets, Seattle, Sunday's, Philadelphia, Fenway Park, Thomson Locations: Kansas, . Kansas, Ragans, Tampa Bay, Omaha, Boston

☆ Red Sox hope to rebound in series finale against Blue Jays
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Field Level Media | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

August 6 - The Boston Red Sox will try to put a bad day behind them and salvage the finale of a three-game series with the visiting Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon. Neither Red Sox manager Alex Cora nor Verdugo, who never got into the game, commented on the reason. The Red Sox won the first seven meetings with the Blue Jays this season and now have lost two straight to a team they are chasing for an American League wild-card spot. Bassitt has faced the Red Sox once in his career, in 2021, when he allowed two runs and three hits with 10 strikeouts in seven innings. The Red Sox are expected to start left-hander Brennan Bernardino (1-1, 2.72).

Persons: Alex Verdugo, Alex Cora, Verdugo, Reese McGuire, Cora, benching, wasn't, I've, Chris Bassitt, Bassitt, Brennan Bernardino, Bernardino, McGuire's, Erik Swanson, John Schneider, Kevin Kiermaier, Reese, Toronto's George Springer, Davis Schneider, Babe Schneider, Brandon Belt, we've, He's, It's Organizations: Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Park, American League, Sox, Toronto, Triple, Thomson Locations: Toronto

One rainy spring evening, a young Iranian mother with a mangled arm, her husband and their 3-year-old daughter met a smuggler near the Iraqi border who gave them a stern ultimatum: Ensure the child’s silence or leave her behind. The mother, Sima Moradbeigi, 26, recalled that she dashed to a pharmacy for a bottle of cough syrup to drug her daughter into a stupor. Under the cover of night, the family followed the smuggler out of Iran along mountain paths, sometimes crouching or crawling through muddy scrubland to avoid border guards stalking their route with flashlights. Hours later, Ms. Moradbeigi and her husband said, they arrived safely at a mosque outside the city of Sulaimaniya in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan Region. The Islamic Republic — the theocracy that arose after Iran’s 1979 revolution — was never hospitable to women who rebelled against its strict religious codes for dress and behavior.

Persons: Sima Moradbeigi, Moradbeigi, Juan, —, Mahsa Amini Locations: Iranian, Iran, Sulaimaniya, Iraq’s, Kurdistan Region, Republic

☆ Cora strengthens Carrefour’s inflation defences
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, July 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Carrefour’s (CARR.PA) 1 billion euros acquisition of smaller rival Cora could be seen as a consequence of the French group’s ability to navigate rocketing inflation. It will give the combined company a near 23% share of the fragmented and competitive French market, consolidating Carrefour’s leadership on its home turf. Five years ago, Carrefour and Casino had begun tentative talks for a possible merger that ultimately collapsed. If anything, Cora’s acquisition will make Carrefour a more attractive target. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Persons: Cora, Daniel Kretinsky, Xavier Niel ., Pierre Briançon, Aimee Donnellan, Streisand Neto Organizations: Reuters, Carrefour, Casino, Twitter, Thomson Locations: French, France

☆ At Least 78 Die as Migrant Ship Sinks Near Greece
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | Niki Kitsantonis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

At least 78 people drowned in the Aegean Sea after a large fishing boat carrying migrants sank early Wednesday, the Greek Shipping Ministry said, in the deadliest such episode off the country’s coast since the height of the 2015 migration crisis. More than 100 people were rescued, but the Greek Coast Guard warned that the death toll would probably increase. The boat foundered about ‌50 miles southwest of the city of Pylos, in southern Greece, after the authorities were alerted to its unusual movements on Tuesday‌, according to a statement from the Greek Coast Guard. A Greek Shipping Ministry official said that the boat had refused assistance offered by the authorities. He also said that cargo ships in the area had given the migrants food and water.

Organizations: Greek Shipping Ministry, Greek Coast Guard Locations: Aegean, Pylos, Greece

☆ A ‘Dystopian Nightmare’ Unfolds in Sudan’s Battered Darfur Region
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The gunmen arrived at dawn on motorcycles, horses and in cars. For hours afterward, they fired into houses, rampaged through shops and razed clinics, witnesses said, in a frenzied attack that upended life in El Geneina, a city in the Darfur region of Sudan. Truce agreements have so far failed to end the brutal fighting that broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has decimated many areas of the capital, Khartoum. But the war between the military factions has also swept across the country to the long-suffering western region of Darfur — an area already blighted by two decades of genocidal violence.

Persons: Peace Organizations: Rapid Support Forces Locations: El Geneina, Darfur, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Khartoum

☆ What’s Behind Rising Tensions in Kosovo?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Dozens of NATO peacekeepers were injured this week in northern Kosovo when they clashed with ethnic Serbs, raising fears of a larger escalation between Serbia and Kosovo. The violence came after Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership sent heavily armed security forces to take control of town municipal buildings, the latest turn in a dispute that has roots going back to the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. Kosovo, where a majority of the population is ethnic Albanian and Muslim, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after NATO’s bombing campaign that drove Serb forces, responsible for years of brutal mistreatment of ethnic Albanians, from Kosovo. Since then, the two countries have clashed over Kosovo’s treatment of its minority ethnic Serb population.

Organizations: NATO Locations: Kosovo, Serbia, Albanian

☆ Fire in Guyana School Dormitory Kills at Least 20
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A time of celebration in Guyana as it prepared to mark its independence day this week turned to mourning on Monday after at least 20 people, many of them children, were killed when a fire engulfed a girls’ dormitory at a school in the central part of the South American country. The country’s president described the fatal blaze as “horrific” and a “major disaster.”The ages of the victims are not known, but students enrolled at the school are between 12 and 16. Several others were injured in the fire, which broke out late Sunday in Mahdia, a gold mining town about 120 miles southwest of the capital, Georgetown. Seven students in critical condition were being evacuated to the capital. “The focus now is on the children to ensure that we do everything, to give them as much help as we can,” President Mohamed Irfaan Ali told journalists early Monday at Ogle airport, also known as Eugene F. Correia International Airport, where he was organizing a “full-scale emergency” plan.

☆ Serbia Offers Amnesty for Illegal Firearms, and Thousands Are Collected
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | Joe Orovic | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Serbian authorities have collected thousands of weapons in a sweeping campaign to reduce the number of firearms in the hands of civilians in the week after two mass shootings stunned the country, officials said Friday. More than 9,000 illegal and legal weapons have been collected, according to Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, who called the effort “a great step forward for a safer environment for our children” and “all our people,” at a news conference on Friday. “Some people say it’s not the gun that shoots the bullet but a man,” he said. “But if that man doesn’t have a gun, the evil in his head can’t do any harm.”Mr. Vucic did not specify if all the guns had been handed over voluntarily or if some had been seized.

Persons: Aleksandar Vucic, ”, Mr, Vucic Organizations: Serbian

☆ ‘We Don’t Want This War’: Trapped in Khartoum as Combat Rages
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nurses maneuver through gunfire and shelling to make house calls, delivering babies and providing care to those who can’t reach hospitals. Families barely eat in order to conserve dwindling food and water supplies, as temperatures rise. And the few good Samaritans who venture out to help the elderly or put out a blazing fire face intimidation and arrest by the fighters in the streets. The Sudanese capital, Khartoum, has endured the most intense fighting, prompting embassies and the United Nations to evacuate their nationals and staff members — leaving behind millions who now face shortages of water, food, medicine and electricity. The clashes — between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces — have continued despite repeated cease-fires purportedly agreed to by both sides.

☆ What’s Behind Serbia’s Gun Violence
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Back-to-back shootings in Serbia this week, one in a school, have stunned the population and brought global attention to gun control in a country with one of the world’s highest rates of gun ownership. Promising an “almost complete disarmament,” the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, said on Friday that he planned to introduce sweeping changes to tighten gun regulations in response to the two shootings, one by a minor and the other with an illegal firearm. He also called for a one-month amnesty on Friday for gun owners to surrender illegal weapons without penalty ahead of the more stringent measures. Here is a look at Serbia’s trouble with guns and the restrictions the government proposed this week.

Persons: Aleksandar Vucic Locations: Serbia, Serbian

☆ What We Know About the Explosions Over the Kremlin
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One explosion caused a brief fire, although it was unclear whether the drones exploded as planned or were shot down. About twelve hours after the explosions, the Kremlin issued a rare statement saying that it had foiled an “attempt on the life of the president,” who was not in the Kremlin at the time. The Kremlin houses the Russian Senate and an apartment where Mr. Putin occasionally stays, among other offices. There were no casualties or serious damage, the Kremlin said. They have accused Russia of manufacturing the incident to justify increased attacks on Ukraine or to drum up public support for its war.

☆ 7th Grader Opens Fire at School in Serbia, Killing 8 Children
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Shortly after, the authorities received a call from the perpetrator, saying that he had shot several people at the school and giving its address, Mr. Miljic said. Six children and a teacher were injured in the attack and taken to the hospital. A security guard was killed while trying to stop the attack, according to the district’s mayor, Milan Nedeljkovic. “He wanted to prevent a tragedy, which would have been even greater if he had not stood in front of the boy who shot,” Mr. Nedeljkovic said in an interview with state media outside the school on Wednesday. Something like this has never been recorded in the history of Belgrade schools,” he added.

☆ Hunger Strikes Have Long Served as a Tool of Nonviolent Protest
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

How is force-feeding hunger strikers viewed? The authorities are typically eager to quash any potential fallout from prisoners’ dying and loathe the spectacle that hunger strikes can create. International groups like the United Nations, the International Red Cross and the World Medical Association have long recognized the right of prisoners to refuse food. And it has been labeled “a form of torture and is contrary to medical ethics,” according to the World Medical Association. Despite these objections, the U.S. military has force-fed prisoners on hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay, saying that it had no other choice but to keep them alive, and none have starved.

☆ Cease-Fire Is Extended in Sudan, but Bombardments and Gunfire Ensue
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Civilians continued to flee renewed clashes in Sudan on Friday, as a three-day extension of an already-tenuous truce got off to a fitful start, and foreign countries ramped up evacuations after warning of an escalation of violence in the coming days. Gunfire and loud explosions rocked at least two neighborhoods in the capital, Khartoum, residents said, as the battle between Sudan’s army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, entered its 14th day. Clashes also continued in the western region of Darfur, aid workers said, even as the African Union, the United Nations and countries including the United States welcomed the decision to extend a fragile cease-fire for an additional 72 hours. “What I am seeing is thick smoke. What I am hearing is shelling and gunshots,” said Ahmad Mahmoud, a Sudanese resident of Khartoum who witnessed a massive bombardment of the Burri neighborhood in the capital.

☆ Sleep gummies: Possibly harmful doses of melatonin, CBD found
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Testing of over two dozen melatonin “gummies” sold as sleep aids found some had potentially dangerous amounts of the hormone that helps regulate sleep, according to a new study. “Four of the tested products contained levels of CBD that were between 4% and 18% higher than on the label,” Cohen said. “We choose gummies over other products because we thought parents would chose edibles to give to their children,” Cohen said. Gummies sold as sleep aids had much higher levels of melatonin than stated on the label, as well as CBD, according to the study. “However, that doesn’t mean melatonin products are going to work or they’re a good idea to take.

☆ Fighting Intensifies in Khartoum as Sudan Cease-Fires Fail
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Isabella Kwai | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fighting in Sudan intensified on Thursday morning as a bombardment by warplanes in the center of the capital, Khartoum, amounted to one of the most fearsome assaults yet in the violent days-long clashes. With two generals vying for power over the country, residents in Khartoum said that the fighting had destroyed hospitals, airfields and homes, and left civilians caught in the crossfire. Despite repeated international calls for a cease-fire, proposed pauses in the fighting have not held. A shaky truce that allowed some residents to flee from parts of Khartoum on Wednesday night has since collapsed. And concerns are mounting that the chaos could draw nearby nations — including Egypt, which has troops in Sudan; Chad; Ethiopia; and Libya — into the conflict.

☆ What We Know About the Fighting in Sudan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Isabella Kwai | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A patchy cease-fire between Sudan’s two rival generals held in parts of the capital on Wednesday night, as desperate residents looked for ways to escape the city after five days trapped by the chaotic fighting with dwindling stocks of water and food. Evacuation from the capital, Khartoum, has proved intensely dangerous since conflict erupted over the weekend between Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces. Nearly 300 people have been killed and over 3,000 wounded since fighting erupted on Saturday, the World Health Organization said. Conditions have deteriorated with dizzying speed in Sudan, even by the standards of modern warfare. Khartoum was already a fragile city before fighting erupted on Saturday, with frequent power outages and soaring food prices.

Many other hospitals were also reported to have come under attack on Monday, the third day of fighting in Sudan. Russia has also been trying to make inroads in Sudan, and members of the Kremlin-affiliated Wagner private military company are posted there. Leaders from around the world called for a cease-fire, but it was not clear who, if anyone, was in control of Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country, by area. “Everyone is afraid,” said Ahmed Abuhurira, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer who went out to try to charge his cellphone. “The humanitarian situation in Sudan was already precarious and is now catastrophic,” he said.

☆ Inside the Rise and Fall of Kittyhawk, Larry Page's Failed Flying Car Company
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Hugh Langley | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +22 min

Killing off projects had become something of a tradition at Kittyhawk, the secretive flying-car startup launched by the Google cofounder Larry Page. Larry Page has used his Google money to found a series of flying car companies with one common goal: "to free the world of traffic." "When Bloomberg did their original exposé, that's when urban air mobility became a thing," a former Kittyhawk employee recalled. Everyone thought: If Larry Page is in this space, there must be something here." Interpreting "Larry-isms" or "learning to speak Larry" were essential skills for any Kittyhawk employee who wanted to retain their sanity.

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