Some US players believe they can win the World Cup. Are they deluded?

Mexico fans keep throwing World Cup reporters in the air on live TV

The World Cup is lifting the spirits of Mexican fans — literally.

Trump's Energy Win: Oil Under $80 Despite Iran Conflict

Iran Says Trump’s Threat Halted Talks With the US, Fars Reports

Talks in Switzerland between the US and Iran were still ongoing despite Iranian media reports that negotiators had left the venue, according to people familiar with the matter.

Belgium vs. Iran World Cup prediction: Odds, picks, best bet for Group G match on Sunday

Belgium and Iran will want to wash the bitter tastes out of their mouths on Sunday.

US-Iran nuclear talks begin in Switzerland as Tehran insists on right to enrich

U.S. and Iranian negotiators began high-stakes talks in Switzerland on Sunday aimed at hammering out the details of a broader agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, with Iranian officials entering the discussions insisting they will not give up the country’s ability to enrich uranium. The negotiations, led by Vice President JD Vance for the United States […]

Vance says US and Iran can ‘sit together as teams’ for first time under deal

Vice President JD Vance said the United States and Iran can “sit together as teams” for the first time under the ceasefire agreements the two countries are discussing in Switzerland on Sunday. “What today really represents is the beginning of a technical negotiation that’s not going to solve every disagreement, but it’s going to allow […]

Trump threatens to destroy Iran over Strait of Hormuz closure — and floats 20% US ‘Guardian Angel’ tax on oil going through waterway

"You close it, and you won't have a country. You won't even make it back to your f--king country."

The French aristocrat and the all-American idiot: Henry v Lalas is the World Cup’s most compelling battle

Fox’s broadcast at the tournament has become a story of two contrasting styles. And there is one clear winnerWe all know someone like Alexi Lalas. He’s the ranter whose rants never actually say anything, the life of the party at the party no one enjoys attending, the “big personality” who’s always misjudging the size of the room. He’s corporate America’s idea of a fun guy, the type of workplace “character” whose business trip hangover never stops him from being first at the hotel breakfast buffet, hair wet, Untuckit shirt untucked. He would absolutely dominate karaoke night at a conference on infrastructure finance. If only this were the limit of Alexi Lalas’s actual impact on the world, our culture would live in blessed ignorance of his existence. But in the real world Alexi Lalas is not a small-time menace working the floor at an infrastructure conference. In the real world Alexi Lalas is American soccer’s brightest media star, and he is everywhere this World Cup.When Lalas’s Roger Ramjet jaw thrust into frame on Fox at the start of this tournament, it’s fair to assume that many viewers felt a sense of dread similar to that expressed in the Grand Theft Auto meme: “Ah shit, here we go again.” Lalas’s ubiquitousness every World Cup is American TV’s answer to the Iran war: no one wants it, everyone hates it, and as it drags on, it inevitably becomes a face-saving exercise in damage limitation. But there was also a glimmer of hope: for this tournament Fox has enlisted a pair of elite European strikers, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimović, to terrorize Lalas and shake proceedings up. Steered by Rebecca Lowe, this new-look panel has promised a slightly more sophisticated approach to covering the tournament than the yahooing belligerence that was Fox’s stock in trade at the last two World Cups. Continue reading...