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Uber offers festive, holiday-themed party buses in L.A.

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

As the holiday season approaches, Uber is giving its customers a chance to ride in style to this season’s parties, festivities, and gatherings. Beginning Monday through Sunday, Dec. 17, customers can book a Festive Fleet with Uber, a holiday-themed party charter bus filled with karaoke, festive lights, Christmas decor, and photo props to help stir up the holiday spirit. Perfect for holiday group gatherings on the go, the holiday-themed charter trips will be available in L.A., New York, Washington D.C., Miami, and Chicago. Riders who book a charter up until Sunday will receive 10% off with promo code “FESTIVE 10.” In addition to the holiday party buses, Uber is also offering several other special holiday offerings including the Gift Hub in the Uber Eats app to easily find and send gifts, Robot Reindeers that will be delivering food for the month of December, and free package returns using Uber Connect. 

Clippers hold off short-handed Trail Blazers 132-127 for 4th straight win

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kawhi Leonard scored 34 points and the Los Angeles Clippers beat the short-handed Portland Trail Blazers 132-127 on Monday night for their fourth straight win.James Harden added 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Paul George had 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists and Ivica Zubac had 18 as the Clippers improved to 9-3 in their last 12 games since ending a season-worst six-game skid.Leonard has scored 75 points in his last two games. “The biggest thing is health and finally getting his rhythm with PG and James starting,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. Portland was without Deandre Ayton, who missed his third straight game, and Malcolm Brogdon, who sat out his second in a row. Both have right knee soreness.Anfernee Simons scored a career-high 38 points and Shaedon Sharpe added 27 for the Blazers, who fell to 0-8 against the West on the road. “I knew it was going to be a tough game for us,” Lue said. “Defensively, we couldn’t get stops. They s...

Kings set franchise record for 3s with 25 and beat Nets 131-118

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeAaron Fox had 28 points and nine assists, and the Sacramento Kings set a franchise record for 3-pointers with 25 in a 131-118 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night.Domantas Sabonis added 15 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists for the Kings, who have won three straight against the Nets including a season sweep last year. Keegan Murray scored 24 and Malik Monk had 21 points and nine assists.It was the second time this season the Kings had three players with seven assists or more. They set a team season high with 38 assists overall.“We’re a team that can shoot the basketball, and it was evident tonight,” coach Mike Brown said. “To see us get corner 3s and be able to knock them down was very gratifying because these guys can flat-out shoot and they’re going to share the basketball.”Sacramento shot 25 of 45 from 3-point range (55.6%), breaking the previous Kings record of 23. Fox and Trey Lyles led the sharp shooting from beyond the arc with five 3s ...

Packers had everything going for them until they ran into Tommy DeVito

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers had seemingly righted their early-season problems with a three-game winning streak that put them squarely in playoff position.They had an easy schedule over the final five games, and winning out seemed a possibility.Tommy DeVito and the New York Giants spoiled all that Monday night by rallying for a 24-22 victory that left the Packers one of six NFC teams with a 6-7 record. The playoffs are up for grabs again.Next up is a date Sunday with the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers, another team sitting at 6-7 and fighting for a playoff spot.Defensive lineman Kenny Clark refused to say this was a trap game for the Packers, who were coming off a win over the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.“I’m not going to disrespect them like that,” Clark said of the Giants (5-8), who won their third straight behind DeVito, an undrafted rookie quarterback. “They showed up and they made plays. We’re in the NFL. You don’t play your be...

MacKinnon scores winner as Avalanche rally from 2-goal deficit in 3rd for 6-5 win over Flames

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon had open ice, plenty of speed and a steely determination not to let this one get away. Not after this rally.MacKinnon scored with 4:30 remaining on a breakaway to complete Colorado’s comeback from two goals down in the third period as the Avalanche beat the Calgary Flames 6-5 on Monday night.Trailing 5-3 entering the final period, Ross Colton scored with 8:40 remaining and Mikko Rantanen tied it up with 6:29 left.MacKinnon scored the winner after Rantanen delivered a long pass to Valeri Nichushkin who dished it over to MacKinnon in stride. MacKinnon simply took it from there.“We can take the positivity out of that game,” MacKinnon said. “No one was deflated. Even after 5-3 we kept pushing and kept a good attitude.”The goal by MacKinnon spoiled a big game by Nazem Kadri, who had a goal, assist and a roughing penalty against his former team. Ivan Prosvetov took over in net for Alexandar Georgiev in the third period and stopped all 11 shots he...

Editorial: Fire Harvard President Gay today

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

Harvard President Claudine Gay should have been fired on Dec. 6, a day after her insulting testimony before a Congressional committee.The fact that she’s still on the Cambridge campus is all you need to know about Harvard University these days. There’s a huge difference between free speech and hate speech. What’s playing out there since the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel is the latter.The Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, reportedly still mulling what to do, have waited too long to act. Like it or not, the region’s reputation rides on our institutions, and Harvard is embarrassing all of us. MIT is a close second.Lawrence Summers, president emeritus at Harvard, posted on his social media feed that trustees with “the ultimate fiduciary responsibility” have been “AWOL.” He added alumni angry at Harvard’s abhorrent response to antisemitism on campus have been “let down” over a “substa...

Poland’s newly elected prime minister is to present his government and face a confidence vote

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s newly elected prime minister, Donald Tusk, is scheduled to deliver his inaugural speech to parliament on Tuesday morning and present a Cabinet that will then face a confidence vote later in the day.Tusk, a centrist leader who was previously prime minister from 2007-2014, returns as the head of a broad alliance that spans the ideological spectrum from left-wing via his own centrist Civic Platform party to more conservative parties.He was elected by parliament on Monday and faces many challenges, from restoring democratic standards in his own country, working for the release of European Union funding frozen due to democratic backsliding by his predecessors and facing the implications of a war just across Poland’s eastern border in Ukraine. One of his easier challengers will be restoring ties with the EU, which were badly strained during the past eight years of rule by a national conservative government.Tusk, who served as European Council pre...

Live updates | Israel plans to keep fighting as other countries call for a cease-fire in Gaza

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

Israel pressed ahead Tuesday with an offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers that it says could go on for weeks or months. Ahead of a non-binding vote at the United Nations later Tuesday, Israel and the United States faced global calls for a cease-fire in Gaza.More than 17,700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where United Nations agencies say there is no safe place to flee. With only a trickle of humanitarian aid reaching a small portion of Gaza, residents face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Israel says 97 of its soldiers have died in its ground offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 hostages. Qatar, which has played a key mediating role, says efforts to stop the war and h...

Israel and the US face growing isolation over Gaza as offensive grinds on with no end in sight

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel and the United States were increasingly isolated as they faced global calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, including a non-binding vote expected to pass at the United Nations later on Tuesday. Israel has pressed ahead with an offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers that it says could go on for weeks or months. The war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel has already brought unprecedented death and destruction to the impoverished coastal enclave, with more than 18,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and minors, and over 80% of the population of 2.3 million having fled their homes.Much of northern Gaza has been obliterated, and hundreds of thousands have fled to ever-shrinking so-called safe zones in the south. The health care system and humanitarian aid operations have collapsed in large parts of Gaza, and aid workers have warned of starvation and the spread of disease among displaced people in overcrowded shelters and tent camps...

Suicide bomber attacks police station in northwest Pakistan, killing 13 officers and wounding 28

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:58:29 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle at a police station’s main gate in northwest Pakistan early Tuesday, killing at least 13 officers and wounding 28 others, and causing a part of the building to collapse upon impact, officials said. Some militants also opened fire and a shootout ensued for hours between them and security forces before three attackers were gunned down, local police officer Kamal Khan said.The death toll from the attack was likely to rise as at least 10 officers were in critical condition, authorities said. The bodies of the 13 security forces killed were transferred to a hospital. Police launched a search operation in the surrounding area to apprehend the militants who got away, officials said. The attack happened in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, Khan said. The province is a former stronghold of the militant Pakistani Taliban group, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pak...