Watch Isha and Taraweeh prayers live from the Grand Mosque in Makkah.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scores 29 points and Thunder beat Pacers 103-91 for NBA title
OKLAHOMA CITY: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished off his MVP season with 29 points and 12 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA championship, pulling away in the second half to beat the Indiana Pacers 103-91 on Sunday night.
Jalen Williams scored 20 and Chet Holmgren had 18 for the Thunder, who were pushed to a Game 7 brink in the NBA Finals — but finished off a season for the ages. Oklahoma City won 84 games between the regular season and the playoffs, tying the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls for third-most in any season.
Only Golden State (88 in 2016-17) and the Bulls (87 in 2015-16) won more.
It’s the second championship for the franchise. The Seattle SuperSonics won the NBA title in 1979; the team was moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. There’s nothing in the rafters in Oklahoma City to commemorate that title.
Next October, a championship banner is finally coming. A Thunder banner.
It was not easy to secure.
The Pacers led 48-47 at the half even after losing star guard Tyrese Haliburton to what his father said was an Achilles tendon injury about seven minutes into the game. But they were outscored 34-20 in the third quarter as the Thunder built a 13-point lead and began to run away.
Bennedict Mathurin had 24 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, which still is waiting for its first NBA title. The Pacers — who were 10-15 after 25 games and were bidding to be the first team in NBA history to turn that bad of a start into a championship — had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the series, but they simply didn’t have enough in the end.
Home teams are now 16-4 in NBA Finals Game 7s. And the Thunder became the seventh champion in the last seven seasons, a run of parity like none other in NBA history.
Pacers forward Pascal Siakam was part of the Toronto team that won in 2019, Thunder guard Alex Caruso was part of the Los Angeles Lakers team that won in the pandemic “bubble” in 2020, Milwaukee won in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Pacers forward Thomas Bryant and Denver prevailed in 2023, and Boston won last year’s title.
The Thunder are the ninth franchise to win a title in NBA Commissioner Adam Silver 12 seasons leading the league. His predecessor, David Stern, saw eight franchises win titles in his 30 seasons as commissioner.
Gold Cup: Saudi Arabia tie Trinidad, advance out of Group D
- Firas Al-Buraikan found the all-important equalizer for Saudi Arabia to notch a 1-1 draw with Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday
Firas Al-Buraikan found the all-important equalizer for Saudi Arabia to notch a 1-1 draw with Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday in Las Vegas, ensuring the CONCACAF’s guests would advance to the knockout stage of the Gold Cup.
While the United States won Group D with a perfect 3-0-0 record, Saudi Arabia finished 1-1-1 (4 points) to place second. Trinidad and Tobago (0-1-2, 2 points) would have leapfrogged Saudi Arabia for second with a victory.
Justin Garcia nearly put Trinidad ahead in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time, but his point-blank shot from the center of the box caromed off the crossbar.
Al-Buraikan’s tying goal also involved the woodwork. Saleh Al-Shehri received a pass down the center lane, dribbled around one defender and watched his ensuing shot hit the crossbar and stay out of the net. Al-Buraikan ran in to collect the ball and tap it behind goalkeeper Marvin Phillip (two saves).
Dante Sealy staked Trinidad to a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute on a left-footed rocket from outside the box.
Nawaf Al-Aqidi made two saves for Saudi Arabia.
Paris’ iconic cauldron from the Olympic Games returns to light up summer nights
- The helium-powered balloon rose again into the air on Saturday, lifting off over the Tuileries Garden just as the sun was about to set
- After Saturday’s flight, the balloon will lift off into the sky each summer evening from June 21 to Sept. 14, for the next three years
The helium-powered balloon rose again into the air on Saturday, lifting off over the Tuileries Garden just as the sun was about to set
After Saturday’s flight, the balloon will lift off into the sky each summer evening from June 21 to Sept. 14, for the next three years
PARIS: A year after it captivated crowds during the Paris Olympics, a centerpiece of the summer Games made a comeback Saturday to light up the French capital’s skyline.
The iconic helium-powered balloon that attracted myriads of tourists during the summer Games has shed its Olympic branding and is now just called the “Paris Cauldron.” It rose again into the air later Saturday, lifting off over the Tuileries Garden just as the sun was about to set.
Despite the suffocating hot weather in Paris, around 30,000 people were expected to attend the launch, which coincided with France’s annual street music festival — the Fete de la Musique, the Paris police prefecture said.
And it won’t be a one-time event. After Saturday’s flight, the balloon will lift off into the sky each summer evening from June 21 to Sept. 14, for the next three years.
The cauldron’s ascent may become a new rhythm of the Parisian summer, with special flights planned for Bastille Day on July 14 and the anniversary of the 2024 opening ceremony on July 26.
Gone is the official “Olympic” branding — forbidden under International Olympic Committee reuse rules — but the spectacle remains.
The 30-meter (98-foot) -tall floating ring, dreamed up by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur and powered by French energy company EDF, simulates flame without fire: LED lights, mist jets and high-pressure fans create a luminous halo that hovers above the city at dusk, visible from rooftops across the capital.
Though it stole the show in 2024, the cauldron was only meant to be temporary, not engineered for multi-year outdoor exposure.
To transform it into a summer staple, engineers reinforced it. The aluminum ring and tether points were rebuilt with tougher components to handle rain, sun and temperature changes over several seasons. Though it’s a hot-air-balloon-style, the lift comes solely from helium — no flame, no burner, just gas and engineering.
The structure first dazzled during the Olympics. Over just 40 days, it drew more than 200,000 visitors, according to officials.
Now anchored in the center of the drained Tuileries pond, the cauldron’s return is part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s effort to preserve the Games’ spirit in the city, as Paris looks ahead to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Hundreds protest in The Hague against NATO, days before the Dutch city hosts alliance summit
- The Netherlands is hosting the annual meeting of the 32-nation alliance starting Tuesday
- NATO members want to hammer out an agreement on a hike in defense spending demanded by Trump
THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Hundreds of people protested Sunday against NATO and military spending and against a possible conflict with Iran, two days before a summit of the alliance in The Hague that is seeking to increase allies’ defense budgets.
“Let’s invest in peace and sustainable energy,” Belgian politician Jos d’Haese told the crowd at a park not far from the summit venue.
Although billed as a demonstration against NATO and the war in Gaza, protesters were joined by Iranians who held up banners saying “No Iran War,” the day after the United States launched attacks against three of Iran’s nuclear sites.
“We are opposed to war. People want to live a peaceful life,” said 74-year-old Hossein Hamadani, an Iranian who lives in the Netherlands.
“Look at the environment. “Things are not good. So why do we spend money on war?” he added.
The Netherlands is hosting the annual meeting of the 32-nation alliance starting Tuesday, with leaders scheduled to meet Wednesday.
The heads of government want to hammer out an agreement on a hike in defense spending demanded by US President Donald Trump.
The deal appeared largely done last week, until Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that committing Madrid to spending 5 percent of its gross domestic product on defense “would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive.”
US allies have ramped up defense spending since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, but almost a third of them still don’t meet NATO’s current target of at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product.
The summit is being protected by the biggest ever Dutch security operation, code named “Orange Shield,” involving thousands of police and military personnel, drones, no-fly zones and cybersecurity experts.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 950 people and wounded 3,450 others, a human rights group says
- US to strike Iran ”will be a legitimate target for our armed forces,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 950 people and wounded 3,450 others, a human rights group said Monday.
The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists offered the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 380 civilians and 253 security force personnel being killed.
Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.
Iran has not been offering regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. On Saturday, Iran’s Health Ministry said some 400 Iranians had been killed and another 3,056 wounded in the Israeli strikes.
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