Ukrainian Olympian out of Winter Games over helmet honoring fallen countrymen
Ukrainian Olympian Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the men’s skeleton event on Thursday after he refused to use any other helmet other than the one honoring his country’s athletes who were killed in the war with Russia.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Heraskevych locked horns over the last three days about the helmet, which the organization said it bans due to rules against making political statements on the field of play. IOC President Kirsty Coventry even met with Heraskevych to try to change his mind before the event began, but to no avail.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
“We didn’t find common ground in this regard,” Heraskevych said.
Heraskevych received word from the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), saying the helmet was “inconsistent with the Olympic Charter and Guidelines on Athlete Expression.” The IOC offered concessions to him, including wearing a black armband or the ability to display the helmet off the ice.
“I believe, deeply, the IBSF and IOC understand that I’m not violating any rules,” Heraskevych said. “Also, I would say (it’s) painful that it really looks like discrimination because many athletes already were expressing themselves. … They didn’t face the same things. So, suddenly, just the Ukrainian athlete in this Olympic Games will be disqualified for the helmet.”
OLYMPICS COMPETITION BRIEFLY PAUSED AFTER CHINESE SNOWBOARDER LIU JIAYU IS INJURED IN DRAMATIC HALFPIPE CRASH
The IOC expressed “regret” over the decision.
“As you’ve all seen over the last few days, we’ve allowed for Vladyslav to use his helmet in training,” said Coventry, who at times shed tears while speaking to reporters. “No one, no one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging. The messaging is a powerful message. It’s a message of remembrance. It’s a message of memory and no one is disagreeing with that. The challenge that we are facing is that we wanted to ask or come up with a solution for just the field of play.”
The helmet included more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches who were killed in the war.
Heraskevych didn’t exactly feel for Coventry, saying “In Ukraine now we also have a lot of tears.” He added that the decision “plays along with Russian propaganda.”
“Disqualified. I think that’s enough to understand what the modern IOC really is and how it disgraces the idea of the Olympic movement,” Ukrainian skier Kateryna Kostar wrote in a post on Instagram. “Vladyslav Heraskevych, for us and for the whole world, you’re a champion. Even without starting.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Heraskevych was a favorite to be in the top three in his event. After competing in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the war with Russia broke out and he helped deliver food and supplies to his fellow Ukrainians.
MORNING GLORY: President Donald Trump’s most important decision is coming
One door is marked “Truman/Reagan” and the other door is marked “Carter/Obama/Biden.”
President Donald Trump has to choose one. Again. And this time, the choice will define Trump’s place in history.
On three different occasions, the 45th and 47th president of the United States has walked through the first door.
Trump ordered the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, on January 3, 2020.
IRAN POSES A FAR MORE DANGEROUS MILITARY TEST FOR THE US THAN VENEZUELA, EXPERTS WARN
Trump followed that up with his second-term order to conduct Operation Midnight Resolve against Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities in June of last year and again with Operation Absolute Resolve to snatch Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro in January of this year.
President Trump ventured boldly three times and won big for the United States three times, restoring American deterrence along the way.
Trump had to restore American deterrence in 2020 because the Iranian regime had thoroughly worked over former President Barack Obama with the infamous “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” of 2015, a plan that secured for Iran billions in cash, hundreds of billions in sanctions relief and a guaranteed path to nuclear weapons. It was a surrender of the Middle East to the mullahs disguised in dense language and absurd timelines. But the Iranian theocrats knew they had won.
TRUMP’S LEADERSHIP CREATES ‘RARE OPPORTUNITY’ FOR CHANGE IN IRAN, FORMER IRANIAN POLITICAL PRISONER SAYS
President Trump has called the JCPOA the “worst deal in history” scores of times, and he’s always been right. It was the equal of the “Munich Agreement” between Neville Chamberlain and Hitler. The damage to the world was immense.
While President Joe Biden’s disastrous and chaotic retreat from Afghanistan did not concern Iran directly, it did deeply damage America’s standing in the world and define the Biden presidency as one mired in catastrophic failure from the jump.
President Trump worked to reverse the damage created by the JCPOA with the strikes on Soleimani and the Iranian nuke facilities.
IRAN PROTESTS PROMPT NEW TRUMP WARNING OVER DEADLY GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWNS
Now, however, the Iranians are countering with thousands of ballistic missiles which already threaten American bases across the Middle East, Israel and our Gulf allies. The nature of the regime has been fully revealed even to the appeasers on Team Obama and Team Biden: The ayatollahs ordered tens of thousands of their citizens gunned down or murdered with machetes this January. Does anyone doubt they would turn their missiles on American cities as soon as they develop the range? Crazed killers are going to kill, again and again and again.
Because of Presidents Obama and Biden, Ayatollah Khamenei and his IRGC thugs believe America always “blinks” in the end. They still don’t believe Trump is different from Obama and Biden. They see the one-day missions from Trump as brief aberrations from the Obama-Biden pattern of appeasement. The Iranians do not fear Trump. Yet.
The Iranians build enormous missiles with enormous warheads. There are more than a thousand missiles in their arsenal already, and they have accelerated the production of thousands more after the Trump strike on their nuclear weapons facilities last year.
IRAN RESPONDS TO TRUMP PRESSURE WITH WARNING OF RETALIATION: ‘FINGERS ON THE TRIGGER’
The Iranians are working to extend the range of their missiles. The longest range Iranian missiles can probably reach Europe now. They will threaten the U.S. sooner rather than later, and we don’t have Trump’s “Golden Dome” — yet.
So Trump must decide now what to do about those missiles and about the mass murderers who run Iran. Trump has ordered an immense build-up of American military assets build-up of American military assets within striking range of Iran, and deployed the defensive systems that we have to protect our bases and our allies.
Now he has to decide which door to walk through.
HEGSETH SAYS DEPARTMENT OF WAR ‘WILL BE PREPARED TO DELIVER’ WHATEVER TRUMP WANTS FOLLOWING IRAN WARNING
Truman and Reagan (and both Bushes) would order the strike.
Carter, Obama and Biden would back down and pretend they had defused a crisis when, in fact, they had decapitated American deterrence.
Rarely do we see such a stark choice presented to a president — a fork in his personal road as far as history is concerned, and very much a fork in America’s road for its future.
Trump can be remembered as the man who brought help to the Iranian people after nearly 50 years of fanatical dictatorship and secured America from an unfolding threat, or as the president who backed down more spectacularly than any president before him.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
On August 26, 1990, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher talked to President George H.W. Bush about Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iraq. “This was no time to go wobbly,” the PM told the president.
That was probably the least necessary encouragement ever, as the old fighter pilot from WWII was not the sort of man to back down. (HW was shot down twice and back flying his missions after both.) But Thatcher’s line went down in history because it is both so very British and so very useful in many contexts.
IRAN’S COLLAPSE OR SURVIVAL HINGES ON ONE CHOICE INSIDE THE REVOLUTIONARY GUARD
It is useful now. President Trump simply cannot go wobbly no matter how attractive the Carter/Obama/Biden door looks as an exit. Put another way, Trump “cannot go Obama.”
To repeat: President Trump’s choice will define his place in history. Everything else in his eight years will be secondary to what he decides in the near term.
Every other achievement will be secondary. Every criticism will be irrelevant when destroying the Iranian regime’s threat to the world is put on the table.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
President Trump can choose to do what no other president since Jimmy Carter has dared to do: Cripple or end the fanatical regime in Iran that already works to threaten and destabilize the Middle East every day and which will soon be able to threaten the U.S. if not stopped.
Pray he chooses wisely. America’s national security and the hope of the Iranian people and the future of the Middle East depends upon this decision.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM HUGH HEWITT
Iranian brutality: Nobel laureate fighting for life after barbaric assault at notorious prison
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is calling on Iran to stop its physical abuse and life-threatening treatment of Nobel peace laureate Narges Mohammadi, who has been imprisoned since December.
The committee said it had received “credible reports” of “life-threatening mistreatment” of Mohammadi, an activist arrested by plain-clothes agents while peacefully attending the funeral of the late human rights lawyer and advocate Khosrow Alikordi.
Mohammadi has been beaten by wooden sticks and batons and dragged across the ground by her hair, tearing sections of her scalp and causing open wounds, the committee said.
US AMBASSADOR WARNS IRAN AT EMERGENCY UN MEETING THAT TRUMP IS ‘MAN OF ACTION,’ ‘ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE’
Furthermore, she was repeatedly kicked in the genitals and pelvic region, leaving her unable to sit or move without severe pain and raising serious concerns of bone fracture, it said.
“The Committee is horrified by these acts, and reiterates that Ms. Mohammadi’s imprisonment is arbitrary and unjust,” committee Chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said in a statement. “Her only ‘offence’ is the peaceful exercise of her fundamental rights – freedom of expression, association and assembly – in defence (sic) of women’s equality and human dignity.”
TOP IRANIAN GENERAL THREATENS TO ‘CUT OFF’ TRUMP’S HAND OVER POTENTIAL MILITARY STRIKES
An Iranian prosecutor at the time of the arrest told reporters that Mohammadi made provocative remarks at the memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad and encouraged those present “to chant norm‑breaking slogans” and “disturb the peace,” Reuters reported.
Mohammadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, has spent much of the last two decades in Iran’s infamous Evin prison.
The committee is calling on Tehran to release Mohammadi and guarantee her access to medical care.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“Mohammadi’s ordeal is yet another grim example of the brutal repression that has followed the mass protests in Iran, where countless women and men have risked their lives to demand freedom, equality and basic human rights,” it said.
Scott Bessent says Iran understands ‘brute force’ as Trump weighs options amid nuclear standoff
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed whether President Donald Trump may need to pull another Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran as its leadership refuses to negotiate over its nuclear program.
Joining “America Reports” Wednesday, Bessent discussed the U.S. economy, midterm elections and ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.
“What the Iranians understand is brute force, whether it’s in the financial markets, whether it’s on the military field and at Treasury, we have exercised maximum pressure,” he told Fox News. “We’re continuing to do that.”
Bessent’s remarks come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the president at the White House earlier Wednesday, where the two had what Bessent described as “very detailed talks.”
RETIRED GENERAL ARGUES MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN IS ‘BEST OPTION’ AS TRUMP FACES ‘HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY’
Trump said “nothing definitive” was reached with Netanyahu in a post on Truth Social after an hours-long meeting.
“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated,” Trump wrote. “If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be… Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer — That did not work well for them.”
The president has been steadily increasing pressure on Iran to agree to the United States’ demand that it dismantle its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
NIKKI HALEY URGES TRUMP TO MAKE IRAN ACTION A ‘LEGACY-DEFINING MOMENT’ BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE
Trump issued a warning to Iran in January if it refused to negotiate a nuclear deal.
“As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again,” the president wrote Jan. 28 on Truth Social.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has rejected the United States’ nuclear demands, maintaining that the country will not negotiate over its ballistic missile program.
TRUMP SAYS IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER KHAMENEI SHOULD BE ‘VERY WORRIED’ AMID TENSIONS
Bessent said he has received clear orders from the president to keep pressure on the Islamic regime, telling Fox News Trump ordered him last March to exert maximum pressure against Iran, including sanctions, and the strategy has “worked.”
When asked whether Trump may have to resort to military action similar to last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer, Bessent said he didn’t want to get ahead of current talks, but that administration officials are positioning assets and weighing options.
“The president and Secretary Hegseth are moving military assets toward Iran, and they’re going to have some decisions to make,” he said.
TRUMP PRESSURES IRAN TO ‘COME TO THE TABLE’ AS ‘MASSIVE’ US ARMADA DRAWS NEAR
The secretary also revealed that Trump feels more confident about securing U.S. nuclear demands on Iran after Operation Midnight Hammer decimated the nation’s nuclear facilities.
“He believes that he can get a much better deal from the Iranians now after Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22, but it’s up to the Iranians,” Bessent said.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Bessent also detailed what he may do at the Treasury to continue pressure on Iran.
“We are tracking the Iranian leadership, the money that they’re sending around the world,” he said. “And if we are called upon, we will recover it for the Iranian people.”
Trump meets Netanyahu, says he wants Iran deal but reminds Tehran of ‘Midnight Hammer’ operation
Iran dominated the agenda in Wednesday’s White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with both leaders signaling that diplomacy with Tehran remains uncertain and that coordination will continue if talks fail.
In a post on Truth Social following the meeting, Trump said he pushed for continued negotiations but left open other options.
“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated. If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be… Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer — That did not work well for them.”
Netanyahu’s office said the leaders discussed Iran, Gaza and broader regional developments and agreed to maintain close coordination, adding that the prime minister emphasized Israel’s security needs in the context of negotiations.
FROM GAZA TO IRAN: WHAT’S AT STAKE IN TRUMP-NETANYAHU MAR-A-LAGO TALKS?
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu formally joined the U.S.-backed Board of Peace, signing onto the initiative ahead of the meeting after weeks of hesitation. The move places Israel inside a forum that includes Western partners as well as Turkey and Qatar, whose involvement in Gaza has drawn criticism in Jerusalem.
Experts say the decision reflects strategic calculations tied to both Gaza and Iran.
Dr. Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, said Netanyahu’s participation is directly linked to cooperation with Washington and to shaping postwar arrangements in Gaza.
“It is in Israel’s interest for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to join the Board of Peace. He needs a place at that table even alongside adversarial powers such as Muslim Brotherhood-aligned countries Qatar and Turkey. Netanyahu’s membership in the Board of Peace is an important element in his cooperation with President Trump to help implement the 20-point plan, with deradicalization, disarming Hamas and demilitarization as the first three non-negotiable actions.”
ISRAELI OFFICIALS REPORTEDLY WARN IRAN’S BALLISTIC MISSILES COULD TRIGGER SOLO MILITARY ACTION AGAINST TEHRAN
Diker said the decision is also tied to Iran. “More strategic reason that Netanyahu’s membership on the Board of Peace is important is that it represents an element of cooperation to counter the Iranian regime. Netanyahu is likely counting on action against the Iranian regime from the Iranian people themselves and from the United States in the coming weeks. In exchange, Netanyahu continues to cooperate in implementing the 20-point plan in Gaza as part of a quid pro quo.”
Blaise Misztal, vice president for policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, described Israel’s move as a pragmatic choice shaped by the incomplete implementation of the Gaza deal and the broader regional threat environment.
“The implementation of the Gaza peace deal leaves much to be desired. Hamas, despite being given 72 hours to release all hostages, took over 100 days to do so; Hamas has still not disarmed; there is neither an International Stabilization Force nor any countries jumping at the chance to join it; and the Board of Peace comprises countries that have shown themselves enemies of peace with Israel.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
He said Israel ultimately chose engagement over isolation. “Proceeding with the deal — including joining the Board of Peace — is Israel’s least bad option. Israel has a better chance of countering or balancing Turkish and Qatari influence on the Board of Peace by being in the room with them, rather than outside it.”
Misztal also linked the timing to Iran. “With the United States having a real chance to disarm, or even topple, the Iranian regime and the risk that Tehran might yet lash out at Israel, there is no interest in doing anything that would risk restarting the war in Gaza.”
UN chief blasted as ‘abjectly tone-deaf’ over message to Iran marking revolution anniversary
UNITED NATIONS: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres sent a congratulatory message to Iran marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, a move that drew sharp criticism from anti-regime Iranian voices and human rights advocates.
In a letter addressed to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Guterres “extended his warmest congratulations on the National Day of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” describing such anniversaries as an opportunity to reflect on a country’s path and contributions to the international community, according to Iranian state and regional reporting published Wednesday.
The message comes weeks after the U.N.’s top human rights body condemned Iran over abuses tied to a violent crackdown on anti-government protests and mandated further investigation into alleged violations, with some reports citing casualty figures that could reach 30,000, pending verification.
RUBIO REVOKES IRANIAN OFFICIALS’ US TRAVEL PRIVILEGES OVER DEADLY PROTEST CRACKDOWN KILLING THOUSANDS
Furthermore, according to the NGO U.N. Watch, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is expected to address the U.N. Human Rights Council on Feb. 23.
Against that backdrop, critics said the secretary-general’s congratulatory message risked sending a conflicting signal.
“The U.N. secretary-general’s congratulatory message is not merely diplomatic routine — it is abjectly tone-deaf,” said Iran analyst Banafsheh Zand. “At a time when the Iranian people continue to endure executions, repression and systemic abuse at the hands of the Islamic Republic, offering formal congratulations to the architects of that suffering reads as a moral failure.”
Zand added that such gestures “erode [the U.N.’s] credibility and deepen the wound for those still fighting for freedom inside Iran.”
Andrew Ghalili, policy director at the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI), said the message amounted to legitimizing a repressive system.
AMBASSADOR MIKE WALTZ LAYS OUT ‘AMERICA FIRST’ VISION FOR US LEADERSHIP AT THE UN
“The United Nations is legitimizing a regime built on repression, executions and the systematic destruction of basic freedoms,” Ghalili said. “Offering celebratory recognition to the Islamic Republic on the anniversary of its revolution ignores the bloodshed, the repression of protesters and the ongoing hostage-taking of innocent people.”
Human rights groups have repeatedly warned that impunity has enabled ongoing abuses in Iran, urging U.N. member states to pursue accountability for what they describe as systemic violations and mass killings of protesters.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the secretary-general, told Fox News Digital during a press briefing that the message to Tehran was part of a long-standing U.N. protocol.
IRAN’S TOP DIPLOMAT SAYS NATION’S POWER LIES IN DEFYING PRESSURE: ‘NO TO THE GREAT POWERS’
“The letter that came out from the secretary-general is a standard letter. Every year, each member state gets the exact same letter… congratulating them on the national holiday and conveying best wishes to the people of that country.”
The spokesperson added that similar letters were sent the same day to other countries marking national holidays and “should not be interpreted… as an endorsement of whatever policies may be put in place by the government.” He said the message “doesn’t change the secretary-general’s view” on Iran, noting Guterres has previously spoken out against the crackdown and violence.
On reports that Iran’s foreign minister is expected to address the Human Rights Council later this month, the spokesperson said the matter falls under the council’s authority.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“That’s a decision of the Human Rights Council,” he said. “This is a membership organization. Every member state has a right to address legislative bodies… It’s not within the secretariat’s authority to bar member states from addressing a legislative body.”