Hall of Fame girls basketball coach Rachel Matakas steps down at Valley Vista

Reuters
Turkey says it believes Kurdish fighters will be forced out of all Syrian territory
Turkey believes Syria's new rulers, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive Kurdish YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in northeastern Syria, Defence Minister Yasar Guler said on Sunday. Turkey regards the Syrian YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for 40 years and are deemed terrorists by Ankara, Washington, and the European Union.
USA TODAY
'We are not defeated': 5 takeaways on what's ahead for Democrats in 2025 as Trump returns
With no president or congressional majority and Trump's return imminent, Democrats are hurrying for a 2025 reboot.
AFP
Sweet smell of success for niche perfumes
They don't advertise and they are largely unknown to the general public but niche perfumes are able to command prices of hundreds of dollars from men and women seeking to stand out."There isn't a top brand without its niche perfume today," said Eric Briones, who wrote a book about luxury and Generation Z (people born between the late 1990s and early 2010s).
CNN
Ivanka Trump is done with politics and says she isn’t coming back
For Ivanka Trump’s entire adult life, she worked for her father.
Associated Press
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 20 as Vatican envoy visits Christians in the territory
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Sunday killed at least 20 people, including five children, Palestinian medical officials said. Israeli authorities meanwhile allowed Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, to enter Gaza and celebrate a pre-Christmas Mass with members of the territory’s small Christian community. A strike on a school housing displaced people in Gaza City killed at least eight people, including three children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
AFP
Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 28
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes overnight and early Sunday killed at least 28 Palestinians, including at one family's home and at a school building the military said was used by Hamas.Civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement that at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gaza's Deir el-Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family.
TODAY
Most of the U.S. won’t have snow on the ground on Christmas
Will there be snow on the ground on Christmas Day? Here's the holiday forecast.
NBC News
2 U.S. Navy pilots eject to safety after friendly fire downs their fighter jet
Two U.S. Navy pilots safely ejected over the Red Sea on Sunday after the F/A-18 fighter jet they were in was shot down by what appeared to be friendly fire, U.S. Central Command said.
CBS News
"48 Hours" show schedule
True crime. Real justice. To miss it would be a crime.
CBS News
Can JonBenét Ramsey's murder be solved by 7 items of evidence?
Her father John Ramsey said DNA testing on items like a blanket and a rope could point to the killer.
CBS News
JonBenét Ramsey murder: The ransom note and other evidence
A closer look at what police found at the Ramsey family's Boulder, Colorado, home following the murder of their 6-year-old daughter JonBenét.
CBS News
Who killed JonBenét Ramsey? Her dad believes DNA could reveal killer
A look back at how "48 Hours" covered the 1996 Christmastime murder of JonBenét Ramsey in 2002, and what her father John Ramsey says about the unsolved Colorado case nearly 28 years later.
NBC News
Trump's plan to end daylight savings: Will 4:30 a.m. be the new American daybreak?
Morning in America could, someday soon, be earlier than ever imagined.
Associated Press
China says US is 'playing with fire' after latest military aid for Taiwan
The Chinese government protested Sunday the latest American announcements of military sales and assistance to Taiwan, warning the United States that it is “playing with fire.” U.S. President Joe Biden authorized Saturday the provision of up to $571 million in Defense Department material and services and in military education and training for Taiwan. Separately, the Defense Department said Friday that $295 million in military sales had been approved.
TODAY
Here’s what to do if you win the Mega Millions jackpot
The next drawing for the Mega Millions jackpot of $8325 million will take place December 20 Here's what to do if you win.
Associated Press
Isolated Chicago communities secure money for a coveted transit project before Trump takes office
Adella Bass dropped her in-person college classes because it was just too hard to get there from the far South Side of Chicago, where the city's famous elevated train doesn't run. The Biden administration notified Congress last week that it would commit $1.9 billion toward a nearly $5.7 billion project to add four new L stations on the South Side, the Chicago system’s largest expansion project in history. The pledge, which the Federal Transit Administration is expected to formally sign before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, essentially locks in current and future funding.
AFP
Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh
For generations, the small Hindu temple outside the capital in Muslim-majority Bangladesh was a quiet place to pray -- before arsonists ripped open its roof this month in the latest post-revolution unrest."My son saw the flames and doused them quickly," said temple custodian Ratan Kumar Ghosh, 55, describing how assailants knew to avoid security cameras, so they tore its tin roof open to enter.
Associated Press
Winter is hitting Gaza and many Palestinians have little protection from the cold
Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain. There is a shortage of blankets and warm clothing, little wood for fires, and the tents and patched-together tarps families are living in have grown increasingly threadbare after months of heavy use, according to aid workers and residents. Shadia Aiyada, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah to the coastal area of Muwasi, has only one blanket and a hot water bottle to keep her eight children from shivering inside their fragile tent.
CBS News
NYPD chief resigns amid sexual misconduct claims
NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey has resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct, the department says.
Associated Press
As flooding becomes a yearly disaster in South Sudan, thousands survive on the edge of a canal
Long-horned cattle wade through flooded lands and climb a slope along a canal that has become a refuge for displaced families in South Sudan. “Too much suffering,” said Bichiok Hoth Chuiny, a woman in her 70s. Such flooding is becoming a yearly disaster in South Sudan, which the World Bank has described as “the world’s most vulnerable country to climate change and also the one most lacking in coping capacity."

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