NEW YORK (AP) — Natasha Cloud didn't want to waste time and energy talking about Enes Kanter Freedom on Saturday as she prepared for the Chicago Sky's game against the New York Liberty.
To Cloud, Freedom is unimportant.
“I won’t be talking about anything that happened with an irrelevant person,” Cloud said. “What I will focus on is what actually affects women and children currently in 2026.”
Cloud then went on to name domestic violence, sexual assault and food insecurities as three things that women are most affected by.
Cloud got into a confrontation with Freedom at last Sunday's Chicago home game against the Indiana Fever. The former NBA player was sitting along the baseline wearing a black shirt that read “WOMAN noun. adult human female.” The Fever called for a timeout after Cloud scored inside with 1:22 left in the third. Cloud then chest bumped with teammate Aicha Coulibaly before turning around and walking in Freedom’s direction.
The 34-year-old Cloud started yelling and pointing at Freedom as she approached him. He stood, held his arms out and stepped onto the court as security and a handful of Sky players moved between the two.
“I will not talk about an irrelevant threat to our lives because that’s exactly what it is,” she said. “I want to talk about real issues that face women, and it’s not our trans human beings, and it’s not our drag queens. It’s not our gay community. There is a certain demographic of people that you can generally search. It’s a simple Google search of what is the greatest threat to women and children currently in 2026, in the United States of America.”
Freedom has been banned by Sky owner Michael Alter from attending any future Chicago home games.
Cloud applauded the move by the front office to “protect the players.”
“That's what protection looks like on the whole. I want everyone to hear that," she said. "That’s what protection looks like from the right.”
Freedom and Royce White, another former NBA player, have declared for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women. But a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Monday that they are not eligible. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation.
The WNBA has been the subject of recent debates on whether transgender women — people assigned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity — should be allowed to participate in the league. There has never been such a player in the WNBA.
Although the league’s collective bargaining agreement says the WNBA is restricted to women, it contains no more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth.
Cloud wished the talk was about the amazing season the WNBA has been having on the court with strong ratings — that game against Indiana drew 3.3 million viewers, which was the most since the league’s inaugural season in 1997.
“I just had a fan who identifies as trans cry to me in here and this is why I do what I do," Cloud said. "None of this is performative. I don’t want to put myself in front of fires all the time. I don’t want to be the one that always has to speak up. But somebody (expletive) has to do it.”
See AP’s full WNBA coverage here
Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud argues with former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom, right, during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Indiana Fever, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
MYLA, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian drone struck a warehouse west of Kyiv that Ukrainian officials say may have been illegally storing munitions, sparking explosions and fires that damaged dozens of nearby homes and buildings and killing 37 people in the war's deadliest attack this year.
The Friday night attack on the warehouse in Myla, a village in the Bucha district, came on the second of three days of nearly round-the-clock Russian strikes that have severely disrupted life in and around the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv officials said an unmanned vehicle hit the building, though they didn't specify whether it was one of the jet-powered drones that Russia has increasingly been using to pierce Ukraine's defenses.
The warehouse strike sparked a fire that swept through homes and damaged at least 50 residential buildings, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the local regional military administration. Local media later cited him as saying 34 of the people killed were residents of a care home for the elderly and disabled. More than 370 people were evacuated.
“At about 8 p.m., the drone hit a warehouse somewhere and then the detonation began," Oleksandr Vodolaz, a local resident, told The Associated Press. “No one knew that weapons were stored there."
The 37 killed surpassed the 31 who died in a July 2 attack on Kyiv, which had been the war's deadliest attack of 2026.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described it as a “terrible situation” and said it appeared to be the result of “terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people.”
The warehouse strike was followed by a detonation, Zelenskyy said in a statement. He didn't specify what was kept at the site, but he pointed out that Ukrainian law forbids the storage of ammunition close to people's homes and said criminal proceedings have been opened.
“Those who allowed this to happen must be held accountable for their decisions,” he said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi also didn't offer information on the warehouse, but he referenced a July attack on the Kyiv suburb of Vyshneve that struck an ammunition depot, killing 22 people and triggering large detonations and fires that tore through nearby homes.
“Unfortunately, we can already see that the terrible tragedy in Vyshneve did not become a lesson,” Koretskyi said. “In the fifth year of a full-scale invasion, making the same mistakes is criminal negligence. And all those guilty, without exception, must be severely punished so that such situations do not happen again.”
Russia's Defense Ministry said it hit a warehouse in Myla that was storing components and launch boosters for long-range drones. It also said it attacked the ports of Mykolaiv and Izmail, and a logistics center and warehouse facilities storing parts for Ukraine's Flamingo cruise missiles in the Kyiv region.
Drone attacks on the capital and, to a lesser extent, the rest of Ukraine have been nearly constant since Thursday. Kyiv officials say Russia builds up missile stocks and launches major attacks every few days, hoping to exhaust Ukrainian defenses through the sheer weight of numbers.
Russian strikes damaged homes and apartment blocks in the southern Kherson region on Saturday, killing two people and wounding 27 more, including a child, Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the region administration, said in a statement.
Prokudin said earlier in the week that Russia had intensified its attacks on critical infrastructure in the region, which is about 70% under Russian control. He also urged tens of thousands of residents to move to safer regions because of the possibility of prolonged power and heating outages this winter.
Russia has significantly increased its use of jet-powered drones, and their numbers will keep growing as Moscow sees their effectiveness, Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, told reporters Friday.
“Means of attack always outpace means of defense. We will certainly need to adapt. It will take time,” Palisa said. He said interceptor drones currently available to Ukraine, which could theoretically intercept jet-powered drones, have not yet demonstrated the expected effectiveness, though Ukraine is working on solutions.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has stepped up its long-range attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities in recent months. The attacks, which use domestically made drones, are meant to cut into a source of Moscow’s war funding and make Russians feel the consequences.
In his evening statement to the nation Friday, Zelenskyy said Kyiv hoped to increase its long-range strikes to reach 1000 drone launches every day.
“Right now, we average over 300 of our long-range sanctions,” Zelenskyy said, his preferred term for Kyiv’s long-range attacks that have also lately targeted Russian large-scale online retailers. “There must be more. We have a very specific goal, and we will achieve it.”
Moscow’s forces destroyed 313 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday.
Ukrainian drone attacks wounded 11 people in Russia’s Rostov region, Gov. Yuri Slyusar said. Writing on social media, he said that nine people were hospitalized, including four children.
This story was updated to correct that 31 people, not 30, were killed in the July 2 attack on Kyiv.
Davies reported from Manchester, England, and Yurchuk from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Police officers inspect the area, after a Russian attack struck a warehouse, followed by an explosion, in the village of Myla, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
A view of the damage after a Russian attack struck a warehouse, followed by an explosion, in the village of Myla, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
A view of a destroyed car amid damaged buildings, with a road sign showing the direction and distance to Kyiv and Zhytomyr after a Russian attack struck a warehouse, followed by an explosion, in the village of Myla, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out a fire in a warehouse following a Russian drone attack near Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out a fire in a warehouse following a Russian drone attack near Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
