World
Jimmy Carter’s Significant Impact on Sports and the Law
Former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, played an instrumental role in sports law by signing the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 and leading the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
Carter served as the 39th President, serving one term between 1977 and 1981. He defeated incumbent President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election but lost to former California Gov. Ronald Reagan four years later. A recipient of numerous awards, including the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, Carter had been in hospice care since 2023.
As president, Carter established the Department of Education, spearheaded efforts to deregulate the airline, trucking, telecommunications and other industries, promoted initiatives—including an expansion of national parks—to protect the environment, and eased tensions between Israel and Egypt through the Camp David Accords. His administration was also besieged with high levels of inflation and unemployment and a hostage crisis when militant college students overtook the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held the staff hostage.
The Amateur Sports Act, also called the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act in honor of the late Alaska senator who sponsored the bill, transformed amateur sports in America. Among other effects, the Act designated the U.S. Olympic Committee (later the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee) as a federally chartered corporation and coordinating entity for amateur sports. One key purpose of the Act was to advance U.S. interests in the Olympics at a time when the Olympics held added significance given the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The Act also empowered national governing bodies to oversee specific sports, such as USA Hockey and USA Track and Field. At the same time, the Act limited these NGBs’ authority by excluding oversight over high school and college sports. State athletic associations and the NCAA (and NAIA), respectively, were effectively given control over those areas of sports.
In signing the Act, Carter said he hoped a new framework would rectify “frequent disputes between some of our amateur sports organizations [that] have hindered the grassroots development of amateur sports as well as the performance of United States athletes in international and Olympic competition.” He also highlighted that the USOC would use arbitration to resolve disputes; since that time, arbitration has played a major role in the U.S. sports industry.
Carter’s use of the Olympics to send a political message proved key crucial later in his presidency as well. At the urging of Carter and Congress—with the House voting 386 to 12 and Senate voting 88 to 4 in favor of nonbinding resolutions—the USOC declined to send U.S. teams to the 1980 Olympics. The move was a boycott in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Sixty-four other countries joined the U.S, and only 80 countries participated that year. More than two dozen U.S. athletes sued the USOC over the boycott in hopes of obtaining an injunction to play. However, a court dismissed the case failing to state a plausible claim. Four years later, the Soviet Union and 14 allies including Vietnam, Cuba and Angola, boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as retaliation for the 1980 boycott.
Carter, who also served as governor of Georgia and was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, spoke of his love of sports while he was in the White House. In an interview with Sports Illustrated in 1978, Carter acknowledged that while he had “never been a really good athlete,” he stressed the value of running for working adults who want to stay in good shape.
“It’s not time-consuming,” he said. “I can go out and run, for me, a fairly fast two miles in about 15 minutes, or run three miles in 25 minutes, or take a slower pace—10 minutes to a mile—and run seven miles. Then I can come back in and go back to work shortly.”
Carter also recalled how as a child he built a pole-vaulting pit in his backyard to practice jumping and pole-vaulting.
“As a child,” he recalled, “I had dreams of someday being a famous athlete, but that never did happen.”
It didn’t happen, but he did become president of the United States. He was also the longest-lived president in U.S. history.
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US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his comments on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, saying she asked him “over and over” for a photo when the pair met at the G7 summit in France earlier this week.
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Following the summit, Trump told an Italian journalist that he “felt sorry for Meloni” after she “begged me to take a picture with her”.
Meloni hit back in a video posted to social media, branding Trump’s claims as “completely made up” and insisting that neither she nor Italy begs anyone for anything.
The once close pair’s relationship has grown increasingly fractious in recent months, particularly since Rome refused to provide the US support for its operations in Iran and after Meloni defended Pope Leo XIV, who was criticised by the Trump administration over his remarks on the war and the US’s immigration policies.
“Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Saturday. “She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon”.
“Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her “numbers up.” No thanks!!!” Trump added.
World
‘X-Men’ Star Famke Janssen Says Marvel ‘Made a Mistake’ By Not Asking Her to Return as Jean Grey in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’
Famke Janssen said during a recent conversation with Nerdtropolis at Spacecon 2026 that Marvel “made a mistake” by not bringing her back as Jean Grey for December’s “Avengers: Doomsday.”
“I am so bad at keeping secrets that I always say to everyone I’m the worst actor in the world. It’s all on my face. You right away will read it,” Janssen said. “I think they made a mistake, but hey, who am I? I’m just a little me who thinks that.”
Janssen first appeared as the telepath Jean Grey, aka Phoenix, in 2000’s “X-Men,” and then reprised the role for 2003’s “X2: X-Men United” and 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” She also briefly appeared as Grey in 2013’s “The Wolverine” and 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”
Janssen’s absence from “Doomsday” is notable, considering Marvel is bringing back many of her “X-Men” co-stars for the film. Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier), Ian McKellen (Magneto), James Marsden (Cyclops), Kelsey Grammer (Beast), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) and Rebecca Romijn (Mystique) are all set to return.
In an October 2025 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Janssen said in every interview she does, she’s asked about the future of Jean Grey in the MCU.
“It’s interesting,” Janssen said. “I didn’t realize that was such a big part. Every interview I do, that will come up, and of everything I say, that is going to be the only thing that’s gonna be printed.”
“I should be flattered, I suppose, that this character has resonated with people,” she added. “It’s been so long, but it’s nice that people are still talking about her. I’m sure every single time there’s a new movie that they’re doing, like [is it] ‘Doomsday?’ … it’ll come up again.”
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Authorities are responding after two passenger trains crashed into each other Friday near Bedford, England, killing at least one person and injuring nearly 90 others.
The East of England Ambulance Service said it was called to a collision involving two trains at Elstow, near Bedford, at about 5:15 p.m. local time and quickly declared a “major incident.”
One person died at the scene, 11 people suffered very serious injuries, 22 were seriously injured and 56 people had minor injuries, officials said.
Bedford is roughly 60 miles north of London.
2 TRAINS COLLIDE IN DENMARK, LEAVING 5 PEOPLE CRITICALLY INJURED
Two passenger trains collided Friday in the United Kingdom. (Fox News)
All the patients with the most serious injuries have been taken from the scene to hospital.
The ambulance service said it sent numerous resources to the scene, including more than 20 ambulances, specialist hazardous area response teams and six air ambulances.
MULTIPLE STABBED IN UK TRAIN ATTACK NEAR CAMBRIDGE AS POLICE ARREST 2 SUSPECTS
Emergency crews were pictured working near the scene. (Fox News)
“Our thoughts are with everyone affected, and we thank all emergency service colleagues for their swift response,” the ambulance service wrote in a statement.
The Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed its crews were also responding.
“Please avoid the area,” fire officials wrote in a statement on X.
Sources told The Telegraph the train driver was on the phone with maintenance staff discussing a safety issue at the time of the crash.
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