Enhanced Games are dangerous and must be stopped, says Wada head
The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has called on the body’s American counterparts to act to stop the Enhanced Games, describing the new event – which allows athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in competition – as “dangerous” and “irresponsible”.Witold Banka said the world’s anti-doping regimes had to be “very united” in their opposition to the Enhanced Games and said the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) had a responsibility to push against it.Banka went on to criticise the anti-doping regime in the US, at a time when the government there has withheld crucial funding from Wada’s operations.“Sometimes we don’t know what to say about this ridiculous idea, because from the ethical point of view, from the moral point of view, how is it possible that people come to agree to compete, taking all these prohibited substances?” Banka said.“It’s completely against everything that we are doing.
It’s very dangerous.I hope it will not happen, although there are quite important and rich people who are sponsors of this irresponsible event.”Banka said anti-doping authorities had to be “very strong” in their opposition to the games.“We have to be very united,” he said.“We really want our colleagues from the US to do more to make sure that this event will not happen.
There are some legal possibilities they can lobby for.Usada have made general comments, but maybe it’s time to try and convince the people who have financed this that it’s dangerous.That’s [Usada’s] role and responsibility because the event is going to take place in Las Vegas.”The Enhanced Games is scheduled to take place next year at Resorts World in Nevada, with events in swimming, athletics and weightlifting.Marketing itself as “pioneering a new era in athletic competition that embraces scientific advancements to push the boundaries of human performance”, it is backed by funding from an investment group that includes Donald Trump Jr.
The event has attracted global headlines and opprobrium in equal measure because of its approach towards PEDs and the $250,000 rewards offered to athletes for breaking official world records, with $1m on offer in 50m freestyle swimming and 100m sprint,The head of Usada, Travis Tygart, has previously called the Enhanced Games “a clown show”, but has also been heavily critical of Wada,In the aftermath of the controversy involving 23 Chinese swimmers, who competed at the Tokyo Olympics despite recording positive drug tests, Tygart said that Wada had “accepted China can play by its own set of rules”,An independent review later found no evidence of bias towards China in Wada’s response,Tygart also supported a decision by the US government to withhold funding from Wada earlier this year, saying it was “the only right choice to protect athletes’ rights and fair competition”.
Speaking in London on Thursday, Banka said Wada was “very keen” to work with Usada but that “it has to be based on mutual respect”.He then went on to criticise the US anti-doping regime, noting that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is not a signatory to the world anti-doping code.“When we see anti-doping in US, the problem is that this is far from perfect system,” Banka said.“Almost 90% of US athletes are not competing under the world anti-doping code.[Elsewhere] only 308 samples were collected in the six months after the Olympics in 2024.
Ask yourself if [the US system] is robust or it requires improvement.Is there a great anti-doping programme in the strongest sporting nation in the world?“China was a fair decision and was used in the US against Wada to destroy its image,” Banka went on.“This is politicisation.There is zero evidence that there was something wrong on Wada’s side.My wish is that instead of politicisation and attacking us, the time is used to address the gaps and strengthen the anti-doping system in the US.
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Lib Dem members criticise ‘trans-exclusionary’ rule change for party elections
Liberal Democrat members have reacted angrily to an unexpected change in rules governing the party’s internal elections to reflect the supreme court’s ruling on biological sex.The party’s LGBT+ group described the move as “explicitly trans-exclusionary” while Young Liberals said the changes were “unacceptable and untenable”. The official women’s body for the party, Lib Dem Women, have expressed “grave concerns” at both the substance of the announcement and the manner it was communicated. Some Lib Dem MPs are understood to be perplexed at the sudden turnaround.Voting in elections for posts on internal committees as well as the role of Lib Dem president began on Tuesday
Kemi Badenoch smiles from the stump as she heads towards oblivion | John Crace
It’s common knowledge that Kemi Badenoch is not an early morning person. Or an any time of morning person. Look at her in the wrong way and you’re likely to catch an earful.So it must have taken a lot of persuading from Conservative central office to get her out and about at 9am. But needs must
Ministers to delegate some public appointments in attempt to cut delays
Ministers are planning to speed up public appointments to bodies such as Ofcom, the Environment Agency and BBC by allowing more of the hiring process to be delegated to senior officials.In the biggest shake-up of the public appointments process in a decade, the Cabinet Office is producing new guidance governing how candidates can be picked for about 4,000 public roles.The changes are being made because of excessive delays in the hiring system and extended vacancies, with ministers currently consulted at every step of the process – meaning only about one in seven appointments were completed in less than three months.Under the new rules, ministers will be able to choose to delegate much more of the process to officials, while retaining the final say over who is chosen and the job specification.Others changes include allowing candidates to remain on a “reserve list” for two years rather than 12 months, ensuring that they can be considered and hired quickly if an appointment falls through – without having to run an entirely new hiring campaign
No 10 refuses to say if ethics adviser saw proof Reeves’s rental breach was ‘inadvertent’
Downing Street has refused to say whether Keir Starmer’s adviser on ministerial conduct has seen any evidence to support Rachel Reeves’s claim she made an “inadvertent” mistake in failing to get a licence to rent out her south London home.As pressure mounted on the chancellor, despite the prime minister saying an apology should end the matter, No 10 also declined to say whether Reeves contravened the ministerial code or had broken the law in breaching Southwark council rules.In an exchange of letters with Starmer late on Wednesday, Reeves said that when she rented out the house she had not been told by the lettings agency that homes in that area needed a £945 licence before they were rented out.In his reply, Starmer said that having consulted his independent adviser on ministerial interests, Laurie Magnus, he was satisfied the breach was “inadvertent” and that given her prompt action once she knew about the licence, an apology was sufficient.Pressed repeatedly at a media briefing whether Magnus had seen any evidence to back up Reeves’s case or had simply taken the chancellor at her word, a Downing Street spokesperson refused to say, noting that Magnus’s advice was always confidential
Tories will not deport legally settled people, Badenoch clarifies
The Conservative MP Katie Lam spoke “imprecisely” in stating the party would deport large numbers of legally settled families from the UK, Kemi Badenoch said, adding she had no plans to make tougher immigration rules retrospective.Badenoch’s comments to reporters after a speech in London end days of confusion over Tory migration policy, particularly over whether many thousands of people who have made lives in the UK could lose their status of indefinite leave to remain (ILR) under a future Conservative government.In an interview earlier this month, Lam, a shadow Home Office minister, said that the party’s policy was to revoke ILR, and people would “go home” in order to ensure the UK was mostly “culturally coherent”.Her comments prompted some Conservative MPs to complain to party whips, and renewed focus on a Conservative draft bill tabled in May, under which people would lose ILR if they or a dependant claimed any benefit or if their income was less than £38,700.While Badenoch’s spokesperson initially said Lam was “broadly in line” with party policy, the Tories then said its policy on ILR had changed, while refusing to say if changes to rules would be made retrospective
Boris Johnson tells Tories to stop ‘bashing green agenda’ or risk losing next election
Boris Johnson has warned the Conservatives they will not win the next election by “bashing the green agenda”.The former prime minister said he had not seen the Conservatives “soaring in the polls as a result of saying what rubbish net zero is”.Johnson’s intervention comes after Theresa May and John Major criticised the Tories for speaking out against net zero, making him the third former prime minister to step in on this issue.Kemi Badenoch has committed the party to repealing the Climate Change Act and abandoning the commitment to reach net zero by 2050, arguing that the target threatens to bankrupt Britain.The repeal of the act would remove the need to meet “carbon budgets” – ceilings, set for five-year periods, on the amount of greenhouse gas that can be emitted – and disband the Climate Change Committee – a watchdog that advises on how policies affect the UK’s carbon footprint
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Benefits of a four-day week are ever clearer, despite Steve Reed’s stance
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