The Olympics has been put on notice – comply with Donald Trump or face his wrath.

If transgender women are not banned from the 2028 Los Angeles Games, they’ll be banned from entering the United States.

And the president delivered a blunt warning from the White House: “Nobody’s going to be able to do a damn thing about it.”

The International Olympic Committee cannot have been surprised.

Trump had been riffing off this intentionally inflammatory rhetoric throughout the campaign, complaining transgender women competing in women’s events are cheating and endangering rivals.

This East Room ceremony – surrounded by female athletes – turned the policy pledge into reality through an executive order.

“This is one of the big reasons that we all won,” he said, between meandering into how he could have built a bigger ballroom for the occasion.

How will the IOC cope with Trump in the build up to LA 2028?

That could be determined by their own presidential election outcome in March.

One candidate, Sebastian Coe, is already chiming with Trump, having already excluded anyone assigned male at birth from women’s categories in his role as World Athletics president.

For now this US order only directly impacts education institutions receiving federal funding.

But Trump is putting pressure on the IOC, which leaves eligibility rules to each sport to determine.

“In Los Angeles in 2028 my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes,” Trump said.

“We’re just not going to let it happen and it’s going to end and it’s ending right now.”

How many athletes would this policy have impacted at the Paris 2024 Olympics?

Technically, none.

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There was a trans man fighting who was female at birth. And two non-binary athletes competing in their assigned sex at birth categories. They are not in Trump’s sights.

But two female boxers were targeted, falsely classified by Trump as trans women based on disputed gender eligibility tests.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been told to “make clear to the International Olympic Committee… that America categorically rejects transgender lunacy”.

Trump added: “We want them to change everything to do with the Olympics and this absolutely ridiculous subject.”

Maybe this was the moment the IOC started regretting awarding 2028 to Los Angeles. Trump boasts about winning that Olympic vote during his first term having never anticipated being in power for the Games themselves.

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While protecting women’s sport is the mission, the inclusive, unifying and celebratory messaging promoted by the Olympics is being undercut.

The Department of Homeland Security was ordered “to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes”.

There has not been a widespread distortion of competition by transgender women with physical advantages but it is a growing challenge confronting sports leaders.

Widely shared clips of some American college sports events being won by trans women have fed into wider culture war with Trump siding against “woke lunacy”.

The messaging resonated with voters believing the fairness of competitions is being distorted by trans athletes by having skeletal advantages from puberty after being male at birth.

Those physical advantages can pose a safety threat – particularly in combat sports.

Activists advocating for LGBT+ rights in sport decried the targeting of another marginalised community by the Trump administration.

Athlete Ally said in a statement: “Our hearts break for the trans youth who will no longer be able to know the joy of playing sports as their full and authentic selves.”

But many across the United States are sure to endorse Trump delivering on his “common sense” agenda.

“You’ve been waiting a long time for this,” he said, before signing the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order into law.

Human remains have been recovered from a suitcase found in a New York river, police have said.

The suitcase was found at around 5.30pm local time on Wednesday near Governors Island in the East River, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported, citing its affiliate NBC New York.

The New York City police force’s harbour unit retrieved the suitcase and took it to Pier 16, where the person inside was pronounced dead.

The deceased’s identity is yet to be confirmed.

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Police were unsure of the person’s age and gender but confirmed the remains were those of an adult, NBC reported.

The chief medical examiner’s office said it will work to determine the cause of death.

The White House has appeared to backtrack on Donald Trump’s assertion that Palestinians should be permanently resettled from Gaza – as a former Israeli PM told Sky News he was “deeply doubtful” about the plan.

On Tuesday, during a visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Trump said: “If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.”

He drew global condemnation for his comments, which included: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it.”

When questioned, Mr Trump said he did envision a “long-term ownership position” and described Gaza’s future as “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

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But speaking on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to contradict Mr Trump’s words and claimed he had said it would always be temporary.

“The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza for the rebuilding of this effort,” she said to reporters.

She continued: “Again, it’s a demolition site right now. It’s not a liveable place for any human being. And I think it’s actually quite evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.”

Ms Leavitt also added that Mr Trump “has not committed” to sending troops to Gaza – but she did not rule it out.

‘A massive row back’

Sky News US correspondent Mark Stone was at the news conference where Ms Leavitt spoke.

He said: “I think what we heard there, reading between the lines, was a massive row back.

“She said that the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza while the territory is rebuilt would be temporary, and she said the president was ‘very clear’ about that.

“Well he wasn’t very clear about that. He was very clear that it would be permanent. Indeed, he repeated this idea that they would be permanently relocated to ‘somewhere beautiful’, he said on many occasions yesterday.

“And so while she didn’t acknowledge that there was a shift in position between yesterday and today, it was implicit in everything that she said.”

‘Deeply doubtful’

Ex-Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak told Sky News he was “deeply doubtful” about the practicality of the plan.

He said: “I cannot judge it, there are many in Israel who are really excited about it but it seems to me deeply doubtful whether it can ever fly.

“It’s probably deliberately or subconsciously used as a leverage upon the Arab leaders to shake them up and to start to think about how they can contribute to avoid the need for America to intervene. I think that’s more probable an explanation for the whole story.”

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It was not clear whether Mr Trump was serious with his proposal or simply taking an extreme position as a bargaining strategy, as he has done in the past.

While Mr Trump’s comments have thrust the politics and future of Gaza into the headlines, on the ground, nearly 16 months of Israeli bombardment has devastated the coastal enclave and killed more than 47,000 people, according to its Hamas-run health ministry.

The offensive followed the 7 October Hamas attacks in 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel and about 250 people were taken hostage.