FIFA has long been studying a World Cup with 64 teams for the 2030 edition, which is the one that will be held in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. This is double the number of teams in 2022 and sixteen more than in the most recent edition. Beyond the reasons that may lead the Swiss institution to maximize the number of participants – economic or political due to the power relations hidden within – the president of the highest body in world football, Gianni Infantino, assured that, "when organizing a World Cup, it is important to do it for the whole world – not just for Europe and South America – but truly for the entire planet." In his opinion, this is why he proposes an unprecedented expansion, because, "if you don't give smaller countries the opportunity to participate, they will lose the incentive to keep improving," he assures.

It seems as if nature, irritated by humanity's insensitivity in caring for the place where their experience is made flesh, had raised the degree of difficulty in inhabiting it. And wanted to put us up against the wall. In reality, nature has been mutating with all its might since always, but in recent times it has received the impact of accelerated human aggressiveness that has contributed to making it more hostile to us. And man's hand has a lot to do with catastrophes, for example in the extension and destruction of forests or in the permanent generation of energy that causes natural mutations, starting with the climate.

The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, breathes easy. After a World Cup with a host of fires, it seems he has gotten his way. They booed him and criticized him, true. And he has seen how, especially in Europe, politicians and journalists said he should not be the president of the institution that decides the future of world football. But the criticisms go in one ear and out the other, as he has achieved his goal: incredible audiences, selling the most expensive tickets in World Cup history, keeping Donald Trump happy, and, especially, ensuring he will continue to rule. In the elections of March 2027, he will be re-elected.

Elections are vulnerable because chaos has become the perfect means to erode trust, evidence, and democratic systems. Vulnerabilities are not just theoretical nor are they interested exaggerations; they have been exploited worldwide, from South Africa to Ukraine, Bulgaria, and the Philippines. Hacking voting machines remains too easy. But it is even easier to build narratives of distrust and emotionality. Playing with minds and fragmenting realities to erode democratic processes.

Trump attended the heaviest final in history, not so much to act as host as to make some memes with his friend Infantino. He went with two hot potatoes in his pockets: his war in Iran (which he's losing) and the midterm elections next November (which he might also lose). Both potatoes, of course, are strongly connected: naturally, the disastrous management of the Gulf crisis and its consequences worsen Trump's expectations before the elections, in which the majority in Congress is at stake.In Iran, Trump continues to cling to what the journalist from the New Yorker Robin Wright has defined as "ad-lib strategy", i.e., a strategy that is no strategy at all. A course of action based on sudden turns, caprice, volatility, and changes of direction, in which massive bombings are ordered one moment and supposed diplomatic successes are announced the next, which are always successes in the style of Vance, Hegseth, or Rubio: ideas that must have seemed good in the meetings of the hard core of the Trump administration but which fail on contact with reality. Having resumed the armed conflict after signing, even if only by teleconference, a peace agreement – now frozen from Tehran, while Trump went off to football – can only be described as a demonstration of ineptitude and weakness. It is clear that Trump and his collaborators underestimated the resistance capacity of the Ayatollah regime, which has even overcome the beheading of its leadership and renewed it without too many problems, at least in appearance. It has not been a walk in the park like staging a coup in Caracas, kidnapping Maduro, installing a puppet government in the country, and stealing its oil. Trump's pirate ship has run aground in the Gulf, and besides the thousands of human lives already consumed by the conflict, the orange pachyderm risks the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed. The consequent rise in fuel prices, and prices in general, is an extremely unpopular effect among the American electorate. This is one of the factors that explain the very low popularity ratings that Trump has been dragging for some time, and the poor expectations that polls give him for the "mid-termelections of November.This is why Trump has for days been resorting to the fascist resistance manual (they have one too) and appeared last Friday on Fox – no other channel wanted to broadcast it – with a statement warning of a possible electoral fraud like the one, according to him, that already occurred in the 2020 elections, a lie based on misrepresentations about immigration, demographics, and the census. Does that sound familiar? It's the same song that the far-right here repeats day and night, both the Spanish and the Catalan, starting with the pathetic Feijóo. It wasn't what Trump wanted, but remembering the American elections of 2020 was a way to also remind us that he was the instigator of the assault on the Capitol on Three Kings' Day in 2021. And that, consequently, he should not be in the presidency, but in prison.

Spain is once again world champion of football. Here are some fundamental ideas about this second title.I said everywhere that Spain was the favorite against Argentina, because the Spanish team has better players who do what they have to do very well and interpret it with intelligence at every moment. If France in the semifinals and Argentina in the final have seemed like minor teams it is because Spain has subjected them with authority. Argentina, on the other hand, has lived each match with a religious tachycardia, doing its homework at the last minute, all hanging by a thread over the abyss, where God, Maradona, the Falklands and Messi are mixed. Messi alone (and even less so at 39 years old) cannot lift a national team that yesterday only shot at goal once in 120 minutes and could not make three consecutive passes. This is due to Spain's great defensive work, which has only conceded one goal in the entire championship, where Pau Cubarsí has graduated in this World Cup, as has Dani Olmo, with a Lamine who scares opponents but who has not fully exploded yet in this World Cup (although winning one at 19 years old is very similar to exploding). He has already won a European Championship and a World Cup with Spain. Now it's time for the Champions League with Barça. Show Time: Lamentable halftime show, with wasted talents like that of director Gustavo Dudamel, with appearances that caused suffering, like those of Madonna, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. The World Cup song, performed by Shakira, has not hooked at all. A 27-minute break at halftime is not football. Infantino rules, Donald Trump's pawn.International politics: Donald Trump wanted to stay with the players when they were going to lift the championship trophy, because it is known that he always wins. In the box he was surrounded by leaders of countries he has insulted and belittled, such as Canada, Mexico and Spain. Spanish politics: National football teams are the ultimate expression of politics, and that's why the Spanish royal family and Pedro Sánchez and three ministers were there yesterday. With the World Cup victory, Pedro Sánchez ensures he reaches September with some oxygen. Yesterday, a Valencian socialist tweeted provocatively: "The Roja won. We reds won," written on July 19th, 90 years after the start of the Civil War. The World Cup will not ease the judges' pressure on cases affecting Sánchez, but people will be busy with other things until September. And in the autumn is when he can announce the call for elections.Catalonia: Thousands of people took to the streets of our country yesterday to celebrate Spain's victory.Horns and firecrackers were heard. The fact that Spain prohibits Catalonia's participation in international competitions is a very strong blow to the normalization of Catalan popular identity, especially for young people, for whom Spain is what is normal. Imagine the opportunity cost of Lamine Yamal not being able to wear the Catalonia jersey. And yet, national team and Spanish sentiment are not direct communicating vessels. Tell me, if not, how many Catalans do you not know who supported Spain because of the Barça players or, simply, because it is the closest national team.We will eat the red [team] for a few days. A red [team] that cannot be explained without Barça (not as much as in 2010, it's true), but where the style taught at La Masia is that of the national team and where eight Catalan players have gone to offer new glories to Spain. And the offering has been pure gold. Good morning.

It is inevitable to put your hands on your head or even laugh at some of the comments and occurrences of the President of the United States, Donald Trump. How can he say this or that? How can they vote for him? Why is there no reaction? The truth, however, is that between one outburst and another, his ultraconservative agenda is advancing everywhere, and no one, deep down, dares to contradict him. He has managed to impose his program beyond his country, where he clearly represents a considerable sector of American society, which not only laughs at his jokes but wholeheartedly shares his ideology and does everything it can to apply it, with the relentless help of the entire state apparatus.

Can you imagine if the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, or the French president, Emmanuel Macron, quadrupled or quintupled their wealth during their term in office? Many of the corruption cases we are experiencing in this country, despite being extraordinarily serious, might seem like amateur games compared to Donald Trump's practices since he arrived at the White House. This first year in office, he has continued doing business (he and his family, directly or indirectly), despite being president and applying a very mercantile diplomacy and international policy as well.

The level of enrichment of Donald Trump since the presidency of the United States is historically unprecedented. During his first year back in the White House, Trump has obtained approximately 1.4 billion dollars in new income from cryptocurrency companies that directly benefited from his decisions as president. According to a report from the Office of Government Ethics, in 2025 Trump's income grew by a minimum of 2.2 billion dollars, compared to the 622 million achieved in 2024, before returning to occupy the Oval Office. In addition, the real estate operations of the Trump empire – both in the Persian Gulf and around the world, from Vietnam to Romania – have also generated tens of millions of dollars in new income for the presidential family conglomerate.

The US President, Donald Trump, and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, are two allies of Vox who have been a constant pain in the neck for the far-right party. Until now, Santiago Abascal's formation had responded timidly to the US president's outbursts, which had allowed the rebel former leaders or left-wing formations to accuse Vox of being Trump's "slaves". However, this week the party has slightly raised its voice to distance itself from the US president's threat to cut trade with Spain or Trump's harassment of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, to whom, with an ironic tone, he said he wanted "a restraining order". The objective is to consolidate a shift that has been debated for some time in the Vox leadership to put an end to the meek image the party had projected until now. The culmination was between March and April, when Israel carried out attacks against Christians. It was then that the national leadership made a decision, according to sources familiar with the matter consulted by ARA: "We have to distance ourselves, like Meloni".

When I returned from the United States and colleagues, future correspondents, came to ask me for advice for the day they could go to work there, I told them – and I tell them – that knowing American history or the political system of checks and balances is all well and good, but that the most important thing is that they be in shape. That they would experience a lot of heat and a lot of cold, that they would be subjected to extreme climatic conditions: scorching temperatures, monstrous snowfalls, and months with frozen sidewalks and without being able to have a coffee on a terrace, tornadoes, gales, that the electricity would go out, meaning the refrigerator and air conditioning. Or the heating… and that, in addition to suffering it, they would have to go and explain it on the front lines. And that if they didn't make themselves physically and mentally strong, it would be very hard for them.Well, this has already arrived here, in Catalonia. You only have to look at the records that are being broken these days:“Barcelona breaks its heat record in 113 years. The Fabra Observatory registers a temperature of 40.9 degrees”. In Vinebre, temperatures exceeded 44 degrees. And we have it for another week.It is not adventurous to think that the usual September downpours may be particularly dangerous this year, taking into account the amount of heat that the land and sea will have stored. All these extreme phenomena have a cost in health, physical and mental, in lifestyles, in leisure, but also, in the functioning of basic services and the maintenance of infrastructure. Increasingly, governments will have to drop everything they are doing to deal with emergencies and, in general, to adapt public spaces and services (streets, natural parks, schools, hospitals, residences) to the new climatic conditions. And us, too.

Another U-turn from President Donald Trump. After being the entire NATO summit in Ankara charging against Spain, the President of the United States has changed his tone with the government of Pedro Sánchez and has assured on the way back to the plane that the Spanish state "has completely redeemed itself" because Moncloa has accepted an "important payment request". "Spain has been very generous today. They have agreed to an important payment request and, if they hadn't, we wouldn't have even talked to them," the American leader assured.

When it comes to Donald Trump, it is very difficult to discern what is true and what is pure bluster in his words, but the reality is that it is becoming increasingly evident that Europe must go it alone in the field of security. The latest NATO summit, held in Ankara, has been the clearest example that these United States are not a reliable ally. Trump has once again staged his particular show, in which he has insulted political leaders like Giorgia Meloni, has threatened countries like Spain, has insisted that he wants to keep Greenland, and has made it clear that, if it were up to him, he would dismantle the Atlantic Alliance because he sees no use for it. His press conferences are a collection of absurdities that serve both to provide sensationalist headlines and to cause confusions that quickly go viral on social networks, such as referring to Iran as the Islamic Republic of Japan.

With Catalonia at 40 degrees and the historic record of 40.5°C at the Fabra Observatory, it's not that Trump's threats don't matter, but rather that they can't be hotter (or so we hope). When in less than 24 hours, Trump threatens Denmark over Greenland, Iran with a ceasefire, and Spain with a trade cut, it's clear we're facing a new operation to "flood the zone" with short, blunt, and provocative headlines that set the agenda, as the sinister Steve Bannon advised him during the 2016 campaign.

Probably, no country wishes for a diplomatic conflict with the United States. Even if it's Trump's United States, they remain the world's leading power, still situated within the traditional Western bloc. However, this is not the case for Pedro Sánchez. Moncloa welcomes a new clash with Donald Trump, at a time of maximum tension due to the alleged corruption cases surrounding the PSOE and the Spanish government, and in a week when the focus of the NATO summit in Ankara, at a state level, was also on the bouquet of flowers that could not be delivered to Begoña Gómez due to the justice's veto on her leaving Spain. That is to say, even though Spain has responded with restraint, it suits Sánchez that for one day the framework of debate returns to international relations.

A few minutes after the United States was eliminated in Seattle, the Belgian players played the Village People's Y.M.C.A. in the locker room and began to imitate Donald Trump's dance. The footballers mocked the American president after he had boasted about personally calling his good friend Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, to lift the suspension on striker Folarin Balogun. The striker played, it was no use, and the United States was eliminated amid criticism and ridicule from most football fans worldwide.

Messi was about to follow Cristiano Ronaldo’s path home this Tuesday. Both ended up crying, but the Argentine did so out of relief after a dramatic comeback (including a missed penalty and questionable refereeing bias), and Cristiano so that everyone understood that the news was that he would no longer play in any more World Cups. It was a moment that arrived amidst general indifference, including that of his teammates and the Portuguese press, who are fed up and eager to lock him away in the museum once and for all.

Narcissism usually operates on a relentless logic. In this sense, it is not at all strange that Donald Trump has juxtaposed, without any complex or sense of ridicule, the celebration of his 80th birthday with the 250th anniversary of the creation of his country. Last July 4th, he made public a brief triumphalist and somewhat delirious speech in which the United States was presented as the culmination of the human race. Two authors came to mind who, as those kind enough to read me know, have helped me understand that nation for very different reasons: Alexis de Tocqueville and Walter Lippmann. If you are not familiar with Democracy in America (1835) or Public Opinion (1922), this is a good time to delve into them. If Tocqueville had contemplated the 250th anniversary of the United States coinciding with a presidency as polarizing as Trump's, it is quite likely that his reading would have been more curious than scandalized: Tocqueville was not exactly a prophet of consensus, but an analyst of the forces that shape democracy. In this sense, he would probably see the Trump phenomenon as an extreme, but at the same time understandable, expression of the tendencies he himself diagnosed 191 years ago. He affirmed that American democracy is capable of generating unexpected leaderships because the system favors the rise of figures who connect with the immediate passions of the people. I imagine he wouldn't celebrate it, although he wouldn't necessarily consider it a catastrophe either: these are things that can happen. Tocqueville also warned of the danger of democratic despotism, a form of power that is not imposed by force, but by the ability of a leader to present himself as the sole interpreter of the “real people”. Here, perhaps, he would make a severe objection: the simplification of conflicts and the disqualification of institutions and counter-powers are the mechanisms that erode freedom without remedy. Modern despotism, he said, "degrades men without tormenting them". That is, it makes them children, feeds them with easy certainties, exempts them from critical effort. Tocqueville admired the solidity of the North American constitutional system, its ability to absorb tensions without breaking. The fact that, despite the intensity of the political conflict, elections continue to be held, courts act, counter-powers function, etc., would confirm the intuition that American democracy has exceptional elasticity. The question is: until when? Before Trump's second term, this suspicion might have seemed an exaggeration. Right now, it is a perfectly real possibility.

1. We have seen ridiculous things in the history of football – a suitable territory for egos needing recognition to let loose – but Donald Trump asking President Infantino to withdraw a red card for Balogun, a forward for the United States team, and the order being immediately executed breaks records for frivolity and indecency. It's not surprising from Trump, because he has been showing off for years and prioritizing his conviction that anything is permissible for him, that there are no limits for him, but it seems to be a vice that contaminates. The anecdote comes at a time when the contradictions his uncontrolled ego has led him to are generating accelerated disrepute that is already directly impacting the United States, where awareness of the president's irresponsibility is spreading. The way he acts, doing and undoing, means that, for example, in Venezuela he today supports those he wanted to overthrow yesterday, or that in the Middle East the impasse his delusions have led him to is giving life to the totalitarian regime of the Iranian ayatollahs, who have abruptly curbed his excesses by exposing him for what he is.

Neither Donald Trump's calls nor FIFA's favors have served much. The United States' journey in their World Cup has ended in the round of 16 after deservedly falling to Belgium, who will be Spain's opponent in the quarterfinals. will be Spain's opponent in the quarterfinals. Mauricio Pochettino's team played its worst match at the least opportune moment, likely distracted by all the noise caused by the scandal surrounding Folarin Balogun, the local forward sent off against Bosnia who was pardoned after pressure from the White House. An unprecedented event, where the president of a government boasts about having pulled strings so an expelled player can play the next match. But Balogun, likely overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the previous 24 hours, did very little on the pitch and the Belgian red devils ran over the hosts (1-4).