Politics

Ken Cuccinelli says Trump using military will help drive migrant numbers at border ‘down into the dirt’

Published

2 years ago

November 19, 2024

Ken Cuccinelli says Trump using military will help drive migrant numbers at border ‘down into the dirt’

Former senior Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli said Monday that President-elect Trump “using the military” will help drive migrant numbers at the border “down into the dirt.” Cuccinelli told NewsNation’s Blake Burman in an interview on “Blue Light News” that he believes early next year, “you will see our military used between legal ports of entry…
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Politics

Wedged between Spain and France, this microstate leans south

Published

13 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

44 minutes 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.

Politics

‘Intolerable whiff of racism’: Spanish soccer’s never-ending problem

Published

44 minutes ago

July 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

MADRID — A soccer-racism row involving a former prime minister has triggered renewed scrutiny of a perennial Spanish problem.

Mariano Rajoy, who governed Spain between 2011 and 2018 as leader of the conservative People’s Party, described the French team in a column he wrote for El Debate news site as a “very high-level squad. Of course, without Frenchmen,” in reference to the African heritage of some of the players.

The remarks sparked a fierce backlash from across the border ahead of tonight’s World Cup semifinal between Spain and France in Dallas.

On Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said, “France has no skin color. Any contrary claim stems from stupidity, racism or a combination of the two.”

Several other French politicians also criticized Rajoy, while the French soccer federation president, Philippe Diallo, wrote on social media that the remarks “carry an intolerable whiff of racism.”

Even the spokesperson for the far-right National Rally party, Julien Odoul, said: “Mr. Rajoy is a racist. Simply, his statements are scandalous, shameful, and regrettable. Everyone should condemn them.”

Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also took France’s side against his predecessor.

“There are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth, or skin color,” he wrote on social media. “Spain belongs to those who love it and work for it. Not to those who shame it with xenophobic comments. France, we will see you in the semi-final. May the best team win and may racism lose.”

Rajoy’s comments have reignited a debate that has dogged Spanish soccer for decades, even as it has morphed into a World Cup superpower. While high-profile cases involving stars like Samuel Eto’o and Vinícius Júnior have prompted tougher punishments and greater public condemnation, racist abuse from the stands — and broader questions about race, identity and belonging in Spain — have proved harder to eradicate. The latest controversy underscores how soccer reflects Spanish tensions that extend beyond the pitch.

In 2004, Spain fans made monkey noises at Black English players during a game in Real Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium. Weeks earlier, Spain’s then-coach Luis Aragonés had been caught on microphone calling French star Thierry Henry a “black shit.”

In 2006, Barcelona’s Cameroonian forward Samuel Eto’o refused to continue playing a league game in Real Zaragoza’s La Romareda Stadium after home fans repeatedly directed monkey chants at him. Eto’o’s stand was seen as a reckoning for racism in Spanish soccer, although many believed the €9,000 fine handed to Real Zaragoza was laughable.

In the years since, there have been a number of similar incidents. Most notoriously, in 2023, Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinícius Júnior stopped playing and confronted Valencia fans who had been shouting racist abuse at him in their Mestalla Stadium. The controversy drew a show of outrage and solidarity for the player from the Brazilian government.

Racist abuse by fans had become increasingly common in the 1990s as Spanish soccer drew more players from abroad, including Africa and South America. At approximately the same time, Spain was also starting to see a large influx of immigrants, many of them from those same continents.

In a 2024 research paper on racism in Spanish soccer, the Funcas think tank, an independent institution focused on economic and social analysis, found that many radical fans were unhappy about the arrival of nonwhite players in La Liga.

“What is happening in football reflects what is happening, sooner or later, in broader society,” one fan was quoted as saying in the document.

“If there isn’t a solution, we’ll be invaded by a legion of foreigners and Spain will lose its identity,” the fan added.

Although Spanish authorities have clamped down on radical fan groups since the turn of the century, many of those sentiments have not gone away.

However, the Júnior episode shows that Spain’s soccer institutions take racist abuse more seriously than they did 20 years ago. Three Valencia fans were given eight-month jail sentences for their role in the Mestalla incident. Four fans of Real Madrid’s cross-town rival Atlético de Madrid were also given jail terms for hanging an effigy of Júnior from a bridge before a game.

The Rajoy racism case has surprised many because he is viewed as a moderate and yet his comments chime with the sentiments of the far right.

Political commentator Marc Bassets from the left-leaning El País warned in an op-ed that the kind of opinions voiced by Rajoy are too often tolerated or trivialized. He said the broader political context is significant, including the far-right Vox party’s introduction of a Spaniards-first “national priority” policy in regions where it governs alongside Rajoy’s PP.

“In times of ‘national priority’, the white noise of casual racism that can be seen in society risks becoming even more casual,” Bassets said.

At a press conference Monday, Spanish football star Lamine Yamal hit back at Rajoy.

“If football has a purpose, it is to unite society, and there is no better example [of that] than us and France,” Yamal said, describing both national teams as models of integration.