Good morning. The soccer world descends on Washington to learn which teams are to face-off in next year’s World Cup, along with trade allies who just want to stay in the game. More on that below, along with news on big projects and big fish. But first:

• Sam Mraiche was investigated by Elections Alberta over alleged illegal political donations
• In hearings on the future of the USMCA, business leaders call on Trump to drop tariffs
• Russian President Vladimir Putin says some points in the U.S. peace plan are unacceptable

Hi, I’m Adrian Morrow, U.S. correspondent for The Globe, based in Washington, D.C.

Today, I’ll be at the Kennedy Center for the World Cup draw, where FIFA head Gianni Infantino is expected to take his campaign of adulation for U.S. President Donald Trump to new heights while Prime Minister Mark Carney tries to get a word in edgewise on trade – all to a soundtrack by the Village People.

But before we get to the politics of today’s spectacle on the Potomac, let’s talk about the soccer.

The sport

The draw will determine which national teams will face each other in the group stage of next summer’s World Cup tournament, which will be played in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. This is done by printing the names of each country on a ribbon placed inside a miniature soccer ball and then drawing the balls out of glass bowls.

The proceedings are structured to ensure that the world’s best-ranked teams are distributed across the groups and that each group shows some geographic range. If you’re curious about how exactly this works and what the possible permutations are for the Canadian team, we have an in-depth guide.

Once the matchups are set, FIFA will release the complete schedule for the tournament on Saturday. What’s already been determined is that the U.S. will host 78 matches across 11 cities, and Canada and Mexico will each host 13. Games in Canada will be played at BMO Field in Toronto and BC Place in Vancouver.

All of this, of course, is a process that could be done by computer from the comfort of FIFA’s Zurich headquarters. But stretching it into a two-hour televised event allows FIFA to drum up interest in the tournament, filling out the lineup with musical performances and appearances by star players. Which brings us to the politics.

The spectacle

Infantino’s hiring of the Village People (Trump’s favourite musical act) and use of the Kennedy Center (which Trump took control of earlier this year as board chair) are just two ways the football foreman is continuing his efforts to ingratiate himself with the U.S. President.

The biggest effort is expected to be the awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize, a new honour Infantino is scheduled to hand out for the first time on Friday. While the recipient has not been announced, the general assumption is that Infantino created it specifically to give to Trump, who has made it no secret he badly wants to win a certain other more prestigious peace prize bestowed by a committee in Oslo.

Carney, for his part, is hoping to catch Trump in a good mood as he seeks to restart negotiations to lift the U.S. President’s tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum and various other Canadian goods.

The PM will also presumably be looking to dissuade Trump from his recent musings about ending the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which governs continental free trade and is up for renegotiation next year. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will also be in attendance with similar goals in mind.

The chaos

My colleague, sports columnist Cathal Kelly, sees a yuge risk in Trump taking such an interest in the World Cup. In tournaments past, governments have tended to get out of the way and allow FIFA to run things. But the U.S. President may choose to interfere for his own political reasons, regardless of the consequences for the event.

“Will the 2026 World Cup run as hoped, or will it be the first one to turn truly chaotic? That’s up to the guy in charge,” he writes. “For the first time, that guy doesn’t give a damn about soccer, or match schedules, or meeting financial projections. What he likes is the hurly burly of conflict, regardless of whether the battle is lost or won.”

Which may explain Infantino’s doting on Trump. The imperative for the leaders of Canada and Mexico, meanwhile, is to avoid upsetting the U.S. President without coming across as obsequious, which would upset their citizens back home.

So if anyone was envisioning a trilateral dance party to Y.M.C.A., don’t count on it.

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