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Chris Flexen brought up to majors by Chicago Cubs after spending last season with White Sox

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Chris Flexen brought up to majors by Chicago Cubs after spending last season with White Sox
News

News

Chris Flexen brought up to majors by Chicago Cubs after spending last season with White Sox

2025-05-01 09:03 Last Updated At:09:11

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Chris Flexen was brought up to the major leagues by the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday after signing a minor league contract in February and making five minor league starts.

Chicago selected the contract of the 30-year-old right-hander from Iowa, optioned left-handed reliever Tom Cosgrove to the Triple-A farm team and transferred right-hander Javier Assad, who has a strained left oblique, to the 60-day injured list.

Flexen joined the NL Central leader after spending last season with the crosstown White Sox, who set a post-1900 record with 121 losses. He has a $1.5 million salary in the major leagues with the Cubs and can earn $1 million in performance bonuses for innings: $250,000 each for 50, 75, 100 and 125.

“I looked at it as an opportunity to pitch,” Flexen said. “We had our struggles. It was a tough season, but I made a lot of great relationships there. Now I’m looking forward to being in Chicago again.”

Flexen likely be used in middle and long relief after going 3-0 with a 1.54 ERA in five starts with Iowa. He was 3-15 with a 4.95 ERA in 30 starts and three relief appearances last year for the White Sox, leading the team with 160 innings.

“I’m really excited to be here,” Flexen said. “Chicago fans are great and I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s like on the other side.”

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FILE - Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Chris Flexen throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Friday, July 19, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Chris Flexen throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Friday, July 19, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Israel warned of more attacks on Iran on Saturday after Iran's deadly retaliatory strikes on Israel overnight and into the morning. Three people were killed and dozens were wounded in Israel, after a series of blistering Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear program and its armed forces the previous day.

Israel’s assault on Friday used warplanes, as well as drones smuggled into the country in advance, to assault key facilities and kill top generals and scientists. Iran’s U.N. ambassador said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded in the attacks.

Israel said the barrage was necessary before Iran got any closer to building an atomic weapon, although experts and the U.S. government have assessed that Tehran was not actively working on such a weapon before the strikes. It also threw talks between the United States and Iran over an atomic accord into disarray days before the two sides were set to meet Sunday.

Here's the latest:

The images show multiple buildings either damaged or destroyed, including structures experts say supply power to the facility. The images were shot on Saturday by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by The Associated Press.

Natanz’s enrichment plant — where Iran enriched uranium to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90% — was also destroyed.

All the Natanz facilities damaged in Israeli strikes are above ground and it doesn't appear from the images that below-ground enrichment halls had any apparent damage, though they likely are without electricity.

Abbas Araghchi says nuclear talks with the United States would be “unjustifiable” after Israeli strikes on his country — an indication there would be no negotiations this weekend. The U.S. and Iran teams were to hold talks in Oman on Sunday.

Araghchi spoke in a phone call with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat.

Israeli airstrikes were the “result of the direct support by Washington,” he alleged, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. The U.S. has said it is not part of the strikes.

The “continuation of the indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. is unjustifiable in a situation where the wildness by the Zionist regime continues,” he added.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty denounced Israel’s strikes on Iran as a “serious escalation” that could push the region to “a state of instability and chaos.”

Abdelatty’s comments came in phone calls with his Italian and Spanish counterparts, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Footage shared by an affiliate of Iran's state TV showed a fire after an Israeli strike at Zagros Khodro, a former car manufacturing plant in Borujerd.

The state-run IRNA news agency also reported an Israeli strike on Saturday around Abadan in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province. Other strikes appeared to be happening in Kermanshah near a military barracks.

The Israeli military says seven soldiers were lightly wounded on Friday night in an Iranian missile strike in central Israel.

It says they were briefly hospitalized and sent home. This is the first report of military casualties in the operation. It gave no further details on where the soldiers were located.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appointed Gen. Majid Mousavi, to replace Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday.

The Guard’s aerospace division oversees Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles.

The airport authority says the it will stay closed until further notice. Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv has been closed to traffic since Israel attacked Iran’s military and nuclear facilities on Friday morning and Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes at Israel.

The announcement came as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria said they were reopening their airspaces on Saturday after closing them.

It was one of the strongest appeals for peace since the election in early May of the first American pontiff.

“The situation in Iran and Israel has seriously deteriorated,” Pope Leo XIV said during an audience in St. Peter’s Basilica.

He stressed that “the commitment to building a safer world free from the nuclear threat must be pursued through respectful encounters and sincere dialogue to build a lasting peace.” Leo also noted that “no one should ever threaten the existence of another.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz issued the stark warning after an assessment meeting with the army’s chief of staff.

He says Iran will pay a heavy price for harming Israeli citizens.

The Israeli military said around noon on Saturday that its fighter jets “were set to resume striking targets in Tehran.”

Meanwhile, the U.N. nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — confirmed in a post on X that the Isfahan nuclear site in Iran was targeted several times on Friday.

“No increase in off-site radiation levels has been reported as of now,” the agency said.

Syria's civil aviation authority says it's reopening the airspace on Saturday but will follow the situation in the region and take any necessary measures if needed. The airspace was closed on Friday.

National carrier Syrian Air also said it is resuming some of its flights.

Iranian state television identified the two killed as Gen. Gholamreza Mehrabi, the deputy of intelligence for the armed forces’ general staff, and Gen. Mehdi Rabbani, the deputy of operations.

It did not say where the men were killed.

Israel’s strikes on Friday killed multiple high-ranking officers within Iran’s armed forces, including the chief of staff of the army and the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Three people were wounded in Jordan's northern city of Irbid when an object fell on a home, state media reported Saturday.

They were taken to a hospital and are in stable condition, the Jordan News Agency said.

The report did not specify what the object was, but Iranian missiles and drones fired toward Israel flew over Jordan.

Jordanian authorities have begun an investigation, the report said.

Lebanon reopened its airspace on Saturday morning, hours after closing it due to the exchange of fire between Israel and Iran.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Works and Transport apologized to passengers whose flights were delayed, saying it had closed the airspace late Friday for the safety of travelers.

The airspace was reopened at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday.

Satellite images analyzed Saturday by The Associated Press began to confirm some of the damage sustained by Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal by the Israeli assault on the country.

Images from Planet Labs PBC taken Friday showed damage at two missile bases, one in Kermanshah and one in Tabriz, both in western Iran.

At Kermanshah, where the base is up against a mountainside, burns could be seen across a wide area after the attack. In Tabriz, images showed damage at multiple sites on the base.

Iran has not acknowledged the damage, though it reported on Israeli strikes in the area.

Al-Azhar al-Sharif, the Sunni world’s foremost institution of religious learning, has condemned Israel’s attack on Iran, describing Israel as a “rogue entity.”

“The arrogance displayed by the Israeli occupation reflects the darkest form of occupation in modern history,” the Cairo-based university said in a statement early Saturday.

It called on the international community to take “urgent actions to halt the repeated violations committed by this rogue entity.”

Iran is a powerhouse of Shiite Muslims in the region and often at odds with Sunni nations.

The Israeli military said it carried out overnight strikes on dozens of targets, including air defenses, in the area of Iran’s capital, Tehran.

Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, the Israeli air force commander, said the strikes carried “operational and national significance.”

Israel has paused natural gas supplies to Egypt amid its conflict with Iran, authorities in Cairo said.

The move has forced the Egyptian government to stop supplying gas to some industries, according to a Friday statement from the Ministry of Petroleum.

Some power plants that use natural gas in their operations have also reported fuel oil shortages amid peak summer demand, it said.

Egypt faces a deepening domestic gas shortfall, with a more than 7% shortage in its daily gas needs to operate its power grid.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman on Saturday called further nuclear talks with the United States “meaningless” after Israeli strikes on the country, state television said.

The comments by Esmail Baghaei further threw possible talks between the two nations, initially scheduled to take place Sunday in Oman, into doubt.

“The U.S. did a job that made the talks become meaningless,” Baghaei was quoted as saying. He added that Israel has passed all Iran’s red lines by committing a “criminal act” through its strikes.

However, he stopped short of saying the talks were cancelled. The Mizan news agency, which is run by Iran’s judiciary, quoted him as saying: “It is still not clear what we decide about Sunday talks.”

Jordan will reopen its airspace to civilian aircraft on Saturday morning, its state-run media reported, signaling the Mideast kingdom believes there is no immediate danger of further attacks.

Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said the skies would reopen at 7:30 a.m. local time.

Jordan’s airspace had seen Iranian drones and missiles cross through it, with Israeli fighter jets likely engaging targets there.

The crossfire between Israel and Iran disrupted East-West travel through the Mideast, a key global aviation route.

A spokesperson for Beilinson Hospital in Tel Aviv said a woman was killed in an Iranian missile strike, bringing the total number of fatalities in the barrages from Iran to three.

The hospital also treated seven people who were wounded in the strike early Saturday. Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services said a projectile hit a building in the city.

Israel’s paramedic service Magen David Adom says an Iranian missile struck near homes in central Israel early Saturday morning, killing two people and injuring 19 others. Israel’s Fire and Rescue service said four homes were severely damaged.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel and Iran to halt their attacks on one another, while calling for diplomacy.

“Israeli bombardment of Iranian nuclear sites. Iranian missile strikes in Tel Aviv. Enough escalation. Time to stop. Peace and diplomacy must prevail,” Guterres wrote on X on Saturday.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency is reporting a fire at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport, posting a video on X of a column of smoke and orange flames rising from what the outlet said was the airport.

Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv said it has treated seven people hurt by the second Iranian barrage; six had light injuries and the seventh was moderately wounded.

Sirens and the boom of explosions, possibly from Israeli interceptors, could be heard in the sky over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv early Saturday.

AP journalists in Tel Aviv could see what appeared to be at least two Iranian missiles hit the ground, but there was no immediate word of casualties.

The Israeli military said another long-range Iranian missile attack was taking place and urged civilians, already rattled by the first wave of projectiles, to head to shelter. Around three dozen people were wounded by that first wave.

The Iranian outlet Nour News, which has close links with the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said a fresh wave was being launched.

The sound of explosions and Iranian air defense systems firing at targets was echoing across the center of the capital, Tehran, shortly after midnight on Saturday.

Additionally, an Associated Press reporter could hear air raid sirens near their home.

A person looks out at a destroyed residential building that was hit by a missile fired from Iran, in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A person looks out at a destroyed residential building that was hit by a missile fired from Iran, in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli security forces inspect destroyed residential buildings that were hit by a missile fired from Iran, in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli security forces inspect destroyed residential buildings that were hit by a missile fired from Iran, in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A residential building that was struck by a missile fired from Iran, is seen in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A residential building that was struck by a missile fired from Iran, is seen in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli security forces inspect destroyed houses that were struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Rishon Lezion, Israel on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israeli security forces inspect destroyed houses that were struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Rishon Lezion, Israel on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israel's Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept projectiles over Tel Aviv, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israel's Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept projectiles over Tel Aviv, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli security forces inspect destroyed houses that were struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Rishon Lezion, Israel on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israeli security forces inspect destroyed houses that were struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Rishon Lezion, Israel on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

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