Trae Young, Hawks hoping to win big in Vegas at the NBA Cup semifinals
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Sara Puckett had 17 points and Ruby Whitehorn scored 16 as No. 15 Tennessee walloped Winthrop 112-50 on Sunday, earning the Lady Volunteers the seventh 12-0 start to a season in program history. Puckett made 6 of 10 shots with a 3-pointer and all four of her free throws, adding eight rebounds for Tennessee, which is unbeaten through 12 games in its first season under head coach Kim Caldwell — and for just the second time in the past 19 seasons. Whitehorn made 7 of 13 from the floor and both of her foul shots.Kara Del Toro is grabbing the bull by the horns -- and pulling everyone's attention to boot ... this time in a white-hot 2-piece! The bikini model shared a series of hot shots on social media Thursday ... giving her more than 1.8 million followers a view of her tanned body. Del Toro's 2-piece barely covers her curves ... with droplets of water running down her skin after a quick dip in the ocean. It's all sultry smiles and slicked back hair in this pic ... which KDT cheekily captioned "Snow looks different in the Dominican Republic" -- presumably referencing her own snow white bikini, or maybe it's the sand. It looks like Kara's enjoying a steamy vacation in the Caribbean country ... sharing even more photos just an hour ago -- with a tiny white knitted top doing little to cover up her chest. Kara's a well-known model from Texas ... modeling swimwear for a number of years -- and recently making the transition to acting as a bartender in the 2023 film "At Midnight." She's taking some much-needed R&R before the year ends ... and, letting fans enjoy her vacation with her too!
Special counsel moves to dismiss election interference case against President-elect Donald TrumpToronto Blue Jays officially sign reliever Garcia to two-year, US$15M deal
President-elect Donald Trump on Friday asked Scott Bessent, a top fundraiser to his campaign, to serve as secretary of the Treasury Department, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News. If confirmed, Bessent will helm the fiscal policies for an economy that weathered high inflation in recent years, an issue that remained top of mind for many voters who helped send Trump back to the White House in the election earlier this month. Trump’s pick will be tasked with implementing any tax cuts that a Republican-controlled Congress may pursue. And with Trump proposing aggressive tariffs on imports from countries spanning the globe, the new Treasury Department chief will have to manage relationships with global finance ministers who may choose to retaliate with tariffs of their own. The Cabinet-level job is to steer federal fiscal policies set by Congress and the White House. The secretary is also the executive branch’s top go-between with the Federal Reserve, a traditionally autonomous institution that sets monetary policies, such as determining interest rates and steering economic conditions at a broader level. That could be a delicate task in the incoming Trump administration, which is likely to put unprecedented political pressure on the central bank. During his time in and out of office, Trump has blasted Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he nominated in 2017. In an October interview with Bloomberg News, Trump said the president should not be allowed to order interest rate decisions but should be able to “put in comments as to whether the interest rates should go up or down.” Powell has said he would not yield the position if Trump asked him to resign, meaning he could in theory remain chairman until his term expires in May 2026. With a dramatic improvement on inflation compared to two years ago, the Powell-led Fed has cut interest rates in its last two meetings as part of a bid to stop high borrowing costs from unduly raising unemployment. In Trump’s first term, he tapped banker Steven Mnuchin as the nation’s chief financial officer. Mnuchin, who also dabbled in Hollywood as a financier and producer, fumbled over some ethics rules at the beginning of his term, landing himself briefly in hot water for plugging a Lego Batman that he executive produced. But his tenure at the Treasury Department was more stable than those of other high-level cabinet posts in Trump’s first term . Mnuchin remained in the role for all four years, helping steer the economy through the onset of the pandemic by helping to push the $2 trillion CARES Act toward bipartisan passage in March 2020. The stimulus package, which most memorably included checks sent directly to households, was hailed by economists as a bridge that helped carry the U.S. over the worst economic turbulence from the pandemic and shutdown orders meant to combat it. After Trump’s re-election, Mnuchin told CNBC he was unlikely to accept a new Cabinet role but would “be happy to serve from the outside.” Since leaving office, Mnuchin launched an investment fund that reportedly sourced its capital from sovereign wealth funds in several Gulf states. This story first appeared on NBCNews.com . More from NBC News:Nio ET9 launches with prices starting at just USD90,450 On December 21 at the Nio Day event in Guangzhou Nio launched its new ET9 flagship sedan. The car claims 9 flagship experiences and offers many firsts in terms of technology and comfort. Priced from 660,000 yuan (90,450 USD) to 818,000 yuan (112,100 USD), the versions are as follows: The first edition is limited to 999 cars and has various upgrades to the standard car mainly in terms of interior materials and exclusive badges. Nio will also offer the ET9 with battery as a service which means the user can rent the battery monthly. Deliveries of the Nio ET9 will commence in early. In terms of both length and width, it is the largest Nio to date, with measurements of 5324 and 2016 mm, respectively. Although Nio are calling the car a sedan, both in silhouette and height (1620 mm) it is more consistent with an SUV coupe and it has a similar style to the ES6 and ES7. The ET9 has a wheelbase of 3250 mm. This puts it towards the upper limit of the third-generation swap stations for wheelbase. Third-generation stations can accommodate cars with up to a 3300 mm wheelbase. Perhaps more significantly, the ET9 will not be compatible with first and second-generation Nio swap stations due to the length of the wheelbase. Despite Nio’s new NT 3.0 platform already being used for the Onvo L60, the ET9 will be the first model from the Nio brand to use the new platform. It has the first global 900 V high-voltage architecture in China. The ET9 uses a 120 kWh battery pack with an energy density of 292 Wh/kg. Nio claim that it’s possible to take on the equivalent of a 255 km range in 5 minutes with fast charging. A fourth-generation battery swap station should be able to swap the battery in 144 seconds. Global 900V architecture means it can be used with 500V to 1000V charging piles with a peak charging power of up to 600 kW and a peak current rate of 772 A. This gives it a 5C charging capability. As already seen in many videos, the ET9 has a Skyride intelligent chassis system. Notably, this is a fully active suspension system capable of 1000 torque adjustments per second and four-wheel independent control to meet the needs of different driving scenarios. This not only enables the ET9 to do party tricks like tabletop football and juggling a ball but also delivers an incredibly smooth ride. Also featured as part of the system is rear-wheel steering, which is probably just as well, given the length of the car, along with a drive-by-wire. This means there is no mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the wheels. Such technology has existed in aviation for many years but is relatively new to cars. To date, only a few, mainly EV’s, have been equipped with the technology, which is also known as steer-by-wire. One notable user is the Tesla Cybertruck. The rear wheel steering helps the car have a turning circle diameter of 10.9 meters. Nio’s flagship rides on 23-inch Pirelli PZERO EV-specific tires. The hubcap inside floats ensuring the Nio badge always points up. Midnight ceramic blue is a new color exclusive to the ET9 and appears to be the car’s signature hue. Inside the new ET9 is the biggest departure yet from the standard Nio-layout that has remained largely unchanged in overall look since the first generation ES8. While, there is still a swiveling Nomi on top of the dashboard the 15.6-inch infotainment screen is horizontally oriented. Furthermore, there is now a long, thin strip 48-inch 5K instrument panel that runs across the car’s width. Nio claims the car has the industry’s first full range AR head-up display. This has ultra smooth coverage and overlays information such as where to stop for battery swap stations. Attached to that drive-by-wire system is a new two-spoke rectangular steering wheel. The drive selector has also moved from the traditional center console position on previous Nio models to a steering wheel column-mounted stalk. Nio claims that the ET9 brings a business class-like experience. Much of that is aimed at the rear seat occupants. A four-seater, the center console continues through to the rear. There are two screens mounted on the back of the front seats for rear passenger entertainment. The seat cushion width is up to 582 mm, and the backrest angle can be adjusted to 45 degrees. Two major features of the ET9 are the Sky Island unobstructed view panoramic roof and the Executive Bridge, which is the name given by Nio to the through center console. There are blinds for the windows and also the center console features a tray table which can be adjusted from any angle. Underneath is a fridge with 10 liter capacity that can support a temperature range from -2 degrees up to 55 degree Celsius. Powering the ET9 is Nio’s new, self-developed 900V Thunder electric drive system . This includes the world’s first 925V W-Pin synchronous permanent magnet electric motor, which has a peak power output of 340 kW. Mounted on the rear axle, it weighs just 79 kg, resulting in a power density of 4.3 kW/kg. Meanwhile, the front axle has an asynchronous induction motor with a peak power of 180 kW and a power density of 2.6 kW/kg. The ET9 uses two of Nio’s self-developed Shenji NX9031 autonomous driving chip. Previously, second generation Nio models used the Adam supercomputer, which consists of 4 Nvidia Orin X chips. The computing power of one Shenji NX9031, which is a 5 nm chipset, exceeds the 1016 TOPS of the Adam supercomputer. It has strong image processing capabilities, which, with AI noise reduction algorithms, help the system identify objects shown by the cameras in low light conditions. In the presentation Nio CEO William Li showed a picture of a lake at night which couldn’t be seen in the actual image but after use of the algorithm was clearly visible Sensors include three lidar units and the first use of a 4D millimeter wavelength imaging radar. There are a total of 31 sensors. Two of the Lidar units are side facing wide FOV units with a range of 150 meters. Total Lidar coverage for the car is 350 degrees while camera coverage is a full 360 degrees. The aim is to create autonomous driving which is 20 times safer than a human driver. Also debuting on the ET9 is Nio’s new SkyOS, which it claims is China’s first smart electric vehicle operating system. Superior performance is achieved through high bandwidth, low latency, and large computing power, according to Nio. Source: Nio
