Burly men in Gaza pull trucks and flip tires in competition of strength

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — No day in Gaza is normal, but Friday stood out for its shouts of delight as athletes pulled trucks, flipped massive tires and heaved weights in a strength competition that drew cheering crowds.

Children and women perched on the rubble of war-destroyed buildings and watched competitors of the Palestine Strongman Championship tip over tires nearly as tall as themselves.

The men lifted loaded barbells and hustled across a courtyard echoing with shouts and music. And there was a frenzy as one man, grimacing and sweating, lurched along pulling a truck with a rope.

Participating was a “great, indescribable feeling. After three years of destruction, strikes, hunger and death, we are back in this fantastic atmosphere,” said one bulky participant, Riyad Fattouh.

The organizer, Waleed Owda, said the event had been scheduled for 2021 but was postponed, and then delayed again in 2023 when war erupted. The Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, brought Israeli retaliation.

“All sports activities were stopped and all sport clubs and venues were destroyed in Gaza,” Owda said. “Today, with the help of sponsors, we were able to hold the championship and it is successful, as you can see.”

Despite the ruined setting in the Palestinian territory that remains nearly cut off from the world under a fragile ceasefire, “the youths proved to the world that Gaza is home to champions,” Owda said.

A Palestinian competitor lifts a heavily weighted barbell during the Palestine Strongman Championship in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Palestinian competitor flips a large tire during the Palestine Strongman Championship in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Palestinian competitor pulls a truck during the Palestine Strongman Championship in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian women and children watch the Palestine Strongman Championship from among the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Palestinian competitor lifts a dumbbell during the Palestine Strongman Championship in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

CHICAGO (AP) — Tesla has unveiled its new Roadster sports car, which can thrust itself in the air, among other engineering bells and whistles. But drivers shouldn't expect to take it for a spin anytime soon.

Elon Musk's electric car company rolled out its second-generation Roadster at a Thursday event, showing off a set of cold gas thrusters and a “multi-mode” suction system that can fling the car in the air for short spurts and spin the vehicle mid-flight.

“Turns out the future does have flying cars,” Musk, Tesla's CEO, wrote on his social media platform X shortly after.

That future could be a ways off, however, given the regulatory hurdles for flying vehicles and the tangle of state rules that still need to be met.

“I’m not sure every state is going to allow a driver in the middle of traffic to suddenly elevate himself and fly," said David Vladeck, a Georgetown Law professor and former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “There is going to be a long process to let anything like that on a road.”

Thursday's event was hosted at the Texas rocket testing and development center for SpaceX — Musk's publicly-traded rocket company — and Tesla's executives noted that they “borrowed” some SpaceX technology to get the new Roadster in the air. Beyond quick jumps and flips, Tesla also said the car can accelerate from zero to 60 miles (96.6 km) an hour in less than a second.

This week's launch arrived after years of delays and anticipation around the new Roadster — and Tesla shares climbed in morning trading on Friday before falling amid a sell-off in companies tied to artificial intelligence.

The wait isn't completely over. Musk said production for consumers won't begin until 2028. Tesla also didn't immediately set a price tag on its latest EV.

Tesla was taking reservations for Roadster “rocket” car purchases on its website Friday morning, though the fine print said there was no guarantee when the vehicle would be delivered — or whether it would be delivered at all.

Bryant Walker Smith, former vice chair of a Department of Transportation advisory group on innovation, was unimpressed — though he did note Musk's ability to keep Tesla's stock high.

“This was a demonstration of a one-off car using a technology around for many years and will not be coming to public roads in 2028," said Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. “Tesla pretty uniquely has been able to sell itself on a future that is an order of magnitude greater than reality.”

Musk has repeatedly said that the future of driving will be autonomous — and Austin-based Tesla has focused much of its business on building out self-driving features for its vehicles and, more recently, launching its own (still limited) robotaxi business.

But the company maintains that the Roadster will be made to have humans behind the wheel, calling the EV the “best of the last human-driven cars.”

Thursday's demo was technically autonomous “to make sure we don’t kill anyone,” Musk noted. But long-term, he said, the new Roadster will be “the only manually driven car that Tesla makes.”

“This is not necessarily a safety-optimized car,” Musk later added, met by laughter from the audience. But “it takes the fun meter to 11 out of 10.”

Tesla's first Roadster was launched back in 2008. And in 2018, Musk went as far as placing one on a rocket — with a mannequin dubbed “Starman” in the driver's seat — and launching it into space.

Again, the second-generation Roadster isn't immediately hitting the market. And whether the ambitious new vehicle boosts the company's bottom line remains to be seen.

In second-quarter earnings reported over the summer, Tesla's profits fell as the company spent more on research and development for its robotaxi and robotics businesses — which cut into money made from an otherwise sharp increase in vehicle sales. Net income totaled $1.11 billion for the period, while revenue climbed to $28.24 billion.

FILE - The Tesla logo is displayed at a Tesla dealership Thursday, Mar. 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, file)