NEW YORK (AP) — Caitlin Clark will hopefully be in a 3-point contest for the first time in her pro career as the Indiana Fever guard is set to compete Friday night in the WNBA All-Star competition.
Clark injured her right groin on Tuesday night in the last minute of the Fever's game against Connecticut and it's unknown if she'll be able to participate this weekend in either the contest or the All-Star Game.
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Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark (22) shoots over Atlanta Dream's Rhyne Howard (10) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game, Friday, July 11, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark (22) gestures to the crowd during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Connecticut Sun Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark (22) reacts with a possible injury beside Aliyah Boston (7) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Connecticut Sun, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark (22) shoots over Atlanta Dream's Rhyne Howard (10) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game, Friday, July 11, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
“No discussion yet about this weekend.” Indiana coach Stephanie White said before the Fever faced New York on Wednesday night. “There was imaging done, but there hasn’t been any discussion beyond tonight.”
If she can go, she'll be joined by contest record holder Sabrina Ionescu, who last entered the contest in 2023 and hit 25 of her 27 shots in the final round, scoring 37 points. It was the most shots made in a 3-point contest in either the WNBA or NBA.
The Liberty’s star guard wanted to make sure she was completely healthy before officially entering the contest. She said she’ll be trying to break her own mark.
Clark's management team said earlier this year when she turned down competing in some fashion at NBA All-Star weekend that the young star wanted her first 3-point contest to be in Indianapolis at the WNBA weekend.
“I've never participated in a 3-point competition before, never practiced before, so go out there and have fun," Clark said before Tuesday night's game. "The lineup of people competing is tremendous so more than anything its going to be really great for our league and women's basketball as a whole. I'm just excited. The skills competition and that will be a really exciting time and will lead into Saturday and a really great game as well.”
Allisha Gray, who made her own history last season, winning the 3-point and skills challenge, will try to defend her title in both competitions. She beat Jonquel Jones 22-21 to win the 3-point shootout. Gray beat Sophie Cunningham by 2 seconds to win the skills competition.
The Atlanta Dream star received $110,000 from Aflac as part of a partnership with the WNBPA. The 3-point contest winner this year will get $60,000 from Aflac which is $5,000 more than the company gave last year.
Gray also got $2,575 from the league for each of her two victories.
Other participants in the 3-point contest are Washington rookie Sonia Citron and Los Angeles' Kelsey Plum.
The other players competing in the skills challenge will be New York's Natasha Cloud, Seattle's Skylar Diggins and Erica Wheeler, and Minnesota's Courtney Williams.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark (22) shoots over Atlanta Dream's Rhyne Howard (10) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game, Friday, July 11, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark (22) gestures to the crowd during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Connecticut Sun Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark (22) reacts with a possible injury beside Aliyah Boston (7) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Connecticut Sun, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark (22) shoots over Atlanta Dream's Rhyne Howard (10) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game, Friday, July 11, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”
The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.
With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?
“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”
Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.
Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.
Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”
Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.
“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.
Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.
Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.
Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."
“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.
The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.
The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”
Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.
Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.
“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”
Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.
Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.
“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”
Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”
Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.
“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.
Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”
“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.
AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.
In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)
