The Chicago Cubs have had a busy offseason. They traded Cody Bellinger to the New York Yankees and acquired Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros. However, they could add another impact bat. FanSided's Mark Ruelle listed the Cubs as a potential trade partner for the Boston Red Sox to move Masataka Yoshida. The Red Sox could ask for one of the Cubs' middle infielders and pitchers in return. "The Cubs could also use more production out of their offense and could immediately slot Yoshida as their everyday DH," wrote Ruelle. "The Red Sox could consider a few options in a deal like this: The Cubs have a surplus of middle infielders and they could aim for a defensive minded one like Nico Hoerner. The Sox could also try and pry a veteran pitcher like lefty Drew Smyly." The Cubs' outfield currently is shaping out to feature Ian Happ in left field, Pete Crow-Armstrong in center field and Kyle Tucker in right field. That leaves Seiya Suzuki to handle DH duties. Suzuki's agent has noted that he does not wish to be a full-time DH, according to ESPN's Jesse Rogers . Unfortunately, if Suzuki wants to keep playing defense, the Cubs are paying him far too much money to not be an everyday player. He signed a five-year, $85 million deal in 2022. The Cubs are essentially left with two options in that case. They can either move Crow-Armstrong to a bench role, allow Suzuki to stay in right field and add a DH like Yoshida. They could also deal Suzuki and trade for a DH like Yoshida who is willing to serve as an every day DH. Yoshida signed a five-year, $90 million deal with the Red Sox in 2023. He hit 10 home runs in 108 games last year and slashed .280/.349/.415. More MLB: Cardinals, Red Sox blockbuster trade proposal dumps 8-time All-Star to BostonMechanized AI Announces Expansion of Executive Team With Appointment of Amy Green as COO
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Biden calls for Assad to be 'held accountable'US President Joe Biden on Sunday said deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad should be "held accountable" but called the nation's political upheaval a "historic opportunity" for Syrians to rebuild their country. In the first full US reaction to Assad's overthrow by an Islamist-led coalition of rebel factions, Biden also warned that Washington will "remain vigilant" against the emergence of terrorist groups, announcing that US forces had just conducted fresh strikes against militants from the Islamic State organization. "The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice," Biden said, speaking from the White House. "It's a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria." Asked by reporters what should happen to the deposed president, who reportedly has fled to Moscow, Biden said that "Assad should be held accountable." Biden -- set to step down in January and make way for Republican Donald Trump's return to power -- said Washington will assist Syrians in rebuilding. "We will engage with all Syrian groups, including within the process led by the United Nations, to establish a transition away from the Assad regime toward independent, sovereign" Syria "with a new constitution," he said. However, Biden cautioned that hardline Islamist groups within the victorious rebel alliance will be under scrutiny. "Some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses," Biden said. The United States had "taken note" of recent statements by rebels suggesting they had since moderated, he said, but cautioned: "We will assess not just their words, but their actions." Biden said Washington is "clear eyed" that the Islamic State extremist group, often known as ISIS, "will try to take advantage of any vacuum to reestablish" itself in Syria. "We will not let that happen," he said, adding that on Sunday alone, US forces had conducted strikes against ISIS inside Syria. The US military said the strikes were conducted by warplanes against Islamic State operatives and camps. Strikes were carried out against "over 75 targets using multiple US Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s," the US Central Command said on social media. Earlier, Biden met with his national security team at the White House to discuss the crisis. Assad's reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group challenged more than five decades of Assad family rule with a lightning rebel offensive that broke long-frozen frontlines in Syria's civil war. They announced Sunday they had taken the capital Damascus and that Assad had fled, prompting celebrations nationwide and a ransacking of Assad's luxurious home. A Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that the deposed leader was now in Moscow, along with his family. The US military has around 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of the international coalition established in 2014 to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group. It has regularly struck targets in the country including those linked to Iranian-backed militias. Tehran was a major backer of Assad's government. Biden also confirmed US authorities believe the American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, still lives. "We believe he's alive," Biden said, but the US has yet "to identify where he is." bur-sms/mlmTScan Therapeutics to Present Updated Data from the Ongoing ALLOHATM Phase 1 Heme Trial During Oral Session at the 66th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition
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I read a long rant about the online submission of taxes posted on X, formerly Twitter, on the last day for submitting income-tax returns. This was by Nisansa de Silva, a friend who teaches computer science. It was a long thread and included words such as “rage” and many other words in capitals. But the most important sentences were: “Now I understand that this is the first time they are doing this online and it is bound to be bumpy. Woe be it if they go back to paper.” I too had spent many hours, standing in line to get my PIN, staring at the screen waiting for the system to respond, etc. I had gone through the same torturous process but strangely I experienced no rage. Was it simply because I was double my friend’s age? It was because I took part of the blame. This was not the first year they offered online filing. It was the year they made it mandatory. I had been asked to pick up my PIN six years ago when I had responsibility for matters digital in government; they had sent me a temporary PIN three years ago so that I could save a visit. And I had not taken a PIN. I teach about the peak-load problem, and I knew the system would be slow at best (and may even crash) on the deadline date. And yet, there I was standing in line for a PIN at the Inland Revenue head office two days before the deadline; and there I was staring at the screen hours from the deadline. Making everything to with taxes online is worth a cheer. And as shown by my (mis)behaviour, sometimes you have to crack the whip. If filing online was not made mandatory, I would not be writing this article. I would have done the calculations on my computer, entered the results in handwriting, and handed over the paperwork by the deadline. Having suffered the consequences of an inattentive employee wrongly entering my TIN, I know full well the need to eliminate handwriting and the reentering of data from the process. So, one cheer for throwing us into the deep end even with a bad product. But as my enraged friend said, do not go back to paper however many complaints there are. At the Inland Revenue head office last week, it was obvious they had not made adequate plans. Having beaten the bushes to increase the ranks of the tax filers and mandating online filing, they should have expected large numbers of taxpayers to come asking for PINs, especially because the online guidance was to come to the head office (on the hotline, it appears the correct instructions were given). The other option of waiting for the PIN to be mailed was no longer feasible by the last week. But why did the website give only one location, when there are multiple tax offices? I was told that a PIN could have been obtained at those locations, but that was after I had been standing in line for some time. But they improvised. Temporary counters had been opened and you could see officials working diligently under sub-optimal conditions. The responsible senior official was on the ground, trouble shooting and explaining. Even the Commissioner General came down to see what could be done to move the lines faster. So, the second cheer for hands-on improvisation. As anyone who went through the process can testify, the user interface is atrocious. If I were to describe all the flaws, this will turn into a long and boring article. But one problem is illustrative. If a mistake had been made in schedule 7 or 8 and was discovered after the pages had been saved, it was necessary to go from the start, saving each page. This just adds to the load on the backend and degrades service quality for all. If the system allowed direct access to a page, much pain could have been avoided. But that is not the suggestion. It is that the Department convene user groups to run through the process demonstrating the pain points they experience. The user interface team can use the findings to improve the interface. One cannot understand the difficulties normal people have with technology without looking over their shoulders as they navigate the system. In the US, every government form had to indicate how much time would be needed to complete it, on average. This was a floor indicator, because it could not include the time required to gather the necessary documents. It would be a good practice to adopt in all government agencies, but Inland Revenue can be the pioneer. In the case of online forms, which is the only option regarding individual income tax returns, what would have to be calculated would be the average time to completion. This would most likely lead to adding to the four options (paths) offered at present. For example, the process could be made much easier for many senior citizens if an additional path could be carved out for those reporting investment and interest income, in addition to the interest-income only option. Minimise the requirements to upload scanned documents. Unlike in the old days, entities that collect taxes on behalf of the state (PAYE, Advance Income Tax, Withholding) do so electronically. The RAMIS interface requires the filer to fill in all the details of the entity that withheld the money, including the TIN, certificate number, date, etc. It should be easy to match these details to the details accompanying the remittances from the employers, banks, etc. It’s difficult to see what value is added by the requirement to scan the certificates and upload them. Minimising the uploading of supporting documents will save the taxpayer time and reduce the load on the system. As the system is improved, it may even be possible to have the withheld-and-remitted amounts automatically filled in by the system. It is only in the few cases where the amounts claimed by the taxpayer do not match what’s in the system that there would be a need to upload documents. The performance of any system under peak-load conditions is what matters. As the number of taxpayers increases (as we all hope it would) there will be more people trying to submit their payments and returns on the last possible day. Some congestion at peak is unavoidable. Many organisations try to flatten the peak, using incentives or disincentives to push users to the valleys. Inland Revenue may consider distributing taxpayer interactions across the entire month of November by giving different deadlines to different groups of taxpayers. This is the crudest form of flattening the peak. Another method is to set discounts and surcharges. Submit 30 days early and get a 5% discount (but it would be necessary to prevent a peak developing there!); submit five days late and pay a 5% surcharge, for example. The efforts made by Inland Revenue to digitalise the system must be appreciated. The Department has the potential to become a leader in Government digitalisation if the momentum is maintained. No longer will it be the poster child of Government digitalisation failure. The actions of Deputy Commissioner General and other senior officials who waded into the crowds to trouble shoot in physical space should be replicated by the design teams in virtual space. Learning from the users and their experiences in navigating the system will be key to earning three cheers next year.Three Erie County Sheriff’s deputies helped save a life Sunday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park. Reserve Deputy Shawn Kephart, Reserve Deputy Bernie Kowal and Reserve Deputy Josh Pasnik, with the help of a good Samaritan, administered CPR to a 61-year-old man during the first half of Sunday’s Buffalo Bills game. The man was transported to Mercy Hospital of Buffalo and is now in stable condition. The four performed CPR on a rotating basis for approximately five minutes before medical crews deployed an AED. Two shocks were administered, with crews finding a pulse after the second shock, according to the Sheriff's Office. During the first half of Sunday’s Bills versus Patriots game, dispatch received a first aid call for a male on the stairway between Sections 110 and 111. Several emergency first responders came to the scene, where they found the man without a pulse. “The courageous and heroic efforts of our reserve deputies, the good Samaritan and medical crews deserve to be recognized,” said Erie County Sheriff John C. Garcia. “They responded to a chaotic moment quickly and consistent with their training.” Garcia added that this is a critical reminder of the importance of knowing CPR and how to use an AED. “A medical incident such as this can happen anywhere, anytime,” he said. “Preparation and knowledge can go a long way to increasing the chance of survival.” Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.By CLAIRE RUSH President-elect Donald Trump has once again suggested he wants to revert the name of North America’s tallest mountain — Alaska’s Denali — to Mount McKinley, wading into a sensitive and decades-old conflict about what the peak should be called. Related Articles National Politics | Inside the Gaetz ethics report, a trove of new details alleging payments for sex and drug use National Politics | An analyst looks ahead to how the US economy might fare under Trump National Politics | Trump again calls to buy Greenland after eyeing Canada and the Panama Canal National Politics | House Ethics Committee accuses Gaetz of ‘regularly’ paying for sex, including with 17-year-old girl National Politics | Trump wants mass deportations. For the agents removing immigrants, it’s a painstaking process Former President Barack Obama changed the official name to Denali in 2015 to reflect the traditions of Alaska Natives as well as the preference of many Alaska residents. The federal government in recent years has endeavored to change place-names considered disrespectful to Native people. “Denali” is an Athabascan word meaning “the high one” or “the great one.” A prospector in 1896 dubbed the peak “Mount McKinley” after President William McKinley, who had never been to Alaska. That name was formally recognized by the U.S. government until Obama changed it over opposition from lawmakers in McKinley’s home state of Ohio. Trump suggested in 2016 that he might undo Obama’s action, but he dropped that notion after Alaska’s senators objected. He raised it again during a rally in Phoenix on Sunday. “McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president,” Trump said Sunday. “They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people.” Once again, Trump’s suggestion drew quick opposition within Alaska. “Uh. Nope. It’s Denali,” Democratic state Sen. Scott Kawasaki posted on the social platform X Sunday night. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski , who for years pushed for legislation to change the name to Denali, conveyed a similar sentiment in a post of her own. “There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali — the Great One,” Murkowski wrote on X. Various tribes of Athabascan people have lived in the shadow of the 20,310-foot (6,190-meter) mountain for thousands of years. McKinley, a Republican native of Ohio who served as the 25th president, was assassinated early in his second term in 1901 in Buffalo, New York. Alaska and Ohio have been at odds over the name since at least the 1970s. Alaska had a standing request to change the name since 1975, when the legislature passed a resolution and then-Gov. Jay Hammond appealed to the federal government. Known for its majestic views, the mountain is dotted with glaciers and covered at the top with snow year-round, with powerful winds that make it difficult for the adventurous few who seek to climb it. Rush reported from Portland, Oregon.