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The official team photo of Spain’s celebration at Sunday’s World Cup final looks the same as it always does, more or less. Rodri—the team’s jubilant captain and the tournament’s best player—lifts the golden trophy high overhead as his teammates surround him, fists raised, jumping in the air. It’s one of the purest moments in sports. Only 23 teams from eight nations have won the honor. This Spanish squad, only the second in the country’s history to win the cup, made history with a stingy defense that allowed just one goal in eight games. If you look more closely at the photo FIFA shared, though, you’ll notice something odd in the bottom-right corner: a glimpse of a slightly crumpled blue suit. It is a visual metaphor for the 2026 World Cup. President Donald Trump largely stayed out of the way—but he was always there, just out of sight, exerting malign influence. In the case of Spain’s celebration, Trump did exactly what you would expect him to do. After presenting the World Cup trophy with his pal, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, he should have hightailed it out of there so the team could have its moment. But Trump does not let anyone have celebratory moments in his presence without his participation. A year ago, in the very same MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, he inserted himself into Chelsea’s title celebration at the Club World Cup. And so, once again, he awkwardly lingered onstage, even as Infantino tried to pull him off. When Rodri lifted the trophy, Trump was still there. In other photos, you’ll see Infantino patiently explaining to him that he wasn’t supposed to be there. Not like he cares. For Trump, this was his moment and he wasn’t going to let it go to waste—even though he had just been loudly booed by tens of thousands of fans. Trump was largely out of sight at the final, just as he was throughout the tournament. The direst predictions—of his immigration goons running amok, of foreign fans being detained, of political violence—never quite materialized. But it was nevertheless rare to go very long without the president and his noxious regime barging into view. There was Trump blocking a Somali referee from entering the country, on spurious grounds. There was the Uruguayan team being invasively searched by drug dogs. There was Trump getting on the phone to Infantino to demand that he let a suspended U.S. player play.It was a good tournament, in the end. It was very close to a great one. But it will always have Trump’s greasy fingerprints on it. This, coupled with the U.S. Men’s National Team’s embarrassing loss to Belgium in the Round of 16, ensures that the 2026 World Cup will not be fondly remembered by most soccer fans here in the U.S.—even as the tournament created many more of them.It is strange to still hear Trump boast about being “forced” to intervene to get FIFA to let USMNT striker Folarin Balogun play against Belgium after he had received a red card in the previous match. But that’s exactly what he did on Saturday evening, at a press conference where he had been well briefed to sound like he knew the sport—praising Djed Spence, critiquing England manager Thomas Tuchel’s admittedly bizarre tactics. But mostly, he was there to pat himself on the back for his role in the overturning of Balogun’s red card: This has been a tournament like no other, filled with fierce competition, unforgettable moments. Probably the most unforgettable is when they gave that gentleman—is it a red card? And I was forced to call Gianni and just make a recommendation. I said “Gianni, I’d like to make a recommendation. Let the guy in the game!”No, I didn’t say that. I said, “I’d like to wage a complaint.” I had no idea what was going to happen. But, you know, so much better the way it worked out because there’s no controversy. They won the game and our team had all of its players. [Infantino] made another great decision if you think about it. You’ll never get credit for that.It’s a bizarre point to dwell on because, even though Balogun played well, his team got demolished by Belgium, 4-1. Not only that, it was clear that Trump’s intervention had backfired badly. The Belgians were fired up out of the gate, while the U.S. played like sheepish kids who knew the president of the United States had just cheated on their behalf. And pretty much the whole world, outraged over the president’s meddling, was rooting for Belgium. It was the low point of the tournament—for everyone but Trump. No one wanted to see Trump onstage with the Spanish team, either. He was just there because he could be and because he knew that no one could really take it away from him (though they could edit him out of official photographs and videos, as FIFA and Spain’s Soccer Federation did). For Trump, the ability to cheat on the home team’s behalf is just another perk of the office. And for Infantino, who was instrumental in the Balogun Affair, it’s just another piece of client service. Catering to the whims of despots is part of the job of running FIFA. This is nothing new. At the 2022 World Cup trophy lift, the emir of Qatar placed a ceremonial robe over Lionel Messi—meaning his Argentina uniform was obscured in every photo. But this World Cup may have been a new low, thanks to the Trump administration’s treatment of Somali referees, the Iranian national team, and fans. The exorbitant cost of tickets was yet another black mark, though that is already being treated as proof of the tournament’s success. As predicted, this was the most profitable World Cup ever—and for Infantino, that’s all that really counts. It’s tempting to look at the outcome—a Spanish team that privileges selflessness, solidarity, and patience triumphing over an Argentine one that thought it could foul its way to a repeat title—as yet another example of this World Cup’s greatness. After all, a great deal of this tournament did not belong to Trump and Infantino—or, for that matter, to Lionel Messi and the defending champions. This was also the World Cup of Cabo Verde, of “Rock Chalk Algeria,” of Scots taking over Fenway, of Mexico vs. England at the Estadio Azteca, of the U.S. finally becoming a soccer nation. It was a good tournament that ended with the best team winning, which is more or less what the World Cup should be. But the victory over cynicism was far from complete. It’s not clear to me that it’s even a victory. Yes, Spain won and Argentina lost. Yes, Trump is being cropped out of official photographs as if he had done something to upset Stalin. Yes, the worst predictions about MAGA mayhem never materialized. But FIFA and Trump still largely got what they wanted out of it—more money, power, and glory—and that’s a huge loss for the rest of us.

Evidence gathered by the FBI could implicate immigration agents in future civil rights investigations.

In the report, officials condemn the dissidence of left-wing figures like Hasan Piker and Zohran Mamdani.

The 28-year-old Mexican man who was killed while running from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials last week was visiting the country on a valid tourist visa.Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran was in a car with three other people on July 14 when ICE and Homeland Security agents pulled them over near State Road 16 in St. Augustine, Florida. Coronilla Duran fled the scene on foot and was hit by a semi-truck as he attempted to cross the highway.His wife, Yésica Alamilla López, told reporters that Coronilla Duran had only just recently arrived in the U.S.“He had a tourist visa and had been here in the United States for a short time—only three weeks,” she told Spectrum News after arriving at the Orlando airport from Mexico. “He had been in Florida for just two days.”Isaret Jeffers, the founder of Orlando-based farmworkers’ advocacy group Colectivo Arbol, has been assisting Alamilla López in the wake of her husband’s death. Jeffers told the Miami Herald Monday that at the time of his death, Coronilla Duran was planning to return to Mexico within days.“He was going to return this past Saturday. He had already bought a flight,” Jeffers told the paper. “Now, unfortunately, if he is returning, his return is different.” Jose Rivera, a local garbage truck driver who witnessed Coronilla Duran’s demise, told the Herald that the 28-year-old slipped and fell when he reached a small piece of grass in the median of the highway. Coronilla Duran reportedly picked himself up but stumbled into the oncoming traffic.“The traffic was coming pretty quick, and he just lost his footing and didn’t look where the traffic was coming,” Rivera said. “He kept looking back.”Alamilla López told the Herald that she and her husband were married for 10 years and share a seven-year-old son and a seven-month-old daughter together. They also run a small business in San Luis de La Paz. She revealed to the paper that she had only come to learn of her husband’s death while watching television.Coronilla Duran’s death is the latest in a long string of domestic bloodshed by ICE and its affiliates. Just this month, federal agents have shot and killed at least two people: Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who was killed in Biddeford, Maine, and was targeted despite having a valid work permit and Social Security number, as well as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican father of three and a local small-business owner who was killed in Houston.There have been 11 fatal shootings by ICE agents since Donald Trump returned to office and made mass deportations a cornerstone of his second-term agenda.

Judith Butleris one of the world’s leading scholars and philosophers on issues of gender, sexuality, and the cultural phenomena that surround them. They are the author of the landmark 1990 book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, and more recently the 2024 follow-up work Who’s Afraid of Gender? Butler joined Current Affairs editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss the way people around the world—mostly conservatives, but some who consider themselves leftists, too—have become fearful and angry about what they call “gender ideology,” why they’re mistaken, and what might be done about it.

Tom Homan, President Trump’s “border czar,” blames Immigration and Customs Enforcement casualties on the “hateful rhetoric” against the agency.“I said this a year ago—if the hateful rhetoric doesn’t stop, there will be bloodshed. And unfortunately I was right. And I’ll tell you something else: It’s not over yet,” Homan said to reporters outside of the White House Monday, accusing critics of continuing to attack and “miscommunicating what ICE does every day.”“Comparing ICE to the Nazi regime—are you kidding me?” Homan continued, claiming that these words embolden people to “do something stupid.”“I’m afraid that we’re going to bury an ICE agent. I’m afraid that I’m going to hand another folded flag to a spouse or child of an ICE agent for simply doing his job. And for any member of Congress who keeps attacking ICE and calling them fascists and Nazis, I said a thousand times, if there are Nazis enforcing the laws, what’s that make them? They wrote the law,” Homan added, his voice rising. Homan: "I said this a year ago -- if they hateful rhetoric doesn't stop there will be bloodshed. And unfortunately I was right. And I'll tell you something else -- it's not over yet ... I'm afraid we're gonna bury an ICE agent." pic.twitter.com/M0U9epbXH0— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 20, 2026The people ICE has killed this year include U.S. citizens, such as Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota, and immigrants with legal status who weren’t even the actual targets for immigration violations, such as Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. Homan seems incredibly blasé about their deaths, and puts the hypothetical death of an ICE agent (which hasn’t happened at all in Trump’s second term) on a higher level than the deaths of innocent people.In addition to killing people, ICE agents are also committing violent acts on a regular basis, from tackling a person at Las Vegas’s airport to shooting a protesting clergyman in the head with a pepper ball. They also have been accused of racial profiling, even winning a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court to consider race and ethnicity in their operations. If Homan is mad about ICE being compared to fascists and Nazis, perhaps he should be concerned about what agents are actually doing.

Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s border czar, denied Monday that mistakes had been made in deadly shootings in Minnesota, and instead blamed the victims of Immigration and Customs Enforcement shootings for causing their own deaths.Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Homan made the shocking remark while complaining that Democratic lawmakers had wrongfully withheld Department of Homeland Security funding over what they claimed were “mistakes” made during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. “They kept going to Minnesota, all the mistakes they say happened in Minnesota. I don’t think there’s a lot of—the mistakes they claimed in Minnesota, a lot of them were I don’t think mistakes,” Homan stammered. Homan: "All the mistakes they say happened in Minnesota -- the mistakes them claim in Minnesota, a lot of them I don't think were mistakes." pic.twitter.com/GuxODg4lsw— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 20, 2026It seems that Homan hoped to blame the lack of body cameras in a recent shooting in Maine on Democrats. Instead, he suggested that federal immigration agents had not erred when they shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens who were protesting against ICE’s operations in Minneapolis. When a reporter pressed Homan repeatedly on his outrageous claim, the immigration chief struggled to dodge the question.“No, I went to Minnesota and I said day one it was not a perfect operation. There were several chains of command, I had a problem with the targeting,” Homan said. Backed into a corner, Homan laid out why he believed these people deserved to die. “It comes down to one simple fact—these people failed to comply with law enforcement. Even some of the major chiefs in this country, who don’t necessarily agree with this administration, say you gotta always comply with law enforcement,” Homan said. “All they had to do was simply comply with law enforcement. If you don’t like what law enforcement did to you, then go to the courts. Sue. Call ACLU. Do whatever you want to do. You should always comply with law enforcement. If they did, they’d be alive today,” he added. Homan forgets that in the United States, failing to comply with law enforcement is not punishable by death. Federal immigration officers are similarly welcome to go to the courts and let the criminal justice system hand down decisions on fines and jail time for those who resist arrest or evade law enforcement. Instead, spurred by the Trump administration’s fanaticism, they are killing people.  Since Trump returned to office, launching a widely unpopular mass deportation scheme, federal immigration officers have shot and killed 11 people.Last week, an ICE agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man legally in the United States, while he drove with his three-year-old daughter in Maine. The week before that, an ICE agent shot and killed longtime Houston resident and father of three Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while he was driving. Federal agents claimed that he tried to ram the officers—a claim that eyewitnesses denied and that has crumbled under the slightest scrutiny.