ZURICH (AP) — Spain and Lamine Yamal took top spot from Argentina and Lionel Messi in the FIFA men’s rankings published on Thursday, and lead for the first time since being dethroned as world champion in June 2014.
Spain’s two-win start to a 2026 World Cup qualifying group this month — against Turkey and Bulgaria — lifted the European champion up from second place behind 2022 World Cup winner Argentina, which fell to third.
Argentina's loss in a World Cup qualifier in Ecuador also let France rise one place to No. 2.
England stayed at No. 4, and Portugal climbed one place to No. 5 in a swap with Brazil, which lost a game at Bolivia.
Morocco at No. 11 was the best of the African nations and Japan led Asia at No. 19. Both have already qualified for the World Cup.
Mexico and the United States were Nos. 14 and 16 respectively as the World Cup co-hosts both fell one place. Canada, the third co-host next year, rose two to No. 26.
The rankings are updated in October and again in November when the standings are more significant.
The November rankings should decide seedings for the 48-team World Cup tournament draw being held on Dec. 5 in Washington, plus draws for playoffs in Europe and the intercontinental brackets. Those games are scheduled in March.
The World Cup draw will have 42 confirmed entries and six placeholders for the eventual playoff winners. Those placeholders all must come from the lowest-ranked teams in seeding pot 4 and could include Italy.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
France's Kylian Mbappe, right, is tackled by Iceland's Sverrir Ingason during a World Cup Group D qualifying soccer match between France and Iceland at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Argentina's coach Lionel Scaloni reacts during a World Cup 2026 qualifying soccer match against Ecuador at Banco Pichincha stadium in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Spain's Ferran Torres, bottom, is congratulated by Lamine Yamal after scoring his side's 4th goal during a World Cup qualifying round Group E soccer match between Turkey and Spain at Konya Buyuksehir stadium, in Konya, Turkey, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
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)
