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UPI
3 hours ago
- Politics
- UPI
Olympics, Paralympics to follow Trump ban on transgender women athletes
On Monday, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced it would comply with an executive order banning transgender women from women's sports. File Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo July 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced Monday that it plans to follow President Donald Trump's executive order banning transgender women from women's sports. The organization announced the change by updating its 27-page Athlete Safety Policy, which doesn't mention the word "transgender" at all. The document is dated June 18 but was published on the USOPC's website on Monday. It says the committee will comply with Trump's February order. "From now on, women's sports will be only for women," he said of the decree called Executive Order 14201 "No Men In Women's Sports Executive Order" during a ceremony Feb. 5 with athletes in the White House. In the Order, Trump said that banning "male competitive participation in women's sports" is a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth." "The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities, e.g., IOC, IPC, NGBs, to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act," the document on the USOPC website says. USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and President Gene Sykes said in a letter to the Team USA community that they had engaged in "a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials" before making the change. "As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations," the letter said. "The guidance we've received aligns with the Ted Stevens Act, reinforcing our mandated responsibility to promote athlete safety and competitive fairness." Whether any Olympians will be affected in the 2028 Olympics isn't clear. No athlete has won an Olympic medal while competing as an openly transgender woman. "In our world of elite sport, these elements of fairness demand that we reconcile athlete inclusion and athlete opportunity," the USOPC website said. "The only way to do that for all genders, and specifically for those who are transgender, is to rely on real data and science-based evidence rather than ideology. That means making science-based decisions, sport by sport and discipline by discipline, within both the Olympic and Paralympic movements." About 1.3 million adults and 300,000 youth ages 13 to 17 identify as transgender out of 330 million people, according to a report published by Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA's Law School in 2022. Fewer than 40 of the NCAA's more than 500,000 athletes are known to be transgender, said Anna Baeth, director of research at Athlete Ally, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ equality in sports. Transgender athletes are allowed to compete in the Olympics if they meet the eligibility criteria set by their sport's International Federation.
UPI
05-07-2025
- Sport
- UPI
Paris' Seine river opens to public swimming for first time in 100 years
1 of 6 | Paris officials spent $1.6 billion to clean up the Seine in time for last year's 2024 Olympics, but despite the cash infusion, some races had to be postponed because of water quality issues. File Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo July 5 (UPI) -- The famed Seine river in Paris opened to the public for swimming on Saturday for the first time in over a 100 years, a key victory for outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo. The waterway was last swimmable in 1923, with a ban in place since that year because high levels of bacteria made it unsafe for people. City officials spent $1.6 billion to clean up the river in time for last year's 2024 Olympic Games. Despite the cash infusion, some races had to be postponed because of water quality issues. In a show of confidence, Hidalgo herself famously took to the water ahead of the Olympics for a swim to prove the river was swimmable. "Swimming in the Seine, some have dreamed of it, many have doubted it, and we have done it," she said on Facebook at the time. "After a 100-year ban, athletes will take their turn in a few days during the Games! It will be next summer for Parisians." Hidalgo's prediction came true on a seasonal basis. Three designated swimming areas opened Saturday morning, each with lounging areas, outdoor furniture, showers and changing facilities, while lifeguards patrol the river. One of the swimming areas is not far from the Eiffel Tower, while a second is close to the Notre Dame Cathedral, which re-opened last year after a devastating fire. The third is in the eastern part of Paris. The mayor, who was elected in 2014 and will leave office next year after a failed bid at the presidency, has spent her time in office pushing green initiatives in the city. Water quality in the Seine has gradually improved over the last 20 years. At its lowest point, people swimming in the river would get sick because of the high bacteria count. Plans to re-open the Seine to public swimming have been circulating since former French President and then-Paris Mayor Jacques René Chirac campaigned on the promise in 1988. A planned race across the city was canceled in 2012 because the water was "manifestly insufficient quality for swimming."
Time of India
02-07-2025
- General
- Time of India
Mid-air panic strikes: Japan Airlines passengers share near death experience when Boeing 737 plunged 26,000 ft in 10 mins
FILE PHOTO: An El Al Israel Airlines Boeing 737-900ER airplane takes off from the Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport as seen from Paracuellos del Jarama, outside Madrid, Spain, August 8, 2018. REUTERS/Paul Hanna/File Photo A Japan Airlines flight plunged nearly 26,000 feet after a sudden cabin pressure failure on 30 June. Passengers from Shanghai to Tokyo grabbed oxygen masks as the plane dived, fearing they would lose consciousness or crash. Some wrote farewell notes mid-air. The pilot diverted the Boeing 737 to Osaka where it landed safely. No injuries were reported. The scare adds to recent global incidents involving Boeing aircraft, including an Air India mid-air drop and older deadly crashes linked to the 737 series. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Some wrote final goodbyes Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Safe landing in Osaka Boeing's safety under scrutiny A Japan Airlines flight from Shanghai to Tokyo turned frightening when its Boeing 737 nosedived nearly 26,000 feet mid-air. On Monday, 30 June, flight JL8696, run by Japan Airlines' low-cost partner Spring Japan, left Shanghai Pudong Airport with 191 passengers and crew. Everything seemed routine until 6:53 PM local time.A sudden cabin pressure drop forced the aircraft down from 36,000 feet to just under 10,500 feet in ten minutes. Oxygen masks dropped from overhead panels. Passengers scrambled to put them on.A passenger told the Associated Press, 'I heard a muffled boom, and the next thing I knew, oxygen masks dropped from above. A flight attendant cried and shouted for everyone to wear their masks, saying there was a malfunction.' Another told the AP they woke up to the masks falling and felt on the 'verge of tears.'Footage from inside the cabin shows passengers holding their masks tight. Some clutched their seats. Others looked frozen in passenger revealed they wrote their will as the plane dropped. They jotted down insurance details and bank PINs. As reported by the South China Morning Post, one described the experience online: 'My body is still here, but my soul hasn't caught up. My legs are still shaking. When you face life or death, everything else feels trivial.'Another passenger wrote that the plane 'started plummeting violently at around 7 PM and dropped to 3,000 metres in just 20 minutes.'Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism later confirmed that the aircraft's pressurisation system triggered the emergency. The pilot declared an emergency, turned the plane towards Kansai International Airport in Osaka and landed safely at 8:50 injuries were reported. Passengers spent the night in hotels and received 15,000 yen each for transport. Japan Airlines has not yet given an official close call joins other troubling stories around Boeing's 737 line. Last year, a Jeju Air 737-800 crashed in South Korea, killing 179 people. In March 2022, a China Eastern Airlines 737 disaster killed all 132 on India, Air India faced its own scare this June. A Delhi-Vienna Boeing 777 dropped 900 feet mid-air on 14 June. Two days earlier, an Air India flight crashed in Ahmedabad just after take-off, leaving only one survivor. Air India told the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 'Upon receipt of the pilot's report, the matter was disclosed to DGCA in accordance with regulations. Subsequently, upon receipt of data from the aircraft's recorders, further investigation was initiated. The pilots have been off-rostered pending the outcome of the investigation.'As investigators probe what failed on JL8696, passengers are left to process what nearly happened. For them, this was not just another was a flight where some whispered final words to loved ones. And a reminder that at 36,000 feet, safety can never be taken for granted.
UPI
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
On This Day, July 1: Canada becomes self-governing
1 of 7 | On July 1, 1867, Canada became a self-governing state within the British Empire File Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo July 1 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1847, the first U.S. postage stamps were issued. In 1859, the first intercollegiate baseball game was played in Pittsfield, Mass., and it was a high-scoring contest. Amherst beat Williams, 66-32. In 1867, Canada became a self-governing state within the British Empire, setting the stage to become fully independent in 1931. Today, Canadians celebrate July 1 as Canada Day. In 1874, the Philadelphia Zoological Society, the first U.S. zoo, opened to the public. In 1898, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders led a charge up Cuba's heavily fortified San Juan Hill in a key Spanish-American War battle. In 1908, more than a thousand suffragettes in London attempted to rescue 28 of their fellow protesters who were arrested by police following a demonstration in Parliament Square. In 1916, in the worst single day of casualties in British military history, 20,000 soldiers were killed and 40,000 injured in a massive offense against German forces in France's Somme River region during World War I. In 1932, Democrats nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for president. FDR was elected to four consecutive terms. In 1941, NBC broadcast the first FCC-sanctioned TV commercial, a spot for Bulova watches shown during a Dodgers-Phillies game. It cost Bulova $9. In 1941, Mammoth Cave National Park was established in Kentucky, protecting 52,830 acres of caverns and a diverse group of animal and plant species. The park is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. In 1946, the United States conducted its first post-war test of the atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. In 1961, Haleakalā National Park was split off from Hawai'i National Park to become its own park. In 1979, Sony introduced the Walkman, known as the Soundabout, in U.S. stores. It sold for about $200. In 1984, the Motion Picture Association of America introduced the PG-13 rating to warn parents that a film may be too violent for children under the age of 13. A top U.S. Catholic Conference official said the move was just another way to exploit young people. In 1990, the West and East German economies were united, with the Deutsche Mark replacing the mark as currency in East Germany. In 1997, Hong Kong was returned to China after 156 years as a British territory. Britain's Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. Secretary Madeleine Albright attended the ceremony. Britain first occupied Hong Kong in the 1840s amid the First Opium War. In 2002, in a rare high-altitude accident, a passenger airliner collided with a cargo plane over Germany, killing all 71 people on the two planes -- 69 on the airliner and two on the cargo aircraft. In 2013, Croatia became the 28th member state of the European Union. In 2013, a year after Mohamed Morsi became president of Egypt, hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in cities across the country, calling for him to step down. Morsi was ousted by the military two days later and died in June 2019. File Photo by Ahmed Jomaa/UPI In 2019, Japan resumed commercial whaling for the first time in 31 years. In 2023, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands acknowledged and apologized for the Dutch role in the historical slave trade in a speech marking the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery in Dutch Suriname. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump has partial immunity for official acts while he was president in a case tied to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. File Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI
Daily Record
02-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
World's biggest aeroplane 'Skytanic' dwarfs Boeing 747 in size longer than football pitch
The plane is set to take off in 2030 The world's largest plane, cheekily nicknamed 'Skytanic', has shocked aircraft enthusiasts with its gigantic size, with its vast measurements rivalling the length of a football pitch. The vessel will take flight within the next five years. Energy firm Radia is spearheading an audacious project to construct a mammoth aircraft named WindRunner. The plane, measuring 108m in length, would outsize a Boeing 747 by carrying twelve times its load and being 38m longer. The impressive aircraft has a unique mission - transporting enormous wind turbine blades to remote locations. Given their size, these blades are among the world's longest objects, potentially limiting the cargo jet to carry just one at a time. Some of these gigantic blades weigh in at approximately 26,000kg, reports the Mirror. Paul Hanna, Radia's vice-president of marketing, spoke about the complex transportation issues associated with wind turbine blades, explaining: "It takes a year and a half to plan a move of these things down a highway. "You've got road bridges to get underneath, traffic signs that need to come down, homes that are near the off-ramp that may have to be moved." Radia's goal is to tackle significant logistical challenges involved in moving these hefty offshore blades, currently a complicated process due to their immense size, and could potentially facilitate the expansion of wind farms. In the near future, wind turbine blades are predicted to extend from 70 metres to 100 metres in length, enabling them to capture more wind while rotating in a slower, less disruptive manner. Already, some companies have had to construct special roads to transport blades of current lengths, as they pose considerable difficulties when navigating through tunnels and under bridges. Radia has identified a novel solution to the logistical challenges of transporting turbine blades by taking to the skies. Over the last ten years, they've been developing the WindRunner, an immense aircraft boasting a cargo space twelve times that of a Boeing 747. The firm aims to have the aircraft airborne before the decade's end. Once operational, it will claim the title of the largest plane ever flown, surpassing the Ukrainian Mriya jet, which met its demise at the start of the Russian invasion in 2022. Rocket scientist Mark Lundstrom is instrumental in shaping the design. He declared that the "only viable solution" for moving large wind turbine blades is to construct a colossal aircraft, thus leading to the creation of the WindRunner. Despite its staggering size, with a height of 24m and a wingspan of 79m, the aircraft can transport just one 105m blade or a maximum of three 80m blades at once. Hanna has unveiled high hopes for Radia to initiate airborne blade transportation by 2030, telling Aerospace magazine about his visionary target. He said: "We have the opportunity to take a dramatic and lasting amount of CO2 out of the atmosphere and we're giving the aerospace industry the chance to participate in reducing the cost of energy by as much as 30 per cent." Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Lundstrom underlined the primary impetus for their initiative. "The necessity to fight climate change is something that's a big motivating factor," he went on. "It's very unique to be able to have an aerospace solution to climate change, as opposed to contributing to the problem. For an aerospace engineer or company to contribute their skills to fighting climate change, instead of just optimising passenger seat miles or making a defence product, is a unique opportunity for the aerospace industry to get exposure into the energy world and also be able to take many percentage points of CO2 out of the world." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
