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LOS ANGELES — Philadelphia 76ers forward Jaylen Brown said this week that he would most want to have experienced the 2016 NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, a series he watched in person as a college student, as new video game feature NBA 2K27 lets players relive historic championship matchups from different NBA eras.

Brown spoke with ClutchPoints ahead of the release of NBA 2K27 this month, which introduces an “eras” feature to MyCareer mode allowing players to begin their in-game professional careers during different periods of NBA history. Asked which past NBA Finals he would want to experience, Brown pointed to the 2016 series between LeBron James’ Cavaliers and Stephen Curry’s Warriors, a matchup he watched firsthand while attending the University of California, Berkeley.

“I feel like one of the greatest Finals was that 2016 NBA Finals, where it was LeBron James and Kyrie Irving versus Stephen Curry, but I was there. I was there for every home game in Golden State, so I got to see all those games up close,” Brown said. That series, which went the full seven games, ended with Cleveland completing a comeback from a 3-1 series deficit to deliver the city its first professional sports championship in 52 years.

Brown said he had not settled on a definitive second choice when asked what other historic Finals he might want to experience. “What other finals would I have to see? I don’t know. That’s a good question. I’ll have to put some thought into that,” Brown said. “Maybe some like old traditional like Lakers versus Celtics could have been cool to see. Maybe that 2018 Finals being there for that, or maybe the 2010 Lakers playing versus the Celtics, maybe something to that degree or something like that, but I’m not sure.”

Brown was also asked which player in NBA history he would most want to team up with, and he pointed to Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, with whom Brown shares a personal connection: Brown was named NBA Finals MVP in 2024 using the award now officially named after Russell. “Probably Bill Russell,” Brown said. “Just because of like what he stood for on as well as what he stood for off the court. And he was a winner on the court too, so that would be my choice.”

Brown’s connection to Celtics history runs deep given his eight seasons with the franchise, which included winning the 2024 NBA championship and earning Finals MVP honors before his surprise trade to Philadelphia this offseason. That trade brought him alongside center Joel Embiid, guard Tyrese Maxey and newly signed forward LeBron James, forming a roster that has quickly become one of the league’s most anticipated for the 2026-27 season.

NBA 2K27’s initial ratings reveal reflected the scale of Philadelphia’s roster overhaul. Maxey leads the team with a 92 overall rating, while James, Brown and Embiid are each rated 91 overall, marking the first time since NBA 2K17 that a single team has featured four players rated 90 or higher, according to ClutchPoints. The Golden State Warriors previously accomplished that feat in the earlier game with Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

Brown has publicly embraced the pressure that comes with joining a star-studded roster built for immediate championship contention. In a separate recent livestream, Brown praised James’ physical condition heading into his 24th NBA season, saying, “LeBron is the [expletive]… I don’t even need to say what LeBron is. He looks good, healthy. It’s going to be that. We’re working, man.” James, 41, is expected to remain one of the league’s most productive veterans after averaging 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds during his final season with the Lakers.

Philadelphia enters the 2026-27 season looking to build on a 2025-26 campaign that saw the team stun the Boston Celtics in a first-round comeback before being swept by the New York Knicks in the conference semifinals. With Brown, James, Embiid and Maxey now sharing the same roster, expectations for the Sixers have risen sharply heading into training camp, with Brown himself recently declaring he is looking to bring an aggressive, championship-driven mentality into his first season in Philadelphia.

The death toll from catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-China border passed 1,000 on Tuesday, authorities said, as China warned of a continued “major risk” of further glacier collapses and landslides even as rescue teams pressed deeper into remote areas cut off since last week’s disaster.

Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority reported 987 confirmed deaths as of Tuesday, with 3,916 people still listed as missing, including 583 foreign nationals, according to Euronews. In Tibet, Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 people still missing as of their most recent update. At least 11,814 people have been rescued so far in Nepal, according to the country’s disaster agency.

China’s Ministry of Water Resources said Monday there remains an ongoing threat of further collapses along the Cuojian River in Nepal, a waterway that flows into the Purepuqiang River in Tibet, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The ministry added there is also a risk that additional landslides could cause a new barrier lake to form downstream in Tibet, adding to the hazards facing rescue crews and remaining residents in the region.

The disaster was triggered when a glacier collapsed at Langtang Lirung, on the Nepalese side of the border, at an altitude of roughly 5,200 meters on Aug. 26. The resulting surge of ice, rock and meltwater traveled 22 kilometers down a mountain valley and reached the Gyirong Port border crossing in just seven minutes, according to calculations by Jeffrey Kargel, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, who found the flow moved at an average speed of roughly 193 kilometers per hour during that initial stretch. The collapse itself registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event, detectable by seismometers worldwide, according to Wikipedia’s summary of scientific findings on the disaster.

High-water marks examined on the mountainside opposite Gyirong Port showed floodwaters had reached more than 60 meters at their peak, roughly the height of a 20-story building, according to estimates from rescuers cited by CCTV. Rivers in some of the affected valleys rose by as much as 9 meters within just half an hour of the initial collapse, according to earlier reporting from Yahoo News.

Weather conditions have continued to complicate rescue operations. The China Meteorological Administration warned Monday of additional rain expected in Gyirong county over the following three days, cautioning that the precipitation could make roads along key rescue routes slippery and further hamper both search efforts and transport logistics. Zhang Taiyuan, a weather presenter with the administration, urged rescue and relief vehicles operating in the area to exercise extra caution given the deteriorating conditions.

More than 60 rescuers trekked for over 10 hours through mountainous terrain to reach the disaster’s core area on Sunday, according to CCTV, and have since searched roughly 40,000 square meters of the affected zone twice. Yao Xueqin, deputy head of a fire and rescue unit deployed to the region, said search teams have so far focused on clearing surface debris and will begin digging deeper into affected areas during later phases of the operation.

Efforts to reopen a critical stretch of national highway leading to Gyirong Port have also advanced. As of 4 p.m. Monday local time, crews had cleared and reopened several hundred meters of previously blocked road, leaving approximately 1.1 kilometers still to clear before reaching the border port, according to CCTV, which described the effort as having entered its “final push.” A temporary emergency communications base station near the Gyirong Port border gate became operational Sunday, allowing repair crews to reestablish contact with rescue teams working in the immediate disaster zone for the first time since communications were severed by the initial collapse.

Among those still missing, 261 are foreign nationals, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua, including 104 from Nepal, 49 from India, 33 from Latvia and 18 from the United States. Families on both sides of the border have continued posting on social media seeking information about missing relatives and friends who were near the Gyirong Port crossing at the time the disaster struck.

The catastrophe has renewed attention on the broader challenges of monitoring and issuing early warnings for high-altitude glacial hazards across the Himalayan border region. Scientists told the Chinese outlet Shangguan News that while satellite imagery can help map glaciers and glacial lakes over time, sudden or small-scale changes remain difficult to detect in real time, and that remote areas frequently lack the reliable communications infrastructure needed for effective ground-based monitoring. China’s foreign ministry said Monday it has continued sharing disaster-area imagery, satellite and hydrological data, along with early warnings related to the upstream barrier lake, with Nepalese authorities as the two countries work to manage the ongoing crisis.

Ten of the Middle East’s busiest airports show a mixed picture Tuesday as the region continues recovering from months of disruption tied to the ongoing war between the United States, Israel and Iran, with some hubs operating close to normal capacity while others remain constrained by lingering airspace restrictions and reduced airline schedules.

Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest hubs for international travel, remains open and running close to a full schedule, with both Emirates and flydubai operating largely uninterrupted service. Even so, international carriers have continued adjusting their own Dubai routes independently of the airport’s own operational status; Lufthansa and Swiss have kept Dubai flights suspended until Sept. 13, while British Airways has pushed its return to Dubai back to Oct. 25, according to reporting from The National.

Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport has similarly remained open throughout the disruption, with Etihad Airways continuing to operate a largely normal schedule domestically, even as several long-haul international carriers, including Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, keep their Abu Dhabi routes on hold until Oct. 24.

Doha’s Hamad International Airport has also continued operating steadily, though with some route-specific reductions during the height of regional tensions. Qatar Airways resumed passenger flights between Doha and Bahrain, Kuwait and Erbil on Aug. 8, while separately expanding some long-haul routes, including restoring daily service to Philadelphia and increasing frequency to Tokyo Haneda, according to a report from IBTimes Australia.

Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport has remained open throughout the disruption as well, though several international carriers have reduced service there to a single daily flight in recent weeks. Air France has resumed regular flights to Riyadh, according to The National, though Alitalia has kept its Riyadh route suspended until Sept. 15.

Kuwait International Airport remains among the more constrained hubs in the region. Terminal 1 has stayed closed since sustaining direct damage from Iranian strikes earlier this year, forcing operations to continue through Terminals 4 and 5 only, with Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways serving as the primary carriers still based there.

Bahrain International Airport has remained open, though GPS interference and jamming continue to affect flight operations in and out of the airport, according to a recent operational update from OPSGROUP, an international aviation safety organization. British Airways has kept its Bahrain route suspended until Oct. 25.

Baghdad International Airport, along with Iraq’s broader airspace, has remained open to overflights with no major new restrictions, according to OPSGROUP, and Iraqi Airways has resumed both domestic and international operations as part of a broader phased return to service by the region’s national carriers.

Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport continues to see disrupted service despite periods of relative regional calm. Air France has kept its Beirut route suspended until Sept. 13, according to The National, reflecting the airport’s continued vulnerability to shifting airline risk assessments even when the facility itself remains technically operational.

Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport has continued operating, with Terminal 1 having reopened for both domestic and international flights as of July 1 following earlier disruptions. Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and Swiss have resumed operations to Tel Aviv, though Brussels Airlines has kept its Tel Aviv route suspended, and United Airlines flights to the airport remain affected by ongoing disruption, according to The National’s most recent flight-status reporting.

Muscat International Airport in Oman rounds out the list of major regional hubs, having remained open throughout the conflict, though several European carriers, including Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, have kept Muscat routes on hold until Oct. 24 alongside broader regional suspensions.

Across the region, aviation trackers have continued cautioning travelers to verify individual flight status directly with their airline before heading to the airport, particularly for routes touching Bahrain, Kuwait, Beirut, Riyadh and Tel Aviv, where short-notice schedule changes have remained more common than at the region’s largest and most consistently operational hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has maintained some of the most cautious guidance among international regulators, with its Conflict Zone Information Bulletin, most recently extended through Aug. 31, continuing to instruct EASA-regulated airlines to exercise caution across UAE, Bahraini and other regional airspace even where formal closures are not in effect.

That included tackling what Beckham admitted was “mindblowing” waste, including “flying chairs from one side of the world to another” and spending what NEO’s David Belhassen said was “70,000 a year” on office plants.

In a statement on Monday, Belhassen, who is chairman of Victoria Beckham Holdings, said: “With two complementary growth engines in fashion and beauty, an increasingly international customer base and a focused operating model, the business is powerfully positioned for its next phase of profitable growth.”

CEO Sybille Darricarrère Lunel said: “Achieving our first operating profit is a landmark moment for Victoria Beckham and reflects several years of disciplined execution and strategic investment.

“Delivering this result against a more challenging luxury market and macro backdrop makes it an even more significant milestone for the business.”