Politics

👀 Potential Spain vs. US clash

Published

2 hours ago

July 6, 2026

There is a politically mouthwatering prospect in store on Friday night.

Should Spain beat Portugal in Dallas in the match ongoing now and the U.S. handles Belgium tonight, the feuding allies will face off in Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium for a place in the World Cup semifinals.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted Spain since he returned to office in January 2025 over its military spending record. Spain’s outspoken socialist leader Pedro Sánchez has also clashed spectacularly with Trump over the Iran war and Israel’s assault in Gaza. Meanwhile their policies on issues from energy to immigration are worlds apart.

Read the full story about the fractured Spain-U.S. relationship by Guy Hedgecoe in Madrid here.

Politics

Khanna and Gallego withdraw Platner endorsements

Published

20 minutes ago

July 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Ro Khanna and Sen. Ruben Gallego rescinded their support of Graham Platner on Monday, with Khanna additionally calling for the Democratic nominee to drop out of the Maine Senate race.

It’s a significant reversal from two formerly staunch Democratic defenders of Platner, following a POLITICO report that a woman who dated Platner said he forced her to have sex with him five years ago.

Platner has denied the allegations, but he also posted on social media that he was “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward” for his candidacy.

“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna (D-Calif.) said on X. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”

In his own social media post, Gallego (D-Ariz.) called the allegations “troubling and deeply serious” while announcing he would no longer back the progressive oysterman.

Politics

Revenge of the ‘hellhole’: Belgium eyes payback in US World Cup clash

Published

35 minutes ago

July 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

BRUSSELS — When the United States faces Belgium in the World Cup’s round-of-16 match on Monday, the politically messy, self-effacing wannabe middle power will be eyeing revenge.

First, for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 remark that living in its capital, Brussels, was “like living in a hellhole,” the start of a still-ongoing diatribe about the impact of immigration on the European Union.

And second, for a controversial decision made Sunday night by the FIFA organizers to lift U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s one-match ban — freeing him up to play against Belgium — that has sparked outrage in the small Western European country.

“This decision clearly raises many questions,” Belgium’s Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Prévot told POLITICO on Monday. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever responded ironically and shared an image of his cat on social media that read: “Red card? I’ll play anyway.”

“True strength lies in winning with fair play [and by following all the rules]. That’s what Belgium will do,” Jacqueline Galant, Walloon sports minister from the French-speaking liberal Reformist Movement, said on X.

The White House involvement in lobbying FIFA to scrap the ban also sparked condemnation well beyond Belgian borders.

“Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls,” former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who was himself ousted in a massive corruption scandal that rocked the world football governing body, said on X on Monday. “Football must never become a playground for political power.”

European football federation UEFA said in a statement on Monday the decision “crossed a red line” before blasting, “We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.”

In some ways, the clash between the U.S. and Belgium reflects a deeper ideological divide.

The European country hosts the headquarters of defense alliance NATO and is a co-founding nation of the EU — multilateral institutions that Trump and his MAGA movement have railed against from the White House.

Belgium is a political labyrinth, made up of several governments sharing control, with a federal government composed of five political parties ranging everywhere from the right wing to center-left. The country prides itself on its ability to forge political compromises. (It also holds the world record for the longest time taken to form a government.)

It is the antithesis of government when viewed from the vantage point of a U.S. president who is expanding executive power, bulldozing over the separation of powers and whose political success is rooted in confrontation and polarization, rather than compromise.

Belgian politics is a system of consensus, with strong checks and balances to keep executive power under control, said Carl Devos, Belgian political scientist at the University of Ghent. “The kind of politics that Trump practices, with so much power concentrated in the hands of one man, is unthinkable” for Belgians.

In international politics, too, “Belgium makes up for its smaller size by promoting diplomacy and rulesetting. And so respecting the rules is crucial for it. What Trump is doing clashes fundamentally with our political culture,” Devos said.Trump’s intervention in the Balogun suspension is only the most recent example of that.

Politics

Paraguayan senator’s ‘brazen racism’ against Mbappé sparks anger in France

Published

1 hour ago

July 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

France united behind Kylian Mbappé on Monday after Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla aimed a volley of abuse at the French striker.

Amarilla, a senator with the centrist Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), published the posts a day after Paraguay’s elimination to France in a tense round-of-16 World Cup match. She referred to Mbappé as a “brute,” mocked his intelligence and questioned his French identity, describing him as a “colonized Cameroonian pretending to be French.”

French Sports Minister Marina Ferrari called the remarks “abhorrent” and “all the more unacceptable” because they came from an elected official. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said that he was “deeply shocked,” writing on X that “the France team looks like France, and Kylian Mbappé is one of the greatest representatives of our country.”

The abuse directed at Mbappé taps into a decades-old fault line in French public life. France’s national soccer team has long symbolized the country’s ethnic and racial diversity, with many of its biggest stars — including Mbappé, whose father is from Cameroon and mother is of Algerian descent — coming from immigrant backgrounds. The team’s multicultural makeup has repeatedly become a proxy for broader debates over French identity and immigration particularly after major tournaments.

While victories have often been celebrated as proof of an inclusive country — as with the celebrated 1998 Black-Blanc-Beur World Cup-winning side — defeats have occasionally revived racist attacks and questions over whether non-white players are “truly” French.

French European Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad also condemned what he called Amarilla’s “unacceptable racist remarks,” saying there could be no tolerance for hatred masquerading as political speech.

Mbappé himself lambasted Amarilla. “You are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position,” he wrote on X late Monday. “You do not represent Paraguay.” He accused the senator of allowing “brazen racism” to overshadow Paraguay’s historic World Cup run and vowed never to let “people like her” spread hatred unchecked. Blue Light News has contacted Amarilla for comment.

The French Football Federation announced Monday it would file a criminal complaint. “The racist comments made by Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla toward Kylian Mbappé are utterly vile and unacceptable,” the federation said in a statement. “These statements are criminal and condemnable. They must be prosecuted here and everywhere.”