The Chicago Cubs earned their first win in franchise history at Yankee Stadium on Friday night, as pitcher Jameson Taillon led the team to a 3-0 victory over the New York Yankees.

Taillon, who played for the Yankees in 2021 and 2022, threw eight scoreless innings to help snap the Cubs’ 0-12 streak in the Bronx, which included a 0-5 record at the current Yankee Stadium, according to MLB.com, which New York moved to in 2009.

“It felt good to be back,” Taillon said of his return to New York. “Playing in this environment didn’t catch me off guard. I had a good pitch-mix going. I feel like I was on the attack. I feel like I was in a lot of good counts.

“I felt like for once I had a lot of hard-hit balls right at people. They did square some balls up. I do feel I made a lot of good pitches throughout the night. No free passes. Overall, I thought it was solid.”

“I feel like for a while there, I’ve been trying to keep my head down and grind and put up results for that reason. I don’t know if Cubs fans truly know exactly what I am about yet when I’m good and right,” Taillon added.

“I’ve been putting in the work, and it’s nice to see it come to fruition. Hopefully we can keep knocking them out. This isn’t something to jump for joy. It’s definitely a nice night. I’ll take my notes and remember what I did well tonight.”

The Yankees have now lost three straight while the Cubs earned their third win in four games.

Edwin van der Sar, who won the Champions League with Ajax and Manchester United during a glittering 21-year soccer career, is in intensive care following bleeding around his brain, Ajax said in a statement.

The Dutch club described Van der Sar’s condition as “stable but still concerning” on Saturday and said it was sharing the news on behalf of his wife, Annemarie.

“The Van der Sar family, along with Ajax, is grateful and deeply touched by the many messages of support,” the statement read.

Manchester United wrote on social media: “Sending all our love and strength to you, Edwin.”

As well as his two Champions League titles, the former goalkeeper also won four Premier League titles with Manchester United and four Eredivisie titles with Ajax during an illustrious career.

The 52-year-old, who won 130 caps for the Netherlands, was widely considered one of the world’s best goalkeepers for the majority of his career.

After retiring in 2011, Van der Sar went on to join the board at Ajax before becoming chief executive in 2016. He resigned from the position in May after Ajax finished third in the Dutch first division, missing out on the Champions League for the first time in 14 years.

Ajax said Van der Sar “will remain in intensive care for the time being.”

There was a period during Andy Murray’s second-round match against fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas where it seemed the former champion was going to roll back the years and produce another memorable victory on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.

But the 36-year-old Briton ultimately fell to a 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (2-7) 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 defeat, and this latest Wimbledon loss felt particularly crushing for a 36-year-old who had hopes of reaching the latter stages of this year’s tournament after a difficult few years.

Murray, a two-time winner of this grand slam, led by two sets to one in a thrilling battle before play was stopped Thursday because of the tournament’s 11 p.m local time curfew.

On resumption on Friday, Tsitsipas – 12 years younger than Murray – took the upper hand, drawing level after a fourth-set tie-break and securing the final set to leave Murray pondering whether he’ll play at his home grand slam again.

When asked how confident he was of competing at Wimbledon next year, Murray told reporters: “I don’t know. Motivation is obviously a big thing.

“Continuing having early losses in tournaments like this doesn’t necessarily help with that. I don’t plan to stop right now. But, yeah, this one will take a little while to get over.”

Murray exited Wimbledon at the second round last year and lost in the third round in 2021. He has not gone beyond the third round in a major since 2017.

After winning two tournaments in the build up to Wimbledon this year, and skipping the French Open to focus on the grass court season, the former world No.1 hoped for better this time around.

“Ultimately this was an opportunity for me. I had a good chance of having a proper run for the first time in a long time at a slam. I didn’t take it,” said Murray, who had career-saving hip surgery in 2019.

“Regardless of the atmosphere and those things, it’s still very, very disappointing to be sitting here right now.”

US Women’s National Team star Megan Rapinoe, a two-time Women’s World Cup winner, has announced she will retire at the end of the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) season.

Rapinoe, an Olympic gold medalist from London 2012, will play in her fourth and final World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand, before returning to her NWSL team OL Reign.

In addition to her many on-field achievements, Rapinoe is well-known for her work on social issues, ranging from LGBTQ+ rights to racial inequality to gender and pay equity. In 2022, Rapinoe became the first soccer player to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“I’ve been able to have such an incredible career, and this game has brought me all over the world and allowed me to meet so many amazing people,” Rapinoe told reporters at a press conference ahead of USWNT’s friendly match against Wales.

“I feel incredibly grateful to have played as long as I have, to be as successful as we’ve been, and to have been a part of a generation of players who undoubtedly left the game better than they found it. To be able to play one last World Cup and one last NWSL season and go out on my own terms is incredibly special.”

“I will forever cherish the friendships and support over the years in this game, and I am beyond excited for one last ride with the National Team and the Reign,” she added.

Since making her USWNT debut in July 2006, Rapinoe has gone on to win 199 caps for her country and was described by US Soccer as “one of the most impactful figures in the history of soccer in the United States and in the global women’s game.”

The 38-year-old has scored 63 goals and registered 73 assists for the USWNT and in 2019 won the Ballon d’Or and FIFA’s The Best award after a scintillating Women’s World Cup in which she earned the Golden Ball and Golden Boot.

In her domestic career, Rapinoe won the French league title and French Cup with Lyon in the 2012-2013 season and has won three NWSL Shields with the Seattle Reign and OL Reign.

“Megan is a generational talent,” said USWNT general manager Kate Markgraf. “When you talk about players performing on the biggest stages, she’s right up there with the best to ever do it for the US Women’s National Team.

“And that’s just her contributions on the field. Her contributions off the field are the epitome of someone who saw that she had a large platform and used it for good.”

USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski called Rapinoe “one of the most important players in women’s soccer history and a personality like no other.”

“She has produced so many memorable moments for her team and the fans on the field that will be remembered for a very long time, but her impact on people as a human being may be even more important,” Andonovski added.

“It’s been a wonderful experience to coach her in the NWSL and for the National Team and I’m looking forward to her being an important part of our team at the World Cup.”

Israeli forces have concluded their largest-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin in decades, killing at least 12 Palestinians and leaving widespread destruction across the city’s refugee camp.

Jenin has emerged yet again as a flashpoint of violence gripping the West Bank. Teenagers are among the dead, and one Israeli soldier died Tuesday, but the Israeli military said that no non-combatants have been killed — although it acknowledged there are civilians among the more than 100 injured. Militant groups in Jenin claimed at least eight of those killed as their fighters.

An Israeli military source said Monday that the operation, which stretched over 48 hours, was the largest in Jenin in more than 20 years. The United Nations secretary-general expressed deep concern and said that all military operations must be conducted with respect for international humanitarian law.

As the operation was underway on Tuesday, a driver rammed into pedestrians standing in a Tel Aviv shopping center and proceeded to get out of the vehicle to stab civilians with a sharp object, according to Israeli police who called the incident a terror attack. Eight people were injured, one critically, and the driver of the car was killed by an armed civilian, Israeli police said. Palestinian militant group Hamas, said the driver was one of their fighters, and claimed responsibility for it.

In the early hours of Wednesday, as the Israeli military was withdrawing from Jenin, militants in Gaza fired five rockets toward Israeli territory, which Israel said were successfully intercepted.

In retaliation, Israeli air force jets struck what they called Hamas weapons and rockets sites in Gaza. No injuries were reported in Gaza or Israel.

The operations came after rising tensions in Jenin and across the West Bank over the past 16 months. Here’s what you need to know:

Why did Israeli forces go into Jenin?

Early on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched its major operation in Jenin, carrying out air strikes by drone and targeting what it said was a “command and control” center for militants in the refugee camp there.

That launched the incursion that involved hundreds of soldiers, at least ten drone airstrikes, and bulldozers that Israel says were used to disarm potential explosives buried under the asphalt. It even included tanks on the outskirts of the city.

An IDF spokesperson told reporters Monday the operation had been planned for some time, with the goal to dismantle the “safe haven” Jenin has become for militants. At least 50 shooting attacks toward Israelis have emanated from Jenin, the spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, the IDF entered “every point” of the refugee camp and said at least 120 people were detained. Israeli soldiers dismantled what the IDF said were hundreds of explosives, weapons caches and underground tunnels. Fierce firefights were reported between soldiers and militants.

During the operation, thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in the city’s refugee camp, where electricity and water services were severely damaged, according to Palestinian officials.

On Tuesday evening, the IDF announced that it was starting to leave the camp. And on Wednesday morning, IDF spokesperson Brigadier General Daniel Hagari told Israeli military radio station Galei Tzahal: “All the forces have left Jenin; we have finished the operation — its goals have been achieved.”

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off.”

“We will not allow Jenin to go back to being a city of refuge for terrorism,” he added.

The head of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Wednesday that Israel “withdrew from Jenin refugee camp with its tail between its legs.”

He said that even though there were Palestinian casualties in the city, “the Palestinian resistance has taught the Israeli occupation a lesson. Now it will think twice before attacking the Palestinian people.”

What led to this?

Tensions have been high across the West Bank for more than a year, and particularly over the past few weeks. But while this week’s military operations in Jenin were the largest for some time, incursions into the city’s refugee camp have become a feature of life for those who live there.

Israel began regularly raiding cities in the occupied West Bank, targeting militants, last year, after a wave of Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis. Much of the focus of these raids has been on the cities of Jenin and Nablus, which the IDF has called militant hotspots.

Last year was the deadliest year on record for both Palestinians and Israelis across the West Bank and Israel in more than a decade.

The latest wave of violence peaked late last month, when Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank, in revenge attacks after the killing of four Jewish settlers nearby by Hamas militants.

Hamas, the leading Palestinian Islamist militant group, said those killings had been in retaliation for an Israeli military operation in the Jenin area on June 19, which left seven Palestinians dead and 91 injured. Eight Israeli soldiers were injured.

While the military raids have become a regular feature in the West Bank, there’s been a marked increase in settler violence against Palestinians in recent months, as far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government call for unauthorized settler outposts in the West Bank to be expanded and turned into full settlements.

After the violence last month, Netanyahu warned Jewish settlers not to “grab land illegally” in the West Bank, as humanitarian bodies raised the alarm over a series of severe attacks on Palestinian villagers.

But at the same time, Netanyahu endorsed the expansion of government-approved settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

Is the timing of the operation significant?

The uptick in Israel’s West Bank operations takes place with Israel’s most right-wing government in power. It includes cabinet members who have a history of extremist views, particularly on Palestinians.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was once convicted for supporting terrorism and inciting anti-Arab racism. Earlier this year, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich triggered an international outcry when he called for a Palestinian village to be “wiped out” after Israeli settlers were killed there.

The rise in tension also takes place amid attempts by the Netanyahu government to pass a contentious judicial reform bill in Israel, which over the last few months sparked some of the largest protests the country has seen.

Disagreements over the judicial overhaul plan have caused deep divisions in Israeli public opinion, which analysts have said are often eased amid national security threats.

What’s life like in Jenin?

Jenin sits toward the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and has officially been under the administration of the Palestinian Authority since 1993.

The city houses a tightly packed refugee camp, which has been the focus of this week’s raids. It was established in 1953 for Palestinians who were uprooted from their homes after Israel’s creation in 1948. Decades later, it’s now a built-up area with homes, shops and schools, but it has one of the highest rates of poverty of all of the West Bank refugee camps, according to the UN.

The camp is home to more than 17,000 Palestinian refugees in an area that is less than half a square kilometer in size. Inside, there are schools and a health center. But levels of unemployment and substance abuse are high among inhabitants, the UN says.

Jenin has seen waves of violence over the past two decades. In 2002, during the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel, the camp was occupied by Israeli forces after 10 days of intensive fighting, leaving 400 homes destroyed and a quarter of the population homeless, according to the UN.

A UN special envoy to the Middle East, who visited the Jenin refugee camp at the time, described the scene as “shocking and horrifying beyond belief,” the air filled with the smell of decaying bodies.

How has the international community reacted?

International organizations have expressed alarm.

Doctors Without Borders has condemned a lack of medical access for those who have been injured. “Military bulldozers destroyed multiple roads leading to the Jenin refugee camp, making it nearly impossible for ambulances to reach patients,” the group said. “Additionally, Palestinian paramedics have been forced to proceed on foot to reach people in need of desperate medical treatment in an area with active gunfire and drone strikes.”

And a UN agency said Tuesday it was alarmed by the scale of the raids.

“We are alarmed at the scale of air and ground operations that are taking place in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, and air strikes hitting a densely populated refugee camp,” Vanessa Huguenin, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, told a briefing, according to Reuters.

“We support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups,” the spokesperson said. “Today’s events further underscore the urgent need for Israeli and Palestinian security forces to work together to improve the security situation in the West Bank.

“It is imperative to take all possible precautions to prevent the loss of civilian lives,” the spokesperson said.

Thousands of Palestinians marched through the streets of Jenin on Wednesday for the funeral of the 12 people killed in Israel’s largest military operation in the occupied West Bank in more than 20 years.

The two-day incursion into the sprawling refugee camp, which caused extensive damage to roads, homes and cars, ended earlier Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said, as the United Nations expressed deep concern over the violence.

“All the forces have left Jenin. We have finished the operation – its goals have been achieved,” IDF Chief Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Israeli military radio station Galei Tzahal.

Those who died were aged 16 to 23, and scores more injured, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it was targeting Palestinian terrorists and one of its soldiers was killed in the operation. Eight of those who were killed were members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the militant group said in a statement.

As the bodies were prepared for the funeral procession, many were wrapped in Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad flags, and carried through the streets on Wednesday.

Masked men carrying automatic weapons walked among the crowds of mourners. Many wore the arm and head bands of their factions, with their faces masked, and fired their guns in the air in a demonstration of strength and defiance.

Smeh Abulwafaa, the father of a 19-year-old killed in the incursion, called his son a “martyr.”

During proceedings, angry crowds chased away Palestinian Authority senior officials. Videos showed people chanting “get out, get out” and scuffles within the crowds, although it was unclear which officials were caught in the middle.

Mourners were angry with Palestinian senior officials over their response to the Israeli incursion. The Palestinian Authority released a statement this week with an 18-point action plan which included suspending communication with Israel.

Early Wednesday, the IDF said it also conducted strikes in the Gaza Strip, in response to five rockets launched toward Israeli territory, all of which were intercepted.

UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, reported that at least three children lost their lives in Jenin, while many others sustained injuries amid ongoing clashes.

“We are now in the end of achieving our goals, inside Jenin, fighting the terror and dismantling the terror in the Jenin Camp,” Hagari said. “We are achieving our goals and when we achieve our goals the forces will get out from the camp.”

Even after the initial IDF announcement of their forces starting to withdraw, military operations appeared to continue late Tuesday with the IDF saying that an armed terrorist cell was targeted by an IDF aircraft in a cemetery on the outskirts of Jenin city.

The operation was carried out because the gunmen “posed a threat to the security forces exiting from the Jenin Camp,” the IDF added.

“Our home, all the material things – they can be replaced, but how can I rebuild the psyche of my little girl? How will they ever feel safe again?”

“My youngest, she is only seven years old. She says she wishes she was never born. She says I should never have birthed her into this horror,” Shalby said.

In Gaza early Wednesday, the IDF said it carried out a targeted airstrike on an “underground weapon production site” used by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. A site involved in the production of raw materials for Hamas’ rockets was also targeted, it said.

“This attack constitutes damage to the ability of the terrorist organization Hamas to strengthen and arm itself,” the IDF said on Twitter.

Gaza, an isolated enclave on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, is located southwest of the landlocked West Bank.

Earlier, Hamas said a car ramming and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv Tuesday was carried out by one of their fighters, and was a response to Israel’s operation in Jenin.

Eight people were injured in the attack near a Tel Aviv shopping center, Israeli officials say, which saw the attacker emerge from the crashed vehicle and continue to stab civilians.

The UN’s human rights chief Volker Türk called for the “killing, maiming and the destruction of property” to end.

“The recent operation in the Occupied West Bank and car ramming attack in Tel Aviv worryingly underscore an all too familiar pattern of events: that violence only begets more violence,” a statement read.

“The scale of the Israeli Security Forces’ ongoing operation in Jenin, including the use of repeated airstrikes, along with the destruction of property, raises a host of serious issues with respect to international human rights norms and standards, including protecting and respecting the right to life,” he added.

Türk said “some of the methods and weapons used during the operations by ISF [Israeli Security Forces] in the Jenin Refugee Camp and surrounding areas are more generally associated with the conduct of hostilities in armed conflict, rather than law enforcement.”

He called on Israeli forces to “abide by international human rights standards,” which “do not change simply because the goal of the operation is stated as ‘counter-terrorism.’”

In a statement Wednesday, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said, “the Israeli occupation army withdrew from Jenin refugee camp with its tail between its legs.”

“All options to support Jenin camp are on the table,” Haniyeh said. “Resistance remains the strategic option for the Palestinian people to confront the Israeli aggression and end the occupation.”

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said in a statement earlier Wednesday that the “Palestinian people scored a great victory by defeating the aggression against Jenin and its camp.”

Rising casualties

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack, saying “whoever thinks that such an attack will deter us from continuing our fight against terrorism is mistaken. He is simply unfamiliar with the spirit of the State of Israel, our government, our citizens and our soldiers.”

In Jenin, a total of 117 people were injured in the refugee camp due to the ongoing IDF operation, said the Palestinian Red Crescent on Tuesday. Among these injuries, there are 12 reported as serious and 33 as moderate. The IDF had acknowledged civilians among those injured.

Thousands are still out of their homes, after evacuating overnight to avoid harm. The damage in the camp is extensive, with some roads torn up as Israeli bulldozers disarmed IEDs, and extensive damage to homes and cars as a result of the clashes.

Rudeineh said that “the Israeli army was attacking Palestinian citizens” and added, “What happened yesterday was completely dangerous.”

After a police officer in France shot dead unarmed 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk during a traffic stop in Paris last week, two fundraisers were set up. One, to support the teen’s mother. The other, for the family of the police officer who shot him.

By early Wednesday morning, the fundraiser for the police officer had raised a final total of more than €1.6 million ($1.7 million), while that for Nahel had topped €400,000 ($450,000). More than 85,000 people had donated to support the police officer, while just over 21,000 had donated to support Nahel.

What explains this divergence? And what does it tell us about French politics?

The fundraiser for the police officer, who has been charged with voluntary homicide, was set up by French media personality and former politician Jean Messiha.

Having previously stood as a candidate for the National Rally – the far-right party led by Marine Le Pen – Messiha later worked as spokesperson for the party of Eric Zemmour, another far-right candidate in last year’s presidential election, whose platform was more extreme than Le Pen’s.

French lawmakers have criticized the fundraiser and questioned the motives of the organizers.

“Everyone can express their feelings and contribute to a fund… But I think, in this case, that it doesn’t go in the direction of appeasement,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said in an interview with France Inter on Monday.

“I ask myself if behind all this there isn’t an instrumentalization (of the killing),” he added.

Despite the criticism, host website GoFundMe had refused to remove the campaign.

On Tuesday evening, Messiha announced on Twitter that the fundraiser would close at midnight local time (6 p.m. ET), but urged that its supporters continued the “national momentum” the campaign had built.

The killing of Nahel, who was of Algerian origin, and the riots his death incited, provoked a “typical, traditional far-right” reaction, according to Philippe Marliere, a professor of French politics at University College London.

But while this rhetoric proliferated online, the fundraiser itself used more measured language.

“Support for the family of the Nanterre police officer, Florian.M, who did his job and is now paying a high price. MASSIVELY support him and our police forces!” it read.

This language “is designed to appeal to a much broader audience than typical far-right voters. This sort of statement could appeal to a majority of French people – and most of them would never contemplate voting for the National Rally,” Marliere said. The fundraiser is hence helping to bring the politics of the far right into the mainstream, he added.

Le Pen also tempered her rhetoric in response to this crisis, in what Marliere said was an attempt to appeal to more middle-of-the-road voters. Rather than capitalizing on the traditional far-right rallying calls of “riots, ethnic minorities, rebelling against public authority, the police, burning down public buildings,” and more, she has adopted a more moderate tone than she has in the past, and far more so than Zemmour.

While Zemmour called the rioters “scum” and called for some of their requests for French nationality to be refused, Le Pen spoke more sympathetically about the victim. “The death of a young man of 17 cannot leave anyone indifferent,” she said in a tweet.

According to Marliere, Le Pen’s “low-key” response to the crisis is part of a “long-term strategy of coming across no longer as a far-right politician, but as someone who eventually – in four years’ time – could be seen as a credible replacement for Macron.”

Since Le Pen lost the presidential election to Emmanuel Macron in 2022, French politics has grown increasingly fractious. Macron faced huge protests in March and April over his controversial pension reforms, and there is a sense that he has struggled to regain his domestic footing since then.

Many have noted that Le Pen’s decision to temper her rhetoric echoes that of Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. Both politicians, attempting to cast a sheen of electability over their far-right parties, have used a more moderate tone to appeal to the mainstream.

“The Meloni strategy is very much what Le Pen is trying to follow in France,” Marliere said.

“This is politics: You instrumentalize a political event, a tragic political and social event, and you try to score political points with it.”

‘Day-to-day insecurity’

But, for the message to resonate, it has to be grounded in the public’s experience.

Joseph Downing, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations who has lived in Marseille for more than a decade, says he has witnessed the decline of security in the city, which has left whole areas virtually unpoliced.

According to Downing, the success of the fundraiser for the police officer shows “the key reason why Le Pen, and to a lesser extent Zemmour, were both successful in the presidential election campaign, because they spoke about security.”

In some areas of France, police simply “don’t exist,” he said. In their place, gangs armed with Kalashnikovs have been allowed to proliferate.

“Nanterre (the Paris suburb where Nahel was killed) is a good example of this. The police themselves are scared. And the police know, in Nanterre, in Clichy-sous-Bois, in the northern quarters of Marseille, there are people that are armed. And there are people that are armed with bigger guns than they have,” Downing said.

While the absence of police is felt most keenly in Marseille, Downing says the feeling of insecurity has started to trickle into Paris.

“On French voters’ minds – and it’s not being addressed unfortunately by the mainstream – is the question of a banal, day-to-day insecurity,” Downing said.

He thinks the police officer’s fundraiser reveals some of these feelings of insecurity. The riots that rocked several French cities were a short burst of anguish whose peak has passed, according to comments made Tuesday by Macron. But the fundraiser was growing at a rapid rate before Messahi’s announcement, pulling in more than €500,000 (€545,000) since Monday afternoon.

The difference between the two fundraisers also shows the different levels of organization across the French political spectrum. Those who took to the streets to protest police violence “might use Snapchat, but they wouldn’t be aware of a GoFundMe,” said Downing. Meanwhile, the cause of law and order has appealed to the “more engaged” right. “The right is much more mobilized and is much richer generally in France,” he said.

Having faced two huge waves of protests this year, Macron has been left weakened. While the nature of the two crises were very different, both have contributed to the growing image of a president detached from his people, who feels more comfortable before a global audience than a domestic one.

The body of a 19-year-old was also pulled from the rubble by the Fire Department on Saturday morning.

Three people remain missing, including two children, as search and rescue operations continue at the Conjunto Beira Mar building.

Firefighters and public safety teams were mobilized to the area to help in the ongoing rescue operations at the Conjunto Beira Mar building, SDS said on its Facebook page on Friday.

A Pride festival was canceled in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Saturday by organizers who say authorities failed to prevent violent disruptions from Russian-affiliated far-right groups.

According to Georgian public broadcaster First Channel, police clashed with anti-LGBTQ protesters in Lisi Wonderland, an events venue outside Tbilisi where the closed event was scheduled to take place.

Festival organizers Tbilisi Pride said in a tweet that they were “compelled” to cancel the festival and “evacuate” the festival territory.

“The Ministry of Interior of Georgia once again neglected to protect us from violent far-right groups and allowed the mobs to prevent us from exercising our freedom of expression and assembly even in private settings,” Tbilisi Pride said.

Videos posted by Georgian activist channels showed clashes between police officers and anti-LGBTQ protesters in the festival area in Lisi Wonderland. Anti-Pride protesters were also pictured setting Pride flags on fire.

Tbilisi Pride has accused the Georgian government of orchestrating and coordinating with Russian-affiliated, far-right group Alt Info, who they claim disrupted the event.

Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Darakhvelidze told reporters that the event had been hard to police because of its location, Reuters reported.

“The protesters managed to find… ways to enter the area of the event, but we were able to evacuate the Pride participants and organizers,” Darakhvelidze said, according to the news agency. “Nobody was harmed during the incident and police are now taking measures to stabilize the situation.”

In a statement on Friday, the Georgian Interior Ministry said it was taking “appropriate measures” to ensure the “safe format” of Saturday’s event and “to protect the freedom of expression and assembly of each person.”

The speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, stressed the government’s condemnation of any violence on Saturday, according to First Channel.

Papuashvili said police coped with the situation and prevented festival participants from being injured, according to First Channel.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said statements from Papuashvili and other government officials had no value, calling on the government to “stop using hate speech and inciting confrontation.”

Zourabichvili, who is independent of the country’s ruling Georgian Dream party, said the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression guaranteed by the Georgian constitution were violated on Saturday.

The UN condemned the “violence and attacks on Tbilisi Pride” in a tweet, calling on Georgian authorities to “denounce this disturbing incident” and protect the rights to peaceful assembly and expression of LGBTQI+ people in Georgia.

The US Embassy in Tbilisi also condemned the actions of an “uncontrolled crowd threatening violence,” tweeting that they had denied Georgian citizens their right to peacefully assemble. The embassy called on the Georgian authorities “to hold accountable all those who broke the law and make clear that violence is unacceptable.”

Britain’s ambassador to Georgia, Mark Clayton, said he was “shocked” and “saddened” to see the festival canceled “despite the planning and preventative measures.”

In a tweet, Clayton called on the Georgian authorities to “ensure that all who broke the law & aggressively disrupted a peaceful gathering will be brought to justice.”

The German ambassador to Georgia, Peter Fischer, called it a “sad day,” remarking in a tweet that Georgian law had been “violated.”

Northwestern University has suspended head football coach Pat Fitzgerald for two weeks without pay following an investigation into allegations of hazing within the Wildcats’ program, the school announced Friday.

The independent investigation, conducted by a former Illinois inspector general, began in December to review a complaint from an anonymous email address received at the end of the 2022 season, according to an executive summary of the investigation made public by the university.

The investigation determined that Fitzgerald and other coaching staff members did not know about the hazing, but “there had been opportunities for them to discover and report the hazing conduct,” the university said in a news release.

“While current and former players varied on their perspectives about the conduct, the whistleblower’s claims were largely supported by the evidence,” the university said.

The whistleblower alleged that football players pressured team members into participating in hazing activities, which typically occurred in the locker room and may have started at “Camp Kenosha” in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the team held training camp, the summary says.

Fitzgerald, who is suspended effective immediately, said he is “disappointed” to learn of the hazing allegations, adding he was not “aware” of any of the alleged activities.

“Northwestern football prides itself on producing not just athletes, but fine young men with character befitting the program and our University,” Fitzgerald said in a statement. “We hold our student-athletes and our program to the highest standards; we will continue to work to exceed those standards moving forward.”

The probe was led by former state executive inspector general Maggie Hickey, whose team found “evidence to corroborate claims made by an anonymous whistleblower regarding hazing activities and events,” the university said. In addition to speaking with the whistleblower, Hickey’s team interviewed more than 50 people affiliated or formerly affiliated with the football program.

Following the report’s findings, the school will take several additional actions going forward, including discontinuing practices at “Camp Kenosha.” The university, located in Evanston, Illinois, will also require locker room monitoring by “someone who doesn’t report to the football coaching staff,” the news release states.

An online tool dedicated to reporting incidents of potential hazing or hazing-related concerns among student-athletes will be created, the university said. Coaches, staff members and student-athletes must complete an annual mandatory anti-hazing training.

“Hazing in any form is unacceptable and goes against our core values at Northwestern, where we strive to make the University a safe and welcoming environment for all of our students,” Northwestern University president Michael Schill said. “Our athletics programs are held to the highest standards, and in this case, we failed to meet them. I expect that today’s actions will prevent this from ever happening again.”

Fitzgerald, 48, is entering his 18th season coaching the Wildcats. The program under Fitzgerald has won four bowl games since 2016, yet the team fell to a 1-11 record last season.

The Wildcats are scheduled to open the 2023 season on September 3 at Rutgers University in New Jersey.