France has been rocked by a wave of protests after a 17-year-old youth was shot by police near Paris on Tuesday, sparking a ban on demonstrations in some cities, travel warnings and reigniting a debate on over-policing in marginalized communities.

Scenes emerged of people setting fires to vehicles and climbing onto buildings with smashed windows, while riot police officers fiercely clashed with demonstrators.

The unrest prompted a crisis response from French President Emmanuel Macron, who held an emergency meeting with ministers as he attempts to bridge divisions and unite the country in his second term.

Here’s what we know.

What sparked the protests?

A police officer shot dead the teenager, Nahel, who was of Algerian heritage, during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre earlier this week.

Footage of the incident captured by a passerby showed two officers standing on the driver’s side of the car, one of whom discharged his gun at the driver despite not appearing to face any immediate threat.

The officer said he fired his gun because he was scared the boy would run someone over with the car, Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said.

Prache said that it is believed the officer acted illegally in using his weapon. He is currently facing a formal investigation for voluntary homicide and has been placed in preliminary detention.

What’s happened since?

Protesters have been carrying signs that read “the police kill” and hundreds of government buildings have been damaged as Nahel’s death taps into anger over racial bias in the country.

In Paris alone, 5,000 security personnel were deployed. Officers were given powers to quell riots, make arrests, and “restore republican order,” French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin said.

Overseas French territories have also witnessed violent protests. A man was killed by a “stray bullet” in Cayenne, capital of French Guiana, during riots on Thursday.

Police have also detained at least 28 people in riots in Réunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, according to authorities there.

What does this mean for Macron?

Macron gave himself 100 days to heal the country and reset his presidency after weeks of protests against unpopular pension reforms earlier this year. But hopes for a reset are now likely to be hampered by the widespread protests. It has not gone unnoticed that Macron attended an Elton John concert on Wednesday as cars burned and buildings were defaced across the country.

The French government is working to avoid a repeat of 2005, when the deaths of two teenage boys hiding from police set off a state of emergency amid three weeks of rioting.

Macron did cut short his attendance at a European Council summit in Brussels that had been due to last through Friday. He announced a ban on all “large-scale events” in France, including “celebratory events and numerous gatherings,” and urged parents to keep their children at home, saying many of those detained were young.

Macron has also called for social media platforms to help damp down the demonstrations, asking TikTok and Snapchat to withdraw the “most sensitive content” and to identify users who employ “social networks to call for disorder or to exacerbate violence.”

What led to the unrest?

Activists believe Nahel’s race was a factor in his killing, unraveling deep-rooted tensions over police discrimination against minoritized communities in France.

Secularism – known as “laïcité” in French – is a key foundation of French culture, as it seeks to uphold equality for all by erasing markers of difference, including race.

But many people of color in France say they are more likely to be victims of police brutality than White people. A 2017 study by the Rights Defenders, an independent human rights watchdog in France, found that young men perceived to be Black or Arab were 20 times more likely to be stopped by police than their peers.

Accusations of brutality have long plagued French police. The Council of Europe criticized “excessive use of force by state agents” in a statement earlier this year during protests against Macron’s unpopular pension reforms.

Rights groups, like Amnesty International, have accused French police of ethnic profiling and have recommended deep, systemic reform to address the discrimination.

The UN called on France to address “deep issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement,” in the agency’s first comments since the killing.

In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged French authorities to “ensure use of force by police to address violent elements in demonstrations always respects the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution and accountability.”

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs later rebuffed the UN’s comments, saying: “France, and its police forces, fight with determination against racism and all forms of discrimination. There can be no doubt about this commitment.

“The use of force by the national police and gendarmerie is governed by the principles of absolute necessity and proportionality, strictly framed and controlled,” the ministry added.

Is it safe to travel to France?

As peak travel season gets underway, multiple countries issued warnings to those visiting France, where domestic transport networks have been disrupted.

The Interior Ministry announced that public transportation, including buses and tramways, would shut down across the country by 9 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET), ahead of a fourth night of expected protests.

Limited curfews were imposed in Clamart and Neuilly-sur-Marne, while some bus services were disrupted in Paris but the Metro system was operating as normal. The Nanterre-Préfecture train station was closed.

In Lille, bus and tramway services were more or less running normally on Friday, with some diversions in place.

In the southern city of Marseille, public transport was due to stop services at 7 p.m.

There was no disruption to the Eurostar service connecting London, Lille and Paris as a result of the protests. French intercity trains are also not affected.

Further afield, the US State Department issued a security alert on June 29 covering France. It suggested monitoring media outlets France24, RFI and The Local for updates.

Meanwhile, Britain issued a travel advisory urging tourists to “monitor the media” and “avoid areas where riots are taking place.”

German authorities also advised its citizens to “find out about the current situation where you are staying at and avoid large-scale places of violent riots.”

Čeněk Růžička looked euphoric as he swung the pickaxe against the wall. He had spent decades campaigning for the pig farm to be torn down. It was finally happening.

The piggery, a giant industrial operation, stood on the remnants of the Nazi-era Roma concentration camp where some of his ancestors died.

It lay near Lety, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Prague, and was built in the early 1970s after the Communist regime rejected a proposal to build a Romani Holocaust memorial there.

It took 50 years for the country to recognize the farm was a disgrace to the memory of those held in the camp and to flatten it. The demolition started last summer and is now nearly finished – with a memorial to be opened on the site next year. But to many Roma people, the saga remains a symbol of the racism, discrimination and prejudice they still face on daily basis.

They believe the farm was allowed to be built because the prisoners were Roma, a group that remains the most marginalized community in the Czech Republic.

The Lety camp was one of two “Gypsy camps” operating in the German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War Two. Roughly 1,300 Czech and Moravian Roma and Sinti men, women and children were held there from August 1942 to August 1943, according to historical records. Sinti people are a specific subgroup of Roma people who came to Europe in the Middle Ages and settled in mainly German-speaking countries.

At least 326 people, most of them children, are known to have died there. When the rest were deported to the Nazis’ Auschwitz concentration camp following a typhoid epidemic, the camp was leveled and largely forgotten.

One of the prisoners held at Lety was Bětka Růžičková, Růžička’s mother and Kokyová’s grandmother. Bětka’s parents and her 4-month-old daughter died at the camp. She was sent to Auschwitz when she was just 19 and was the only one of her family to survive the war.

“When grandma came back, she must have felt this horrible emptiness. She came back completely alone. Everyone was dead, she had nobody, she had nothing. And she knew that part of the suffering was down to her own people, to Czechs,” Kokyová said.

According to Kokyová, Růžičková never spoke of what happened during the war. Even those closest to her had no idea about the existence of the camp in Lety until several years after the 1989 Velvet Revolution – which ended four decades of communist rule – when a foreign journalist approached Růžičková’s son, Čeněk Růžička, about it.

“He didn’t believe it at first. Of course we all knew that there were concentration camps in Germany, of course we knew about the Holocaust. But we had no idea that something like this was happening here, in our own country,” Kokyová said.

“They showed him the documents they found in the archives and took him to the farm. And he always said that that was the moment when he realized how little a human being, a Roma human being, means to the world.”

Růžička made it his mission to have the farm torn down, and replaced with a memorial. His infant half-sister is buried somewhere near the camp.

Like other victims’ families, Kokyová is convinced that the fact that the camp was run by Czech people was one of the reasons for the hesitation around establishing a memorial. “The Roma Holocaust, the genocide, was a German Nazi plan. But the camp was administered by Czech guards. It was the Czechs who tortured the people there,” she said.

Rudolf Murka, whose father was held at a Roma concentration camp in Hodonín u Kunštátu in Moravia before being deported to Auschwitz, echoes that sentiment. “We can tell ourselves that it was all done upon the orders of the Nazis, but the truth is, these camps were originally built by Czechs and the guards were Czech,” he said. Out of the 50 members of Murka’s family held in the camps, only six survived the war, he said.

The forgotten Holocaust

The Nazi genocide of Roma and Sinti people is sometimes referred to as “the forgotten Holocaust,” according to Jana Horváthová, a Czech historian and director of the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second city.

Historians believe that between 25% and 70% of Europe’s Roma population was murdered during the war. In what is now the Czech Republic, as much as 90% of the original Czech and Moravian Roma and Sinti population perished, according to historians.

Yet even West Germany only officially recognized the racial background of the Roma genocide in 1982, 30 years after formally acknowledging its responsibility for the Jewish Holocaust. On a wider European level, it took until 2015 for the European Parliament to pass a resolution formally recognizing Roma genocide.

Evidence of the scale of the crimes inflicted on Europe’s Roma population is still being collected and examined – and the estimates of the number of victims keep changing, Horváthová said, as more evidence is uncovered.

New research into the May 1944 Roma prisoners’ uprising in Auschwitz is one example of new information shining more light on the scale of the genocide. “It’s always been thought that 2,897 Roma and Sinti were murdered in the gas chambers within the days following the demolition of the ‘Gypsy camp’ in Auschwitz. Now we know there were at least 4,300 victims,” she said.

Horváthová said that after the war, the Czechoslovak communist regime failed to acknowledge the Roma Holocaust and many survivors were afraid to speak about their experiences because of the stigma associated with being Roma.

Murka remembers secretive family visits to the remnants of the camps during the communist era. “We’d go at night or late in the evening when it was dark, we’d light a candle and put some flowers on the spot and then we’d go home. It wasn’t something people would be able to do openly, because they were so worried about persecution,” Murka said.

“During communism and even long after the revolution, nobody wanted to admit there was such a thing as a Roma Holocaust, it was not something you would speak about openly.”

That stigmatization continues today.

According to the most recent annual report from the Czech government’s Council for Roma Minority Affairs, Roma people are still by far the most marginalized minority group in the country. Official surveys quoted by the report show a majority of Czechs consistently rank Roma people as the “least likeable” minority group, behind Muslims and Russians.

Another survey quoted in the report said that 25% of Czechs said they wouldn’t let out their apartment to a large family with a typical Czech surname. When the surname was changed to a traditional Roma name, the number of those refusing to let it rose to 60%.

Zdenek Serinek’s grandfather, Josef Serinek, was also held at Lety, and was the only one of his entire family to survive the war.

Josef managed to escape the camp and, while on the run, became a prominent member of the Czech resistance movement. But despite taking part in a number of high-profile operations, Josef was not recognized in the same way other resistance fighters were after the war.

He only received the Czechoslovak Medal for Merit, which was awarded for non-combat actions. It took until 2022 for his actions to be recognized with the appropriate military award, the Medal of Heroism.

Zdenek said his grandfather’s heroism wasn’t a topic of discussion in the family. “Whenever we asked about him, people would just start speaking about something else. I think maybe they didn’t want us to be associated with a Roma ancestor, or maybe they just didn’t want to talk about the war experience.”

After the war, Josef married a fellow member of the resistance movement, Marie Zemanová, who did not have Romani heritage. Their children and grandchildren, including Zdenek, were brought up without learning much about their Roma ancestors.

“When I was born, my grandpa’s first question was what I looked like. My dad didn’t understand what he was asking and my grandpa said: ‘Is he Black or is he White.’ And my dad said ‘White’ and my grandpa said ‘good,’” Zdenek said.

Taking responsibility for the past

The deep prejudices against the Roma community have plagued the debate around a Holocaust memorial in Lety.

After the collapse of the communist regime, Czech and Moravian Roma and Sinti people begun pushing for the state to officially recognize the Romani Holocaust and demolish the pig farm. Successive governments dodged the topic, claiming that it would be too expensive to buy the farm from its private owners in order to have it demolished.

For decades, even top-level officials questioned its history. Former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was forced to apologize in 2016 for his claims that “it’s a lie to say the Lety camp was a concentration camp,” claiming the facility was for “people who didn’t want to work.” Václav Klaus, former president and prime minister, said that while “tragic things happened” at the camp, it was “not a real concentration camp in the sense that each of us subconsciously understands the word.”

Horváthová said that at first – and for a really long time – she didn’t believe Růžička’s campaign to have the farm torn down could be successful.

“In the late 1990s, it looked like there was no chance this would ever happen. The society was aggressively against it,” she said.

The Czech Republic was going through a dark period of heightened racial tensions when Růžička began his campaign in 1997. Racially motivated violence was not uncommon, with the Czech Helsinki Committee, a non-governmental human rights organization, warning at the time that violent acts of racism and discrimination against Roma people were growing in number and that the authorities were doing little to stop them.

When a group of skinheads drowned Roma teenager Tibor Danihel in Písek in 1993, it took years for the courts to classify his death as a racially motivated murder.

On May 13, 1995, President Václav Havel officially unveiled a makeshift memorial near the burial grounds adjacent to the camp in Lety, denouncing the fact that a piggery was allowed to be built there. On the same day, a group of skinheads brutally murdered a Roma father-of-five, Tibor Berki, after breaking into his family home in South Moravia.

Kokyová was a high-school student at the time. “When I was a freshmen there were three skinheads in the senior class. I would hear the rumors that they talked about me and said I should ‘look forward to going to school,’” she said.

“I still remember the feeling. Our classroom was on the first floor but we had some classes that took place on the third floor, where their classroom was. I never, ever walked there alone. I never admitted it to my friends, I just made sure I was never alone,” she said.

Berki’s murder eventually led to changes in Czech law. Harsher punishments were introduced for racially motivated violence and prosecutors adopted a tougher approach.

However, it took another two decades for the government to finally act on the most obvious symbol of anti-Roma discrimination, the Lety pig farm.

“At some point, in 2017 or so, it became obvious that the society was now on our side… maybe we needed all this time to get to the point where it becomes unacceptable to have a pig farm there,” Horváthová said. “Yes, it took three decades, which is very long time in a life of a person, but to me, it’s very, very positive news.”

In 2018, the Czech state finally bought the farm for 450 million Czech crowns ($20 million), clearing the way for it to be demolished. A new, official Holocaust memorial is being built there and should open some time early next year. It will include a visitor center with an educational space and exhibition, and a large memorial meadow surrounded by forest marking the original site of the camp. A circular path around the space will feature the names of the camp’s known prisoners.

Partial remnants of the pig farm will also remain – a part of the memorial that was specifically requested by the victims’ families.

“It was incredibly important to us to maintain the memory of this. It’s part of the history of this place and it’s important to show it,” Murka said.

Archeological research conducted after the farm was acquired by the government – the previous owners never allowed excavations on their property – uncovered the remains of the camp and gave the public a glimpse of the horrors that occurred. It also provided proof that the camp’s remnants were clearly visible when the pig farm was built.

The research confirmed the prisoners were subjected to hard labor, an extremely poor diet and inhumane conditions. The discovery of an intact long plait of hair indicated prisoners’ hair was cut and shaved. A shallow grave containing the remains of a young woman and a baby was excavated nearby.

At the annual remembrance event in Lety in May, the newly elected Czech President Petr Pavel said it was important to “clearly describe” the dark periods in the nation’s history and “admit our share of guilt in it.” It was only the second time a president had attended the yearly memorial service, and came 28 years after Havel’s visit.

Růžička didn’t live to see this. He died in December last year, just months after smashing the pickaxe into the wall of the piggery during the ceremony marking the start of its demolition.

His niece said he died knowing something dignifying and beautiful was being built. “He was 76, but he still had a part of him that was youthful, and, maybe, a bit naive. He believed that people are inherently good and that justice will prevail,” she said.

Růžička’s main goal, she said, was accomplished. “I think he wanted the Czech nation to admit that this was a horrible thing. The top officials, in front of all the cameras, finally admitting that this was all wrong. We finally got to this point, where the nation itself sort of accepts its share of responsibility for this.”

In just two months’ time, Amy Olson is set to become a mother. But before she embraces parenthood, Olson has a golf tournament to try and win – the US Women’s Open, no less.

“I feel incredibly blessed to be able to do both of them and this week just feels like the culmination of those two dreams,” added Olson, who is one of the 156-player field teeing off on Thursday.

The American announced her and husband Grant’s impending addition to the family after stamping her ticket to the 78th edition of the major with an impressive qualifying performance in Minnesota at the end of May.

Olson had just one request for the tournament’s organizers: to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches waiting for her at Pebble Beach. Demands suitably satisfied, the 30-year-old will turn her attention to what will be the 194th tournament appearance – and 35th major start – of a 10-year professional career.

After the US Open ends, her maternity leave will begin.

“Women do this all the time,” Olson said. “I want other women who have gone through this that don’t get the cameras on them as they go about their job, as they go about what they do every single day while pregnant, I just want pregnancy and life to be celebrated.

“I love that people are acknowledging that it’s hard but it’s possible. I hope that when other women see me they feel like, ‘you know what, I can do it too.’”

Changes

While pregnant, Olson’s workouts have altered drastically, both in format and intensity. Her swing has transformed to be in tune with her body, with Olson using the example of an ice skater to illustrate the change.

When a figure skater wants to turn faster, they bring their arms in, according to Olson. When slowing down is the aim, the arms go out. With the emergence of a baby bump, Olson’s swing has slowed, cutting the distance of her shots in the process.

“As a professional athlete you are very selfish – everything’s about you, everything depends on your schedule and your fitness,” added Olson, who is due to give birth in mid-September.

“When you become a mom, all of sudden there’s another human that’s far more important than you and doesn’t care that you have a tee time or have something else going on – they need to eat, they need to sleep.

“But I think that’s created that way because we all need that selfishness driven out of us and kids are the perfect way to do it.”

Yet Olson also sees changes beyond her own life, in attitudes towards athlete pregnancy. Examples of sportswomen balancing their careers with childbirth – in the periods before and after pregnancy – are abundant in golf and a host of other sports.

Amateur Brenda Corrie-Kuehn was eight months pregnant when she teed off at the 2001 US Women’s Open, with playing partner Jennifer Greggain well into her second trimester. Just one week later, Corrie-Kuehn’s daughter Rachel was born.

In 2018, Stacy Lewis played the same tournament while four months pregnant. One year later, Nike made further adjustments to its maternity policy to ensure female athletes would not be “adversely impacted financially for pregnancy” after various high-profile athletes criticized its previous policies.

“One of the things that I’ve not ever wanted to buy into is that pregnancy is somehow a disease,” Olson said. “I’m not ill, I’m not sick, I’m pregnant – my body is made to do this.

“I think being an athlete, in a lot of ways, I’m incredibly fortunate because fitness has been part of my life just naturally and I think it’s helped the pregnancy go well. In some ways, yes, it impedes your career – I wouldn’t recommend anyone just gaining 25 pounds for performance in golf – but I also think there’s a mindset of gaining a little perspective and balance in new life recognizing there are different seasons.

“There’s a season for us as women to pursue a career, to pursue a passion or a dream we’ve had since childhood, but there’s also a time to become a mother and you don’t want to look back at the end of your life and realize that I sacrificed one of these at the exclusion of the other.”

‘The hardest thing I’ve ever done’

This week will mark Olson’s seventh start at the US Women’s Open, a tournament she came within a whisker of winning three years ago and one touched by tragedy.

A shot off the lead heading into the last 18 holes, all focus on chasing a first major evaporated on the eve of the final round when Olson’s father-in-law unexpectedly died Saturday night.

Overcome with grief, the North Dakota-born golfer stayed within striking distance of the championship, only to be leapfrogged late on when South Korean A Lim Kim birdied her final three holes to tie the record for the largest comeback ever seen at the major.

Olson finished tied runner-up, just one stroke behind. Alongside a second-placed finish at the 2018 Evian Championship, it remains the closest she has ever been to a major – or LPGA Tour – crown.

“That tournament was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, having to compete in the middle of overwhelming grief that was extremely sudden,” Olson recalled.

“The biggest thing I learned is that you just have to take one step at a time, one shot at a time.

You can’t get ahead of yourself and win the battles of what’s coming up over the next hour or the next few days.

“You can’t do it all at once – you just have to stay in the moment and fight the battle that is right in front of you. I think that’s a lesson we can all learn.”

This week, history beckons at a landmark tournament. Women’s golf’s oldest major is finally touching down at Pebble Beach, a course that has already captivated Olson with its beauty.

The question is, should a fairytale come to life and Olson lifts the trophy come Sunday, will it somehow be worked into the baby’s name?

“I think we’ll deal with that if that opportunity comes,” Olson laughed.

The plane carrying Brazil’s Women’s World Cup squad arrived in Australia for the 2023 tournament emblazoned with a tribute to Iranian human rights protestors.

The squad touched down in Brisbane earlier this week in an aircraft that had the faces of Amir Nasr-Azadani and Mahsa Amini, whose treatment by authorities have fuelled anti-government protests in Iran, on the plane’s tail.

The aircraft also displayed the phrases “No woman should be forced to cover her head” and “No man should be hanged for saying this” on the side of it.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has said it had nothing to do with the statements on the plane.

The charter plane belongs to Argentine film producer Enrique Piñeyro, according to Australian broadcaster SBS.

Protests swept through Iran following the death in September last year of Amini, a young woman detained by Iran’s notorious morality police for being accused of improperly wearing her hijab.

Nationwide protests rocked Iran as anger over the regime’s treatment of women and other long-festering economic and political grievances flared up after the death of the 22-year-old.

Authorities violently suppressed the months-long movement, which had posed one of the biggest domestic threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in more than a decade.

High-profile Iranian footballer Nasr-Azadani is accused of involvement in the killing of three security officers, including two volunteer Basij militia members, during protests in Isfahan on November 16, Iranian state media IRNA reported.

Brazil is in Group F for the 2023 Women’s World Cup alongside France, Jamaica and Panama. It will begin its campaign on July 24 in Adelaide. The tournament starts on July 20.

Last week, world soccer governing body FIFA announced that captains of teams of Women’s World Cup teams would be allowed to wear an armband around eight different social causes, including gender equality, inclusion and peace.

After triumphing at the Women’s Euros in 2022, England will go into this year’s Women’s World Cup as one of the favorites to win the tournament.

The team is brimming with world-class players, such as Barcelona’s Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh, and possesses one of the most diligent international coaches in the game.

Since Sarina Wiegman took charge of the Lionesses in September 2021, the squad has transformed into something of a juggernaut.

England have won 26 of the 32 games during her reign and have only lost once – a friendly against Australia in April.

“It’s very unpredictable and yes, of course, we’re one of the favorites because we’re the European champions,” the 53-year-old said, adding that life changed for the players after the memorable victory at Wembley Stadium in London.

“We have done really well over the last year, but I think it’s very, very hard.

“I think there are many, many contenders and I think we are one of them. We’re just trying to be at our best level, and yes, we have a dream.

“Of course, we don’t go there just to play a tournament. We go there, of course, to win it just like the other countries. And we’ll see what happens. We take it game by game.”

England starts its World Cup campaign against Haiti on July 22, before facing Denmark and China in its other group stage matches.

Should it navigate the first hurdle and progress into the knockout stages, Wiegman’s side will find itself facing much sterner tests.

The United States Women’ National Team (USWNT) may have had a mixed build-up to the tournament – including a friendly defeat against England in 2022 – but Wiegman is very aware of the threat posed by the reigning champion.

The USWNT has won the last two World Cup titles and knocked England out of the semifinals in 2019.

“I think the US will always show up. They’ve shown it in history,” Wiegman said.

“It’s very impressive what they’ve done, and I think so many countries have caught up in that too, so for them it’s really becoming harder and harder.

“They have this mentality […] I’m not very close at the moment to the team, but I expect them to be really good when the World Cup starts.”

Despite the ever-present threat from the USWNT and other European rivals such as Germany, France and the Netherlands, England will feel confident about its chances of winning its first women’s World Cup title.

Few teams are as free-scoring as England and, after winning Euro 2022, they have senior players experienced in lifting big trophies on the international stage.

While the players’ abilities speak for themselves, Wiegman has helped to instill a formidable mindset in the group through some “non-negotiable” philosophies.

“I think in a team you always have to do your best,” she said. “That doesn’t mean you always have to run the fastest. That’s something different.

“It’s doing what’s best for the team and what’s demanded of you, on and off the pitch.

“When you start doing things on your own in a team sport, that’s really hard. You’re not going to reach the highest potential.”

There were signs of Wiegman’s future development into a world-class, widely respected coach from early in her career as a player.

The Dutchwoman played over 100 times for her country, eventually captaining the national side.

Due to the state of women’s football at the time, she balanced her club career at Dutch side Ter Leede with work as a physical education teacher.

But she found her calling in management, slowly working up the ranks before leading the Netherlands to European Championship glory in 2017.

Her move to England was highly anticipated, but she says she’s just grateful to still be part of the women’s game while it’s witnessing such a boost in popularity.

“I would never expect we would be here, where we are right now,” she added, speaking about the growth of the women’s game.

“There’s still steps to take, lots of steps to take, but the improvements and the things that have become so much better, it’s just incredible to be part of.”

Like the 31 other coaches heading to the tournament in Australia and New Zealand, Wiegman is putting the final touches to her preparations.

If England is to win the Women’s World Cup for the first time, she will have to find a way to do so without captain Leah Williamson and goalscorer Beth Mead, who are both out with ACL knee injuries.

With the squad for the tournament already announced, the coach is hoping for no more distractions in the run-up to the Lionesses’ opening game but is conscious of not piling too much pressure on herself or the team.

“It depends on the time of the year, [but] when big decisions need to be made, yeah, then I have the pencil next to my bed,” she said, explaining her process for planning big tournaments.

“I’m trying to do a better job to switch off a little more, but I think that’s also part of the job and also who I am.

“I’m always thinking about things and overthinking a little bit sometimes. But you want to make right decisions and you want to do the best.”

A cameraman who was hit by an errant throw in Wednesday’s New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles game has returned home after suffering an orbital fracture, his network announced Thursday.

In the fifth inning, Orioles rookie shortstop Gunnar Henderson attempted to throw a ball to first base to get the Yankees’ Anthony Volpe out.

However, Henderson’s throw flew over first baseman Ryan O’Hearn’s head and sailed into a camera positioned behind O’Hearn where it appeared to hit Pete Stendel, a cameraman for YES Network, on the head.

Play stopped for about 17 minutes as medical personnel attended to Stendel with TV cameras showing the concern etched on the players’ faces.

After a brief pause, Stendel was carted off the field while raising a peace sign to the crowd at Yankee Stadium as he received a standing ovation. The crowd chanted “MVP” as Stendel was carted out of the stadium.

“Every time that a ball goes over the first baseman or even a foul ball from the hitter, you don’t want to see it going towards a fan. It just happened to be in the wrong spot, and I hope he’s doing all right,” Henderson said after the Orioles beat the Yankees 6-3. “My prayers go out to him. I’m just thankful for the guys that rushed over there to him to help him.”

On Thursday, YES Network said in a tweet: “Pete suffered an orbital fracture and is home resting. He and his family appreciate everyone’s support.”

An update from the network released on Wednesday said that Stendel was “conscious” and “undergoing tests” in hospital after the incident.

“Definitely praying for him. It was good to see him obviously coherent and obviously raising his hand going off,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said following the game.

“But I saw it pretty well right away, and it was very scary. I didn’t see how he fell back, but I knew what could’ve been possible falling back, on top of the impact from the velocity of the ball hitting him … Obviously, a difficult scene there, and just hoping he’s OK.”

Dimitrov allegedly scratched “Ivan+Hayley 23” on a brick wall of one of the world’s most precious buildings last week and the act was caught on video.

The tourist is being investigated by the Rome prosecutor’s office for damage to cultural property, the lawyer confirmed.

The lawyer also said that they are hoping for a plea bargain.

Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano tweeted last week that the Carabinieri, a military police force, had “identified the person presumed to be responsible for the uncivilized and absurd act committed at the Colosseum.”

“An act that offended everyone across the globe who appreciate the value of archaeology, of monuments and of history,” he added.

His tweet confirmed that “Ivan and Hayley” are thought to be the names of the tourist and his girlfriend, who was filmed looking on as he carved their names.

After a parent spotted a cracked steel support pillar at the top of a North Carolina roller coaster last week, Carowinds amusement park said in a statement Thursday that its maintenance team is working with the damaged ride’s manufacturer.

The Charlotte-based amusement park and Bolliger and Mabillard Consulting Engineers Inc., the company that made the Fury 325 roller coaster, were working “in close coordination … to remove and replace the existing support column,” Carowinds said in a newly released statement.

Bolliger and Mabillard will build the new support column, which amusement park officials say they expect to be delivered to the park next week.

“Following the installation of the new column, and as part of our normal protocol for rides such as Fury 325, we will conduct an extensive series of tests to ensure the safety and integrity of the coaster,” the statement read.

Those will include an accelerometer test that uses sensors to measure any variations in the ride experience, Carowinds said in the statement.

Afterward, the ride will operate for 500 full cycles with tests and inspections of the entire ride occurring during the cycles.

“Once this phase is completed, we will ask (Bolliger and Mabillard) and the third-party testing firm to perform a final inspection to ensure the ride exceeds all required specifications,” the statement said.

The video showed the cracked pillar moving slightly as the roller coaster’s passengers whizzed by.

Additional inspection procedures will also be implemented to address future potential issues, according to Carowinds.

The company’s website lists the Fury 325 as “the tallest, fastest, longest giga coaster in North America” with a peak height of 325 feet.

Giga roller coasters feature between 300- and 399-foot drops, according to Ohio-based Kings Island amusement park.

The Fury 325’s reopening date will be finalized after inspections and testing are completed.

The amusement park also plans to work with the North Carolina Department of Labor’s Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau to prepare for the ride’s reopening, according to the statement.

Israeli forces launched what a military source said is its largest military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin in more than 20 years, killing at least 10 people and injuring about 100 others, according to Palestinian officials.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement it launched the ongoing “extensive counterterrorism effort in the area of the city of Jenin and the Jenin Camp,” striking “terrorist infrastructure.”

The IDF carried out around 10 airstrikes using drones, and hundreds of soldiers targeted what it said was a militant “command and control” center as well as weapons and explosive manufacturing sites.

Hundreds of Palestinian families fled the area amid the destruction; Jenin deputy mayor Mohammed Jarrar said homes and infrastructure had been destroyed, cutting off electricity and water in the refugee camp.

Duha Turkman, a 16-year-old Jenin resident, said they were given two hours to evacuate.

Five of those killed in the attack were teenagers, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, later adding that the body of the tenth Palestinian person to be killed was discovered on Tuesday.

An eleventh Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli forces near Ramallah in the West Bank in a separate incident, according to the health authorities.

IDF chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari earlier told reporters “eight terrorists” were killed in Jenin and there are “no non-combatants that have died as far as we know.”

Hagari acknowledged that civilians were among the injured, but insisted the operation only meant to target “terrorists.” “It’s not an invasion on Jenin, it’s not against the Palestinian Authority. It’s not against innocent, innocent Palestinians. It’s against terrorists in this camp,” he said.

The raid sparked immediate condemnation. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called the large-scale Israeli military operation “a new war crime.”

“Security and stability will not be achieved in the region unless our Palestinian people feel it. What the Israeli occupation government is doing in the city of Jenin and its camp is a new war crime against our defenseless people,” he said, according to presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

Egypt also condemned the Israeli incursion, calling it an act of “aggression.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military acted “against terrorist strongholds in Jenin.”

“In recent months, Jenin has become a safe haven for terrorists from that safe haven. Terrorists perpetrated savage attacks, murdering Israeli civilians, men, women, and children, as many children as they could find,” Netanyahu said at a US embassy event in Jerusalem on Monday evening.

“As I speak, our troops are battling the terrorists with unyielding resolve and fortitude while doing everything, everything to avoid civilian casualties.”

‘Horrifying day’

Jenin resident Lina Amouri, 35, said her family hid from the gunfire until they heard mosques announcing the evacuation.

“We were all hiding in one apartment that didn’t have windows so we don’t risk anyone getting hit by a bullet. Three women and six children aged 1 to 9, since 5 a.m., with no electricity or internet connection. It was a horrifying day,” she said.

“The children were crying all day and we didn’t know how to calm them down, the only thing we could do is to pray together while we hear explosions and bulldozers outside.”

Amouri also compared the scene to a natural disaster.

“When we first went out to see what’s happening it was a totally different place, all streets were plowed, water and sewage pipes were broken, electricity poles were down, cars were piled one on the other. It felt like a storm with earthquake have just passed by.”

“They invaded our house in the early morning, they locked us all in one room, five women and two children in one room, and in another room, they locked five men – my father, brothers and uncles,” she said.

“They took the house as snipers’ position to attack the camp, meanwhile we couldn’t use a toilet, get to the kitchen or do anything but sit in the room and listen to the explosions outside.”

Humanitarian access

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland has said he was in direct contact with all relevant parties to urgently de-escalate the situation in Jenin and ensure humanitarian access.

“The operation comes after months of growing tension that once again reminds us of the extremely volatile & unpredictable situation across the occupied West Bank. All must ensure the civilian population is protected,” Wennesland said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said crews were prevented from operating within the camp, according to the director of the Palestinian Red Crescent society in Jenin, Mahmoud al-Saadi.

“The ambulance crews managed to evacuate a number of the injured they were able to access. The paramedic crews were brought from other governorates to provide help,” al-Saadi said.

The international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also accused Israeli forces of impeding access to medical care in Jenin.

“MSF staff have been treating patients since 2 a.m. local time at Khalil Suleiman hospital, where several gas canisters landed in the courtyard during the attack. So far, staff have received 55 wounded patients, including people with gunshot wounds to their heads and some who were hit with tear gas canisters,” MSF said.

The military operation has not only caused casualties but also disrupted health structures, impeding the medical response, according to the MSF statement.

“We’ve been working for 15 hours and patients keep coming in,” said Jovana Arsenijevic, MSF operations coordinator in Jenin. “This is an unprecedentedly long military operation, and yet there are still victims that cannot be reached.”

“Raids on Jenin camp have started to follow a familiar pattern. For example, ambulances have been rammed by armored cars, and patients and health care staff have routinely been denied entry and exit in the camp,” Arsenijevic also said.

The IDF refuted claims that ambulance crews faced obstacles, with Hagari saying cars were denied movement within the camp, but that ambulances “have a free pass.”

The director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the West Bank, Adam Bouloukos, said the Israeli operation and the response of “armed actors” in Jenin has “tragic consequences” for Palestinian refugees.

“Humanitarian access is most urgent now,” Bouloukos said on Twitter.

The spokesperson added broadly, “We support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups.”

IDF trying to break ‘safe haven’

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told reporters Monday one of the goals of the operation was to break the “safe haven” mentality within the Jenin camp for militants, according to Hecht, who described it as a “hornet’s nest.”

“We’re not trying to hold the ground. We’re acting against specific targets,” Hecht said.

The first round of airstrikes were launched at 1:14 a.m. local time and were followed by IDF ground forces, Hecht said.

Some 50 shooting attacks against Israelis have emanated from Jenin, he said.

Hecht also said the Palestinian Authority and Jordan had been informed about the incursion in advance, but didn’t elaborate further.

Though the IDF spokesman declined to comment on the number of forces involved, he said it is around a brigade, which is approximately equivalent to at least 500 soldiers.

A spokesman said later an Israeli soldier was “slightly injured” by shrapnel from a grenade used during the incursion, and that they had been taken to a hospital for medical treatment.

The IDF said it struck a joint operational command center for the Jenin Camp and operatives of the Jenin Brigade, a Palestinian militant group associated with Islamic Jihad.

“The operational command center also served as an advanced observation and reconnaissance center, a place where armed terrorists would gather before and after terrorist activities,” the IDF said, adding that the camp was a “site for weapons and explosives” and “hub for coordination and communication among the terrorists.”

“Additionally, the command center provided shelter for wanted individuals involved in carrying out terror attacks in recent months in the area,” it said.

The IDF later said its forces targeted a weapons production and explosive device storage facility and confiscated an “improvised rocket launcher” and additional weapons during the operations, which were carried out in coordination with the Israel Securities Authority (ISA).

Later on Monday, an IDF aircraft struck near a mosque “to remove a threat” while soldiers engaged in a firefight with militants according to the IDF, without elaborating on the character of the “threat.” The IDF later said tunnels and weapons were found under the mosque.

Military bulldozers tore up streets in the camp, which the IDF said was to disarm potential explosive devices buried under the roads.

Calls for action

In response to Monday’s attacks, Hamas called on militants in the West Bank and Jerusalem to strike Israel “by all available means,” a statement by its military wing said.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it will “perform its duty” in stopping the “massacre” in Jenin.

Monday afternoon, Israeli police reported a Palestinian teenager stabbed an Israeli man in Bnei Brak, outside of Tel Aviv. Israeli police said the teen claimed “he stabbed the person in response to the events in Jenin.” The Israeli man was injured and moved to hospital.

The Jenin Brigade claimed it had severely damaged at least one Israeli military vehicle with improvised explosive devices and its militants continue to clash with Israeli forces “to prevent its advance inside the camp.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it will face its enemy “with all possible retaliation options,” in response to the Israeli operations in Jenin.

“The aggression on Jenin will not achieve its targets, Jenin will not surrender. We will face the enemy with all possible retaliation options in response to the enemy aggression on Jenin,” the militant group posted to its official Telegram channel.

As night fell, more than 500 Palestinian families began leaving the refugee camp, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, out of fear of what the ensuing hours would bring.

Hagari told reporters the operation will end within the “next day or two.”

“It won’t be the last time we act,” he warned. “We act when we have intelligence. We act against terror before it happens, or we act after terror activities in order to reach the terrorists.”

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has invited Wagner Group mercenaries to his country to train its military.

Lukashenko alluded to the invitation in a speech Friday dedicated to Belarus’ Independence Day, according to state news agency Belta.

“Unfortunately, they (Wagner mercenaries) are not here,” Lukashenko said. “And if their instructors, as I already told them, come and pass on combat experience to us, we will accept this experience.”

The invite from Lukashenko comes just a week after the Belarusian leader was credited with defusing an armed insurrection by Wagner forces against Moscow.

In a stunning series of events that posed the greatest threat to the Russian President Vladimir Putin in years, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had marched his forces toward the Russian capital, taking control of military facilities in two Russian cities, in what he said was a response to a Russian military attack on a Wagner camp.

The crisis was defused only after Lukashenko brokered a deal under which Prigozhin would move to Belarus. As part of the same deal Wagner troops were given the options of either signing up to the Russian military or law enforcement agencies, returning to their family and friends, or going to Belarus.

In his speech Friday Lukashenko said he was not afraid of Wagner Group members as he had “known them for a long time.”

“These are people who fought all over the world to establish a normal civilization. The West hates them to the core,” he said.

He also warned a “world-scale military-political crisis unprecedented in the history of mankind” was brewing, and criticized the West for not recognizing the need for dialogue to resolve it.

He accused the European Union and the United States of “arming Poland at an accelerated pace” and claimed the West was making Poland into “a proxy training ground” to use it against Belarus and Russia, likening it to Ukraine.

“Thus, another hotbed of tension is being created, another stronghold is being created for the aggression of the most aggressive country in the world and, unfortunately, the most powerful – the United States,” he said.

Where is Prigozhin?

Earlier this week, the Belarusian leader claimed he had convinced Putin not to “destroy” the Wagner group and its chief Prigozhin, whom he said would have been “crushed like a bug” had Wagner troops continued their advance to the Russian capital.

But the exact whereabouts of Prigozhin remain unclear.

The Wagner leader was last spotted leaving the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don last Saturday, after abruptly calling off his troops’ march on Moscow.

He released an audio message Monday, explaining his decision to turn his troops back.

Lukashenko has said the Wagner chief arrived in Belarus Tuesday. While there are no videos or photos showing Prigozhin in Belarus, satellite imagery of an airbase outside Minsk showed two planes linked to Prigozhin landing there on Tuesday morning.

Media group shut down

Lukashenko’s speech came as a Russian media group associated with Prigozhin shut down its operations.

Prigozhin’s Patriot media group, which includes the Federal News Agency, People’s News, Economy Today, Nevskiye Novosti, and Politics Today, would be “closing and leaving the country’s information agenda,” said Yevgeny Zubarev, CEO of the Federal News Agency on Friday.

According to Zubarev, the total traffic of the Patriot suite of websites has so far amounted to 300 million unique visitors.

Russian state media TASS reported Friday that the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor has restricted access to media sites belonging to Patriot.

Prigozhin, the founder of the private military company Wagner, had recently held the position of deputy head of the Patriot’s supervisory board.