Scandal in African football. The Appeals Board of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) ruled today that Senegal is no longer the champion of the last African Nations Cup. Morocco, the team that lost the final, is now the new champion. The Board declared Senegal forfeited the final, which they had won 1-0 in extra time, considering that the team abandoned the match and therefore lost 3-0.

Pedro Sánchez embarked on a tour of West Africa in August 2024 with a stated objective: to combat irregular immigration. He held bilateral meetings with the presidents of Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania, after having strengthened ties with Morocco. At that time, migratory pressure on the Canary Islands had increased substantially, and the Spanish government took action to address the situation. A year and a half later, the figures have changed. While there was a peak in arrivals via the Canary Islands in 2023 and 2024, the numbers began to decline from 2025 onward. However, the decrease in arrivals via the Canary Islands coincided with an increase in arrivals via the Balearic Islands.

The decisive goal in the men's Africa Cup of Nations could be scored by a boy born in Terrassa: Ismael Saibari. This Sunday night, Senegal and Morocco will play a first-ever final in this competition, which began in 1957 when only three countries were independent. Today, as then, the Africa Cup of Nations serves to illustrate what is happening on the continent.

2025 was a record-breaking year for the Catalan labor market, thanks in part to the influx of foreign workers. This group ended the year with a total of 697,103 registered with Social Security, the highest figure ever recorded for a year-end and 4.2% higher than in 2024. According to figures published this Friday by the Spanish Ministry of Labor, the number of these workers has increased by 368,406 over the last decade (+88.9%).

As soon as the decisive penalty kick by a Moroccan player found the back of the net, pandemonium erupted in downtown Rabat. Morocco had defeated Nigeria in the semifinals and, after a 50-year drought, could once again be crowned champions of the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN). Moreover, this time the title could be won in front of their home crowd, as the final against Senegal is this Sunday in Rabat. Within minutes, thousands of euphoric fans gathered on Mohamed V Avenue in the capital to celebrate the victory. Amidst the honking of car horns and the blaring of trumpets, the noise was deafening. the social protests of the GenZ 212 movement that shook the country last October

At the beginning of the century, the Casal dels InfantsCasal, a well-established institution in the metropolitan area, recognized the need to have eyes and hands in Morocco to work in collaboration with local organizations, children intending to emigrate, and their families. Claire Trichot, from France, heads the Casal delegation in the North African country, based in Tangier.

Spain and Morocco recently held their thirteenth high-level meeting. The encounter confirmed that we are witnessing a shift in the center of gravity of border tensions between the two countries. Traditionally, media attention and political rhetoric have tended to focus on territorial disputes surrounding the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and, tangentially, on the surrounding islands, islets, and rocks (Chafarinas Islands, Vélez de la Gomera, Perejil, etc.). Migration dynamics have often served as a spark to reignite tensions that hang over these territories and that, intermittently, have been on the bilateral negotiating table since Morocco's independence in 1956. Meanwhile, the lack of official delimitation of maritime borders had remained discreetly in the background.

At least 22 people died and 16 others were injured, some seriously, after two residential buildings collapsed in the city of Fez, in central Morocco. The disaster occurred Wednesday night in the Mostaqbal neighborhood when two four-story buildings collapsed, local authorities reported. The death toll is a "preliminary count," according to the same sources, who explained that a total of eight families lived in the two buildings. "After receiving notification of the incident, local and security authorities, as well as Civil Protection personnel, immediately went to the scene to begin search and rescue operations," they reported. Authorities have taken measures to secure the perimeter of the collapsed buildings and evacuate residents from surrounding homes. The injured have been taken to the University Hospital Center of Fez to receive the necessary medical attention, while operations continue to search for any other victims in the rubble.

Bilateral relations between Spain and Morocco are going through "an excellent moment," according to both governments. Pedro Sánchez demonstrated this harmony with the Alawite kingdom at a high-level summit held this Thursday at the Moncloa Palace. The Spanish Prime Minister received his Moroccan counterpart, Aziz Akhannouch, with military honors and subsequently met with him, while six Socialist ministers also met in parallel with their Moroccan counterparts. The result was the signing of fourteen agreements on matters such as the digital transition of public administrations, natural disaster prevention, agriculture and fisheries, and the fight against extremism. In a joint statement released afterward, the Spanish president reaffirmed the controversial position that explains this rapprochement, which has been consolidating over the last three years, namely the Moncloa Palace's shift on Western Sahara. In the eighth point of the document, Sánchez "welcomes" that The UN Security Council will approve a resolution at the end of October supporting Morocco's plan. for the former Spanish colony. This text has been his only statement, as the Spanish president has avoided questions from the press - there has been no appearance whatsoever - which has prompted a complaint from professional associations about this "lack of transparency".

The UN Security Council on Friday approved a resolution on Western Sahara that represents a major diplomatic victory for Morocco. The text (adopted with 11 votes in favor, none against, and 3 abstentions: China, Russia, and Pakistan, while Algeria refused to participate in the vote) validates the autonomy plan proposed by Rabat as the central basis for negotiations to resolve the conflict with the Polisario Front, which demands independence for the territory. The resolution, sponsored by the United States with the support of France, marks a significant shift in the UN's approach, traditionally based on the right to self-determination and holding a referendum to decide the fate of the former Spanish colony.

These are not easy times in Morocco. A group of anonymous young people called GenZ 212 is leading the protests against the inequality that exists in the country, which has even provoked a reaction from King Mohammed VI, who has presented a series of proposals and an increase in education and healthcare budgets to counteract it. The lack of investment in basic needs, coupled with corruption and a high unemployment rate, contrasts with the investment in sports facilities with an eye toward the Africa Cup of Nations, which will begin in December, and the 2030 World Cup, of which Morocco will be one of the hosts. Angry people in the streets shout: "The stadiums are here, but where are the hospitals?"

Born in Rabat in 1981, Leila Slimani She has dedicated three books to exploring family history. The writer, who moved to Paris at 18 and currently resides in Lisbon, explores the complexity of Morocco's recent history and, at the same time, many issues that affect us all, such as the passage of time, loss, identity, freedom, utopia, and the futures we imagined as young people. She has published the novel I'll take the fire (Ángulo / Cabaret Voltaire), translated into Catalan by Joan Casas.

Between vertigo and hope, we follow the great shock that shakes Morocco. The protests of the last week, led by the young people of GenZ212, merely reflect the cries of rural communities in the Atlas Mountains in recent months; the indignation of public hospital users, battered by a lack of resources and personnel; of students and teachers, who must work in conditions that make learning very difficult; of a country stifled by inflation and the destruction of precarious subsistence jobs, bulldozed by the government itself, determined only by one thing: to clean up its act to become a "modern" country and pompously host the 2030 World Cup, the dream of major investors. The coveted global showcase that commands a budget of €3.95 billion. The official narrative, as recently echoed by the Prime Minister at the United Nations General Assembly, is that the World Cup will serve to showcase Africa's "radiant face" to the world. This money, so necessary to address the most basic deficiencies in health, education, and employment promotion, will be used for certain infrastructure projects, which have certainly been improving in many parts of the country (but not everywhere) for a few years: the renovation of five football stadiums and the €459 million construction of the largest stadium in Casablanca. The politics of window dressing. While Rabat's new stadium, Moulay Hassan, transports you to what could be Dubai or Qatar, and while the Boraq (TGV) train takes you like lightning from Tangier to Casablanca, on regional trains people travel packed like cattle, and shantytowns still exist in the big cities and poorer ones.

The streets of several Moroccan cities witnessed the fifth consecutive day of protests organized through social media by an anonymous youth group called GenZ 212 on Wednesday night. Tensions have escalated over the past two days, with clashes between police and protesters. which resulted in the death of two people, more than 300 injured and 400 arrests, according to the Ministry of the InteriorThe wave of protests comes at an inopportune time for the Moroccan regime, just over two months before the start of the African Cup of Nations football tournament, a sort of rehearsal for the 2030 World Cup, which the North African country is hosting alongside Spain and Portugal.

Morocco and Madagascar have joined the list of countries where mass protests led by young people against social inequality and lack of opportunities have been taking place in recent weeks. Over the weekend, thousands of demonstrators gathered in several cities across the country, including Rabat, Casablanca, and Marrakech, in one of the most significant protests in recent years in the North African nation. In Madagascar, the country's president dissolved the government on Monday night after three days of protests against power and water outages.

The European Union is attempting a new trade agreement with Morocco that includes Western Sahara. After the European Court of Justice would overthrow the previous pact Because it considered that the autonomy of the Sahrawi people had been violated, Brussels has presented to the Member States a new trade agreement with Rabat a few days before the deadline imposed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for it to take Western Sahara into account in the pact, according to the newspaper Abc and diplomatic sources have confirmed to ARA.

They are best friends. One, Ismael, was born in Morocco; the other, Daniel, is a Spaniard born in Torre Pacheco. Both attended the unauthorized gathering that the extremist groups had held for eight o'clock in the evening in the Murcia town. According to one of the organizers, the agitator posing as a journalist, Vito Quiles, the rally didn't take place because the Civil Guard had informed them they were in danger. A threat also targeted the leader of Desokupa, Daniel Esteve, who didn't even show up in the town. However, police sources did not confirm these threats announced by Quiles. "The Civil Guard forced them to leave the town peacefully," sources from the Murcia government delegation stated. "We have no record of any threats," a local police officer confirmed.

At seven in the evening, Jésica distributes leaflets to a group of Moroccan citizens having tea at the Istanbul café, just a few meters from the Civil Guard unit that begins to seal off access to the San Antonio neighborhood, where most of the Moroccan community of Torre Pacheco, Murcia, lives. "Go home at night, don't be like them," she pleads. Jésica tries to calm the waters after three nights of clashes between young Moroccans (many of them minors) and people linked to the far right, fueled by parties like Vox, which arrives from nearby municipalities to "hunt" the young people, whom they accuse of attacking a 68-year-old man last week.

As an example of the type of decisions a statesman must make, the Coventry dilemma is often cited, which affects, of course, Winston Churchill. Although the story itself is false, it is interesting to tell it and see what relationship it may have with Spanish politics.

In a joint appearance without questions, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares and his Moroccan counterpart, Naser Burita, confirmed that the relationship between the State and the Alawite monarchy is experiencing its "best moment in history," and the underlying reason is the shift Spain took in April 202 toward autonomy (and not self-determination) over the former Spanish colony proposed by Morocco. "[The decision] marked a turning point in the relationship," Burita acknowledged this Thursday.