Politics

Stefanik rejoins House GOP leadership

Published

1 year ago

April 15, 2025

Rep. Elise Stefanik said Wednesday she will rejoin the House Republican leadership, albeit at a lower rung, after being forced to abandon her nomination as ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik previously served as GOP conference chair, the No. 4 leadership position, before abandoning the post when Donald Trump tapped her last year as president-elect for the U.N…
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Politics

French soccer team arrives in Dallas on an ICE deportation jet

Published

3 minutes ago

July 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The French national team arrived in Dallas on Sunday aboard an Airbus A320 jet. The day before, the same jet had been used for an ICE deportation flight to Nicaragua.

The French team has traveled on GlobalX charter flights to travel during the World Cup, as The Guardian first reported Thursday. GlobalX, a Miami-based charter airline, has maintained its traditional business while also operating a growing number of deportation flights since the Trump administration launched its mass deportation campaign.

This dual use has created a stark contrast, with planes used to carry deportees shackled to their seats soon returning to routine charter service. Although many Americans back deporting unauthorized immigrants, U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign has drawn extensive backlash over its forceful tactics and violent clashes with protesters.

Blue Light News tracked the jet that carried Les Bleus to Dallas and asked researchers with ICE Flight Monitor, which tracks deportation flights, whether it had been used for Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations. The team posted Monday a video of players deboarding in Dallas from a jet with a “Global Crossing Airlines” insignia, the legal name of GlobalX.

“Under the second Trump administration, this particular plane conducted 323 ICE flights,” said Savi Arvey, director of policy for refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First, which oversees ICE Flight Monitor.

After departing Nicaragua on Saturday, the GlobalX jet flew on to Harlingen, Texas, an ICE deportation hub, and then Boston, the French team’s training base, according to data provided by ICE Flight Monitor. About 15 hours after landing in Boston, it departed for Dallas with the team aboard.

Representatives for the French football federation and GlobalX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Less than an hour after landing in Dallas, the GlobalX jet flew to Harlingen to conduct another deportation flight to Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Spanish national team arrived in Dallas aboard an American Airlines jet. The airline has not operated any ICE deportation flights.

Politics

Wedged between Spain and France, this microstate leans south

Published

33 minutes ago

July 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Some of the most spectacular World Cup moments have been defined by the defiance of impossible odds. Beyond the sporting realm, the Principality of Andorra is something of an authority on the matter.

For the past 748 years, the landlocked microstate has managed to survive in a corner of the eastern Pyrenees mountain range despite being wedged between its two larger and more powerful neighbors. Those nations, Spain and France, will face off Tuesday in Dallas in the semifinals of the World Cup.

Unlike extinct realms like the Kingdom of Navarre or the Duchy of Lorraine, Andorra avoided getting annexed by Madrid or Paris by cannily swearing fealty to both of them — and playing them off against one another.

That’s because since 1278 the country has simultaneously recognized France’s king — and, later, its emperors and presidents — and the bishop of Spain’s Catholic diocese of Urgell as its co-princes. Doing so has prevented both French and Spanish rulers from taking over the tiny country, because that action would inevitably bring it into conflict with Andorra’s other co-sovereign.

Preserving their independence has obliged Andorrans to spend centuries walking a delicate diplomatic tightrope, carefully avoiding favoring one neighbor over the other. But Marc Basco, sportswriter for the Diari d’Andorra — the microstate’s leading newspaper — said that neutrality is less evident when it comes to soccer.

“Historically, there’s been an inclination toward France,” he said. “Our country’s political and upper classes have generally had closer ties to the country, and the elites still tend to study there.”

But that trend shifted in recent years as the principality’s demographics changed with the arrival of immigrants from the south. “Of the 89,058 inhabitants recorded in 2025, 20,216 are Spanish nationals, 8,777 are Portuguese, and just 3,665 are French,” Basco said. “And sporting preferences are very personal: they’re usually linked to your family origin, the language you speak at home, the clubs you’ve followed since childhood.”

“When it comes to football, the inclination toward Spain is clearly greater,” he said, noting that La Liga — Spain’s top professional soccer league — has a “massive following” in the principality, and that the country’s top club, FC Andorra, competes in the second division of the Spanish league.

But, he added, that preference is absent when it comes to rugby, which is also extremely popular in Andorra. When tournaments are held, the country’s residents tend to root for France, in part because so many of them studied in French schools where the sport is played.

The principality’s own national soccer team competes in the notoriously difficult UEFA qualifying section, facing heavyweights like England and Germany. Having failed to make it into this year’s tournament — or, indeed, any past World Cup — Basco said Andorra’s residents are likely to favor Spain in tonight’s semifinal match, but he insisted that doing so doesn’t imply ill will toward France.

“With Spain, and especially [the Spanish region of] Catalonia, the connection is more intense … Catalan is our official language, and the interactions are constant,” he said. “But France represents our other major historical axis and is a significant presence in our education system and institutions, and this Wednesday our parliament is due to vote on an agreement to strengthen relations with Paris.”

Today, Andorra has no real fear of being devoured by its neighbors, and the sportswriter said the French president and the bishop of Urgell’s status as the principality’s joint heads of state is “primarily perceived as a unique historical and institutional feature.”

But, he added, inhabitants’ satisfaction with that arrangement could change following next year’s presidential elections in France, in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen is the front-runner, or if the Andorran government carries out its promise to decriminalize abortion, setting the stage for a major clash with its Catholic co-prince.

For now, however, Basco said Andorrans are happy to keep up their centuries-long status quo, preserving a “relationship with both countries that is very close and, generally speaking, based on pragmatism and a sense of good neighborliness.”

Politics

French and Spanish parties

Published

1 hour ago

July 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Tonight’s semifinal game between France and Spain pits two of the EU’s biggest nations against each other for a chance to win the World Cup. It also comes on France’s national day, after celebrations and a military parade in Paris attended by world leaders.

In Brussels, the country’s diplomatic mission is hosting a celebration marking the event, which will double as a soccer screening. Blue Light News will be there to bring you a snapshot from the party. Whether les Bleus come out on top and the French end the day in a frenzy of national pride — or are left deflated by Spain’s La Roja — will become clear before midnight in Brussels.