PARIS (AP) — Ousmane Dembélé put transfer talk behind him and scored a crucial brace for Paris Saint-Germain in a 3-0 win over Lille that returned it to the top of Ligue 1 on Friday.
French media last week reported that the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner rejected a new contract offer.
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PSG's head coach Luis Enrique reacts during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Bradley Barcola celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Lille's Tiago Santos, left, challenges for the ball with PSG's Willian Pacho during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Ousmane Dembele, right, challenges for the ball with Lille's Hakon Arnar Haraldsson during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
His coach Luis Enrique called the speculation fake news and Dembélé’s focus was razor sharp in a game between two of the league’s top four.
His 12th-minute strike from more than 20 meters out gave the Lille goalkeeper no chance and his second 18 minutes into the second half was a reminder of why he picked up that Ballon d’Or.
With four defenders in front of him, Dembélé somehow found space to chip the most audacious of shots that bamboozled keeper Berke Ozer and dropped in just under the crossbar.
Substitute Bradley Barcola, another whose future has been subject to speculation, rounded off the scoring in injury time when he pounced on slack defending and slammed home the third.
The win settled nerves at the defending champion just days after city rival Paris FC knocked it out of the French Cup.
Friday’s win lifted PSG back atop the league table, two points clear of Lens which has a game in hand on Saturday against second-to-last Auxerre.
Lille remained fourth, 10 points back.
Monaco fell to its seventh defeat in eight games after another poor performance, this time at home to Lorient 3-1.
Lorient’s Bamba Dieng had a goal disallowed in the first half but he got one that counted midway through the second period. The Senegalese forward seized on a mistake by the Monaco defense.
Ansu Fati equalized eight minutes later but goals from Jean-Victor Makengo in the 85th minute and Dermane Karim three minutes from time gave visiting Lorient all three points and extended its unbeaten run to nine games in all competitions.
Lorient was one point behind ninth-placed Monaco.
It was another unhappy start to the weekend for Monaco, whose record in Friday night games fell to won two, drawn five, lost nine.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
PSG's head coach Luis Enrique reacts during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Bradley Barcola celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Lille's Tiago Santos, left, challenges for the ball with PSG's Willian Pacho during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PSG's Ousmane Dembele, right, challenges for the ball with Lille's Hakon Arnar Haraldsson during the French League One soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lille in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
A rule change for primary voting in two Texas counties created mass confusion Tuesday that eventually led to a state Supreme Court ruling, threats of more legal action and the potential that an untold number of voters could find themselves disenfranchised.
The chaos had the most direct potential impact on the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. The county with the greatest number of affected voters includes Dallas and is the home base for Rep. Jasmine Crockett, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump who was in a tight race with state lawmaker James Talarico.
Crockett told supporters Tuesday night that the race can’t be settled without the results from Dallas County.
“I can tell you, people were disenfranchised,” she said.
The unfolding chaos — first over the new voting rules, and then over the court decisions and whether late ballots would be counted — hinted at what many have feared lies ahead for the nation in November's midterm elections.
Widespread gerrymandering that has shifted congressional districts in Texas and other states over the past few months, threats by the Department of Justice to root out cases of supposed voter fraud in Democratic-leaning states, warnings by Democrats of federal agents patrolling polling stations and the potential for sweeping new voting rules could collide to create an atmosphere of confusion and intimidation unlike in any previous election cycle.
The problems in Texas began when voters in two counties — Dallas and Williamson, north of Austin — were turned away at polling locations and directed to different precincts after a recent change in how the primary is conducted.
In Dallas County, a judge ordered polls to remain open for two hours past the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time, citing “voter confusion so severe” that it caused the website of the county election office to crash. The judge was acting on a petition filed by the local Democratic Party in a heavily left-leaning county. Democrats in Williamson said they succeeded in getting two precincts to stay open late.
Later in the evening, the Texas Supreme Court acted on a request by the Texas attorney general's office and stayed the judge's decision. Its brief decision said ballots cast by voters who were not in line by the 7 p.m. scheduled close of polls should be separated, though it did not clarify whether those ballots would eventually be counted.
In both counties, voters had been allowed to cast their ballot anywhere in their county for years. But for this primary, the local Republican parties opted against countywide voting. State law says both major parties have to agree to the countywide system for it to be in effect.
That meant that on Tuesday all voters could cast ballots only at their assigned precinct.
Both Crockett and Talarico denounced the effect of the change on voters, with Crockett saying it was an “effort to suppress the vote.” Talarico's campaign aid it was “deeply concerned” about the reports of voters showing up at polling locations and being sent elsewhere.
Adding to the confusion was the fact that voting locations also might be specific to someone’s party affiliation, said Nic Solorzano, a spokesperson for the Dallas County Elections Department.
“We’re seeing a lot of people that are going to their vote centers that they usually go to ... and not realizing they can’t do that anymore. They have to go to their precinct-based location,” he said.
The extensions in Dallas applied only to Democratic voting precincts. Voting also was extended for an hour in El Paso County after problems with voter check-in systems earlier in the day.
Texas was one of three states kicking off the 2026 midterm elections Tuesday, along with North Carolina and Arkansas. Voting otherwise went fairly smoothly, except for a problem with electronic poll books in one rural North Carolina county that prompted the state elections board to delay the release of statewide results by an hour.
Tomas Sanchez, a student at Dallas College, was among those who showed up at a voting location on campus to cast his ballot in Texas' Democratic primary. But he was under a “mistaken impression” and told that he needed to vote at his assigned precinct, a location about 6 miles (about 10 kilometers) away and closer to his neighborhood.
“This is something that we were really concerned about, honestly,” Solorzano said. He added that after nearly seven years of voters being able to cast their ballots anywhere in the county, “then we kind of had to retool our entire operation to go back to precinct-based voting for Election Day.”
The county elections department has been putting up signs, running ads and sending text messages and mailers to make people aware of the change. On Election Day former poll workers were stationed outside voting locations with tablets to help people find the correct place to cast their ballot.
While Solorzano said his department was not keeping track of how many people were been turned away, local Democrats said the number was significant.
Brenda Allen, executive director of the Dallas Democratic Party, said her offices were swamped by hundreds of calls from voters of both parties trying to find their precincts. She noted that congressional districts in the county also were remapped in Texas’ mid-decade redistricting and that new precinct lines were only finalized in December, leaving little time to inform voters.
“Lots of reports of people being turned away, hundreds of people unable to vote. Both parties are affected by this,” Allen said. “It’s not great.”
In Williamson County, the local Democratic Party headquarters was slammed by calls, executive director Madison Dickinson said.
“We’re having significant problems with the precinct-level voting,” she said, adding that, like in Dallas, even Republicans were confused by the change and were calling the Democratic Party for help.
Republicans were less vocal about the changes online, although the Dallas County Republican Party posted a link showing voters where to find their assigned polling places. The Williamson County Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.
Associated Press writer John Hanna contributed.
Primary voter Allie Davis carries her seven-week-old son Declan as a Dallas County Election Navigator checks her ID before entering a voting center in Dallas, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
