Swimming’s world Governing body, Fina, will ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s elite races
The new policy passed with 71% of the vote from 152 Fina members and was announced at the Extraordinary Congress 2022 in Budapest.
The new ban applies to athletes who have gone through any stage of male puberty.
This means if transgender athletes want to compete then they must have transitioned by the age of 12.
The sporting body will now work on creating an ‘open’ category for transgender athletes, with a team working on this immediately.
Fina’s President Husain Al-Musallam says they’re working to “protect the rights of athletes to compete” but also “protect competitive fairness”.
Fina’s Executive Director Brent Nowicki says the policy is “comprehensive, science-based, and inclusive, and, importantly, Fina’s approach emphasised competitive fairness.”
Transgender participation has been a contentious topic in all sports around the world. Most recently, American swimmer Lia Thomas’ participation divided communities.
Thomas has consistently expressed a desire to compete but this new policy will block Thomas from participating in the female category.
While some say Transgender participation is unfair for competing athletes, others argue it’s discrimination to not let transgender athletes compete in women’s events.
For now, this new policy stands as the most historic rule and regulation on transgender participation.
TikTok users could soon find that the popular social media service is either under new ownership or could be outright banned in the United States.
President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that requires TikTok to find a new owner—or face a ban in the United States.
Over the past several months, Washington D.C. has been under pressure to ban the popular Chinese-owned social media app.
Lawmakers and security experts have long raised concerns that the Chinese government could tap TikTok’s trove of personal data about millions of U.S. users.
TikTok’s CEO said the bill is disappointing and reiterated that the company has committed to challenge it.
David Zhang from China Insider. joins Veronica Dudo to discuss
Threads, the social media platform owned by Meta, is gaining traction with a surge in daily active users, outpacing X in the U.S.
With Threads averaging 28 million daily active users compared to X’s 22 million, Meta’s ambitions to reach a billion users seem within reach despite a slowdown in growth. While X still boasts 550 million monthly active users globally, Threads’ focus on user experience and avoidance of real-time and political content could position it as a formidable competitor moving forward.
This weekend’s entertainment lineup has something for everyone.
Apple TV+ brings “Sugar,” a drama set in New York City, while “Civil War” offers historical intensity.
“Challengers” with Zendaya brings a saucy sport drama to life, and superhero buffs can catch the trailer for “Deadpool and Wolverine” for action-packed fun.
With options spanning drama, history, reality, and superheroes, there’s excitement in store for all this weekend.