Category World News

The International Olympic Committee says it will announce eligibility criteria for transgender athletes early next year, after months of deliberation as it seeks to find a consensus on how to protect the female category.

The issue has been a source of controversy, with no universal rule in place for the participation of transgender athletes at the Olympic Games.

The IOC, under its new President Kirsty Coventry, did a U-turn in June, deciding to take the lead in setting eligibility criteria for Olympic participation, having previously handed responsibility to the individual sports federations, leading to a confusing patchwork of different approaches.

In September, Coventry set up the “Protection of the Female Category” working group, made up of experts as well as representatives of international federations, to look into how best to protect the female category in sports.

“We will find ways to find a consensus that has all aspects covered,” Coventry told a press conference on Wednesday following an IOC executive board meeting.

“Maybe it is not the easiest thing to do, but we will try our best, so when we talk about the female category, we are protecting the female category.”

Coventry said a decision would come in the first months of 2026.

“We want to make sure we have spoken to all stakeholders, taken adequate time to cross the Ts and dot the Is,” she said.

“The group is working extremely well. I don’t want to try to constrain the working group by saying they need to have a specific deadline, but I am hopeful in the next couple of months and definitely within the first quarter of next year we will have a clear decision and way forward, which I think we are all looking forward to,” said Coventry, a former Olympic swimming champion.

Before Coventry’s decision in June, the IOC had long refused to apply any universal rule on transgender participation for the Games, instructing international federations in 2021 to come up with their own guidelines. Under current rules, still in force, transgender athletes are eligible to take part in the Olympics.

Only a handful of openly transgender athletes have taken part in the Games. New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in a different gender category to that assigned at birth when the weightlifter took part in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Currently, some international federations have rules in place, but others have not yet reached that stage.

US President Donald Trump has banned transgender athletes from competing in sports in schools in the United States, which civil society groups say infringes on the rights of trans people, as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.

The head of the US military’s Middle East-based Central Command, Brad Cooper, has said that the United States is working with Syrian forces to carry out operations against ISIL (ISIS), highlighting the collaboration between Washington and Damascus.

Speaking virtually at a Middle East Institute event on Wednesday, Cooper said the US military is working to “foster cooperation” with Syrian authorities.

“We have now had multiple instances of collaboration with the Syrian government to counter very specific ISIS threats,” Cooper said.

The US general’s comments came on the first anniversary of the start of the Syrian transition after the fall of the government of President Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive by opposition fighters.

Cooper’s statement emphasising security cooperation in Syria underscores the stunning transformation in Damascus, which had close ties to US rivals Russia and Iran for decades under al-Assad’s rule.

The US commander also said the US is helping efforts to integrate the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces with the Syrian government.

Backed by the US, the SDF controls large parts of the country’s northeast, where it enjoys de facto self-rule. Despite an agreement in March to merge SDF fighters into Syrian state institutions, occasional clashes have broken out between the two sides.

“SDF’s successful integration with the Syrian government forces will lead to a more predictable and stable security environment,” Cooper said.

Syria joined the US-led global coalition against ISIL last month after President Ahmed al-Sharaa – a former rebel commander who formerly led a group with ties to al-Qaeda – visited Washington, DC, and met US President Donald Trump.

“Just the other week, we worked with the Syrian Ministry of Interior in locating and destroying 15 ISIS weapon sites in southern Syria,” Cooper said on Wednesday.

“This operation eliminated over 130 mortars and rockets, multiple small arms, antitank mines, IED [improvised explosive device] material and illicit drugs.”

ISIL controlled large areas in Syria and Iraq between 2014 and 2019. Despite the group’s territorial defeat, US officials say ISIL remnants continue to pose a threat to the region.

The US deployed as many as 2,000 troops to Syria during the fight against ISIL, but the Trump administration announced earlier this year that it will slash the number of US bases and soldiers in the country.

Cooper said the US military will continue to play an “active role” in supporting US envoy Tom Barrack to realise Trump’s “vision of a prosperous Middle East and a stable Syria at peace with itself and its neighbours”.

He also reiterated his gratitude to the Syrian authorities for intercepting weapons intended for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“These are the types of tangible security gains we can make on the ground through close cooperation with Syrian government forces,” he said.

Since the fall of al-Assad, Israel – the top US ally in the region – has been carrying out air strikes in Syria and expanding its military presence in the south of the country.

Israeli troops have also been regularly launching raids in southern Syria and abducting and disappearing residents.

On Wednesday, Cooper failed to mention the Israeli campaign in the country, but he hailed what he called “hoops diplomacy”, referring to footage of himself playing basketball with al-Sharaa earlier this year.

The United Nations’ top human rights official says his office is struggling to operate after major funding cuts from donor governments, even as rights abuses escalate across the globe.

Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said on Wednesday that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has $90m less than it needs this year. He told reporters the shortfall has already forced the loss of 300 jobs and reduced the organisation’s ability to monitor violations around the world.

“Our resources have been slashed, along with funding for human rights organisations, including at the grassroots level, around the world,” Turk said. “We are in survival mode.”

Donor governments including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden have pulled back on UN contributions and aid as they prioritise defence and domestic spending. A significant reduction has also come from the United States, where the administration of US President Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the role of the UN, withdrawing from UN agencies and supporting a congressional rescission that removed funding for international organisations, including the UN.

The warning from Turk comes as the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which handles humanitarian aid and crisis response, launches a $23bn appeal for 2026 while also facing cuts of its own, acknowledging that a sharp drop in donor support means tens of millions of people in urgent need will be left without assistance.

The largest request is for the occupied Palestinian territory, with $4bn mostly aimed at Gaza, where Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people has left almost all 2.3 million residents displaced and dependent on aid. UN officials say that figure is well below the level of need.

Funding is also being sought for other major crises, including $2bn for people displaced in Sudan and $1bn for Sudanese refugees who have fled the conflict there. Another $1.4bn is requested for communities affected by violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than $2bn for emergency support inside Syria, and nearly $3bn for Syrian refugees.

To cope with the financial crisis, Turk said country visits by UN experts have been limited and fact-finding missions and investigations have been reduced. Reviews of states’ compliance with UN human rights treaties have also been postponed, dropping to 103 this year from 145 previously.

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles, California, ordering that they must be returned to the authority of the state governor.

United States District Judge Charles Breyer rejected the government’s claim that the deployment was necessary to quell protests against the administration’s aggressive immigration raids in a ruling on Wednesday.

“The founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances. Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one,” Breyer said.

President Donald Trump’s deployments of the National Guard to cities across the country have often occurred despite resistance from state and local officials and in the absence of any serious emergency conditions.

About 4,000 members of the California National Guard were sent to Los Angeles in June without the governor’s approval, while only about 100 remain there today. The government had argued that its presence was necessary to help protect federal officials and property, and had extended the deployment through February.

Breyer’s decision grants a preliminary injunction sought by California officials, but also places the decision on hold until Monday.

The administration has also clashed with California over efforts to deploy members of the state National Guard to the city of Portland in neighbouring Oregon.

Democratic officials such as California Governor Gavin Newsom have slammed the troop deployment as an authoritarian power grab meant to stifle dissent in cities seen as hubs of resistance to the Trump administration.

Newsom’s office reacted to the Wednesday ruling with a social media post celebrating “Another W (win) for Democracy, L (loss) for the rule of the Don.”

After finishing on top of their group in the opening round of the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup, Palestine will look to continue their historic run when they face Saudi Arabia at Lusail Stadium on Thursday.

The Palestinian side also defied the odds to reach the knockout stages of the AFC Asian Cup for the first time earlier this year.