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www.desitalk.com – that’s all you need to know 12 NATIONAL AFFAIRS August 1, 2025 Indian-American, 4 Others, In US Physics Team Earn Gold Medals At The 2025 International Physics Olympiad T he U.S. Physics Team, represented by the five traveling members, including Indian American Agastya Goel, competed with student schol- ars from 85 nations at the Interna- tional Physics Olympiad (IPhO) held July 17–25 at PALAISEAU, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France. The five Gold Medal winners of the 2025 US Physics Team are: Agastya Goel Allen Li JoshuaWang Feodor Yevtushenko Brian Zhang Each of these teammembers from the US, earned a Gold Medal, and the US Team is the only Country-team to achieve five Gold Medals, noted the American As- sociation of Physics Teachers, AAPT, based in Maryland, in a July 25 press release. The coaches for the 2025 U.S. Phys- ics Team are Academic Director, Tengiz Bibilashvili; Coaches, Kellan Colburn, Natalie LeBaron, Rishab Parthasarathy, and Elena Yudovina; and Junior Coach, Evan Erickson. The 2025 International Physics Olym- piad reflected the theme “Physics Beyond Frontiers.” “AAPT proudly congratulates these young physicists and their coaches for this outstanding representation of the United States as ambassadors of curios- ity, of rigor, and of discovery on the global stage,” AAPT said in the press release. The Closing Ceremony is available on YouTube and contains information about additional awards and prizes presented. The U.S. Physics Team is sponsored by private donors, the American Institute for Physics and the numerous member soci- eties of the American Institute of Physics. Goel is from Palo Alto, California. A stu- dent of Gunn High School with a diploma in mathematics and computer science, who also describes himself as a “Singer/ Actor” on Linkedin, says, “I love thinking about computer science and physics and finding ways to apply them to my every- day life. I also enjoy performing through choir and theater, as well as playing tennis and board games.” This is not Goel’s first Gold Medal. He also won the Gold Medal as the US Phys- ics TeamMember in 2024, as well as the Gold Medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in 2023 and 2024. His teacher Harold Polo, posted the following online when Goel won the IOI Gold Medal a year ago – “I am thrilled to announce that Agastya Goel, one of my MIT PRIMES students, has achieved a remarkable feat by winning a gold medal at the 35th International Olympiad in Informatics, which was hosted this year in Hungary. Agastya’s achievement is a testament to his talent and perseverance, and it inspires us all to reach for the stars in the pursuit of knowledge and excellence. I applaud Agastya for this outstanding accomplishment and wish him continued success on his journey.” He was attending the Stanford Online High School from August 2020 to May 2025, according to his bio on Linkedin. He has been an Eagle Scout, and a member of the Palo Alto Children’s The- ater since 2017 to the present. He gave a Ted talk in 2022 on “Adventures in Data”. By a StaffWriter PHOTO:CourtesyAmerican Association of PhysicsTeachers,AAPT US Physics Team for International Physics Olympiad 2025, poses for a photo. From left, Feodor Yevtushenko, Brian Zhang, Joshua Wang, Allen Li, and Agastya Goel. US Reiterates Claim It Deescalated India-Pakistan Conflict, But India Affirms At UNSC It Was Resolved Bilaterally T he United States brought to the UN Security Council, President Donald Trump’s claim of having resolved the India-Pakistan con- flict in May, but New Delhi reaffirmed that it was resolved bilaterally. Acting US Representative Dorothy Shea listed on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, the con- flict between India and Pakistan following the terrorist massacre in Pahalgam by The Resistance Front as one of those deesca- lated by “US leadership” in the last three months, repeating an assertion Trump has made often. “The United States, under President Trump’s leadership, played an important role in encouraging the parties to reach these resolutions, which we applaud and support”, she said. India’s Permanent Representative P Harish said firmly that it was “directly con- cluded” at Pakistan’s request to India. Operation Sindoor “on achieving its primary objectives, a cessation of military activities was directly concluded at the request of Pakistan”, the Indian diplomat said. Harish said that Operation Sindoor launched in retaliation for the massacre of 26 people by The Resistance Front, an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba based in and backed by Pakistan, “was focused, mea- sured, and non-escalatory in nature”. Op Sindoor was motivated by the Se- curity Council statement on “the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors” of the Pahalgam attack ac- countable and it targeted terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, he said. Shea and Harish were speaking at the Security Council open debate on “Multi- lateralism and Peaceful Settlement of Dis- putes” presided over by Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar. “I stopped the war between Pakistan and India”, Trump has said repeatedly, an assertion echoed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Trump has asserted that the India- Pakistan conflict “would have been a nuclear war within another week, the way that was going”. He claimed that he stopped it by telling the leaders of the two neighbors that unless they stopped the conflict there would be no trade deal. PM Narendra Modi directly told Trump during a phone call last month that there was no mediation or a quid pro quo for a trade deal between New Delhi andWash- ington over stopping the conflict with Pakistan, according to the Indian External Affairs Ministry. “Prime Minister Modi clearly conveyed to President Trump that at no point dur- ing this entire sequence of events was there any discussion, at any level, on an India-US Trade Deal, or any proposal for a mediation by the U.S. between India and Pakistan”, the ministry said. Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations, Major General Kashif Abdul- lah, directly called his Indian counterpart, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, to ask for a ceasefire, according to Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Last week Rubio announced that the US has designated The Resistance Front (TRF) as a global terrorist organization demonstrating “enforcing President Trump’s call for justice for the Pahalgam attack”. The other two conflicts Shea said Trump had deescalated were those be- tween Israel and Iran, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. By South Asia Monitor PHOTO:usun.usmission.gov Ambassador Dorothy C. Shea, Acting US Representative to the UN.