(PHOENIX) — Phoenix has announced forward/center Dario Šarić tore his ACL during game one of the NBA Finals Tuesday night.
The team said he is out indefinitely.
The injury happened late in the first quarter when Šarić drove the lane and his right knee appeared to buckle when he planted his feet in the paint.
He checked out of the game and could be seen limping to the locker room.
“It’s just one of those situations that literally breaks your heart,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “Dario is a guy that I’ve been with twice. I coached him in Philly, and to get a chance to be with him here, he’s what Suns basketball is about. Hard worker, unbelievable guy, and he was so looking forward to playing in these Finals.”
Saric averaged 4.5 points in 10.5 minutes of action during the post-season.
Britney Spears and her controversial conservatorship continue to make headlines. There have been two new legal filings in connection with it.
First, Jodi Montgomery, who is Britney’s “conservator of the person” — the one who’s in charge of her mental and physical well-being — has requested that the court approve her request for Britney’s estate to pay for more security for her. According to Montgomery, ever since Britney’s court testimony last month was “illegally broadcast,” she’s been receiving threats of violence and death threats via text, social media, phone calls and emails.
The filing also states that there’s been “physical security” at Montgomery’s house since June 30, but paying for all that security is “cost-prohibitive for [her] to personally bear.” Britney’s dad, Jamie Spears, who’s in charge of his daughter’s money, has agreed to pay for it, on the condition that Montgomery gets court approval.
Interestingly, part of Montgomery’s filing includes a text message from Britney to her requesting that she continue to serve as her conservator — despite Britney telling the judge that those involved in her conservatorship “ought to be in jail.”
The second filing is from Britney’s mom, Lynne Spears, requesting that Britney be allowed to hire her own lawyer, which the pop star hasn’t been allowed to do in 13 years. Lynne points out that in 2008, when the conservatorship was first established, Britney was found “not to have the capacity to retain counsel.”
But since then, Lynne notes, Britney “is able to care for her person and… [has] earned literally hundreds of millions of dollars as an international celebrity,” by performing “in front of millions of people” and using “her artistic and creative talents” to “rehearse and perform for many thousands of hours.”
“[Britney] should no longer be held to the 2008 standard,” the filing maintains.
In partnership with BLK, the dating app for Black singles, Juvenile and Mannie Fresh remixed their 1999 twerk anthem, “Back That Thang Up.“
The former Cash Money artists called on No Limit rapper Mia X to turn the classic record into the new vaccine anthem, “Vax That Thang Up.” The song encourages listeners to get the COVID-19 vaccine before meeting up with a potential date they matched with on BLK.
“You finna online date yeah /find a mate yeah / Open up BLK yea it’s okay yeah / Profile pic lookin’ tight yea, nice yea/ Gotcha bio readin’ right yeah, precise yeah / But before you find a date yeah /you gotta wait yeah / Gotta go vaccinate yeah, get it straight yeah,” Juvenile raps in the chorus.
Mannie shared the same sentiment on his verse, while Mia comes on the end telling people to, “Go, get the shot, go, go get the shot.”
“Vax That Thang Up” marks the first collaboration between Cash Money and No Limit Records.
(WASHINGTON) — A Pentagon spokesperson has confirmed that two U.S. military service members were injured in a rocket attack on al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq earlier Wednesday.
The U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad had confirmed earlier that 14 rockets had been fired towards the base with some landing inside the perimeter.
Separately, a defense official said that the injuries consist of a concussion for one of the service members and an abrasion for the other.
This comes more than a week after White House officials said the U.S. carried out an airstrike near the Iraq-Syria border to target Iran-backed militias and two facilities behind drone attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani officially tied the knot on Saturday, July 3, and since then, the couple has been sharing details about their stunning, intimate ceremony that took place on Blake’s Oklahoma ranch.
On Instagram, Gwen celebrated her new family of five by posting a photo of herself and Blake along with her three sons: 15-year-old Kingston, 12-year-old Zuma and 7-year-old Apollo.
All three of the boys were looking dapper in custom suits with matching bowties and boutonnieres. For his part, Blake kept it country with a pair of blue jeans, but gave his outfit a formal twist with a tuxedo jacket, vest and white bow tie.
As always, Gwen was the more sophisticated half of the couple, wearing not one but two Vera Wang dresses during the wedding ceremony. She completed her bridal look with a custom veil embroidered with her name and Blake’s, as well as those of her three sons.
Gwen’s most recent wedding snap is the latest in a series of jaw-dropping images she’s shared from her wedding day. Elsewhere on her socials, the singer posed for a romantic shot with her new husband, modeled her shorter “party dress” and goofed off with celebrity officiant Carson Daly.
For the first time, the Olympics is officially adding Skateboarding, Surfing and Sport Climbing to the upcoming Summer Games.
Skateboard legend Tony Hawk and sports commentator Sal Masekela [massa-KEH-lah] helped celebrate the new additions — and what it took to get them to the Tokyo Games — with a documentary called World Debut now out on the Olympics’ YouTube channel.
Hawk tells ABC Audio that the film traces the origins of the three sports, and the hurdles they faced en route to being included in the Tokyo Olympics. “[T]here was a lot of heartbreak in that,” he explains. At times, it was looking like it wasn’t going to happen. And then it finally did receive the inclusion and then COVID hit. So there’s a lot there’s a lot of emotion in it.”
Hawk, arguably the sport’s first superstar, says of skateboarding, “It was never on the radar, it was always considered this sort of outcast activity and it grew in popularity as kids came to embrace it, [and] it will now be recognized on this international scale. And I just think it’s exciting. And I think it’s about time!”
Tony adds, “It’s exciting, especially for the new generation of skaters who now will grow up with the notion that they could be Olympians from the get-go, and that’s not something I ever imagined through my youth and not even through my 20s or even 30s.”
Masekela predicts the new additions will catch on with fans of The Games, noting, “I think it’ll be no different than what we’re used to seeing with gymnastics, with ice skating — subjective sports that are about personal expression and technique — and the audience…after…watching more and more runs and routines, getting a feel for what the high level of performance looks like.”
Sal adds, “That’s what’s so exciting about this, is that they’re going to get educated and become fans. You know, the Olympic stage, viewing a new sport and getting engaged with it and learning about its culture and its history, and its characters, and what it takes to perform, you know, from that point forward.”
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge found the United States Air Force 60% responsible for the mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November 2017.
Devin Kelley opened fire inside the First Baptist Church, 40 miles outside of San Antonio, during a Sunday service and killed 26 people from ages 5 to 72, making it the worst mass shooting at a house of worship ever.
In a civil lawsuit brought by families and victims of the shooting against the government, Judge Xavier Rodriguez found that because Kelley was investigated and court-martialed for assaulting his then-wife and her stepson on an Air Force base, the service should have alerted the FBI that Kelley could not legally purchase a gun through its alert system.
“The Court concludes that the Government failed to exercise reasonable care in its undertaking to submit criminal history to the FBI. The Government’s failure to exercise reasonable care increased the risk of physical harm to the general public, including Plaintiffs. And its failure proximately caused the deaths and injuries of Plaintiffs at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church on November 5, 2017,” Rodriguez wrote.
The government argued that they were shielded from liability by the Brady Act, which mandates that federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and Air Force, report disqualifying information “not less frequently than quarterly,” according to the filing. “Disqualifying information includes “any record of any person demonstrating that the person falls within one of the categories” of persons prohibited from purchasing firearms.”
During the investigation into domestic assault allegations, Kelley “threatened to kill both (his wife) and Air Force Security Forces” if she reported the abuse to authorities, according to the court filing. Additionally, his wife told investigators that Kelley threatened to commit a mass shooting at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
“My work is lucky. I’d take a shotgun and blow everyone’s head off,” Kelley said at the time, according to the court filing.
When Air Force Investigators looked into Kelley they discovered a “long history of violence and abuse,” according to the court filing.
Kelley was ultimately jailed for for a year on the domestic assault charges.
He later remarried and abused his second wife, according to the court filing.
The judge concluded that the Air Force did not properly report about Kelley to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) that gun dealers are required to use in order to complete a background check.
“The trial conclusively established that no other individual — not even Kelley’s own parents or partners — knew as much as the United States about the violence that Devin Kelley had threatened to commit and was capable of committing. Moreover, the evidence shows that — had the Government done its job and properly reported Kelley’s information into the background check system — it is more likely than not that Kelley would have been deterred from carrying out the Church shooting. For these reasons, the Government bears significant responsibility for the Plaintiffs’ harm.”
First Baptist Church Pastor Frank Pomeroy told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in 2019 that he was still hurting from the shooting.
“The aftermath hurt almost as much as the actual, what the shooter did in our church,” Pomeroy said.
The judge gave the government 15 days to come up with a settlement plan.
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — Oregon’s record-breaking heat wave reached a death toll of 107 on Tuesday, according to officials.
The victims range in age from 37 to 97, according to the Oregon State Medical Examiner, as the state has been reeling from scorching triple-digit temperatures from June 25 to June 30.
So far, 67 deaths — more than half the state’s heat wave-related deaths — were reported in Multnomah County, prompting the county to call it a “mass casualty event.”
Multnomah County health officials said in a news release the suspected cause of all the deaths is hyperthermia — the condition of having a body temperature well above normal. So far, 40 have been formally ruled hyperthermia deaths, and the rest are yet to be officially ruled.
The county’s victims ranged in age from 44 to 97.
Some of the dead were found inside their homes without air conditioning or fans, according to local ABC affiliate KATU. Portland recorded a high of 116 on Monday, June 28.
One of the victims was Guatemalan immigrant Sebastian Francisco Perez, 38, who came to the U.S. on May 5 to work on a farm in rural St. Paul, according to Oregon Live. He died June 26 while working at a tree farm in the extreme heat. Three vigils were held for him in St. Paul on Saturday, the outlet reported.
In response to natural disaster, Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury said the county opened three 24-hour cooling centers, nine cooling spaces, directly contacted tens of thousands of seniors, people with disabilities and pregnant women and deployed more than 60 outreach teams to focus on people without housing or shelter in the heat wave.
Washington County reported nine deaths, Clackamas County 11, Marion 13, Deschutes two, Linn two, and Columbia, Pole and Umatilla counties all reported one death from the heat.
An excessive heat warning was in effect the weekend of the wave from the National Weather Service, and the weekend set records for hottest days in history in multiple cities.
Gov. Kate Brown called the heat wave’s death toll “absolutely unacceptable” and said that despite preparation efforts across the state, “we still lost too many lives,” during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
(CHICAGO) — Three law enforcement officers in Chicago were shot on the city’s South Side on the heels of a violent holiday weekend that racked up shootings in the triple digits.
The officers, two ATF Chicago agents and one Chicago Police Department officer, were driving in the Morgan Park neighborhood, near an on-ramp to Interstate 57, just before 6 a.m. when they were fired upon by another vehicle, Chicago Police Superintendent David O’Neal Brown told reporters Wednesday morning. The officers were undercover and in an unmarked car, Brown said.
The officers’ injuries are not life-threatening. One of the ATF agents was struck in the hand, the other was hit on the side of the torso and the police officer was grazed in the back of the head, Brown said. They were taken to Christ Medical Center and last reported in stable condition, said Tom Ahern, deputy director of the police department’s news affairs and communications,
One of the ATF agents is female, while the other two officers are male, and all three are senior officers, he added.
The suspect’s vehicle has been located, but investigators are still searching for the suspect, Brown said.
Brown declined to provide details on the case the officers were working to avoid compromising the investigation.
The attack marks brings the tally of officers shot in Chicago this year to 36, Brown said. The shooting comes after a deadly Fourth of July weekend in the city, when 100 people were shot, 18 of whom died, including a 15-year-old boy, ABC Chicago station WLS-TV reported. Two Chicago Police officers and five children 13 and younger were among the injured.
Brown said Tuesday that Chicago officers were “performing at the highest level” and are “risking everything to protect the people of Chicago.”
“They are doing their part, and no one would do what these officers are doing right now,” Brown said. “This is a very challenging time to be in law enforcement right now. They are rising to the challenge, doing all they can. The work they do is extremely dangerous.”
Speaking from outside the hospital, Chicago Alderman Matt O’Shea urged President Joe Biden to come to Chicago and offer additional assistance to the city, saying that 100,000 armed gang members who “have absolutely no fear, no respect for life” are wreaking havoc on the city. Residents are scared to let their children play outside, he said.
“Our communities are under siege,” he said. “Our police officers are under siege. They’re outmanned and they’re outgunned.”
Biden was met by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot upon landing in Chicago Wednesday afternoon. During the greeting, Biden expressed his personal support for the law enforcement officers that were injured and reiterated his commitment to working with the city in the fight against gun violence, said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
Biden was scheduled to visit Crystal Lake, a city about 45 miles northwest of Chicago, in the afternoon.
ABC News’ Cheryl Gendron, Rachel Katz and Alex Perez contributed to this report.
Ariana Grandehas released a live performance video of her Positions track “safety net,” featuring Ty Dolla $ign.
It’s the second video as part of Ariana’s VEVO Official Live Performance Series, which she launched last month with a video for “pov.”
The “safety net” clip features the same stage design as the “pov” performance, with Ari singing the track in a garden made up of fake flowers and grass. The camera starts from above and swoops down as she starts to sing. Ty Dolla joins her starting with the second verse.
“For a singer, being able to set a mood is like being able to cast a spell,” reads the video description from Vevo. “Time and again Ariana Grande has proven she’s one of those vocalists who can architect an aura, and this performance of ‘safety net’ is a great example of the way she controls the emotional climate of a song.”
