Social tensions exploded outside Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca soccer stadium on Thursday, as violent clashes between demonstrators and police marred the opening of the World Cup.
Protesters smashed vehicle windows and brawled with law enforcement just as Mexico netted the tournament’s first goal, according to France24.
The unrest follows weeks of demonstrations that have already jeopardized plans to host World Cup fan events in the Zócalo, the city’s central square.
A police officer gives instructions through a megaphone from atop a barricade as Mexican soccer fans queue to enter the FIFA Fan Fest ahead of the opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 between Mexico and South Africa, in Mexico City.REUTERS
Police officers stand guard during a protest on the day of the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Mexico City,.REUTERS
While teachers have spearheaded the push for improved working conditions for weeks, other critics who have joined in more recently directly accuse the government of prioritizing international visitors over the immediate needs of local citizens.
The friction has put President Claudia Sheinbaum in a difficult spot, balancing a domestic security crises against high-stakes trade negotiations with the US set for July.
“Mexico wants to project an image to the world that doesn’t exactly square with reality,” said Carlos Pérez Ricart, a political analyst at the Mexican Center for Research and Economic Education.
“The World Cup is putting the president in a vulnerable situation … The government is under extreme pressure.”
Wednesday night, over 1,000 people marched toward Estadio Azteca carrying candles and photographs of their missing loved ones and the teachers’ union blocked roads.
Sheinbaum denies that the World Cup is spurring unrest.
The president said before the tournament that “if for some reason the Zócalo cannot be used for the opening, there are 18 venues where people can watch it free of charge.”
“Everything is under control,” she added.
Local officials told demonstrators that they could only advance until the “last mile” outside of the stadium.
“We just want to be seen,” said Adriana Lozano, 56, from Los Cabos, who has searched for her missing son for nine years.
“What we are looking for is peace,” she continued.
“We want this to end because so many young people are disappearing.”
Expensive ticket prices have made attendance at the World Cup unaffordable for many Mexicans, like Dr. Jose Luis Muñoz, who remains excited for the game, but will support the Mexican national team from his living room instead of the stadium.
“The prices are sky-high,” Muñoz said.
“Many people aren’t going to be able to go unless they’re foreigners with a lot of money.”
Set aside that he blamed sexual assault victims for their predicament, or that he called rural white Americans stupid racists, or that he advocated political violence, or that he mocked a wounded Purple Heart recipient, or that he joked about the Virgin Mary being a “skank,” or that he joined a hookup site while married.
“They think this is a race about the performative politics everyone is used to,” Platner told a crowd recently. “What they don’t understand is that this is a race about us.”
This kind of banality, and there’s a lot of it, calls to mind Lt. Frank Drebin trying to win over the love of his life in “The Naked Gun” by telling her, “Maybe the problems of two little people don’t amount to a hill of beans. But this is our hill, and these are our beans.”
The late philosopher Daniel Dennett called phrases like this “deepities” — words that create the impression of moral and emotional weight while offering no actual insight.
Obviously, most politicians traffic in deepities to some extent.
Platner, however, can spew inane class-war clichés for an hour without wandering anywhere near a deeper thought.
His cosplay working-man candidacy was created by Faiz Shakir and Ben Wikler, two Ivy League-educated former Bernie Sanders staffers.
“Part of the thesis here is that people don’t want candidates who are grown in a vat,” Wikler recently said.
“They want people who are real human beings. And they want people who do not look and sound like the people who have been leading this country off a cliff the last century.”
In other words, Platner is not a compelling organic candidate: He is a man who can play a part.
Democrats have lost working-class voters to Republican populists, so they’ve become enamored with the idea of running someone who carries the aesthetic qualities of one.
That’s my thesis, Ben.
“If we want folks that are representing us from the working class, they’re not necessarily going to have a groomed and perfect political record,” a Maine voter recently told Fox News, repeating a common Democratic talking point.
But is the progressive impression of working-class “folks” really that theyget Nazi tattoos,fantasize about rapeand murder, and cheat on their wives?
Because that seems like an insulting stereotype.
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner speaking in Blue Hill after winning the Democratic primary on June 9, 2026.Photo by CJ Gunther/Getty Images
As James Kirchick notes, people used to say Donald Trump “was a poor person’s idea of a rich person.”
Graham Platner, Kirchick says, “is a rich person’s idea of a poor person.”
Wikler and other Bernie acolytes should be honest and decry not merely the past century, but the past 250 years, because progressives detest the constitutional order.
You can hear it in Platner’s appearance on a Jew-hating conspiracy theorist’s podcast — “longtime fan,” the Maine Senate candidate says — where he derides the American “system” and depicts the United States, the wealthiest country on the planet, as a hellhole.
Now, Platner may well win Maine.
Maybe class resentment and Marxism really are our future.
But his politics — not only “taking back” what was allegedly stolen by the rich, but also supporting all the cultural quackery the woke left has inflicted on the country — are far more closely aligned with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez than with the average working-class American.
Even if Platner were a member of the proletariat, would that be enough?
Millions of working-class Americans successfully navigate the world without being sleazeballs.
It would be helpful to bring their perspectives and experiences to Washington.
Platner, born into privilege, will not.
He bought his house with help from his wealthy father and VA disability benefits.
His oyster-farming business seems to have been created after he decided to run for Senate; whatever the case, it appears its only real customer is his wealthy mother’s restaurant.
And that is fine: There’s nothing wrong with relying on family.
There’s nothing wrong with being rich.
There is something wrong with mischaracterizing your life to mislead voters.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. X: @davidharsanyi
Gavin Newsom seems to think it’ll do his profile the world of good hanging out with Joe Biden’s disgraced ex-junkie son and runaway dad, Hunter, for a few hours.
The Californian governor was all smiles as he dropped a teaser to the latest episode of his podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, featuring Biden, 56.
Biden rose to infamy when he lost his “laptop from hell” containing damning revelations about his drug addiction, sex life and family’s overseas business dealings on the computer’s hard drive that were first exclusively reported by The Post just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
Gavin Newsom speaks to Hunter Biden on his podcast.X/GavinNewsom Biden joked his reasoning was that the vice president’s residence “is a lot cooler” than the White House.
“I had to give you a break for just one day,” Biden joked to Newsom, referring to the constant speculation Newsom receives on a 2028 bid.X/GavinNewsom
Biden goes on to say: “They gave me a stage and I’m going to use it.” He reels off a list of people he has clashed with, including Tucker Carlson and President Trump.
Biden is also set to defend Graham Platner, Democrat nominee for the Maine senate seat, who is under fire for allegations of toxic, dishonest relationships with women and having a Nazi tattoo.
He tells Newsom few Americans would survive the ”show me your phone” test and be elected to office.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe BidenGetty Images
Biden’s drug addiction saw him found guilty in 2024 of lying about his drug use in a gun purchasing form.
That crime, along with allegations of evading $1.4 million in taxes, was pardoned by his father.
Some of his other recent social media posts strayed into more political territory, such as accusing CNN’s Jake Tapper of “attacking my mom” in his new memoir or blasting Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s plan to develop an abandoned island off of Albania’s coast.
The California Post reported that Biden had been hiding in Southern California from his debts, which include $15 to $17 million to his legal team in Washington DC, $5 million to his former pal and “Sugar Brother,” Kevin Morris, and $1 million to his former art dealer, Georges Bergès.
Biden reportedly blewing $5 million on drugs, suits, prostitutes and new teeth that infuriated his ex-wife during divorce negotiations.
He has also made things complicated for his father at times outside of that pardon; his “laptop from hell” first exposed by The Post dogged the former president over conflict-of-interest issues in Ukraine.
But none of these controversies have dissuaded Newsom from platforming Biden and may even generate more attention onto the governor, considered a potential frontrunner in a 2028 presidential bid.
His podcast is see as a promotional tool for his run.
Newsom has 250,000 subscribers on YouTube and has had at least 10 million views.
His views per episode typically range from the tens of thousands to close to 160,000.
Most notably, he’s invited on guests from the other side of the political aisle — such as Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro — which has triggered backlash from some in his Democratic Party.
Newsom has insisted the podcasting is a personal endeavor.
“I’m doing this selfishly because I want to learn. I want to get better in life, not just politics. And if I’m better in life, I’ll be better in politics,” the governor told Politico.
CME Group announced on Thursday that it plans to launch 24/7 trading for both a new crude oil contract that will be one-tenth the size of its Micro WTI futures and for its existing 1-ounce gold futures.
The new oil contract will debut on August 30, while the 1-ounce gold futures will begin always-on trading on July 26, the derivatives marketplace said. The contracts are to be cash-settled, with the oil contract listed on NYMEX and the gold contract listed on COMEX.
CME Group Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Commodities Markets Derek Sammann said the new options seek to ensure traders "can manage exposure whenever news breaks."
The brother of embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has sued the very city government his sister leads, alleging officials failed to protect homeowners and business owners during the destructive Palisades Fire.
Kenneth Bass and his wife Cindy joined a class-action lawsuit in May against the City of Los Angeles, alleging the city failed to fill the Santa Ynez Reservoir when the wildfire broke out on January 7, 2025, according to multiple reports.
The lawsuit, filed on May 18, was first reported by L.A. Material.
It includes more than 180 plaintiffs and names multiple defendants, including the Bass-run Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
In the lawsuit, Kenneth Bass alleged he and his wife suffered smoke inhalation injuries, as well as emotional distress stemming from the destruction of their home.
The couple previously owned a property with a pool and panoramic views of the Malibu Pier, according to L.A. Material.
Mayor Bass has publicly referenced her family's loss, telling reporters in 2025: "The loss that you're going through, I share indirectly. It's hit my family too."
Bass adviser Yusef Robb dismissed questions about the lawsuit, telling reporters that there was "nothing new here."
"Thousands of people are plaintiffs in this action, which names 18 public and private sector defendants," Robb added.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office downplayed the lawsuit, saying the city is confident it is not liable for the wildfires.
Meanwhile, a Frantz Law Group attorney representing Kenneth Bass told the California Post the lawsuit is part of a broader mass tort process and said his family ties are "irrelevant" to his claims.
"As part of the mass tort legal process, Mr. and Mrs. Bass' names were formally added as some of the nearly 40,000 victims who suffered losses," the attorney stated. "Their family connections are irrelevant, and as non-public citizens they are entitled to respectful privacy as they pursue their legal rights along with all represented victims."
Bass was elected mayor in 2022, after serving for over a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is facing a tough re-election campaign amid criticism over her administration's handling of the wildfire response.
Iranian state media, citing a military source, said on Thursday the sounds of explosions heard near Sirik were related to a confrontation with a “violating vessel” attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
The source said an oil tanker was later forced to comply with what it described as a “traffic prohibition law” in the Strait after a warning from the IRGC Navy.
Former Trump deputy national security adviser Victoria Coates said on Thursday Iran “destroyed its key asset” in the Strait of Hormuz, adding that regional states are increasingly building energy infrastructure to bypass the chokepoint.
“The Iranians have destroyed their key asset, which is the Strait of Hormuz, in that the entire region is busily building energy infrastructure to bypass it. The United States is the world’s gas station of choice now because we’re reliable.”
