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Israel wins first-ever gold medals at rhythmic gymnastics world championships
(JTA) — Israel won its first-ever gold medals at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Valencia, Spain, over the weekend, improving on last year’s silver medal and solidifying its place as a global powerhouse in the sport.
On Friday, Israel’s team topped China and Spain to take gold in the all-around group category. On Sunday, Israel won gold in the combined exercise, beating out China and Ukraine. The team also finished fifth in the hoop final.
Linoy Ashram, who became the first Israeli woman to win an Olympic gold medal with her rhythmic gymnastics victory at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, served as an assistant trainer to the team. She retired from the sport last year at age 22.
“I think you can hear in my voice how excited we were and how we screamed yesterday, and what a crazy achievement we had yesterday,” Ashram told Haaretz. “Undoubtedly, the girls work hard, together with an amazing team of coaches.”
The gold medal-winning performance on Friday featured a three-minute ribbons and balls routine set to a dance track mixed with the chorus of “Diva,” by Israeli singer Dana International — which won the 1998 Eurovision song contest. It also featured a three-minute hoop routine with music from Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s 2017 film “Wonder Woman.”
“We are really happy that we managed to get this medal and that we got the chance to scream out the anthem from the podium,” said Romi Paritzki, the team’s captain, according to Haaretz. “It’s the best feeling any athlete can have.”
Partizki was joined in the performance by teammates Shani Bakanov, Eliza Banchuk, Adar Friedmann, Ofir Shaham and Diana Svertsov. The team had won the all-around competition in the European championship last year and added two silvers and a gold at this year’s competition.
The silver medal win at last year’s world championship secured a spot for Israel in the group competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
While her team placed sixth in the overall all-around standings in Tokyo, Ashram’s gold medal victory — won by .15 of a point — broke a streak of several Russian wins dating back to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
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The post Israel wins first-ever gold medals at rhythmic gymnastics world championships appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Benjamin Netanyahu was burned in effigy on the streets of Montreal during a Friday night riot
Justin Trudeau condemned for subsequently attending a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto.
The post Benjamin Netanyahu was burned in effigy on the streets of Montreal during a Friday night riot appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Report: IDF targets Hezbollah chief in Beirut
Illustrative. Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Hadath, Lebanon October 19, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
JNS.org – A massive explosion in a building in Beirut on Saturday killed 11 people and wounded dozens in what Arab media said was a failed Israeli attempt to kill Hezbollah’s head of operations, Muhammad Haydar.
Israel did not immediately claim responsibility specifically for the explosion early on Saturday in the eight-story building in the Lebanese capital’s Basta neighborhood. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said only that Israel struck an unspecified target in Beirut, the fourth strike in the city in a week.
Basta is situated in the city’s center. The bulk of Israel’s strikes in Beirut have been in the Dahiyeh neighborhood, a Hezbollah stronghold in the city’s south.
Lebanese media reported that at least 63 people were wounded in the strike.
Avihai Edraei, the head of the Arabic-language department of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, posted a tweet on X on Saturday calling on residents of Dahiyeh to evacuate their homes. They are living near Hezbollah installations, he said, against which “the IDF will act in the near future.”
The targets of Saturday’s strikes “were located by Hezbollah in the heart of the civilian population. Prior to the attack, many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians,” the IDF wrote in a statement. A headquarters, a weapons depot, “and additional Hezbollah terror infrastructures” were attacked, the statement said.
According to Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, Israel has killed 2,450 terrorists in Lebanon and Syria. Lebanese health authorities said that 3,365 people have died in strikes by Israel. Those data do not distinguish between terrorists and civilians. On the Israeli side, terrorists have killed 121 people, with 76 of them being soldiers.
The post Report: IDF targets Hezbollah chief in Beirut first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Troubling Details Emerge About Disappearance of Chabad Rabbi, Inaction of UAE Authorities
Zvi Kogan. Photo: LinkedIn via i24 News
i24 News – i24NEWS learned chilling details about the disappearance of Chabad emissary Zvi Kogan, who went missing last week in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Kogan did not show up for scheduled meetings he had during the day. After he failed to make contact, his wife contacted the security officer of the Chabad house, who alerted the local authorities. Information about the incident was also shared with the Israeli authorities.
Kogan disappeared from a location about an hour and a half from Dubai. i24NEWS can report that complaints were made to both the Dubai Police and the Abu Dhabi Police on Thursday, yet no actions were taken by either.
i24NEWS also became privy to the information that although Kogan’s car got a speeding ticket on its way to Oman, in this case too the authorities in the Emirates and Oman did nothing.
i24NEWS can also confirm that there is tremendous anger in Israel at the Emiratis, who did not respond to the suspicious signs and did not act in time. In fact, actions were only taken after the intervention of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
The story has troubling echoes of the abduction by Iranians of German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd; he was kidnapped from Dubai to Iran via Oman and was eventually executed.
The post Troubling Details Emerge About Disappearance of Chabad Rabbi, Inaction of UAE Authorities first appeared on Algemeiner.com.