Wade Taylor IV poured in 24 points, Manny Obaseki put his team ahead for good with a fastbreak dunk and No. 20 Texas A&M staved off Rutgers 81-77 to take fifth place at the Players Era Festival on Saturday in Las Vegas. In a game with seven ties and 10 lead changes, the Aggies (6-2) took a 78-77 lead when Solomon Washington pulled out a defensive rebound and heaved it up court for Obaseki to convert a two-handed slam with 2:12 to play. Rutgers lost a pass out of bounds, and Taylor made two free throws for a three-point game. Rutgers freshman star Dylan Harper went to the rim in the final seconds but had his shot blocked by Washington. Washington had 11 points, five rebounds and four blocks for Texas A&M. Henry Coleman III and Obaseki also finished with 11 points. For Rutgers (5-3), Ace Bailey led the way with 24 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Jeremiah Williams scored 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting and Harper had 18 points. Centers Emmanuel Ogbole and Lathan Sommerville each fouled out. Texas A&M scored nine of the last 12 points of the game after trailing by as many as nine earlier in the half. A 10-0 run early in the first half, capped by Washington's three-point play, gave the Aggies a 17-9 lead. Rutgers ensured Texas A&M would not lead by more than eight, as Bailey (13) and Harper (eight) combined for 21 of Rutgers' 34 first-half points. After Sommerville put up five straight points for Rutgers, the Aggies made three free throws in the final minute for a 40-34 halftime lead. Rutgers' 13-0 sprint early in the second half flipped the lead to 47-42 in its favor. Harper made a 3-pointer to get things going and Williams scored three straight buckets -- a dunk in transition, an easy layup and an offensive rebound and putback. Bailey's second 3-pointer at 12:51 put the Scarlet Knights up 63-54, but Texas A&M scored the next eight points. Then, down 65-62, Taylor made the Aggies' first 3-pointer of the game to tie it at the 8:21 mark. His team had missed its first 11 tries from long range. Texas A&M won despite going 2 of 15 from the arc (Rutgers was 6 for 26) and being outrebounded 42-35. --Field Level MediaTrump picks Jared Kushner's father Charles to be French Ambassador after 'loathsome' crimewww ye7 live index 。

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York and New Jersey senators penned a letter to the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), urging them to hold a drone activity briefing. New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, in conjunction with New Jersey Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker, are seeking clarity “on how the agencies are working with federal and local law enforcement to identify and address the source of recent unmanned aerial system activity in New York and New Jersey,” a written statement said. The drones began to appear in New Jersey skies in the middle of November and have rapidly expanded their flight path to include Staten Island, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and Brooklyn. They have been spotted over sensitive areas, including military outfits like Fort Wadsworth and Fort Hamilton, as well as President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club. While there are FAA air restrictions in place for the golf club and New Jersey’s Picatinny Arsenal Military Base, there are still no specific restrictions in place over Staten Island or Brooklyn’s military bases. The FBI is investigating the drones alongside city and state officials, but no answers have come to fruition yet — much to the ire of elected officials and residents alike. “There are drones all over Staten Island; now I’m getting Ring videos of so many of them,” a Reddit user posted on Sunday. “Nobody knows what’s going on. It’s amazing.” “It is odd and quite bizarre that nobody can figure out who is flying these drones, where they are coming from, and their purpose. It has been reported that some of the drones may be flying without an active transponder, adding to the concern about their whereabouts,” Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said last week. That may be why the senators are requesting a response by Dec. 23. This letter comes shortly after Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said that the drones should be “shot down, if necessary.” Dear Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas [of DHS], Director [Christopher A.] Wray [of the FBI] and Administrator [Mike] Whitaker [of the FAA], We write out of urgent concern regarding the unmanned aerial system (UAS) activity that has affected communities across New York and New Jersey in recent days. Due to the ongoing nature of these drone incidents, we request that the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation brief us as soon as possible on how your agencies are working with federal and local law enforcement to identify and address the source of these incursions. As you know, since late November, communities in the New York City area and northern New Jersey have reported several incidents of unattributable drone sightings at night, alarming both residents and local law enforcement. According to public reports, residents have reported that some of these drones are larger in size compared to other commercially available drone technology. Protecting civilian infrastructure, safety, and privacy as well as military assets and personnel will require a comprehensive response from Congress and the executive branch. For this reason, we request that the briefing you provide also include any authorities, tools, or staff your agencies may require to address these ongoing incidents and the broader security challenge posed by UAS. Thank you for your consideration of this request. We look forward to your response no later than December 23, 2024.

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By Emma Healy, The Boston Globe For the first time in over a year, Caitlin Clark has time to relax. But that doesn’t mean she’s going to. Between offseason workouts and public appearances, the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year is staying busy. “I like it that way,” she said. “I don’t want to get bored.” Clark, recently named TIME’s athlete of the year , was a keynote speaker at the Massachusetts Conference for Women, held Thursday at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Here are a few takeaways from her conversation with “Good Morning America” co-host and Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Robin Roberts. She sees more media coverage as the league’s next step Partly as a result of Clark’s success, the WNBA exploded in popularity this season. A record 54 million unique viewers tuned in to watch the WNBA across its national broadcasting platforms during the regular season, and the league’s attendance jumped 48 percent from the previous year. “People are wanting to get in now, which is really smart because the price is only going up,” Clark said. “I don’t blame them. Maybe they should have gotten in a few years ago. They would have made a great return on their investment.” The league signed an 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal in July, which Clark said is essential in the WNBA’s continued growth. “The more we can play on national television and be more accessible to people to be able to watch is going to be really important,” Clark said. “When people really gave it a chance, they couldn’t get enough of it.” She has no trouble staying focused Clark has never been one for false humility. So when Roberts asked how she stays focused and doesn’t get swept up in the chaos around her, Clark’s answer was unsurprising. “I think I’m like, really good at that, actually,” Clark said, drawing laughter from the crowd of about 11,000. Clark knows she is in this position because of her competitive fire and desire to win. She reminds herself that she loves playing basketball, which makes it easy for her to focus when it’s time to compete. “There’s so many people that would love to be in my shoes,” Clark said. “So just reminding myself how lucky I am, that usually puts a smile on my face.” She didn’t walk at her college graduation Clark hasn’t had a break since the beginning of her senior year at Iowa in the fall of 2023. Less than a month after leading the Hawkeyes to a second straight NCAA Tournament championship game , she was drafted first overall by the Fever and moved to Indianapolis. She jumped right into practice and made her WNBA debut in May, just a few days after Iowa’s graduation ceremony. “I never even walked for college graduation,” she said. After the Sun knocked the Fever out of the playoffs in September, Clark, for the first time in over a year, had time to reflect. “It’s kind of crazy to think about that and how much my life has changed from that point,” Clark said. “Just trying to soak that in and reflect back on the special year that it was.” If not for basketball, she might be a restaurateur Clark said a lot of the best moments of her childhood were centered around a good meal, as her mother, Anne, is an excellent cook. She recalled driving past a plot of land in her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, and telling her mother she hoped to build a restaurant there some day. The plot, she said, has since been developed. “I think that dream has been crushed,” she said with a smile. “I’ll have to find something else.” Get the latest Boston sports news Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox. Be civil. Be kind.Rice builds up big lead early, hangs on to beat USF 35-28

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It's time theatres like Rangashankara are taken to small towns: Arundhati NagThe country deserves maximum international support as it confronts the mammoth tasks of establishing a new political and legal order, stabilising its regions, organising humanitarian aid and beginning reconstruction. Regional powers have a special responsibility here. Although the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement leading the revolt has roots in radical Islamism and is classified as terrorist by major powers, its leadership has ruled the region it dominates pragmatically and says it wants an inclusive Syria for the country’s minorities. Those commitments will be severely tested as it confronts the old regime’s remnants, and realises just how fragmented are the regions and how impoverished its economy and state coffers. Turkey has emerged as the principal regional power-broker and supporter of the new regime, but has its own distinct interests in the Kurdish area where it has established a buffer zone. Israel too acted swiftly and pre-emptively to create a security zone beyond the Golan Heights and to destroy Syrian arms dumps and military facilities. Its interest is to push back Hizbollah and its state sponsor Iran further after the campaign against them in Lebanon. Iran and Russia proved unable to support the Assad regime militarily and have suffered a major loss of regional leverage as a result, as has the Shia regime in neighbouring Iraq. Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf are assessing how to fill that vacuum and avoid any popular spillover from the Syrian rebellion to their own regimes. The horrors being perpetrated on Palestinians in Gaza shape the backdrop to all of these regional shifts. The United States is also assessing its strategic interest in the transformed Syria, including whether to lift its terrorist classification of the new leaders and if the incoming Trump administration will keep the 900 troops based in the Kurdish area to counter Islamist extremism, which cuts across Turkey’s role. The US, like China, has been relatively passive so far, as Middle Eastern powers take prominence. That opens up room for multilateralism, from the United Nations and also from the European Union. The EU and its members have a real diplomatic responsibility here. Collectively, they are potentially major beneficiaries of the stability flowing from a peaceful, thriving and reconstructed Syria, or losers if it reverts to a chaotic domestic disorder stoked by regional powers.The Container Store, buffeted by rough housing market and competition, seeks bankruptcy protection

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