US President Donald Trump’s top diplomat and his main spokesperson walked back the idea that he wants the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after US allies and Republicans rebuffed his suggestion that the US would take “ownership” of the territory.
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Key Events
- 3m ago3 minutes agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 10:04pm
- 23m ago23 minutes agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 9:45pm
3m agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 10:04pm
While Trump’s top officials have been walking back the idea of permanently relocating Palestinians, Donald Trump has signed an executive order on Wednesday attempting to exclude transgender girls and women from female sports.
The order directs the Department of Justice to ban transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports under Trump’s interpretation of Title IX, a law against sex discrimination in education.
“The war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony with dozens of women and girls aligned behind him.
“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.”
The order, which is likely to face legal challenges, calls for “immediate enforcement” nationwide.
It threatens to cut off federal funding for any school that allows transgender women or girls to compete in female-designated sporting competitions.
The order would affect only a small number of athletes. The president of the National Collegiate Athletics Association told a Senate panel in December he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes among the 520,000 competing at 1,100 member schools.
Donald Trump signed the executive order today. (Reuters: Leah Millis)
Reporting by Reuters.
23m agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 9:45pm
Donald Trump’s top officials have walked back the idea that the US president wants a permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.
In a press conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Trump’s proposal as a “very generous” offer to help with debris removal and reconstruction of the enclave following 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“In the interim, obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it”.
Marco Rubio spoke about Trump’s proposal at a press conference in Guatemala. (AP: Mark Schiefelbein)
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says he only sought to move the roughly 1.8 million Gazans temporarily to allow for reconstruction.
“The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza,” she said, calling it currently “an uninhabitable place for human beings” and saying it would be “evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.”
Reporting with AP.
33m agoWed 5 Feb 2025 at 9:34pm
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s top officials walking back the idea of the US taking ‘ownership’ of Gaza.
This comes after the US president said in a presser with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would ‘take over’ Gaza and ‘permanently’ relocate Palestinians.
Stay with us as we update you with the latest.
