U.S. exits the World Cup and Trump meets with NATO leaders: Morning Rundown

The U.S. men’s national team crashes out of the World Cup after a 4-1 loss to Belgium. The Democratic Party is reeling after new allegations against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. And Trump and other NATO leaders are gathering in Turkey for a summit.

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U.S. gets stark reminder in World Cup loss

The U.S. men’s soccer team kicked off its round of 16 match against Belgium in high spirits, boosted by the return of its top goal scorer. What followed was a brutal reminder that it is still playing catch-up against the world’s elite teams.

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In the buildup to yesterday’s match, FIFA’s decision to suspend Folarin Balogun’s one-game ban after President Donald Trump’s call to FIFA garnered huge criticism from other nations and drew the team into a geopolitical storm. Yet Balogun went from main character to non-factor as he struggled to impact the match. Belgium was technically sharper from the start and made the U.S. look more disjointed than it had at any point in the tournament. The 4-1 defeat to the Red Devils ends a U.S. World Cup run that was at times galvanizing and inspiring, but which ultimately ended in a familiar place — well short of a place among soccer’s elite.

Read more on what we learned from the U.S. campaign at this World Cup.

⚽ For subscribers: In the minutes after the U.S. win last week against Bosnia-Herzegovina, senior Trump administration officials kicked off an extraordinary behind-the-scenes push to reverse Balogun’s red card.

💥 What you missed: Spain beat Portugal 1-0, ending Cristiano Ronaldo’s hunt for a World Cup trophy. After the match, Portugal’s captain confirmed he has played his last World Cup match . “It was my last World Cup, yes, but the rest ... I have time to think, be with my family, not make decisions in the heat of the moment and move on with life,” he said.

🗓 What to watch today: Lionel Messi and Argentina take on Egypt at noon ET, and Switzerland plays Colombia at 4 p.m. See the full schedule.

📩 Join the excitement: Sign up for The Sports Desk newsletter for more in-depth World Cup coverage.

Platner allegation imperils Demorcratic hopes to win back the Senate

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner said he’s exploring whether to continue his campaign after a new sexual assault allegation became public, injecting tumult into a race that is central to the Democratic Party’s path to winning back the Senate. According to Politico and CNN, a former girlfriend of Platner alleged that in 2021, he showed up at her home unannounced and drunk.

Rep. Ro Khanna, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren dropped their endorsements after the new allegation.

Platner has until 5 p.m. on Monday of next week to drop out. Now, Democrats are rushing to potentially identify alternative candidates. At the same time, anger is ripping through the party as they worry that it may be too late to rebuild and defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

The controversy has also deepened divisions between various factions of the party, with moderate and establishment-aligned Democrats using the moment to slam the left for elevating a deeply flawed candidate.

What strategists have to say about Platner.

More politics news:

NATO allies meet as Trump’s anger threatens alliance

President Donald Trump arrived in Turkey today for a NATO summit with leaders who are worried his resentment over their loyalty and military spending will fracture the alliance.

Heading into the gathering, Trump revived his argument that U.S. involvement in the alliance isn’t worth the price. He also put renewed attention on his dust-up with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which began last month when Trump claimed she “begged” him for a picture together, by posting about her this week on social media. Meloni is also set to attend the event.

Success of past summits often hinged on whether the 32-member body reached consensus on parrying Russian threats. There’s a more modest goal this time: making it through without Trump berating fellow leaders and with the alliance largely intact. Two other flashpoints could potentially derail the summit: the Russia-Ukraine war and Trump’s undimmed interest in Greenland.

More on the stakes at this week’s NATO summit.

Defiant Tehran turns out for Khamenei’s funeral

As the truck carrying the coffin of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei inched its way through Tehran, it stopped and started, slowly moving through the throngs of people trying to catch a glimpse of the late supreme leader’s coffin.

The procession through the streets of Iran’s capital marked the third day of public mourning for the country’s late supreme leader. A member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a rare comment to journalists, said that the war would not be “over for us” until Khamenei’s death was avenged.

Most of the mourners wore black. Some reached out to touch the truck, which was also carrying the coffins of some of Khamenei’s family members. Others threw scarves and other items for attendants to brush against the coffin. Seen as a blessing, it is a common practice in the Islamic Republic.

Read more of foreign correspondent Richard Engel’s account of the funeral.

Staff Pick: Has an accused CEO killer become an inspiration?

We noticed a pattern. In seemingly unrelated criminal cases across California, suspects kept invoking the name of the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Luigi Mangione’s influence seemed to be growing.

The Uber driver charged with starting the Palisades Fire was “fixated” on Mangione, prosecutors said. The disgruntled employee accused of burning down a Boyle Heights warehouse compared himself to Mangione, according to officials. The man who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home reportedly suggested “Luigi’ing some tech CEOs.”

In interviews, criminologists and violence researchers told me all three crimes raised credible concerns about Mangione’s sway on other suspects. “When a defendant is discussed, celebrated or mythologized in certain spaces, it can increase the risk that vulnerable or like-minded individuals view that person as a model worth emulating,” one expert told me.

The risk hangs over Mangione’s upcoming trials in state and federal court, which will likely increase the attention on the 28-year-old Ivy League graduate. Whether these cases are isolated incidents or the leading edge of something far more consequential is a question that law enforcement and researchers are only beginning to confront. — Daniel Arkin , senior reporter

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