FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Erling Haaland is among 10 regular starters absent from Norway’s starting lineup for the team's World Cup match against France on Friday.
Coach Ståle Solbakken appears to be resting Haaland and others with Norway already qualified for the round of 32. Norway would need to beat France to win Group I because the team trails on goal difference.
Haaland is tied with Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior and France’s Kylian Mbappé for the second-most goals in the tournament with four apiece. That is one behind Argentina’s Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.
Fredrik Aursnes is the only player who opened Norway's game against Senegal on Monday who is listed among the starting 11. Among the wholesale changes, Egil Selvik is in goal in place of Orjan Nyland.
Mbappé and the rest of France's regular lineup is set to start. But France will be without coach Didier Deschamps, whose mother recently died. That has left assistant coach Guy Stéphan to coach Friday's game in his place.
The 57-year-old Deschamps is currently in France with family. He previously announced he is stepping down as France coach after the tournament, 14 years after taking the job. Deschamps won the World Cup as a player in 1998 and then again as coach in 2018. His France team lost in the final four years ago.
Stéphan said Thursday that his thoughts continue to be with Deschamps and his family.
“He is very affected,” Stéphan said. “I have a lot of exchanges with him, even just a few minutes ago. I will strive to make the situation as normal as possible and to prove worthy of the trust he places in me.”
The winner of Group I will play in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Tuesday against a to-be-determined third-place finisher. The second-place team in the group faces the Ivory Coast the same day in Arlington, Texas.
See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here
Norway's Erling Haaland exercises with his team during a training session in Foxborough, Mass., near Boston, ahead of the World Cup Group I soccer match between Norway and France, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Norway's Erling Haaland exercises with his team during a training session in Foxborough, Mass., near Boston, ahead of the World Cup Group I soccer match between Norway and France, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday threatened a 100% tax on imports from any country that imposes a tax on digital services from United States companies.
In a post on social media, Trump took aim at European countries that he said are discussing “imminent” implementation of taxes on American companies. The U.S. president has repeatedly sought to use tariffs as way to deter such taxes, but many countries are looking for revenues as their economies increasingly operate in digital realms that are dominated by American companies.
“Please let this statement serve to represent that any Country that imposes such a Tax will immediately be met with a 100% TARIFF on any and all Goods sent to the United States of America,” Trump wrote.
He added that the new tax would supersede any previously negotiated trade deals. Trump said the penalty would apply to any country that moves forward with such a tax, but he singled out European nations in his post.
The move could lead to a larger showdown that could increase prices and hinder economic growth, possibly setting off a larger trade war if the 27-member European Union was compelled to retaliate.
“Unilateral measures targeting such legitimate policies are unjustified. If pursued, the EU will respond swiftly and decisively to defend its rights and regulatory autonomy,” said Olof Gill, a spokesperson for the European Commission on Friday.
He defended taxation on technology companies as “non-discriminatory” and applied equally to “all large companies, regardless of their origin.”
Trump has repeatedly pushed against foreign efforts to tax or regulate American tech giants. Last year, he threatened new tariffs on any country that moved to do so. A post from last August said that digital taxes and regulation “are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology.”
The threat comes ahead of Trump's July 4 deadline for the European Union and the United States to start implementing a tariff deal that caps tariffs on most EU exports at 15%.
The European Union in May finalized a trade deal with the United States that caps most tariffs on EU exports at 15%. The deal followed months of debate within the EU after European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen tentatively struck the deal last year while visiting Trump’s golf course in Scotland.
Digital taxes were not part of the agreement and have remained a sticking point between the U.S. and the European bloc.
The U.S. government has previously conducted tariff investigations into digital services taxes under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. But it was unclear how Trump would carry out his threat and whether he would apply the tariffs broadly or initially target certain nations.
Britain, which is no longer part of the EU, has since 2020 levied a 2% digital services tax on revenues earned by search engines, social media sites and online marketplaces that “derive value” from U.K. users.
The British government said in a policy document at the time that corporate tax rules for digital businesses had “led to a misalignment between the place where profits are taxed and the place where value is created.”
The U.K. tax includes thresholds, so mainly large international companies will pay it. The tax was designed to “ensure the large multinational businesses in-scope make a fair contribution to supporting vital public services,” the document said.
AP reporters Sam McNeil in Brussels and Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaks at a Rose Garden Club dinner with farmers, in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, June 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
