Golden State Valkyries forward Kayla Thornton will be out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, the team announced Friday.
She sustained the injury in practice earlier this week and underwent surgery Friday. The team said the procedure was successful.
It’s a tough loss for Golden State. Thornton is the Valkyries’ leading scorer, averaging 14 points, seven rebounds and 1.5 assists this season. The veteran is in her 10th season in the WNBA and played in her first All-Star Game last weekend, becoming the expansion team’s first All-Star.
With Thornton at the helm, Golden State had been surprising the league. Before her exit, the Valkyries (10-12) were in playoff contention. They have led the league in attendance this season.
Before being drafted by the Valkyries at the expansion draft last December, Thornton won the WNBA title with the New York Liberty and has previously played for the Dallas Wings and the Washington Mystics.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
Golden State Valkyries' Kayla Thornton runs down the court during the second half of a WNBA All-Star basketball game against Team Collier, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.
A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.
For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”
Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
