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Orioles’ Heston Kjerstad ‘stoked, excited, relieved’ to be called up, makes MLB debut; Ryan Mountcastle won’t go on IL

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

It took Heston Kjerstad exactly two years to make his professional debut after the Orioles drafted him in 2020. He needed less than that to climb all the way up.The Orioles called up Kjerstad, ranked by Baseball America as the organization’s fifth-best prospect, to the major leagues Thursday, the team announced. He made his way to Baltimore when first baseman Ryan Mountcastle exited with left shoulder discomfort he suffered on a swing in the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals.Kjerstad was pulled in the fifth inning of Triple-A Norfolk’s game Wednesday evening and was told after by Tides manager Buck Britton of his promotion. He made his MLB debut in Thursday night’s loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, pinch hitting in the eighth and striking out.“This is something I’ve worked for my whole life,” Kjerstad said. “To finally be here and be in the moment, it’s been awesome so far.”Kjerstad’s promotion came amid a flurry of ot...

About 13,000 workers go on strike seeking better wages and benefits from Detroit’s three automakers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — About 13,000 U.S. auto workers stopped making vehicles and went on strike Friday after their leaders couldn’t bridge a giant gap between union demands in contract talks and what Detroit’s three automakers are willing to pay. Members of the United Auto Workers union began picketing at a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri, a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit, and a Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.It was the first time in the union’s 88-year history that it walked out on all three companies simultaneously as four-year contracts with the companies expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.The strikes will likely chart the future of the union and of America’s homegrown auto industry at a time when U.S. labor is flexing its might and the companies face a historic transition from building internal combustion automobiles to making electric vehicles.If they last a long time, dealers could run short of vehicles and prices could rise. The walkout could ...

Delegation from Yemen’s Houthi rebels flies into Saudi Arabia for peace talks with kingdom

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A delegation from Yemen’s Houthi rebels have flown into Saudi Arabia for talks with the kingdom on potentially ending the yearslong war tearing at the Arab world’s poorest nation, officials say. It remains unclear what terms now are being discussed between Riyadh and the Iranian-backed Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital of Sanaa since September 2014. But the trip comes after regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran reached a Chinese-mediated détente earlier this year and as there’s been a flurry of diplomatic activity between the different parties in the proxy war. This latest effort appears to have begun with a visit Monday to Oman by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the assertive son of King Salman who launched the kingdom-led war back in March 2015. Oman long has served as an interlocutor between both Iran and the Houthis during the war. On Thursday, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed reportedly received letter...

China welcomes Cambodian and Zambian leaders as it forges deeper ties with Global South

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — The leaders of China and Zambia announced an upgrading of their ties to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership on Friday, as the world’s second-largest economy forges deeper ties with the Global South.Chinese President Xi Jinping also met new Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet earlier the same day, and with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this week.The trio of leaders from Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America speak to China’s growing role in those parts of the world. Chinese state banks have financed roads and other infrastructure projects and Chinese companies have built factories, mines, hotels and casinos.China has in turn won diplomatic support from many Global South countries on contentious debates and votes at the U.N. and from Cambodia in China’s territorial disputes with other Southeast Asian nations in the South China Sea.Its outreach to the Global South has taken on greater geopolitical import as China seeks allies to push ba...

California Legislature approves plan allowing the state to buy power

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Legislature voted Thursday to give Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration permission to buy massive amounts of electricity, a move aimed at avoiding blackouts by shoring up the state’s power supply while jumpstarting the West Coast’s fledgling offshore wind industry.Five companies paid roughly $750 million last year to lease areas off the California coast to build wind turbines. Collectively, those projects could generate enough electricity to power 3.5 million homes, helping the state avoid blackouts during extreme heat waves that have routinely strained the electrical grid of the nation’s most populous state.But so far, the state’s largest utility companies have not been willing to commit to buying power from projects like those because it would cost too much money and take too long to build. In addition to building the wind turbines, the projects will require improvements at the state’s ports and ...

A mausoleum for transgender women is inaugurated in Mexico’s capital as killings continue

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican transgender rights activists Kenya Cuevas and Andrea Luna sat in front of their longtime friend Paola Buenrostro’s pink grave in Mexico City. “You don’t have to pay rent anymore. You will have your own home now,” Luna sadly joked to her late friend, a transgender woman slain in front of Cuevas in 2016. Buenrostro will be the first woman to be moved to a mausoleum a short distance away entirely dedicated to transgender women that was inaugurated on Thursday. Many of the dead transgender women were victims of hate crimes.Built in Iztapalapa, the most populous borough of Mexico’s capital, the burial site is the first one of its kind in the country. In some cases, no relatives claimed their bodies. Some died of natural causes, while others suffered violent deaths. Cuevas wanted them all to have a dignified resting place.“Thank you Paola, because in your name we were able to reach an important milestone for the trans community,” Cuevas told a cheering cro...

Texas AG Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial is almost over. This is what happened and what’s next

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Closing arguments were set to begin Friday in the historic impeachment trial that could remove Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from office over corruption allegations. It will soon go the jury of 30 senators, most of them Republicans like him.The impeachment charges against Paxton center on allegations that the three-term incumbent improperly used the powers of his office to protect Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, who was indicted in June on federal charges of making false statements to banks.Senators heard from some of Paxton’s former top aides who reported him to the FBI. They detailed their concerns about Paxton’s efforts to help Paul, including an alleged extramarital affair, burner phones and arguments over who paid for kitchen countertops in Paxton’s home renovation project.Defense attorneys called four of Paxton’s current employees who testified they have seen Paxton do nothing wrong and are proud to work for him.Paxton was sus...

The Republicans most at risk in next year’s election are falling in line behind impeachment inquiry

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republicans whose elections in swing districts next year will determine which party gains control of the House are overwhelmingly voicing their support for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. It’s a stance, Democrats say, that could come back to haunt them.McCarthy spared the Republican lawmakers from having to take a vote to launch the impeachment investigation, a likely signal he didn’t have the votes to succeed. Yet many of the 18 Republicans representing districts that Biden won in 2020 were quick to say they supported McCarthy’s launch despite the potential political risk back home.“I think the American people deserve to know the facts and I am looking forward to seeing what the outcome of the inquiry is,” said Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents a Virginia district she won in 2022, but Biden carried by nearly 2 percentage points in 2020. If the inquiry does lead to an impeachment vote, hi...

Secret records: Government says Marine’s adoption of Afghan orphan seen as abduction, must be undone

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

The U.S. government has warned a Virginia judge that allowing an American Marine to keep an Afghan war orphan risks violating international law and could be viewed around the world as “endorsing an act of international child abduction,” according to secret court records reviewed by The Associated Press.It is rare for the federal government to step into a local custody case, but concern about the child’s fate has stretched across the Trump and Biden administrations. The Justice Department argued in the court documents that the dispute has ramifications that extend far beyond the rural courthouse where the girl’s future is being decided.Failing to return the child, now 4, to Afghan relatives in the U.S. could jeopardize American efforts to resettle Afghan refugees, threaten international security pacts and might be used as propaganda by Islamic extremists — potentially endangering U.S soldiers overseas, Justice Department attorneys and other U.S. officials warned in court filings seek...

Climate protesters around the world are calling for an end to fossils fuels as the Earth heats up

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:51:29 GMT

Tens of thousands of climate activists around the world are set to march, chant and protest Friday to call for an end to the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels as the globe suffers dramatic weather extremes and record-breaking heat. The strike — driven by several mostly youth-led, local and global climate groups and organizations, including Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement — will take place in dozens of countries and in hundreds of cities worldwide and continue through the weekend. A week before the planned protest, the United Nations warned that countries are way off track to curb warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, as agreed in Paris in 2015. The world has warmed at least 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since then.Over the past few months, Earth broke its daily average heat record several times according to one metric, July was the hottest month ever on record, and the Northern Hemisphere summer was declared ...