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As the final seconds expired in Minnesota’s Game 7 victory against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals, Karl-Anthony Towns processed an onslaught of emotions.

The Timberwolves’ first conference finals appearance in two decades; the responsibility Towns felt for getting the team into this position; his commitment to the franchise and the Twin Cities; the blame he absorbed in season’s when the Timberwolves didn’t reach expectations; the loss of his mom, Jacqueline, from COVID-19 in 2020, and the all-important role he played in Game 7.

It was a fitting conclusion to the series for Towns, who had 22 points and 12 rebounds and played outstanding defense on NBA MVP Nikola Jokic.

After a 36-46 season in 2018-19, Towns posted on social media, “Minny deserves better. I plan to give it to them.” Five years later, through sorrow, joy, recovery and rediscovery, Towns delivered.

“It's a feeling that I've been waiting for a long time just to have that moment,” Towns told USA TODAY Sports. “When those closing seconds came and you really could sense the game was ours, the feeling of jubilation was something special. It was just a culmination of a lot of hard work, dedication and perseverance finally materializing to something great.”
Dallas took Game 1 of the conference finals and Game 2 is Friday (8:30 p.m. ET, TNT).

"We're going to have to find a way to even play more Timberwolves basketball for a longer set of time," Towns said. "Our discipline has to go up a level. Our execution has to go up a level. Our composure has to be at an all-time high. We have to have a championship mettle to us."

Towns was fantastic against Denver, averaging 18.6 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and shooting 51% from the field and 39.4% on 3-pointers. His defense proved effective on Jokic. When Towns was the primary defender, Jokic shot 43.6% from the field and 19% on 3-pointers in the seven games compared to his regular-season averages of 58.3% and 35.9%.

The Timberwolves don't win Game 7 without Towns' performance.
“When you have a three-time MVP, it's going to be a team effort,” Towns said. “You do your best to contain and do your best to utilize your God-given talents and intangibles to guard him.

“When you know that you have the support behind you that I do – Rudy Gobert is four-time Defensive Player of the Year and Jaden McDaniels is a future (DPoY) – you feel comfortable being really aggressive in your defense knowing your teammates got your back.”

'That special thing that special teams have'
Listening to Towns and seeing the results, his growth as a leader is obvious and necessary. When he talks about 2023-24 being the best season of his career, it’s not just because he averaged 21.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and shot 50.4% from the field and 41.6% on 3-pointers. Those aren’t career highs. But the Timberwolves are in the conference finals for the first time since 2004.

“I've been able to impact this team's success in winning in a much higher way than I have in years before,” said Towns, who was an All-Star for the fourth time this season. “So it's about winning. For me to find the best way I can utilize myself for team success is what makes this my best year.”

He throws praise in all directions and wants everyone associated with the franchise to feel a part of the success – from Anthony Edwards to the ticket salesperson to the gameday usher. The feeling of “team” is something that took hold in his one college season at Kentucky in 2014-15.

Then-Wildcats coach John Calipari recruited talented players who could’ve starred elsewhere and averaged more points to sacrifice.

“I see that a lot in our team now, that unity, that cohesiveness, that togetherness, that special thing that special teams have,” Towns said. “It's a selflessness that you need to be willing to win a championship. And I think that's what makes this team so special this year is that there's such a selflessness.”

Re-discovering the love of the game
Towns’ perspective is shaped by life experiences. The loss of his mother in the early days of the pandemic, shattered Towns. She was just 59 years old.

“In a world that was putting so much weight on my shoulders, she allowed me to take that backpack off with the rocks in it and be weightless and that was gone,” Towns said.

Dark days followed. The light had trouble finding its way in, the joy seemed far away and he drifted from his connection to basketball – all understandable in grief.

Towns prioritized his mental health through self-care, and with time, he rediscovered his love of basketball. He wasn’t afraid to express his feelings and invested time in people and projects meaningful to him.

“I had to learn how to take care of myself mentally at the highest level when the things that had brought me peace and had brought me mental stability weren't there anymore,” he said.

On the day of this interview nearly 24 hours before the Timberwolves opened the Western Conference finals against the Mavericks, Towns was home and celebrating an anniversary with his girlfriend Jordyn Woods. They planned to eat dinner at home and then decide what to watch – a movie or TV show.

“This is where my experience kicks in,” Towns explained. “Basketball's what I love, it's what I do, but it's not who I am. And I understand that.”

KAT's voice for change
Last week, Towns was given the NBA’s 2023-24 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award for “for his dedication to pursuing social justice and upholding Abdul-Jabbar and the league’s decades-long values of equality, respect and inclusion.”

He pushed for a bill that restores voting rights to formerly incarcerated individuals, was a producer on the documentary "Forgiving Johnny," which explores how technology and diversion programs can help developmentally challenged defendants. He is also a board member on the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition which aims to “promote policy, build strategic partnerships, and empower action in NBA markets across the nation,” and his fundraising effort for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities is helping young people get access to mental wellness support.

Towns said he was speechless when he watched a video of Abdul-Jabbar informing him he was the recipient of the award.

“Being able to share my mother's love with the world is something I always want to do, and it's the gift that I'm blessed to say has kept giving and it's been something that's helped a lot of kids and families' lives.” Towns said. “And I'm forever thankful for the teachings and lessons she gave me and teaching me the meaning of the word love.”

The Senate will vote Thursday on a border security bill that is dividing the Democratic caucus and failed earlier this year, exposing rifts within the party even as they try to shift the narrative on border security.

As immigration remains top of mind for voters, the White House and top congressional Democrats have discussed a series of moves aimed at strengthening their hand on border security ahead of the first presidential debate next month. Sources say those talks included reviving the stalled border security measure that initially failed after former President Donald Trump told GOP lawmakers to knock it down.

Democrats have pointed to the failure of the bill – which was negotiated on a bipartisan basis – to argue that Republicans are not serious about trying to fix problems at the southern border and are ready to ramp up that argument after the bill stalls out a second time as expected.

But without Ukraine tied to the measure, some Democrats and immigrant advocates are casting it as purely political and taking issue with key elements of the bill – one of the toughest border measures in recent memory. It’s a dynamic that threatens to undermine the messaging effort from Democrats and the White House.

“I will not vote for the bill coming to the Senate floor this week because it includes several provisions that will violate Americans’ shared values. These provisions would not make us safe,” Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday.

Booker voted to advance the bill in February when it failed 49-50. In his statement, Booker noted that the first time around the bill also included “critical foreign and humanitarian aid.”

Republicans have largely dismissed the vote as a political move for vulnerable Democrats to seek political cover over a major issue in the run-up to the November elections.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer acknowledged over the weekend that not every Democrat may vote for the bill in a letter to colleagues. Sixty votes are needed to break a GOP filibuster attempt. Democrats only have 51 votes total and most Republicans have already said they plan to vote against the effort.

The border bill was a topic of discussion Tuesday during Democrats’ closed door party lunch as members debated the merits of bringing up a bill that has already failed to advance in the Senate. A source in the room told CNN that the vast majority were supportive, but that there were holdouts.

Sen. Alex Padilla, who opposed the bill the first time around, said he will vote against the bill when it comes to the floor on Thursday.

“It’s also not lost on me that the last time we were here, a lot of people mentioned this was the price they were willing to pay for the sake of Ukraine funding. That is no longer the case,” Padilla said, acknowledging that something needs to be done to address the border. “This should not be the Democratic starting point for border security.”

Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said the fact there may be internal backlash incentivizes some moderates: “Frankly, the fact that some of our most progressive members don’t vote for it, in my mind, is an indication that it really was a true bipartisan, tough bill,” he said.

If passed, the bill would dramatically change immigration law for the first time in decades. It includes, for example, a new emergency authority to restrict border crossings if daily average migrant encounters reach a certain level, raises the legal standard of proof to pass the initial screening for asylum and expedites the asylum processing timeline, among other measures.

Most Republicans view the vote as largely a messaging exercise for Democrats. But Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who previously voted for the bill, indicated she could back the bill again, despite calling the process “dumb.”

“If I thought it was good enough to vote for before, what changed?” Murkowski said. “Explain what is going on to someone who is not in this building. They think we’re nuts.”

But Republican Sen. James Lankford, a key negotiator on the border bill, said he’ll vote against the measure Thursday. “It’s no longer a bill. It’s a prop,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Tuesday.

Democrats have sought to shift blame onto Republicans for not securing the border, citing their decision to walk away from a measure that restricted migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the US southern border, among other restrictions.

The message became a winning one in New York’s third congressional district in February when Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi went on offense on immigration and won the seat.

The absence of foreign aid and inclusion of what some immigrant advocates describe as sharp policy has turned up the volume on criticism.

“It is unconscionable and deeply disappointing for Senator Murphy to be championing these policies that will simply not work, and for Leader Schumer, the senator from the home to the Statue of Liberty, to be pushing for this vote,” Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First, told CNN.

“The American public were told these harsh policies were necessary to secure Ukraine funding earlier in the year, what is their excuse for adopting anti-immigrant policies now?” Barnard said.

The pressure on Congress also reflects the limited tools the administration has at its disposal to affect the situation on the ground over the next few months.

“We recognize that there are limits to what any administration can do in this space with executive action,” one senior administration official said. “What we really need here and we continue to call for is for Congress to do its job and to take up and pass the Senate bipartisan border security legislation.”

Senior administration officials are bracing for the potential that border crossings will surge this summer, like in previous years and are trotting out a series of policy changes to try to dissuade migrants from journeying to the US – and convince skeptical voters they are working to tighten up immigration at the border.

“All of the factors that have been driving this unprecedented movement of people all over the world remain and we continue to be very vigilant and work, night and day to try to put policies in place that will mitigate its impact on our border,” this senior official said.

Discussions are ongoing on rolling out a border executive action, according to sources, who say that one of the considerations is doing so after Mexico’s election in early June and potentially before the first presidential debate.

It’s all part of a broader strategy to remind voters they have a plan, Democrats say.

“We’ve seen some pretty encouraging polling that indicates that once people know what we have the strongest, bipartisan border bill in generations and we are prepared to do real and tough things that moderates are willing to change their view about Democrats and border security,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii.

“It’s a good bill and it is something that needs attending to. That’s our job. Let’s bring it up,” said Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

One passenger died and 71 people were injured when their Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore encountered severe turbulence Tuesday, throwing passengers and crew around the cabin and forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.

The Boeing 777-300ER was about 10 hours into its flight and midway through meal service when it hit turbulence while flying over Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Basin, according to the airline.

Andrew Davies, a passenger onboard flight SQ321 who was traveling to New Zealand for business, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that it had been a “perfectly normal” flight when the seatbelt sign came on and seconds later “all hell broke loose.”

“The plane just felt like it dropped. It probably only lasted a few seconds but I remember vividly seeing shoes and iPads and iPhones and cushions and blankets and cutlery and plates and cups flying through the air and crashing to the ceiling. The gentleman next to me had a cup of coffee, which went straight all over me and up to the ceiling,” Davies said.

Davies said he realized the “gravity” of the turbulence when he turned around, describing several passengers with gashes on their heads, including one with “blood pouring down her face” and an elderly passenger in “severe shock.”

“There was so much screaming,” he said.

Video and images from inside the aircraft showed the extent of the damage, with overhead compartments smashed open and emergency oxygen air masks hanging down from the ceiling. A photo of one galley showed a section of the ceiling open with parts of the plane’s interior hanging down. Trays, containers, plastic bottles and hot beverage pots can be seen strewn across the floor.

A 73-year-old British man died in the incident from a suspected heart condition, the General Manager of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport Kittipong Kittikachorn said Tuesday, adding that the autopsy process was still ongoing.

The man was later identified as Geoff Kitchen, who was described as “always a gentleman with the utmost honesty and integrity” by the Thornbury Musical Theatre Group (TMTG), an establishment where he worked for over 35 years.

The British Foreign Office told CNN it was supporting the family of a British passenger who died on a Singapore Airlines flight.

Davies, who was seated toward the front of the plane, said he helped tend to Kitchen, who was seated behind him.

“Lots of people needed some help but we tended to this gentleman and I helped carry him, get him out of the seat, and we lay him on the floor so that some medical profession(als) could administer CPR,” Davies said, adding the passenger was administered CPR for about 20 minutes.”
The Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital in Bangkok, which received the injured passengers, said at least 71 people were injured, with six severely. Those injured include citizens of Malaysia, the UK, New Zealand, Spain, the US and Ireland.

Kittikachorn, who inspected the aircraft, said some injured passengers sustained broken arms.

The flight, carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew, had left London’s Heathrow Airport around 10:30 p.m. local time, according to online flight trackers. It was bound for Singapore’s Changi Airport, however the aircraft was diverted to Bangkok where it landed at 3:45 p.m. local time, according to the airline.

Video filmed after Singapore Airlines SQ321 was diverted to Bangkok shows a passenger being carried from the aircraft on a stretcher by emergency responders.

Kittikachorn said that following the landing in Bangkok almost 200 travelers were waiting to take onward flights to their destinations. A Singapore Airlines plane carrying 131 of the 211 passengers later departed Bangkok for Singapore, he said.

Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong said in a statement that the airline is “providing all possible assistance and support” to the passengers and their families.

“On behalf of Singapore Airlines, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased passenger. We also deeply apologize for the trauma experienced by all passengers and crew members on this flight,” he said.

Singapore’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement that it was investigating the situation involving flight SQ321 and the US National Transportation Safety Board is sending personnel to Singapore to help support the investigation.
Turbulence occurs when a plane flies through clashing bodies of air moving at widely different speeds.

With light and moderate turbulence passengers might feel a strain against their seatbelt, and unsecured items could move around the cabin. But in severe cases turbulence can throw passengers around the cabin, causing severe injuries and occasionally death.

A statement from the airline said the plane, “encountered sudden extreme turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin [a river in Myanmar] at 37,000 feet, about 10 hours after departure.”

Data from aviation tracking site FlightRadar24 shows the flight suddenly dipping then rapidly climbing a few hundred feet before dipping and climbing again and then finally settling back at its cruising altitude. The entire disruption took about 90 seconds, according to the data.

The flight changes course about 14 minutes later. The airline said, “The pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the aircraft to Bangkok.”
Singapore Airlines is often considered one of the world’s safest carriers.

Its only previous fatal accident was in October 2000 when flight SQ006 crashed when the Boeing 747-400 took off from a closed runway in Taiwan amid heavy rain, killing 83 on board.

Singapore Airlines said later Tuesday that a dedicated team had arrived in Bangkok “to support our colleagues and the local authorities on the ground” in an update on its Facebook page.

The flight operator expressed its “deepest condolences to the family of the deceased. We deeply apologize for the traumatic experience that our passengers and crew members suffered on this flight.”

Boeing has said it is in touch with the Singaporean carrier and is “ready to support them.” The manufacturer is deferring further questions to the airline and local authorities.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described a March 2023 incident involving a private jet. The National Transportation Safety Board later ruled weather had not been involved in the violent movements of that plane.

Pro-Palestinian encampments have been cleared from more US college campuses as school officials have called in law enforcement in recent weeks to quell mounting demonstrations over the institutions’ ties to Israel amid its military action in Gaza. Here are the latest developments:

Arts and sciences faculty at Columbia University have passed a vote of no confidence in the Ivy League school’s president, Minouche Shafik, who has been under intense scrutiny for her handling of campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war and her congressional testimony on the subject.
Sixty-five percent of participants said they had no confidence in Shafik, a spokesperson for the New York university confirmed to CNN on Thursday, adding some 900 of its 4,600 full-time faculty voted.

Among their concerns were that Shafik’s leadership had “not only endangered our students; more broadly, it represents a serious threat to the core values of the university: academic freedom, shared governance, freedom of expression, and the right to peaceful assembly,” the Barnard College and Columbia University Chapters of the American Association of University Professors said in a Thursday news release.

Shafik “continues to consult regularly with members of the community, including faculty, administration, and trustees, as well as with state, city, and community leaders,” Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said in a statement.

Shafik a day earlier sent a message to graduates – after their university-wide commencement ceremony was canceled following weeks of Gaza war protests – wishing “that the challenges you faced during this difficult era will inspire you and make you stronger.”
“I know that the last few weeks have been very difficult, and I am sorry that we were unable to celebrate your commencement in the traditional manner,” she said in her message. Columbia cited security concerns in canceling the large event, a school official told CNN, and instead is holding smaller ones.

Acknowledging “an extraordinary and tragic set of events” in the Middle East and that “as a great university, we must engage with these issues,” the polarization at Columbia has caused conflict on campus, Shafik said.

“Canceling the traditional commencement ceremony was one of the toughest calls in a year of many tough calls,” Shafik wrote in an op-ed in the Columbia Daily Spectator, noting her top priority has been the safety of students, faculty and staff.

“The conflict between the rights of pro-Palestinian protesters and the impact that their protests have had on some members of our Jewish community is what makes this moment singularly fraught,” she said.

UC Irvine goes remote as 50 protesters detained: Classes at the University of California, Irvine, are remote Thursday after law enforcement personnel used zip ties to restrain demonstrators the prior evening at the university before escorting them away from a pro-Palestinian protest encampment and toward a parking lot.

Fifty people were arrested, and police began the booking process onsite, university spokesperson Tom Vasich said in an email. Those who were arrested were taken to the Orange County Jail, where booking and processing were completed. “They were then released on citation,” Vasich said.
Most of those taken into custody were cited for failure to disperse after a direct police order and a few were arrested for trespassing, Vasich said, adding a full breakdown of how many of those arrested are students or faculty is expected to be released later on Thursday.

“A group of several hundred protestors entered the UC Irvine campus and began surrounding” the school’s Physical Sciences Lecture Hall at around 2:30 p.m., Wednesday, the school said in an emergency update.

The university put out a mutual aid call to local law enforcement and got help from the Irvine Police Department and Orange County Sheriff’s Department, it said. Authorities cleared what looked like at least half of student protesters at the encampment, aerial footage from CNN affiliate KABC showed.

Pro-Palestinian protesters had set up a campus encampment on April 29, when the university also called in local law enforcement. Days later, the school’s chancellor said the university would continue to negotiate with student protesters demanding their university cut financial ties to Israel over the nation’s military action in Gaza.

UC Berkeley condemned building occupied by Pro-Palestinian protesters: Protesters are still occupying a condemned building at the University of California, Berkeley, a school spokesperson said Thursday, after a group broke in the prior afternoon with sticks and bolt cutters, broke windows and spray-painted walls, police said
“There is an active crime scene at a building in the Anna Head complex,” spokesperson Dan Mogulof told CNN via email. “This is not nonviolent civil disobedience.”

A Palestinian flag is hanging from the building, where protesters set up tents, footage from CNN affiliate KGO shows.

Images from the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area show the building’s interior walls covered in what the group called “antisemitic graffiti,” reading, “Zionism is Nazism” and “Martyrs never die.”

“The Star of David, the most recognizable symbol in Judaism, is seen equated with a swastika,” the council said Wednesday in an X post. “This is not protest, this is pure hate.”

The building’s takeover came a day after the UCB Divest Coalition agreed to end its campus encampment following discussions with university leadership. The coalition did not initiate the break-in at the Anna Head complex, Mogulof said.

UC Berkeley’s chancellor was relieved to bring the encampment protests to a peaceful end, noting the school’s leadership does not support full divestment from Israel at this time, she said.