The group stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup has ended, and the Round of 32 is underway with almost all the matches played. Lionel Messi scored in the 29th minute during Argentina's dramatic match in Miami Friday, but Cape Verde fought back twice, including in extra time (ET). Lisandro Martínez scored a stunner in ET, and an own goal helped Argentina advance 3-2.

Egypt advanced over Australia 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw (notable as Egypt's first World Cup knockout win; Australia equalized late). Spain defeated Austria convincingly. Portugal edged Croatia 2-1 (with Gonçalo Ramos scoring the winner) and will face Spain in the Round of 16.

Switzerland beat Algeria 2-0. England survived a scare against DR Congo to set up a Round of 16 match against co-host Mexico.

Co-host, the United States secured a historic 2-0 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina to reach the knockout stage for only the second time in tournament history. The U.S. team will face Belgium in Seattle on Monday in the Round of 16, without key striker Folarin Balogun who received a red card for serious foul play during the win and cannot appeal the suspension.

FIFA World Cup 2026 features 48 teams (the largest edition ever) playing 104 matches across 16 venues in the three host nations--US, Canada and Mexico. It began June 11 and will end July 19, 2026, with the final at MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey. This expanded tournament features a record number of African nations, though Egypt and Morocco have advanced from the continent so far, and Morocco will be facing Canada in the first of the Round of 16 stage matches.

U.S. officials reportedly believed Israel was plotting to assassinate Iran's top negotiators, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, during cease-fire talks in April 2026, according to current and former American officials. Fearing such strikes would collapse the diplomatic process and reignite the war, the President Donald Trump administration indirectly warned Tehran by asking counterparts in Middle Eastern countries to relay the threat.

While both officials were considered legitimate targets during the active phase of the conflict that began on February 28, 2026, the U.S. determined that killing them after negotiations started would leave "no one else to talk to."

Specific threats and security incidents surrounded the negotiations, particularly during a high-stakes meeting in Islamabad. When Ghalibaf traveled to meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance on April 12, Pakistani fighter jets escorted his delegation.

On the return flight, Iranian intelligence detected two Israeli fighter jets entering Iranian airspace from Iraq with intent to attack. This prompted an emergency landing in Mashhad, Iran’s closest airport to the Pakistani border, forcing the delegation to complete the journey to Tehran by land. Ghalibaf's senior adviser, Mahdi Mohammadi, who accompanied him to Islamabad, confirmed this account on his social media page.

Ghalibaf had previously survived two other Israeli attempts on his life, including a strike on a secret bunker meeting of senior government officials under a mountain, earlier in the 2026 war and during the 12-day war in June 2025. In both incidents, Ghalibaf was reportedly rescued from under the rubble.

“Today Mr. Ghalibaf and Mr. Araghchi, and other members of the negotiating team, have put their lives on the line knowing the grave security risks and this is called a real sacrifice, not political maneuvering,” Mohsen Zanganeh, a lawmaker, told local media in late April after the Islamabad meeting.

Diverging war aims between the U.S. and Israel fueled the tension, as Washington sought an interim peace deal while Israel remained skeptical of ending hostilities in April, without regime change in Tehran.

Reportedly, Israel had temporarily removed Araghchi and Ghalibaf in March from its target list to facilitate talks, however, U.S. officials later learned Ghalibaf remained a target and directly asked Israel to stand down.

Prior to the April negotiations, Israel had already killed two other potential negotiation partners, national security official Ali Larijani and former foreign minister Kamal Kharazi, complicating the diplomatic landscape.

In June, the United States and Iran reached a framework agreement that sought to open the Strait of Hormuz and set the outline for follow-on talks on Tehran’s nuclear program. Ghalibaf and Araghchi flew to Qatar, in late May, for talks and traveled to Switzerland in June for a meeting with Vance and the American delegation.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 551 rocket launched the Amazon Leo (LA-08) mission at 0430 UTC on Thursday (July 2) from Space Launch Complex-41 (SLC-41) at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying 29 spacecraft for Amazon Leo broadband megaconstellation. All of the satellites were successfully deployed in low Earth orbit (LEO) as planned, ULA announced 70 minutes after liftoff.

Leo is the Amazon's broadband constellation in LEO (hence the name), which will eventually consist of about 3,236 satellites. It will compete with SpaceX's Starlink network, which has nearly 11,000 satellites currently and growing.

About 396 Amazon Leo satellites have reached orbit on a total of 15 missions to date, atop three different rockets -- the Atlas V, SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Arianespace's Ariane 6 -- making it the third-largest constellation currently active. With this milestone, Amazon Leo announced that the constellation has enough satellites to support continuous service across initial latitudes, preparing for an initial service rollout later in 2026.

LA-08 also represented the final flight in ULA’s Leo Atlas campaign, with the company having launched 224 satellites with a 100% success rate across eight Atlas V missions.

The 29 Amazon Leo satellites on Thursday's mission weighed a total of about 18 tons, tying the record for the heaviest load ever launched by an Atlas V. That mark was set on the Amazon Leo 5 mission in early April and has been equaled multiple times since.

Thursday's launch marks a strategic transition for Amazon Leo’s deployment strategy, shifting from the Atlas V to ULA’s newer, heavy-lift Vulcan rocket. Future Leo missions with ULA will utilize Vulcan, which is designed to carry larger payloads (over 40 satellites per launch) to accelerate deployment rates.

Amazon has secured more than 100 launches across multiple providers, including Arianespace, SpaceX, and Blue Origin (New Glenn), to meet its Federal Communications Commission (FCC) deadline of deploying 50% of the planned 3,236-satellite constellation by July 2026.