by Tim Reynolds SAN ANTONIO  — The New York Knicks’ winning streak lives on, and they struck first in the NBA Finals. Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, and the Knicks erased a 14-point second-half deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs 105-95 in Game 1 of the finals on Wednesday night. OG Anunoby had 17 points for New York — which has won 12 consecutive playoff games, the seventh team to have such a streak in NBA history, and is the third to do it in a single season. Brunson scored…

by Jay  Cohen LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Rome Odunze was hampered by a foot injury for much of his second season with the Chicago Bears. That is part of what he is describing as his new normal. That’s OK, too, because the wide receiver doesn’t think it’s going to get in his way. “It’s not from a standpoint that I’m like always in pain, but the way my foot broke, there’s calluses in there that creates a different type of foot structure with those bones — different things that kind of shifts things around,” Odunze said Wednesday on his 24th…

by Dyepkaz Shibayan ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A federal court in Nigeria on Wednesday sentenced four gunmen to death in the killing of at least 50 people during a 2022 attack on a church in a southwestern part of the country. Children were among those killed in the assault just as mass was ending at the St. Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo in Ondo State on June 5, 2022. Scores of people also were wounded, overwhelming hospital workers. The four men were convicted of terrorism charges. A fifth defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence. Prosecutors said…

by Lisa Mascaro WASHINGTON — The House for the first time Wednesday approved a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran, defying President Donald Trump as a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long conflict that has reordered politics at home and abroad. House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an outcome that would show the mounting opposition to the war, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the resolution was on the verge of approval. But displeasure has only grown as the conflict drags on and as Trump…

by Tim Reynolds OKLAHOMA CITY  — The last time Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder played a Game 7 it was the ultimate game of ultimate games, one that decided last season’s NBA championship. And that’s why, as the NBA’s two-time Most Valuable Player spoke about the Game 7 that looms against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night to decide the Western Conference title, it might have seemed mildly surprising that he said these five words: “Biggest game of my career.” “It’s the next game,” he quickly added. “And if I lose, my season’s over.” Simple as that.…

by Tim Reynolds OKLAHOMA CITY  — Victor Wembanyama had 41 points and 24 rebounds, Dylan Harper finished with 24 points and a team playoff-record seven steals, and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-115 in a double-overtime classic to open the Western Conference finals Monday night. Wembanyama sealed it with a pair of dunks in the final minute, one of them leading to a three-point play as the Spurs stole home-court advantage and beat the Thunder for the fifth time in six meetings this season. Stephon Castle had 17 points, Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson each scored…

by Tim Reynolds OKLAHOMA CITY — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s trophy case is a little more jammed. A day after the Oklahoma City guard was revealed as the NBA’s Most Valuable Playerfor the second consecutive season, he received the Michael Jordan Trophy from Commissioner Adam Silver before Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday night. It was the fourth individual trophy for Gilgeous-Alexander in just under a year — and three of those were hand-delivered by Silver. “In the 80-year history of the NBA, only a few select players have won back-to-back MVPs,” Silver said in a brief on-court ceremony.…

by Rod Maaddi On Football analyzes the biggest topics in the NFL from week to week. For more On Football analysis, head here. ___ Aaron Rodgers defied conventional medicine by returning to practice just 77 days after surgery for a torn Achilles tendon. How he did it should be the No. 1 question instead of questioning his motivation. Even if Rodgers doesn’t play again for the New York Jets (4-7) this season because it wouldn’t make sense if they’re eliminated from the playoff race, his recovery so far sets a standard. Every player who tears an Achilles tendon should call…

by Philip Marcelo and Michael R. Sisak NEW YORK  — The Long Island Rail Road, North America’s largest commuter rail system, was shut down Saturday after unionized workers went on strike for the first time in three decades. The railroad, which serves New York City and its eastern suburbs, ceased operations just after midnight after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job. The unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the public agency that runs the railroad, have been negotiating for months on a new contract, with talks stalled over the question of workers’ salaries and healthcare…

by Ope Adetayo LAGOS, Nigeria  — President Donald Trump said that a joint operation by U.S. and Nigerian forces killed a top leader of the Islamic State group in Nigeria. Trump wrote in a social media post that the mission in the early hours of Saturday targeted Abu Bakr al-Mainuki, who was part of the top leadership of the local IS chapter in West Africa. Nigeria’s government and military said the operation in the Lake Chad Basin, a stronghold of Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), was the result of a recently formed partnership with the…