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North America put to the test: Countdown to an (almost) ready World Cup

“The world will stand still, and the eyes of the world will be focused on North America,” the 56-year-old Swiss president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, said a few days ago from the United Nations headquarters in New York. With four days to go before the ball starts rolling, the three host countries — the United States, Mexico, and Canada — say they have everything ready. Or, more precisely, almost everything. The biggest soccer tournament in history — 48 national teams playing a total of 104 matches — takes place amid various circumstances that complicate organization: the United States remains at war with Iran, President Donald Trump’s strict immigration policies are frightening away many supporters, and FIFA’s dynamic-pricing ticket system has put seats out of reach for much of the fan base.

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Reopening match at Estadio Azteca between Mexico and Portugal in Mexico City on Saturday, March 28, 2026.

© Jeffrey McWhorter (EFE)

Mural commemorating the World Cup in Dallas.

No sign of the journalist who filmed her own abduction in Mexico

4 June 2026 at 12:09

The journalist Roxana Berenice Guzmán was inside her home when armed men showed up and smashed the door. Like in a nightmare, they did not succeed immediately: they broke the glass and then began hammering at the lock. Blow after blow, up to a dozen. A man inside asks them to wait, but one of the attackers silences him, sticking a rifle through the broken glass and taking aim. They begin to kick at the door. The kicks are combined with the hammer blows. The man inside the house pleads again: “There’s a baby, calm down!” But, as in nightmares, the squad finally manages to break a piece of the door and enter the house. “Get on the floor!” one of the hooded men shouts, before grabbing the phone that is recording him. There are no images after that, but the attackers took the founder of the local media outlet Pulso Informativo del Sureste. The recording has shaken a country used to attacks on its journalists.

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© El País

Attack by the armed squad on Roxana Berenice Guzmán, June 2.

Mexico’s López Obrador resurfaces to criticize U.S. interference: ‘Why did President Trump change so much?’

4 June 2026 at 08:36

Former Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador reappeared on the public stage on Wednesday with a message in which he harshly criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s pressure on Mexico under the guise of combating “narco-terrorism” and illegal immigration. López Obrador, who retired from politics after leaving the presidency in 2024, has given his full support to his successor Claudia Sheinbaum against Washington’s interference and its attempt, as he put it, to weaken Morena, the leftist political party and movement he founded and which the current president continues to lead.

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© Fernando Llano (AP)

Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City, in September 2024.

Mexican teachers expand protest camp and threaten to shut down the capital

3 June 2026 at 16:07
CNTE teachers at the protest camp on the streets of the Historic Center in Mexico City on Tuesday.

Teachers in Mexico have launched a nationwide strike that is bringing mounting pressure on President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government ahead of the start of the soccer World Cup.

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© Nayeli Cruz

Teachers from the CNTE (National Coordination of Education Workers) demonstrating on Paseo de la Reforma.

© Nayeli Cruz

Members of the CNTE playing a game during Tuesday's demonstration.

© Nayeli Cruz (EL PAÍS)

Statues toppled by CNTE members.

© Nayeli Cruz

On Tuesday, the CNTE’s Single National Negotiating Commission attended a roundtable discussion with federal authorities at the Ministry of the Interior.

US Ambassador Ronald Johnson, an uncomfortable voice amid Mexico’s defense of sovereignty

The Mexican government’s campaign against foreign interference has reached U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson. The U.S. representative this week clashed with President Claudia Sheinbaum after her Sunday speech, in which she protested U.S. interference in Mexico’s internal politics. Johnson, a former Green Beret appointed by Donald Trump to press for action against the drug cartels, replied with a social media post that the Mexican leader acknowledged almost immediately: “Ambassadors must be respectful of countries’ internal political affairs.”

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© Raquel Cunha (REUTERS)

Ronald Johnson at the ambassador's residence in Mexico City, June 26, 2025.

Sheinbaum’s approval ratings drop seven points after Sinaloa and Chihuahua crises

27 May 2026 at 16:57

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is going through her most delicate moment just as she reaches a year and a half in office. Faced with multiple open fronts, the president is showing signs of wear, with a seven-point drop in approval since last March. It is the steepest fall so far in her term, although approval ratings remain high at 68%, according to an Enkoll poll conducted for EL PAÍS and W Radio. To the crisis triggered by the indictment of the governor of Sinaloa, along with nine other senior officials accused by a New York prosecutor of collaborating with drug traffickers, is added a worrying economic weakness that threatens the viability of social policies—a flagship of the leftist Morena government. Insecurity, corruption and the economy are the president’s main shortcomings and the principal concern of Mexicans, with rates slightly up since the last poll in early March.

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May 16 to 19, 2026.

1,207 interviews with men and women aged 18 and over, with valid voter ID and resident in Mexico.

© Quetzalli Nicte-Ha (REUTERS)

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during her daily conference on May 26, 2026.
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