New York Knicks win NBA championship for first time in over 50 years
The New York Knicks won the National Basketball Association championship for the first time in over 50 years, sending the city and fans into a frenzy after the long-awaited victory.
The Knicks clinched the title on Saturday night against the San Antonio Spurs, 94-90, in the fifth game of the best-of-seven series.
While the game was in Texas, New Yorkers took to their hometown streets in droves to watch and celebrate the milestone moment for the team, its fans and the entire city.
Some fans also made their way to Texas where the two teams faced off at the Frost Center, the Spurs’ home arena.
Elizabeth Madigan flew to San Antonio from New York Friday night ahead of Saturday’s game.
“I’ve been waiting for this, honestly most of my life. The last time the Knicks won, I was 6 months old, and so I can’t begin to describe how excited I am. It’s been unbelievable,” she said.
“I definitely had my doubts. But we did pull it off. Knicks forever.”
This season has represented a stunning reversal of fortune for the Knicks after decades as one of the worst teams in the league. The last time they made it all the way to the finals was in 1999, also against the Spurs, who ultimately beat them. Their last finals win was even earlier, in 1973.
They held a 3-1 lead in the series heading into Saturday’s game.
“I grew up watching the Knicks. They were so bad for so long,” said Jake Minicucci while sitting with his friends on the patio of a Manhattan sports bar “This might be the first time I cry in a very long time, tonight.”
Fans’ anticipation before the game was like a champagne bottle about to pop its cork.
“This city is electric,” said Jake Minicucci while sitting with friends on the patio of a Manhattan sports bar. “I’ve never gotten so many head nods, everybody knowing we are in it for the Knicks together.”
The 50-plus year drought was very much on the minds of some Knicks fans including Daniel Brown who said the evening had the potential “to be one of the best nights in the history of this city.”
“I’ve lived here all my life, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” said the 24-year-old.
Ahead of the game, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a social media post that the city was working with the Knicks to host watch parties outside Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and Wollman Rink.
“As we celebrate, be responsible, look out for one another, stay safe, be smart, and make this a night that reflects the very best of our city,” the mayor said.
His call for safety came after a few instances of violence in New York City against Spurs fans, including one assault that landed a fan in the hospital and another in which a fast food worker wearing a Spurs jersey was attacked, according to local reports.
Madigan said that in San Antonio, even as a Knicks fan, she felt welcome.
“Honestly the San Antonians have been so loving and welcoming despite the obvious competition,” she said.
Both Knicks and Spurs players have condemned the violence and harassment.
Ahead of Saturday’s Game 5, fan travelling to San Antonio from New York to attend the game were in a frenzy about possibly getting locked out of the arena.
In a note on its website for the game, Ticketmaster said purchases by those living farther than 150mi (241km) from the San Antonio arena would be cancelled and refunded without notice.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul posted on social media: “Knicks fans finally get within one game of a championship and their reward is having their tickets canceled?”

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Rome in anti- and pro-migration demonstrations on Saturday, after a far-right citizens initiative seeking sweeping measures against migrants garnered enough support to be brought to Italy’s parliament. The “Remigration and Reconquest” initiative gathered the 50,000 signatures needed to trigger parliamentary discussion, pushing the once-fringe concept of “remigration” into the political mainstream, the AP reports. The proposal promoted by right-wing groups calls for sweeping measures against foreigners, including coercive returns, incentives to leave the country, and broader policies that critics contend could extend to legal residents.
Several thousand demonstrators from around Italy gathered for the anti-migration march, singing the national anthem. On several occasions, many of them raised their arms in the fascist salute, shouting “Duce! Duce!” in reference to dictator Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943. A rival, pro-migration demonstration saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets in another part of Rome on Saturday evening. That march was attended by various left-wing groups and trade unions, with some demonstrators waving Palestinian flags. Thousands of police were deployed to ensure the two groups would remain apart. No violence was reported.
The debate on migration represents a balancing act for Premier Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition. While the anti-migration League has backed opening discussion, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and centrist allies have been more cautious about endorsing a proposal linked to extremist circles in the face of concerns over legal risks and internal divisions. Opponents, including rival parties and legal experts, argue the proposal would violate constitutional and international anti-discrimination principles by targeting people based on ethnic background, including naturalized citizens and their descendants. A vote on the measure has not been scheduled.
Read These Next
Strict about your kids’ screen time?
The cost of this food product is the
Algae returns to DC’s
Rare goblin sharks filmed for first time

The Fitbit Air is 2026’s most hyped wearable product release yet, helped by its back-to-basics design, innovative AI coach, and reasonable cost.
Hype doesn’t always translate to long-term desirability, though, and those same advantages can quickly turn into reasons to abandon wearing the Fitbit Air soon after purchase.
After two weeks with the Fitbit Air, I’ve got a good idea if it’s a threat to Samsung, Apple, and Oura, or if it’s a flash-in-the-pan hype product that’s all set to be forgotten.
Price, specs, and availability
The Fitbit Air is available to buy now for $100 through Google’s own online store, Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers. There are four colors: Obsidian, Lavender, Berry, and Fog. These colors match the Google Pixel 10a.
It comes as standard with the Performance Loop Band, which is made of recycled polyester and stretchy yarn. Alternatively, you can purchase a silicone Active Band in the same colors for $35, or the polyurethane Elevated Modern Band with a stainless steel buckle in Moonstone, Porcelain, or Obsidian for $50.
To use the Fitbit Air with Google Health’s AI Coach, you will need to pay for the app’s Premium subscription, which costs $10 per month or $100 per year. Alternatively, Google Health Premium is also one of the benefits in the Google AI Pro subscription for $20, which also includes extra Google storage, AI tools, and YouTube Premium Lite. The subscription is an option.
The Fitbit Air competes with other screen-less fitness trackers, including the Oura Ring 4 and Whoop MG, which both require a subscription, and smartwatches such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Apple Watch Series 11.
Fitbit Air design
Distraction-free and almost unnoticeable
The Fitbit Air is a return to the early days of fitness tracking hardware. It consists of a central, screen-less module that contains the sensor array and fits into a custom band.
As standard, it comes with the fabric Performance Loop Band. It’s 18mm wide, has a metal clasp, and a hook-and-loop fastening.
The Fitbit Air is as basic as connected wrist wear gets, which is a huge part of its appeal. It weighs just 11 grams, and it disappears on your wrist. For context, my Oura Ring 4 Ceramic is 7 grams, and a Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is 46 grams with the strap.
It’s a genuine 24-hour-a-day wearable and is unnoticeable when you use it to track sleep. The simple fastening makes it highly adjustable, and tightening it up when exercising takes seconds. If it gets wet, it doesn’t take long to dry.
Like a smart ring, the Fitbit Air’s simple design makes it ideal to wear opposite a mechanical watch, and I like the way the available strap colors match the Pixel 10a.
Also, like a smart ring, it doesn’t deliver notifications and doesn’t vibrate on your wrist unnecessarily. You can set an alarm to wake you up with a subtle vibration, though.
The Fitbit Air is suitable for everyone, doesn’t get sweaty or annoying to wear, is virtually unnoticeable once you’re used to it after a day, and the small amount of customization allows you to make it your own.
Fitbit Air app
Welcome, Google Health?
The Fitbit Air requires the Google Health app, which has replaced the Fitbit app and the Google Fit app. It’s free to use, but does have a Premium subscription option for $10 per month, which provides access to the Google Health AI Coach. I have been testing the Fitbit Air with Google Health Premium.
The top of the main screen is dedicated to key data points, such as steps, readiness, sleep, and progress towards a weekly cardio goal. You can scroll through this panel to find more details, such as calorie burn, current heart rate, plus manually added information like hydration and meal logging.
A Fitness tab accesses workout plans, either those you’ve created or pre-made plans from Fitbit. Scroll down the page, and you get a repeat of many stats shown on the main screen. The Sleep tab shows data related to your sleep, along with mindfulness and breathing exercises.
The final tab is Health. Top of the list is the Vitals screen, where your breathing rate, blood oxygen, resting heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and skin temperature variation can be viewed. You can also find yet more ways to see the same data presented on the main screen. Google Health isn’t afraid to repeat itself.
I had no problem connecting the Fitbit Air to Google Health, and it has remained connected throughout my time with it. The app’s design is modern and makes great use of space, but it does take a while to learn, and there is still work to be done on the design and formatting.
A lot of data and graphs are hidden beneath several button taps, and you’ll have to spend time learning where to find the most useful data. For example, to find your resting heart rate overnight, you don’t tap the Sleep button or go to the Sleep tab, but the Health tab instead.
Google Health also focuses on the here-and-now, and finding historical data, such as previous workouts, or data that extends further back than a week, takes a while to find. Workout plans and data from them are a mess, and the deeper you dig, the more confusing it all gets. On the surface, the app is fine, but when you want details, it quickly gets confusing.
Fitbit Air performance and accuracy
How does it compare to the competition?
In addition to daily movement and sleep, the Google Health app tracks a host of exercises, from running to swimming, and yoga to kayaking.
During my time with the Fitbit Air, I have compared its results to the Oura Ring 4, the Whoop MG, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8.
For the most part, the Fitbit Air, Oura Ring, and Whoop all agree on the average heart rate during a workout, but the Fitbit Air does overestimate calorie burn compared to them.
During sleep, it also mostly aligns, but is often harsher with its overall sleep score compared to the Oura Ring. However, it’s during sleep that I’ve seen the biggest discrepancy in its data compared to rivals.
The Fitbit Air consistently reports a much higher average resting heart rate during sleep, often recording figures around seven beats per minute (bpm) higher than the Oura Ring, and three bpm higher than the Whoop.
It has settled down a little the longer I’ve worn the Fitbit Air, and is possibly still calibrating, but over-counting data like resting heart rate and calorie burn will cause problems with other data points and progress towards goals. The Fitbit Air is not a medical device, so the figures are estimates.
Automatic workout tracking has been reliable, and it takes a moment to start a workout from the button on the main screen. However, remember the Fitbit Air does not have a screen, so everything has to be viewed and managed in the Google Health app. There’s no built-in GPS either, so you have to rely on your phone.
Perhaps the biggest issue with the Fitbit Air and Google Health’s performance is how slow it is to update data. Sleep data, exercise data, and the AI Coach’s most recent advice take a while to show up in the app, which can be frustrating when you want to quickly see up-to-date information. It can also lead to overlap, and to advice being out-of-date when it eventually arrives.
Fitbit Air and Google Health AI Coach
The Fitbit Air’s big feature
Data is almost secondary to the Google Health app’s primary feature, which is the AI Coach. If you don’t pay for the subscription, this is the primary feature you’ll miss out on.
The AI Coach provides general overviews of your sleep, daily exercise, and workouts. It’s aware of weather trends, will take into account any medication you take if you tell it, and prompts you to interact with it to outline your daily exercise and activity plans.
During the initial setup, the AI Coach is surprisingly effective. I told it I wanted to maintain my current regime, and it accepted this, created custom workout plans, and keeps me honest and motivated each day. It does not push you to do more or send notifications suggesting you get out and run if you want to meet a target.
The AI Coach can interact with the app, and this can be valuable, as it reduces the time it takes to create and modify exercise plans. If you’re searching for the hidden data, you can also ask the AI Coach about it. This is where the app differs from less AI-focused health apps.
For example, I asked the AI Coach about my resting heart rate during sleep and if anything needed addressing. It summarized the data without me having to go and look for it, and then trying to interpret it myself. It adds in graphs and general advice in its lengthy reply.
Because the AI Coach is based on Google Gemini, you use natural language to chat about your data and plans. You can type this into the app, or use your voice. Google Health expects you to interact with the AI Coach, and a lot of the app’s value comes from building a “relationship” with the Coach.
Unfortunately, the usual negative AI traits exist. It’s very verbose, it always wants you to continue the conversation, and it doesn’t always get things right. While I found the workout plan generation helpful, it did need things clarified before it got the cadence and rep count right. Like other AI tools, it contradicts itself often, and it can get confused about what exercises you’ve done and when.
I’m not a fitness fanatic, and treat exercise as something I should do, rather than something I want to do. Google Health and the easy-to-wear Fitbit Air suit my requirements perfectly. Those who are more hardcore may find the app too basic, and the AI not smart enough to help them improve. AI skeptics will also find plenty to dislike.
That said, I really recommend giving it a try using the free Google Health Premium trial, as it may end up working for you. It’s by far the most useful and most personal AI I’ve used in a health and fitness app yet.
Google Health controversies and problems
Not everyone has welcomed Google Health
For my purposes and relatively basic health and exercise tracking, Google Health is a decent partner, once the layout has been learned.
However, experienced Fitbit device owners and those with years of data stored and tracked in the old app have not found the changeover to Google Health very easy.
Issues around food tracking, calorie tracking, integration with other connected devices, in-depth data points such as body mass index (BMI), a lack of customization, not enough workout options, and a push to use the AI Coach have frustrated many.
This has resulted in a 3.7-star rating on the Google Play Store at the time of writing for Google Health.
Everyone’s requirements and preferences for a health and fitness tracker will be different, so these issues won’t affect everyone, but will frustrate others.
From my experience so far, the Fitbit Air and Google Health are more suited to general fitness tracking, almost edging towards lifestyle tracking, rather than hardcore sportspeople.
Fitbit Air battery life and charging
Just don’t lose the charger
The lack of a screen and requirement for a continuous connection to your smartphone mean the slim, light Fitbit Air makes the most out of its battery.
Google claims seven days of battery life on a single charge, and this fits in with my experience so far. The app will send a notification recommending you charge the Fitbit Air when it reaches around 24-hours of battery life remaining.
It’s recharged using a proprietary charging puck, which magnetically attaches to the back of the main module. You do not need to remove it from the band to charge, and the magnets are strong enough that it won’t accidentally fall off. It takes about 90 minutes to fully charge the battery.
Perhaps the only downside of this decent performance is the proprietary charging block. If you lose it, you won’t be able to use your phone’s charger to charge the Fitbit Air. Google sells a replacement charger for $25.
Should you buy the Fitbit Air?
Make no mistake, the Fitbit Air is a data-gathering device for Health’s AI Coach, and AI Coach is the app’s primary feature. If you don’t want to talk to AI about your health and fitness, then you may find the entire Air\Health experience lacking.
The slow syncing and AI advice updates, sometimes questionable data accuracy, hidden data that’s a pain to find in the app, and more of a focus on lifestyle and general fitness tracking than some may expect, are also reasons serious sporty people may not enjoy the Fitbit Air and Google Health.
However, if you’re already into AI tools like vibe-coding and AI companionship, feel the Oura Ring isn’t quite sporty enough for you, don’t want to make health and fitness tracking your entire life, and appreciate wear-and-forget hardware, then I think you’ll really get a lot from the Fitbit Air.
Additionally, while there is a subscription attached to Google Health, you can pay for it and the Fitbit Air for two years, and still come out having paid quite a lot less than you would for the Oura Ring, Galaxy Watch 8, or Whoop.
Despite my review being complete, I won’t be taking the Fitbit Air off. I wasn’t expecting it to fit into my life quite so easily or quickly, but it has turned out to be a far more useful, interesting, and motivational fitness tool than I expected.

The World Cup is expected to bring 1.2 million international tourists to the region, raising concerns about the possibility of rare diseases like Ebola and hantavirus spreading to the United States.
While healthcare professionals are watching for these potentially deadly diseases, they’re not necessarily the primary concern ahead of the big event.
“I would say the more exotic diseases — like hantavirus, like Ebola — statistically speaking, are not something that a regular person who’s going to either a game or a watch party should be concerned with,” said Dr. Beth Kushner, an emergency medicine physician at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson, located less than 20 minutes from the Meadowlands.
The overall risk of Ebola to the American public remains low, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC and Department of Homeland Security have implemented enhanced travel screening, entry restrictions and public health measures to prevent Ebola from entering the country amid ongoing outbreaks in East and Central Africa.
Similarly, a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard a luxury cruise ship in May 2026 provoked global concern. However, no hantavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S. because of this outbreak and the risk to the public remains extremely low, according to the CDC.
“The common person should be far more concerned about getting an upper respiratory virus that will take them five to seven days to feel better,” said Kushner. “That is, statistically speaking, much more common to get at a watch party or a game when they’re surrounded by other people.”
All-day festivities like the World Cup also increase the likelihood of contracting a food-borne illness such as E.Coli and norovirus.
“If you’re at your friend’s house for a watch party and you’re there starting at noon, and somebody put out some dip and you’re there till 6 p.m., and that dip has been out, maybe in the heat, not refrigerated, that could cause food-borne illnesses,” said Kushner. “That is a much more common occurrence than somebody who has Ebola, who is unaware they have it, coming and affecting you.”
Dr. Daniel Varga, chief physician at Hackensack Meridian Health, said he’s urging his staff to keep an eye out for “the basics” — things like the flu, COVID-19 and RSV — as well as “things we used to never think about, like measles.”
Although measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. nearly 30 years ago, it has reemerged in recent years due to declining measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination coverage.
According to the CDC, MMR coverage among kindergartners in the U.S. decreased from 95.2% during the 2019–2020 school year to 92.5% during the 2024–2025 school year. That’s well below the 95% coverage target required for herd immunity.
“We’re always on the lookout for those things and the current vaccine hesitancy that we’ve seen makes us even more on the alert for those sorts of diseases,” said Varga.
There’s also a variety of public health concerns related to the World Cup that have nothing to do with germs.
“Infectious disease is always one of the major concerns for healthcare, but I wouldn’t say it’s the only concern,” said Adam S. Perper, director of emergency management and preparedness at St. Joseph’s Health.
Perper said St. Joseph’s Health has spent well over a year working with local, county, state and federal officials to prepare for the World Cup from an “all-hazards lens.”
This includes preparing for the possibility of mass casualty scenarios, crowd crush injuries, heat emergencies, security incidents, transportation disruptions and overwhelmed emergency rooms.
“You are way more likely to be harmed by the things that are way more common and way more likely to occur, like trauma, like dehydration, like heat-related illnesses and behavioral health stressors,” said Dr. Gerardo Chiricolo, chair of the department of emergency medicine at RWJBarnabas Health Community Medical Center.
Temps are expected to climb into the upper 80s to the mid-90s during the first match on Saturday. Whether fans plan to attend a backyard watch party or head to MetLife Stadium, Chiricolo said they should be mindful of the excessive heat.
“Heat-related illnesses are a real thing and can really cause devastating health consequences if not mitigated,” Chiricolo said.
In extreme heat, experts recommend wearing loose clothing, limiting alcohol intake, drinking cool water, staying in shaded areas and seeking medical attention if any of the following symptoms occur:

The phenomenon El Niño has arrived, the U.S. weather agency said Thursday, and scientists expect the pattern, synonymous with droughts, floods and soaring temperatures, will intensify through the end of the year, potentially to historic strength.
El Niño is a natural climate occurrence that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, bringing worldwide changes in winds and rainfall patterns and erratic weather.
Scientists fear it will exacerbate the heat of a planet already warming from burning fossil fuels while amplifying weather extremes.
“El Niño is here, and it could be one for the history books,” said meteorologist Haley Thiem in an explainer video from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In its latest advisory, scientists at NOAA said there is a 63% chance “of a very strong El Niño during November-January that would rank among the largest El Niño events in the historical record going back to 1950.”
Every El Niño is different, but major events often follow familiar patterns. This includes drought across parts of the Amazon, Indonesia and Australia; disrupted monsoons in India; and shifting rainfall throughout the tropics.
It typically takes place every two to seven years and lasts around nine to 12 months.
El Niño tends to peak late in the year, but heat in the oceans releases more slowly into the atmosphere, pushing up global temperatures the following year.
In response to the forecast, Marc Alessi of the Union of Concerned Scientists said “the combination of fossil fuel-caused climate change and a potential super El Niño event makes a terrible team,” adding that it could “easily” push global temperatures to record levels.
“While El Niño is a naturally occurring phenomenon, there is evidence that fossil fuel-caused climate change is making El Niño events more intense,” he said in a statement to AFP.
‘Deadly siren’
Mohamed Adow, director of the Nairobi-based climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said for millions of people across the globe, “it’s not just another weather forecast” but a “deadly siren to be feared.”
“It means failed rains, dying crops, rising food prices, and families pushed to the edge yet again.”
Governments across the dry countries of Central America have raised alert levels over El Niño.
In that region known as the “Dry Corridor”—including parts of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua—El Niño’s return has triggered fears of drought and stoked concerns of famine.
The Guatemalan government, for example, says it has 1.1 million rations ready to distribute in the face of a food security emergency.
In East Africa, Adow said the extremes will likely strike “communities already battered by droughts and floods in recent years.”
Predictions from elsewhere in the world mirror those of NOAA, anticipating a particularly strong El Niño.
“The odds are strongly in favor of a moderate to strong, or probably strong to record-breaking, event at this stage,” Carlo Buontempo, the director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, told AFP.
Earlier this month, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres urged the world to treat the likely intense incoming weather “as the urgent climate warning it is.”
“El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world,” he said.
“The only effective response is climate action equal to the crisis—ending the addiction to fossil fuels, accelerating the shift to renewables, protecting the most vulnerable, and delivering early warning systems for all.”
© 2026 AFP