Latest news with #Calif


CTV News
4 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
Australia adds YouTube to social media ban for children
A YouTube sign is shown near the company's headquarters in San Bruno, Calif., Wednesday, March 12, 2025. SYDNEY, Australia — Australia said on Wednesday it will include Alphabet-owned YouTube in its world-first ban on social media for teenagers, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the video-sharing platform. Australia's internet watchdog last month urged the government to overturn the proposed exemption for YouTube after its research found 37 per cent of children aged 10 to 15 reported seeing harmful content on the platform, the most of any social media site. Other social media companies such as Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok had argued an exemption for YouTube would be unfair. 'Social media has a social responsibility and there is no doubt that Australian kids are being negatively impacted by online platforms so I'm calling time on it,' Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement. 'Social media is doing social harm to our children, and I want Australian parents to know that we have their backs.' Social media firms will be fined up to A$49.5 million (US$32.2 million) from December if they break the law, which passed through Parliament in November. A YouTube spokesperson said the company would consider next steps and would continue to engage with the government. 'We share the government's goal of addressing and reducing online harms. Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens. It's not social media,' the spokesperson said by email. Online gaming, messaging apps, and health and education sites will be excluded from the center-left government's minimum age rules as they pose fewer social media harms to teens under 16, or are regulated under different laws, Communications Minister Anika Wells said. 'The rules are not a set and forget, they are a set and support,' Wells said. (Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates)


New York Times
a day ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Rangers' long-awaited win streak has finally arrived, right when they needed it most
ANAHEIM, Calif. — It has always felt like the Texas Rangers were just one win streak away. Such is the expectation for a team that went from a World Series championship in one season to a sub-.500 record the next. They should be better. 'We felt that way,' agreed manager Bruce Bochy. That's what the organization has told itself so many times over the last season and a half. Winning is inevitable, even as it's been elusive. Advertisement After all, the Rangers are not worse on paper than the club that won that aforementioned ring. But they've consistently fallen far below their lofty standards in the nearly two years since winning it all. That long-awaited win streak has finally come to pass, as the Rangers have been baseball's hottest team following the All-Star break. And, quite frankly, they've done it at the perfect time. Texas was 8.5 games out of the American League West lead and 3.5 games back of a wild-card spot on July 18 — firmly in sell territory amid a crowded field. The Rangers are a half-game back of a playoff spot after their six-game winning streak was snapped Monday. As teams like the Rays and Guardians have faded, the Rangers have surged. And this has quite possibly shifted the front office's outlook on whether 2025 is a year worth fighting for. '(Chris Young), I feel like he's always looking to make the team better,' said Rangers ace Nathan Eovaldi of the team's top baseball operations executive. 'It's up to them with what they decide they want to do. I feel like with the guys we have right now, we have a good chance of going out there and proving a lot of people wrong.' It's been offense that's gotten Texas out of its deep slump. The Rangers have the best run differential of any team in July, outscoring opponents 127-67 after Monday's game in Anaheim. Pitching has kept Texas in the mix most of the season, with Jacob deGrom, Eovaldi and Tyler Mahle all pitching to sub-3.00 ERAs. However, offense was always supposed to be this team's identity, even when it wasn't producing. The decline, across the board, was almost inexplicable last season. They had a clubhouse full of star players with track records — some of whom developed into stars in real time, during their playoff run. Marcus Semien's offensive production fell off in 2024, as he posted a sub-.700 OPS for the first time in a full season. Jonah Heim, who looked like a budding stalwart behind the plate, saw his OPS dip from .755 in 2023 to .602 last season. Adolis Garcia, despite taking more at-bats in 2024 than the year prior, still hit 14 fewer home runs. Advertisement Those players have also been the backbone of the resurgence. Semien hit a walkoff single on Saturday. Garcia has a .766 OPS over the last month, after entering that stretch with a .646 mark. Everyone's stepping up. 'That's life, it's like that,' Garcia said. 'Sometimes you have to go through something that makes you get better. We never got frustrated, we focused on continuing to believe.' If the Rangers do decide to add before Thursday's 6 p.m. ET deadline, the Competitive Balance Tax threshold could play a role in how they go about making deals. Their current payroll against the tax is estimated to be nearly $235 million according to FanGraphs, while the CBT threshold this season is $241 million. The club did pay the tax in 2023 and 2024, so it will likely be incentivized to stay below the line this year, particularly if it's close. What's most important, however, isn't what the Rangers add. It's that they've likely removed the risk that Young will substantively subtract from the roster. They have a team capable of competing, with or without major additions. 'This is more who we think we are,' said Bochy. 'It's been a couple years where we didn't have this consistency. But the last couple weeks, it was really critical that we would come out of it.' For so long, this team couldn't rely on the players it needed to rely on the most. But because of those players' career track records, it also fostered the hope that, at some point, there'd be the course correction that's currently taking place. It would have been fair for Young to look at his roster, amid a second straight floundering season, and believe that this wasn't working. The winning streak came just in the nick of time to avoid going down that path to a sell-off. Perhaps the winning streak is masking some of the fundamental flaws of this roster. Or, perhaps, the resurgence has finally come. The winning streak, at the very least, will allow them the chance to find out. Advertisement 'I think any team will say that when you're hovering in that, 'Are they in this?' It was critical that we played well,' Bochy said. 'Now the decisions from the front office, ownership, it makes it a lot easier for them.' (Top photo of the Rangers celebrating a win over Atlanta on Saturday: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)

Associated Press
a day ago
- Sport
- Associated Press
Angels get to deGrom and stop Rangers' 6-game win streak with 6-4 victory
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Kevin Newman, Taylor Ward and Luis Rengifo homered to help the Los Angeles Angels beat Texas 6-4 on Monday night, snapping the Rangers' six-game win streak. Kenley Jansen pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 19th save. The 37-year-old Jansen hasn't allowed an earned run in 16 consecutive appearances, the longest active streak in the American League and the third-longest of his career. Connor Brogdon (2-1) replaced Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz in the fifth and gave up one run in 1 2/3 innings. Kochanowicz, called up from Triple-A Salt Lake earlier in the day, allowed two runs — none earned — in 4 2/3 innings. Newman's two-run shot opened the scoring in the third, and Zach Neto added an RBI double in the fifth. Josh Jung hit a solo homer and Jonah Heim had an RBI single for the Rangers. Josh Smith and Corey Seager scored when Adolis García reached on an error by right fielder Gustavo Campero, who bobbled a routine flyball. Jacob deGrom (10-3), who was 6-0 in his previous 10 starts, gave up five runs and seven hits with eight strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner has allowed at least one home run in five consecutive games in the same season for the first time in his 12-year career. Key moment Ward's leadoff homer in the sixth gave the Angels the lead for good, and Rengifo added a two-run drive off reliever Jacob Webb to make it 6-3. Key stat The Angels, who beat Seattle 4-1 on Sunday, have won back-to-back games for the first time since defeating Arizona on July 11 and 12. Up next Patrick Corbin (6-7, 3.78 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for Texas on Tuesday against Yusei Kikuchi (4-7, 3.23) in the middle game of the series. ___ AP MLB:


Washington Post
4 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Zach Neto delivers walk-off hit in Angels' 3-2 victory over Mariners
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Zach Neto capped his bobblehead giveaway night with a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning to lift the Los Angeles Angels to a 3-2 win over the Seattle Mariners on Friday night. Jose Rodriguez hit two solo homers for the Mariners, but Angels reliever Ryan Zeferjahn (6-3) escaped a two-on, no-out jam in the top of the 10th, and Neto grounded his winning hit off the glove of diving second baseman Cole Young for the first walk-off hit of his career.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Zach Neto delivers walk-off hit in Angels' 3-2 victory over Mariners.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Zach Neto capped his bobblehead giveaway night with a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning to lift the Los Angeles Angels to a 3-2 win over the Seattle Mariners on Friday night. Jose Rodriguez hit two solo homers for the Mariners, but Angels reliever Ryan Zeferjahn (6-3) escaped a two-on, no-out jam in the top of the 10th, and Neto grounded his winning hit off the glove of diving second baseman Cole Young for the first walk-off hit of his career. Neto had two hits and scored a run, and Jo Adell drove in two runs for the Angels, who snapped a four-game losing streak. Mariners right-hander Casey Legumina (4-5) took the loss. Seattle starter Bryan Woo gave up two runs and four hits in six innings, striking out six and walking two. Angels starter José Soriano allowed two runs and four hits in six innings, striking out five and walking one. Rodriguez lined a 98-mph sinker from Soriano over the right-center field wall in the first for his 16th homer of the season and a 1-0 Mariners lead. Adell, who was mired in a 1-for-20 slump, lined a two-out, two-run double to left in the bottom of the inning for a 2-1 lead. Rodriguez opened the sixth with a 408-foot shot to left for his fifth career multihomer game and a 2-all tie. Key Moment With two on, Zeferjahn struck out Cal Raleigh looking with a 99-mph fastball to preserve a 2-2 tie in the 10th. Key Stat Woo has thrown six innings or more with two or fewer walks in all 20 starts this season, the fourth-longest streak of its kind in major league history behind San Francisco's Juan Marichal (23 games in 1968), Seattle/Texas's Cliff Lee (21 games in 2010) and Arizona's Curt Schilling (21 in 2002). Up Next Mariners RHP George Kirby (4-5, 4.65 ERA) opposes Angels LHP Tyler Anderson (2-6, 4.43) on Saturday night. ___ AP MLB: