The Big News Breakdown. Unpacking this week’s most important news.
Initially, coverage of the World Cup in Mexico reverted to the lens of cartels. It was as lazy as it was expected from the global media. Attention then shifted to the similarly awaited angle of the broader issues surrounding World Cup preparations—last minute renovations and the usual exclusion from the festivities of small businesses and the working class neighbourhoods surrounding the stadiums.
So far so predictable. But that didn’t stop Mexico from making the most of the world’s biggest event; especially one peculiarly split up amongst its fellow regional trade partners and neighbours—the US and Canada.
“Sport diplomacy” thus became a fixture of think tank and diplomatic circles over the past months, using football as an excuse to talk up the virtues of a united North America. The usually pro-regionalist discourse came as a welcome palette freshener from the concurrent—and somewhat more sour—negotiations surrounding the US-Mexico- Canada Agreement (USMCA). Just last week the Trump administration (predictably) repudiated the trade treaty in its current form.
