Activism / January 30, 2026
In this week Elijah v. UNITED STATES., The nationJustice correspondent urges soccer fans to stay away, slams attacks on Alex Pretti and warns of dangerous anti-voting bill.
The FIFA 26 Los Angeles logo is displayed on a soccer ball.
(Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images) People are finally starting to call on other countries to boycott Donald Trump’s upcoming World Cup – and not just the usual suspects like me and The nationby Dave Zirin. Oke Göttlich, a powerful German soccer administrator, said that following the execution of Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the time had come to talk seriously about boycotting the tournament. Sepp Blatter, the former president of FIFA (the international governing body of world football) suggested to fans I shouldn’t travel at the tournament due to growing security concerns in the United States.
This will sound strange to non-sports fans, but boycotting the World Cup is one of the most significant sanctions that members of the international community can take against the United States right now. The World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world. The United States has been begging for a tournament for decades. This World Cup, which takes place from early June to mid-July, is an ideal opportunity for the world to oppose the fascist regime in this country.
Indeed, the fates have aligned to make this World Cup the perfect time to make a statement, for two reasons. The first is that more countries are involved: the tournament has expanded to 48 teams this year, up from 32 in previous years, meaning more people than ever will be involved in the proceedings – and possible protests. The second reason is that these 48 countries would not be forced to boycott the entire World Cup, as this year’s tournament is also hosted by two other countries: Canada and Mexico. Teams could refuse to play in the United States while happily playing in Canada or Mexico. That would be a powerful statement.
This statement, however, will not come from FIFA. FIFA is one of the most corrupt organizations in the world, and its current president, Gianni Infantino, was last seen licking Trump’s boots and presenting him with a “peace prize.” Nor is it likely to come from the powerful football-playing countries of Western Europe. If France, Germany and Britain withdrew from the US portion of the tournament, many other countries would follow – but, unfortunately, the leaders of these countries seem keen to play the role of Neville Chamberlain to Trump’s Hitler.
Teams from Africa, the Middle East and Asia could take a moral stand, but there are complications. Some of the teams involved are also led by law enforcement authorities. Others are financially dependent on FIFA and the World Cup to fund their soccer federations, while still others have entire economies beholden to the United States. On the other hand, many of these countries know full well that if they did what the United States is doing, they would be boycotted and sanctioned and probably invaded by white people promising to restore “freedom” in exchange for all their oil and minerals. So it is at least possible that some of them take a moral stance. South Africa is in the tournament, and South Africa knows how to handle white people like Elon Musk.
A boycott of some or all of the South American teams would make the entire tournament a joke. We know that reigning World Cup champions Argentina, with their fascist, Trump-puppet president, will show up (as will Ecuador, whose president is also friends with our reigning despot), but some of the other nations that made the field – Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay – might be a different story. Their supporters undoubtedly run a real risk if they attend matches. Could an American fan, say from Colombia, even attend a game without fear of being arrested and deported by ICE, regardless of their actual citizenship status? Would a Brazil fan feel safe traveling to the United States? The United States poses a clear and present danger to these people. If these soccer federations think about their fans and the fact that their fans could be targeted by racist DHS agents, they might be convinced to do the right thing and boycott the American parts of the tournament.
Current number
The United States is an international pariah. It should be treated as such. Boycotting the World Cup is a good place to start.
The bully and the ugly
Congressional Republicans have proposed a new anti-voting bill, called the “Make Elections Great Again Act,” because they’re all bigots. This one is the most dangerous attack on the right to vote. In addition to all the usual Republican voter suppression tricks (voter ID, ending universal mail-in voting), the bill allows federal the government will purge State the electoral lists. All my life, Republicans have told me that nationalizing federal elections violates state rights and the Constitution. But apparently that’s okay if the goal is to keep people from voting. The family of a Venezuelan fisherman killed in one of Trump’s illegal boat strikes has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the United States. The Supreme Court agreed to rule a major immigration case this will answer the question of whether ICE and CBP are allowed to reject the presumption of innocence of lawful permanent residents. The facts of the case are a bit complicated, but they essentially boil down to whether criminal charges (as opposed to a criminal conviction) can be used as grounds to deport a lawful permanent resident. I’m sure alleged rapist Brett Kavanaugh will say that the presumption of innocence does not apply to non-white people in this country. I regret to inform you that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton still exists, and he always sues doctors outside Texas that provide abortion pills to people inside the state. I know this seems like “old news,” especially in the wake of all the murders in Minnesota, but women don’t need to be shot in the face to lose their rights. RFK Jr. and the MAHA movement seem particularly committed to bringing measles back, and their efforts are really paying off: South Carolina is experiencing a the largest measles epidemic since the disease has been “eradicated”. If we had a functioning press, RFK Jr. wouldn’t be able to enjoy a nice meal of bear meat without having to answer for it. Inspired Takes
Adam Serwer was on the ground in Minnesota and issued a beautiful report about how people feel, organize and resist. I have not fully explored the hypocrisy of how this country treats white protests versus black protests. But Michael Harriot. His article is what I actually talk about with my black friends, when white people aren’t listening. That said, when white people listen, I support The nationIt is appointment from the city of Minneapolis for the Nobel Peace Prize. The indispensable Radley Balko wrote an article comparing the resistance of Minneapolis to that of Lexington before the Revolutionary War. It is a hell of a parallel. The worst argument of the week
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The New York Times posted a video which purports to show an altercation between ICE and Alex Pretti a week before his murder. The video shows Pretti breaking the taillight of an ICE vehicle before officers hit him.
THE Times (and right-wing bigots) seem to think that this video proves that Pretti was a violent man who deserved to be executed without trial. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, who wrote the story for the Timesplayed the role of ICE water carrier when he wrote: “The images add to what is known about the 37-year-old nurse. »
No, you stupid fascist sympathizer, the images add to what we know about ICE. In court, these images could constitute proof of pattern behind the murder of this man by ICE. This could be evidence of premeditation. This potentially shows that Pretti was targeted by ICE for retaliation and death. If the federal agents already had a “problem” with Pretti, if Pretti was known to people on the ground and they then killed him, that constitutes compelling evidence that the killing was intentional.
It is common in our media to sue the victim. This is what Times (and Fox and the entire right-wing media echosphere) are trying to do it now. But the people who should be judged here are ICE. You show me a video in which violent individuals have already had an altercation with a man, and a few days later, this man ends up being bullet in the neckand I will tell you that the video is proof of first degree premeditated murder.
Maybe I should say it THE New York Times “THANKS.” In their efforts to defame Pretti, they may have simply made the charges against his murderers worse.
What I wrote
I wrote about how Trump flinched in Minnesota, and it shows that the people are more powerful that the law or the opposition party will never be.
In news unrelated to the current chaos
Let me be clear, I don’t want another social media platform. I can’t handle it. You young people have no idea how difficult it is to constantly change platforms. I am old, therefore very old. I can barely frost the TPU on my screen protector.
That said, I’ll probably sign up for UpScrolled. UpScrolled is TikTok’s new competitor that has gained popularity since TikTok’s U.S. operations were officially taken over this week by business interests close to Trump. It was created by Issam Hijazi, who Al Jazeera describes as a “Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian entrepreneur”. That’s a pretty stark demographic contrast to Larry Ellison, Benjamin Netanyahu’s buddy (and, you know, founder of Oracle and one of the three richest people in the world) who acquired a significant stake in TikTok once it was placed in US hands.
TikTok users are (rightly) concerned about the new TikTok censoring and silencing any opinion that does not support fascism and genocide. This is a legitimate concern, considering what Elon Musk has done to Twitter. UpScrolled is to TikTok what BlueSky is to Twitter, at least that’s what the history.
So I’ll probably join. But I really don’t want to. I don’t want to join anything else. Damn, I miss my Tumblr account.
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Elie Mystal Elie Mystal is The nationjustice correspondent and columnist. He is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. He is the author of two books: New York Times bestseller Let me respond: A Guide to the Constitution for Black Men And Bad Laws: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining Americaboth published by The New Press. You can subscribe to his Nation newsletter “Elie c. US » here.