GENEVA (AP) — It is rare in top-level soccer for a player to be tasked with marking their life partner who is also the opponent’s star striker.
Sweden defender Magdalena Eriksson’s job Friday is stopping the threat of Denmark captain Pernille Harder in their opening game at the Women's European Championship.
They have been a couple for 11 years whose influence and inspiration goes beyond sports, since a photograph went viral of their kiss after a game at the 2019 World Cup in France.
Ahead of their Euro 2025 game in Geneva, the previous clash for the pair — each with more than 100 national-team appearances — was a celebrated victory for Eriksson in February.
Showing no personal favors as Sweden captain that evening, Eriksson’s tough challenges late in a Nations League game left their mark. Harder had treatment for an injured side then got Eriksson’s elbow in her face when they wrestled at a corner near the end of Sweden’s 2-1 win.
Harder smiled ruefully after that foul was judged and seemed content last month that Eriksson was suspended for the return game when finishing top of the group was at stake.
“As a football player, it’s nice that Magda won’t play. But also to avoid these duels between us,” the Denmark captain said ahead of her team losing 6-1.
A running joke this year has been that the loser must do the washing up at their home, and a Swedish fan's banner in Solna four weeks ago read: “Pernille tar disken” (Pernille does the dishes).
Eriksson and Harder have embraced their status as LGBTQ+ icons in soccer since the 2019 kiss in Paris, on the sidelines of Sweden’s victory over Canada in the round of 16.
“I didn’t realize until that picture came out how big of an inspiration we actually are for a lot of people,” Harder told English daily Guardian after the tournament, when both signed with soccer’s Common Goal social program.
Eriksson said the reaction to the photo “made me understand that, ‘OK, I am actually a role model to people’.”
They donate 1% of their salary to Common Goal and support its Play Proud project.
Eriksson explained more of her personal philosophy in a film the couple made in 2022 with Vogue magazine’s Scandinavian edition.
“That’s something my dad always taught me when I was younger was to have integrity, to stand up for what you believe in,” she said. “It’s very important to stay true to my values.”
Eriksson and Harder’s relationship started in 2014 when teammates at Swedish club Linköping, and they were reunited at Chelsea and now with Bayern Munich.
They have faced each other twice, in 2018 on opposite sides of a Champions League semifinal — Harder scored as Wolfsburg eliminated Eriksson’s Chelsea — and in a World Cup qualifying game that saw Sweden advance.
Now their friendly rivalry finally lands on a tournament stage at Euro 2025.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - United States' Alex Morgan, left, takes a shot at goal as Sweden's Magdalena Eriksson watches during the Women's World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Sweden and the United States in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour, File)
FILE - Denmark's Pernille Harder runs with the ball during the Women Euro 2022 group B soccer match between Denmark and Spain at Brentford Community Stadium in London, England, Saturday, July 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he will sign order to resume pay for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard, in a move that bypasses Congress.
He made the announcement in a social media post.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The funding lapse for the Department of Homeland Security will likely stretch into next week as the House contemplates passing a Senate plan it had previously rejected to fund the bulk of the agency, but not its immigration enforcement operations.
There was no resolution Thursday to the standoff, now in its 48th day, after both chambers met for just a few minutes in pro forma sessions. Nonetheless, the Republican leadership and President Donald Trump have coalesced around a plan to fully fund DHS as part of a two-step process. The agreement puts the congressional leaders on the same page for ending the impasse after they had pursued separate paths that resulted in Congress leaving Washington last week for its spring recess without a fix.
During the brief sessions, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put aside the House plan to fund the entire department for 60 days. Then the House met briefly without taking up the bipartisan Senate plan that had been worked out with Democrats, though Thune is looking toward eventual passage.
“I don’t know the particulars around what the House will do with it,” Thune told reporters. “My assumption is, at some point, hopefully, they’ll move it.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Thune, announced Wednesday that they would return to the Senate measure, which funds most of DHS with the exception of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. Republicans will try later to fund those agencies through party-line spending legislation that could take months to finish.
Neither outcome is guaranteed, and the strategy could potentially still face opposition from the GOP’s own ranks even though Trump has given his support.
Johnson’s embrace of the two-track plan marks a sharp reversal from less than a week ago, when he derided it as a “joke” and said he was “quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.”
He now appears to be on board. But securing support from his own conference could prove more difficult after a sizable group of House Republicans blasted the Senate-passed bill last week.
House Republicans were expected to hold a conference call later Thursday to discuss the next steps.
Thune pointed to a “number of conversations” when he was asked how the Republican leadership and Trump aligned to move ahead after their apparent divisions a week earlier.
“The thing that some people want to do, we can’t do,” said Thune. “And so you have to figure out what’s in the realm of the possible. And you have to just continue to define reality for people.”
Democrats in both chambers were aligned last week with the Senate funding plan passed with bipartisan support. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York on Wednesday blamed Republicans for not acting more quickly.
“Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction,” Schumer said.
Even with the progress, the most conservative lawmakers are likely to seek full funding for all of Trump’s immigration and deportation operations.
“Let’s make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., posted on X. “If that’s the vote, I’m a NO.”
Meanwhile, the budget package that Trump wants prepared for later this year is expected to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the remainder of Trump’s term, as a way to try to ensure those agencies are no longer at risk from Democrats objecting to his immigration enforcement agenda. Trump said he wants that legislation on his desk by June 1.
Thune acknowledged the potential hurdles to that route, such as efforts to expand the scope of the bill. He said the goal is to keep it “as narrow and focused as possible” to speed passage.
“We need to kind of move with haste,” he said. “It’s probably not a likely magnet for all these other issues.”
The vast majority of DHS employees have reported to work during the shutdown, but many thousands have gone without pay. As more Transportation Security Administration agents called out from work, there was increasing frustration for air travelers confronted by long waits at some airport security lines. Those bottlenecks appeared to be clearing this week as agents began receiving backpay after Trump signed an executive order.
AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters outside the chamber after passing a measure by unanimous consent that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, if the House agrees, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., gestures as he speaks to reporters outside the chamber after passing a a measure by unanimous consent that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security if the House agrees, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill,Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
