With just a few days to go before the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the world’s largest sporting event faces the question of what role U.S. immigration authorities will play. Now, a new poll by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland has found that most Americans would prefer they play no role at all.

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Timothy Weah used his platform as a member of the U.S. men’s national soccer team to speak out about what he sees as an injustice. The Marseille player — son of Ballon d’Or winner and former Liberian president George Weah — joined New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani onstage as he announced he had secured 1,000 tickets priced at $50 for the matches to be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, just across the river from Manhattan. They are a drop in the bucket for this venue — the stadium, expanded to a capacity of 87,000, will host eight matches including the final, meaning 696,000 total tickets — but it’s something.

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Diego Luna was seven years old in 1985. A devastating magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck Mexico City just nine months before the start of the FIFA World Cup. He recalls that the overall feeling among residents of the capital was “really intense,” “very sad,” and that there was a “sense of helplessness” because of the state’s absence. Amid that, as in other tragedies that have hit the country, the actor says there was also a “very beautiful” feeling of solidarity and community response — but “it seemed like the destruction made it impossible to imagine a World Cup.” What lay behind Mexico becoming the first nation to host the tournament twice is a mix of true events, anecdotes, acts of corruption, and a few urban legends. Or at least that is how Netflix movie México 86 frames it: a satirical account of how those who run soccer off the field focused national efforts to turn the event into a symbol of unity and recovery after mourning, but which also helped trigger the Mexican national team’s ban from the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

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