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Updated July 6, 2026 at 10:59 PM CDT SEATTLE — When the U.S. men's national soccer team steps on the field Monday to face Belgium in the FIFA World Cup Round of 16, it will do so with its star striker back in the lineup and a cloud of controversy hanging overhead.

When Karen McNenny was facing divorce about 15 years ago, she was afraid of what it would mean for her future: despair, debt and a lifetime of resentment, she says. At the same time, she was thinking of her two children, she says. She didn't want their father to become her enemy. So she and her former husband chose to approach divorce differently as a couple. "We're going to renovate and transform this family. We're not going to destroy it," she says.

SEATTLE — This time was supposed to be different. The U.S. men's national team came into this FIFA World Cup with a lineup full of players with key roles in Europe's top leagues. They had the name-brand coach — Mauricio Pochettino, of Tottenham, PSG and Chelsea fame. And they had homefield advantage, with every game on U.S. soil for the first time in three decades.

When Thomas Jefferson measured the temperature on July 4, 1776, the high was 76 degrees Fahrenheit in Philadelphia. Two hundred and fifty years later, millions of people across the eastern half of the U.S. were under extreme heat warnings as they celebrated that anniversary. The heat dome that settled over the Midwest and Atlantic coast then gave way to multiple rounds of severe storms and flash flooding, according to the National Weather Service.

Last month, the leader of a small Texas state commission — tasked with aiding criminal defense for low-income Texans — received an unusual request from top officials working with the Trump administration. The U.S. Department of Justice needed their help providing legal services to immigrant children in their deportation cases, said Scott Ehlers, the executive director of the state's Indigent Defense Commission.

Texas Biomedical Research Institute is teaming up with a British biotech company to fight the New World screwworm fly now threatening wildlife in Texas and its $41 billion cattle industry. Texas Biomed plans on partnering with Flyttr, formerly known as Oxitec, a private biotech company based in England that specializes in pest management. Under the agreement, Flyttr researchers will use Texas Biomed's biosafety labs over the next two years to research improved methods of containing the pest.

Updated July 6, 2026 at 5:39 PM CDT Graham Platner is facing calls to end his Senate bid in Maine, following an allegation of sexual assault, the latest in a string of controversies against the Democratic candidate. Politicoreported Monday an account made by Platner's former girlfriend, who alleges that in 2021, Platner entered her home intoxicated in rural Maine and forced her to have sex over her repeated objections.

Ahead of this evening's World Cup match between the U.S. and Belgium, the drama about the eligibility of U.S. striker Folarin Balogun continues to swirl following his red card in the previous match. Copyright 2026 NPR

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has been filled with stunning upsets and emotional wins. But perhaps, most bittersweet were the final dances from some of the greatest soccer players seen in a generation. Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, Neymar of Brazil, Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico and Manuel Neuer of Germany are a few of the footballers who competed in their last World Cup — collapsing in tears, bowing to fans and kissing the post before they bid farewell.

Ahead of this evening's World Cup match between the U.S. and Belgium, the drama about the eligibility of U.S. striker Folarin Balogun continues to swirl following his red card in the previous match. Copyright 2026 NPR