A record 64 nations will be in Friday's World Cup draw as FIFA expands the tournament from 32 to 48 teams. This means 104 games instead of 64, running from June 11 to July 19 across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The final will be at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Argentina, led by Lionel Messi, aims to win consecutive World Cups. Newcomers include Cape Verde and Curaçao. Ticket prices are at a record high, with concerns about affordability. Weather could impact games, with only four U.S. venues having roofs. The draw will be hosted by Heidi Klum, Kevin Hart and Danny Ramirez.

Decorated Native American veteran Charles Shay has died at age 101 in France. Shay was a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and helped save lives. Shay's longtime friend and carer Marie-Pascale Legrand said that Shay died at his home on Wednesday in Bretteville-L’Orgueilleuse in France’s Normandy region. Shay was from the Penobscot tribe and from Indian Island in the U.S. state of Maine. He was awarded the Silver Star for repeatedly plunging into the sea and carrying critically wounded soldiers to relative safety. He also received France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor, in 2007. Shay had been living in France since 2018 not far from the shores of Normandy.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called Somali immigrants living in the United States “garbage” and wants them to leave. He has claimed without offering evidence that “they contribute nothing.” The crude language came Tuesday after a person familiar with the planning said federal authorities were preparing an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota primarily focusing on Somali immigrants. Somalia is also one of the countries where the Trump administration this week paused all immigration applications. The Horn of Africa nation remains fragile after three decades of civil war and ongoing threats by al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab. Climate change makes the country even more vulnerable.

President Donald Trump is expected to announce a proposal to weaken vehicle mileage rules for the auto industry. That would ease pressure on automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and trucks. Trump is set to announce the plan later Wednesday. The proposal would significantly reduce fuel economy requirements through he 2031 model years. Those requirements set rules on how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline. Word about Trump's impending action comes from several people familiar with the White House plans. They're not authorized to discuss the matter publicly because the proposal hasn't been announced and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A federal vaccine advisory committee this week is expected to discuss whether newborns should still get the hepatitis B vaccine — the first shot found to prevent cancer. Federal health recommendations now suggest that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection in their first day of life, but U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s committee on Thursday is expected to change that. Changing the recommendation would contradict previous public health advice, and some medical and public health experts are alarmed. It’s not clear what the committee is considering, but the American Academy of Pediatrics will still urge a birth dose.

Republicans have held onto a conservative U.S. House district in Tennessee. But that victory in a special election Tuesday came only after a late burst of national spending and high-profile campaigning. Republican Matt Van Epps defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn by 9 percentage points for the seat vacated by a Republican who retired over the summer and had won reelection in 2024 by 21 points. Epps' tighter margin is contributing to a gloomy outlook for the GOP going into the 2026 midterms that will determine control of Congress. Republicans will need to defend much more vulnerable seats if they want to keep their House majority.

The Department of Homeland Security is launching a new immigration crackdown in New Orleans. A Homeland Security official says the operation that got underway Wednesday will target violent criminals. The crackdown is the latest expansion of the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps that have unfolded in other U.S. cities. Immigration officials have blanketed big cities and small towns across the nation since January while carrying out President Donald Trump’s aggressive mass deportation efforts. In New Orleans, immigration lawyers say they have been inundated with calls and some businesses have posted signs barring federal agents from entry. Louisiana's Republican governor is welcoming the crackdown.

Billionaire spacewalker Jared Isaacman is back before the Senate after being yanked and then renominated by President Donald Trump for NASA's top job. Isaacman appeared before the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday, eight months after his first nomination hearing. Isaacman told the panel that NASA needs "full-time leadership" as it prepares to send astronauts back to the moon. Isaacman was within days of being confirmed by the Senate as NASA's 15th administrator when Trump pulled his nomination in May. The president renominated Isaacman last month. The tech entrepreneur has rocketed into orbit twice with SpaceX, buying his own flights.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they have released mariners they have held since an attack in July on the ship Eternity C in the Red Sea. The Houthis said Wednesday via their al-Masirah satellite news channel that Oman had taken custody of the mariners. Oman did not immediately acknowledge the release. However, a Royal Oman Air Force jet landed earlier Wednesday in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital held for over a decade by the rebels. The Philippines on Tuesday said it expected Filipino mariners held by the Houthis since the attack to be released.

The end of 2025 is almost upon us. And it’s time to unpack Spotify Wrapped. On Wednesday, the music streaming giant delivered its annual recap — giving its hundreds of millions of users worldwide a look at the top songs, artists, podcasts and other audio they listened to over the past year. Spotify isn’t the only platform to roll out a yearly glimpse of data collected from consumers’ online lives. But since its launch about a decade ago, Wrapped has become one of the most anticipated. And Spotify is billing the 2025 edition to be the biggest yet, with a host of new features it hopes may also address some disappointments users had last year.

Dozens of migrants sat on long benches on a U.S. military plane as it waited to leave the West Texas airport. They were shackled and handcuffed yet dressed casually, mostly in jeans and sweatshirts. All wore light blue surgical masks.…

Hamas on Wednesday released a statement saying it would hand over the remains of a hostage as Israel said it will start letting Palestinians leave Gaza through the long-closed Rafah border crossing, signs the U.S.-backed ceasefire was holding despite an earlier glitch over returned remains. An Israeli official speaking to the AP said that Rafah would only be open for exiting Palestinians, a claim Egypt denied. The first phase of the plan is supposed to wind down with the return of the two remaining hostages. Following the exchanges, the 20-point plan calls for creating an international stabilization force, forming a technocratic Palestinian government and disarming Hamas.

Malaysia's transport ministry has announced that a private firm will resume the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 later this month. Texas-based Ocean Infinity will conduct the deep-sea hunt under a "no-find, no-fee" contract with Malaysia's government. The firm first searched for the plane in 2018 but found nothing. The search was halted in April due to bad weather. Ocean Infinity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered. The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board. The search will focus on targeted areas in the Indian Ocean.