In a report titled “Humanity Must Win,” the London-based rights group urged FIFA and host governments to take “urgent action” to ensure the safety and rights of players, supporters and local populations during the tournament, which begins on June 11.

Amnesty said FIFA’s pledge to deliver a tournament where everyone feels “safe, included and free to exercise their rights” contrasts with conditions in host nations, particularly the United States, which will stage the majority of the 104 matches.

The organization described the U.S. as facing a “human rights emergency” under Donald Trump, citing mass deportations, arbitrary arrests and what it characterized as “paramilitary-style” operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It noted that ICE officials have indicated the agency will play a central role in World Cup security arrangements.

The report also referenced public backlash following the killing of two U.S. citizens during protests against ICE raids in Minneapolis earlier this year.Gaps in fan protection measuresAmnesty said host city plans published so far do not clearly address how fans or residents would be shielded from immigration enforcement during the tournament.

It added that supporters from some participating nations, including Ivory Coast, Haiti, Iran and Senegal, could face travel restrictions to the United States.LGBTQ+ fan groups in Europe have also indicated reluctance to attend matches in the U.S., citing concerns over protections for transgender individuals.

FIFA has said the expanded 48-team tournament the largest in World Cup history will proceed as scheduled, with all qualified teams expected to participate. The governing body has not publicly responded to Amnesty’s latest report.

The organization expects to generate around $11 billion in revenue from the 2026 World Cup cycle, drawing renewed scrutiny from rights groups over its responsibilities toward stakeholders.

Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economic and social justice, said that while FIFA stands to benefit financially, “fans, communities, players, journalists and workers cannot be made to pay the price.

”The tournament is set to open in Mexico City and conclude on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Tomas Zeron, head of Mexico’s criminal investigation agency between 2014 and 2016, under the previous government, is wanted on accusations of having helped engineer a cover-up of the abduction of the youths from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in the southwestern state of Guerrero in September 2014.

Zeron, who Mexican officials say fled to Israel in 2020, has previously denied allegations of wrongdoing over the matter, one of Mexico’s most notorious human rights scandals.

Lopez Obrador requested help from then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in 2021, and last month said he had also written to current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I just received a letter from Israel’s prime minister about his interest in helping us. Because one of the people who participated in covering up the crime … is in Israel,” Lopez Obrador told his daily press conference, referring to Zeron.

“We are asking for him to be extradited,” he said.

He did not say whether Israel had agreed to Zeron’s extradition.

Israel’s embassy in Mexico said it could not comment on correspondence between heads of state.

Lopez Obrador took office in 2018 promising to resolve the case, which his administration has called a “state crime” for both the disappearance and an alleged cover-up that involved multiple levels of government.

The remains of only three of the 43 students have so far been formally identified, and Lopez Obrador in recent days has vowed to find out what happened to the youths.

Mexico City (Reuters) – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela next week, Iran’s state news agency IRNA announced on Wednesday, adding that the upcoming tour stemmed from invites from the presidents of each of the Latin American nations.

IRNA said documents to expand bilateral cooperation will be signed between Iran and the three countries during Raisi’s visit, mentioning economic, political and scientific issues, but without going into further detail.

The state news agency said Raisi will leave Tehran on May 11.

The three-country tour will give Raisi face time with three regional allies, each of whom lead leftists governments that have been accused by critics of human rights violations.

Iran and Venezuela are both members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Members of the Bandidos and Waterdogs groups traded gunfire around 5:00 p.m. (2100 GMT) on the packed main street of the mountain resort town 75 miles northeast of state capital Santa Fe, State Police Chief Tim Johnson said on Sunday.

“It was just gangbanger on gangbanger,” Johnson told a press conference in Red River, adding that no bystanders were injured.

Of the three killed, two were Bandidos and one was a Waterdog, the police chief said.

Jacob Castillo, 30, a Waterdog from New Mexico was charged with murder, while Matthew Jackson, 39, of Texas, a Bandidos chapter leader, faced a count of unlawful carrying of a firearm and Bandido Christopher Garcia, 41, of Texas, was arrested on suspicion of cocaine possession.

The confrontation began in Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city, over a photo involving another gang, then spilled over to Red River’s annual Memorial Day motorcycle rally, Johnson said.

Bandidos have been involved in at least three shootings in Texas and Oklahoma in the past two months, he said.

Some 28,000 bikers from across the country had been expected to attend the Memorial Day rally, which featured live music and remembrance ceremonies at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in nearby Angel Fire.

Red River Mayor Linda Calhoun advised local businesses to close.

The incident came eight years after nine bikers were killed and 18 wounded in a shootout in Waco, Texas involving members of motorcycle groups such as the Bandidos and Cossacks.

Some of the wounded were transported to a hospital in Taos, New Mexico, around 25 miles to the southwest, where officials banned alcohol sales and established a curfew.

Lopez Obrador announced in a post on Twitter that the agreed sale price for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner used by his predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto – but never by him – was about 1.66 billion pesos, or about $92 million.

In a video accompanying the post, the president said the sale demonstrated how Mexican politics has changed under his leadership.

“It’s important that everyone knows how people thought before, how the authorities acted, like little pharaohs,” he said, sitting in a high leather-backed seat, flanked by officials.

“Not anymore.”

More details of the sale of the plane to the Central Asian country would be disclosed next week, including what he described as the aircraft’s exorbitant maintenance costs.

One of the officials with the president, Jorge Mendoza, head of national development bank Banobras, said the Tajikistan state council that purchased the plane has about 10 days to take possession of it.

The populist leftist who has for decades railed against corruption of political elites, had previously said he hoped to sell the aircraft for at least $150 million, down from its original $218 million purchase price in 2012.

Shortly after Lopez Obrador took office in late 2018, he announced plans to sell the jet, which featured marble touches and official government seals emblazoned on the walls along with multiple flat-screen monitors.

But years went by with no sale, and at one point the frugal Mexican leader, who has championed budget austerity during his more than four years in office, proposed to raffle off the aircraft.

Lopez Obrador, who takes commercial flights when he does travel, said the proceeds of the sale will be used to build two 80-bed public hospitals in southern Guerrero and Oaxaca states, among the country’s poorest regions.

“They will be built by military engineers and will be inaugurated before my term ends,” he added.