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PHOENIX (AP) — Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara has pitched more than 200 innings this season. None of them came in a save situation — until Wednesday night. With the Marlins clinging to faint playoff hopes, Alcantara came out of the bullpen for the first time in nine years and closed out a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Just two days after throwing 101 pitches in a no-decision at Arizona, the 31-year-old right-hander worked a scoreless ninth inning for his first major league save and said he felt “great.” “If I’m here, I’m going to do everything I can to help the team win,” Alcantara explained. After going five innings Monday in Miami’s 8-7 loss, Alcantara told pitching coach Daniel Moskos he could help out Wednesday if needed. “Daniel passed that along to me. (Alcantara) headed down (to the bullpen) in the sixth inning or so and I told him he had the ninth,” manager Clayton McCullough said. Miami used eight pitchers Tuesday during an 11-inning victory, and the Marlins (76-77) are still fighting to stay in the pennant race. They trail San Diego by 7 1/2 games for the final National League wild card with nine to play. “It speaks to Sandy in a lot of ways. This happened 10 days ago when he headed down there (between starts), but it didn’t work out,” McCullough added. “It’s as much a testament to him wanting to win, what it means to this group. You saw the excitement from the group.” Alcantara, who leads the majors with 206 innings pitched this season, got two deep flyouts before walking Lars Nootbaar. Pinch-runner Jordan Lawlar attempted to steal second but was thrown out by catcher Joe Mack to end it. Alcantara has made 201 big league starts. His eight previous relief appearances all came as a rookie with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2017. A two-time All-Star and the 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner, Alcantara is 13-10 with a 3.84 ERA in 32 starts and now one relief outing this season. McCullough said Alcantara will start Sunday in San Diego as scheduled. But the pitcher said he’s ready if needed before then. “This is my first one,” Alcantara said. “Hopefully they keep giving me the opportunity.” ___ See AP’s full MLB coverage here Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares were mixed on Thursday after Wall Street closed lower following the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike decision for the first time in three years. U.S. futures were higher. The quarter of a percentage point increase brings the Fed’s key rate to a target range of 3.75%-4.00%, as it attempts to control U.S. inflation that’s been stubbornly above its target. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was 0.2% higher at 64,067.53. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.9% to 6,778.49. The Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 0.7% to 24,533.46, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.4% to 3,877.46. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.3% to 8,718.20. Taiwan’s Taiex jumped 1.3%, while India’s Sensex edged up 0.3%. On Wednesday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 dropped 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite was mostly unchanged. Market reactions were “pretty much expected since the rate rise was also in line with market expectation,” said Lorraine Tan, director of equity research for Asia at Morningstar on Thursday, but the ongoing Iran war is likely to keep pressure on inflation. Following the Fed’s announcements, the two-year U.S. Treasury yield jumped to 4.72% compared to around 4.67% late Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at around 5.00% at an elevated level. Government bond yields have remained higher since the war as the war-driven energy shock adds to inflationary pressure while investors also worry about growing U.S. national debt. The U.S. dollar fell early Thursday to 156.04 Japanese yen from 156.26 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1467, up from $1.1465. Oil prices edged slightly higher, as there are still limited oil flows in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway crucial for global oil transport, and as Saudi Arabia’s closure of a key oil pipeline adds to oil supply pressure as it moves to repair the pipeline. Brent crude, the international standard, traded 0.1% higher at $105.89 early Thursday. ___ AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Ahmed Eljechtimi and Alexander Dziadosz RABAT/CAIRO, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Morocco’s political parties are trying to entice young voters to the polls next week with promises of jobs and affordable housing after violent protests last year and a border rush on the Spanish enclave of Ceuta highlighted widespread discontent.  Uneven development and continuing economic hardship among young people were seen as drivers of both events, against a backdrop of recent progress in sectors such as manufacturing, ports and railways lifting living standards in major cities.    The vote, due on September 23, is the country’s fourth since the 2011 Arab Spring protests led the monarchy to share more power with parliament before moving to reinforce its position.  A moderate Islamist party ran the government for about a decade but suffered a crushing defeat in the last vote five years ago, ceding its place to two parties founded by men close to the palace.  Those parties, the National Rally of Independents (RNI) and the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), have both put youth employment at the centre of their campaigns, pledging to create about one million jobs over the next parliamentary term.  They have also touted roughly $20 billion of infrastructure investment ahead of the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Spain and Portugal, and streamed rallies on social media to draw the attention of young voters.  “We reject the idea that young people simply want an easy life,” the PAM’s campaign manifesto says, listing housing, regular income and “dignified work” as policy priorities. Analysts say the challenge of engaging young voters was illustrated by deadly, Gen-Z-led protests last year, and by the massive border rush on Ceuta in July. “The Ceuta mass migration attempt was a new form of social protest in which many citizens demonstrated a physical exit from Moroccan politics altogether,” said Mohamed Masbah, head of the Moroccan Institute for Policy Analysis, a think tank. YOUNG VOTERS ‘NO LONGER BELIEVE’ PROMISES  While 18- to 24-year-olds make up some 12% of the population, they account for only about 3% of registered voters, official figures show.  Just one third of Moroccans between 18 and 35 years old say they trust parliament, the prime minister or political parties, according to a survey published in March by Afrobarometer, a research nonprofit. Young voters say they have been discouraged by an impression that elections shift the balance between parties with little ideological space between them without producing major policy changes.  “We keep seeing the same faces return with promises that many young voters no longer believe,” said university student Mohamed Azzaoui, who said he does not intend to vote. Under Morocco’s system, the monarchy retains control of the country’s overarching policy direction. In recent years the palace has also consolidated power over key portfolios, including the foreign and interior ministries.  That means parties are competing less over the overall development model, and more over how to achieve the palace’s objectives, according to economist Rachid Aourraz. In practice, Masbah said, that means that “if everything goes well, the monarchy takes credit. If things go wrong, the government gets the blame.” AMBITIOUS ECONOMIC GOALS  In recent years, authorities have leant heavily on their economic strategy. Already one of Africa’s most diversified and industrialised economies, Morocco’s growth targets are ambitious.  The country’s “New Development Model”, a national economic plan launched about five years ago, aims to double gross domestic product per capita by 2035. The country has seen billions pour into sectors such as deepwater ports, phosphates, green energy and rail lines.  But this has often not translated into popular satisfaction.  Youth unemployment is around 27% — the highest rate of any age group — and one in three young Moroccans is neither working, studying nor training, according to official statistics.  As the country’s central bank wrote in a recent report, stubborn unemployment and other factors have opened “a gap … between objectively measured economic performance and citizens’ perceptions.” (Reporting by Ahmed El Jechtimi in Rabat and Alexander Dziadosz in Cairo; Editing by Aidan Lewis) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Mei Mei Chu BEIJING, Sept 17 (Reuters) – A range of delegates to China’s flagship defence conference this week expressed fears over the potential for unchecked AI development and technology rivalries to further heighten risks across the global security environment The warnings come as the world’s two largest AI powers, China and the US, prepare for bilateral summit talks this month but remain divided on how to control the technology’s use in military systems, including nuclear weapons. AI has dangerously compressed decision-making for governments and their militaries just as misinformation shreds public trust before they can respond, panelists at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum on security said. “Today, the world is at a critical turning point. Strategic competition among major powers is becoming more pronounced, conflicts in many regions continue,” said Thailand’s Defence Minister Adul Boonthumjaroen. As AI and other technologies transform warfare, “the most pressing is not who will be the most powerful, but rather, how can we build an international order,” he said. Adul was among some 2,000 military officers, diplomats and academics from 100 countries attending the three-day event which ended on Thursday. Delegates included regional defence officials, a North Korean representative, a senior Pentagon official, Russian academics and Taliban delegates. “As weapon systems become increasingly autonomous, the need to preserve human judgment and control over the use of force becomes more pressing,” said Jurg Lauber, vice-president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, while also highlighting some of the benefits of AI. The rising use of low-cost drones was changing the nature of warfare, stretching and blurring front lines over vast distances, Lauber said. Pakistan’s Defense Secretary Muhammad Ali said technological advances were “compressing the strategic timeline.” “Artificial Intelligence accelerates decisions while disinformation and misinformation can fracture public trust before governments are even able to respond effectively.” Bangladeshi, Malaysian and Laotian representatives also expressed concern over the impact of AI. The conference comes as both China and the US – the two major drivers of cutting edge AI development and its global adoption – express concerns over its risks but hold different views on its control. Both China and the US have been at loggerheads over AI policies and industry practices. Security experts from both countries have called for guardrails and consensus-building regarding AI in military systems, including nuclear weapons. (Reporting By Mei Mei Chu in Beijing; Writing by Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Liangping Gao and Marius Zaharia BEIJING/HONG KONG, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Sun Guangqing’s prefabricated homes factory in China opened in 2022 just as the property sector entered a prolonged crisis and only months before Beijing lifted pandemic curbs, developments that crippled its two main sources of demand. For Hebei Shengtai Integrating Housing, survival required a rapid pivot. The company moved beyond container-style quarantine units and temporary worker accommodation to produce more stylish prefab homes aimed at export markets. “Any factory wants to survive,” said Sun, 41, the head of production and design at the factory in the northern city of Hengshui. “When domestic sales plunge, factories must find other markets and foreign markets are larger.” He says most of his industry peers are now making capsule homes and luxurious foldable cabins for the tourism and vacation property industries overseas, showcasing the ability of the world’s largest manufacturing base to rapidly adapt and upgrade its products for consumers abroad. China’s prefabricated building exports rose to $4.3 billion in 2025 from $1.7 billion in 2020, with the U.S., Southeast Asia, Australia, and Western Europe as key markets, customs data show. While that is just a fraction of China’s massive $1.2 trillion trade surplus last year, the industry’s shift from domestic to foreign sales is emblematic of a post-pandemic export boom that worried Western capitals dub ‘China shock 2.0’. China’s export juggernaut, which the West fears is gutting local industries and torching jobs, will dominate the agenda at a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week. Expectations for the meeting are modest, though, not least because Beijing has grown increasingly self-assured that no rival can match its industrial machine for scale and efficiency, demonstrating its ability to expand in foreign markets despite steeper tariffs. For Sun, the fiercest competition comes not from foreign rivals but from the more than 1,000 prefab-home factories across China. Hengshui alone has around 30. He is unfazed by the prospect of additional trade barriers, because other countries “genuinely have the demand” and “our production speed and efficiency right now are something no other country can match.” His firm builds a home in as little as 15 to 25 days and delivers it overseas within three months. Comparable homes produced locally in many markets often take far longer and cost more, he said. China’s export boom “is happening regardless of tariffs, geopolitical instability, logistics disruptions, oil prices and all sorts of political narratives,” said Hao Dong, senior lecturer in management at the University of Southampton. Perceptions of “Made in China” products are improving noticeably, he said. “I cannot imagine anything that would effectively stop the trend, except for extremely radical developments such as wars,” he added. TIGHTLY-KNIT, LOCAL, COMPLETE SUPPLY CHAINS June Liu, a saleswoman at Qingdao Jingcheng Metal Technology, which sells factory-built homes from Weifang in eastern China, said domestic manufacturers enjoy a cost edge from cheaper labour, integrated local supply chains and large-scale production. Steel structures, insulation panels, doors, windows and other parts are all available in and around her city of 9 million, while the port of Qingdao is only a two-hour drive away. “It’s all nearby,” Liu said. “In Weifang, there’s one street where you drive for 20 minutes and all you see left and right is factories.” The cheapest, container-like houses have a pre-shipping cost of less than 6,800 yuan ($1,000), while A-frame double-wing homes cost more than 100,000 yuan, Liu said. Some clients want them equipped with furniture, water heaters, air conditioners and other appliances, which the firm sources from Chinese brands including Hisense and Haier. By contrast, U.S. producers are facing rising costs for materials and a persistent shortage of skilled construction workers, said Robert Dietz, chief economist at the Washington-based National Association of Home Builders. He said the U.S. imported more than 70,000 prefabricated building kits in 2025, about 40% of which came from China. PROFIT SQUEEZE Behind the export triumph, however, lies a bruising price war at home. What some view as scale-driven efficiency, others see as overcapacity that is squeezing profits and threatening the industry’s long-term viability and the jobs they created. Sun said his company has slashed the price of its popular double-wing expandable house by more than half to below 20,000 yuan, amid intensifying competition, leaving profit of just 1,000-2,000 yuan per unit. “Too many prefab home factories chase export orders, squeezing margins and creating a vicious cycle that has driven down prices,” he said, adding he expects more than one-third of the industry to shut down in coming years. The operations manager at another factory in Hengshui, Pang Hufeng, also decries profits per unit of “hundreds of yuan.” His firm, Hebei Shengshuo Metal Products, also started as a domestically focused producer, but now about 80% of its sales go abroad. Manufacturers in Hebei, the northern province Hengshui is part of, are “pretty competitive,” said Pang, weighing on prices. Yet he argued the same forces are making Chinese products more competitive abroad, helping sustain export demand. “Low prices and rapid deployment will continue to support overseas demand,” he said. ($1 = 6.7095 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Editing by Shri Navaratnam) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com