Bondi Beach survivor recalls getting shot while running toward his family
Community members gather outside of Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on December 15, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Audrey Richardson/Getty Images)
(SYDNEY) — When shots rang out at a Hanukkah celebration on Australia’s Bondi Beach, Arsen Ostrovsky said he thought it could’ve been balloons popping.
“Because it was the carnival, there were clowns and children’s activities,” he told ABC News. “But then it was just non-stop, relentless — so I knew that we were under attack.”
As Ostrovsky ran toward his wife and her children, who were exposed and closer to the shooting, he said he felt a bullet strike his head.
“I fell down and I remember saying, ‘I’m hit, ‘I’m hit,’ and the blood just started gushing,” Ostrovsky said, with part of his head still bandaged up.
Fifteen people were killed — including a 10-year-old girl named Matilda and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor — and more than 40 others were wounded in last weekend’s mass shooting at Bondi Beach.
The two gunmen — who officials say appeared to have been inspired by ISIS — were allegedly father and son. The father, Sajid Akram, was killed by police at the scene, and the son, Naveed Akram, was wounded and taken into custody. He faces charges, including committing a terrorist act and 15 counts of murder.
When asked if he has anything to say to the gunmen, Ostrovsky — who was in Israel during Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023 — said he hopes they face justice and understand they will never succeed in taking away his humanity.
“We’ve seen the horrors of the last two years in Israel, thinking that we would be coming here to a safe place, and then having to flee for our lives,” Ostrovsky said.
Ostrovsky said the actions of people at Bondi Beach, like Ahmed al-Ahmed — a bystander who was seen on video jumping in and wrestling a gun away from one of the attackers — and other members of the public who ran toward the danger, have helped him see humanity in the darkness.
People were “running from the surf, coming from shops, running from a beach to help,” he said.
“That’s what I choose to take,” he said.
ABC News’ Karson Yiu and James Gillings contributed to this report.
Protesters hold posters in support of Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski during a solidarity demonstration in Vilnius. Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Belarusian human rights defender Ales Bialiatski turned 62 on September 25, 2024. (Yauhen Yerchak/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Belarusian government announced Saturday that it has released 123 people, including foreigners, a Nobel Prize winner and several political opposition leaders, who were being held in prison on “espionage, terrorism, and extremism” charges.
Belarusian government officials said in a statement that the release is part of “agreements reached with U.S. President Donald Trump” and involves the United States lifting sanctions on the Belarusian potash industry.
U.S. Special Envoy for Belarus John Coale told reporters in Minsk Saturday that the U.S. was lifting sanctions against Belarusian potash producer Belaruskali, one of the European country’s largest state-owned companies.
Coale said the goal is to normalize relations between the U.S. and Belarus and that “more sanctions will be lifted” in the future.
Among the prisoners released were two prominent Belarusian activists, Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava.
Of the detainees, 114 were transferred to Ukraine while the remaining nine, including Bialiatski, were transferred to Lithuania, according to the Ukrainian government.
Shortly after her release, Kalesnikava was seen arriving at the Ukrainian border and reuniting with Viktar Babaryka and Maxim Znak, both of whom were former Belarusian prisoners.
Babaryka was imprisoned during the 2020 election while trying to run against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Kalesnikava was his campaign manager and took his place after he was arrested.
Bialiatski spoke with the press from Lithuania telling them, “being released means meeting with family, meeting with friends and continuing my work as a human rights defender.”
Louvre Museum Director Laurence Des Cars attends a press conference at the Louvre Museum on April 23, 2024 in Paris, France. (Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images)
(PARIS) —The director of the Louvre Museum in France has resigned, months after $102 million in jewels were stolen, according to the office of the French president.
Laurence des Cars’ tenure has been under intense scrutiny since the heist and she has faced calls for resignation.
Christophe Leribault has been named the new director of the Louvre. Leribault’s resume includes running the Versailles Palace, another world-renowned French landmark and tourist attraction, and was also the previous head of Paris’ Orsay Museum.
Leribault will oversee a long-overdue multi-million-dollar renovation project.
A French government spokesperson said he’s the perfect choice, saying, “He will notably have to direct major projects for the future of the institution, on the one hand securing and modernizing the Louvre, and on the other, the continuation of the ‘Louvre — New Renaissance’ project.”
French President Emmanuel Macron praised des Cars’ resignation “as an act of responsibility at a time when the world’s largest museum needs both stability and a strong new impetus to successfully complete major security and modernization projects,” the Élysée said in a statement Tuesday.
“The President thanked her for her work and commitment over the past few years and, recognizing her undeniable scientific expertise, entrusted her with a mission within the framework of the French G7 presidency, focusing on cooperation between the major museums of the participating countries,” according to the statement.
At least seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the October robbery but the jewels have not been recovered.
Empress Eugénie’s crown was the only item the thieves did not escape with during the robbery. The thieves dropped it on the street outside the Louvre during the roughly five-minute long heist.
The crown “was crushed and significantly deformed” during the heist, the Louvre said in a statement earlier this month. However, “it remained largely intact,” meaning museum officials believe it can be fully restored.
In light of the robbery, security lapses at the museum have been exposed, including that the password to the world-famous museum’s video surveillance system was “Louvre,” according to a museum employee with knowledge of the system.
During testimony before a French Senate committee after the robbery, des Cars said the only camera installed outside the Apollo Gallery, where the stolen jewels were displayed, was facing west and did not cover the window where the thieves used power tools to break in and exit.
Des Cars said all of the museum’s alarms and video cameras work, but said there was a “weakness” in the museum’s perimeter security “due to underinvestment.”
Protesters rally on January 8, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. Anonymous/Getty Images
(LONDON) — Erfan Soltani is one of thousands of Iranian protesters who have been arrested amid deadly anti-government protests nationwide, according to his family and human rights organizations.
Days after his arrest last week in Fardis — near the capital of Tehran — the 26-year-old was sentenced to death following an expedited trial, according to his second cousin, Somayeh, who has drawn attention to his case as ongoing internet and communication blockages limit information coming out of Iran about the protests.
“As someone who is an activist myself and who has fought this regime for many years, I felt it was my right — and my duty — to be Erfan’s voice outside the country, despite all the pressure and sanctions that fall on families,” Somayeh, who is based in Germany, told ABC News in an interview in Persian on Wednesday.
Somayeh, who did not want to share her last name, said Soltani’s family members had been told that he would be executed on Wednesday.
She was informed through the family that he had not been executed that day, she told ABC News. Somayeh added that the family said they had not seen her cousin in person yet.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he had been told by “very important sources on the other side” that the executions are not happening.
“It was supposed to be a lot of executions today, and the executions won’t take place,” Trump said during remarks from the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Following President Trump’s remarks, the Islamic Republic judiciary media center announced Thursday that Soltani was not sentenced to death.
The judiciary, as quoted by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), said Soltani was currently being held at the central penitentiary in the city of Karaj on charges of “gathering and colluding against the country’s internal security and propaganda activities against the regime.” If convicted, the judiciary said, Soltani would be imprisoned but not executed, as “the death penalty does not exist in the law for such charges,” according to IRIB.
Reacting to the latest Islamic Republic judiciary’s announcement, Somayeh, said she is “happy to hear the news” but is still “concerned.”
“I am happy to hear this news from the media, but there is still concern because as far as we know, no contact has been made and Erfan is still in prison. We hope that his sentence will be completely overturned and he will be released,” Somayeh told ABC News Thursday morning.
In an interview with Fox on Wednesday, the Iranian foreign minister said there were no hangings on Wednesday, and that there won’t be for the rest of the week.
Somayeh said she is speaking out about her cousin, whom she described as a “kind soul” who is “so compassionate to people,” in hopes of having his sentence overturned.
“I felt responsible to make sure his voice was heard, so that maybe this sentence could be overturned — and beyond Erfan,” she said. “He is not the first and he will not be the last person to receive a death sentence overnight.”
According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Iran carried out an “unprecedented” number of executions last year. In 2025, there were 2,063 recorded executions, the highest annual figure over the past 11 years, according to the report from the group.
Soltani’s case has been highlighted by international human rights groups such as the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights and Amnesty International, which said the international community must call on Iranian authorities to “immediately halt all executions.”
“Amid the Iranian authorities’ unprecedented crackdown on ongoing nationwide protests, marked by mass killings and sweeping arrests, concerns are mounting that authorities will once again resort to swift trials and arbitrary executions to crush and deter dissent,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Monday that highlighted Soltani’s case. “Iran’s head of judiciary ordered prosecutors to ‘act without leniency’ against protesters heightening fears for the lives of detained protesters and other dissidents.”
The first marches took place in late December in downtown Tehran, with participants demonstrating against rising inflation and the falling value of the national currency, the rial. As the protests spread, they have taken on a more explicitly anti-government tone.
More than 2,500 people have died during nationwide protests in Iran since Dec. 28, HRANA said Wednesday. The HRANA data relies on the work of activists inside and outside the country. ABC News cannot independently verify these numbers.
The Iranian foreign minister told Fox News on Wednesday that “hundreds” are dead.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top Iranian officials have said they are willing to engage with the economic grievances of protesters, though have also framed the unrest as driven by “rioters” and sponsored by foreign nations, prime among them the U.S. and Israel.
ABC News’ David Brennan contributed to this report.
