Mexico’s Godfather, Pakistan’s Ex-Cricketer and the World Cup: Balance of Power’s Weekend Reads

(Bloomberg) --

The Group of Seven meets in Canada today – for the second and final day of a summit described by one observer as “the most dysfunctional G-7” yet. We’ll be sending out a special edition of the newsletter on the gathering, so look out for that. In the meantime, see this interactive dataviz by Flavia Krause-Jackson and Hayley Warren that asks: Can any G-7 leader corral President Donald Trump?

And now, here’s your round up of some of our best political stories from the past week, and a few others, too. 

A 25,000-Mile Road Trip Set Sanchez on Path to Power in Spain
Esteban Duarte profiles Spain’s new prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, who, ousted as party leader and jobless just 18 months ago, set out in a Peugeot sedan to reconnect with voters – and now has an unexpected opportunity to reshape his country.

World’s Richest Nation Spends Its Way Around Saudi-Led Embargo
Mohammed Sergie takes stock of developments in Qatar and finds that a year into the Saudi-led embargo, the tiny Gulf nation is doing just fine.

Trump’s Trade War Gives Morocco Fighting Chance in World Cup Bid
David Hellier explains why in the lopsided race to host the soccer World Cup, Trump may have just tilted the field. (While Stephanie Baker and Jake Rudnitsky  write that in the World Cup political face-off, the score is Moscow 1, London 0.)

Mexico’s Godfather: A Survivor Who’ll Likely Do Fine Under AMLO
With less than a month until elections, Nacha Cattan profiles the presidency front-runner, who’s offering an olive branch to the old guard.

Corbyn as U.K. Premier? Some Labour Lawmakers Would Rather Quit
Drawing on private conversations with about a dozen lawmakers, Robert Hutton and Thomas Penny examine deep differences within the Labour Party that test tribal loyalties.

Ex-Cricketer Imran Khan Woos Pakistan’s Turncoat Politicians
Ismail Dilawar looks at why Pakistani politicians are defecting in increasing numbers to the party of opposition leader Imran Khan, a shift that shows his rising influence and has prompted allegations he enjoys the support of the country’s powerful military.

Beheadings Signal Threat to Mozambique’s $30 Billion Gas Bonanza 
Matthew Hill and Borges Nhamire explain the rise of extremist militias in a remote gas-rich region of the southern African nation.

Scared by Facebook? Wait Till Millennials Are Selling Their Data
Bloomberg reporters analyze what happens now that consumers are waking up to the fact that the online empires of Facebook and Google are built on data they signed away without any monetary compensation. 

Outgoing Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz is beating Trump in one of the president’s most-cherished metrics: He’s got more money. As Tom Metcalf writes, the 64-year-old Starbucks chairman, who announced Monday he’s leaving the coffee chain and hinted a political career may be brewing, has a $3.2 billion fortune to mount a bid for public office. That’s about $400 million more than Trump, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

And finally … The world’s biggest toy store didn’t have to die. This week’s edition of Bloomberg Businessweek presents an object lesson in financial mismanagement and miscalculation from the fallen Toys “R” Us .

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net

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