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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Blake Snell and the Los Angeles Dodgers have finalized a $182 million, five-year contract. The reigning World Series champions announced the deal with the two-time Cy Young Award winner on Saturday. Snell, who turns 32 on Wednesday, went 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 20 starts for San Francisco this year, throwing a no-hitter at Cincinnati on Aug. 2 for one of only 16 individual shutouts in the major leagues this season. The left-hander struck out 145 and walked 44 in 104 innings. He was sidelined between April 19 and May 22 by a strained left adductor and between June 2 and July 9 by a strained left groin. Snell gets a $52 million signing bonus , payable on Jan. 20, and annual salaries of $26 million, of which $13 million each year will be deferred. Because Snell is a Washington state resident, the signing bonus will not be subject to California income tax. Snell joins Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto atop Los Angeles’ rotation. Ohtani didn’t pitch this year while recovering from right elbow surgery but the two-way star is expected back on the mound in 2025. Snell won Cy Young Awards in 2018 with Tampa Bay and 2023 with San Diego. He is 76-58 with a 3.19 ERA in nine seasons with the Rays (2016-20), Padres (2021-23) and Giants. Because he turned down a qualifying offer from San Diego last November, the Giants were not eligible to give Snell another one and won’t receive draft-pick compensation. AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLBNo. 22 Xavier unbeaten but looking for more effort vs. South Carolina
Lake Michigan waves could be a clean power source for remote spots like Beaver IslandPresident-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday he would pick Kash Patel, the former chief of staff to to the acting secretary of defense during the first Trump administration, to serve as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation . "Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and “America First” fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People," Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social, arguing Patel would "bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI." Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you are Patel, who will have to earn Senate confirmation to become FBI director, has earned a reputation as the ultimate Trump loyalist who has called for a purge of perceived enemies in the Justice Department and intelligence agencies. A former public defender who rose to increasingly senior national security posts in the final year of Trump’s first term, Patel has promoted the falsehood that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump as well as baseless claims that federal bureaucrats in the “deep state” tried to overthrow the former president. Patel has called for replacing “anti-democratic” civil servants in law enforcement and intelligence with “patriots” who he says will work for the American people, and in his memoir described the current political moment as “a battle between the people and a corrupt ruling class." “The Deep State is an unelected cabal of tyrants who think they should determine who Americans can and cannot elect as president, who think they get to decide what the president can and cannot do, and who believe they have the right to choose what the American people can and cannot know,” Patel wrote in "Government Gangsters." Former intelligence officers, Democratic lawmakers and Western officials worry that a hard-line Trump loyalist like Patel could reshape the makeup and mission of the nation’s intelligence apparatus, stripping it of its apolitical outlook and skewing assessments to adhere to a White House agenda. And they fear a worst-case scenario in which the spy agencies could be turned into tools to target political opponents. Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world. During the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, Patel gained favor with Trump as a congressional staffer after drafting a memo that accused the FBI of making mistakes in how it obtained a warrant to conduct surveillance of a former Trump campaign volunteer. Many of the memo’s assertions were later disproved. An inspector general report found fault with the FBI’s surveillance during the Russia investigation, but also found no evidence that federal authorities had acted in a politically partisan way. Patel went on to serve in Trump’s White House National Security Council, briefly as an adviser to the acting director of national intelligence and as chief of staff to Defense Secretary Chris Miller at the end of Trump’s first term. During the closing months of Trump’s tenure, the former president proposed Patel to serve as the deputy CIA director or to take over the FBI. Then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, a career intelligence officer, threatened to resign if Patel was installed and the attorney general at the time, William Barr, vehemently objected. Trump ended up dropping his plans. “Patel had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency,” Barr later wrote in his memoir. Patel and some other Trump loyalists suspected there was information hidden away in the intelligence community that could shed more light on bureaucratic plotting against Trump and in favor of Joe Biden, former officials said. “It was a fairly conspiratorial environment at that point,” said Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence. Patel has echoed Trump’s rhetoric labeling journalists as traitors and calling for “cleaning out” allegedly disloyal federal bureaucrats. In an interview last year with longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, Patel vowed to go after “conspirators” who he claimed had abused their positions in government. “The one thing we learned in the Trump administration the first go-around is that we have to put in all-American patriots top to bottom,” Patel told Bannon. “And the one thing that we will do that they never will do is that we will follow the facts and the law and go to courts of law and correct these justices and lawyers who have been prosecuting these cases based on politics and actually issuing them as lawfare,” he said. “We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media — yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’re going to figure that out — but yeah, we’re putting you all on notice,” Patel said. Trump and his allies first started referring to a “deep state” soon after the 2016 election, viewing the investigation into Russia’s interference in the election — and its outreach to the Trump campaign — as an attempt to sabotage his presidency. Patel joined Trump on the 2024 campaign trail and has promoted his memoir, a film adaptation of the memoir and a line of children’s books featuring him as a “wizard” defending “King Donald.” He has touted his charity, the Kash Foundation, as a way of helping the needy and providing legal defense funds to whistleblowers and others. But the foundation has released few details of its finances. According to tax filings for 2023, revenue for the foundation increased to $1.3 million last year, compared with $182,000 in 2022, with much of the money coming from donations. The foundation listed expenses of $674,000, with about $425,000 spent on advertising and marketing. He also has appeared on Truth Social peddling “Warrior Essentials” anti-vaccine diet supplements, which are supposed to “reverse” the effects of Covid-19 vaccines. In his memoir, Patel recounts how after law school he dreamed of landing a job with a law firm and a “sky-high salary” but “nobody would hire me.” Instead, he became a public defender in Miami. Referring to his stint at the Justice Department after his work as a public defender, Patel has claimed he was the “lead prosecutor” for a federal case against a Libyan accused of taking part in the lethal 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi. “I was the main Justice lead prosecutor for Benghazi,” Patel said in an interview on a YouTube channel hosted by a former Navy SEAL, Shawn Ryan. But in Justice Department announcements at the time, Patel was not listed as the lead prosecutor or as part of the legal team. At a 2016 proceeding in Houston for a case involving a Palestinian refugee who pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS, a federal judge, Lynn Hughes, dressed down Patel and kicked him out of the chambers, according to a court transcript . The judge repeatedly questioned why Patel had flown all the way from Central Asia to be present at the proceeding, as the judge said his presence was unnecessary. And he scolded Patel for failing to dress appropriately. “Act like a lawyer,” the judge said. He accused Patel of being a Washington bureaucrat who would interfere in a case where he was not needed. “‘You’re just one more nonessential employee from Washington.” In his memoir, Patel wrote that he had rushed back from Tajikistan and did not have a suit to wear to the courtroom, and that he chose not to talk back to the judge “who had it out for me” to avoid damaging the government’s terrorism case. This article first appeared on NBCNews.com . Read more from NBC News here:
CONWAY, S.C. (AP) — Kobe Knox's 13 points helped South Florida defeat Portland 74-68 on Thursday. Knox also had six rebounds for the Bulls (3-2). Brandon Stroud added 11 points while shooting 4 for 12 (1 for 3 from 3-point range) and 2 of 4 from the free-throw line while he also had six rebounds. Jamille Reynolds shot 3 of 6 from the field and 4 of 5 from the free-throw line to finish with 10 points. The Pilots (2-3) were led in scoring by Max Mackinnon, who finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Vincent Delano added 14 points for Portland. A.Rapp also had 11 points and eight rebounds. South Florida went into the half ahead of Portland 38-33. Knox scored eight second-half points. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has had an “excellent conversation” with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club following the US president-elect’s threat to impose significant tariffs on Canada and Mexico. It was unclear, as Trudeau headed back to Canada from Florida, whether the conversation had alleviated Trump’s concerns. A person familiar with the details of the leaders’ hastily arranged meeting on Friday night said it was a “positive wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours”. The official, who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said topics included trade, border security, fentanyl, defence, Ukraine, NATO, China, the Middle East and pipelines as well as a G7 meeting in Canada next year. A photo of Trudeau sitting next to Trump during dinner was posted on X by Pennsylvania senator-elect Dave McCormick. The Republican president-elect has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if the governments there do not stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said he would impose a 25 per cent tax on all products entering the US from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders when he takes office in January. As he was leaving his West Palm Beach hotel, Trudeau stopped briefly to answer a reporter’s question about the dinner meeting, saying it was “an excellent conversation”. Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions about what the leaders had discussed. Trump, during his first term as president, once called Trudeau “weak” and “dishonest” but it was the prime minister who was the first G7 leader to visit Trump since the November 5 election. “Tariffs are a crucial issue for Canada and a bold move was in order. Perhaps it was a risk, but a risk worth taking,” Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University, said. Among those at the dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary; North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, in line to lead the Interior Department; and Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice to be his national security adviser. Accompanying Trudeau were Canada’s public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff. Trudeau had said earlier on Friday that he would resolve the tariffs issue by talking to Trump. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said a day earlier after speaking with Trump that she is confident a tariff war with the United States will be averted. Trudeau said Trump got elected because he promised to bring down the cost of groceries but now he is talking about adding 25 per cent to the cost of all kinds of products including potatoes from Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada. To Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, Trump “doesn’t need convincing that new tariffs on Canadian products would not be in US interests. He knows that but cannot say it because it would detract from what he has said publicly. His goal is to project the image that he gets action when he talks.” When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the US in a response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminium. Canada is the top export destination for 36 US states. Nearly $C3.6 billion ($A4.1 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.Polite, unmistakably cultured, and endowed with creativity, my London-based friend Achala Sharma becomes uncharacteristically stern when someone refers to the great Indian singer, the late Mohammed Rafi (1924-1980), merely as Rafi. Looking intently into the eyes of the offender, Achala ji, the former chief of Hindi BBC Radio Service, raises a finger and firmly states — her voice gone from supple to steely — “Rafi Saheb, please”. The emphasis upon the suffix leaves no doubt about her reverence for the maestro nor does it permit others to be any less respectful of him. Now, we all know Mohammed Rafi and it is only to check a few boxes of literary formality that I note that he was born in a village near Amritsar, spent a few years of his childhood in Lahore, and at the age of 14 arrived in Bombay (now Mumbai). He gave his first stage performance at age 13, recorded his first song for the Punjabi film, Gul Baloch, at age 20, and got his break in Hindi film industry at the age of 21 with a solo rendering in the 1945 movie Gaon Ki Gori. The rest, as they say, is history. The increasingly popular singer worked with all the great music directors of his time, starting from Shyam Sundar and Husn Lal-Bhagat Ram through Naushad, OP Nayyar, SD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, Chitragupta and C Ramchandra, to Laxmikanth-Pyarelal, Jaidev, C Arjun and Khayyam. He lent his voice as a playback singer convincingly to actors as diverse as Dilip Kumar and Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand and Bhagwan, and Balraj Sahni and Johnny Walker. All in all, he sang about 7,000 songs in 13 Indian and seven foreign languages. He won six Filmfare Awards, one National Award, numerous international prizes and recognitions and was honoured with Padma Shri. To be sure, such exceptional achievement deserves to be celebrated and cherished. However, far more striking than this enviable curriculum vitae is the breathtaking versatility of Mohammed Rafi’s creative praxis. He sang romantic songs, bhajans, qawwalis, comedic numbers, ghazals, semiclassical compositions, laments, “drunk hero” items, and patriotic anthems with comparable gusto and dexterity. His capacity to immerse himself in such broad range of human subjectivity was astonishing and made him stand heads and shoulders above the fellow singers not only of his era but of all times. Bracing for accusations of incompleteness, I list eight emotional experiences that Mohammed Rafi masterfully conveyed through his voice, noting that in each of them he could titrate the expression from subtle through lucid to outspoken. The resulting 24 variations of voice, uncannily, correspond to the date of his birth (December 24,1924)! Romance: From the sublime (Aap ke haseen rukh pe aaj naya noor hai, Bahaarein Phir Bhi Aayengi, 1966) through the impish (O mujhe dekh kar aap ka muskuraana, Ek Musafir, Ek Haseena, 1962) to the audacious (Yeh chaand sa roshan chehra, Kasmir ki Kali, 1964). Separation: From the pleading (O door ke musafir, hum ko bhi saath le le, Uran Khatola, 1955) through the resigned (Chal urh ja re panchhi, Bhabhi, 1957) to the tearjerker (Babul ki duaayein leti ja, Neelkamal, 1968). Heartbreak: From the anguished (Toote huye khwaabon ne hum ko yeh sikhaaya hai, Madhumati, 1958) through the regretful (Main yeh soch kar us ke dar se uthha tha, Haqeeqat, 1964) to the aching (Din dhal jaaye hai, raat na jaaye, Guide, 1965). Humour: From the ironic (Yeh hai Bombay, meri jaan, C.I.D, 1956) through the playful (Sar jo tera chakraaye, Pyaasa, 1957) to the bawdy (Suno suno Miss Chatterjee, mere dil ka matter ji, Howrah Bridge, 1958). Inebriation: From the defiant (Mujhe duniya waalon, sharaabi na samjho, Leader, 1964) through the sorrowful (Mehfil se uthh jaane waalo, tum logon par kya ilzaam, Chhandi ki Deewar, 1964) to the inconsolable (Koi saaghar dil ko behlaata nahin, Dil Diya Dard Liya, 1966). Self-awakening: From the soothing (Jaag dil-e-divaana, Oonche Log, 1965) through the insightful (Aaj puraani raahon se koi mujhe awaaz na de, Dil Diya Dard Liya, 1966) to the outrageous (Yahoo! Chaahey koi mujhe junglee kahe, Junglee, 1961). Religious: From Hindu devotion (Man tarpat hari darshan ko aaj, Baiju Bawra, 1952) through Biblio-Islamic liturgy (Parvardigaar-e-aalam, tera hi hai sahaara, Hatim Tai, 1956) to the spiritually transcendent (man re , tu kaahey na dheer dharey, Chitralekha, 1964). Patriotism: From the celebratory (Yeh desh hai veer javaanon ka, Naya Daur, 1957) through the declarative (Apni aazaadi ko hum hargiz mita saktey nahin, Leader, 1964) to the exhortative (Awaaz do hum ek hain, Indian Film Division Documentary, 1962). How to account for such majestic ability of one person to submerge his individuality into so many and so varied affective states that we — all of us — feel it? The only explanation that comes to my mind is that such individual must have been deeply compassionate, empathic, and thus most fundamentally human at his core. This authenticity-universality paradox was evident in his private calm and public celebrity status as well as in his being a deeply patriotic Indian and a genuine world citizen. This last-mentioned dimension brings to my mind a song of Mohammed Rafi that I have not mentioned. Taken from the 1961 movie Mr. India, which I saw with my then 17-year-old brother Javed (Akhtar) in Bhopal’s Laxmi Talkies, the song opens with the following lines: “Mat poochh mera hai kaun vatan aur main kahaan ka hoon/ saara jahaan hai mera, main saarey jahaan ka hoon”. With the song echoing in my mind today, I want to burst out saying: “You are! Indeed, you are, Rafi Saheb”. The deference with which I will utter the word Saheb will surely please my good friend, Achala ji. Salman Akhtar is a US-based psychoanalyst and poet in Urdu. The views expressed are personal