Archive December 10, 2025

Iceland will not take part in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the country’s public broadcaster has said, joining four other countries boycotting the event over Israel’s inclusion.

Broadcaster RUV said on Wednesday that the Nordic nation would not participate in the 2026 competition, after organiser the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) greenlit Israel’s involvement last week, dismissing calls from some countries to hold a vote on whether to exclude the country.

“It is clear from the public debate in this country and the reaction to the EBU’s decision last week that there will be neither joy nor peace regarding RUV’s participation,” the broadcaster’s director general Stefan Eiriksson said in a statement.

Iceland, along with Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands, had threatened to boycott next year’s edition of the glitzy music contest, due to be held in Vienna in May, if Israel took part, citing its genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza – as well as allegations that it unfairly intervened in the most recent competition to the benefit of its entrant.

The issue was initially supposed to be resolved with a vote in November.

But on Thursday, the EBU said there would be no vote on Israel’s participation, and that it would instead introduce new rules “to reinforce trust and protect [the] neutrality” of the contest that would discourage governments from influencing the outcome.

That prompted Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain to swiftly announce they would boycott the competition, with Irish broadcaster RTE citing “the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and humanitarian crisis”, and Slovenia’s national broadcaster saying it was “on behalf of the 20,000 children who died” in Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinian people in the territory.

By contrast, Germany – a vocal supporter of Israel in Europe – had said it would boycott the event if Israel were barred.

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.