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Hundreds of Runners Dedicate Race in New York City Marathon to Hamas Hostages
A runner in the New York City marathon is wearing a shirt honoring one of the hostages during the race on Nov. 3, 2024. Photo: Liri Agami
More than 150 runners dedicated their race in the New York City marathon on Sunday to five hostages abducted by Hamas terrorists and still held captive in the Gaza Strip since the deadly massacre that took place in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The runners competed in the 26.2-mile race while wearing shirts that featured images of hostages Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher, Evyatar David, Ohad Yahalomi, and Edan Alexander, five athletes who previously completed marathons and triathlons, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Near the finish line at Columbus Circle, the NY Hostages Families Forum and many of its supporters showed support for the runners while waving Israeli flags adorned with yellow ribbons, which has become a symbol calling for the safe return of the hostages abducted last Oct. 7.
Yamit Ashkanzi, Steinbrecher’s sister, said the 31-year-old hostage “loves to run” and ran every Saturday morning in the kibbutz where they lived. “On that tragic day [on Oct. 7] she wasn’t able to run and ever since she’s been held hostage,” Ashkanzi added. “It warms our hearts that people will be running today with Doron’s picture and to know that she’s in so many people’s hearts. To know they are running for her because she can’t run for over a year now.”
Levy’s father Yoni Levy said, “When I see Naama’s picture in the huge marathon, I feel her absence so deeply and how it hurts that she’s not here. Naama participated in triathlons and races with deep passion and courage and if she would have known people would be running for her, she’d be excited and thankful for the support and for people fighting to bring her home.”
Some runners also competed in the marathon while wearing shirts that said “Bring Them Home Now” and a group of 260 runners representing the Shalva Center in Israel, which supports individuals with disabilities, competed in the marathon wearing yellow shirts, in solidarity with the hostages. Together the group also sang Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” minutes before starting the race. The runners included IDF soldiers, those wounded in the Israel-Hamas war, and family members of those killed in the ongoing conflict.
Also at the marathon, Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz filmed a music video for his song “Marathons in the Rain” while running in the race to raise money for Blue Card, an organization that aids Holocaust survivors.
The post Hundreds of Runners Dedicate Race in New York City Marathon to Hamas Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.