BERLIN (AP) — Breanna Stewart knows exactly how much pressure the U.S. team is under to keep its World Cup title streak going.
The Americans have won four straight women's FIBA World Cup championships and she's been a part of the last three. Now the 32-year-old is the leader of a group that features many fresh faces.
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Czechia's Natalie Stoupalova guards Breanna Stewart, of the United States, during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Czechia's Julie Pospisilova guards Breanna Stewart, of the United States, during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Breanna Stewart, of the United States, reacts during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Czechia's Alena Hanusova guards Breanna Stewart, of the United States, during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
“There’s a ton of pressure, on team USA and on us and embracing that,” she told The Associated Press. “Not having the team face it in a bad way, but understanding the ones that have been before us and what they’ve done. We want to continue to have success every time.”
With the Americans coming off one of their worst offensive performances in a half century, Stewart took it upon herself to set a tone early in the 105-64 rout of the Czech Republic on Monday. Stewart had 11 points in the first 10 minutes as the U.S. jumped to a 29-15 lead and never looked back.
“I just wanted to be better. I just wanted to really lead by example,” Stewart said after the win. “Not only just from stats, but just the way that I was communicating to my teammates. This is a big moment for all of us and we need to take full advantage of it.”
Caitlin Clark, with the national team for the first time, said that after the narrow win over Italy, Stewart came into the weight room where a few of the youngsters were lifting. The team captain could tell they were a little down after the tight victory and had a conversation with them.
“I just want you guys to know this is how it is. Don’t be intimidated by that. This is just how this goes. The games are going to be close. That doesn’t mean like you should feel defeated in any way,” Clark recalled. “I thought that was just a really good thing we needed to hear. Don’t let that bother you. These games are going to be hard.”
Stewart learned from some of the best leaders in Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi. First-time national team player Angel Reese has gravitated toward Stewart and her leadership style.
“She's won before and knows what it takes,” Reese said of the three-time World Cup champion. “I remember watching her play for USA Basketball when I was younger.”
Stewart is no stranger to being a calming influence as a veteran leader. She helped guide the New York Liberty to the first championship in franchise history two years ago.
Now the Americans are in the win-or-go-home phase with the quarterfinals on Thursday. They'll face the winner of the Hungary vs. Japan game on Tuesday.
U.S. coach Kara Lawson knows that for the Americans to keep the streak, which includes 33 consecutive victories overall in the World Cup dating to a semifinal loss to Russia in 2006, she'll need Stewart and Napheesa Collier to be a veteran presence.
“They are two of the best players in the world. It’s not my job to convince them that they’re good, but to remind them that they know who they are and what they bring to the team.”
See AP’s full WNBA coverage here
Czechia's Natalie Stoupalova guards Breanna Stewart, of the United States, during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Czechia's Julie Pospisilova guards Breanna Stewart, of the United States, during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Breanna Stewart, of the United States, reacts during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Czechia's Alena Hanusova guards Breanna Stewart, of the United States, during the Women's Basketball World Cup match between the United States and Czechia in Berlin, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
BRUSSELS (AP) — Top European Union officials on Tuesday expressed shock after Serbia gave a hero’s funeral to Ratko Mladic, a Bosnian Serb general who died while serving a life sentence for war crimes, and questioned Serbia’s fitness to join their bloc.
Mladic was buried in Belgrade on Monday with military honors. The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, led the funeral service and Serbian army soldiers carried Mladic’s flag-draped coffin at the cemetery.
Several Serbian government ministers attended the service for the man known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” and found guilty of committing the continent’s first genocide since World War II. Mladic is still considered a hero by many Serbs.
“The images from Ratko Mladic’s funeral yesterday in Belgrade were shocking,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on social media.
“The elements of official support and the presence of some senior Serbian officials at the funeral are deeply regrettable,” von der Leyen and Costa said. “They demonstrate a failure to confront a dark chapter in Europe’s recent history and contradict the values underpinning Serbia’s path towards the European Union.”
Populist President Aleksandar Vucic did not go to the funeral but his son, Danilo, did. Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik and the Russian ambassador in Serbia, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, were among those present.
Vucic, a former extreme nationalist who supported Serbia’s expansionist policies during the wars that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, described the funeral as an “emotional outpouring.”
Serbia’s Justice Minister Nenad Vujic attended and stood with Mladic's family. He said the authorities helped keep order at the funeral to make sure it passed in a “dignified” manner but that the family was in charge.
Vucic has been walking a political tightrope. He’s trying to rally supporters — many of them Mladic admirers — ahead of an early parliamentary election that could within months without alienating the EU, which Serbia says it wants to join.
Last week, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos warned that the funeral would be “a test” for Belgrade. She canceled an upcoming visit to Serbia, arguing that “the glorification” of Mladic’s death would be incompatible with EU values.
The EU traditionally hands down its annual enlargement report in late October or early November, laying out the progress that each of the candidate countries, including Serbia, are making toward membership and highlighting deficiencies.
Von der Leyen is scheduled to tour the Western Balkans region just before the report is published. She usually visits each country, but no dates have been set for the visit, nor has any agenda been made public.
Asked what the consequences might be for Serbia's EU membership, von der Leyen's spokesperson said only: “we are looking into it.”
Mladic's funeral is unlikely to help Serbia's cause. It's membership prospects were already damaged over democratic backsliding. In April, Kos warned Belgrade that it could lose access to around 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in EU funds as concern mounted about municipal election irregularities.
In Serbia's favor, Vucic's nationalist-populist SNS party has close ties to the EU's biggest political grouping, the European People's Party, which unites center-right political parties from across Europe. The EPP has been accused of protecting Vucic.
"It is high time for the EPP to stop acting as a safe haven for the SNS party, which openly celebrates convicted war criminals and rolls out the red carpet for the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’,” Slovenian Green member of the European Parliament Vladimir Prebilic said last week.
Von der Leyen is a senior member of the EPP, as is half of her team of policy commissioners and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. Von der Leyen in particular has refrained from criticizing Vucic publicly.
For many years, the EPP staunchly supported Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's stridently nationalist Fidesz party, hoping to keep him within Europe's political mainstream. But the EPP eventually suspended Fidesz in 2019 over concerns about democracy and the rule of law in Hungary. Fidesz quit the group in 2021.
AP writer Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia contributed to this report.
Serbian national military servicemen walk by the coffin of the former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who died last week while serving a life sentence for genocide and other atrocities during the war in Bosnia, at the Topcider Cemetery, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Serbian national military servicemen fire a three-volley salute during the funeral of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who died last week while serving a life sentence for genocide and other atrocities during the war in Bosnia, at the Topcider Cemetery, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo)
A young man carries the cross of the former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who died last week while serving a life sentence for genocide and other atrocities during the war in Bosnia, at the Topcider Cemetery, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center, shakes hands with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, Serbia, on Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)
