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t least nine people have died after thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in one of the largest surges in recent years, prompting local authorities to declare a humanitarian emergency and request military assistance.

Authorities in Ceuta said between 1,500 and 2,000 migrants had entered the enclave over the past 10 days, with hundreds more arriving on Thursday alone. Regional President Juan Jesús Vivas described the situation as an “absolute humanitarian and social emergency” and urged Spain’s central government to deploy troops to help restore control at the border.

Spain’s Interior Ministry rejected calls to declare a national emergency, saying such measures do not apply to migration crises, but announced that 60 soldiers would be deployed to reinforce border security.

Video footage showed groups of migrants entering the territory by sea, many using inflatable flotation devices to swim around border barriers from the Moroccan coast. Others crossed by land after scaling border fences, according to Spanish media reports.

Some migrants were heard shouting “Viva España!” as they entered the enclave.

Zakaria Zarroqui, a migrant rights activist, told Reuters the latest influx resembled the mass crossing in May 2021, when about 10,000 Moroccan and sub-Saharan migrants entered Ceuta within days.

“The situation remains out of control as we speak,” Zarroqui said, adding that people continued gathering in the Moroccan border town of Fnideq in an attempt to reach the Spanish territory.

Ceuta and Melilla

Ceuta, together with the nearby Spanish enclave of Melilla, forms the European Union’s only land border with Africa and has long been a focal point for migrants seeking to reach Europe.

The surge follows a recent ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla cannot automatically be returned to Morocco.

“It has been a slow trickle since the Supreme Court’s ruling, but today has been an explosion,” a spokesperson for Spain’s Guardia Civil told Reuters.

Spain’s Interior Ministry said it was working closely with Moroccan authorities to respond to the increase in irregular crossings, accusing human smuggling networks of exploiting the court ruling to encourage migrants to attempt the journey.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska is expected to visit Ceuta on Friday to assess the situation and coordinate the government’s response.

(Source: Aljazeera English)

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pain reclaimed the FIFA World Cup title after substitute Ferran Torres scored an extra-time winner to secure a hard-fought 1-0 victory over defending champions Argentina in Sunday’s final, ending one of the tournament’s least spectacular championship matches with a dramatic finish.

Torres struck in the 106th minute, converting Spain’s 20th attempt on goal after more than 100 minutes of deadlock at New York/New Jersey Stadium. His decisive finish delivered Spain’s second World Cup title and completed another milestone for head coach Luis de la Fuente, who became the oldest coach to win the tournament at the age of 65.

The victory capped a remarkable period for Spanish football, with De la Fuente’s side extending its unbeaten run to 38 matches across all competitions after also winning the 2024 UEFA European Championship.

Spain controlled possession for most of the match and consistently pushed Argentina onto the defensive, registering 20 shots, including 12 on target. However, the European champions struggled to convert their dominance into goals as Argentina adopted a cautious approach focused on disrupting Spain’s rhythm.

The South American side rarely threatened in attack, producing only two attempts throughout the match and failing to record a single shot during the 90 minutes of regular time—a first in a World Cup final.

Spain’s breakthrough finally arrived in extra time after substitutes Ferran Torres and Nico Williams injected pace and creativity into an otherwise slow contest.

Messi unable to inspire Argentina

Argentina captain Lionel Messi, appearing in his third World Cup final, was largely contained by Spain’s organized defense and struggled to influence the match.

Teenage Spanish star Lamine Yamal, widely expected to provide attacking inspiration, also found little space against Argentina’s disciplined defensive setup.

Tensions boiled over after the final whistle as frustrated Argentine players became involved in a scuffle with their Spanish counterparts following a physically demanding contest.

De la Fuente praised his players after lifting football’s biggest prize, describing the squad as one that had “won everything.”

“I’m so proud of this generation of footballers who have remained true to our philosophy and continued improving it,” the Spain coach said after the match.

The triumph adds the World Cup to Spain’s recent European Championship success and reinforces the country’s position among international football’s elite.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni, whose side was unable to defend the title it won in Qatar in 2022, paid tribute to his players and to captain Messi despite the defeat.

Spain’s victory concluded the expanded 2026 FIFA World Cup, with Torres’ late strike proving enough to separate two of world football’s strongest teams after a tense and tactical final.

(Source: Reuters)

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ürkiye’s defense industry has marked a significant milestone with the export of the Hürjet jet trainer to Spain, in a move seen as a breakthrough for the country’s growing aerospace sector.

Developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), the advanced jet trainer is currently in mass production for the Turkish Air Force. Deliveries to Türkiye are scheduled to begin in 2027, with Spain expected to induct the aircraft into service in 2028 under the newly signed agreement.

As part of the deal, Turkish defense technology firm Havelsan will supply a full mission and flight training simulator system for the Hürjet. The simulator is set to be delivered to the Turkish Air Force in the fourth quarter of 2026, ahead of Spain’s aircraft deliveries.

Havelsan General Manager Mehmet Akif Nacar described the agreement as a turning point for Türkiye’s defense industry, emphasizing that the country has shifted from importing advanced simulator systems to designing and exporting them.

“This agreement reverses a long-standing trend,” Nacar said, noting that Havelsan has developed comprehensive simulator software capable of meeting international standards. The company intends to replicate this export model for other countries that procure the Hürjet, offering integrated training solutions alongside the aircraft.

Advanced embedded training technology

Havelsan engineers began developing the Hürjet simulator three years ago, contributing to cockpit design, engineering validation and test processes. The aircraft features a next-generation embedded simulator that allows pilots to conduct virtual combat and mission training scenarios during actual flights, without relying on ground-based visual systems. This capability significantly extends operational training time and reduces costs.

The company is applying a similar engineering approach to KAAN, Türkiye’s domestically developed combat aircraft program.

Expansion and European ambitions

To meet growing domestic and international demand, Havelsan is constructing a new complex in Ankara that is expected to become Europe’s largest simulator production and integration center once completed.

Officials say the export deal is likely to strengthen Türkiye’s global defense market position as TAI expands international sales of domestically developed platforms, including the Hürkuş basic trainer and the T129 ATAK helicopter.

The agreement with Spain marks one of Türkiye’s most significant aerospace exports to a European NATO member, underscoring Ankara’s ambitions to become a major supplier of advanced defense systems on the global stage.

(Source: Anadolu Agency)

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pain has officially shelved plans to purchase the U.S.-made F-35 Lightning II fighter jets, dealing a blow to transatlantic defense cooperation and signaling a clear pivot toward European strategic autonomy. According to government sources cited by El País, all preliminary contacts regarding the acquisition of Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation stealth fighters have been indefinitely suspended.

Despite having earmarked €10.47 billion for defense modernization earlier this year and reaffirming its commitment to reaching 2% of GDP in defense spending, Madrid’s decision to invest 85% of those funds in European defense initiatives has made acquiring the American F-35 “incompatible with national priorities,” the report said.

The shelving of the F-35 deal leaves Spain’s Navy in a critical position. The AV-8B Harrier jump jets—its only fixed-wing combat aircraft—are due for retirement by 2030 after nearly five decades in service. Extending their operational life is not viable, as both the U.S. Marine Corps and Italy’s Navy are phasing out the model, eliminating supply chain support and spare parts access. The F-35B, the only available short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft capable of replacing the Harrier, had been the preferred solution.

Without the F-35B, Spain’s flagship vessel, the Juan Carlos I, will only be able to operate helicopters, stripping the Navy of its fixed-wing aviation capability for the foreseeable future.

No clear vaval replacement in sight

In an effort to maintain future naval aviation capabilities, the Spanish Navy has commissioned Navantia, the state-owned shipbuilder, to study the feasibility of a new aircraft carrier with a longer flight deck capable of launching and recovering conventional carrier-based aircraft. While this could allow for alternative fighter options such as the French Rafale M, any such vessel would not be operational in time to cover the Harrier’s retirement, creating a capability gap of several years.

The Spanish Air and Space Force had also been evaluating the F-35A variant as a temporary solution until the Future Combat Air System (FCAS)—a joint sixth-generation fighter project with France and Germany—is expected to enter service by 2040. With the oldest U.S.-made F-18s being replaced by Eurofighters, the Air Force had ruled out expanding its Eurofighter fleet further, fearing overreliance on a single platform.

Lieutenant General Francisco Braco, head of the Air Force, has stated that Spain would seek alternatives to the F-35, including future versions of the French Rafale, but acknowledged that such aircraft fall short in key areas such as stealth and sensor fusion. As Admiral General Teodoro López Calderón, Chief of the Defense Staff, warned in July: “We will have to survive with the fourth generation we have and wait for the FCAS someday. The problem is that we have to wait many years.”

Geopolitical tensions: Spain vs. Trump’s NATO doctrine

Spain’s refusal to purchase U.S. military hardware has drawn sharp criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who clashed publicly with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during the June NATO summit in The Hague. Trump lambasted Sánchez for rejecting a proposed 5% of GDP defense spending goal, accusing him of freeloading on NATO and threatening punitive tariffs on Spanish exports.

“He’s the only one who refuses to pay. We’re going to make them pay double,” Trump said during the summit. The U.S. has since applied a 15% tariff on most EU products, partially mitigated by a new agreement with the European Commission for the bloc to buy $750 billion in American liquefied natural gas over three years.

Republican senators, led by John Kennedy, also introduced a resolution urging all NATO members to meet the 5% target, criticizing Spain’s deviation from allied consensus.

Strategic autonomy vs. alliance pressures

Sánchez has argued that such dramatic spending increases would force EU countries to depend heavily on U.S. equipment, undermining Europe’s strategic autonomy. Ironically, however, more than a dozen European countries—including the UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Denmark—have already adopted the F-35, making it the likely standard for NATO air forces into the next decade.

Despite its high unit cost (approximately €68.4 million for the F-35A and €87.5 million for the F-35B), the aircraft is seen as technologically unmatched, particularly in stealth, integrated sensor systems, and electronic warfare capabilities, as demonstrated in recent U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

While the current government has definitively shelved the F-35 acquisition, some defense officials suggest a future administration could revive the U.S. option—particularly if the FCAS timeline slips or if growing geopolitical tensions require a faster reinforcement of Spain’s aerial capabilities.

For now, however, Spain appears poised to wait, manage its capability gaps, and bet on European defense sovereignty—even at the cost of losing temporary access to fifth-generation airpower.

(Source: El Pais Newspaper).

The president of the Spanish government Pedro Sánchez flew to Morocco on Thursday, April 7, to have a ftour (Moroccan iftar) with King Mohamed VI, and thus seal a reconciliation with his southern neighbor. It is more than likely that the harira, the traditional soup that Moroccans eat to break their fast, must have had a bitter taste for the Spanish leader.

A few hours before he flew to Rabat, the Spanish Congress of Deputies voted a “Proposición no de ley,” a Spanish parliamentary non-binding non-legislative motion, harshly reproaching the president for his reversal on the Western Sahara conflict.

Only 118 deputies of Sánchez’s PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) voted against the motion. The rest, a total of 168 deputies, some of whom are part of the government coalition or support the government without participating in it, and the conservative right-wing Popular Party MPs voted in favor of the motion. Sixty-one other deputies abstained, representing the far-right Vox and the center-liberals Ciudadanos (Citizens).

With the exception of the Socialists, everyone wanted to express their disagreement, if not anger, at the president for breaking a 46-year-old consensus, respected by all Spanish executives—right, center, and left—since the death of General Franco.

As a former colonial power that is still considered by the UN as the administrative power of Western Sahara (Morocco being a de facto power), Spain was bound to a certain so-called active neutrality. It was not supposed to lean towards either Morocco or the Polisario Front independence fighters. However, in a letter to the King of Morocco, Sánchez stated that he favored the Moroccan proposal of autonomy offered to the Saharawis in 2007, dubbing it “the most serious, realistic, and credible,” thus dynamiting this old and very sensitive balance.

In a widely read tweet, Iceta shared an article from the daily El Periódico de España in which he explained that there had been a barter between Spain and Morocco. In exchange for Madrid’s acceptance of the Moroccan autonomy proposal for Western Sahara, Rabat is said to have committed itself to stop claiming the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands. “The agreement obliges Morocco to give up Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands,” the newspaper wrote peremptorily.

And this is where it all gets murky and incomprehensible. By negotiating its renunciation of the self-determination of the Saharawis, in violation of international law since it is the UN that manages this conflict, did Madrid obtain written assurances from the Moroccans? Nothing could be further from certain.

Morocco will never give up its claims on Ceuta and Melilla, which it has economically suffocated by closing its borders and putting an end to smuggling, which is one of the sources of the prosperity of these two free ports.

It is not for nothing that Morocco has built a huge port on the Strait of Gibraltar, Tangier-Med, in one of the most important maritime crossing points in the world. Tangier-Med, considered today one of the largest ports in Africa, competes directly with the port of Algeciras, located on the other side of the strait, but also with the port of Ceuta.

As for Melilla, the unilateral closure in 2018 of the only land custom crossing between Spain and Morocco, that of Beni Ensar, opened after the Treaty of Fès in 1912 and ratified after Morocco’s independence in 1956, is another manifestation of the Moroccan will to strangle the economy of this city.

On the other hand, although Morocco does not formally claim the Canary Islands, in 2020, the House of Representatives (lower house of parliament) voted two bills extending Moroccan territorial waters to a point overlapping with those of the islands.

It is therefore hard to see Rabat giving up its historical claims to landlocked territories in Africa only to thank the Spanish government for saying that it found the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara to be the “most serious, realistic, and credible.”

Moreover, in the joint Spanish-Moroccan declaration at the end of the meeting with Sánchez in Rabat, there is no mention of Ceuta and Melilla. On the other hand, Article 3 of the document refers to the “full normalization of the movement of persons and goods,” which “will be re-established in an orderly manner, including appropriate arrangements for land and maritime customs and control of persons.” Does this mean that Morocco will reopen the old Beni Ensar land customs, which was abruptly closed in 2018? It is possible, but not yet certain.

What is certain, however, and is written in Article 6 of this declaration, is that Morocco seems to be backing down on its claims to the territorial waters of the Canary Islands, since it talks about the reactivation of a “working group on the delimitation of the maritime spaces of the Atlantic seaboard (…) with the aim of making concrete progress.” This seems to indicate that Morocco will review the two laws that allow Moroccan territorial waters to overlap with those of Spain.