Donald Trump has signed another executive order banning transgender athletes in women’s sport. It comes after what’s been described as a “massive row back” on the president’s plans for Gaza. Listen to the Sky News Daily podcast as you scroll.
Wednesday 5 February 2025 21:52, UK
By Ben van der Merwe and Kaitlin Tosh, digital investigations journalists
Donald Trump’s plan for the United States to “take control” of Gaza and his suggestion that Palestinians there move to Jordan or Egypt has brought up the memories of a history of forced displacement for many people in the territory.
The “Nakba”
The first mass exodus of Palestinians was in 1948, a time remembered by Palestinians as the “Nakba”, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic.
Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced during the fighting that accompanied Israel’s founding, with many fleeing to neighbouring countries.
A 1949 UN mission report estimated that up to 757,000 Palestinians were displaced.
The majority – 480,000 – settled in the West Bank and in Gaza, which it described as a “tiny coastal desert area”. More than 240,000 moved to nearby Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Six-day war
Many Palestinians were displaced again in June 1967, after Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the Six Day War. Estimates on the number of Palestinians displaced for the first time in 1967 range from just over 100,000 to 300,000. The majority fled to Jordan.
A UN report from the time states that “some 200,000 people” travelled from the West Bank to Jordan in three months.
All of the six of the “emergency” camps set up to house refugees in 1968 are still in place today. And the country is home to the largest number of displaced Palestinians outside of Occupied Palestinian Territories, according to UN data.
Most, but not all, have full Jordanian citizenship, and about 18% live in refugee camps.
Since Trump’s announcement, many Gazans have said they don’t want to move. Jordan’s King has rejected any displacement of Palestinians, affirming Jordan’s “full support for the Palestinians in gaining their legitimate rights” in a statement on X.
“They say they’re not going to accept,” said Trump, referring to Egypt and Jordan, adding, “I say they will”.
Earlier this evening, we brought you news of Benjamin Netanyahu meeting the US defence secretary (see our 8.08pm post).
We’ve now got some comments from Pete Hegseth before the meeting, who said “on the question of Gaza, the definition of insanity is attempting to do the same thing over and over and over again”.
“The president is willing to think outside the box and look for new, unique and dynamic ways to solve problems that have felt like they were intractable,” he added.
“We’re prepared to look at all options.”
Here’s the moment Donald Trump signed his latest executive order, banning trans athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sport.
He signed the order on a small lectern in the East Room at the White House, surrounded by young girls.
The timing of the order coincided with National Girls and Women in Sports Day in America, and is the latest in a string of executive actions from Trump aimed at transgender people.
Donald Trump has just signed an executive order banning trans athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sport.
“We will defend the proud tradition of female athletes,” he says.
“Women’s sports will only be for women.”
He says the order is putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that “if you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms”, they will be investigated and risk losing federal funding.
“There will be no federal funding. So this will effectively end the attack on female athletes,” he adds.
What does the order do?
Speaking to our US partner network NBC this morning, White House Officials said they expected headlines about today’s executive order to use the word transgender, “but this has nothing to do with that.”
The order, they said, aims to protect women’s access to safe and fair athletic opportunities, and it will do that in two ways.
First, officials said, the order rolls back the Biden administration’s guidance on a civil rights law that prevents sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funding.
Under that guidance, schools were required to allow trans students’ to access school sports teams and sex-segregated facilities that align with their gender identities.
Trump’s order will, instead, bar students assigned male at birth from participating in girls’ and women’s sports and using women’s restrooms.
Second, officials said, the administration will work with sports governing bodies, like the International Olympic Committee, to ensure the guidance is followed in non-educational settings.
Donald Trump is outlining how his executive order will be felt across the US in the coming years.
Turning to the 2028 Olympics, which will be hosted in Los Angeles, Trump says his administration “will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes”.
“It’s going to end and it’s ending right now,” he adds.
“Nobody’s going to be able to do a damn thing about it. Because when I speak, I speak with authority.”
He also says the US “will deny all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter while identifying themselves as women athletes”.
Donald Trump has arrived and is speaking to the crowd.
“In a few moments, I’ll sign a historic executive order to ban men from competing in women’s sports,” he says.
“This is about common sense”, he adds.
“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.
Trump claims transgender people “invaded more than 11,000 competitions designed for women” last year.
“In recent years, the radical left has waged an all out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology.”
“All of this ends today,” he says.
A little later than originally scheduled, we should be seeing Donald Trump appear shortly.
A small table on a makeshift stage has been set up for the US president to sign his executive order banning trans athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sport.
A group of women and girls of all ages are assembled behind the lectern.
We’re still waiting for Donald Trump to appear and sign an executive order. Before then, some other news concerning the US president and his comments on Gaza…
Displacing Palestinians would be a “moral abomination”, the Israel and Palestinian director of Human Rights Watch has warned.
Following Donald Trump’s comments last night, Omar Shakir told Reuters that the forced displacement can amount to a war crime.
“International humanitarian law forbids the forced displacement of the population of an occupied territory,” he said.
“When such forced displacement is widespread, it can amount to a war crime or a crime against humanity.”
Whilst Donald Trump signs his latest executive order, Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing his meetings with various US officials.
The Israeli prime minister met with Trump at the White House yesterday.
This afternoon he met with vice president JD Vance and national security advisor Mike Waltz, having also earlier spoken with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
And, right now, he’s scheduled to be meeting with defence secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon.
We’ll bring you any updates we receive from that meeting.
We’re expecting to see Donald Trump again shortly as the US president signs his latest executive order.
Trump is due to sign an executive order banning transgender athletes in women’s sport.
The issue of transgender women participating in women’s sports was a consistent and divisive topic leading up to the election.
On the campaign trail – and even after he won the election – Trump referred to trans women as men and pledged to “keep men out of women’s sports.”
The timing of the order does not appear to be coincidental. Today is the 39th annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day in America.
In keeping with his own traditions, Trump will likely provide comments on the executive order as he signs it.
You can watch the process in the video below or in the livestream at the top of this page. We’ll also be providing text updates in this blog.
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