MILAN (AP) — Plans to play a Serie A match between AC Milan and Como in Australia in February have been abandoned.
The Italian league and local organizers released a joint statement on Monday saying the game was off.
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AC Milan players greet fans at the end of the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Sassuolo, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
AC Milan's Davide Bartesaghi celebrates with AC Milan's Christopher Nkunku, top, after scoring his side's second goal during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Sassuolo, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
AC Milan's head coach Massimiliano Allegri leaves the field after the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Sassuolo, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Como's head coach Cesc Fabregas watches during the Serie A soccer match between AS Roma and Como 1907 at Rome's Olympic stadium, Italy, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Fabrizio Corradetti/LaPresse via AP)
Serie A president Ezio Simonelli said the Asian Football Confederation recently issued an “escalation for further and unacceptable requests” that made arranging the game impossible.
Milan was looking for an alternative site to play the game when its San Siro stadium is unavailable because of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
It would have been the first domestic game from one of Europe's top five leagues played outside the continent.
Milan and Como are less than an hour apart. The Feb. 8 game has yet to relocated.
The other game scheduled overseas, the Barcelona-Villarreal La Liga match outside Miami this month, was canceled in October after protests by players and supporters in Spain.
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AC Milan players greet fans at the end of the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Sassuolo, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
AC Milan's Davide Bartesaghi celebrates with AC Milan's Christopher Nkunku, top, after scoring his side's second goal during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Sassuolo, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
AC Milan's head coach Massimiliano Allegri leaves the field after the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Sassuolo, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Como's head coach Cesc Fabregas watches during the Serie A soccer match between AS Roma and Como 1907 at Rome's Olympic stadium, Italy, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Fabrizio Corradetti/LaPresse via AP)
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.
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)
