Angel City defender Savy King has had successful heart surgery following her collapse during a match against the Utah Royals.
The 20-year-old fell to the ground in the 74th minute of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) match at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday.
She left the pitch in a stable condition after receiving lengthy on-field treatment, and was then transported to the California Hospital Medical Centre.
Follow-ups discovered a heart abnormality, with King having surgery on Tuesday to “successfully” treat the issue, said Angel City.
King’s family said: “On behalf of our entire family, along with Savy, we have been so moved by the love and support from Angel City players, staff, fans, and community, as well as soccer fans across the country.
“We are blessed to share Savy is recovering well, and we are looking forward to having her home with us soon.”
Angel City defender Savy King has had successful heart surgery following her collapse during a match against the Utah Royals.
The 20-year-old fell to the ground in the 74th minute of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) match at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday.
She left the pitch in a stable condition after receiving lengthy on-field treatment, and was then transported to the California Hospital Medical Centre.
Follow-ups discovered a heart abnormality, with King having surgery on Tuesday to “successfully” treat the issue, said Angel City.
King’s family said: “On behalf of our entire family, along with Savy, we have been so moved by the love and support from Angel City players, staff, fans, and community, as well as soccer fans across the country.
“We are blessed to share Savy is recovering well, and we are looking forward to having her home with us soon.”
Hidden away on a club laptop, perhaps already among the deleted items, there is other footage.
In it, a discreetly distanced camera zooms in on a player’s face and catches only disappointment as their name slips away unspoken during last Thursday’s British and Irish Lions squad announcement.
For them, there is no eruption of noise from their team-mates or hugs from friends and family. No celebration post on social media, no photoshoot with the famous red shirt, no call-up to one of the most exclusive teams in sport.
Only a gap in their summer calendar, and a void where hope had grown but was shattered in an instant.
Four years ago, on the touchline of Bath’s Recreation Ground, there was a glimpse of that private devastation.
Kyle Sinckler, a three-Test tourist to New Zealand in 2017, a star of the 2019 World Cup and an England regular, was thought to be a shoo-in, but instead he was left out of the initial squad to tour South Africa.
Two days later, he was interviewed after Bristol’s win over Bath.
“It’s been tough – it means so much to me,” he told TNT Sports, his voice breaking with emotion.
“In a year or two’s time I will look back at it and it will all make sense, but right now it doesn’t.
“I have never experienced something like this in my whole life, never mind my career.”
Danny Care experienced it more than he would like.
The 38-year-old scrum-half has been a serial contender for Lions squads, without ever being a passenger on the plane.
“It’s horrible,” he told Rugby Union Weekly.
“I get the drama of the announcement, with no-one knowing beforehand. I actually love the drama of it – it is so unique.
“But from being on the other end of it, it is genuinely one of the hardest days. Every four years it comes round, and it drags up some horrible memories.”
In 2009, before the Lions tour to South Africa, Care was watching the squad announcement at Harlequins’ training ground, alongside team-mate and friend Ugo Monye.
Both had played in England’s Six Nations campaign earlier in the year and harboured hopes of being involved. Monye went, Care did not.
“We were in the training ground and when Ugo got named we were buzzing,” Care remembers. “So many of us were so happy for him, but personally I didn’t get named then had to go and train straight after.
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Mike Brown went through the same in 2017. Except he did not even make it to Harlequins’ training ground.
On his way in on the morning of the announcement, listening on the radio, he heard he wouldn’t be touring as details of the squad leaked out to the media.
Brown, who has started every game for England’s Six Nations winners in 2017, was bereft.
“I was gutted. Embarrassed. I felt like a failure – worthless,” he remembered in a recent Linkedin post.
“I trained that day with my head in the clouds, empty. Questioning everything. As you can imagine, I was awful in the session. Dropped balls, no energy, silent. I just wanted to get home and hide away.”
Care’s final shot at Lions selection came in 2021. After steering Harlequins to a thrilling Premiership triumph, there was a groundswell of support for the then 34-year-old to make the tour to South Africa.
Even the man at the centre was swept along.
“I hadn’t played for England in over two years, but people start saying things, picking teams and saying I was definitely on the plane,” he said.
“[Former Lions captain] Sam Warburton said something and I thought, ‘if Sam says it then maybe, just maybe’.
“Then [Lions coach] Warren Gatland comes to watch one of your games. And, again, you think maybe I am going to be in.
“I am so happy for the lads who have been picked, but I don’t know what that feeling must be like.
“You see the reaction videos and it looks like the coolest feeling you could ever have, but I have never had that and never will.”
The spectre of Lions selection – never mind the fallout from non-selection – can spook players, says Chris Ashton.
The former Saracens, Northampton, Sale, Leicester, Harlequins and Worcester wing is the all-time leading Premiership try-scorer and crossed 20 times in 44 appearances for England.
He was hotly tipped for the 2013 squad, but then overlooked.
His hopes of making the squad, along with those of several England stars, were harmed by their team’s implosion against Wales in the final round of that year’s Six Nations.
“It actually ruined my whole season, to be honest,” says Ashton.
“I would play a game, and be desperate to play well. Then, when you don’t, the next week you think you absolutely have to play well.
“Any sportsperson in that sort of mindset is never going to perform – when you are trying so hard to do well and you just can’t get going.”
Sometimes, Lions rejects do get going though.
While Care, Ashton and Brown never wore Lions red, Sinckler, so stricken by his initial omission, did end up on the 2021 tour of South Africa.
Ireland’s Andrew Porter, who had been preferred to him, suffered a toe injury before the team departed, prompting a belated call-up.
A couple of months after his emotional interview at the Rec, the England prop was on the touchline once again.
This time, it was to make his entrance off the bench and into the first Test against the Springboks.
The Indiana Pacers reached the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals for the second year running by beating top seeds the Cleveland Cavaliers in game five.
Tyrese Haliburton scored 31 points and added eight assists as Indiana triumphed 114-105 to win the best-of-seven semi-final series 4-1.
“The winning team writes the script,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said.
“This was one of the best teams in the league. I’m sorry their season had to end like this. They had the perfect season, and we came along and were hot at the right time.”
The fourth-seeded Pacers will face either the Boston Celtics or the New York Knicks, who lead the NBA’s defending champions 3-1, in the final.
The Celtics claimed a clean sweep against the Pacers in last year’s Eastern finals.
Cleveland, who topped the Eastern Conference, thrashed Miami 4-0 to book their place in the semi-finals.
However, they could not cope with the tempo of the Pacers and Donovan Mitchell, who led the Cavaliers with 35 points, said they had “let the city down”.
“We just didn’t get the job done. Nothing else needs to be said,” added Mitchell.
Thunder on brink of Western Conference final
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets to move 3-2 ahead in their Western Conference semi-final series.
Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic grabbed 44 points and 15 rebounds, but he could not stop Oklahoma City from running out 112-105 winners in game five.
“This is a really disappointing loss,” Denver interim coach David Adelman said.
“The guys in there should be disappointed. It’s a heavy loss and we have to bounce back quickly to win game six and give ourselves a chance to come back. Have a game like this, but finish it.”
Jalen Williams’ three-pointer opened up a 106-103 lead with 1:18 remaining before Gilgeous-Alexander’s three with 48 seconds to go extended the Thunder’s advantage to six.
“What the great players do is they rise in the face of those challenges and adversities,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Gilgeous-Alexander.
“Despite the fact that the pressure was mounting and it got hotter in there, he got cooler and just kind of settled into it, made the right plays, let the game tell him what to do.”
Saturday Night Live comedian Sarah Sherman broke her silence on the White Lotus sketch that received backlash from Aimee Lou Wood for being ‘mean and unfunny’
SNL comedian who mocked White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth breaks silence(Image: Holland Rainwater/NBC via Getty)
Saturday Night Live star Sarah Sherman broke her silence after the comedian and producers of the show were criticised for mocking Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth in a White Lotus sketch. The BAFTA winning actress, 31, was left feeling offended and angry after watching the skit which ridiculed her appearance, calling it ‘mean and unfunny’.
The skit saw actress Sarah do an exaggerated impersonation of Aimee while using dramatic prosthetic teeth. The sketch was based on US President Donald Trump and his top team spending time at the fictional White Lotus hotel. Aimee’s character Chelsea, portrayed by cast member Sarah, was seen referencing the actress’s teeth in the scenes as she asks: “Fluoride? What’s that?”
In response to the skit, Aimee said that she was left questioning her own appearance. She told her Instagram followers: “Whilst in honest mode – I did find the SNL thing mean and unfunny.”
After watching the sketch, Aimee said that she’s ‘not thin-skinned’ and understands that the show’s humour relies on exaggeration and ‘caricature’, but that the whole joke ‘was about fluoride.’ Aimee insisted: “I have big gap teeth, not bad teeth.”
Aimee noted that most of the sketch aimed at those in power and she felt singled out. She continued: “The rest of the skit was punching up, and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on.” She clarified she wasn’t hitting out at Sarah herself but ‘hating on the concept’ of the sketch.
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Sarah Sherman wore exaggerated prosthetics for the skit(Image: SNL)
She even included a comment from a viewer who first found the sketch ‘sharp and funny’ before it took a ‘misogynistic’ turn.
“This sums up my view,” the actress agreed. Aimee also took issue with Sarah’s portrayal of her, and in particular, her voice and her accent: “I respect accuracy even if it’s mean.”
While SNL were quick to apologised for the sketch and even edited the online version, Sarah remained quiet on the controversial topic until now.
Sarah broke her silence almost a month after the sketch aired(Image: Variety via Getty Images)
Sarah sent Aimee flowers after offending her, which Aimee shared on social media, but she only recently spoke out in an interview with Vanity Fair.
“I was excited to play her because she’s so iconic, her character is so iconic, and I f***ing obviously never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings,” Sarah said.
“Never in a million years did I get into comedy to make anyone upset. I feel terrible that anyone would feel bad,” she added. When asked whether she has to think about the possibilities of offending people while doing sketches, Sarah said: “Totally.”
“The show is in constant dialogue with culture as it’s happening, and it happens really fast. You have to be vigilant, you know what I mean?” the star continued.
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“There are a lot of things out of your control. You’re playing a lot of different parts, you’re doing a lot of different roles that you’re not in control of.” She went on to say ‘staying vigilant’ while being part of the show is part of the job.
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Four days after India and Pakistan reached a ceasefire after a rapid escalation in a military conflict between them, key differences between their battlefield claims remain unresolved.
Among them is Pakistan’s assertion that it shot down five Indian fighter jets on May 7, the first day of fighting, in response to Indian attacks on its territory.
As a battle of narratives takes over from the actual fighting, Al Jazeera takes stock of what we know about that claim, and why, if true, it matters.
What happened?
Tensions between India and Pakistan erupted into military confrontation on May 7 after India bombed nine sites across six cities in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
India said it had struck what it called “terrorist infrastructure” in response to the deadly April 22 killings of tourists by suspected rebels in India-administered Kashmir.
Gunmen on April 22 shot dead 25 male tourists and a local pony rider in the picturesque meadows of Pahalgam, triggering outrage and calls for revenge in India. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for supporting the fighters responsible for the attack, a charge Islamabad denied.
Pakistan said Indian forces on May 7 struck two cities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and four sites in the country’s largest province, Punjab. It said civilians were killed in the attacks. India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh rejected the Pakistani claims, reiterating that Indian forces “struck only those who harmed our innocents”.
Over the next four days, the two nuclear-armed neighbours were engaged in tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, while unleashing drones into each other’s territories.
Amid fears of a nuclear exchange, top officials from the United States made calls to Indian and Pakistani officials to end the conflict.
On May 10, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington had successfully mediated a ceasefire between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Despite initial accusations of violations by both sides, the ceasefire has continued to hold so far.
Pakistan reported on Tuesday that Indian strikes killed at least 51 people, including 11 soldiers and several children, while India has said at least five military personnel and 16 civilians died.
A person inspects his damaged shop following overnight shelling from Pakistan at Gingal village in Uri district, Indian-administered Kashmir [Dar Yasin/AP Photo]
What has Pakistan claimed?
Speaking to Al Jazeera shortly after the May 7 attacks, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Islamabad, in retaliation, had shot down five Indian jets, a drone, and many quadcopters.
Later in the day, Pakistan’s military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said the warplanes had all been downed inside Indian territory, and aircraft from neither side crossed into the other’s territory during the attacks – an assertion India seconded.
“Neither India nor Pakistan had any need to send their own aircraft out of their own national airspace,” British defence analyst Michael Clarke told Al Jazeera.
“Their standoff weapons all had long enough ranges to reach their evident targets whilst flying in their own airspace,” Clarke, who is a visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London, added.
On Friday, Pakistan’s Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed claimed that among the five downed aircraft were three Rafales, a MiG-29, and an Su-30, providing electronic signatures of the aircraft, in addition to the exact locations where the planes were hit.
The battle between Pakistani and Indian jets lasted for just over an hour, Ahmed, who is also the deputy chief of operations, told reporters.
He stated that the confrontation featured at least 60 Indian aircraft, among them 14 French-made Rafales, while Pakistan deployed 42 “hi-tech aircraft,” including American F-16s and Chinese JF-17s and J-10s.
What has been India’s response?
After Chinese state news outlet The Global Times wrote that Pakistan had brought down Indian fighter planes, India’s embassy in China described the report as “disinformation”.
However, beyond that, New Delhi has not formally confirmed or denied the reports.
Asked specifically whether Pakistan had managed to down Indian jets, India’s Director General of Air Operations AK Bharti avoided a direct answer.
“We are in a combat scenario and losses are a part of it,” he said. “As for details, at this time I would not like to comment on that as we are still in combat and give advantage to the adversary. All our pilots are back home.”
What else do we know?
Beyond the official accounts, local and international media outlets have reported different versions of Pakistan’s claims of downing the jets.
According to Indian security sources who spoke to Al Jazeera, three fighter jets crashed inside India-controlled territory.
They did not confirm which country the warplanes belonged to. However, with neither side suggesting that Pakistani planes crossed into Indian airspace, any debris in Indian-controlled territory likely comes from an Indian plane.
Reuters news agency also reported, citing four government sources in Indian-administered Kashmir, that three fighter jets crashed in the region. Reports in CNN said that at least two jets crashed, while a French source told the US outlet that at least one Rafale jet had been shot down.
Photos taken by AP news agency photo journalists showed debris of an aircraft in the Pulwama district in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Will both sides ever agree on what happened?
Defence analyst Clarke said if India has indeed lost a Rafale, that would certainly be “embarrassing”.
“If it came down inside Indian territory, which must be the case if one was destroyed, then India will want to keep it only as a rumour for as long as possible,” he added.
