Today is Wednesday, Dec. 24, the 358th day of 2025. There are seven days left in the year. This is Christmas Eve.

Today in history:

On Dec. 24, 2013, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II granted a posthumous pardon to code-breaker Alan Turing, who was criminally convicted of homosexual behavior in the 1950s.

Also on this date:

In 1814, the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent, which would end the War of 1812 following ratification by both the British Parliament and the U.S. Senate.

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In 1851, fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000 volumes (about two-thirds of the library’s collection).

In 1865, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, that was the original version of the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1913, 73 people, most of them children, died in a crush of panic after a false cry of “Fire!” during a Christmas party for striking miners and their families at the Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan.

In 1914, during World War I, impromptu Christmas truces began to take hold along parts of the Western Front, principally between British and German soldiers but also involving French troops.

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.

In 2018, a series of explosions ripped through fireworks workshops in Tultepec, a town just north of Mexico City, leaving at least 24 people dead and dozens injured.

In 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe survived its record-breaking closest approach to the sun, hurtling 3.8 million miles above its fiery surface. Since its 2018 launch, the probe has completed numerous other close fly-bys to observe solar wind and other events.

Today’s Birthdays:

Immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci is 85.
Filmmaker Lee Daniels is 66.
Basketball Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright is 64.
Singer Ricky Martin is 54.
Novelist and film producer Stephenie Meyer is 52.
TV host Ryan Seacrest is 51.
Rock singer Louis Tomlinson (One Direction) is 34.
NFL wide receiver Davante Adams is 33.

We all know about points, rebounds, assists, etc.

The counting stats get much of the glory in basketball. But how does your team perform when you’re on the floor?

That’s what net rating measures — the points per 100 possessions for your team versus your opponents. The more positive your number, the better your team is playing with you on the court. The more negative? Well, you get it.

Here are Minnesota’s updated individual numbers, with the offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions), defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) and net rating (offense and defense combined) through 30 games of the season, per NBA.com, with the biggest takeaway from each:

Offensive Ratings

Julius Randle: 119.8

Donte DiVincenzo: 118.3

Anthony Edwards: 118.1

Jaden McDaniels: 117.6

Bones Hyland: 116.5

Rudy Gobert: 115.2

Mike Conley: 114.3

Naz Reid: 112.6

Jaylen Clark: 110.5

Terrence Shannon Jr.: 106.8

Rob Dillingham: 102.5

Takeaway: These numbers are dipping slightly as a collective, which was to be expected as the Timberwolves begin a stretch of play against better competition. But Minnesota has established itself as a high-end offensive team, particularly with its core players on the floor.

Defensive Ratings

Jaylen Clark: 104.9

Bones Hyland: 104.9

Rob Dillingham: 107.0

Rudy Gobert: 107.4

Donte DiVincenzo: 110.5

Jaden McDaniels: 111.0

Naz Reid: 111.1

Mike Conley: 112.7

Julius Randle: 113.5

Anthony Edwards: 114.7

Terrence Shannon Jr.: 121.3

Takeaway: While the reserve guard defensive ratings are impressive, the main note is Gobert. For reference, when he won his fourth NBA Defensive Player of the Year trophy at the conclusion of the 2023-24 campaign, the Frenchman had a defensive rating of 106.6.

That came with a strong defensive supporting cast. Many of his teammates also sported defensive ratings within that range.

This season, Minnesota’s roster is largely offense-based. The defense is much better when Gobert is on the floor, and his defensive impact rivals that of anyone in the Association. Should a fifth DPOY be in play? Wolves coach Chris Finch thinks so.

“It’s every bit as good as it was two seasons ago and every other time he’s won the award,” Finch said. “I mean, it’s just, it’s phenomenal.”

Net Ratings

Bones Hyland: 11.5

Rudy Gobert: 7.8

Donte DiVincenzo: 7.8

Jaden McDaniels: 6.5

Julius Randle: 6.2

Jaylen Clark: 5.6

Anthony Edwards: 3.4

Mike Conley: 1.6

Naz Reid: 1.5

Rob Dillingham: -4.5

Terrence Shannon Jr: -14.5

Takeaway: Hyland returned to the rotation recently and doesn’t appear to have any plans of letting his spot go. The added components he brings to the floor seem to bring out the best in Minnesota.

In Tuesday’s win over the Knicks, the Timberwolves won Hyland’s 25 minutes by 24 points.

Hyland seems to have cemented himself into the rotation moving forward.

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The holidays can be a time of great stress. But for the Minnesota Wild, the next few days will bring some welcome time away from the rink, after a rough final two games before Christmas.

On Tuesday the Wild got a point, but not a win, before their three-day break when Steven Stamkos scored in overtime as the Nashville Predators rallied for a 3-2 win over Minnesota. It was Nashville’s third consecutive victory, and a second straight loss for the Wild.

Stamkos popped in a quick shot after a set-up pass by Erik Haula for Nashville, which scored a pair of first period power play goals, and improved to 1-0-1 versus the Wild this season.

Brock Faber and Joel Eriksson Ek scored for the Wild in the first and second periods, respectively.

“I thought we played all right. It sucks,” Faber said. “Unfortunate ending. Special teams needs to get cleaned up.”

Filip Gustavsson had 26 saves for the Wild, who saw their losing streak grow to two games after they had won their previous seven. Special teams were problematic for Minnesota, which saw the Predators score a pair of power play goals, while the Wild were stifled on a trio of man advantage opportunities.

“Obviously, special teams was a huge factor in the game tonight,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “Penalties on both sides. There was a lot of special teams, and we lost that battle.”

Faber, who was playing in his 200th career game, opened the scoring with a rising rocket from the blue line after Quinn Hughes carried the puck in deep, then made a spinning pass back to his defensive partner.

But after killing their first penalty of the night, the Predators evened the score when Ryan O’Reilly slipped a backhand shot under Gustavsson’s left leg pad during Nashville’s first power play of the game. The Preds took the lead on their next power play, with Roman Josi snapping a wrist shot past Gustavsson to give the visitors a 2-1 lead after the opening period.

“The PK wasn’t good enough in the first period and then they scored two goals on that,” Gustavsson said. “We had to battle for it.”

The Wild needed less than a minute in the middle frame to tie it back up, with a Eriksson Ek put-back from the top of the crease with the Nashville goalie scrambling.

Late in the second, Minnesota forward Mats Zuccarello and Nashville forward Michael McCarron both went to the penalty box for slashing. With the teams skating 4-on-4, Eriksson Ek had a breakaway that was thwarted, then Wild captain Jared Spurgeon took a penalty, giving Nashville’s power play another chance. But three key saves by Gustavsson got the game to the second intermission with nothing further on the scoreboard.

Minnesota likely should have gotten a late power play when Predators defender Nick Perbix gave Wild forward Ryan Hartman a stick to the face with 91 seconds left in regulation. As boos rained down when the replay was shown, there was no penalty called on the play. Hynes said he did not receive an explanation for the lack of a call.

Nashville goalie Juuse Saros had 30 saves in the win. The Predators get two more cracks at Minnesota on home ice this season, hosting the Wild on Feb. 4 and again on April 11. The players agreed that the mental and physical break they have upcoming will be important.

“It’s tough being goalies on ankles, hips, knees, groin, and the mental aspect is probably the bigger part,” said Gustavsson, now 12-8-4 as Minnesota’s goalie of record.

The NHL’s mandated holiday break begins on Wednesday, with the Wild off until they visit the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night, in the opener of their season-long seven-game road trip. The Wild will also visit Vegas, San Jose, Anaheim, Los Angeles (twice) and Seattle on the journey.

With the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship taking place in St. Paul and Minneapolis beginning on Friday, Minnesota’s next home game is more than two weeks away. The Wild host the New York Islanders on Saturday, Jan. 10.

Briefly

Minnesota’s blue line crew returned to full health on Tuesday, with Zach Bogosian being activated off the injured reserve list. He had missed the previous four games with a lower body injury. With Bogosian back in the lineup, Matt Kiersted and David Jiricek were healthy scratches.

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NEW YORK — A coalition of 19 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and its inspector general over a declaration that could complicate access to gender-affirming care for young people.

The declaration issued last Thursday called treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for children and adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria, or the distress when someone’s gender expression doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth. It also warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide those types of care.

The declaration came as HHS also announced proposed rules meant to further curtail gender-affirming care for young people, although the lawsuit doesn’t address those as they are not final.

Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Oregon, alleges that the declaration is inaccurate and unlawful and asks the court to block its enforcement. It’s the latest in a series of clashes between an administration that’s cracking down on transgender health care for children, arguing it can be harmful to them, and advocates who say the care is medically necessary and shouldn’t be inhibited.

“Secretary Kennedy cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online, and no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors’ offices,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the lawsuit, said in a statement Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges that HHS’s declaration seeks to coerce providers to stop providing gender-affirming care and circumvent legal requirements for policy changes. It says federal law requires the public to be given notice and an opportunity to comment before substantively changing health policy — neither of which, the suit says, was done before the declaration was issued.

A spokesperson for HHS declined to comment.

HHS’s declaration based its conclusions on a peer-reviewed report that the department conducted earlier this year that urged greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-affirming care for youths with gender dysphoria.

The report questioned standards for the treatment of transgender youth issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and raised concerns that adolescents may be too young to give consent to life-changing treatments that could result in future infertility.

Major medical groups and those who treat transgender young people have sharply criticized the report as inaccurate, and most major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, continue to oppose restrictions on transgender care and services for young people.

The declaration was announced as part of a multifaceted effort to limit gender-affirming health care for children and teenagers — and built on other Trump administration efforts to target the rights of transgender people nationwide.

HHS on Thursday also unveiled two proposed federal rules — one to cut off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children, and another to prohibit federal Medicaid dollars from being used for such procedures.

The proposals are not yet final or legally binding and must go through a lengthy rulemaking process and public comment before becoming permanent. But they will nonetheless likely further discourage health care providers from offering gender-affirming care to children.

Several major medical providers already have pulled back on gender-affirming care for young patients since Trump returned to office — even in states where the care is legal and protected by state law.

Medicaid programs in slightly less than half of states currently cover gender-affirming care. At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care. The Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding Tennessee’s ban means most other state laws are likely to remain in place.

Joining James in Tuesday’s lawsuit were Democratic attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington and the District of Columbia. Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor also joined.

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