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Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning trans women athletes from competing in female sports.

The move is designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in certain sporting events, including those at school.

The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, will call for “immediate enforcement” against schools and athletic associations that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex changing rooms.

It also coincides with National Girls and Women in Sports Day and it marks another notable shift in the way the federal government treats transgender people under Mr Trump.

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Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order banning transgender girls and women from participating in women's sports. Pic: Reuters
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Pic: Reuters

Ahead of signing the order, Mr Trump said: “From now on women’s sports will be only for women.

“We’ve gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we’re getting it out of women’s sports.”

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Analysis: Trump is riffing off his inflammatory rhetoric by banning trans athletes competing in America

He also spoke about the coming Olympics and World Cup which the US is hosting, and said he wouldn’t allow any transgender athletes to compete.

He went on: “In Los Angeles in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.

“We’re not going to let it happen.

“Just to make sure, I’m also directing our secretary of homeland security to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the US while identifying as women athletes to try and get into the games.”

In signing the order, surrounded by a number of women and girls, Mr Trump claimed “the war on women’s sports is over”.

Donald Trump speaking ahead of signing the order.
Pic: Reuters/Leah Millis
Image:
Donald Trump speaking ahead of signing the order.
Pic: Reuters/Leah Millis

The order authorises the education department to penalise schools that allow transgender athletes to compete and any school found in violation could lose its federal funding.

Despite their small numbers within America, transgender people have been the target of three orders signed by Mr Trump since coming into office, Sky News’ US partner NBC News reported.

These targeted participation in the military and access to gender-affirming care.

On his very first day in office last month, Mr Trump passed one order that called on the federal government to only recognise two genders – male and female.

During his campaign, he pledged to “keep men out of women’s sports” and get rid of the “transgender insanity” but his office offered little in the way of details.

Olivia Hunt, director of federal policy at Advocates for Trans Equality, told Sky News’ Yalda Hakim that the order wasn’t just about elite athletes but would impact young children and their development too.

She said: “We’re basically taking those children and saying to them we don’t think it’s vital that you learn the same sets of skills that your peers develop [playing sports].

“We are setting you aside, putting you apart, and saying you’re different and it’s okay for you to be set aside, treated differently, and bullied by your peers.

“Children should be protected. Children should be allowed to follow their interests, follow the sports they want to participate in and not have to worry that public officials will treat their existence as a cheap round of applause.”

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Trump’s trans sport stance welcomed

This is the latest in a flurry of executive orders the Republican president has enacted in his first days and weeks in office.

Some of these have been blocked by judges, and it is not yet clear if this order will avoid such a fate.

It will likely involve how the Trump administration interprets Title IX – a civil rights law that prevents sex-based discrimination in education programmes or activities that receive federal funding.

Ahead of the signing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order “upholds the promise of Title IX”.

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‘A solution looking for a problem’

It is not clear how many trans athletes are competing in the US, but cases like Lia Thomas swimming for the University of Pennsylvania have drawn attention in the past.

Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University who studies the intersection of gender, sports, media and culture, described the order as a “solution looking for a problem”.

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Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School, pointed out that Mr Trump could have just “read the [existing] regulation traditionally” to achieve the same goals, instead of introducing the new executive orders.

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Trump says he will cancel all Biden executive orders ‘signed with autopen’

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Trump says he will cancel all Biden executive orders 'signed with autopen'

Donald Trump has said he will cancel all executive orders that he claims were signed with an autopen by his predecessor Joe Biden.

The US president alleged Mr Biden was “not involved” in signing the orders and claimed “the radical left lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the presidency away from him”. He did not provide any evidence for his claims.

An autopen is a device which reproduces a person’s signature, allowing them to repeatedly sign documents without having to do so by hand each time.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said: “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect.

“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States.”

He added: “I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally.

“Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury.”

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Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed Mr Biden was not mentally capable by the end of his term and his staff made decisions on his behalf, using an autopen to sign them off without his knowledge.

Mr Trump has not provided any evidence for his claims, while Mr Biden and his former aides have denied they made decisions on his behalf.

In June, Mr Biden said: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency.

“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

Mr Trump has also used an autopen, but claimed he only used it “for very unimportant papers”.

Pic: Reuters
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Pic: Reuters

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Trump trolls Biden with new ‘presidential portrait’

Earlier this year, Mr Trump replaced a portrait of Mr Biden in the Oval Office with a picture of an autopen signing the former president’s name.

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Suspect in US National Guard shooting now facing first-degree murder charge

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Suspect in US National Guard shooting now facing first-degree murder charge

The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington DC is facing a first-degree murder charge.

It follows the death of one of the soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom.

The other soldier, Andrew Wolfe, 24, was taken to hospital in critical condition after the incident on Wednesday afternoon. On Friday, West Virginia’s governor said Wolfe remained in a “very critical condition”.

Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom. Pic: Reuters
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Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom. Pic: Reuters

US attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office said the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, now faces charges including one count of first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.

Pirro said there are “many charges to come” beyond the upgraded murder charge and that Lakanwal had driven across the country to launch an “ambush-style” attack with a revolver.

She said her heart went out to the family of Beckstrom, who volunteered to serve and “ended up being shot ambush-style on the cold streets of Washington DC by an individual who will now be charged with murder in the first degree”.

President Donald Trump called Beckstrom, part of the West Virginia guard, a “highly respected” and “magnificent person”.

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Investigators are continuing to execute warrants in the state of Washington, where the suspect lived, and other parts of the country, Pirro said.

However, she declined to discuss the suspect’s motive, saying officials have been working around the clock on that question.

Officials said Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration programme that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.

People who knew him say he served in a CIA-backed Afghan Army unit before immigrating to the US.

Kristina Widman, who claims to be Lakanwal’s former landlord, said he had been living in Bellingham, close to Seattle, with his wife and five children.

The #AfghanEvac charity said Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration.

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Trump has called for every Afghan national who entered the US under Biden to be investigated following the shooting of two National Guard troops.

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On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration.

The director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said in a statement that the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible”.

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The President has since said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the US by revoking their legal status.

Organisations that work with refugees are worried that those who fled dangerous situations to start again in America will face a backlash after the shooting.

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US to review immigration from 19 countries after Washington DC double shooting

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US to review immigration from 19 countries after Washington DC double shooting

The US will review green cards issued to the citizens of 19 countries after two members of the National Guard were shot by a suspected Afghan gunman in Washington DC.

Immigration from Afghanistan has also been suspended indefinitely, the White House said, following the double shooting on Wednesday.

Joseph Edlow, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), revealed the order from President Trump.

He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”

Asked which countries would be affected, USCIS pointed to a presidential proclamation from June listing 19 countries.

The proclamation sought to “fully restrict” arrivals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

It also “partially” restricted arrivals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

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Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Pic: Reuters
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Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Pic: Reuters

Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been named as the suspected gunman in this week’s shooting and has been detained.

He worked as part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan, and reportedly came to the States under a programme meant to help Afghans who’d risked their lives assisting US troops in Afghanistan.

He’s thought to have driven thousands of miles to the capital from his home in Washington state, where he lives with his wife and five children.

Attorney general Pam Bondi called him “a lone gunman” who “opened fire without provocation, ambush style”.

Gunfire in Washington DC sees two National Guard members shot
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Gunfire in Washington DC sees two National Guard members shot

President Trump described him as a “savage monster”.

He was granted asylum in April this year, according to NBC News.

One of his victims, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died of her wounds, while the other, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in a critical condition.

The two National Guard members who were shot in Washington D.C. as 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Image:
The two National Guard members who were shot in Washington D.C. as 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters

Lakanwal reportedly came to the US under Operation Allies Welcome, a programme enacted by former President Joe Biden after he pulled American forces out of Afghanistan in 2021.

Edlow explictly targeted the previous president as he announced the new green card regime.

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He wrote on X: “The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies.”

Speaking after the attack, President Trump was even more caustic.

He said: “The suspect in custody is a foreigner, who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth.

“He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021 on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.

“His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden – a disastrous president, the worst in the history of our country.”

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He continued: “This attack underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation.

“The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t even want to know about.

“No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”

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