BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Real Madrid and Barcelona are used to luring players from other clubs.
The Spanish powerhouses face key support players possibly moving to the wealthier Premier League at the pending closure of the transfer market.
Brazil forward Rodrygo, who has scored clutch goals for Madrid to add to its Champions League title haul, is at the center of media speculation that he could be heading to Manchester City or another English club.
Chelsea is also reportedly after Barcelona midfield sparkplug Fermín López, while Marc Casadó could also be sold with Barcelona needing income.
Coach Hansi Flick has said he wants to keep both players, especially after Barcelona let starting central defender Íñigo Martínez go to Saudi Arabia. Catalan media say the club would consider an offer of only more than 60 million euros ($70 million) for Fermín if he asked to leave.
The transfer window closes on Monday, just after the third round of the Spanish league this weekend.
Barcelona and Madrid both seek a third win in as many games — along with Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao and surprising Getafe.
Barcelona visits Rayo Vallecano on Sunday after two away wins at Mallorca and Levante. Will Fermín and Casadó, who made significant contributions to their domestic double last season, get minutes in the capital?
Real Madrid hosts Mallorca on Saturday with Kylián Mbappé seeking to add to his three goals from their opening two wins over Osasuna and at Real Oviedo. Xabi Alonso gave Rodrygo only his second start in eight games since he took over as Madrid’s coach this summer before the Club World Cup.
Atletico Madrid is at Alaves also on Saturday. Atletico has taken only one point of six so far, making its worst start to the league in 14 seasons under coach Diego Simeone.
Ferran Torres has two goals in as many games while playing as Barcelona’s central striker. Robert Lewandowski returned last round as a substitute after recovering from a thigh injury. Flick will have to pick between Torres and Lewandowski at Rayo. Marcus Rashford is another option up front for Flick.
Villarreal’s Tajon Buchanan is coming off his hat trick in a 5-0 rout of Girona last round. The Canada winger, who joined from Inter Milan this summer, will likely figure again for leader Villarreal when it plays Celta Vigo on Sunday with Gerard Moreno injured and Ayoze Pérez doubtful.
New playmaker Alex Baena is doubtful for Atletico, while Valencia’s José Luis Gayà is suspended for Valencia’s game on Friday against unbeaten Getafe.
Barcelona wants to play its first home game of the season at its remodeled Camp Nou on Sept. 14. But the club acknowledges it is cutting it close getting the final permission from authorities to clear the way for the public to return.
The club has not confirmed alternative stadiums, but Barcelona played the last two seasons at the city’s publicly owned Olympic Stadium. Another potential option could be the club’s smaller Johan Cruyff Stadium, with a capacity for just 6,000 spectators, after La Liga officials inspected it this week to check its suitability.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Oviedo's Kwasi Sibo, right, and Real Madrid's Rodrygo fight for the ball during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Oviedo and Real Madrid at Carlos Tartiere stadium in Oviedo, Spain, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)
LONDON (AP) — Laws that will make it illegal to create online sexual images of someone without their consent are coming into force soon in the U.K., officials said Thursday, following a global backlash over the use of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok to make sexualized deepfakes of women and children.
Musk's company, xAI, announced late Wednesday that it has introduced measures to prevent Grok from allowing the editing of photos of real people to portray them in revealing clothing in places where that is illegal.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the move, and said X must “immediately” ensure full compliance with U.K. law. He stressed that his government will remain vigilant on any transgressions by Grok and its users.
“Free speech is not the freedom to violate consent," Starmer said Thursday. “I am glad that action has now been taken. But we’re not going to let this go. We will continue because this is a values argument.”
The chatbot, developed by Musk's company xAI and freely accessed through his social media platform X, has faced global scrutiny after it emerged that it was used in recent weeks to generate thousands of images that “undress” people without their consent. The digitally-altered pictures included nude images as well as depictions of women and children in bikinis or in sexually explicit poses.
Critics have said laws regulating generative AI tools are long overdue, and that the U.K. legal changes should have been brought into force much sooner.
A look at the problem and how the U.K. aims to tackle it:
Britain's media regulator has launched an investigation into whether X has breached U.K. laws over the Grok-generated images of children being sexualized or people being undressed. The watchdog, Ofcom, said such images — and similar productions made by other AI models — may amount to pornography or child sexual abuse material.
The problem stemmed from the launch last year of Grok Imagine, an AI image generator that allows users to create videos and pictures by typing in text prompts. It includes a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall cited a report from the internet Watch Foundation saying the deepfake images included sexualization of 11-year-olds and women subjected to physical abuse.
“The content which has circulated on X is vile. It is not just an affront to decent society, it is illegal,” she said.
Authorities said they are making legal changes to criminalize those who use or supply “nudification” tools.
First, the government says it is fast-tracking provisions in the Data (Use and Access) Act making it a criminal offense to create or request deepfake images. The act was passed by Parliament last year, but had not yet been brought into force.
The legislation is set to come into effect on Feb. 6
“Let this be a clear message to every cowardly perpetrator hiding behind a screen: you will be stopped and when you are, make no mistake that you will face the full force of the law,” Justice Secretary David Lammy said
Separately, the government said it is also criminalizing “nudification” apps as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently going through Parliament.
The new criminal offense will make it illegal for companies to supply tools designed to create non-consensual intimate images. Kendall said this would “target the problem at its source.”
The investigation by Ofcom is ongoing. Kendall said X could face a fine of up to 10% of its qualifying global revenue depending on the investigation’s outcome and a possible court order blocking access to the site.
Starmer has faced calls for his government to stop using X. Downing Street said this week it was keeping its presence on the platform “under review."
Musk insisted Grok complied with the law. “When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country or state,” he posted on X. “There may be times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected. If that happens, we fix the bug immediately.”
FILE - Workers install lighting on an "X" sign atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
