by Maximillian Alvarez, Dave Zirin, and Jules Boykoff | Jul 22, 2026 | edge of sports, Edge of Sports TV, Fascism, Opinion, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Sports, The Cultural Front
For many around the US and around the world, the World Cup was a welcome distraction from the dismal state of the world and the daily overwhelm of relentless war, corruption, fascism, and disaster. But the games were also an uncomfortable reminder that, no matter how much we love sports and want them to be an escape from politics and the pain of living in a broken society, there is no way to truly escape those things, and the manufactured illusion that sports are an escape from political reality is just that: an illusion.
At a live event hosted on July 16, 2026, at Chilo’s bar in New York City, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez spoke with legendary sportswriters Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff about what it means to love sports in an age of authoritarians.
Additional links/info:
Chilo’s bar website and Instagram
Jules Boykoff, OR Books, Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine
Dave Zirin, Penguin Randomhouse, The People’s Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Welcome back to the Real News Network. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. The 2026 World Cup is now officially over after Spain defeated Argentina in the final match on Sunday. And for many of us around the US and around the world, the World Cup was a very welcome distraction from the ambient awfulness and doom and the daily delugion overwhelm of relentless war, corruption, fascism and disaster. But the games were also an uncomfortable reminder that no matter how much we love sports and the global spectacle of the
by Sharon Zhang | Jul 21, 2026 | Cold War, Criminalization, cuba, Donald Trump, Fascism, Marco Rubio, News, Red Scare, State Department
The State Department has released a report that labels Cuba as the “ideological capital” of left-wing politics in a document seemingly imitating Cold War politics published amid the Trump administration’s fascistic crackdown on the left. The 99-page report is entitled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism.” It argues that, since the rise of Fidel Castro and left-wing revolutionary…
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by Sharon Zhang | Jul 16, 2026 | Fascism, Marco Rubio, McCarthyism, News, NSPM-7, Red Scare, Stephen Miller
In a set of fascistic speeches on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House power broker Stephen Miller, and other top Trump administration officials labelled the political left as a “terrorist” threat and vowed to use all of the tools at their disposal to systematically destroy left-wing groups. Representatives from 67 countries gathered in the U.S. on Thursday for a meeting…
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by Ed Vogel | Jul 16, 2026 | AI, Authoritarianism, Axon, Democracy, Department of Homeland Security, DHS, Drones, Fascism, Flock Safety, license plate readers, Op-Ed, Organizing, Policing, Resistance, Surveillance, surveillance cameras
When residents of Madison County, North Carolina, sought to speak about the county’s AI surveillance cameras at a recent Madison County Commissioners meeting, commissioner Michael Garrison’s response was simple: “You will not speak on Flock tonight.” A clip capturing Garrison’s move to prevent public comment soon went viral, resonating with others waging similar battles in their communities.
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by Shane Burley | Jul 8, 2026 | Activism, Anti-Fascism, Deportation, Fascism, ICE, immigration, Judaism, mass deportation, News Analysis, Organizing, Palestine, Resistance, Trump Administration
As Donald Trump’s administration came to power in 2025, immigrant justice groups were immediately tasked with rapidly adapting to the intensification of immigration enforcement. Neighborhoods around the country began self-organizing, creating rapid response networks to prepare for impending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. In many of these places, immigration justice organizing was…
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by Ibrahim Hirsi | Jul 1, 2026 | antifa, Criminalization, criminalization of dissent, criminalizing dissent, Dissent, Fascism, First Amendment, free speech, ICE, intimidation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, News, Prairieland, Protests, Repression, solidarity, Texas, Trump Administration
Minnesota activists and scholars are decrying the recent federal indictment of 15 people who took part in demonstrations against the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities metro region earlier this year. The indictment accuses the protesters of surveilling federal agents, disrupting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations…
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