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Thatcher Demko makes 36 saves, Canucks beat Panthers 4-0 for 4th straight victory

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Thatcher Demko made 36 saves after Vancouver added former star goalie Roberto Luongo to its Ring of Honor in a pregame ceremony and the Canucks beat the Florida Panthers 4-0 on Thursday night for their fourth straight victory.“It’s poetic, right? It’s almost in the air,” said Demko, who also took part in a ceremonial faceoff with Sergei Bobrovsky, his Florida counterpart.Demko had his third shutout of the season and sixth in the NHL. Dakota Joshua scored twice, Brock Boeser had his 22nd and Andrei Kuzmenko added a goal. Vancouver improved to 20-9-1, going 4-1-0 on a five-game homestand.“We’re still trying to establish our identity,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said “We’re chipping away at it and trying to be a hard team to play against, being smart in our own endWe’re still learning. There’s still some times when we’re giving the puck away when we shouldn’t, but I think that’s part of the maturation to get to the next level.”Bobrovsky made 13 save...

James Harden scores his 25,000th point, leads streaking Clippers past slumping Warriors 121-113

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Harden scored his 25,000th career point while racking up a season-high 28 points, 15 assists and seven rebounds, and Kawhi Leonard added 27 points and eight rebounds in the Los Angeles Clippers’ sixth straight victory, 121-113 over the slumping Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.Norman Powell scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter for the Clippers, who overcame Paul George’s first injury absence of the season for their 11th win in 14 games. Los Angeles adroitly held off the Warriors’ late surge and improved to 5-0 at home in December.“That’s what James does,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “PG was out tonight, so (Harden) raised his level of play. Having the ball more, he had to create more and make more plays for himself and his teammates. That’s what we brought him here for, and it was a huge game from him.”Harden became the 24th player in NBA history to score 25,000 points on a driving layup late in the third. The veteran...

De’Aaron Fox scores 41 points as Kings beat Thunder 128-123

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — De’Aaron Fox scored 41 points and the Sacramento Kings beat Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder 128-123 on Thursday night.Oklahoma City wasted a stellar performance by Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 43 points, nine assists and six rebounds.The Kings led by 14 midway through the fourth quarter, but the Thunder cut the deficit to two with a 13-2 run. Fox and Keegan Murray answered with late baskets, and Sacramento stepped up its defense down the stretch. It was the third 40-point performance this season for Fox, who also had seven assists and three rebounds while shooting 14 of 25 from the field.“I didn’t feel like it was like one of the games where I was just like, hot,” Fox said. “I don’t really know how to describe it. When you’re just in the moment, I can’t really say I’m thinking about it. … I know I had a good game but I can’t say that I felt like I knew I had 40 already.”The game featured two of the NBA’...

4 officers and 3 militants die after attacks on police office and 2 army posts in northwest Pakistan

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants attacked a regional police headquarters and two military posts in northwest Pakistan early Friday, triggering firefights that killed four officers and three insurgents, security officials said.The attacks came three days after a suicide bomber in the same region rammed his car into a police station’s main gate and five others opened fire, killing 23 officers in this year’s worst attack on troops. Local police chief Iftikhar Shah said two police officers were “martyred” and three others were wounded in an attack on the police headquarters in the town of Tank in Dera Ismail Khan, while two of the attackers died. He said a third militant was killed by soldiers during the assault on a nearby army post. Hours later, Pakistani Taliban also attacked a military post in the northwestern Khyber region bordering Afghanistan, killing two soldiers and wounding five others, local police official Salim Khan said.No one immediately claimed responsibility fo...

Sexton and Fonteccio lead short-handed Jazz to 122-114 win over Trail Blazers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Collin Sexton scored 27 points, Simone Fonteccio had 24 and the Utah Jazz beat the struggling Portland Trail Blazers 122-114 on Thursday night.Talen Horton-Tucker added 23 points for the short-handed Jazz (9-16), who led by 33 in the second half despite playing without All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen, John Collins, Jordan Clarkson and Keyonte George.Fonteccio shot 7 of 8 from the field, including 5 for 5 from 3-point range.“I thought everyone was very connected, especially defensively,” Utah coach Will Hardy said. “And then offensively, I thought the ball moved around great tonight. I think you see what happens to the collective energy when everyone feels like they’re involved.”Rookie guard Scoot Henderson had a career-high 23 points and 10 assists to lead the Trail Blazers (6-17), who lost their fifth straight in the opener of a five-game homestand. Rookie forward Toumani Camara also set a career best with 18 points, and Portland got 14 points and nine reboun...

Kailer Yamamoto scores 2 early goals to spark Kraken to 7-1 romp over Blackhawks

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Continuing to get contributions from the depth players might be what the Seattle Kraken need to turnaround their sluggish, disappointing start. Kailer Yamamoto scored twice in the first period, Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal and two assists and the Kraken shut down rookie sensation Connor Bedard in a 7-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night.Seattle won consecutive games for just the third time this season and the first time without needing overtime. The Kraken snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 4-0 victory over Florida on Tuesday night and followed up by overpowering the outmatched Blackhawks.“It’s big for the confidence, big for the team,” Yamamoto said. “I know we had a tough stretch there but the ability to get these last two wins was big for us.”Yamamoto scored 3:07 into the game and added a second late in the period, although the goal was originally awarded to Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. But it was continued contributions from Seattle’...

Suspected separatists kill 11 people in a nighttime attack on a police station in southeastern Iran, state TV says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Suspected separatists kill 11 people in a nighttime attack on a police station in southeastern Iran, state TV says.Source

US senator ‘can see the deal’ on Ukraine, border funding

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

A few days ago, talks to link border security restrictions with Ukraine funding were stalled. By Thursday afternoon, Chuck Schumer felt they’d made enough progress to shorten the chamber’s beloved recess.The border discussions are still exceedingly complicated and there’s no guarantee that negotiators — including the Biden administration, Senate leaders, Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) — can clinch a deal. But Democrats felt leaving for a three-week recess was too dangerous given the uncertainty ahead for Ukraine.After hours and hours of talks this week, Sinema said things are moving: “I can see the deal. We have a lot to go to get there. But I can see it.”“There was a time when we were not making progress. It was feeling stalled,” Sinema said in an interview on Thursday. “And what I did at that point was provide my honest assessment to folks about what I believed needed to happen for us to get out of that stall and move forward.”A...

Biden envoy to meet with Abbas as the US floats a possible Palestinian security role in postwar Gaza

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The United States national security adviser and the Palestinian president were set Friday to discuss postwar arrangements for Gaza — which, according to a senior U.S. official, could include reactivating Palestinian security forces driven out by Hamas in its 2007 takeover of the territory.The proposal, floated as one of several, was the first specific indicator of Washington’s vision for security arrangements in Gaza if Israel achieves its U.S.-backed objective to end Hamas control of the besieged enclave.Any role for Palestinian security forces in Gaza is bound to elicit strong opposition from Israel, which seeks to maintain an open-ended security presence there and says it won’t allow a postwar foothold for the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, a West Bank-based autonomy government led by President Mahmoud Abbas.On Thursday, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, spoke to Israeli leaders about a timetable for winding down t...

Canada will send helicopters to Latvia next year, defence minister says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:48:22 GMT

OTTAWA — Four Canadian Griffon helicopters will be sent to Latvia next year as part of a NATO deterrence mission. Defence Minister Bill Blair made the announcement this morning with defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre. The pair are visiting Canadian troops at Camp Adazi, just outside Riga, where Canada leads a NATO battle group. The number of Canadian troops in the Baltic country is set to double to around 2,200 by 2026 as NATO scales up its battle groups in the region to brigades.As part of that plan, Canada has sent 15 Leopard tanks to Latvia and is urgently procuring anti-tank missile systems.The Griffon helicopters are set to arrive next summer and Canada also plans to send Chinook helicopters in the fall of 2025.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2023.The Canadian Press