BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain coach Luis de la Fuente announced his Nations League squad from Ceuta on Friday in a show of support for the Spanish city in northern Africa that has become the center of a migration crisis.
For his first squad announcement since Spain won the World Cup, De la Fuente revealed his list in a video featuring him in Ceuta accompanied by residents of the Spanish exclave. In late July, over 70,000 people pushed across the border from Morocco, with more than 100 dying in the chaos. Most quickly returned, but a few thousand remain in the city of just over 80,000.
The mass border rush has become the biggest political talking point in Spain since.
De la Fuente did not directly mention the border crossing or its impact, but he did say: “This is Ceuta, this is Spain.” It echoed the rise in sentiment in Spain that Ceuta — a territory that until the mass crossing was mostly an afterthought for most mainland Spaniards — needs to be supported.
Ceuta is one of two Spanish territories on the north African coast along with Melilla. Ceuta has been in Spanish possession since 1580. Christians and Muslims, Spanish and Moroccan residents and day workers all live there in relative harmony behind a border fence that many migrants from across Africa attempt to cross or swim around for a better life in Europe.
The far-right and conservative opposition parties are calling the migration surge an “invasion” and are hoping they can leverage it in national elections next year and oust the left-wing, pro-legal migration government.
It has also led many in Spain to question the government’s policy of moving closer to Rabat in recent years, all with the backdrop of the two countries preparing to host the 2030 World Cup along with Portugal.
Local authorities in Ceuta have visited Brussels to drum up European political support and demand more border security.
The debate had spilled into sports before De la Fuente’s video when earlier this week a business group asked Real Madrid and Elche to have their players wear T-shirts with a message of support for Ceuta that read “We are all from Ceuta” before their La Liga match.
Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Ibrahima Konaté covered up part of the message by rolling the shirts up to their chests. The decision by the three Madrid players earned them both scorn and support in the media and social media.
Mbappé said that by rolling up the shirt he wanted to show “full solidarity and with all the victims” while also supporting “migrants who have lost their lives and those facing harsh conditions.”
Real Madrid club president Florentino Pérez also made an appearance in Ceuta on Friday, where he met with local officials and fans.
He said that the trip had already been planned before the T-shirt episode.
“I want to transmit to all of Ceuta’s residents our support, best wishes and solidarity in these difficult moments,” Pérez said. “I want to underscore, so there are no doubts, that this act of support for Ceuta was already being prepared for several weeks with (local authorities) and is not due to any recent news.”
Spain opens the Nations League against England at Wembley Stadium on Sept. 26, when its players will wear two stars on their shirts for the first time after winning a second world title.
After visiting London, Spain will host Croatia on Sept. 29 and the Czech Republic on Oct. 3, before visiting Croatia on Oct. 6.
Del la Fuente kept his World Cup squad mostly intact.
Inter Milan goalkeeper Josep Martínez replaced Barcelona’s Joan García, who is out with a minor knee issue. Real Madrid defender Dean Huijsen is in for Marcos Llorente, who retired from international soccer. Fermín López replaced fellow Barcelona midfielder Gavi, while Espanyol striker Roberto Fernández got his first call-up, replacing Borja Iglesias.
Spain squad:
Goalkeepers: Unai Simón (Athletic Bilbao), David Raya (Arsenal), Josep Martínez (Inter Milan)
Defenders: Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao), Pau Cubarsí (Barcelona), Eric Garcia (Barcelona), Marc Pubill (Atletico Madrid), Alejandro Grimaldo (Atletico Madrid), Marc Cucurella (Real Madrid), Dean Huijsen (Real Madrid), Pedro Porro (Tottenham).
Midfielders: Rodri Hernández (Barcelona), Pedri González (Barcelona), Fermín López (Barcelona), Martín Zubimendi (Arsenal), Mikel Merino (Arsenal), Fabián Ruiz (Paris Saint-Germain), Álex Baena (Atletico Madrid).
Forwards: Lamine Yamal (Barcelona), Dani Olmo (Barcelona), Ferran Torres (Paris Saint-Germain), Yeremy Pino (Crystal Palace), Nico Williams (Athletic Bilbao), Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Víctor Muñoz (Liverpool), Roberto Fernández (Espanyol).
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
FILE - Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente arrives at the stadium before the World Cup semifinal soccer match between France and Spain in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, file)
HENRICO, Va. (AP) — In-person voting for this year’s midterm elections began Friday, ushering in the final six weeks for Americans to decide which party they trust to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran and other pressing issues.
Election administrators say they are prepared and confident the vote will be accurate and secure. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has continued with efforts to denigrate certain voting methods and reshape how elections are run, through court challenges, an expansive federal hunt for noncitizen voters and a pressure campaign to force election officials to share sensitive voter data.
Friday marked the start of early voting in Virginia. Voters in a handful of other states, including Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, can cast absentee ballots in person, typically at a local election office or voting center. More expansive early voting is scheduled to begin in those and other states in the coming weeks.
At a voting location in Fairfax, Virginia, 18-year-old college student Sanya Singhal was among the first to vote early in person Friday morning, arriving well before the site opened to get in line.
“Why not just have a little fun in life, you know, try to be the first early voter?” she said. “I really want to participate in my democracy.”
At a voting location in suburban Richmond, a poll worker rang a bell as the building opened and about a dozen voters in line began to file in. Stephen Gura was excited to be the first.
“This election is critical. We need to stop the Trump agenda. We need to start electing people who will stand up for people in this district,” said Gura, who added that he voted for U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Shannon Taylor, the Democratic nominee against Republican incumbent Rob Wittman in the 1st Congressional District.
The Nov. 3 election includes votes for governor and state legislature in most states and will determine whether Republicans maintain control of the U.S. House and Senate. If Democrats retake Congress, it will alter the trajectory of the final two years of Trump’s term, most likely leading to investigations and other oversight efforts.
At the suburban Richmond voting center, a steady stream of voters flowed in and out for the first hour of early voting. William Curry, a 74-year-old retiree who described himself as a libertarian-leaning independent conservative, voted for Warner’s Republican challenger, Bert Mizusawa, and Wittman. Curry said he generally approves of the job Trump has done, apart from the war with Iran.
“He’s in a mess he can’t get rid of,” Curry said of the conflict.
On a rainy day in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Bill Goehring, 67, said he voted early at the county office because he will be traveling later. He voted for a mix of Democrats and independents, and said Trump’s “dictatorial tendencies are bad for America.”
The start of early voting comes at a time of deep angst among many Americans about issues including rising gas and grocery prices, the war in Iran, the looming risks of artificial intelligence and Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign.
It also follows an unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House that began when Trump urged the Republican-controlled legislature in Texas to redraw its congressional map to help the party. California and other states followed.
The changes affect millions of people: Research shows 1 in 10 Americans this fall is a resident of a different congressional district than in 2024.
Those partisan efforts are expected to continue before the 2028 elections after a landmark ruling this year from the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the federal Voting Rights Act’s protections against racially discriminatory redistricting.
As the start of early voting approached, Trump was focused on efforts to assert federal control over election administration, even as the Constitution bestows the power to run elections on the states and, in some cases, Congress. The nation's highest court rejected Trump's bid to restrict mail ballots this week, but several of his administration's other efforts to influence the voting process and mine state voter lists for illegitimate voters continue.
Virginia's attorney general said Thursday that Trump's administration may have violated several of the state's laws after a whistleblower accused federal employees of misrepresenting themselves on voter lookup tools to hunt for noncitizen voters. In a letter, Attorney General Jay Jones demanded that the Department of Homeland Security confirm in writing whether it had directed anyone to access Virginia voters’ information without first obtaining permission from those voters.
Trump for years has raised the specter of widespread noncitizen voting in U.S. elections, and this year is no exception. But despite his administration's insistence that hundreds of thousands of people are illegally on voting rolls across the country, research continues to show noncitizen voting is exceptionally rare.
David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Republican president continues “his disinformation campaign and his attack on election officials.” But he said he thinks despite that and other challenges, “ultimately the process will hold as it has in past years.”
Voting rights advocates have encouraged voters this year to cast mail ballots early, in part because of concerns about recent changes in U.S. Postal Service operations that could delay the application of postmarks to ballots.
“Voting early, whether in person or by mail, is good for all of our communities because it gives voters options, eases lines on Election Day and can even mean faster results,” said Hannah Fried, co-founder and CEO of the voting rights group All Voting Is Local.
In a news briefing Thursday, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon urged people not to be swayed by stories they might have seen or read that cast doubt on election operations. They would be able to vote “just like they always have,” he said.
“I just want to reaffirm that Minnesota’s elections are fundamentally free, fair, accurate, honest and secure,” he said.
Swenson reported from New York and Raza from Sioux Falls, S.D. Associated Press writer Mike Catalini in Philadelphia and AP video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Fairfax, Va., contributed to this report.
A government building hosting early voting in Henrico County, Virginia, on the first day of in-person voting for this year’s midterm elections, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Sarah Rankin)
A government building hosting early voting on the first day of in-person voting for this year’s midterm elections, in Henrico County, Virginia, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Sarah Rankin)
Peggy Jacobs of Chesterfield, N.H., leaves the voting booth in Chesterfield during the New Hampshire State Primaries on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)
A sign directs voters to an entrance for City Hall during early voting for the Rhode Island primary election, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
