Politics

The great France-Morocco reconciliation faces a World Cup test

Published

3 months ago

July 9, 2026

The newfound harmony between France and Morocco will be tested Thursday night when the two nations clash in the World Cup quarterfinals in Boston.

Relations between Paris and Rabat have rarely been warmer, after President Emmanuel Macron recognized Morocco’s disputed sovereignty plan for Western Sahara in 2024. During a state visit to Rabat that year, Macron hailed a deep connection between the two countries “that stretches back to time immemorial.”

But the propensity of French police to crack down on exuberant football fans, along with recurring violent incidents after big matches involving French teams, and the scorching summer weather baking France all add up to a potential tinderbox across the country.

Due to France’s large Moroccan community — which numbers at least 1.7 million people, according to 2019 data — and the country’s recent difficulties managing post-match celebrations, authorities have put some security precautions in place. The Paris police department has banned flares and fireworks on the night of the match, warning that “numerous incidents of violence occur regularly during the final stages of major soccer tournaments.”

In May, 20,000 people took to the streets to celebrate Paris Saint-Germain’s second straight UEFA Champions League title, leading to unrest and clashes between supporters and police. Far-right chief Jordan Bardella seized on the violence to blame France’s population of immigrant descent.

Asked whether Thursday night’s game carried any particular security risk, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez replied “like any match” during an interview this week on French public television.

Nuñez said police would be “extremely vigilant during the celebrations” regardless of the result but would not automatically move to disperse public gatherings. He added that the same approach had been used for France’s previous matches, while noting that fixtures generally become higher risk as tournaments reach their final stages.

French outlet Le Parisien reported Wednesday evening that in private authorities had compiled a document that noted: “This match presents an increased risk due to its knockout nature and the stakes of qualifying for the semi-finals.”

France and Morocco have shared unusually close ties for decades, shaped by Morocco’s status as a French protectorate from 1912 until its independence in 1956. France remains one of Morocco’s largest trading partners, while security and intelligence cooperation has long been a cornerstone of the relationship — even if political disputes have periodically strained it.

In 2021, media investigations alleged that Moroccan authorities had used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to target phones belonging to Macron and other French officials. Ties remained frosty after a devastating earthquake struck Morocco in 2023, when Rabat declined France’s offer of aid.

Macron’s Western Sahara gambit in 2024, which aligned France with Spain, the U.S. and dozens of other countries around the world, helped to quell the tensions between the two countries — an important matter for France, which seeks Morocco’s cooperation on topics ranging from trade to migration. Western Sahara is mostly controlled by Morocco, but Rabat’s sovereignty over the territory is not internationally recognized.

The connection between France and Morocco runs all the way to the pitch: France captain Kylian Mbappé and Morocco skipper Achraf Hakimi — former teammates at Paris Saint-Germain — are close friends off the field.

Previous France-Morocco encounters, including in the 2022 World Cup semifinals, led to some arrests but no major public unrest. Morocco’s big games in other competitions, like the African Cup of Nations, have also largely passed off without trouble in France.

A law enforcement official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said any concerns were more likely to center on possible tensions between Morocco supporters and members of the French-Algerian community, given the diplomatic angst between the North African neighbors.

A center-left parliamentarian, who also spoke to Blue Light News on the condition of anonymity, said they would expect France’s powerful far right — which is leading the race for the French presidency in 2027 — to try to score political points off any unrest that occurs, as they did after the Champions League final. “Morocco, Algeria or any other African country, I don’t think they care about the distinctions,” the lawmaker said.

But what is perhaps most striking about the Paris-Rabat reconciliation is that even the anti-immigrant far right is on board. The French-Moroccan friendship committee in parliament is chaired by Hélène Laporte, a senior member of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s National Rally.

Laporte has said “the relationship between France and Morocco is strong and enduring,” describing it as built on “deep human bonds and a sincere friendship.”

Politics

Crypto weighs revenge against Democrats — and the risks that come with it

Published

4 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The cryptocurrency industry is at a political crossroads.

Reeling from the demise of its longtime top legislative priority, crypto companies must now decide how scorched-earth to go against Senate Democrats, who last week voted unanimously against the so-called Clarity Act, a sweeping bill that would create a bespoke new regulatory framework for digital assets.

A crypto-backed PAC network’s move this week provides a hint of what may be to come. The group, known as Fairshake, announced it would spend at least $30 million to help block Democrat Sherrod Brown from recapturing a pivotal Ohio Senate seat, representing the first major signal of how the industry plans to deploy its massive campaign war chest in the final weeks before the 2026 midterms.

Some crypto executives have publicly signaled an appetite in recent days for punishing Democrats. But a partisan strategy carries major political risk for the industry: A broad offensive against Democrats ahead of an election where they have a chance to reclaim power on Capitol Hill could further alienate lawmakers the industry may soon need to revive its agenda.

“As much as some people may want to, they can’t wave a wand and make Democrats go away,” said Sheila Warren, the former CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, an industry trade group. “Every industry — not just crypto — has to figure out what to do with that reality.”

The crypto industry’s spending could have immediate consequences after the election. Democrats are signaling that a Senate GOP-aligned spending spree would suppress any appetite for lame duck dealmaking involving the Clarity bill — although it remains a long shot that it would come back to life regardless. A Senate Democratic aide involved in the crypto effort said a full-scale assault on the party’s Senate candidates “would absolutely eviscerate any hope” of a post-election deal.

The Fairshake PAC group, funded primarily by crypto firms Coinbase and Ripple and venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, had more than $120 million at its disposal as of the end of August. It has previously deployed its war chest to help members of both parties who support industry-friendly policies.

Fairshake is preparing to announce additional spending decisions supporting both Democrats and Republicans in the coming days, according to a spokesperson for the group, Geoff Vetter. But it’s unclear what races — or which chamber — it will target next.

Kara Calvert, Coinbase’s vice president of U.S. policy, said in an interview that bipartisanship has been crypto’s “superpower.”

“Nobody is eager to erode that,” she said.

Though Fairshake says it will maintain a bipartisan approach, it hasn’t specified what shape that will take. One potential avenue for the PAC is to continue to back crypto-friendly Democrats running for the House — where the Clarity bill advanced with 78 Democratic votes last year — but primarily help Republicans in the Senate.

Fairshake spent in favor of several Senate Democrats in the 2024 elections, including in battleground general election races in Michigan and Arizona, where it backed Democratic Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Ruben Gallego, respectively. It also plowed more than $40 million into the effort to help defeat Brown in his 2024 reelection campaign — by far its biggest spend of the cycle.

This time, Republicans are pressing the industry to recalibrate its approach and ditch the Democrats.

“To reward people who voted against the motion to proceed on Clarity after the Democrats got 126 amendments in the bill would be a huge mistake,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, the crypto bill’s leading champion in the Senate. The Wyoming Republican is retiring when her term ends in January.

Democrats, who feel increasingly confident about their chances in November despite the GOP’s spending advantages, say Republicans are trying to play the crypto industry.

It’s “been the goal of Republican colleagues all along to try to get folks to invest in races, versus them trying to get a piece of legislation done, and someone needs to call the Republicans out on their bullshit,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who added: “Sherrod’s gonna win.”

Politics

Can Mitch Landrieu break through in 2028?

Published

4 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Can Mitch Landrieu break through in 2028?

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Politics

Sen. Jon Husted: Iran war ‘needs to come to an end as quickly as possible’

Published

19 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Jon Husted became the latest battleground Republican this week to call for a quick end to the Iran war, as panic grows over how high gas prices and President Donald Trump’s agenda could imperil the party’s chances in November.

“The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” the Ohio senator told Blue Light News, in his furthest comments yet on the matter.

Coming after Iowa Senate nominee Ashley Hinson, who broke from Trump over the war on Monday, and Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers, who followed suit hours later, Husted’s comments are another example of the pressure he and other Republicans are under to address prices at the pump. Several candidates are creating some distance from Trump, as voters continue to blame the president for the current economy and the Iran conflict for high costs of living.

Husted said in the interview that he still thinks Iran needs to reach a deal with Trump to end the conflict, but added: “I don’t know anybody that doesn’t want the war to come to an end.”

He has a finer line to walk with Trump in his state, and Republicans close to him say he can’t and won’t completely break with the president. Husted does not plan to support the Democratic-led war powers resolution when it comes up for a vote in the Senate this week, a spokesperson said. And Trump and Vice President JD Vance are expected to visit the state in the coming weeks to shore up his campaign and drive GOP turnout.

Husted is staring down a tight race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, where millions in spending and recent polling have put Brown slightly ahead. Top Hill Republicans and Senate GOP operatives have said the Ohio Senate race is among their primary concerns in the battle to keep control of the chamber.

But Ohio is just one in a series of battlegrounds where rising gas prices have become a defining issue. Beyond Hinson and Rogers, a growing number of Republicans are starting to call for emergency actions like a diesel export ban to lower gas prices, including Iowa GOP Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

“Hinson broke the dam,” said one GOP operative, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who is locked in an incredibly competitive race, called Tuesday for a diesel export ban to provide voters relief. He didn’t mention the Iran war.

The panic is being felt most acutely in the Midwest, as high gas and diesel prices and Trump’s tariffs hammer families, truckers and farmers just a few weeks ahead of the peak harvest season with no relief in sight.

By Sunday night, Rogers had filmed an ad at a grocery store decrying high prices and, straight to camera, breaking with Trump to call for an end to the Iran war, according to two Republicans involved in the matter, granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

Rogers’ team was putting the finishing touches on the ad Monday morning when Hinson posted her break with Trump over the war directly on social media.

“The war’s just gone on too long. Mike still thinks Iran shouldn’t have a nuclear weapon, but we originally thought this would take six weeks,” said one person with direct knowledge of the conversations in Rogers’ camp about the move. “Voters have been paying for it at their kitchen tables for too long.”

Michigan’s GOP nominee for governor, Rep. John James, also said Tuesday the Iran war needs to end “quickly.” And Rep. Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin’s GOP governor nominee, said Tuesday he believes “we should be exiting Iran, that it’s time to move on, we’ve degraded their nuclear facilities, we’ve degraded their military … time to come home, take care of business here in America.”

Trump, for his part, told reporters Tuesday that he asked his team to consider a diesel export ban, and that his administration is mulling it.

But the move is rife with internal GOP fighting behind the scenes: Trump’s team is getting an earful from GOP lawmakers in oil states who oppose the move, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. That makes any decision before the midterms highly problematic with at least one corner of the party.

Both the top House GOP leaders — Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise — have opposed similar measures from the past to protect their oil state of Louisiana. The Texas GOP delegation is also “strongly opposed,” according to another Republican.

Husted told Blue Light News on Tuesday that he supports his state legislature suspending Ohio’s gas tax for a period. Democrat Amy Acton, who is running for governor, called for a gas tax suspension Monday. Her GOP opponent Vivek Ramaswamy and a broader swath of Republicans called for the state legislature to convene and pass legislation to suspend the state’s gas tax hours later.

“I think in the long run we are going to have lower gas prices,” Husted said, citing the war in Ukraine as a factor for spiking diesel costs as well as the war with Iran. “It’s taking longer than any of us wish it would. So in the interim, while those things are concluding, the idea of providing relief from the gas tax for Ohioans for a short period of time is a reasonable thing for Governor [Mike] DeWine to consider.”