RSS
American-Israeli Amit Elor Makes History as Youngest US Wrestler to Win Gold at Olympics
Amit Elor of the United States celebrates winning gold against Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan in the women’s freestyle 68kg wrestling finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Aug. 6, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Arlette Bashizi
American-Israeli wrestler Amit Elor won the gold medal on Tuesday at the Olympics Games in Paris in the women’s freestyle wrestling 68-kg finals, making her the youngest wrestler in the history of the US to win a gold at the Olympics and also a first-time winner.
The 20-year-old, who is competing in the Olympic Games as part of Team USA, extended her five-year winning streak and also became the third woman from the US to win Olympic gold in wrestling, as well as the youngest US woman to medal in wrestling at the Olympics.
She beat Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan 3-0 at the Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris after taking a lead early on in the match with a takedown and defending herself against her opponent’s attacks throughout the remainder of the match. Zhumanazarova became the first Kyrgyz athlete to win two Olympic medals in any sport. The bronze medal went to Buse Cavusoglu of Turkey.
Elor was born in California on New Year’s Day 2004. She lives in New York, is the youngest of six siblings, and started wrestling at the age of four. Her late father Yair and mother Elana are both from Ashkelon and immigrated to the United States from Israel in the 1980s. Her brother Oshry was killed in a home invasion in 2018 and Yair died in 2022 at the age of 64.
Amit spoke only Hebrew until she was two years old and has trained in Israel while visiting family. She said in 2022, “I love Israel. In some ways I feel like I am representing them also [when competing].” Both of her grandfathers are Holocaust survivors.
After her Olympic win, the athlete admitted that before her match, she said affirmations to herself about becoming an Olympic champion.
“You know what I did today actually, which is also going to sound crazy, to help myself — I constantly, throughout the day, told myself ‘You’re gonna become an Olympic champion today.’ Literally, again and again and again. I did not stop,” she said.
“Normally I don’t do that in competitions,” she added. “But today, I was like, I don’t wanna get in my head. So I was like, again and again, ‘You’re gonna become an Olympic champion.’ And I was like, I don’t care if it’s crazy. I need to believe this. I need to go out there confident. And it helped me. I was able to go out there, and get my ties and not get in my head too much.”
At the 2022 World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Amit won gold and became the youngest US wrestler, male or female, to become a world champion. She is a two-time world champion in the 72-kg category — which she also won in 2023 — and won senior, under-23, and under-20 world titles in the span of three months in 2022, making her the youngest American world champion at the age of 18. She retained her titles in 2023 when she won the Pan American Championships.
The post American-Israeli Amit Elor Makes History as Youngest US Wrestler to Win Gold at Olympics first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.