Olympics

US ICE agents going to the Winter Olympics sparks anger in Italy

Published

2 months ago

January 28, 2026

Demonstrators carry signs condemning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) near the site where a man identified as Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal agents trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Tim Evans/File Photo

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel will help protect U.S. delegations at next month’s Winter Olympics in Italy, causing a political uproar in the country.

ICE and Border Patrol agents have come under heavy criticism over their enforcement of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown after they shot and killed two U.S. citizens in separate incidents this month in Minnesota.

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division will back up the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service at the February 6-22 Milano Cortina Olympics, the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X.

The ICE agents’ role will be “to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations,” the post added, noting “all security operations remain under Italian authority.”

“Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries,” said DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

HISTORY OF ICE DEPLOYMENTS

ICE has been present at major sports events in both the U.S. and abroad in the past, including previous Olympic Games, as part of international partnerships related to human trafficking and drug trafficking, said Jason Houser, who served as ICE chief of staff under former President Joe Biden.

Despite assurances that there is nothing unusual about the deployment, Italian politicians strongly criticised the presence of ICE agents in the country, highlighting how the image of the United States has been tarnished in recent months.

“It seems sheer idiocy to me,” Maurizio Lupi, leader of a small centrist party in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s governing coalition, told la Repubblica daily.

Giuseppe Sala, the left-leaning mayor of Milan, one of the cities co-hosting the Olympics, called ICE “a militia that kills”. Speaking to RTL 102.5 radio, Sala said: “It’s clear that they’re not welcome in Milan, there’s no doubt about it.”

The Rome government sought to defuse the protests. The interior ministry said in a statement that ICE personnel would only work in U.S. diplomatic offices such as the Milan consulate, and “not on the ground” enforcing order.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said he met with U.S. Ambassador Tilman Fertitta. Piantedosi said he would address parliament on February 4. The U.S. embassy in Italy declined to comment.

‘IT’S NOT AS IF THE SS ARE ARRIVING’, MINISTER SAYS

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called for a measured response. “We’re not talking about the (ICE people) who were out on the streets of Minneapolis… It’s not as if the (Nazi) SS are arriving,” he told reporters at a Holocaust memorial event.

A State Department spokesperson said that, as in past Olympics, multiple federal agencies would help with security, including ICE.

But Italia Viva, a centrist Italian opposition party led by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, said agents affiliated with ICE did not represent Italian values and should be barred from entry.

The hard-left USB trade union said it would hold an “ICE OUT” rally in central Milan on February 6, to coincide with the Olympic opening ceremony.

-Reuters

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Olympics

LA28 says first Olympic tickets will go on sale on April 9, resale partners named for 2027

Published

3 days ago

March 31, 2026

Kunle Solaja

Tickets for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games will go on sale to the general public on April 9, organisers said on Monday, as LA28 also moved to reassure fans over ticket security by naming a group of verified resale ‌platforms that will begin operating in 2027.

A presale for residents in qualifying areas of Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will begin on April 2, with notification emails for selected buyers set to roll out from March 31 through April 4, LA28 said.

On April 7, the organising committee will notify remaining registrants whether they were selected for a purchase window in the first general sales round, known as Drop 1.

“This week marks the first opportunity for fans to claim a seat at the LA28 Olympic Games,” LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement.

LA28’s ticketing programme will include 1 ⁠million tickets priced at $28, the lowest price point. Roughly 5% of the Olympic tickets will cost over $1,000, while more than 75% of all tickets, including finals, will be under $400 and nearly 50% of all tickets will be under $200.

“Tickets are comparable to and in many cases well under what we see for other professional sporting and major entertainment events in the U.S.,” Allison Katz-Mayfield, LA28 Senior Vice President, Games Delivery Revenue, told reporters on a call.

RESALE PROGRAMME

Separately, LA28 said its verified multi-platform resale programme would open in 2027, with AXS and Eventim serving as the official secondary ticket marketplace and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets also designated as verified resale platforms.

The announcement comes as organisers prepare for the first ticket drop and seek to warn fans against buying from unauthorised sellers before the resale programme launches.

LA28 said primary tickets would only be sold through its official ticket service providers, AXS and Eventim. It added that any LA28 tickets offered for resale before 2027 ‌should not ⁠be considered verified.

“While LA28’s resale platforms will not be launched until 2027, having a variety of platforms was critical to providing fans multiple points of access to verified tickets,” Hoover said.

LOCAL PRESALE

Fans who registered for the LA28 ticket draw and whose billing postal codes fall within qualifying counties were automatically entered into the local presale draw. Those selected will receive 48-hour purchase windows running from April 2 through April 6 and must use a payment method tied to a billing postal code in an eligible county to complete their ⁠purchase.

For both the local presale and Drop 1, selected buyers will have 48 hours to purchase tickets, while any tickets placed in a cart must be checked out within 30 minutes. Buyers may complete multiple transactions during their allotted window until they reach the ticket limit.

LA28 said tickets would be available across all Olympic sports, as well as for the ⁠opening ceremony at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Fans selected for time slots may buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, plus up to 12 tickets for the soccer tournament that will not count toward the general Olympic-event limit. Ceremony tickets will be capped at ⁠four per buyer and will count towards the 12-ticket maximum.

Registrants who are not assigned a time slot in either the local presale or Drop 1 will be automatically entered into future draws, LA28 said. Paralympic tickets are due to go on sale in 2027.

Ticket-inclusive hospitality packages from official provider On Location are also expected to go on sale in April. Visa will be the official payment method for purchases.

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Olympics

LA28 unveils floral-inspired visual identity for 2028 Olympics

Published

2 weeks ago

March 23, 2026

Kunle Solaja

Workers from LA28 setup Olympic and Paralympic flags outside the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 8, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

Organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled the event’s official visual identity on Monday, a floral-themed design system meant to reflect the city’s landscape, neighbourhoods and ‌cultural character.

The branding will appear across competition venues, fan areas, citywide installations, signage, digital platforms and broadcast presentations during the Games, LA28 said.

At the centre of the design is the “Superbloom,” a reference to the bursts of wildflowers that can blanket parts of Southern California after periods of rain.

LA28 said the ⁠concept was intended as a metaphor for the Games, with years of preparation culminating in a short, high-profile global event.

The core graphic is built around 13 individual blooms, which organizers said represent different elements of Los Angeles, from its entertainment culture to its neighbourhoods, people and native landscape.

The colour palette draws on the Bird of Paradise, the official flower of Los Angeles, and is grouped into four families – Poppy, Scarlet Flax, Bluebell and Sagebrush – to evoke the region’s terrain and vegetation.

Organizers said ‌the ⁠typographic style was inspired by Los Angeles street signage, including strip mall and hand-painted storefront lettering, in an effort to give the identity a distinctly local feel.

LA28 said the design was developed to work across a wide range of settings, from nearly century-old venues ⁠to new facilities, while also accounting for broadcast requirements, digital formats and lighting conditions. The organising committee partnered with design studio Koto on the project.

The identity was unveiled more than ⁠two years before the Olympic opening ceremony in what organizers described as an unusually early rollout, allowing partners and stakeholders more time to incorporate the branding into ⁠their materials.

Los Angeles will host the Olympics for a third time in 2028, after staging the Games in 1932 and 1984. It will also host the Paralympics for the first time.

-Reuters

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Olympics

LA28 ticket registration nears deadline as first Olympic qualifiers emerge

Published

2 weeks ago

March 17, 2026

Kunle Solaja

LA28 officials speak to the media - LA Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California, U.S. - January 13, 2026 General view of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum REUTERS/Daniel Cole

Organisers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics said on Monday that registration for the first ticket draw will close on March 18, as the Games begin to take shape with the first baseball qualifiers confirmed and the soccer tournament ‌schedule expanded.

More than five million fans from 197 countries and territories have registered at tickets.la28.org since January for a chance to buy tickets, LA28 said, underscoring strong early demand for the Summer Games, which are due to open on July 14, 2028.

Fans who register by the March 18 deadline will be eligible for a lottery to receive a purchase window for the ⁠first ticket release, scheduled for April 9-19.

There will also be a local presale running from April 2-6 for eligible residents in parts of Southern California and Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host softball and canoe slalom.

LA28 said selected applicants would be notified by email between March 31 and April 7. Fans picked for the first sale window will be able to buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, subject to availability, with a four-ticket cap for each of the opening and closing ceremonies.

BASEBALL RETURNS

The ticketing update comes as the first teams booked places in the Olympic baseball tournament through the 2026 World ‌Baseball ⁠Classic. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela secured qualification spots from the Americas, joining host United States in the six-team field.

Baseball, one of the sports added to the LA28 programme, will return to the Olympics for the first time since the Tokyo Games and will be played at Dodger Stadium from July 13-19. The remaining three places ⁠will be decided through international qualifying tournaments in 2027 and 2028.

LA28 also confirmed that the Olympic soccer tournament will begin on July 10, four days before the opening ceremony, following a decision by the International Olympic Committee Executive ⁠Board to extend the competition window.

Organisers said the longer schedule would give teams two additional rest days compared with previous Games.

Group-stage and quarter-final matches will be staged in seven U.S. cities – New York, ⁠Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, San Diego and Pasadena – with the men’s and women’s gold medal matches to be played at the Rose Bowl.