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Israeli Athletes Win 6 Medals During First Few Days of 2024 Paralympics in Paris
Israeli para athletes have already won six medals at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris that began less than a week ago, including gold, silver, and bronze medal wins on Sunday.
Ami Omer Dadaon won silver in the men’s 150-meter individual medley SM4 disability class on Sunday. The 23-year-old Kiryat Ata resident also won gold, and set a Paralympic record, on Friday in the men’s 100-meter freestyle S4 disability class with a finish time of 1:19:33.
Dadaon, who has had cerebral palsy since birth, began swimming at the age of six. When he was 20, he became the youngest Israeli athlete to win a medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, where he won medals in three events.
Also on Sunday, Israeli para rowing athlete Moran Samuel won the gold medal in the women’s single sculls, after winning a bronze medal in Rio 2016 and silver at Tokyo 2020. The Paralympic medalist and world champion, 42, suffered a spinal stroke at age 24 that left her in a wheelchair. Samuel, who is a mother of three, began rowing in 2010 and represented Israel in non-para basketball prior to her spinal stroke. She began playing wheelchair basketball after her impairment, but she switched to para rowing because she wanted to represent Israel at the Paralympic Games. She went on to become the first rower from Israel to win multiple medals at the Paralympic Games when she took home silver in the women’s PR1 single sculls at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Para rowing duo Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin on Sunday won bronze in the mixed double sculls. In 2005, Shahin — a 41-year-old Druze father of two from the Arab city of Shfaram in northern Israel — was working as a security guard at the Karni border crossing on the Israel-Gaza border when he was injured while protecting others from a deadly terrorist attack, in which six Israelis were killed and several others were wounded. Milfelder, 26, was diagnosed with cancer as a teen and had to have a portion of her pelvis removed.
On Saturday, Mark Malyar, 24, won bronze in the men’s 100-meter backstroke. Malyar was born with cerebral palsy and started swimming at the age of five. He won two gold medals and one bronze at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. He competes in para swimming for Israel alongside his twin brother Ariel.
Israeli taekwondo athlete Asaf Yasur, 22, won Israel’s first medal at the Paralympics this year when he secured the gold medal on Thursday in the under-58 kg category in the men’s K44 disability class.
The 2024 Paralympic Games had its opening ceremony on Aug. 28 and ends Sept. 8. Twenty-eight athletes are representing Israel in the Paralympics this year, including a survivor of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
The post Israeli Athletes Win 6 Medals During First Few Days of 2024 Paralympics in Paris first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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120th anniversary of the Forverts advice column “Bintel Brief”
מזל־טובֿ! דעם 20סטן יאַנואַר 2026 איז געוואָרן 120 יאָר זינט דער גרינדונג פֿון „אַ בינטל בריוו“ — דער עצות־רובריק פֿונעם פֿאָרווערטס. די רובריק איז פֿאַרלייגט געוואָרן פֿונעם גרינדער און לאַנגיאָריקן שעף־רעדאַקטאָר אַב קאַהאַן אין 1906.
כּדי אָפּצומערקן דעם יום־טובֿ ברענגען מיר אײַך צוויי זאַכן:
• ערשטנס, אַן אַרטיקל וועגן אַ טשיקאַווען בריוו וואָס איז אָנגעקומען אין דער פֿאָרווערטס־רעדאַקציע אין יאַנואַר 1949, פֿון אַ לייענער וועמעס זון האָט חתונה געהאַט מיט אַ קריסטלעכער פֿרוי
• צווייטנס, אַ פֿאָרווערטס־ווידעאָ אויף ייִדיש וועגן דער געשיכטע פֿון „אַ בינטל בריוו“, מיטן געוועזענעם פֿאָרווערטס־רעדאַקטאָר באָריס סאַנדלער און דער פֿאָרווערטס־אַרכיוויסטקע חנה פּאָלאַק.
The post 120th anniversary of the Forverts advice column “Bintel Brief” appeared first on The Forward.
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Report: Khamenei Moved to Underground Bunker in Tehran
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a televised message, after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Amid tense expectation of US strike on key assets of the Islamic regime, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was moved into a special underground bunker in Tehran, the Iran International website reported on Saturday.
The report further added that the supreme leader’s third son Masoud Khamenei has taken over day-to-day management of the leader’s office, functioning as the de facto main channel for coordination vis-à-vis the executive branches of the government and the security forces.
The report describes Khamenei’s hideout as a “fortified site with interconnected tunnels.”
On Thursday US President Donald Trump said that a “massive” naval force was heading toward Iran.
“We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. And we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters.
“We have an armada. We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see,” Trump added.
The USS Abraham Lincoln, along with three destroyers, was spotted making its way to the Middle East from Asia, according to ship-tracking data.
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Israel, Syria to Finalize US-Brokered Security Deal ‘Soon,’ as ‘Developments Accelerate Noticeably’
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria, March 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
i24 News – Syrian and Israeli officials are expected to meet soon under US mediation, perhaps in Paris, to finalize a security agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem, a source close to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told i24NEWS on Saturday.
According to the Syrian source, the talks will also focus on various potential joint strategic and economic projects in the buffer zones between the two countries.
“There is very optimistic talk suggesting the possibility of even opening an Israeli embassy in Damascus before the end of this year, given the significant progress in the prospect of Syria joining the Abraham Accords,” the source said.
The original Syrian plan was limited to a security agreement and the opening of an Israeli liaison office in Damascus without diplomatic status, the source tells me. “But developments are accelerating noticeably under pressure from the United States, and specifically by President Trump, and amid growing Syrian openness.”
If Damascus manages to reach an integration agreement with the Druze in southern Syria, similar to its agreement with the Kurds in the northeast, and Israel commits to respecting Syria’s unity and territorial integrity, then al-Sharaa would be open to elevate the status of the agreement with Israel to more than just a security agreement, to also include diplomatic relations and an Israeli embassy in Damascus.
“The al-Sharaa government believes that a viable compromise to advance a peace process with Israel would include a 25-year lease for the Golan Heights, similar to the one Jordan previously signed with Israel over the border enclaves, turning it into a ‘Garden of Peace” of joint economic ventures,” the source said.
The source close to al-Sharaa also tells me that US President Trump is seeking to bring Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Al-Sharaa together for a peace agreement signing ceremony.
It should be noted that Israel has repeatedly rejected returning any part of the Golan Heights, let alone the entire territory.
On another front, the source stated that Damascus intends to adopt a new local administration system based on expanded administrative decentralization to enhance participation in local communities across all Syrian governorates.
According to the source, this solution would resolve persisting disputes with the Druze, Kurds, Alawites, and other minorities. A new Syrian government is expected to be formed within the next three months, the source added.